The White House still plans to implement 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico next week, at least for now — despite comments from President Trump on Wednesday that raised hopes of another delay.

Why it matters: The Trump administration has announced a slew of tariffs that could take effect on their respective deadline, or ultimately be pushed off — a prime backdrop for confusion.

---

The intrigue: That confusion was on full display in the immediate whipsaw in financial markets.

• The prospect of another delay for the 25% tariffs outlined in a White House executive order earlier this month — which had already been paused for 30 days — sent the U.S. dollar sharply lower against the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso, before recovering.

Catch up quick: Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the 25% tariff on imports from North American allies would take effect on April 2.

• Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick quickly added that the "big transaction" would be April 2, but the "fentanyl-related" tariffs would be re-evaluated at the end of the 30-day pause on March 4.

Context: April 2 is the deadline for reciprocal tariffs that Trump previously announced, a senior White House official clarified to Axios.

• That official added that the 25% tariffs specific to Canada and Mexico were still on pause until next week, as originally thought. The administration has not made a decision whether to extend that pause or not.
• Lutnick told reporters that the Canadian and Mexican officials had to "prove to the president" that they had made progress on tighter border controls.

What to watch: The Commerce Department was previously ordered to draw up plans to impose tariffs on nations that the administration decides has unfair trading practices, a report due on April 1.

• That would allow Trump to put any tariffs in place the following day. Canada and Mexico could get hit in this order, too.

That is separate from another order that raises tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%, set to take effect on March 12.

• Trump said Tuesday that the Commerce Department would investigate whether to slap tariffs on copper imports.
• Trump on Wednesday told reporters that the administration was also looking into tariffs on European imports, particularly autos — though it was unclear if that was a new announcement or would come with the pending Commerce study.
• He's also hinted at future tariffs on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, cars and lumber, but without setting any dates.

The bottom line: So far the Trump administration has implemented, not just announced, tariffs of 10% on all imports from China.

• If the administration makes good on some or all of its other tariff threats, keeping up with Trump trade policy might get that much harder.

• In a Wednesday memo, Trump administration officials advanced a plan for federal staff reductions.
• The memo said departments across agencies should prepare to cut staff and reorganize by March 13.
• Federal workers told BI they're frustrated, but not surprised, by the planned restructuring.

President Donald Trump's administration officially announced its plan for federal staff reductions in a Wednesday memo, telling agencies to prepare to cut staff and reorganize their departments by March 13.

Federal workers who spoke to Business Insider after the memo was announced said the move was "crazy and illogical." Still, some were determined to continue working until they were removed from office.

The memo, sent by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management, did not identify specific targets for cutbacks, which they described as advancing the White House DOGE office efficiency initiatives. However, during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump suggested as an example that as much as 65% of staff at the Environmental Protection Agency could be cut.

Representatives for the White House, OPM, and OMB did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI.

"I think what is going on is unfair to us. I have been told my job is exempt, but I truly don't believe it," an employee from the Department of Veterans Affairs said. "I know that we are shorthanded but also don't trust the government or my supervisors here. I have seen nothing in writing. That scares me also."

The memo outlines a timeline for most agencies — with exemptions for federal law enforcement, military, border security, and US Postal Service employees — to prepare and execute a layoff and reorganization strategy. Agencies must submit their restructuring plans by March 13 and "outline a positive vision for more productive, efficient agency operations" by April 14, with an implementation deadline in September.

It also requires field office operations to be consolidated or closed, which one employee of the Social Security Administration said would impact frontline offices that handle claims and issue Social Security cards, as well as disability hearing offices that handle appeals of unfavorable decisions in disability cases.

"So, the people who complain about long wait times and nobody answering the phone are talking about those entities, maybe there are a lot of layers of bureaucracy above us, but those exist to provide support for us frontline people," the Social Security Administration employee told BI. "This is crazy and illogical, motivated by a blind, stupid hatred of the Public Sector as a whole."

An Internal Revenue Service employee told BI that "it will take years, if not decades, to fully recover" from the federal government cuts.

"Americans are going to feel this very deeply," they said. "Services are going to be nonexistent."

An employee from the Department of Housing and Urban Development said they're prepared to be moved to a different department after a meeting with their supervisor about the memo.

"There's so much confusion — respond to the productivity email, don't respond, and now being told to get ready to move departments — I see how this Elon tactic can mentally drain you because this week was so hard to log in and be productive," the HUD worker told BI.

The restructuring memo comes just days after the White House DOGE office sent a weekend email asking all federal employees to list what work tasks they had accomplished last week, prompting confusing among some employees about how and whether to reply outside their chain of command.

