Politics
Trump Aides Defend His Tariffs Amid Global Blowback
President Trump’s top aides raced to defend his expansive global tariffs on Sunday, downplaying the prospect that his new taxes on imports could cause a significant spike in prices or tip the U.S. economy into a painful recession.
As Mr. Trump departed Mar-a-Lago for another day of golfing at his club in Jupiter, Fla., his leading economic advisers dismissed the turmoil they have unleashed in financial markets around the world, insisting that the president’s trade war would ultimately improve the nation’s economic fortunes.
But they also sent another round of mixed signals over the extent to which Mr. Trump sees tariffs as a negotiating tool, even as many of his aides touted anew on Sunday that they had heard from foreign nations seeking to strike a deal.
“The tariffs are coming. Of course they are,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Mr. Trump’s 10 percent base-line tariff on nearly every trading partner went into effect on Saturday morning. Another round of tariffs that aim to punish countries that run trade deficits with the United States will snap into place on Wednesday morning.
Kevin Hassett, the head of the White House National Economic Council, said that he did not expect to “see a big effect on the consumer in the U.S.,” even as he acknowledged in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” that prices “might go up some” as a result of the tariffs.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent dismissed the steep declines in global markets last week as short-term, while emphasizing the need for an economic “adjustment process” in the United States. He added on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that there “doesn’t have to be a recession,” as the administration works toward “building the long-term economic fundamentals for prosperity.”
“We’re going to hold the course,” he said.
The reassurances come as Mr. Trump continues to strike a defiant tone over his tariffs in recent days. On Saturday, as the 10 percent levy went into effect, the president told his followers on Truth Social: “HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”
Mr. Trump has maintained that his tariffs can reset trade relationships that he sees as unfair and detrimental to American jobs and industries by reviving domestic manufacturing. He also wants the levies to raise new revenue to help pay for the costs of his economic agenda, including a package to cut corporate and individual taxes.
But his trade policies have provoked substantial, widespread blowback, leading even U.S. allies to condemn Washington.
Last week, China announced a slate of aggressive retaliatory measures that raised the odds of a persistent and economically damaging trade war. Other nations have sought to negotiate lower rates: Vietnam, facing a 46 percent tariff rate that would be among the highest faced by any U.S. trading partner, is seeking a 45-day delay and proposed dropping its own tariffs to zero.
Fanning out on the Sunday news show circuit, the president’s top aides responded to the fallout by boasting they had already heard from dozens of countries that wanted to discuss trade.
“Listen, we’ve got 50 countries that are burning the phone lines into the White House,” said Brooke Rollins, the secretary of agriculture, on CNN’s “State of the Union.” She said Mr. Trump’s tariffs have left some countries “desperate and willing” to cut a deal.
But the White House has sent conflicting messages about its true appetite for negotiation. Mr. Trump suggested last week that he could cut a deal in exchange for a “phenomenal” return, but then posted on Saturday that the tariffs were “here to stay.”
Mr. Bessent, asked whether Mr. Trump would be willing to cut a deal, suggested there was room to negotiate but that nothing would happen quickly. “They’ve been bad actors for a long time. And it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks” he said.
The confusion is unlikely to salve investors’ fears as markets prepare to open Monday, fresh off a weeklong rout during which major indexes fell precipitously. It was the worst weekly decline for the S&P 500 since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
At one point, Mr. Trump even appeared to suggest the market chaos was part of his strategy: He circulated a video from another user on Truth Social that argued the president is “purposely CRASHING” the markets in part to force the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
Pressed on the matter, Mr. Hassett on Sunday initially responded by saying the Fed is independent, before adding: “He’s not trying to tank the market.”
The wild gyrations in recent days have spooked even some Republicans on Capitol Hill. Representative Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, predicted that deeper losses could convince members of his party to support a bill that would help Congress reclaim some of its authority over tariffs.
“It’s time that Congress restores its authorities here,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Alan Rappeport, Minho Kim and Michael Gold contributed to this story.
By Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Gilad Thaler, Jon Miller, Stephanie Swart, Rafaela Balster, Whitney Shefte and Nikolay Nikolov
May 29, 2026
Politics
Federal judge orders Trump’s name removed from Kennedy Center, says only Congress can rename it
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A federal judge on Friday ordered that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, said the iconic venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress, ruling that the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees overstepped its “statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming” the building.
As part of his ruling, the Trump administration will be required to take down all physical signage bearing Trump’s name and eliminate any references to a “Trump-Kennedy Center” from official materials.
TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER’S BOARD VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO APPROVE $257M RENOVATIONS AND TWO-YEAR CLOSURE
A sign is displayed on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts building. (Getty Images)
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” Cooper wrote. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
Roma Daravi, the Trump Kennedy Center vice president of public relations, said the board plans to appeal the decision.
