Right-wing influencer Jake Lang walks with a goat and supporters at a protest organized by the influencer on March 7, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Police arrested four people after a smoke-generating “suspicious device” was thrown during a protest at the New York City mayor’s residence Saturday.
It was not immediately known if Mayor Zohran Mamdani or his wife, Rama Duwaji, were inside Gracie Mansion at the time. Mamdani had no public events announced but was in the city, according to his public schedule released Friday night.
Police sources told ABC News that the anti-Muslim protest was organized by a “known agitator.”
The NYPD bomb squad was investigating if the device was a smoke bomb, after some smoke started coming out of the device before the crowd was moved back, sources said.
No injuries were reported during the incident.
The mayor’s office did not immediately return messages to ABC News for comment.
Two unidentified people arrested were accused of throwing a suspicious device, police sources said.
One person was arrested for disorderly conduct and another person was arrested for deploying pepper spray, according to sources.
Debris is wrapped around a tree following a tornado that hit several cities in rural southwest Michigan on March 7, 2026 in Union City, Michigan. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The threat for severe storms continues Saturday for much of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys.
At least eight people have been confirmed dead this week as severe weather hit Michigan and Oklahoma.
The severe weather threat continues Saturday, with two areas of severe weather (level 2 of 5 severe risk), from Texas to Mississippi, including Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Jackson, where large hail and damaging winds are the main threats. While the tornado threat is low here, a brief tornado cannot be ruled out.
The main threats across the South are large hail and damaging winds, but tornadoes cannot be ruled out.
This severe weather is feeding on well above-average temperatures that are spreading east, some of which may break more daily high temperature records.
This week in Michigan, a large and extremely powerful tornado tore through the city of Three Rivers.
Meanwhile in Oklahoma, a tornado tore through Beggs — a city about 21 miles south of Tulsa — killing two people and injuring two others. The National Weather Service reported that debris being lofted by the tornado was being picked up on weather radar as it was tracking through the city.
A state of emergency has been issued for eight Oklahoma counties “to ensure Oklahomans have the support and resources they need after last night’s storms,” Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a post on X.
Two were injured by a likely tornado just southwest of the Prospect community in Marrion County, Texas.
One was injured after a trailer was reported to be lifted from a likely tornado near Willisville in Nevada County, Arkansas. The local National Weather Service office in Shreveport, Louisiana reported that a tornado debris signature was associated with the storm near Willisville, Arkansas.
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch was issued until 2:00 p.m. CT for central and eastern Arkansas, the Missouri Bootheel, northern Mississippi and western Tennessee. This includes Little Rock, Arkansas; Greenville, Mississippi; and Memphis, Tennessee.
Multiple confirmed tornadoes On Friday, a 12-year-old boy was killed by a possible tornado in Michigan, according to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office. The boy died of his injuries after being taken to South Bend Memorial Hospital.
At least three injuries were reported from these storms, according to the National Weather Service.
Multiple large structures — including homes and pole barns — sustained damage ranging from major structural impacts to complete destruction in southwest Michigan.
The National Weather Service confirmed 6 tornadoes so far from Thursday night — two in Kansas and four in Oklahoma. The tornado that killed two Thursday night on U.S. Highway 60 near Fairview, Oklahoma — mother and daughter, Jodie and Lexie Owens — was confirmed to be an EF2 tornado with estimated peak winds of 115 to 120 mph.
On Friday, at least three people were confirmed dead and 12 were injured in Branch County, Michigan, and one person was confirmed dead and several others were injured in Cass County, Michigan, according to county officials.
There were also two reported injuries from damaging winds with some storms overnight — one in Columbus, Kansas, when the side of a house was blown away — and one near Lamar Heights, Missouri, when strong winds turned over a semi-truck.
Workers finish installing words from President Barack Obamaâs speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march, on the exterior of the Obama Presidential Center Museum building on Feb. 17, 2026, in Chicago. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(CHICAGO) — The Obama Presidential Center’s grand opening celebrations will begin in June, almost five years after its groundbreaking in Chicago, the Obama Foundation announced.
