In the waning days of New Jersey’s contested primary for governor, Democratic and Republican candidates are offering a glimpse of where the general election campaign could go. They’re grappling over the package of Trump tax breaks and program cuts recently passed by the House but characterizing it in dramatically different ways. Each side is using the measure as a cudgel against the other. Depending on which party’s candidates are speaking, Trump is either a tax-cutting hero who is cleaning up the nation’s broken immigration system and right-sizing the federal government, or a rogue president recklessly rounding up U.S. citizens, driving up federal debt and slashing benefits for older and sicker Americans without regard for the law or who gets hurt.

President Trump declared on Friday that steel imports into the United States would now face a steep 50% tariff, doubling the previous rate, as part of an intensified push to defend American manufacturing. The move followed two court decisions that cast uncertainty over key aspects of his trade policies.
“At 25%, they can sort of get over that fence. At 50%, they can no longer get over the fence,” Trump told US Steel workers during a rally held in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.
He assured the enthusiastic audience that the city’s storied industrial legacy was about to be revived. “Pittsburgh will very soon be respected around the world as the Steel City again,” Trump told the crowd.

Israeli Defense Minister Yisroel Katz issued a stark ultimatum to Hamas on Friday evening, demanding the terror group accept the ceasefire arrangement brokered by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff—or face complete destruction.
“The IDF continues its operations in Gaza with full force, striking and dismantling Hamas strongholds while evacuating the local population from all combat zones and attacking the area from the air, land, and sea on an unprecedented scale to provide maximum protection for our soldiers ahead of the entry of maneuvering forces into every area and during the maneuver,” said Katz.

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revised its guidance on COVID-19 vaccines for children, no longer urging universal vaccination for all minors. Instead, the agency now says that kids without preexisting conditions may receive the vaccine, depending on physician judgment and parental choice.
This policy shift was reflected in the CDC’s newly published childhood immunization schedule on Thursday. It follows a recent announcement by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who declared earlier in the week that the CDC would end its recommendation of COVID-19 shots for both healthy children and expectant mothers who are not considered at risk.

Frayed by tariff wars and political battles, the academic ties between the U.S. and China are now facing their greatest threat yet as the Trump administration promises to revoke visas for an unknown number of Chinese students and tighten future visa screening. In a brief statement Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. will “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with ties to the Chinese Communist Party or studying “critical fields.” Rubio’s statement threatened to widen a chasm between the two nations, building on a yearslong Republican campaign to rid U.S. campuses of Chinese influence and insulate America’s research from its strongest economic and military competitor.

The U.S. Justice Department has formally moved to dismiss a criminal fraud charge against Boeing and has asked a judge to cancel an upcoming trial connected to two plane crashes that killed 346 people off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia, according to court documents filed Thursday. The deal, announced last week, will allow the American aircraft manufacturer to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading U.S. regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before the planes crashed less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019. The “agreement in principle” will require the company to pay and invest more than $1.1 billion, including an additional $445 million for the crash victims’ families, in return for dismissing the criminal case, according to court documents.

President Trump presents Elon Musk with a gold White House key as a gift for his service as a special government employee.