Which President Trump Will Show Up to the State of the Union?
All eyes are on Capitol Hill for President Trump's first-ever State of the Union address. Esquire.com's Jack Holmes joins Cheddar to preview the event and predict how the night will play out for the Commander in Chief. The associate editor says it's safe to assume Trump will look to replicate the tone of his critically-acclaimed 2017 joint address to Congress.
Holmes also breaks down the Democrats' decision to tap Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) to deliver the opposition response. He says Kennedy is representative of both a new face of the party, and a nod to the glory days of the Kennedy years. He considers whether the traditional response still matters in today's fast-paced news environment.
Finally, we recap Will Ferrell's reprisal of his George W. Bush character on Saturday Night Live. Holmes discusses how the former president's legacy has benefited from the election of Donald Trump. He says SNL is trying to add perspective by reminding viewers our standard for presidential excellence is always changing.
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
U.S. and Chinese officials say a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies is drawing closer. The sides have reached an initial consensus for President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to aim to finalize during their high-stakes meeting Thursday in South Korea. Any agreement would be a relief to international markets. Trump's treasury secretary says discussions with China yielded preliminary agreements to stop the precursor chemicals for fentanyl from coming into the United States. Scott Bessent also says Beijing would make “substantial” purchases of soybean and other agricultural products while putting off export controls on rare earth elements needed for advanced technologies.