While the confusion created by the emails and subsequent conflicting guidance from department heads has caused some federal workers who previously spoke to BI to reconsider their work in the government, others say they're resolved to stick it out.

"I've never seen morale so low in my 18 years of service," an employee from the Bureau of Reclamation told BI, adding that they "believe we are witnessing the final days" of their agency.

Still, they said they see their department's work protecting water resources as essential for the country and have no plans of stopping unless they're forced out of public service.

"They'll have to fire me," they said.

• The US imposed sweeping export controls on China around high-end chips in 2022.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said China revenue-percentage was double what it is now pre-export controls.
• The CEO told CNBC "it's hard to tell" if export controls are effective regarding innovation.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is unsure if export controls against China are effective national security measures for the US amid the artificial intelligence race. However, they've certainly hurt the chipmaker's business abroad.

"It's hard to tell whether export control is effective," Huang said in a CNBC interview on Wednesday. The CEO was responding to a question about whether the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek and its latest model showed there are workarounds against the US-imposed sanctions on semiconductors.

"Our percentage revenues in China before export controls was twice as high as it is now," the CEO said, adding that competition from China remains stiff with companies like Huawei and that software will continue to innovate.

"I think that ultimately, software finds a way. Maybe that's the easiest way of thinking about it," he said. "Whether you're developing software for a supercomputer, or software for a personal computer, or software for a phone, or software for a game console — you ultimately make that software work on whatever system that you're targeting and you create great software."

Since the US implemented export controls on semiconductors in 2022 — and tightened those restrictions in 2023 — Nvidia's revenue from China has taken a significant hit.

For the fiscal year ending in January 2023, Nvidia's China business made up 21% of the company's total revenue. For the same fiscal year ending in January 2025, revenue from China made up about 13% of Nvidia's overall revenue.

An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment.

Despite the export restrictions and a brief shock to the chipmaker's stock after DeepSeek unveiled its R1 reasoning model, Nvidia reported another strong quarter on Wednesday, growing total revenue to $39.3 billion — 78% year-over-year increase from $22.1 billion.

Nvidia saw a short sell-off following the DeepSeek release in January. In a single day, it erased nearly $600 billion of its market cap, putting the company's valuation at about $2.4 trillion.

The company has since recovered its market-cap loss, currently standing at a $3.22 trillion valuation.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday night temporarily paused a lower judge's orde that would've required the Trump administration to restart $1.9 billion in foreign aid payments by midnight.

Why it matters: In the first case the Supreme Court has intervened in since the Trump administration moved to overhaul the federal government and make drastic budget cuts, Chief Justice John Roberts granted a stay and requested aid groups that sued the administration to respond by 12 noon Friday ET.

---

• Last week, the high court declined to immediately intervene in a lower court decision to block the administration from firing Hampton Dellinger, the head of independent watchdog agency the Office of Special Counsel, postponing its decision until the lower court's ruling expired.

Driving the news: U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali had given the administration until 11:59pm Wednesday to resume payments for contracts and grants related to foreign aid work contracted by the State Department and USAID.

• Acting solicitor general Sarah Harris asked the justices to vacate the midnight deadline, which she called an "arbitrary timeline."
• Justice Department lawyers said in a filing earlier Wednesday that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals moved to dismiss that "regardless whether this Court stays the district court's order, agency leadership has determined that the ordered payments 'cannot be accomplished in the time allotted by the' district court."

Go deeper: Courts become the final guardrail against Trump

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more details on the leadup to the order signed by Chief Justice John Roberts.

• Intuitive Machines, Firefly Aerospace, and ispace are all on their way to attempt a moon landing.
• Three private missions at once is notable, and it's just the beginning of the moon opening for business.
• Here's why three companies are flying to the moon right now.

Three companies are flying missions to land on the moon right now, in the early stages of a mad dash for lunar wealth.

The moon may not be Mars-obsessed Elon Musk's favorite space destination, but many other entrepreneurs see it as an untapped economic opportunity.

That's why two Texas-based companies and one Japanese firm are flocking to the moon this month.

All three missions were launched aboard SpaceX rockets.

None of them are carrying human crews, but they all lay the groundwork for more complex operations in the future as the moon opens for business.

Intuitive Machines wants to mine the moon

The Texas-based company Intuitive Machines launched its second moon-landing mission, called IM-2, on Wednesday.

The company became the first commercial enterprise to land on the moon a year ago, but the new mission is taking its ambitions further. The mission includes a rover and a hopper, which carry experimental technology for GPS on the moon and a small drill to test the technology needed to one day mine minerals and ice beneath the lunar surface.

