| Cars, clothing and coffee are about to get more expensive under high tariffs that President Donald Trump instituted this week on much of the rest of the world. He has been showered with gifts from tech CEOS, including a plaque with a 24-karat gold base that Apple CEO Tim Cook handed him in the Oval Office this week. His administration continues to claw back green-energy investments like solar panels. And he is getting closer to having more impact on the Federal Reserve’s decisions on interest rates by nominating one of his own advisers to sit on the central bank. Here’s what else happened this week under Trump. Trump orders a 'new’ U.S. census as he pushes for more congressional seats His order came in a social media post this week, though it was unclear if he meant a mid-decade census or changes to the planned 2030 survey. This move appears to be closely tied to his efforts to get Republicans to redraw congressional districts, which would give his party a leg up in next year’s midterm elections. And it’s probably unconstitutional without Congress’s input. The president can’t just order a new census. The Constitution says it has to happen once a decade. In most states, politicians themselves draw the boundaries of congressional districts. That’s why Texas Republicans’ brazenly political effort to redraw their boundaries in the middle of a census cycle is probably legal, say experts. “Redistricting is mandated every 10 years, but there is nothing stopping them from doing it during that 10-year period,” explains Louis Jacobson, a nonpartisan political analyst who has covered three redistricting cycles and is and chief author of the forthcoming “Almanac of American Politics 2026.” Trump made clear why he thinks a new census could help him: He says undocumented people will not be counted in this census, which could take away representation from bigger, more Democratic cities. He tried this in his first term, as well as adding a citizenship question to the Census, and lost in the courts. Those who sued him argued that the census doesn’t just help determine political districts, it determines how much federal funding goes to a community for education and health. Also, the census has never asked respondents about legal status. Kennedy continues his battle against established vaccine science The nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., continues to use false and misleading information to undermine many Americans’ access to vaccines. This week, the federal government cut funding for research for a new vaccine technology, called mRNA, that gained prominence during the pandemic. It’s a total turnaround from peak pandemic, when this vaccine technology was supported by the first Trump administration and hailed as a stunning success for bringing a viable vaccine to protect the world in just 11 months. It means that research on vaccines against bird flu (if it spreads to humans), inhaled covid and flu vaccines, or the ability to rapidly make an effective vaccine if a new pandemic emerges could be in question. “This represents a significant setback for our preparedness efforts in responding to infectious-disease outbreaks,” Dawn O’Connell, a top health official in the Biden administration, told The Washington Post’s Carolyn Y. Johnson and Lauren Weber. Public opinion is in line with public health experts on this: Sixty-seven percent of Americans think the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks, a new Economist/YouGov poll finds. Trump is asking universities to release race data Higher education has long been Trump’s main target to end diversity initiatives across society. Demanding less focus on diversity is part of the deal his administration reached with Columbia University and it’s central to his pressure on Harvard University while also driving investigations into other schools. And now, this week, the Education Department said it would start collecting data on the race and gender of students admitted into colleges and universities. The Trump administration argues this will ensure colleges are abiding by a recent Supreme Court ruling saying schools can’t use race to admit students, a huge win for the conservative movement that has long argued schools discriminate against White and Asian students to create more diverse student bodies. But opponents say all of this will only serve wealthy students who have had access to better resources to get higher test scores, as The Washington Post’s Anumita Kaur and Susan Svrluga report. Trump’s zigzag diplomacy with Russia As the Trump administration tries to find a way to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the president is giving mixed signals about whether he wants to be tough on Russia. He said last month that much of what Russian President Vladimir Putin says is meaningless, and this week put high tariffs on India for its purchasing of Russian oil. But he also said this week he will meet with Putin, a move widely seen in the diplomatic world as validating Putin and Russia’s global status while minimizing the Ukraine invasion. It remains unclear where or when such a meeting would occur. Trump has long since passed his campaign promise to end the war within a day of taking office. “I’ve been disappointed before with this one,” he said this week. But, he added, “we’re having very serious talks right now about … getting it settled, getting it ended.” But the rest of the world doesn’t see progress. “For all the bluster, Trump has not put a single iota of pressure on Putin. Yet. Zero, zip,” a senior European official told The Post. Senate Democrats also released a report this week arguing Trump has ceded leverage to Putin with indecisive efforts to end the war: “Every month he’s spent in office without action has strengthened Putin’s hand, weakened ours and undermined Ukraine’s own efforts to bring an end to the war,” they said. | 
