Vice president JD Vance said there was a "good chance" that a trade deal could be reached with the UK, after president Donald Trump insisted he could be “very flexible” when it comes to tariffs.
"We're certainly working very hard with Keir Starmer's government," Vance told the UnHerd website.
His statement comes after Trump said he doesn't change his mind, but was flexible "and you have to be". "You just can't have a wall, and you'll only go, you know, sometimes you have to go around it under it or above it," he told reporters.
Meanwhile, Trump claimed Chinese president Xi Jinping’s tour of South-east Asian countries – hit hardest by American tariffs – was intended to “screw” the U.S.
Xi met Vietnam’s top leader, To Lam, in Hanoi and called for stronger trade ties, and signed dozens of cooperation agreements. Reacting to their meeting, Trump said: "I don’t blame China; I don’t blame Vietnam."
"That’s a lovely meeting. Meeting like, trying to figure out, ‘how do we screw the United States of America?’"
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Key Points
- Trump says Xi in Vietnam to figure out how to 'screw' U.S.
- Vance says 'good chance' of UK trade deal
- Trump expected to announce semiconductor chip tariffs soon
- China says exemption for electronics a ‘small step’ towards correcting tariffs
- How U.S. tariffs have changed
- Electronics exemptions to be short-lived, says commerce secretary
Vance says 'good chance' of UK trade deal
07:18
,
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
U.S. vice president JD Vance said Washington was "working very hard" there was a "good chance" a trade deal could be reached with the UK.
"We're certainly working very hard with Keir Starmer's government," Vance told UnHerd website.
U.S. president Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on imports to the U.S., rocking the world economy, sending stock prices tumbling and sparking fears of a global recession.
Since then, Trump has rowed back on tariffs, reducing the rate paid on imports from most countries to 10 per cent and, on Saturday, exempting electronics such as smartphones and laptops from the levy.
“The president really loves the United Kingdom. He loved the Queen. He admires and loves the King. It is a very important relationship. And he’s a businessman and has a number of important business relationships in [Britain]. But I think it’s much deeper than that.
“There’s a real cultural affinity. And, of course, fundamentally, America is an Anglo country. I think there’s a good chance that, yes, we’ll come to a great agreement that’s in the best interest of both countries.” he added.
Vance added that the “reciprocal relationship” between the US and UK gave Britain a more advantageous position than other European countries to negotiate new trade agreements.
"While we love the Germans, they are heavily dependent on exporting to the United States but are pretty tough on a lot of American businesses that would like to export into Germany."
Trump says Xi in Vietnam to figure out how to 'screw' U.S.
07:16
,
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar
President Donald Trump claimed Chinese president Xi Jinping was visiting Southeast Asian countries to find ways to "screw" the U.S.
China and Vietnam signed dozens of cooperation agreements yesterday, strengthening ties between the communist-run countries during Xi's visit to Hanoi.
Xi is in Vietnam for the first leg of a Southeast Asia tour, as Beijing tries to present itself as a stable alternative to an erratic Trump following his imposition of sweeping tariffs. Xi warned that protectionism "leads nowhere" and that a trade war would have "no winners".
Reacting to his visit, Trump said: "I don’t blame China; I don’t blame Vietnam.""That’s a lovely meeting. Meeting like, trying to figure out, ‘how do we screw the United States of America?’”
Vietnam was hit by one of the highest tariffs of 46 per cent earlier this month.
WATCH: El Salvador's president won't release man mistakenly deported to his jails
07:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Trump claims he wants to boost American manufacturing. But the industry is already in chaos over his tariffs
06:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
President Donald Trump claims he wants to boost American manufacturing, but his tariff policies appear to be doing the very opposite, creating chaos and uncertainty.
The administration’s back-and-forth policies are making it more difficult for U.S. companies to both sell and make their products.
Costs are going up as demand is decreasing, as buyers — domestic and international — slow down their spending amid the uncertainty. The new American trade policy is turning the international trading system upside down and creating chaos in the financial markets as the risk of a recession rises.
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Nvidia plans to manufacture AI chips in the US for the first time
05:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Sarah Parvini writes:
Nvidia announced Monday that it will produce its artificial intelligence supercomputers in the United States for the first time.