Water ice on the moon could be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel, while minerals like titanium or rare earth elements used in smartphones and computers could be sold back on Earth.

"The whole package of this mission is about prospecting," Steve Altemus, the CEO of Intuitive Machines, told Business Insider in December.

He added that eventually, he hopes to mine rare materials on the moon and bring them back to Earth.

Firefly Aerospace is testing lunar dust for NASA

For now, Intuitive Machines is the only company to ever successfully land softly (that is, without crashing) on the moon. Another Texas company, Firefly Aerospace, is gunning for second place this weekend.

Firefly's Blue Ghost mission is set to attempt its first moon landing on Sunday.

"I think a lot of us will be holding our breath, you know, lighting a candle," Ray Allensworth, the director of Firefly's spacecraft program, told BI.

If Blue Ghost succeeds, it will run experiments on the lunar surface for about two weeks, which is a full lunar day.

All in all, the spacecraft is carrying 10 payloads for NASA, mainly focusing on "what the surface of the moon looks like or feels like, trying to figure out the impacts of the regolith, how the dust interacts with materials, the temperatures under the surface, stuff like that," Allensworth said.

Japan's ispace wants people to live on the moon

Both Texas companies' moon landers are funded in part through NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

The third mission en route to the moon, though, is from the Japanese company ispace.

The company's Hakuto-R spacecraft previously tried to land on the moon in 2023, but ispace reported that the lander had miscalculated its altitude when it detected an unexpected crater rim on the lunar surface, causing it to plummet and crash.

Ispace is trying again with a new mission carrying a lander and a micro-rover. The mission, called M2, launched aboard the same Falcon 9 rocket as the Firefly Blue Ghost spacecraft on January 15. M2 is taking a more leisurely route to the moon, though, with its landing set for May or June. The new lander is named RESILIENCE.

Ispace touts a future where the moon and its water resources support "construction, energy, steel procurement, communications, transportation, agriculture, medicine, and tourism."

The ispace website also advocates for permanent human residence on the moon, saying that "by 2040 the moon will support a population of 1,000, with 10,000 people visiting every year."

It's going to take a lot more moon missions to bring that vision to life. For now, for all three missions, just sticking the landing would be a huge achievement.

• An unvaccinated child in Texas died from measles, with statewide vaccination rates trending down.
• Texas faces a measles outbreak with 124 cases, mostly among unvaccinated children.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine critic, is the new US Health Secretary amid the outbreak.

A child in West Texas has died from measles, marking the first reported fatality from the disease in the US in nearly a decade, state health officials announced on Wednesday.

The "school-aged child" who was unvaccinated died at a children's hospital in Lubbock after being hospitalized last week and testing positive for measles, according to a press release from the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The death comes as Texas battles a growing measles outbreak that has surged from a handful of cases to at least 124 infections since early February, mostly among children, state health officials said. At least 18 people have been hospitalized so far, most of whom are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccination status, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Another nine cases have been confirmed in eastern New Mexico close to its border with Texas, bringing the total to more than 130 across the two states, per Texas DSHS.

Measles, a highly contagious airborne virus, has a fatality rate of one to three deaths per 1,000 reported cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lara Anton, senior press officer of the Texas Department of State Health Services, told Business Insider that it is very difficult to stop the spread of measles. Not only does an unvaccinated person have a 90 percent chance of being infected if exposed, an infected person can be contagious without knowing it for up to four days, Anton said.

"When people register their children for school in kindergarten through seventh grade, they provide updates to us and the school districts on the vaccination coverage in their district," Anton said. "Generally the coverage level statewide has dipped down in recent years."

Measles death is uncommon. The last reported measles death of an adult in the US occurred in 2015 when a Washington woman contracted it at a health clinic, CDC data shows. Anton said a child also died of measles in Texas in 2018.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine critic, was confirmed as US Health Secretary this month despite opposition from medical professionals and some members of Congress. He has, however, pledged to maintain existing vaccination programs.

"We are following the measles epidemic every day," Kennedy said during a meeting with President Donald Trump's cabinet at the White House. "Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year. In this country last year there were 16. So, it's not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year."

He also mentioned that two people had died in the outbreak, but the Texas DSHS was only able to confirm one death so far.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Trump fired General Charles Q. Brown Jr. and nominated Lt. Gen. Dan Caine as Joint Chiefs chairman.
• Caine's background includes combat experience, entrepreneurship, and roles in national security.
• Experts say Caine may be missing important qualifications compared to past picks for chairman.

President Donald Trump has announced his intention to nominate venture capitalist and retired Air Force Lieutenant General Dan "Razin" Caine as the new Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, after firing General Charles Q. Brown Jr. from the job Friday night.