“We will review the decision carefully though the reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration – a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges,” Daravi said. “With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”
The ruling was part of a lawsuit filed by U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
BOARD VOTES KENNEDY CENTER TO BE RENAMED ‘TRUMP-KENNEDY CENTER,’ LEAVITT SAYS
President Donald Trump stands in the presidential box during a tour of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on March 17, 2025. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s name must be removed from he iconic venue. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
Cooper previously denied a request for a preliminary injunction filed by a preservation group to block the planned two-year closure of the Kennedy Center for a rehabilitation project.
Trump secured $257 million from Congress as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to address disrepair and deferred maintenance of the Kennedy Center, which critics say has been neglected and mismanaged before Trump intervened.
The funds appropriated by Congress are spent on maintenance, repairs, security, and capital projects related to the building and site.
Beatty, who serves as an ex officio member of the board, praised Friday’s ruling.
“Today’s ruling rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,” Beatty said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.”
Workers install Donald J. Trump signage above the existing Kennedy Center sign in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 2025. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
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Trump’s name was added to the venue last December following a unanimous decision by the board. In February 2025, Trump was elected chairman of the Kennedy Center board after removing 18 trustees appointed by former President Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON — A framework agreement to end the U.S. war with Iran is all but settled, pending sign-off from the presidents of the two warring sides, President Trump said Friday, projecting optimism that a deal could finally be at hand.
Yet doubt cast a shadow over the diplomatic process entering the weekend as Trump faced a politically fraught decision to enter an agreement that would invariably require significant concessions to Tehran.
The negotiations have faced severe headwinds in recent days, with both sides accusing the other of violating a fragile ceasefire that has largely stopped the fighting since April.
On his Truth Social site, Trump said he had summoned his top aides to the White House Situation Room to decide on the deal.
The agreement would see an end to the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports and the removal of Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, an international waterway through which 20% of the world’s energy supply passes each day. The strait, Trump wrote, will reopen with “no tolls” for “unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions.”
And “Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb,” Trump wrote, noting that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient for nuclear weapons, “will be unearthed by the United States (which, it is agreed, is the only Country, along with China, with the mechanical capability of doing so!), in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED.”
“No money will be exchanged, until further notice,” he added.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said the deal would require Iran to disavow the continuation of its domestic nuclear program — a diplomatic feat never before achieved throughout a quarter-century of international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear work.
It is unclear whether Tehran would go that far. And Iran’s negotiators expressed defiance on Friday, stating that there was “no trust in guarantees or words” from the American side.
“No step will be taken before the other side acts first,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament. “We do not gain concessions through dialogue, but through missiles.”
It remains unclear when the Trump administration would ease sanctions on Iran, how extensive that relief would be, or what form it would take — questions that fueled Republican criticism of the Obama-era nuclear deal more than a decade ago.
The working diplomatic document would formally extend the existing ceasefire for 60 days, allowing for a more detailed negotiation to take place over Iran’s nuclear program. But the truce as it currently stands is on perilous ground. Iran launched a ballistic missile on Thursday at Kuwait, a close U.S. ally, after American forces took “defensive” actions against Iranian missile launchers and mine-laying boats it had launched in the strait.
The war has proved historically unpopular with the American public, and has seen oil prices soar since the U.S. military, in partnership with Israel, launched its first strikes against Iran in February.
Bessent said he is hopeful that oil prices would drop quickly once an agreement is signed. But industry analysts say the effects of the war on the oil market could last for months, if not years, with the stability of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz now in question for commercial shippers.
While oil has dropped to under $100 a barrel, markets appeared skittish on Friday over the prospects for a deal, with mixed messages appearing to emerge out of the region.
It is also unclear whether a U.S. agreement with Iran would in any way bind Israel’s hands in its military operations, either in Iran or in Lebanon, where an Iranian proxy militia, Hezbollah, has vowed to keep up the fight.
Israel has ramped up strikes against Hezbollah targets in recent days, jeopardizing a delicate ceasefire negotiated with the Lebanese government, a deal encouraged by the Trump administration in order to grease the wheels for its talks with Tehran.
Trump has been uncharacteristically silent on the prospects of an agreement in recent days, expressing cautious optimism in limited exchanges with reporters.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the president’s going to sign,” Vice President JD Vance, who has led the U.S. diplomatic team, told reporters, noting that “the nuclear stuff” is still subject to negotiation. “We’re going back and forth on a couple of language points.”
“I do think that we’ve made a lot of progress here,” Vance added. “Hopefully we’ll continue to make progress, and the president will be in a position where he can endorse the agreement. But obviously, that’s still TBD.”
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