Trump reveals the secret behind his ‘beautiful’ hair as he touts billions in investments in the US: Live updates

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Donald Trump welcomed business CEOs to the White House on Wednesday as part of his celebration of 100 days in office.

And he even offered his personal thanks to one of them.

‘My hair looks so beautiful because of your product,’ the president joked to the CEO of Johnson & Johnson, whose company makes shampoo, conditioner and other hair care products.

His event was part of a push to get more investment in America and to display products made in the USA.

Trump spoke in the cross hall of the White House where he was flanked by an Andruil drone model, what appears to be a model of a jet engine, and other products and models of products.

He defended his tenure in office and repeated his claim that the bad first quarter economic news was due to his predecessor Joe Biden. He asked for patience.

‘I think you have to give us a little bit of time to get moving, but this is still the Biden economy,’ he told the CEOs.

He encouraged them to keep investing.

‘Every new investment, every new factory and every new job created, is a sign of strength in American economy and a declaration of confidence in America’s future.’

The event was also a part of Trump’s America first push. His tariff war was, in part, to get companies to invest in building factories and doing business in the United States.

‘The entire Trump economic agenda is about making it easier to do business in America, to create jobs in America, to hire American workers and to build your factories here in America, not in China or any other country,’ he said.

The president closed with an invitation to the tycoons to come see the Oval Office.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

President Donald Trump encouraged sports broadcaster and actor Stephen A. Smith to run for president, after Smith pushed the president on race.

He’s a good guy. He’s a smart guy. I love watching him. He’s got great entertainment skills, which is very important. People watch him. You know a lot of these Democrats, I watch, I say they have no chance. I’ve been pretty good at picking people and picking candidates, and I will tell you I’d love to see him run.

Smith, Chris Cuomo and Bill O’Reilly co-hosted a NewsNation town hall on Wednesday to mark Trump’s first 100 days, with the president calling in by phone.

The sports journalist asked Trump to justify DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion program – cuts, asking, ‘what message do they send to marginalized communities.’

‘What we’re doing is we have a country that’s based solely on merit now, and that’s the way it is,’ Trump responded. ‘If somebody’s out there doing a great job, and this includes getting into colleges, if you’ve worked really hard … we don’t look at race, we don’t look at color, we don’t look at height or shortness or weight.’

Trump then brought up Harvard, calling the Ivy ‘so disgusting,’ with Smith then asking how attempting to yank the university’s funding isn’t an attack on academic freedom.

The president then claimed that people from Harlem, in New York, went to protest ‘very strongly against Harvard.’

‘They happen to be on my side, you know, I got a very high black vote. You know that? Very, very high black vote. It was a very great compliment,’ Trump boasted.

Trump made inroads in the black community in 2024, though Vice President Kamala Harris still won the black vote.

The Homeland Security Secretary and her top advisor are known to enjoy the closest of professional – and personal – relationships.

The brazen pair – both married to other people – are residing in swish rental apartments across the street from one another in DC‘s fashionable Navy Yard neighborhood.

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday unleashed another characteristic rant during a cabinet meeting led by President Donald Trump at the White House.

The vice president praised the administration’s accomplishments in Trump’s first 100 days as president and torched the media present in the room.

He said: ‘Why is it that the press so focused on the fake BS rather than what’s really going on in the country.’

‘It think that what we’ve shown sir is that you can do a lot in 100 days, but you’ve also unfortunately revealed that too much of the American media hasn’t learned the lesson of the past four years.’

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, made rare public comments in Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.

She praised President Donald Trump for his first 100 days in office, calling it ‘unparalleled in my memory and best I can tell ever.’

‘But it hasn’t been busy for busy sake,’ she added. ‘The president’s promises made to the American people have been kept time and time again.’

‘Let’s work hard to the next 100 and I think we’ll have equally as much success.’

Wiles is the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff. When Trump asked her to address he meeting, he called her the ‘most powerful woman in the world.’

President Donald Trump invited Elon Musk to stay in his administration as long as he wants – an invitation the came as the Tesla founder is on his way out the door.

‘You know you’re invited to stay as long as you want. At some point, I guess he wants to get back home to his cars,’ Trump said during his Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Musk praised the president’s accomplishments in his first 100 days in the White House and then joked about his own government service: ‘They say I wear a lot of hats. It’s true. Even my hat has a hat.’

He gestured to the two hats on his head.