The center — a museum and public gathering space in honor of former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama — will be dedicated on Thursday, June 18, and the campus will open to the public the next day, the foundation said in a press release.
The celebrations will run through June 21 “with a series of events that bring together the changemakers, community members, volunteers, and supporters who made the Obama presidency a reality and that welcome visitors to celebrate the power of hope and change,” the foundation said.
“It is easy to look around right now and feel like the challenges we face are simply too big,” President Obama said in a video posted to social media. “But hope is not about ignoring the hard stuff. It is that thing inside us that insists something better awaits if we are willing to work for it. Here on the South Side of Chicago, hope is getting a permanent home.”
The presidential center had sparked some controversy with community organizers expressing concern that development in the historic Jackson Park neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side could lead to gentrification of the neighborhood, while park preservationists challenged the construction in court, citing environmental concerns.
President Obama told “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts ahead of the groundbreaking in 2021 that he’s “absolutely confident” that the center will benefit the local community.
Tucker Carlson, former FOX News host and current host of The Tucker Carlson Show, attends a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House on January 9, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump’s decision to carry out strikes on Iran has further exposed a fracture among some of the president’s fiercest supporters inside MAGA world — one that many supporters say will only widen with every week the conflict continues.
Since the first strike last week, Trump’s actions in Iran have faced stark criticism from some of the most popular voices in MAGA media who helped boost his 2024 campaign, ranging from longtime adviser Steve Bannon to more recent converts like conservative media personalities Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly.
Watch special coverage on Nightline, “War with Iran,” each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Prominent figures within the movement say the strikes have already tested the limits of their support, according to interviews with over a dozen leading voices inside President Trump’s MAGA coalition, who point to shifting justifications, no clear endgame, the specter of another Middle East forever war, and the use of American resources overseas versus at home as concerns that they warn will only deepen and carry a steeper political price the longer the operation lasts.
“He has a maximum of a month,” Natalie Winters, White House correspondent for Bannon’s War Room program, told ABC News. “After that people will start viewing this as just another dragged-out conflict.”
Since the strikes last week, the president and Trump officials have offered a creeping timeline for how long the operation in Iran could last, with Trump initially stating the operation was “ahead of schedule” and that the war could last “four weeks — or less.”
But in recent days the administration has signaled the potential for a much longer conflict, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stating this week that the operation had “only just begun.”
“We have only just begun to fight and fight decisively,” Hegseth told reporters. “Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation.”
On Wednesday, Hegseth said the war could go as long as eight weeks or beyond, the longest timeline the Trump administration has offered thus far.
For a base filled with influential — and loud — voices who say they supported the president in large part because of his promise to avoid not just foreign intervention but “forever wars,” the administration’s shifting timeline has become a ticking clock.
‘They tell us it’s regime change’ Winters, one of the young rising stars on the MAGA right, has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and has become a prominent voice on Bannon’s War Room, where she filled in as a guest host while Bannon was serving time in prison for refusing to testify before the Jan. 6 Congressional committee.
She joined the movement at 18, and while she covers the Trump administration for a pro-Trump outlet, she has not been shy about criticizing the administration on issues like the Epstein files and foreign military action.
Winters said her main issue with the war in Iran is that nobody can explain the goal.
“They tell us it’s regime change, but not regime change. It’s a war, but it’s not a war. But we can’t rule out boots on the ground. And if it we want it to be a forever war, it can be a forever war, but it’s not a forever war,” Winter said. “There have been no publicly made comments in the last four days to give me any comfort that this is not going to turn into [a forever war].”
Curt Mills, the executive director of The American Conservative, told ABC News that the longer the operation drags on, the worse it will be for the president’s standing with his supporters.
“It all depends on how long the war goes. I think you are going to see this start eating into Trump’s approval rating, beyond his core MAGA supporters. And that’s the difference between Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. James Talarico,” Mills said, referencing the war’s potential impact on critical Senate midterm races like the one in Texas, where the Republican primary between Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is now headed for a runoff.