The tech giant said it has commissioned more than one million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test its specialized Blackwell chips in Arizona and AI supercomputers in Texas — part of an investment the company said will produce up to half a trillion dollars of AI infrastructure in the next four years.
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Gen. Caine has taken over as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
04:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Lolita C. Baldor writes:
Air Force Gen. Dan Caine has been sworn in as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after a flurry of paperwork was finished to allow him to fill the job nearly two months after President Donald Trump fired his predecessor.
A formal White House ceremony is expected to take place this week.
Caine, a decorated F-16 fighter pilot and well-respected officer, took over on Saturday after Trump signed the necessary documents. He will serve the remainder of the four-year term of Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who was fired by Trump as part of a broader purge of military officers believed to endorse diversity and equity programs.
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WATCH: Trump repeatedly attacks CNN during sit-down with El Salvador President
03:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele says he won’t return man who was mistakenly deported from U.S.
02:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Andrew Feinberg and Alex Woodward write:
The Trump administration is refusing to ask El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, to release a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to his country and incarcerated in a notorious prison — and Bukele isn't interested in releasing him, either.
Bukele, who met with Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, was asked by a reporter if he’d consider releasing Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland before he was arrested and deported back to his home country last month despite an immigration judge’s years-old order preventing the government from deporting him.
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Possible motive revealed after arson attack on PA Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home
01:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Katie Hawkinson and James Liddell write:
A suspected terrorist has been accused of setting alight Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s mansion Saturday evening, forcing his family and other guests to flee the residence.
Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, was detained in connection with the alleged “targeted” attack just hours after Shapiro and his family dined to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Passover at his home in the state capital Saturday, officials say. Balmer is accused of throwing beer bottles full of gasoline into the home.
Now, new details, including a possible motive for the attack, have been revealed in unsealed court documents. Balmer held a deep hatred for Shapiro and told officers if the governor had been home when the attack occurred, he would “beat him with a hammer,” reports WHTM.
Most Republican lawmakers are skipping town halls during long congressional break
Tuesday 15 April 2025 00:15
,
Gustaf Kilander
Ariana Baio has the following story:
Fewer Republican lawmakers are holding town halls during the two-week congressional recess, weeks after the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman advised them to skip town halls or hold virtual town halls.
During the weeks when lawmakers return to their districts, it’s common for many to host town halls to connect with constituents and hear which issues are affecting them.
But it seems many Republicans are taking the advice of Richard Hudson, the NRCC chair, and avoiding them entirely — or at least changing their format, NBC News reported on Monday.
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Trump administration has no evidence Tufts student was tied to antisemitism or terrorism before ICE arrest, State Dept. memo says
Monday 14 April 2025 23:30
,
Gustaf Kilander
Alex Woodward writes:
Donald Trump’s administration does not appear to possess any evidence backing up claims of antisemitism and support for a terrorist organization to justify the arrest of a Tufts University doctoral student who was grabbed off the streets by masked federal agents and jailed in a Louisiana detention center.
Lawyers for Turkish PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk told a federal judge in Vermont on Monday that the government is in possession of at least one memo that says Secretary of State Marco Rubio does not have sufficient grounds to revoke her visa and order her removal.
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Trump attacks ‘low-rated CNN’ for pressing him and Bukele on illegally deported man: ‘They hate our country!’
Monday 14 April 2025 22:45
,
Gustaf Kilander
Justin Baragona writes:
President Donald Trump repeatedly attacked CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins during an Oval Office meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, claiming her network “hates our country” and personally insulting her as “low-rated” as she pressed both leaders on the status of a wrongly deported Maryland man.
While the president seemed to relish in bashing one of his favorite media targets in front of the populist right-wing El Salvadoran leader, Collins’ questions led to both Bukele and the White House refusing to commit to the safe return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national living in Maryland who was sent to El Salvador’s notorious CECO prison complex last month.
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Harvard refuses to comply with Trump administration’s demands over $9 billion
Monday 14 April 2025 22:25
,
Gustaf Kilander
Harvard University rejected a list of demands from the Trump administration that would require sweeping changes at the higher education institution to secure back nearly $9 billion in federal funding, saying it would not allow itself “to be taken over by the federal government.”
