Everything was going so well.
The UK had a nice looking trade deal in the pipeline that was going to spare the steel industry from 25% import tariffs.
Trump’s bromance with Elon Musk was still going strong, with a last-day love-in in the Oval Office cementing their enduring friendship despite Musk’s (kind-of) departure from the White House.
And there were almost no instances of a US government spokesperson responding to a question with a blood-curdling villain laugh on live television.
And it had been quite some time since the President had instructed the Justice Department to pursue an elderly man over a bonkers conspiracy theory.
All of that kind of went to pot yesterday. Here’s how.
1. Tariffs
Keir Starmer’s zero tariff deal for steel exports to America will still happen, a minister vowed this morning, despite Donald Trump slapping the UK with a 25% import tax for at least a month.
A month ago, the Prime Minister promised the UK steel industry “will not have to pay” tariffs on exports to the US under the framework of the deal.
But the Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD) has yet to take effect – and last week Trump unexpectedly announced US steel tariffs would be bumped up to 50% effective from today.
Then, last night in an official memo the US President said he would provide “different treatment” to the UK for a month while the deal is being finalised.
But the memo does not commit to reducing tariffs to zero.
Still, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander says she’s “confident” the deal will still happen.
She told the BBC: “I’m really confident in the ability of my colleagues in the Cabinet and the determination of my colleagues in the Cabinet to ensure that we are protecting British businesses and that we can get on and implement the trade deals that we have agreed.”
2. The trade deal exists, honest!
The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg brought up the UK deal in the White House briefing last night – asking Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt…where it is.
“Is there a text for the deal ready to be released, submitted, and if not, when can we expect it?” He asked.
“There’s most definitely text with this deal,” she replied.
“There’s language that this side has seen. You’ll have to ask the UK Parliament why they haven’t seen it from their own government.”
Will do, Karoline. Will have an update on this one tomorrow.
3. Elon blasts Trump’s “big beautiful” budget bill
Meanwhile, erratic 53-year-old teenager Elon Musk is extremely unhappy about Donald Trump’s budget bill – saying all the “pork barrel” additions made to it by Republicans in congress undermine his work with DOGE trying to cut public spending.
Which maybe sounds like him getting the excuses in early, but we’ll leave that there for now and concentrate on the row.
Just days after Trump let Musk do an entirely un-earned victory lap in the Oval Office to mark his “departure” from the White House, he branded Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” a <clears throat, moves glasses down nose and reads> “disgusting abomination”.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk he posted on Twitter.
“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Leavitt said in the press briefing that Musk’s views on the bill were not a surprise to the President. Erk.
4. “Um…we do not.”
Let’s take a moment to appreciate this delightful moment from the press briefing, where Leavitt was asked if the White House has a reaction to the election in South Korea.
Her answer, in full: “Yes, we do. Let me find it for you. <shuffles through papers> Thankyou. Um. We do not, but I will get you one.”
5. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
And another moment for this deeply unsettling moment from yesterday’s State Department briefing.
Spokeswoman Tammy Bruce was asked about US-Iran nuclear talks – and whether there would be another round of talks any time soon.
Bruce replied: “You did see President Trump’s tweet, didn’t you?”
We *think* she’s talking about this one. It’s hard to be sure.
But it’s also hard to say what relevance the Truth Social post had to the question.
The reporter, caught off guard, said: “I didn’t think that would completely negate the reporting.”
It was at this point that there was a brief pause, a steely-eyed glare, and then what can only be described as a cartoon villain laugh from Bruce.
And her actual response to us kept the vibe going, all that was missing was Bruce addressing the room as “FOOLISH MORTALS”.
“The thing that matters when it comes to American policy and what’s happening is what President Trump thinks and says,” she said.
As tension between the White House and Europe heats up, the Mirror has launched its very own US Politics WhatsApp community where you’ll get all the latest news from across the pond.
We’ll send you the latest breaking updates and exclusives all directly to your phone. Users must download or already have WhatsApp on their phones to join in.
All you have to do to join is click on this link, select ‘Join Chat’ and you’re in! We may also send you stories from other titles across the Reach group.
We will also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose Exit group. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
CLICK HERE TO JOIN
6. Well, he walked right into that one
Meanwhile, in Congress, Missouri Senator and Trump fan Josh Hawley walked right into a trap.
Hawley, who studied at Stanford and Yale, brought a big graph to prove to a law professor that Donald Trump is having his policies slapped down with legal injunctions from judges more often than other recent US Presidents.
“Don’t you think this is a little bit anomalous?” Hawley asked University of Pennsylvania Law School professor Kate Shaw.
She cooly, calmly replied: “A very plausible explanation, senator, you have to consider is that he [Trump] is engaged in much more lawless activity than other presidents, right,”
“You must concede that as a possibility.”
7. Trump sets the feds on Biden over another bonkers conspiracy theory
Trump, as we know, loves a conspiracy theory.
He was, after all, the last living birther, claiming for years that Barack Obama was not, in fact, a natural born citizen of the US.
Well, since he got re-elected, Trump has been brewing a new one – no, not the one about Biden having been assassinated and replaced by robot clones – I’m talking about the autopen.
The theory is that Biden’s last bunch of Presidential pardons have “suspiciously neat” signatures on them, which suggests to people who don’t think about it too hard that they were done using the “autopen” – a device used by Presidents for decades to sign documents and correspondence without having to actually put pen to paper.
The Department of Justice has already decided (in 2005, while Republican George W Bush was in office), that it was totally fine for the autopen to be used to sign official documents, including signing bills into law. All that matters is that the President made the decision and directed a subordinate to do so.
You can read their pretty well reasoned argument here.
But for the avoidance of doubt, it absolutely does not matter whether Biden’s final pardons were signed with an autopen – as long as he made the decision to sign them. Which he obviously did, because they were for his siblings and their spouses to protect them from politically motivated investigations in the future.
Speaking of politically motivated investigations, Trump has obviously instructed the justice department to investigate whether Biden was “competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.”
How seriously is Trump taking this?
Well, he said this on Truth Social this morning: “With the exception of the RIGGED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020, THE AUTOPEN IS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY!!!”
Get used to this one, it’s going to run and run.