While Trump praised Caine as a "national security expert" and "warfighter," he would be an unusual choice for the country's highest-ranking military leader.

The former fighter pilot is "a serial entrepreneur and investor," according to his military biography. He is now listed as a partner at Shield Capital, a venture capital firm.

Dan Caine and Shield Capital did not respond to requests for comment.

Donald F. Kettl, an emeritus professor and former dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, told Business Insider that it was unusual for a president to appoint a retired general to head the joint chiefs, especially one with less experience.

"Experience plus trust are the keys," Kettl said. "A gap in either can create problems in shaping policy and in leading the armed services."

General Brown had previously served as Commander of Pacific Air Forces, US Air Forces Central Command, and as Chief of Staff of the Air Force, with more than 3,100 flight hours as a command pilot. The four-star general and former fighter pilot was also the first African American to lead a branch of the US Armed Forces.

Mark Cancian, a retired colonel and senior adviser with the CSIS Defense and Security Department, said Caine may be missing important qualifications: he was a three star general and did not serve at the highest levels before retiring, unlike Brown who was Chief of Staff of the Air Force before being promoted to Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, based on regulations, Caine could still hold this position legally if the president signs a waiver.

"It's not like Caine is a junior person, but that step to four star is a big one," said Cancian, "He will need to get up to speed and change his perspective from what it had been before, which was more Air Force focused, and that will be an extra challenge though not impossible."

Cancian said the only time he could think someone coming out of retirement to be appointed chairman of Joint Chiefs would be when John F. Kennedy appointed General Maxwell Taylor to the position in 1962. Maxwell, however, was already a four-star general, and his predecessor was not fired.

"The US military is ultimately under civilian control and the President is commander in chief of the military," said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, "So while it is not common to fire the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the president has that authority."

Who is Dan Caine?

Caine graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1990 with a degree in economics and later earned a master’s in air warfare from the American Military University.

He would go on to log over 2,800 hours flying the F-16 fighter jet, including over 150 combat hours, and later served as an associate director for military affairs at the CIA.

Trump has long expressed admiration for Caine. In a 2019 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, he recalled meeting Caine in Iraq, when Caine told him that the Islamic State group could be destroyed in as little as a week instead of years.

"'We're only hitting them from a temporary base in Syria,'" Trump said Caine told him. '"But if you gave us permission, we could hit them from the back, from the side, from all over — from the base that you're right on, right now, sir. They won't know what the hell hit them.'"

"General 'Razin' Caine was — he's some general. He's a real general, not a television general," Trump added at an appearance in Miami last Wednesday, where he criticized the current military leadership.

Announcing his nomination on Truth Social, Trump described Caine as "an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a 'warfighter' with significant interagency and special operations experience." Trump also credited Caine for the "complete annihilation" of ISIS during his first term.

Shield Capital announced in January that Caine had joined its team as a "venture partner."

In a press release at the time, the tech-focused firm described Caine as a "distinguished leader" who would bring both military and entrepreneurial experience to the position.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Caine has held a number of private sector roles, including cofounding Texas-based private airline RISE Air.

The president on Wednesday signed an order intended to help Elon Musk's DOGE make dramatic cuts to federal agencies.

The 2025 SheBelieves Cup wraps up on Wednesday night with a winner-take-all showdown between Japan and the USWNT.

The Trump administration made a last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court to block a lower court order requiring the funds be released.

Two teams on a back-to-back faceoff in Houston as the Houston Rockets will face the San Antonio Spurs at The Frost Bank Center on Wednesday.

No. 2 UCLA will head to Madison, Wisconsin, for a Wednesday night showdown against the Wisconsin Badgers at 8 p.m. ET at the Kohl Center.

• I was raised in private schools, and I had my children go to private schools, too.
• However, we couldn't afford a private high school, so they were forced to attend a public school.
• In the public high school, they have amazing opportunities and are better set for college.

I grew up going to private schools. For eight years, my daily uniform was a blue plaid jumper and blouse with a Peter Pan collar. High school loosened some of the reins with only a (relatively strict) dress code to contend with: no jeans, no shirts with slogans, and definitely no short skirts. My private school education continued through my college years at my ivy-on-the-walls East Coast school and even into graduate school. I never knew anything different.

When I had kids, I assumed I'd send them to private schools, too. It felt like the only choice, as that is what I grew up with.

When our family moved to California, and my oldest was ready to start kindergarten, we didn't even consider sending her to public school. Instead, we picked from among a few private schools near where we would be living. Uniforms made the morning hours easy, and I enjoyed the supportive community we found at our small private school.

