Trump stuns Fox News host with wild suggestion that his tariffs could replace income tax: Live updates

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent at the White House

Vice President J.D. Vance was noticeably missing Tuesday when the Navy Midshipmen were presented with the Commander-in-Chief trophy by President Donald Trump.

Trump pointed out some notables attending the East Room affair including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, former press secretary Sean Spicer and body man Walt Nauta – both of whom were appointed to the Naval Academy’s board in last month – and then called out for Vance.

‘J.D.? Where’s J.D. What the hell happened to J.D.?’ Trump asked to laughs. ‘He must have gotten a call from China,’ the president said, as Vance is working on the TikTok deal.

The day before, Vance picked up Ohio State’s national championship trophy and let the base fall off – adding a bit of drama to the football team’s South Lawn fete.

The Commander-in-Chief trophy has a bit more heft, weighing 170 pounds, Trump revealed to the crowd on Tuesday.

Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter for DailyMail.com

President Donald Trump may strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status because of antisemitism on campus, which he considers a systemic illness.

‘Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a political entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?” Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday morning.

‘Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the public interest!’ the president’s message continued.

Since October 7, 2023, college campuses nationwide have erupted with protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Some demonstrations have turned violent, and others resulted in full-fledged occupations with students camping out for weeks on lawns and in halls.

Harvard, like many elite universities, has been a hotbed for these protests.

Trump’s new threat to take away the 388-year-old school’s tax status could result in Harvard having to pay out cash to the federal government.

Donald Trump’s allies are scratching their heads over the president considering sending Americans convicted of violent crimes to the notorious El Salvadorian prison currently holding migrants deported from the U.S.

Trump, meeting with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office on Monday, said that Attorney General Pam Bondi is ‘studying the law’ on the matter.

But Bondi, when questioned by Fox News on Monday night, refused to answer whether or not deporting Americans to another country for incarceration is legal.

‘These are Americans he is saying who have committed the most heinous crimes in our country,’ she said. ‘Crime is going to decrease dramatically because he has given us a directive to make America safe again.’

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent at the White House

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested Tuesday that tariff relief was on the table if China struck a deal with the United States over TikTok – and on the broader trade war.

Leavitt read a statement from the president when asked if the U.S. would decrease the current 145 percent tariff on Chinese goods if a TikTok deal finally came together.

The ball is in China’s court. China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them. There’s no difference between China and any other country except they are much larger. And China wants what we have, what every country wants what we have, the American consumer. Or to put it another way, they need our money.

‘As you have all seen, we work at Trump-speed around here, we get a lot done,’ she said at Tuesday’s briefing. ‘So definitely don’t want to get ahead. The vice president continues to lead these negotiations and talks, the president’s involved and they’re ongoing.’

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent at the White House

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt mocked former President Joe Biden ahead of the Democrat’s first big post-presidency speech.

My first reaction when seeing former President Biden was speaking tonight was: I’m shocked that he is speaking at night time. I thought his bedtime was much earlier than his speech tonight.

Biden will address Social Security concerns at the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled in Chicago Tuesday night.

Leavitt pushed that President Donald Trump would preserve Social Security.

‘Let me make it very clear ahead of former President Biden’s remarks, the president, this president, President Trump, is absolutely certain about protecting Social Security benefits for law-abiding, tax-paying American citizens and seniors who have paid into this program.’

The press secretary said that Trump would be signing an executive order later Tuesday ‘aimed at stopping illegal aliens and other ineligible people from obtaining Social Security Act benefits.

President Donald Trump is considering closing up to three dozen U.S. consulates around the world as part of massive cuts to the State Department’s budget.

Those cuts also include all funds for United Nations, many of its agencies and for NATO headquarters. It also cuts all of the State Department’s educational and cultural exchanges, like the Fulbright Program.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reacted to President Donald Trump after he singled her out for ridicule after asking about the status of a deported illegal immigrant who was sent to El Salvador.

Collins replayed her exchange with the president on her show and went through the case in detail.

President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff revealed some of the details of his latest meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, celebrating a real chance for a lasting peace in the region.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Chinese President Xi Jinping, on a high-profile tour of Southeast Asia, is making the case for free trade and promoting his country as a source of ‘stability and certainty.’

Xi isn’t mentioning President Donald Trump by name but his message is clear: amid the turmoil Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs are causing the global markets, investors should look to China as a safe bet.

During his stop in Vietnam, Xi – above left with Vietnamese President Luong Cuong on the right – said their two countries ‘have brought the world valuable stability and certainty’ in a ‘turbulent world.’

Trump, for his part, complained about the meeting, saying China and Vietnam were trying ‘to figure out how do we screw the United States of America.’

China has ordered its airlines not to take any further deliveries of Boeing jets in response to the U.S. decision to impose 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

Beijing has also asked that Chinese carriers halt purchases of aircraft-related equipment and parts from U.S. companies, the Bloomberg report said.

The U.S. and China have been embroiled in a tariff war triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policies.

China last week hiked levies on U.S. imports to 125 percent in retaliation against U.S. tariffs.