There has been a lot of exits from the White House this week...Hope Hicks announced her resignation and Jared Kushner's security clearance was downgraded. Vanity Fair's Emily Jane Fox joins The Hive to discuss what the White House will do now.
Fox says the resignation of Hope Hicks changes the tide in the White House and could possibly make Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner more palatable. However, Kushner won't emerge from this as a "success story" and he won't leave the White House until Trump tells him to.
Hope Hicks leaving opens the door for John Kelly to bring in one of his own to run the White House communication department. In Fox's opinion, President Trump has always been and will always be the Director of Communications in the White House. No matter who John Kelly brings in to replace Hicks won't really matter because Trump will do whatever he wants anyway.
For President Donald Trump, tariffs — or the threat of them — can bend nations to his will.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
U.S. and Chinese officials say a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies is drawing closer. The sides have reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting Thursday in South Korea. Any agreement would be a relief to international markets. Trump's treasury secretary says discussions with China yielded preliminary agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the United States. Scott Bessent also says Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies.
A new poll finds most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive.
The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
