Newly announced U.S. tariffs on auto imports have rattled Asian automakers, pressuring companies ahead of the implementation of the duties later in the week.

President Donald Trump last Wednesday announced sweeping 25% tariffs on cars “not made in the U.S.,” sending shockwaves through global automakers.

Shares of Toyota fell 9.4% in the three sessions following the announcement, while Nissan dropped 9.3%. South Korea’s Hyundai lost 11.2%.

Japanese carmakers are particularly in dire straits, with Toyota likely to be the worst hit due to its huge U.S. sales, according to Vivek Vaidya, global client leader for mobility at research firm Frost & Sullivan.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., one of a handful of female members of the House Freedom Caucus, confirmed tonight that she is quitting the group of conservative hard-liners over their efforts to derail her push to allow remote voting for lawmakers who become new parents.

She accused her HFC colleagues of threatening to “shut down” and halt all legislative business from moving on the floor unless Luna’s push to force a vote on her plan is not stopped.

“There’s some great people that are still members of the Freedom Caucus, but there’s a small faction that’s disingenuous, and I’m not going to play that game,” Luna told reporters at the Capitol. “This speaker is being held hostage. You had a small group of the Freedom Caucus that threatened to shut down the House floor regardless of what agenda was being placed — whether it was the president’s or not — and that’s not right.”

Luna has secured the 218 signatures needed to bypass GOP leadership and force a vote on bipartisan legislation that would allow members who become a new parent to vote by proxy for up to 12 weeks. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his leadership team are opposed to proxy voting, as are many other Republicans. They also don’t like Luna using the process, known as the discharge petition.

Trump, who met with leader Kim Jong Un three times in his first term, said Monday “there is communication” between the two countries.

He called the line of dialog “important” because the North is a nuclear power, and said he and Kim would “probably do something at some point.”

The isolated country previously refused outreach from President Joe Biden’s administration.

Trump was asked today about Musk's tenure in the federal government and what will happen to his Department of Government Efficiency when he returns to the private sector.

"Well, I think he's amazing, but I also think he's got a big company to run, and so at some point he's going to be going back," Trump said, adding that he'd keep Musk "as long as I could keep him."

Trump was also asked whether DOGE would continue operating after Musk leaves.

"I can't tell you that. I can say this, that a lot of the people that are working with DOGE are these secretaries, you know, the heads of the various agencies, and they've learned a lot, and they're dealing with the DOGE people. I think some of them may try and keep the DOGE people with them," Trump said.

Trump today criticized Susan Crawford, a state judge campaigning in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, and urged support for her opponent, conservative judge Brad Schimel.

"I hope you get out and vote for the Republican," Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to the technically nonpartisan race. "Let’s see who wins, but the woman will be very bad."

Tomorrow's election will decide the ideological tilt on the seven-judge court. It also could play a role in cases tied to abortion rights, unions and congressional maps.

Trump also repeated false claims that he won Wisconsin three times in his campaigns for president.

"I won it three times. We had a rigged election the second time," Trump said, referring to his election loss in 2020.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday that he says will help curb ticket scalping and bring “commonsense” changes to the way live entertainment events are priced.

Designed to stop “price-gouging by middlemen," the order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ensure that scalpers offering tickets at higher prices than their face value comply with all Internal Revenue Service rules, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

It also orders the Federal Trade Commission to ensure “price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process" and to “take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market,” which the Trump administration argues can restore sensibility and order to the ticket market.

“America’s live concert and entertainment industry has a total nationwide economic impact of $132.6 billion and supports 913,000 jobs,” the fact sheet said. “But it has become blighted by unscrupulous middle-men who impose egregious fees on fans with no benefit to artists.”

Trump reiterated his promise to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on other nations starting Wednesday but said they “will be lower than what they’ve been charging us.”

“You’re going to see in two days,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “They’re reciprocal. So whatever they charge us, we charge them, but we’re being nicer than they were.”

He added: “The numbers will be lower than what they’ve been charging us, and in some cases, maybe substantially lower. But we sort of have a world obligation, perhaps.”

Trump said he was not concerned that tariffs could drive some U.S. allies closer to China, even as Japan and South Korea announced plans to work together to respond to his tariffs.

A federal judge on Monday paused plans by the Trump administration to end temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, a week before they were scheduled to expire.

