Good morning! First of all, congratulations to the diehard Swifites for finally being able to listen to the OG albums again. Over in the sports world, France Franced a little too hard. Paris’s club, PSG, won the international Champions League football soccer competition. During the raucous victory celebrations that followed, 500 people were arrested, and two people literally died.

TRADE

🏗️ Steel tariffs and legal ping pong

They're up, they're down, they're in, they're out. President Trump spoke on Friday at a Pennsylvania steel plant and teased the crowd with a "major announcement." The big news? He's jacking up tariffs on imported steel from 25% to 50%.

Why? Trump told the crowd of steel workers that the thicc tariffs would help "secure the steel industry" and would form a barrier that foreign companies can't "get around." He later took to social media to proclaim that America's steel industry is "coming back like never before."

• The new rate is set to kick in on Wednesday, June 4. But he's paused loads of other announced tariffs for negotiations, so TBD on if he does the same thing here.

• Only about one-fourth of steel used in the U.S. is imported.

• Tarff opponents claim the move will have negative ripple effects, like higher grocery prices. Canned food cans are mostly made of steel.

The reactions: The European Union is ticked. It "strongly" disapproves of the policy, which it says will "undermine ongoing" trade negotiations. The United Kingdom, meanwhile, called the new tariff rate a "body blow" that imperils its own ongoing negotiations.

• Trump will chat with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week about ongoing trade talks.

• He slammed Xi on Friday for supposedly breaking their May agreement to lower tariffs during negotiations.

The courts played ping pong with Trump's tariff plans last week. The federal Court of International Trade (how niche) said the 1977 law Trump is using to give himself tariff-creating powers actually doesn't allow that at all. His new tariffs -- not including the ones on steel, which are using a different law -- were out the window ... until a higher court overruled that decision. For now.

The big merger: During his speech, Trump hailed the purchase of U.S. Steel by Japanese rival Nippon Steel. He previously opposed the deal, as did Biden, and has the power to block it on national security grounds. But on Friday, he reframed it as a "partnership" that would see U.S. Steel still "controlled by the USA."

• He even promised $5,000 bonuses for every worker and claimed the merger, which he has yet to actually approve, would create 7,000 new jobs.

GOVERNMENT

💰️ Elon Musk has officially left his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but will continue serving as an unofficial "friend and advisor to the president." As a special government employee, Musk's term was limited to 130 days. The White House says no single person will replace him. Rather, the DOGE mindset will be carried forward by every member of the administration. DOGE itself isn't disbanding, though, and Musk's top allies remain stationed throughout the government. Elon didn't achieve his lofty goal of slashing $2 trillion from the federal budget. But he still believes DOGE is on track to find at least $1 trillion in savings by mid-2026 and will "only grow stronger" over time.

☮️ The plan for peace in the Middle East isn't going as smoothly as planned. Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, rejected Hamas's response to a proposed ceasefire deal as "totally unacceptable." Israel had already agreed to a U.S.-backed deal brokered by Witkoff. It called for a 60-day truce in Gaza in exchange for Hamas returning 10 living Israeli hostages and 18 deceased hostages. Hamas agreed to the basics, but wanted a few key changes, like the pullback of Israel's military from large swaths of the Gaza Strip and some sort of assurance that fighting wouldn't resume after the 60-day pause.

🚄 U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy swung by New York City to tout the Trump administration's $7 billion plan to rebuild Penn Station. Former NYC, London, and Toronto transit chief Andy "Train Daddy" Byford will oversee the effort. More than 600,000 people use the crumbling station every weekday. Duffy called Penn Station, which is owned by the feds (via Amtrak), a "vital transit hub." He said Byford will help keep costs down and deliver a station that is "safe, clean, and worthy of the American people."

EDUCATION

🍎 Rubio moves to boot Chinese students

It's not just Harvard anymore. A week after trying to block every overachiever's dream school from enrolling international students, the Trump administration is spreading the love around a bit. This time, though, the target isn't a school. It's a country.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the U.S. will "aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students." Of particular interest? Those with "connections to the Chinese Communist Party" and those "studying in critical fields." Some students from China will still be allowed, but the criteria will be tighter.

• About 277,000 Chinese students attended U.S. universities last year. That's about one-fourth of all international students.

Why? White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the move will "protect our homeland from espionage and other hostile actions." Critics of China have long worried that China's communist government was using U.S. universities as bases for political and corporate espionage.

• Back in 2020, the FBI was opening a new case on Chinese espionage every 10 hours.

• But this isn't necessarily just about espionage prevention. White House officials have linked the policy to the trade war and China's domination of the tech-critical rare earth minerals market.

The response: Educational groups slammed the move as xenophobic and warned that it could harm America's competitiveness by, well, freezing out a bunch of smart kids.

Related: Trump won a big legal victory on Friday. The Supreme Court allowed him to strip the Biden-provided temporary legal status from more than 500,000 immigrants. While it's not a final ruling, this means those protections won't be in place while the regular case makes its way through the courts.

TRIVIA

What’s one surefire way to boost your prospects at work? Sucking up to the boss, of course. And, if you ask Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), it’s no different for members of Congress.

Steube introduced a super duper serious bill last week that would change the name of Washington, D.C.'s public transit system from the Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or MATA, to the Metropolitan Authority for Greater Access, or MAGA. To really drive the point home, it would also rename the subway portion of the system to, you guessed it, the Trump Train. Anyway, D.C.’s subway system is one of the nation’s busiest. But it didn’t begin operating until 1976, so it’s nowhere near the oldest. Which U.S. city is home to the oldest subway system in America?

Hint: President George H.W. Bush was born about 15 minutes south of here.

BRIEFS

● Did an illegal migrant write a letter threatening to kill Donald Trump? Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem thought so. But officials now believe the guy was framed so he would be deported before testifying in an assault trial.

● Iran is secretly building a stockpile of enriched uranium in pursuit of a nuclear bomb, according to the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Meanwhile, the U.S. just sent Iran a new proposal designed to kill Tehran’s nuclear weapons program.

● Days before a Senate confirmation vote, President Trump yanked the nomination of tech billionaire, private astronaut, and Musk friend Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. Trump wasn't a fan of Isaacman's "prior associations (aka: recent donations to Democrats).

● Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stopped in Singapore on Saturday and told America's Pacific allies that China's planned invasion of Taiwan could be "imminent." China, of course, slammed the comment as defamatory and provocative.

● A new documentary from RFK's fan club at MAHA films blames ultraprocessed foods, pesticides, and seed oils for America's health woes. It follows a similar government report, which the White House says is the first step in its plan to fix chronic disease.

QUOTE

ANSWER

Sorry, New York, but you can’t win ‘em all. Your first subway joined the party in 1904, but Boston’s Tremont Street tunnel opened in 1897. If you want to go global, though, the Brits are the real winners here. The London Underground has been serving passengers since all the way back in 1863.

PS: Yes, Chicago’s L system opened in 1896. But that doesn’t count because it’s above ground and lame.