In a letter to administration officials on Monday, lawyers for the university said the list of demands the government sent in early April “go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration” and refused to agree to the terms.
Trump administration officials had demanded Harvard end all diversity, equity and inclusion policies, crack down on student protesters, limit the power of students and faculty over school leaders, cooperate with federal law enforcement like the Department of Homeland Security and more.
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Cory Booker calls for insider trading hearings after Trump’s tariff backtrack
Monday 14 April 2025 22:00
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Gustaf Kilander
New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker is calling for congressional hearings into allegations of insider trading after President Donald Trump urged people to buy stocks before he backtracked on his tariff policy.
“There is enough of an offense here, there’s enough smoke here that should demand congressional hearings,” Booker NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
Last week, Democratic members of Congress began pressing for answers as to whether the president, his family, administration officials and allies had improperly traded after Trump declared “this is a great time to buy” following chaos in the market after his sweeping tariffs went into effect.
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DHS spokesperson compares Abrego Garcia to Bin Laden
Monday 14 April 2025 21:49
,
Gustaf Kilander
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin compared Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, to Osama Bin Laden during an appearance on Fox News.
“The media would love for you to believe that this is a media darling, that he's just a Maryland father,” she said. “Well, Osama bin Laden was also a father, and yet he wasn't a good guy, and they're actually both terrorists.”
US Army to control land on Mexico border as part of base, migrants could be detained, officials say
Monday 14 April 2025 21:45
,
AP
A long sliver of federal land along the U.S.-Mexico border that President Donald Trump is turning over to the Department of Defense would be controlled by the Army as part of a base, which could allow troops to detain any trespassers, including migrants, U.S. officials told The Associated Press.
The transfer of that border zone to military control — and making it part of an Army installation — is an attempt by the Trump administration to get around a federal law that prohibits U.S. troops from being used in domestic law enforcement on American soil.
But if the troops are providing security for land that is part of an Army base, they can perform that function. However, at least one presidential powers expert said the move is likely to be challenged in the courts.
The officials said the issue is still under review in the Pentagon, but even as any legal review goes on, the administration’s intent is to have troops detain migrants at the border.
Why is Trump trying to excuse Russia’s latest massacre?
Monday 14 April 2025 21:30
,
Gustaf Kilander
Sam Kiley writes:
For a showman given to overarching high-wire performances in every theatre at home and abroad, Donald Trump’s recent criticisms of Russia have been distinctly mumbled – showing he doesn’t have the courage of his lack of conviction.
In his latest utterance, he appeared to be speaking on behalf of the Kremlin for the killing of 34 people, including two children, in a double missile strike on Sumy city, on Ukraine’s northern border with Russia.
“I was told they made a mistake,” he said.
One can only guess whether he made this claim after talking with Vladimir Putin’s officials. It seems more likely that he came up with the line to avoid further global condemnation of Russia for another war crime.
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Trophy falls apart as JD Vance tries to pick it up at White House event
Monday 14 April 2025 21:28
,
Gustaf Kilander
The CFP National Championship Trophy falls apart as VP JD Vance tries to hold it aloft at the White House. pic.twitter.com/XYmZRnCsK0
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) April 14, 2025
Vance later tweeted jokingly: “I didn’t want anyone after Ohio State to get the trophy, so I decided to break it.”
WATCH: Fox News doctor gushes over ‘youthful’ Trump's physical exam results
Monday 14 April 2025 21:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Sarah Palin’s defamation case against the New York Times returns to trial
Monday 14 April 2025 20:30
,
Gustaf Kilander
Justin Baragona writes:
Three years after a federal judge and jury ruled that the New York Times didn’t defame Sarah Palin, the former GOP vice-presidential nominee is going to get another crack at the Grey Lady as jury selection is set to begin Monday in a retrial of her defamation lawsuit.
While the facts of Palin’s case — which centers on a 2017 Times editorial that wrongly suggested a political ad of hers inspired a mass shooting — haven’t changed, the media and political landscape since she lost her initial suit has completely shifted.
With Donald Trump and his administration threatening news organizations and pulling in preemptive settlements, all while other media companies have lost their defamation cases in court in recent years, what looked like an uphill battle for Palin could help set the stage for conservatives to challenge press freedom and the media’s ability to report on public figures.
