Plus: Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on a monthslong charm offensive with the Trump Administration. |
Good morning,
President Donald Trump’s sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods are set to impact new parents unless the administration makes a change—and soon.More than 70% of baby essentials, including car seats and strollers, are manufactured in China. Trump’s tariffs have wreaked havoc on the industry, with some companies already raising prices and warning of product shortages. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said exemptions for such products are “under consideration.” The president, however, was noncommittal, saying he was “not looking to have so many exemptions.”
Let’s get into the headlines, |
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| Google’s search engine dominance on Apple devices could soon end, leading stock of Google’s parent company, Alphabet to slide 7.5%, its worst percentage loss since October 2023. As part of the federal government’s antitrust case against Google, an Apple executive testified that the company is looking at adding generative AI search options from companies like OpenAI or Perplexity AI in Safari, the default browser on Apple devices. Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to make it the standard search engine option for Safari. U.S. stock futures were up sharply early Thursday, after President Donald Trump teased the announcement of a key trade deal with a “big, and highly respected, country,” which multiple reports say will be the U.K. The pact, which Trump said he will speak about in a 10 a.m. news conference today, is expected to focus on tariffs on British-made cars and steel, according to the Financial Times. |
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|  | | Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on a monthslong charm offensive with the Trump Administration. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved |
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Meta is courting national security and former Pentagon officials to help sell its virtual reality and AI services to the federal government, Forbes has learned. Meta, which recently opened up its Llama AI model for military use, has long maintained lobbyists in D.C., but almost half a dozen current open roles indicate it is bolstering its efforts to secure lucrative government contracts. The company is seeking two public policy managers, including one to focus on the White House—preferably with a security clearance and previous Pentagon work—to “lead our outreach to national security and foreign policy agencies within the Executive Branch of the U.S. government on both policy issues and adoption of our technologies.” Meta declined to comment. The move comes amid CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ongoing charm offensive to win over the Trump Administration, looking for leniency as Meta fights a federal antitrust lawsuit aiming to break it up. After donating $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration committee, Zuckerberg announced Facebook was ending its third-party fact checking program—a longtime target of conservatives who claimed Facebook’s moderators unfairly penalized them. He abolished the company’s diversity team, appointed UFC chief and Trump ally Dana White to Meta’s board, and elevated longtime Republican lobbyist Joel Kaplan to chief of global affairs. Trump once said Zuckerberg “should be jailed for life,” but appears to have warmed up to the tech leader; they met at Mar-a-Lago in November and the tech chief attended Trump’s inauguration.
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For years, big tech companies were reluctant to allow their AI technologies to be used by the military, fueled by concerns that AI could be used to make fatal decisions on the battlefield. But as other Silicon Valley software companies like Palantir and Scale AI secured hundreds of millions in government contracts, big AI companies have recently jumped back on the national security train to support the U.S. military. Meta has not yet announced any direct contracts with the Pentagon or national security agencies, but it’s clear that like Google and OpenAI, the social media giant sees vast commercial upside in building a government business.
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The Federal Reserve kept interest rates the same Wednesday as expected, despite pressure from President Donald Trump, as the central bank takes a wait-and-see approach to tariffs. The Fed’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee acknowledged the economic uncertainty, pointing out the “risks of higher unemployment and higher inflation.” |
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WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP |
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Apparel and shoe stocks have taken a beating as President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to kill profits. But that provided an opportunity for investment firm 3G Capital, which agreed to buy Skechers on Monday in a deal valuing the brand at $9.4 billion. The firm has used a similar strategy of betting on a recognizable consumer brand for a bargain in its previous deals, like its $4 billion purchase of Burger King in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. |
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Despite chairing a House subcommittee overseeing DOGE, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) bought Tesla stock for at least the third time this year. It’s unclear what her exact holdings are, because congressional disclosure rules only mandate lawmakers report their holdings under broad ranges. |
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Officials in India on Thursday said they “neutralized” an attempt by Pakistan to launch drone strikes on Indian military targets, while the Pakistan military claimed it successfully shot down 25 drones launched by India since Wednesday night. Meanwhile, the U.S. consulate general in Lahore directed all staffers to “shelter in place,” citing reports of “drone explosions” around the city. |
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The Federal Aviation Authority announced it would upgrade its communications system to “improve the reliability of operations” at Newark Airport, after air traffic controllers lost radar contact with a United Airlines plane approaching the airport, leading to a dayslong meltdown. Though Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has claimed “the last administration ignored” the problem, the FAA’s outdated technology has been a known issue for more than a decade. |
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On the first day of the papal enclave, black smoke was released from the Sistine Chapel, indicating cardinals did not choose a successor to Pope Francis on its first ballot. It’s not particularly surprising, since the process typically takes a few days, and the conclave is the largest and most globally diverse in history. Vatican experts say there’s no clear frontrunner, and voting will resume Thursday. |
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It’s been just five weeks since President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day,” and tariffs are already wreaking havoc on small businesses, a new report from Democratic members of the Senate Joint Economic Committee shows. Business owners are seeing rising costs, are slowing hiring and in some cases have already cut jobs: |
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21%
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The share of small business owners expecting better economic conditions, a decline from 37% in March and the largest monthly confidence dip since 2020
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366,000
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The drop in the number of jobs at businesses with fewer than 10 workers since the start of Trump’s second term
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$10,900
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The amount tariffs have added to the cost of a new home, builders estimate, as the construction industry is particularly vulnerable
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