Thursday morning news: March 27, 2025

Trump places 25% tariff on imported autos » President Trump says he is placing 25% tariffs on imported vehicles. It’s a move he says will bring more jobs and manufacturing back to the U.S.

TRUMP: This will continue to spur growth like you haven’t seen. Before I was elected, we were losing all of our plants. They were being built in Mexico and Canada and other places. 

The president predicted that the auto tariff would also generate $100 billion dollars in tax revenue annually.

Trump said many automakers already have plants in the United States that are currently underutilized.

TRUMP:  So they'll be able to expand them inexpensively and quickly.

Meantime, in Savannah, Georgia, Hyundai CEO Jose Munoz showed off a new $8 billion dollar electric vehicle plant. He said his company made the decision to build it during Trump’s first administration.

MUNOZ:  And this plant couldn't come, uh, at a better time than now because all the cars that we would produce here are going to be accepted from any tariff.

But some say the new auto import tariff could hurt automakers that depend on global supply chains. And critics of Trump’s tariff policies in general predict they will fuel inflation.

Signal chat kerfuffle latest » The Trump administration continues to clash with Democrats in the wake of a national security breach.

The White House says that when a journalist was mistakenly looped in on an encrypted group chat about military strikes in Yemen …

LEAVITT: No classified material was sent on this messaging thread. There were no locations, no sources or methods revealed, and there were certainly no war plans discussed.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

But the editor of The Atlantic said he saw information on the timing of airstrikes against Houthi terrorist targets … as well as info about specific weapons packages.

And Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro, who serves on the House ‘Intel’ Committee shot back at the White House …

CASTRO: The idea that this information, if it was presented to our committee would not be classified, y’all know is a lie. That’s ridiculous.

The top Democrat on that committee, Jim Himes, said the Russians or Chinese could have gotten a hold of that information and passed it along to the Houthis.

HIMES: I think that it’s by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now.

President Trump Wednesday suggested the ordeal has been overblown, adding that the military strike was successful, no harm done … and that the error will be rectified.

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is leading an investigation into how the breach occurred.

NPR / PBS funding hearing » Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, a House panel held a hearing to take a hard look at taxpayer funding of NPR and PBS.

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene chairs the House DOGE Subcommittee.

GREENE:  The news that these entities produce is either resented or increasingly tuned out and turned off by most of the hardworking Americans who are forced to pay for it.

Greene and other Republicans on the panel said that’s because NPR and PBS have increasingly become left wing echo chambers.

But National Public Radio CEO Katherine Maher pushed back when questioned by Congressman Jim Jordan.

JORDAN: Is NPR biased? 

MAHER: Uh, Congressman, I have never seen any instance of political bias determining editorial decisions, no.

NPR receives approximately 1% of its funding directly from the federal government. But it receives more taxpayer dollars indirectly by way of member stations.

PBS receives roughly 15% of its funding directly from Uncle Sam.

Alaska Public Media CEO Ed Ulman told the panel that cutting funding to public media would have a devastating impact on small market and rural media stations.

Gaza anti-Hamas protests » A rare sight in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday …

SOUND: [Gaza protests]

Palestinians demonstrated against Hamas. Many of them chanting "Out! Out! Hamas get out!"

PROTESTER: [Speaking Arabic]

One Palestinian heard there asks Israel to end the war but then goes on to tell Hamas he's had enough. He says he's tired and he no longer has a home, food, salary or family members.

Israel protests » Meanwhile, in Israel …

SOUND: [Israeli protests]

Thousands of Israeli demonstrators gathered outside the parliament building in Tel Aviv.

Many of the demonstrators blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his prosecution of the war as well as his proposed changes to the country’s judicial system.

DEMONSTRATOR: It's a corrupted government. Some are literally criminals. And for the sake of the people and the country, we need to go to an election. 

Many of the demonstrators called for Israel to end the war.

But Netanyahu says it can only end when all Israeli hostages are freed and Hamas is eliminated from Gaza.

SCOTUS ruling on ghost guns » The Supreme Court says Biden-era regulations on so-called ‘ghost guns’ can stay. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: The high court handed down the 7-to-2 decision on Wednesday. Justices Thomas and Alito dissenting.

The ruling upholding regulations on guns that consumers assemble themselves using pre-ordered kits.

They are very difficult to trace without serial numbers. And that’s one of the things the rules put in place three years ago require … a serial number on each kit.

The regulations also require age verification and background checks to purchase the kits.

Gun rights groups had argued that the federal government overstepped its authority.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: countries under scrutiny for their role in religious persecution. Plus, a ballet troupe that dances in a time of war.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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