The Latest: China retaliates against Trump with tariffs of their own

Here’s the latest:

Senate committee advances RFK Jr. for health secretary despite worry over his vaccine stance

The Senate Finance Committee began a meeting to vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination, though one key Republican wasn’t there at first.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and physician who had raised concerns over Kennedy’s views on vaccines, finally entered the hearing room several minutes after it was underway. Cassidy’s jaw was clenched and his face downcast.

Cassidy then voted in favor of advancing Kennedy’s nomination for health secretary to the Senate floor with a simple “aye.”

Trump says Musk is doing his bidding

Elon Musk is rapidly consolidating control over large swaths of the federal government with President Donald Trump ’s blessing, sidelining career officials, gaining access to sensitive databases and dismantling a leading source of humanitarian assistance.

Working with stunning speed and scope, the world’s richest man has created an alternative power structure for the purpose of cutting spending and pushing out employees, none of it with congressional approval, inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority.

Trump named Musk a “special government employee,” subject to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures. He’s given Musk office space in the White House complex to oversee the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, sending teams into federal agencies Trump has vowed to abolish to gather information and deliver edicts.

Republicans defend Musk as simply carrying out Trump’s slash-and-burn campaign promises. Democrats accuse Musk of leading a coup from within by amassing unaccountable and illegal power.

▶ Read more on Musk’s moves

White House correspondents’ group announces Amber Ruffin as dinner entertainer

Ruffin is an Emmy- and Tony-award nominated writer, comedian, host, performer and best-selling author who soon will return for the second season of the comedy-news series, “Have I Got News For You,” which she leads with fellow comedians Roy Wood Jr. and Michael Ian Black.

She also writes for and appears on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual black-tie dinner is set for April 26 in Washington.

“She has the ability to walk the line between blistering commentary and humor all while provoking her audience to think about the important issues of the day. I’m thrilled and honored she said yes,” said Eugene Daniels of Politico, president of the association.

Mexico surges troops to its US border

Mexico began moving troops Tuesday to reinforce its shared border in the United States, part of the deal President Claudia Sheinbaum reached with U.S. President Donald Trump Monday to suspend 25% tariffs that were set to go into effect.

AP observed more than 100 members of the National Guard boarded a plane Tuesday morning in the southeastern city of Merida, bound for Ciudad Juarez. Additional units were scheduled to depart Cancun and Campeche. Still more were going by road.

A similar deal to surge troops and head off tariffs was made in 2019 between Trump and then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. More than 10,000 Mexican troops stationed along the border have been unable to stifle persistent violence or break the tight grip of organized crime on the smuggling of drugs, migrants and guns.

US negotiates to have El Salvador imprison deportees and jailed US citizens

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio left El Salvador on Tuesday with an agreement that President Nayib Bukele will accept jailed U.S. citizens as well as deportees from the U.S. of any nationality and put them in his nation’s prisons.

Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio said.

“We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio said of migrants of all nationalities detained in the United States. “And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.”

Bukele confirmed the offer in a post on X, saying El Salvador would accept only “convicted criminals” and would charge a fee that “would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”

▶ Read more about whether the U.S. will outsource its prisons to El Salvador

What kind of tariffs is China threatening?

China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the U.S. The tariffs would take effect next Monday.

“The U.S.’s unilateral tariff increase seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization,” the State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement. “It is not only unhelpful in solving its own problems, but also damages normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S.”

The impact on U.S. exports may be limited. Though the U.S. is the biggest exporter of liquid natural gas globally, it does not export much to China. In 2023, the U.S. exported 173,247 million cubic feet of LNG to China, representing about 2.3% of total natural gas exports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

▶ Read more about China’s tariffs against the U.S.