Trump and Xi are expected to talk in “the next couple days,” Washington said.
As the second administration of President Donald Trump continued its rapid recasting of the federal government, the president was scheduled Tuesday to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
Officials in China also announced Tuesday retaliatory tariffs on select U.S. imports, countering Trump’s threatened 10% tariffs on Chinese goods. Trump was expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday putting that blanket duty into effect, a day after pausing tariffs he’d threatened to levy against Mexico and Canada.
And two of Trump’s more controversial Cabinet picks will face confirmation votes in Senate committees on Tuesday — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services and Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence.
3 hours and 3 minutes ago
As the deadline passed for Trump’s 10% tariffs on Chinese goods imported into the U.S., Beijing announced a series of retaliatory measures, including tariffs on some U.S. goods.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to talk in “the next couple days,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.
People walk past a Chinese flag along hutongs at a commercial area in Beijing, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025.
China said it would impose a 15% tariff on U.S. coal and liquefied natural gas, along with a 10% tariff on other products, including crude oil, agricultural machinery and pickup trucks.
“China firmly opposes the US practice and urges the United States to correct its wrong practices immediately,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Karson Yui
Feb 03, 2025, 10:19 PM EST
Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele Monday and said that “in an act of extraordinary friendship” Bukele had agreed not only to take in deported foreign nationals who committed crimes — but also jailed American citizens and permanent residents.
“He has agreed to accept for deportation any illegal alien in the United States who is a criminal, from any nationality — be they MS-13 or Tren de Aqua — and house them in his jails,” Rubio said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio boards a plane at Panama Pacifico International Airport in Panama City, Feb. 3, 2025, en route to El Salvador.
“He has offered to house in his jails dangerous American criminals in custody in our country, including those of U.S. citizens and legal residents,” he added.
Rubio called the deal the “most unprecedented and extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world” and said, “No country has ever made an offer of friendship such as this.”
President Donald Trump has previously mused about sending repeat offenders abroad, even if they are lawfully in the United States.
The president would need to clear several legal hurdles, given the 8th Amendment prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments,” broadly considered to include exile.
-ABC News’ Shannon Kingston
Feb 03, 2025, 7:54 PM EST
Federal employees on Monday have started receiving an email from their specific agency’s human resources department that contains a PDF contract version of the deferred resignation offer sent around last week from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), according to multiple federal employees across multiple agencies who shared emails with ABC News.
The contract largely lays out what OPM has previously stated would be offered if an employee accepts the deal with one major addition — the employee “forever waives” the right to take legal action against their agency.
The guidance attaches new legal strings, including waiving an employee’s right to future claims by themselves or their union. The guidance appears to try to head off potential lawsuits against the government for employment offers.
-ABC News’ Will Steakin, Benjamin Siegel and Anne Flaherty
Feb 03, 2025, 6:45 PM EST
The Senate confirmed Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy by a vote of 59-38.
Wright, who has never worked in a government position, founded the publicly traded oilfield services firm Liberty Energy in 2010, which fracks 20% of the onshore wells nationally.
Chris Wright testifies before a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on his nomination to be Secretary of Energy, on Capitol Hill, Jan. 15, 2025.
Ting Shen/AFP via Getty Images
The $3 billion company is involved in nearly 10% of the U.S.’s total energy production, according to Wright.
Wright is an outspoken critic of policies aimed at curbing climate change, including the Department of Energy’s goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
For more on Wright, read ABC News’ previous reporting here.
