The tariffs are meant to punish countries for trade barriers that President Donald Trump says unfairly limit U.S. exports and cause it to run huge trade deficits. Trump earlier this week announced a minimum tariff of 10% on imports, with the tax rate running much higher on items from certain countries like China and nations in the European Union.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 1,600 points on Thursday as U.S. stocks led a worldwide selloff. Trump had an optimistic response, saying the markets are “going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.” Trump has said his long-term goal is getting more manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
Experts have said these tariffs are expected to drive up the costs of numerous products — from cars, to clothes, to computers.
Here’s what’s happening in the region:
• Public health funds: The federal government is cutting about $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funds for state and local public health departments. For Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County, the federal government is discontinuing funding for a local Enhanced Operations grant. The loss of funds totals $830,890. “The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.
• Humanitarian parole: The Department of Homeland Security’s recent suspension of the Humanitarian Parole Program has left hundreds of thousands of immigrants who legally entered the U.S. facing an uncertain future. Many Haitian immigrants in Springfield entered the U.S. through the Biden-era program. Three Haitian men living in the Dayton area shared their experiences and concerns with Dayton Daily News.
• Weather alerts, planning: Federal cuts to national agencies that predict and track weather patterns could impact the accuracy of forecasting and research about the changing climate. The National Weather Service’s Wilmington office serves the Dayton region, and people who work closely with the office aren’t aware of any official staff changes at that location. Experts fear national cuts, including the reduction of meteorologists and weather balloon testing, could impact the accuracy of weather forecasts.
• WilmerHale: A federal court granted a law firm with a Dayton-area presence partial relief from a recent executive order Trump called for against the firm. The partial relief for the law firm deals with access to federal buildings and the cancellation of government contracts with the firm. WilmerHale, the former employer of Robert S. Mueller III, employs 230 local employees at a Miami Twp. office.
• Education Department: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told the Dayton Daily News he does not believe cutting the federal Department of Education will fundamentally change how local schools work in Ohio. Federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education provides money for special education, funding to train teachers and principals, and helps supplement funding for poorer and lower-performing districts.
• Protests continue: Protests against Trump and Elon Musk — head of the Department of Government Efficiency and founder and CEO of the electric car company Tesla — continue across the region. A crowd of more than 100 people lined up in front of the Tesla Service Center in Moraine on last weekend as part of a nationwide “Tesla Takedown” movement.
Other federal updates:
• Trump and a third term: Trump is a few months into his second term, and he’s already hinting at a third one. But the U.S. Constitution’s 22nd Amendment, adopted after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says no person shall be elected to the president’s office more than twice. “There are methods which you can do it,” Trump told NBC News in a telephone interview.
• Signal chat aftermath: The Pentagon’s acting inspector general said he would review Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to convey plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen. The encrypted app received national attention after a journalist was added to a Signal text chain by national security adviser Mike Waltz, where officials in the chat were discussing military operations against the Houthis.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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