The order by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco is a relief for 350,000 Venezuelans whose Temporary Protected Status was scheduled to expire April 7. The lawsuit was filed by lawyers for the National TPS Alliance and TPS holders across the country.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also announced the end of TPS for an estimated 250,000 additional Venezuelans in September.

Chen said in his ruling that the action by Noem “threatens to: inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families, and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States.”

Trump said this evening that people have been asking him to run for a third term and repeated claims that there is a method to do so, but he hasn't explored it.

“Now people are asking me to run," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office for an executive order signing. "They do say there’s a way you can do it, but I don’t know about that—but I have not looked into it."

The president made the remark after he was asked about running for a third term, and whether Democrats might try to run former President Obama against him.

"I’d love that," Trump said, adding the matchup "would be a good one."

The comments come a day after Trump told NBC News during an exclusive interview that he was “not joking” about potentially attempting to seek a third term, which is prohibited by the Constitution's 22nd Amendment.

Trump was joined in the Oval Office today by Robert Ritchie, better known as Kid Rock, to sign an executive order to address ticket scalping.

“It doesn’t matter your politics,” Ritchie said. “I’m a capitalist and a deregulation guy, but they’ve tried this in some places in Europe, and it seems to be the only thing that allows us, as artists, to be able to get the tickets into the hands of the fans at the prices we set.”

“I think this is a big step,” Trump added.

The president had teased a visit by Kid Rock, a prominent Trump surrogate and supporter, in a social media post over the weekend.

Trump is set to sign an executive order today that focuses on protecting fans from ticket scalping, according to a White House official.

The forthcoming order directs the Federal Trade Commission to review and take steps to address any wrongful or unfair conduct in the secondary ticketing market and work with the attorney general to ensure the enforcement of competition laws. It also directs the FTC to ensure price transparency for ticket sales and enforce legislation signed into law in 2016 that prohibits the circumvention of a ticket issuer's online security measures.

The Treasury, the Justice Department and the FTC will be expected to file a report within 180 days summarizing actions and recommendations to address unfair ticketing practices, according to the order.

The move comes after the Biden administration sought to tackle the ticketing industry when the former president banned junk fees on concert tickets.

Less than two weeks after DOGE staffers visited the headquarters of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, government employees there have been informed that they're now on administrative leave and their email accounts have been shut down, according to a statement from a labor union representing many of the employees.

"Earlier today, the Institute of Museum and Library Services notified the entire staff that they are being placed on administrative leave immediately. The notification followed a brief meeting between DOGE staff and IMLS leadership. Employees were required to turn in all government property prior to exiting the building, and email accounts are being disabled today," the American Federation of Government Employees said in a statement to NBC News.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is a small federal agency responsible for awarding the grant funding that allows many museums and libraries across the country to operate.

DOGE visited the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., this month shortly after Trump ordered the agency be downsized to only what is statutorily required, a move museum advocates worry could cost the country its cultural and public institutions as the agency all but shuts down.

The Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund are suing the Trump administration over his sweeping executive order to overhaul the nation’s elections, including through a proof-of-citizenship requirement and new mail ballot deadline restrictions.

The lawsuit argues Trump’s order is unconstitutional and asks a court to block its implementation.

The lawsuit names three nonprofit plaintiffs it alleges are harmed by Trump’s demands: the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Secure Families Initiative and the Arizona Students’ Association.

This marks the first major legal challenge to last week’s executive order, which election lawyers have warned may violate the Constitution and assert power the president doesn’t have over an independent agency.

Trump and his supporters have maintained the order is necessary to secure U.S. elections.

The Trump administration says it is reviewing federal contracts and grants to Harvard University as "part of the ongoing efforts of the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism."

The Department of Education said Monday in a press release that it was announcing the comprehensive review alongside the Department of Health and Human Services and General Services Administration.

NBC News reached out to Harvard University for comment, but has not yet heard back.

Read the full story from NBC10 Boston here

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., says Trump cannot serve a third term as president without a change in the Constitution, telling reporters just now, “I think he’s probably having some fun with it, probably messing with you.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would barely engage on the subject, just saying: “I shouldn’t have to answer that, read the Constitution.” 

Vice President JD Vance's first fundraiser as the Republican National Committee's finance chair is set for tonight in Manhattan, according to an invitation obtained by NBC News.

Vance is listed as the headliner for the dinner, with tickets starting at $100,000 per couple and going up to $250,000 per couple for a spot on the "host committee."