Whether she is touring a notorious El Salvadoran prison or attending a two hour Trump cabinet meeting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem knows what time it is.

Noem was famously spotted wearing a $50,000 Rolex Cosmograph Daytona when she toured the infamous Cecot prison shortly after the administration deported more than 200 people including alleged gang members there.

Noem, whose fashion choices have earned her the monicker ICE Barbie, was seen wearing the watch again at Wednesday’s televised cabinet meeting at the White House.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Donald Trump offered a prolonged defense of his handling of the economy after a report the country’s gross national product was down 0.3 percent.

He blasted his predecessor Joe Biden, saying the former president put the country ‘at risk, at tremendous risk, and fiscal risk, financial risk.’

And he offered an optimistic view: ‘I really believe that the next 100 days is going to be even better than this look.’

‘I think our country could have been in total disaster. Bad things were happening with our country. And we’ve stemmed the tide, we’ve turned it around, but we’re going to really turn it around over the next three years, three and a half years, we’re going to turn it around, and then hopefully it’ll be in such great shape. That’s my goal, to put it in such great condition that it can’t be destroyed.’

And he laid the groundwork to cast the blame on someone else should the second quarter of the year prove bad.

‘You could even say the next quarter is sort of Biden,’ he said.

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

AG Pam Bondi told President Trump during his cabinet meeting that there have been ‘over 200 civil lawsuits filed against you.’

‘On top of everything else, I think I’m representing every one of you in this room. I know you will not be arrested by the US marshals,’ she said, earning chuckles from an array of Trump cabinet members.

Litigants have sued to stop a range of Trump policies, including trade tariffs, deportations, and DOGE agency cuts. Such suits often name cabinet secretaries in their professional capacity.

Bondi also spoke about going after people ‘burning Teslas, people ‘burning down he governor’s mansion in Pennsylvania,’ or ISIS terrorists.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Elon Musk joined President Donald Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The world’s richest man is quietly stepping away from his official role with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after his Tesla business lost money.

But his department is expected to continue its work slashing the size of the federal government.

Musk, wearing black and a red ‘Gulf of America’ hat, sat at the far end of the table for Trump’s fifth Cabinet meeting.

Trump cabinet members appear to have scored some swag by showing up for today’s televised cabinet meeting.

In front of each cabinet member is a red or black ‘Gulf of America’ trucker style hat, with colors alternating around the table.

The design is diffderent from the Gulf of America hat being sold at the private Trump Store, which is currently listed as out of stock at $40. The hat references Trump’s decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, sparking pushback from Mexico and an ongoing legal battle with the Associated Press over use of the name.

‘I guarantee Biden didn’t do this,’ Trump said as he handed over the floor to embattled Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, who spoke of a ‘recruiting renaissance’ in the military at the start of the meeting. A series of cabinet members were expected to speak.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Donald Trump, in a show of support, had Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seated next to him in Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.

And he let him speak first when he asked to hear from his Cabinet.

‘I could start with Pete on the left, because he’s my least controversial person,’ Trump joked as the officials in the room burst into laughter.

Hegseth is under fire for his management at the Pentagon and for using the messaging app Signal to share information about military campaigns.

‘I think we’re controversial because we’re over the target,’ Hegseth said.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins warned of a damaging pest called the New World Screwworm that is making its way to the U.S.

‘New World Screwworm is a scourge making its way from Latin American up through Mexico. If it hits America it is going to be absolutely devastating to our cattle industry,’ she told reporters at the White House. ‘I sent a very strongly worded letter to my counterpart in Mexico.’

Screwworm can infest livestock, wildlife and in rare cases, people. Maggots from screwworm flies burrow into the skin of living animals, causing serious and often fatal damage.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) offered his ‘support’ for an unlikely – and entirely unofficial – candidate to lead the Catholic Church: President Donald Trump.

The endorsement, laced with humor, came hours after Trump himself joked to reporters outside the White House, ‘I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice.’

Trump, who was departing for Michigan to mark the 100th day of his second term with a campaign-style rally, added that he had ‘no preference’ for who should lead the Church, though he described New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan as ‘very good.’

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro downplayed the bad economic numbers that came out Wednesday, saying ‘all things are good.’

‘What happened with the numbers today is we had a fairly extraordinary surge of imports that was totally driven by the rest of the world trying to get their products in here before the tariffs took full hold,’ he told reporters at the White House.

