WASHINGTON – The White House was dealing with changes in policies on tariffs, immigration, and activism at universities.
President Donald Trump said on Monday that auto companies “need a little bit of time” to relocate production after he announced 25% automotive tariffs.
“I think the point the president was making was flexibility,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Tuesday.
Leavitt also said negotiations on tariffs continued and added that Trump had not determined whether or not he supports tax cuts to offset the cost of tariffs.
“Relief is being considered,” Leavitt said in the context of farmers in the U.S. who fear a trade war.
On deportations, Leavitt said it was “atrocious” that Democrats were defending “illegal immigrant gang members” and she cited the cases of “foreign terrorists,” Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Venezuelans, Haitians, and others whose temporary protected status is set to expire.
“We will continue to focus on deporting as many individuals as we can,” Leavitt said.
Also on Tuesday, Jennifer Vasquez Sura said the feds shattered her family’s American Dream when federal agents took Abrego Garcia, her husband, on March 12 in Maryland in front of their 5-year-old child.
“Today is 34 days after his disappearance,” Vasquez Sura said on Tuesday about the 29-year-old father of three’s deportation to a prison in El Salvador despite a judge’s 2019 protection order.
The Trump administration defied a court’s order for his return and attributed the deportation to “an administrative error” and alleged that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Abrego Garcia was a terrorist.
“Based on the sensationalism of many of the people in this room, you would think we deported a candidate for Father of the Year,” Leavitt said also referring to Abrego Garcia as a “foreign terrorist” and “human trafficker.”
The Trump administration has also been terminating the F-1 visas of international students in Florida and around the country without even a notice to appear in immigration court.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Mohsen Mahdawi, who was born in the West Bank, and Mahmoud Khalil, who was born in Syria, both co-founders of the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia University. A federal judge ruled on Friday that Khalil can be deported.
The Trump administration has asked universities to help curve the activism related to the Israel-Hamas war under the threat of cutting grants and contracts. Leavitt said Trump is not going to tolerate antisemitism at universities.
Leavitt said Trump wants Harvard to apologize to Jewish-American students. The university, which has a $53 billion endowment, was defiant, so the administration held $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts.
“Why are the American taxpayers subsidizing a university that has billions in the bank already,” Leavitt said.
News conference