Trump and the RNC announced this month that Vance would serve as the national party's finance chair — an unusual arrangement for a sitting vice president. The idea came from RNC leadership, which raised the idea with senior members of Trump’s team, a source familiar with the discussions said at the time. Those advisers then ran the idea by Trump, who signed off, and by Vance, who agreed to do it.

As we await the return of the House and Senate tonight to ask about Trump’s comments to NBC News that he is “not joking” about a third term, here is a look back at what Republicans have said in the past about the matter.

At the House Republicans' issue conference in Doral, Florida, in late January, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that Trump was “having sport with the media” by suggesting a third term. Johnson said it “was clearly tongue in cheek.”  

Also at the issues conference, Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., told NBC News that it was “just a dumb question” to ask about Trump seeking a third term.  

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said in early February that the third term idea was a joke, telling NBC News, “learn how to take a joke, man.” 

Asked about the status of the investigation into how a journalist was added to a high-level group chat about U.S. military plans in Yemen, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that the president was moving on.

“Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team and this case has been closed here at the White House,” Leavitt told reporters, adding that steps had been taken to ensure the situation is not repeated. 

“They’ve been working very well,” she said.

Last week, the National Security Council said in a statement that it was "reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain." Lawmakers, including some Republicans, have called for an inspector general probe into the matter.

One of the two people Elon Musk awarded a $1 million prize to at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, last night is the head of the Wisconsin College Republicans, a spokesman for Musk confirmed.

Andrew Romeo, the public affairs representative for Musk, confirmed that the recipient, Nicholas Jacobs, is the Wisconsin College Republicans’ chair. NBC News has reached out to the Wisconsin College Republicans for comment.

Wisconsin Public Radio was first to report on the connection.

The check was made out to Nicholas Jacobs. A person with the same name and appearance is listed as the chair of the Wisconsin College Republicans on the group's website and Jacobs' X profile.

Wisconsin is preparing for what could be the most expensive state judge election in U.S. history. Money has been pouring into the campaigns of both the conservative and liberal candidates from top donors in an effort to sway the critical decisions the state’s Supreme Court will decide. Julia Jester reports on how this state election could have national implications.

Delving into the latest in a series of religious rights cases, the Supreme Court on Monday appeared sympathetic to a claim brought by Catholic-affiliated charitable groups that they were wrongly denied a religious exemption from a state tax that funds unemployment benefits.

Both conservative and liberal justices seemed concerned that the state’s test for determining whether a group could get the exemption unlawfully discriminates against different entities based on their religious beliefs under the Constitution’s First Amendment.

Read the full NBC News story here.

Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Netflix

The White House Correspondents Association canceled comedian Amber Ruffin from performing at its annual dinner because it wants to refocus the event on journalistic excellence.

The association’s announcement over the weekend made no mention of Ruffin’s appearance on a podcast by the Daily Beast last week in which she referred to the Trump administration as “kind of a bunch of murderers.”

Ruffin, a writer for NBC’s Seth Meyers and formerly a host of a Peacock talk show, also said she wouldn’t try to make sure her jokes would target politicians of different stripes, as she was told by the association.

Her comments drew angry responses from the Trump administration. The president isn’t expected to attend the April event, which in past years has featured comics such as Stephen Colbert and Colin Jost. The last time a comedian did not perform at the dinner was in 2019, when historian Ron Chernow spoke.

The letter — released Monday — was penned by a group from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which was created in 1863 to provide expert guidance to the government.

Up to 19 Nobel laureates signed Monday’s letter, which described how the administration is slashing funding for scientific agencies, terminating grants to scientists, defunding their laboratories and hampering international scientific collaboration. Those moves will increasingly put the United States at a disadvantage against other countries, the letter predicted.

The more than 1,900 signees said they’re speaking up for colleagues who “have kept silent to avoid antagonizing the administration and jeopardizing their funding.”

Stocks saw heavy selling to open the week this morning ahead of President Donald Trump's planned "Liberation Day" announcement Wednesday that will roll out a barrage of new tariffs on imports, including ones against U.S. allies.

The S&P 500 slid 1.1%, falling to its lowest level since September and on pace to cap off its worst quarter in three years. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 2.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.5%.

Investors are grappling with the prospect of firms raising prices in response to the tariffs, which the president has said are designed to end countries "ripping off" the U.S. and restore manufacturing. On Sunday, Trump exclusively told NBC News that he "couldn't care less" if foreign automakers raised their prices in response to the tariffs.

