Trump live updates: U.S. importers warn president’s 200% tariff threat on E.U. wine and champagne will kill demand

As Trump’s trade war continues to unsettle financial markets, the president continues to suffer political setbacks in the courts.

Two federal judges ruled on Thursday that Trump’s administration must reinstate the thousands of probationary employees fired from multiple agencies by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Staff from the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Agriculture, Interior and other agencies must get their jobs back, California District Court Judge William Alsup ruled.

Hours later, U.S. District Judge James Bredar issued a similar ruling, ordering fired employees across 18 agencies to be reinstated for at least 14 days.

Here’s Ariana Baio’s report.

Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 200 percent tariff on European wine, Champagne and spirits in retaliation for the European Union’s proposed 50 percent tariff on American whiskey has prompted domestic wine sellers and importers to warn that such a move would essentially kill off their business.

“I don’t think customers are prepared to pay two to three times more for their favorite wine or Champagne,” Ronnie Sanders, the CEO of Vine Street Imports in Mt. Laurel Township, New Jersey, said.

Jeff Zacharia, president of fine wine retailer Zachys in Port Chester, New York, said 80 percent of the wine he sells is from Europe.

Importers depend on European wines for a big part of their distribution system, he said, and there’s not enough American wine to make up for that.

“This is just going to have a major negative impact on the whole U.S. wine industry in all aspects of it, including U.S. wineries,” he said.

Can Washington strategically isolate Iran while growing further apart from Europe itself?

Read on as The Independent’s John Bowden considers this key question:

President Joe Biden refused to allow Vice President Kamala Harris to establish “daylight” between his policies and hers when she succeeded him as the Democratic presidential nominee last summer, an insistence that hamstrung her campaign and ultimately contributed to her defeat to Donald Trump at the polls, a new book alleges.

A Canadian businesswoman who was arrested in the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents over an incomplete visa is being held in “inhumane” conditions in an Arizona detention center, according to her family, who have now gone public in an attempt to secure her release.