I had to change my thinking about private schools when my kids entered high school.

Everything changed with high school approaching

As my oldest kid reached eighth grade and it was time for us to consider high school, private school was no longer an option. The tuition cost was too high, and we couldn't afford $20,000+ a year (plus books, lunch money, activity fees, etc.), especially considering that we'd eventually have three kids in high school at once.

We registered our daughter for our local public high school, knowing very little about it. The months leading up to the start of school were filled with anxiety as most of her classmates and friends were continuing at private high schools. I was worried she'd be starting school without knowing a single person.

Luckily, our high school had a summer program that helped with the transition, and two of her former classmates ended up going to her school as well. All of this made the transition a bit easier.

Public school was the right path for my family

I now have two kids in our public high school, and my third will be joining them in the fall. While I initially felt nervous about the unknowns of public school, I can confidently say that public high school was the best thing that could have happened for us.

My son would likely say that the free lunches (including brunch-time cinnamon rolls!) are the highlight of public high school, but I can see many more benefits.

When signing up for electives, I learned that not only did they offer traditional options like art and music classes, but kids could also take woodworking, metalworking, or set-building classes. My son was proud to bring home the metal toolbox he welded for his final metalworking project. I love that these options are available.

When it came time to choose a science class, I was surprised to learn that our school, located in the heart of California's Silicon Valley, has its own on-site farm. The kids can raise pigs, chickens, and other animals as part of their coursework.

My kids raised a pig last year and will do it again this year. They also participated in a community plant sale, and my son joined the school's Milk and Cheese Tasting Team, which competes at regional Future Farmers of America events.

Who would have thought these would be options at our suburban high school?

The public high school is setting my kids up for success in college

For her junior year, my daughter was accepted into our high school's middle college program. This allows juniors and seniors to take their classes full-time at the local community college, setting them up to graduate from high school with college credits or even their associate degree if they are especially motivated. She has no Friday classes, which allows her to work and pay for gas and other expenses.

I know my other kids will follow in her footsteps, allowing them to be better prepared for their college years.

While I never anticipated that my kids would go to public high school, I now see it as a blessing in disguise, as it offered programs we wouldn't have had access to at our local private schools.

The 'Family Matters' rapper was in the middle of touring when he decided to cancel his upcoming performances.

Hours after the House GOP passed the fiscal plan's blueprint, key Senate Republicans, including Lisa Murkowski, warned of the damage it could inflict.

An unforgettable moment on 'The Price is Right' had fans cheering and emotional after a contestant won $100,000.

A full guide on the second day of pre-season testing ahead of the Formula 1 season.

The pause affects hundreds of VA contracts, which Secretary Collins described a day earlier as nonessential consulting agreements.

The bill would make it legal to sell contraceptives and contraceptive devices through vending machines in public schools.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) won a game of brinksmanship with his own party on budget reconciliation. Now he's prepared to do the same with Democrats on government funding, lawmakers and aides tell us.

Why it matters: House Republicans are increasingly confident they can avoid a government shutdown without any Democratic support.

---

• "I think it demonstrated we can do things on our own," House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters on Wednesday.
• Going alone would be unprecedented but not impossible. The current funding bill runs through March 14.

🙏 Johnson will need strong buy-in from the White House that President Trump will back his approach.

• After a White House meeting Wednesday, Johnson said a spending stopgap is "becoming inevitable."

Between the lines: The appropriation process has been complicated by Elon Musk's and DOGE's efforts to cut money that Congress has obligated to departments and agencies.

• That's caused a Democratic uproar and raised the possibility they won't give Republicans the votes they could need to keep the government open.
• But Johnson said Wednesday that Republicans shouldn't expect to get DOGE cuts written into a spending stopgap.
• The speaker told reporters the "most reasonable" thing is to avoid a shutdown by pursuing a "clean" CR.

Zoom in: House and Senate GOP leaders met with their appropriators Wednesday morning to discuss their next steps.

• Republicans are united, for now, on a single point: they will not give in to Democratic demands to block Musk's cost-cutting efforts.
• "The Democrats have had completely unreasonable conditions assigned to this," Johnson said. "They want us to limit the power of the executive branch."
• "That's a no-go," Cole said. "We're not moving."
• "The Democrats need to be working with us on a realistic basis," Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) told Axios.

The bottom line: Republicans will need some eight Democratic votes in the Senate to break a filibuster and pass a government funding bill.

• In the House, they have always relied on Democratic votes to fund the government.
• House Republicans passing a funding bill without Democratic help is unprecedented but not impossible.