Read the full NBC News story here.

President Donald Trump did not rule out the possibility of seeking a third term in the White House, which is prohibited by the Constitution under the 22nd Amendment, saying in an exclusive interview with NBC News that there were methods for doing so and clarifying that he was “not joking.”

“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump said in a Sunday-morning phone call with NBC News, referring to his allies. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”

“I’m focused on the current,” Trump added, in some of his most extensive comments to date about serving a third term.

Read the full story here.

Elon Musk began and ended his town hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin, yesterday by urging attendees to back conservative Brad Schimel in the state’s high-stakes Supreme Court election tomorrow.

But the bulk of Musk’s nearly two-hour event was ultimately focused not on the off-year election that he’s poured millions of dollars into — which he said could “affect the entire destiny of humanity” — but rather the work of his Department of Government Efficiency, with Musk defending its work against naysayers who’ve questioned the constitutionality of the sweeping cuts to the federal government overseen by the group.

Delving into the latest in a series of religious rights cases, the Supreme Court today considers whether Wisconsin officials wrongly concluded that Catholic-affiliated charitable groups were not eligible for an exemption from a state tax that funds unemployment benefits.

Although the state allows exemptions for churches and associated nonprofits, it concluded that the groups operating under the umbrella of the Catholic Charities Bureau of the Diocese of Superior were not sufficiently religious in purpose to receive the same treatment.

Read the full NBC News story here.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said it would be "entirely appropriate" for an inspector general to investigate the Trump administration's use of Signal to discuss an imminent military attack and how a reporter was inadvertently added to the discussion, becoming among the first congressional Republicans to publicly back a probe into the matter.

"It's entirely appropriate for the inspector general to be able to look at it and be able to ask two questions: One is obviously, how did a reporter get into this thread in the conversation," Lankford said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "The second part of the conversation is when individuals from the administration are not sitting at their desk in a classified setting on a classified computer, how do they communicate to each other?"

Lankford said resignation calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who outlined plans for the strike in the Signal chat, are "overkill."

"He is stepping in and has actually led a very successful first attack here on somebody that had attacked the United States over and over again during the Biden administration and had very limited response," Lankford said.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., sent a letter last week to the acting Inspector General of the Department of Defense asking for a formal review of the official's use of "unclassified networks" to discuss sensitive and classified information and the sharing of that information with "those who not have proper clearance."

Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images

A French court on Monday found Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzling European Union funds in a verdict that could end the far-right leader's plans to run for the French presidency in the country's next elections.

While the court was yet to announce her sentence, the Paris prosecutor had previously requested that Le Pen, 56, face a five-year prison sentence and a five-year ban from public office, along with a fine of 300,000 euros ($316,860) if found guilty. Judges can choose to adopt, modify or ignore that request.

The nine-week trial, which began in November after almost a decade of investigations, saw Le Pen and 24 other figures from her National Rally (RN) party accused of misusing over 3 million euros ($3.3 million) of European Parliament funds to pay party staff between 2004 and 2016 in violation of EU regulations. All of those accused have denied the charges.

Read the full NBC News story here.

A tree that's nearly two centuries old will be removed from the White House grounds because it's deteriorating, President Donald Trump said Sunday.

The southern magnolia stands near the curved portico on the south side of the building. It's where foreign leaders are often welcomed for ceremonial visits, and where the president departs to board the Marine One helicopter.

According to the National Park Service website, “folklore tells us” that President Andrew Jackson brought the tree’s seeds from his home near Nashville, Tennessee. It was apparently planted in honor of his wife Rachel, who died shortly before he took office in 1829.

Read the full story here.

Moving at a rapid-fire clip, Donald Trump has been concentrating power in his hands, pushing the bounds of executive authority while effectively muzzling an array of voices that pose threats to his agenda, NBC News reported.

Trump is using the multiple levers that a president commands both to neuter institutions he has scorned and reward others that align with his worldview.

One by one, he is bending ostensibly independent actors under the weight of his power. So far, Trump has targeted the legal community, universities, the arts, career government employees and the press and brought them to heel in some measure, willingly or not. Law firms with even indirect ties to past investigations of Trump now face punitive measures that could put them out of business.

If Trump prevails by the end of his term, he’ll have influenced who votes in American elections and who does not, who gets to stay in America and who must leave, who pays off their student loans and who gets relief, who gets to question the president and who doesn’t.

Read the full article here.