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The trial to decide if Meta has to sell Instagram and WhatsApp begins this week. Here’s everything you need to know
Monday 14 April 2025 20:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Josh Marcus writes:
The Trump administration’s landmark antitrust trial against Meta begins on Monday, as federal regulators accuse the social media giant of using its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp to illegally suppress competition.
If the Federal Trade Commission, which brought the suit in 2020, gets it way, Meta could have to spin the popular apps into their own companies, the first major corporate break-up of the Big Tech era and one of the most aggressive anti-trust cases in decades.
Will Mark Zuckerberg’s recent attempts to build a closer relationship with President Trump be enough to stop the worst potential impacts of the case, or will the social media landscape soon look very different? Here’s what you need to know.
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British Airways slash flight prices to US after anti-Trump backlash hits tourist numbers
Monday 14 April 2025 19:30
,
Gustaf Kilander
Simon Calder writes:
As official US data reveals a 17 per cent year-on-year slump in Europeans visiting the United States in March 2025, airlines are slashing summer prices to fill planes.
British Airways is selling return tickets from Copenhagen via London Heathrow to New York JFK in the peak holiday month of August for just £365 – less than half the cost of a London-New York flight alone.
The latest figures from the US International Trade Administration, which seeks to promote American tourism, show extraordinary declines from key European markets since Donald Trump was elected as president.
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VOICES: Trump won’t admit it – but he blinked first in his China trade war
Monday 14 April 2025 19:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Chris Blackhurst writes:
A fair prediction is that in between watching golf at the US Masters, playing the game himself, touring the tables and glad-handing the diners at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has found little time to study Bertrand Russell.
This is a pity, since it might pay him and America to absorb the British philosopher’s The Problem of China, published in 1922, if only for this passage alone: “The Chinese nation is the most patient in the world; it thinks of centuries as other nations think of decades. It is essentially indestructible and can afford to wait.”
There is another short phrase in Mandarin that might grab even Donald Trump’s attention, “chi ku”, which literally translates into “eating bitterness” – meaning to suffer without complaint.
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Trump has previously suggested sending U.S. citizens to El Salvador
Monday 14 April 2025 18:37
,
Gustaf Kilander
Trump mused about sending U.S. citizens to El Salvador’s prisons on Monday, something he has been suggesting since at least February:
And he did so again earlier this month:
John Oliver skewers ‘toddler’ Trump’s tariffs fiasco and JD Vance’s role in administration
Monday 14 April 2025 18:30
,
Gustaf Kilander
Joe Sommerlad has the following story:
John Oliver ridiculed President Donald Trump's decision last week to pause his “reciprocal tariffs” after spooking the stock markets, likening the president to “a toddler” for his impulsiveness.
Speaking on Sunday’s installment of his HBO show Last Week Tonight, the British satirist described the preceding seven days as an “emotional rollercoaster” set in motion by Trump “with the help of the single dumbest chart in human history.”
Recapping the events that led to the commander-in-chief’s decision to reverse his global trade policy, Oliver turned to Trump’s attempt to calm investors by warning them against becoming “Panicans,” which he defined as a new political party for the weak and stupid.
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Trump tells Bukele: 'Home-growns are next'
Monday 14 April 2025 18:15
,
Gustaf Kilander
Trump to Bukele: "Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough." pic.twitter.com/o20thGNK9e
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2025
Why Trump is jailing student activists in Louisiana, where thousands of immigrants are detained in private prisons
Monday 14 April 2025 18:00
,
Gustaf Kilander
Alex Woodward writes:
Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil was arrested in his apartment building, sent to a New Jersey detention center and then flown to a facility in Louisiana. Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk was on her way to dinner with friends when she was arrested, moved to facilities in New Hampshire and Vermont, and then sent to another Louisiana detention center. Georgetown University Badar Khan Suri was shipped to a facility in Texas after spending three days in yet another Louisiana detention center.
A series of high-profile arrests targeting international student activists and academics for their Palestinian activism — and decisions from Donald Trump’s administration to detain them hundreds of miles away in remote prisons — have renewed scrutiny into a sprawling network of facilities plagued by reports of abuse and neglect.
Bukele won’t commit to returning man who was mistakenly deported from U.S.