The impact the war could have on the midterms appears to be one of the unifying concerns among influential voices on the right, who worry about the coalition of supporters that swept Trump into power in 2024. Jack Posobiec, a popular MAGA commentator and Turning Point Action official, told ABC News the president’s victory was built in part on two distinct groups: the traditional Republican base and a newer wave of younger, low-propensity voters who had never engaged in politics before, which includes the podcast and sports fan crowd that the campaign worked to bring into the fold ahead of November.
It is that second group, Posobiec warned, where the Iran strikes are landing hardest — making what is emerging inside MAGA also a generational fault line.
“For the younger end of the spectrum inside MAGA, foreign intervention is just off the radar. It’s not something they want to see because they see it as prioritizing foreign interests over populist interests,” Posobiec said. “They want to see economic relief as No. 1. They’re interested in Epstein, arrests, deportations — but anything to do with foreign intervention is just off the radar for them. When you get to say [age] 40, 45, you see the split in the other direction, where you do see more support for the president’s actions.”
Posobiec also said the divide comes down to younger voters fearful of a repeat of the interventionist wars of the George W. Bush era.
“There’s this huge shadow cast over anything to do with military intervention because of the Bush years. People just have massive indigestion over that. I’m a veteran myself and I totally understand,” he said. “Donald Trump is not George W. Bush. JD Vance is not Dick Cheney. You got to give them some credit for that.”
Backlash to the backlash
The dissent has not gone unanswered. Even as the criticism has grown, a counter-offensive of sorts has taken shape inside MAGA world, with other prominent voices pushing back against those speaking out.
Perhaps no voice within MAGA has defended the president and the Iran strikes more aggressively than Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who, while having her own history of criticizing the administration, has become the movement’s most visible counterweight to the growing dissent.
“A lot of these people are not even Trump supporters. They build up audiences lying to people, pretending like they’re conservative,” Loomer told ABC News when asked about the backlash to Iran.
Loomer, on X, has lavished praise on the operation in Iran, and has launched attacks at MAGA voices who have been critical. “I love President Trump. I would take anyone to the floor for the United States and for Donald J. Trump. I am always eager to throw down on anyone who works to undermine his plan to restore our country to greatness,” Loomer wrote.
In the days following the initial strikes, the president called Loomer personally, telling her he had spent the day on the phone with world leaders and generals but wanted to reach out to thank her for her support, according to Loomer.
“I said, ‘Congratulations! You’re a hero to the Iranian people, you’re a hero to the American people,'” Loomer told ABC News.
Loomer, who has emerged as one of the most influential pro-Trump voices, said the president also asked her how the Iran strikes were going over with his supporters. “What are people saying about it? I believe there’s overwhelming support for this,” she said Trump asked.
Loomer agreed with the president but told him there were “some people who aren’t happy about it, but they’re the general misfits,” specifically referring to Tucker Carlson, who had earlier that day told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl that the strikes were “absolutely disgusting and evil.”
“I asked him, ‘Are you aware of this? Tucker keeps going online about you and he called you disgusting and evil today,'” Loomer said.
Loomer said she was surprised to learn that at that time Trump was still not aware of the critical comments Carlson had been making, many of which she had been highlighting on her X account.
“He didn’t know any of the stuff,” Loomer said. “And so he asked me to send it over.”
Loomer said she then sent over information about what Carlson, and also Megyn Kelly, had been saying about the president. Later that day, Trump said in an interview that “MAGA’s not the other two,” referring to Carlson and Kelly.
Days later, Trump told ABC Jonathan Karl, “Tucker has lost his way” and that he “knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”
In the aftermath of the back and forth between Trump and Carlson, Loomer wrote on X, “Loomered,” taking credit for the blowback on Carlson.
Other prominent MAGA voices are now seeking to discredit the idea that any meaningful divide exists at all — creating a fight within the movement over whether there is a fight within the movement.
“This is all b——-, doomer, black pilled, liberal media b——- designed to fracture you before an election, to drive down approval ratings and voter enthusiasm, so Republicans lose and Donald Trump can get impeached,” podcaster and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino said on his show this week. “That is all this is.”
Some have dismissed the concerns as little more than the voices of a handful of dissenting podcasters — but others reject that characterization.
