Trump stay updates: U.S. importers warn president’s 200% tariff menace on E.U. alcohol will kill demand

The administration is taking the legal fight over birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court with a demand that justices limit the scope of multiple court rulings that have rejected his executive order that seeks to block children of certain immigrants from being citizens at birth.

Petitions to the nation’s high court on Thursday calls on the justices to limit three nationwide injunctions issued in courts across the country to apply only to the states that sued and won.

That move would allow the administration to begin implementing his executive order in other states, despite rulings from federal judges and appeals courts and arguments from legal scholars across the ideological spectrum that his attempt to unilaterally redefine the 14th Amendment is plainly unconstitutional.

Here’s the latest from Alex Woodward.

Demonstrators swarmed Trump Tower in New York City yesterday to protest the immigration detention of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, leading to multiple arrests.

Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident who is married to an American citizen and who hasn’t been charged with breaking any laws, was arrested outside of his apartment on Saturday and faces deportation.

The president has said Khalil’s arrest was the first “of many to come” and vowed on social media to deport students who he said engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”

However, Khalil’s supporters say his arrest is an attack on free speech, and protests have been staged elsewhere in the Big Apple and around the country.

Hundreds also demonstrated on Wednesday outside of a Manhattan courthouse during a brief hearing on his case.

Mike Bedigan reports.

The Senate Minority Leader has said he will vote for the House Republicans’ new spending bill after all, reducing the chance of the government going into shutdown.

Schumer signalled earlier this week that Democrats were unhappy at the lack of bipartisan cooperation seen in the drawing up of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s continuing resolution but now appear to be prepared to swallow it rather than be blamed for the inevitable dysfunction.

Here’s Eric Garcia’s report.

As Trump’s trade war continues to unsettle financial markets, the president continues to suffer political setbacks in the courts.

Two federal judges ruled on Thursday that Trump’s administration must reinstate the thousands of probationary employees fired from multiple agencies by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Staff from the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Agriculture, Interior and other agencies must get their jobs back, California District Court Judge William Alsup ruled.

Hours later, U.S. District Judge James Bredar issued a similar ruling, ordering fired employees across 18 agencies to be reinstated for at least 14 days.

Here’s Ariana Baio’s report.

Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 200 percent tariff on European wine, Champagne and spirits in retaliation for the European Union’s proposed 50 percent tariff on American whiskey has prompted domestic wine sellers and importers to warn that such a move would essentially kill off their business.

“I don’t think customers are prepared to pay two to three times more for their favorite wine or Champagne,” Ronnie Sanders, the CEO of Vine Street Imports in Mt. Laurel Township, New Jersey, said.

Jeff Zacharia, president of fine wine retailer Zachys in Port Chester, New York, said 80 percent of the wine he sells is from Europe.

Importers depend on European wines for a big part of their distribution system, he said, and there’s not enough American wine to make up for that.

“This is just going to have a major negative impact on the whole U.S. wine industry in all aspects of it, including U.S. wineries,” he said.

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Can Washington strategically isolate Iran while growing further apart from Europe itself?

Read on as The Independent’s John Bowden considers this key question: