The Latest: Supreme Court strikes down Trump's global tariffs

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The Supreme Court has struck down President Donald Trump’s far-reaching global tariffs, handing him a significant loss on an issue crucial to his economic agenda.

The decision on Friday centers on tariffs imposed under an emergency powers law, including the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs he levied on nearly every other country.

It’s the first major piece of Trump’s broad agenda to come squarely before the nation’s highest court, which he helped shape with the appointments of three conservative jurists in his first term.

The Republican president has been vocal about the case, calling it one of the most important in U.S. history and saying a ruling against him would be an economic body blow to the country.

But legal opposition crossed the political spectrum, including libertarian and pro-business groups that are typically aligned with the GOP. Polling has found tariffs aren’t broadly popular with the public, amid wider voter concern about affordability.

The latest:

The Trump administration has informed Congress that it intends to proceed with planning for a potential re-opening of the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria, which was shuttered in 2012 during the country’s civil war.

A notice to congressional committees earlier this month obtained by The Associated Press informed lawmakers of the State Department’s “intent to implement a phased approach to potentially resume embassy operations in Syria.”

The administration has been considering re-opening the embassy since last year, shortly after longtime strongman Bashar Assad was ousted in Dec. 2024.

The department took a similar “phased” approach to its plans to re-open the U.S. embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, following the U.S. military operation that ousted former President Nicolas Maduro with the deployment of temporary staffers who would work and live out of interim facilities.

However, in the case of the Damascus embassy, details of the plans to re-open remain classified.

The White House on Friday confirmed that the president will be traveling from March 31 to April for his scheduled meeting with President Xi Jinping in China.

Trump has said Xi will also visit the U.S. at the end of the year, but dates have not been released for that planned visit.

The Trump administration has hit three Chilean government officials with travel bans for their alleged involvement in activities that the U.S. says have compromised critical telecommunications infrastructure in the South American country and undermined regional security.

The State Department said Thursday that the three officials, who were not named, and their immediate family members would have any current U.S. visas revoked and be subject to new restrictions that would render them generally ineligible to enter the United States.

Trump has made no secret of his unhappiness with the outgoing Chilean government of former President Gabriel Boric and has welcomed the upcoming presidency of right-wing politician Jose Antonio Kast who takes office next month.

“In its twilight, the Boric government’s legacy shall be further tarnished by actions that undermine regional security at the ultimate expense of the Chilean people,” the statement said. “ We look forward to advancing shared priorities, including those that strengthen security in our hemisphere, with the incoming Kast Administration.”

“The Supreme Court’s decision clarifies the law, but it doesn’t rewrite history,” House Majority PAC, one of the main political action committees backing House Democratic candidates, said in a statement.

“Vulnerable House Republicans repeatedly voted to enable Trump’s tariffs, which raised prices and wreaked economic havoc on American families and businesses. Their constituents have paid the price, and House Majority PAC will ensure Republicans are held accountable for their votes come November,” the organization said in a statement.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia says he is filing a war powers resolution that would require Trump to get congressional approval before launching an attack on Iran.

Kaine’s move is intended to build political opposition to an attack as the president has threatened war if negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program don’t work.

The war powers resolution has practically no chance of becoming law, in part because Trump himself would have to sign it, but a bipartisan group of senators has already forced votes on several resolutions that apply to Venezuela.

None of those resolutions passed, but they were successful in showing how lawmakers are troubled by some of Trump’s aggressive foreign policy maneuvers.

Kaine will be able to force a vote on the resolution in 10 days.

“If some of my colleagues support war, then they should have the guts to vote for the war, and to be held accountable by their constituents, rather than hiding under their desks,” he said in a statement.

Trump opened up his breakfast meeting at the White House with U.S. governors by asking the pool of journalists to depart so that they can “talk very candidly.”

“I guess we’re going to be asking the press to leave, that way we’re going to talk very candidly,” Trump said.

The president indicated that he might take questions afterward, though it was unclear if those questions would come from the governors. Trump said he made the choice about the media’s presence at the start of the meeting after talking with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.

Trump’s refusal to invite all governors to a White House meeting has prompted the group to back out.

The National Governors Association is pulling out of an annual meeting at the White House Trump declined to invite two Democratic governors — Jared Polis of Colorado and Wes Moore of Maryland.

The move was seen as undercutting one of Washington’s few remaining bipartisan gatherings. Trump is still expected to meet with governors at the White House on Friday.

Iran held annual military drills with Russia as a second American aircraft carrier drew closer to the Middle East.

Both the United States and Iran are signaling they are prepared for war if talks on Tehran’s nuclear program fizzle out. Trump said Thursday he believes 10 to 15 days is enough time for Iran to reach a deal.

But talks on its nuclear program have been deadlocked for years, and Iran has refused to discuss wider U.S. and Israeli demands that it scale back its missile program and sever ties to armed groups. Indirect talks held in recent weeks made little visible progress, and one or both sides could be buying time for final war preparations.

U.S. military presence in the region is mounting.

Moore said Friday he will attend a business meeting at the White House during this week’s annual gathering of governors in Washington, even after President Donald Trump excluded him from a traditional governors’ dinner.

Trump said the high-profile Democratic governor was “not worthy of being there.” The selective guest list has cast a shadow over the bipartisan National Governors Association meeting, prompting barbs between Moore and Trump and leading some Democratic governors to boycott the dinner.

Still, Moore said in the statement that he would show up for the official business meeting Friday morning.

“But let me be abundantly clear: I will not participate in political stunts,” Moore wrote in a statement.

Last year’s White House business session devolved into a public clash between Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat.

Trump has long spread conspiracy theories about voting that are designed to explain away his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Now that he’s president again, Trump has stocked his administration with many people who have promoted his falsehoods and in some cases helped him try to overturn his loss.

The first concrete action from Trump’s mandate to investigate the 2020 election was the seizure in late January of ballots and election records from Fulton County in Georgia, a Democratic stronghold that includes Atlanta. The county has long been a target of election conspiracy theorists aligned with Trump.