“I think it’s nonsense,” Mills, another longtime leading voice in the MAGA movement, told ABC News. “Say what you will, if you even took the extreme cynical view of Carlson, Bannon, Kelly — they’re businessmen. And they wouldn’t be doing this if there wasn’t a large audience for the message.”
“It’s demoralization at the margins that I’m worried about. It doesn’t tell us anything to say 80% of Republican voters support the Iran thing. You’re not fighting for the median Republican voter,” Mills said. “You lose 50,000 people who just don’t show up — you lose Georgia. Can they afford to lose point 5% of the vote? I don’t think so.”
‘Foundational to MAGA’ But there are some on the right who have actually been surprised the blowback hasn’t been louder. Earlier this week, Winters spoke out for the first time regarding the Iran strikes during an appearance on Bannon’s War Room, delivering what she believed to be measured criticism of the administration’s efforts and saying, “I’m as MAGA as it gets. We love Trump, but it’s fair to ask for clarity.”
“If this turns into another dragged out kinetic conflict, that’s not what we voted for,” Winters said.
Winters said she was shocked by the immediate backlash she faced online for her comments. “The comments were pretty rough. Which is wild, my commentary was pretty measured,” she said, adding that she had also been “smeared as a MAGA sycophant and cultist. It’s very frustrating. I could not have been more measured. I literally read the administration’s quotes.”
Given the gravity of the issue, Winters said she has been surprised that the outcry from the base hasn’t been even more forceful.
“The debate over the Epstein files created more political blowback on the administration than what they’re doing in Iran, standing on the brink of a potential forever war,” she said.
“And seeing the base not more outrageous about that — it’s pretty wild, because that’s a tenant that’s foundational to MAGA.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he hosts the “The Shield of the Americas Summit ,“ a gathering with heads of state and government officials from 12 countries in the Americas at the Trump National Doral Golf Club on March 7, 2026 in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at a ‘Shield of the Americas’ Summit on Saturday in Doral, Florida, an event that is billed by the White House as a ‘historic’ grouping of over 17 Latin American countries that are committed to cooperating with the U.S. in taking on the cartels and securing the American border following the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump will host heads of state from 12 nations across the Western Hemisphere, according to a White House official.
They are:
Argentinian President Javier Milei, Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz Pereira, Chilean President-elect Jose Antonio Kast Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves Robles Dominican Republic’s President Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona Ecuadorian President Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele Ortez Guyana’s President Mohamed Irfaan Ali Honduran President Tito Asfura Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino Quintero Paraguayan President Santiago Peña; and the President of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar
“On Saturday, the point of this newfound Latin America Summit is to promote freedom, security and prosperity in our region,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing this week.
“The President will be speaking with the leaders of this country who have really formed a historic coalition to work together to address criminal, narcoterrorist gangs and cartels encounter illegal and mass migration into not only the United States but the western hemisphere, which remains a key and top priority of this President,” she added.
Trump’s relationships with some Latin American leaders have turned tense at times and his policies have drawn criticism. Some leaders criticized the U.S. raid that captured Maduro as an attack on Venezuela’s sovereignty. Trump has also been critical of Mexico’s efforts to fight drug cartels and traded barbs with the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. However, following the Jan. 3 Venezuela raid, the two leaders appeared to have patched up their differences. Trump invited Petro to the White House and the two issued complimentary statements.
The summit has shifted in prominence after Trump announced he was removing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from her post and shifting her to a new role as a special envoy for “The Shield of the Americas.”
Noem emailed DHS staff overnight on Thursday, informing them that her official final day at the department will be March 31 and writing, “In my new role, I will be able to build on the new partnerships and national security expertise I forged over my time as Secretary of Homeland Security.”
The summit also comes amid the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has resulted in major movements in the U.S. energy markets.
To combat the spikes in crude oil prices, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday on Fox that the U.S. was “drilling expeditiously here at home” and tapping into the new markets in Venezuela.
U.S. President Donald Trump exits Air Force One after landing at Miami International Airport on March 6, 2026 in Miami, Florida. Trump will be hosting the “Shield of the Americas” summit with Latin American leaders focusing on security and democracy on March 7th in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump is set to attend the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Saturday for the service members who were killed in Kuwait amid the war in Iran.
