President Donald Trump is in Michigan to promote his efforts to boost U.S. manufacturing, as he tries to counter fears about a weakening job market and worries that still-rising prices are taking a toll on Americans’ pocketbooks. The day trip includes a tour of a Ford factory in Dearborn that makes best-selling F-150 pickups, and an address to the Detroit Economic Club.
It comes as the Trump administration’s criminal investigation of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has sparked an outcry, with defenders of the U.S. central bank pushing back against Trump’s efforts to exert more control over it. Federal data from December released before the president left Washington showed Inflation declined a bit last month as prices for gas and used cars fell — a sign that cost pressures are slowly easing.
In their wake of off-year election losses for the GOP, the White House said Trump would put a greater emphasis on talking directly to the public about his economic policies after doing relatively few events around the country earlier in his term.
Other news we’re following:
Trump tells Iranian protesters ‘help is on the way’: Trump did not offer any details about what the help would entail, but it comes after the Republican president earlier this week said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic that has killed more than 2,000, according to human rights monitors. Trump also said he’s canceled talks with Iranian officials amid a protest crackdown.Pentagon embraces Musk’s Grok AI chatbot as it draws global outcry: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the Elon Musk-backed chatbot would join Google’s generative AI engine in operating inside the Pentagon network. Days before, Grok drew global outcry and scrutiny for generating highly sexualized deepfake images of people without their consent.Denmark provided US support on intercepting oil tanker: That’s according to a Danish official who was not authorized to comment publicly on the sensitive matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity, declined to provide details about what the support entailed. The acknowledgement comes at a moment of tension between the NATO allies as Trump has repeatedly called for the U.S. to take over Greenland, a strategic Arctic territory of Denmark.