The Latest: Trump floats cutting China tariffs to 80% ahead of weekend meeting

President Donald Trump on Friday floated cutting tariffs on China to 80% ahead of a weekend meeting as he looks to de-escalate the trade war.

Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first major talks between the two nations since Trump sparked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.

Here’s the latest:

Leading Senate Democrats urge Trump to push Israel to let aid back into Gaza

And the two dozen leading Senate Democrats also urged the president to push Israel to forgo any permanent Israeli reoccupation of Gaza.

Senators made the appeal in a letter sent Thursday night to the White House, ahead of Trump’s Middle East trip next week. Aid groups also expect a global monitor to release an update next week detailing the worsening food crisis in Gaza amid Israeli aid restrictions.

Senior Democrats among those signing include Sens. Chris Coons, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, Cory Booker, Tim Kaine, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Chris Van Hollen.

Trump fires Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden

Trump abruptly fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden on Thursday as the White House continues to purge the federal government of those perceived to oppose the president and his agenda.

Hayden was notified in an email late Thursday from the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press. Confirmed by the Senate to the job in 2016, Hayden was the first woman and the first African American to be librarian of Congress.

Hayden, whose 10-year term was set to expire next year, had come under backlash from a conservative advocacy group that had vowed to root out those standing in the way of Trump’s agenda. The group, American Accountability Foundation, accused her and other library leaders of promoting children’s books with “radical” content and literary material authored by Trump opponents.

▶ Read more about Carla Hayden

Up to 1,000 transgender troops are being moved out of the military in new Pentagon order

The Pentagon will immediately begin moving as many as 1,000 openly identifying transgender service members out of the military and give others 30 days to self-identify under a new directive issued Thursday.

Buoyed by Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision allowing the Trump administration to enforce a ban on transgender individuals in the military, the Defense Department will begin going through medical records to identify others who haven’t come forward.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who issued the latest memo, made his views clear after the court’s decision.

“No More Trans @ DoD,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X. Earlier in the day, before the court acted, Hegseth said that his department is leaving wokeness and weakness behind.

“No more pronouns,” he told a special operations forces conference in Tampa. “No more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that s—.”

▶ Read more about the new Pentagon order

Trump says he is naming Fox News host and former judge Jeanine Pirro as top federal prosecutor in DC

Trump said Thursday that he is naming Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, a former county prosecutor and elected judge, to be the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital after abandoning his first pick for the job.

Pirro, who joined Fox News in 2006, cohosts the network’s show “The Five” on weekday evenings. She was elected as a judge in New York’s Westchester County Court in 1990 before serving three terms as the county’s elected district attorney.

Trump tapped Pirro to at least temporarily lead the nation’s largest U.S. Attorney’s office after pulling his nomination of conservative activist Ed Martin Jr. for the position earlier Thursday. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was naming Pirro as the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., but didn’t indicate whether he would nominate her for the Senate-confirmed position on a more permanent basis.

Trump withdrew Martin from consideration after a key Republican senator said he could not support Martin for the job due to his defense of rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

▶ Read more about Judge Jeanine Pirro

Trump floats cutting China tariffs to 80% ahead of meeting as he looks to deescalate trade war

Trump on Friday floated cutting tariffs on China to 80% ahead of a weekend meeting as he looks to de-escalate the trade war.

Top U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first major talks between the two nations since Trump sparked a trade war with stiff tariffs on imports.

▶ Read more about Trump’s consideration to cut China tariffs