The transfer will mark the return home of the first American soldiers killed in the war with Iran.
“I will be going to Dover Air Force Base tomorrow, with the First Lady and Members of my Cabinet, to pay our Highest Respect to our Great Warriors, who are returning home for the last time,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform, adding, “GOD BLESS THEM ALL!”
The troops were killed in the opening hours of the conflict last weekend during an Iranian drone attack.
The Pentagon identified the troops as: Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, Iowa; Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, 54, of Sacramento, California; Maj. Jeffrey R. O’Brien, 45, of Indianola, Iowa; and Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska.
The soldiers were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, an Army Reserve unit based in Des Moines, Iowa.
All six died in the same attack at Shuaiba port in Kuwait, a commercial harbor that doubles as a logistics hub for the U.S. military. An additional 18 service members were wounded in the strike.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt extended prayers and condolences to the families of the fallen.
“These heroes represent the very best among us,” Leavitt told reporters at a Wednesday briefing. “They laid down their lives in defense of our country, and we will never forget their legacy or their sacrifice.”
“As the president said, we grieve for these American patriots and their families as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives. President Trump intends to attend the dignified transfer of these American heroes to stand in grief alongside their families,” Leavitt said.
Families of some of the fallen troops have released statements remembering their loved ones.
The family of fallen soldier Sgt. Declan J. Coady released a statement following his death, calling him “a rock in all of our lives” and “the most amazing brother and son my family could have asked for.”
In a statement, the family of Capt. Cody A. Khork said his life “was defined by devotion, character, and service,” his family said in a statement on Wednesday. “Cody was truly the life of the party, known for his infectious spirit, generous heart, and deep care for those who served alongside him and for everyone blessed to know him.”
An F-35C Lightning II, attached to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314, launches from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in support of Operation Epic Fury, March 3, 2026. (US Navy)
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. believes that Russia has been providing Iran the locations of American troops in the Middle East, including aircraft and ships, according to two people familiar with the intelligence.
The alleged assistance, first reported by The Washington Post, is alarming because it would enable the Iranians to target specific locations with ballistic missiles and drones, putting U.S. service members at risk.
When asked about the aid to Iran, an intelligence official confirmed that the U.S. believes Russia is supplying Tehran intelligence, but did not say exactly what type of information was being shared.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not deny the report on Friday, instead saying it didn’t matter because the U.S. was still winning the war.
“It clearly is not making a difference with respect to the military operations in Iran because we are completely decimating them,” Leavitt told reporters on Friday.
Leavitt added that the U.S. is achieving the military objectives of this operation, including destroying some 30 ships and crippling Iran’s ability to launch ballistic missiles.
“And that is going to continue because the United States military is the best and most, most lethal fighting force in the world,” she said.
Six U.S. service members were killed March 1 during an Iranian drone attack on a base in Kuwait. At least 10 other troops have been severely wounded in operations across the region.
The CIA declined to comment. The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia has not addressed the allegations. But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said previously that Iran hasn’t asked for help.
“Our consistent position is well known to everyone, and there is no change,” Peskov said at a press briefing.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 70 million Americans are under a severe weather threat heading into the weekend, including the possibility of tornadoes in the central United States, after deadly storms swept through Oklahoma.
A storm system is bringing rain, snow, ice and severe weather from the Rockies to the Upper Midwest and across much of the Plains on Friday.
The severe storm threat stretches from Dallas to Milwaukee, including Des Moines, Iowa, St. Louis and Oklahoma City. Strong winds, hail, and brief tornadoes are all possible.
A large area stretching from far northeast Texas to southwest Iowa is under an enhanced threat, with tornadoes and very large hail as the main concerns.
The greatest tornado threat on Friday is from far northeastern Texas to just south of Springfield, Missouri. Tornado watches are in effect across six states into Friday night — Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa.
A large and “extremely dangerous” tornado was also detected in southern Michigan, south of Kalamazoo, on Friday afternoon. There were multiple reports of “significant damage” in Three Rivers, according to the National Weather Service.