‘The great news about that is that’s a one-shot deal. So next time we get the data, that won’t be the case at all. And in fact, it’ll reverse, and that’ll contribute to growth.’

The United States’ economy shrank 0.3 percent in the first three months of 2025, an unexpected downturn. There was unexpected rise in imports as companies and consumers sought to get ahead of President Donald Trump’s tariff war.

Navarro argued there actually was a 3% GDP growth, ‘which is very, very good.’

‘All things are good. So we felt really good about that number, when you when you fully understand it, and then that’s, that’s pretty much all I gotta say about that,’ he said.

President Trump weighed in on a drop in the stock market during his first 100 days – blaming President Biden and defending his tariffs that have spooked investors and dinged his approval rating.

Trump termed it a ‘Biden overhang’, in a post that followed a series of 100-day wrap up pieces – including one by the Wall Street Journal editorial staff noting that it was the worst performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 since Richard Nixon.

‘This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,’ Trump posted on his Truth Social site.

‘I didn’t take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden “Overhang.”’

White House communications director Steven Cheung ridiculed former Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday for her planned ‘comeback’ speech in California.

‘A failed loser desperately clinging to relevance as she spirals into the political abyss,’ Cheung wrote, highlighting a news story featuring a preview of her upcoming speech at the Emerge 20th Anniversary Gala.

The group is charging $25 for viewers to watch the speech online and up to $50,000 for a sponsor level ticket.

Voters in the critical swing state of Michigan delivered some mixed reviews when describing President Donald Trump’s first 100 days, some celebrating his policy, others bashing him as a liar.

The Republican is heading to the Detroit area on Tuesday to celebrate his first 100 days in office.

Slated to talked about brining jobs back to America, the president has made an event of the anniversary of his first few months back in the Oval Office.

He has celebrated his administration’s quick start; they have, so far, made good on immigration, economic and labor reform.

Though those walking around the streets of downtown Detroit Tuesday afternoon ahead of Trump’s celebratory rally just outside of town warned the rapid changes have been unsettling – a sentiment reflected in recent polling.

Others, however, celebrated the president’s early achievements, like his aggressive deportation campaign that has already ejected over 65,000 illegal aliens, many of whom have criminal records.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Donald Trump blamed his predecessor Joe Biden for Wednesday’s bad economic report.

‘This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th,’ he noted in a post on Truth Social.

The United States’ economy shrank 0.3 percent in the first three months of 2025, an unexpected downturn.

Trump counseled patience.

‘Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden “Overhang.” This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!,’ he wrote.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Ukraine is ready to sign a long-anticipated minerals deal with the United States.

Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko is currently in Washington for the final coordination, the AP reported.

The deal would give the United States access to Ukraine’s critical earth minerals, which are used in technology ranging from batteries to aircraft wings.

The progress comes after President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a sit down over the weekend on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral in the Vatican.

The two sides were prepared to sign a framework agreement in February but the plan was derailed following a contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelensky.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

The United States’ economy shrank in the first three months of 2025, coming as President Donald Trump wages his tariffs war.

The gross domestic product, a sum of all the goods and services produced from January through March, fell at a 0.3% annualized pace, according to a Commerce Department report Wednesday

Trump’s tariffs have sparked fears of a recession. The GDP number is seen as a mark of consumer and business confidence in Trump’s handling of the economy.

The president will speak at 4 pm on investing in America.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

President Donald Trump will swear in Warren Stephens, a Little Rock investment banker, as his ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Stephens is a longtime Republican donor who gave $2 million to a Trump-backing super PAC during the 2024 election.

‘Warren has always dreamed of serving the United States full time. I am thrilled that he will now have that opportunity as the top Diplomat, representing the U.S.A. to one of America’s most cherished and beloved Allies,’ Trump said when he announced Stephens’ nomination.

Stephens was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday night and Wednesday’s ceremony will take place in the Oval Office.

The billionaire will be the president’s eyes and ears in London. He’ll also help coordinate Trump’s upcoming state visit to the country, which is expected to take place in September.

He’s no stranger to the UK.

Stephens’ family bank has a footprint in London. And he’s a fan of the Tottenham Hotspurs Premier League soccer team.

The White House has published a list of dozens of media reports it says were ‘hoaxes.’

It includes reports that Trump was ‘very good friends’ with Vladimir Putin.

The list also includes a report that Elon Musk’s DOGE consisted of ‘young, inexperienced engineers.’

And another was that Trump referred to Euroopean nations as ‘parasites.’