Puerto Rico Still in Peril as FEMA Scales Back Recovery Efforts
Four months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, problems still persist across the island. In his State of the Union address, President Trump said the U.S. stands with the island territory, but do his actions match his words?
Kelly Macias, writer at Daily Kos, joins Cheddar live from Puerto Rico to discuss the state of the island. Macias says police officers are on strike because of back pay issues and more than a third of the island is still without power.
Despite the problems that continue in Puerto Rico, President Trump is asking for $1.5 trillion to fund infrastructure projects across the country. However, that funding doesn't include Puerto Rico revitalization. Macias says there is anger and disappointment throughout the island over the president's focus on mainland infrastructure and lack of attention to the island.
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
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.