Heavy downpours, especially in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, could also result in localized flash flooding.
The governor of Missouri declared a state of emergency on Friday “in preparation for potentially dangerous severe weather forecasted across the state,” including the threat of damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes, his office said.
The threat comes after seven reported tornadoes and golf ball-sized hail impacted parts of west Texas and Oklahoma. A mother and daughter were killed in Major County, Oklahoma, on Thursday night after severe weather swept through the area, according to Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt. They were found dead in a vehicle that appeared to have tornado damage, authorities told ABC Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO.
Elsewhere, winter weather advisories are also in effect Friday from Colorado to Minnesota for the cold side of the storm with snow and ice. Denver could see 2 to 4 inches of snow.
Icy conditions are expected across parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska and Minnesota, with heavy rain forecast to move through the upper Midwest through Friday night.
To the South, widespread severe weather is possible through late Friday from Texas to Wisconsin.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection logo is displayed on the side of a patrol boat on September 26, 2025, in San Diego, California. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A Customs and Border Protection official on Friday told a federal judge that the agency does not have the technology or manpower to immediately process $166 billion in tariff refunds, arguing the process would distract from its role addressing “imminent threats to national security.”
In a sworn filing, the official said that CBP needs an additional 45 days to create a system to process refunds for the more than 53 million entries related to the unlawful tariffs.
“CBP has never been ordered to, nor has it attempted to, process a volume of refunds anywhere near the volume of total entries and Entry Summary lines on which IEEPA duties have been deposited,” wrote Brandon Lord, the executive director of CBP’s Trade Programs Directorate.
The disclosure comes two days after a judge from the Court of International Trade initially ordered the Trump administration to remove the tariffs from its backlog of import paperwork. Even though the liquidation process — when the agency finalizes a tariff payment after goods enter the country — is largely automated and the Supreme Court overturned the tariffs two weeks ago, Lord said that Customs and Border Protection “is not able to comply” with the court’s order.
“CBP is now facing an unprecedented volume of refunds. Its existing administrative procedures and technology are not well suited to a task of this scale and will require manual work that will prevent personnel from fully carrying out the agency’s trade enforcement mission,” Lord said.
According to Lord, the current system used to process tariffs cannot handle the volume of refund requests, and that doing so manually would take resources away from “responsibilities that serve to mitigate imminent threats to national security and economic security.”
Following a hearing on Friday related to the refund process, which was closed to the public, Judge Richard Eaton of the Court of International Trade suspended his earlier order to immediately begin recalculating tariffs dues.
By lifting his initial order, the judge appears to be making room for the refund process to play out, though the exact timeline of refunds remains unclear.
During previous hearings, the judge had expressed skepticism that the refund process would be a “mess” or that the government lacked the resources to issue refunds.
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 450 points on Friday as the Iran war continued to spike oil prices.
The Dow fell 453 points, or 0.9%, while the S&P 500 dropped 1.3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 1.5%.
In a post on social media on Friday morning, President Donald Trump appeared to rule out a compromise with Iran.
Trump said there would be “no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
Oil prices soared as traders feared a prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a trading route that facilitates the transport of about one-fifth of the global oil supply.
U.S. crude oil prices topped $90 on Friday, marking a staggering 35% increase from a week earlier.
The stock selloff on Friday extended losses from a day earlier, when the Dow closed down 785 points.
Alongside fallout from the Middle East conflict, a jobs report on Friday showed the U.S. economy unexpectedly lost jobs in February, marking a reversal of fortunes for the labor market.
The unemployment rate ticked up from 4.3% in January to 4.4% in February, the BLS said. Unemployment remains low by historical standards.
The Iran war threatens to slow U.S. economic growth since oil-driven price increases could weigh on consumers and businesses, analysts previously told ABC News.
The potential combination of higher inflation and slower growth could also pose a challenge for the Fed, putting pressure on both sides of its dual mandate to manage prices and maintain maximum employment.
The central bank held interest rates steady at its most recent meeting in January, ending a string of three consecutive quarter-point rate cuts.
