Kamala Harris delivered her first speech since leaving the White House. The Washington Post has the details. Trump wants to use tariffs to boost U.S. manufacturing. The Wall Street Journal’s Jon Emont describes what happened when Nike tried to move part of its manufacturing to North America. Plus, the Journal reports on how the trade war is putting pressure on China’s economy.Republicans need to agree to pass Trump’s budget bill. Will they? NBC’s Sahil Kapur weighs in. Plus, what we know about the U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal, the Supreme Court heard arguments over religious charter schools, a detained Columbia student was freed, and why one town in Mississippi can’t see one of the buzziest films of the year. Today’s episode was hosted by Yasmeen Khan.
Chapter 1: What did Kamala Harris say in her first speech after leaving the White House?
Good morning. It's Thursday, May 1st. I'm Yasmeen Khan in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, Kamala Harris delivered her first big speech since the election. How Donald Trump's spending bill is testing Republican unity. And the Supreme Court seems poised to upend the separation of church and state. But first, U.S.
Chapter 2: How are Trump's tariffs affecting the U.S. economy?
economic growth dropped dramatically for the first time in three years amid President Trump's aggressive global tariff strategy. The GDP declined by 0.3 percent this past quarter, and if it were to decline again the next quarter, we will officially be in a recession. Consumer confidence has also plummeted to its lowest level since the recession of 1990. It dropped 32 percent since January.
and hiring in April slowed to its lowest pace in nine months. Despite the bleak numbers, Trump defended his tariff policy at a rally in Michigan on Tuesday, where he marked his first 100 days in office.
You're going to be very proud of this country very soon. And with my China tariffs, we're ending the greatest job theft in the history of the world. China's taken more jobs from us than any country has ever taken.
Trump has repeatedly said that the goal of his tariffs is to move manufacturing back to the United States. But for many American companies, it won't be easy. The Wall Street Journal recently looked at Nike, which for years, even before Trump took office, has tried to move part of its manufacturing out of Asia into North America and automate more of the process.
Chapter 3: What challenges is Nike facing with its manufacturing strategy?
But it's hit some major roadblocks along the way.
Producing a shoe is actually a lot more difficult than you might imagine.
That's Wall Street Journal reporter John Emond, who's based in Asia.
Chapter 4: Why is producing shoes a complex process for Nike?
So there's a reason why it's always done in a very labor-intensive way. And that's because the fabrics that make up a shoe, their dimensions change based on the temperature, based on the humidity. And so if you're, say, the person who's in charge of gluing the sole of the shoe onto the upper part of the shoe...
You can easily adjust if, say, you realize that this sole is a little smaller than the last sole. You'll still know where to put the glue. But a machine is going to really struggle if the dimensions of the shoe are a little different.
Emont cites one example in his story, where it took robots in a Nike factory in Mexico around eight months to learn how to place the iconic Nike swoosh on a shoe using minimal human labor.
And then by the time they got it and they were feeling, I think, you know, rather proud of this fact, Nike had already moved on to a new shoe where that method no longer worked.
So now, Emont reports, Nike may be facing some tough choices. Make much simpler shoes that are easier to mass produce, or reconsider the efforts to automate manufacturing and move more of its production to the U.S. There are some clear upsides. Producing shoes in the U.S. would mean products spend less time in transit and get into stores sooner.
But a former executive who worked with Nike told Emont, in order for Nike to pull it off, the company will need to, quote, have deep pockets and some patience because it's not going to happen fast. Now to California, where last night, former Vice President Kamala Harris gave her first major speech since leaving the White House and losing the 2024 election.
She spoke critically about Trump's first 100 days in office and how he's expanded executive power.
I know tonight's event happens to coincide with the 100 days after the inauguration. And I'll leave it to others to give a full accounting of what has happened so far. But I will say this. Instead of an administration working to advance America's highest ideals, we are witnessing the wholesale abandonment of those ideals.
Harris also criticized Trump's economic policy.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of tariffs on California's economy?
Newsom has already filed a lawsuit challenging Trump's authority to unilaterally implement tariffs. And in total, the state has sued Trump 15 times in his first 100 days. Now, let's turn to the bill that's top of mind for every lawmaker as they return to Capitol Hill this week, Trump's spending bill.
Passing it would put the future of Medicaid in question, and it will test the fragile unity of the Republican-led Congress. For Republicans lining up behind the president, it's an ambitious attempt to deliver on Trump's agenda in one sweeping package.
They want to extend his 2017 tax cuts that are up for renewal, as well as add new exemptions he campaigned on, like his no tax on tips pledge, all while increasing spending for defense and border control. NBC News national politics reporter Sahil Kapoor has been closely following the negotiations over this bill, and he says its scale is matched only by its cost.
It's likely to cost multiple trillions of dollars. Just to give you some context, the extension of the Trump tax cuts of 2017 alone cost $4.5 trillion. over 10 years. That's a huge amount of money. Now, the caveat to all of this is that conservative hardliners, most notably in the House, are insisting on steep spending cuts as a price of admission for them to be able to vote for this bill.
That price of admission was a commitment to find $1.5 trillion in yearly spending cuts. And Republican lawmakers are now deeply divided on how much to cut, how fast, and where.
Now, they say they want to target waste, fraud, and abuse. They haven't said what specifically that means. Because you're not going to cut waste, fraud, and abuse and get to the budget targets they're talking about without serious Medicaid cuts.
Medicaid covers 83 million low-income Americans.
In order to get meaningful savings out of Medicaid, you will impact beneficiaries. You will impact hospitals who rely on payments. There's just no way around it.
Some of the ideas Republicans are debating involve requiring Medicaid recipients to work at least 80 hours a month to qualify or participate in job training or community service. They're also debating rolling back support for the Medicaid expansion enabled through the Affordable Care Act and excluding non-citizens, a population that is largely already excluded, from coverage, among other options.
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Chapter 6: What did Tyler Pager reveal about Kamala Harris's potential political future?
The moderates believe the hardliner don't understand how difficult it is to get elected in their district. When they have Democrats breathing down their necks and accusing them of throwing people off Medicaid, that's all the stuff that Democrats are going to say.
So where might this all end up? Kapoor gave us his best guess.
My guess is they will be able to pass something that averts default and extends most of the Trump tax cuts. But will they be able to limit the amount that it adds to the debt? I doubt it. Will they be able to meet the targets that conservative hardliners want? I think it's extremely unlikely.
During his rally in Michigan this week, Trump issued a warning to any Republicans who might interfere.
Every once in a while, you have a grandstander Republican. We have some grandstanders. But every once in a while, not many, not many, but remember who those grandstanders were and vote them the hell out of office, okay? Will you do that?
Speaker Mike Johnson says House Republicans have until Memorial Day to get the bill passed. Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. The Trump administration has signed a deal with Ukraine that will give the US access to Ukraine's oil, gas, and rare minerals. It's a deal that Trump has long been pushing for.
Few details are known, including whether it explicitly comes with a guarantee of future American military support for Ukraine. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said the economic partnership would allow the two countries to work together to invest in Ukraine's future and help facilitate the end of the war. The U.S.
Supreme Court appeared open to allowing the creation of the country's first taxpayer-funded religious charter school, potentially marking a dramatic shift in one of the U.S. 's bedrock principles, the separation of church and state. As Apple News Today reported earlier this week,
Oklahoma's Republican attorney general sued the state charter school board, saying a contract it awarded to a Catholic school violated state and federal law. The state's conservative-leaning Supreme Court agreed and ordered the contract rescinded. But the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative justices were sympathetic to the school in yesterday's oral arguments.
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