A.M. Edition for April 30. Chinese export orders and factory activity plummet as trade war damage begins to pile up. Plus, President Trump talks up his tariffs, even as voters’ economic concerns mount. WSJ White House reporter Alex Leary looks back on the president’s first 100 days in office. And Starbucks turns to tech to tackle unpopular in-store wait times. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What warning signs are there for China's economy?
However, internally, there's millions of people living in the country illegally, and those efforts have not been as robust for Trump. They've lacked some funding. And also it's politically treacherous at times to target people that have lived in the country for a long time.
So part of the tax legislation that's moving its way through Congress would free up a lot of money for internal immigration control. They need a lot more money to fund the efforts to find and deport people currently living in the U.S. So that's a big thing for Trump if they can get that money that would speed up deportations.
And Alex, how have voters been reacting to his first 100 days in office?
Yeah, Trump came into office with pretty solid numbers. Obviously, Republicans were extremely excited to see him return. There were a lot of independents and others who supported Trump. And so he came in sort of feeling very bullish. He was promising a new golden age. In the 100 days since then, some of that shine has come off.
As Trump contends with a stubborn economy, we've seen a lot of gyrations in the stock market over some of his trade policies. And then, of course, the immigration efforts and also Elon Musk and Doge have proven pretty controversial. A lot of Americans are just sort of whipsawed by the pace and the ferocity of Trump's agenda, and it has led to some weakening of his support in polls.
Now, core Republicans are very much aligned behind Trump, but independents and others who will be critical in midterm elections are starting to show some hesitation, if not regret, for backing the president. So that's a concern for Trump and Republicans as they head into the midterm season.
But Trump so far is determined to plough ahead and do it in a noisy way that sometimes disregards the critics that want to see a more measured approach to government.
OK, so lots to watch out for going forward. Alex, thanks so much for breaking this down for us.
My pleasure. And that's it for What's News for this Wednesday morning. Today's show was produced by Kate Boulivant and Daniel Bach. Our supervising producer is Sandra Kilhoff. And I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.
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