Plus, Gene Hackman’s everyman legacy. On Today’s Episode: U.S. Economy Shows Signs of Strain From Trump’s Tariffs and Spending Cuts, by Alan RappeportAgriculture Department Looks to Import Eggs as Prices Soar, by Linda QiuThe People Carrying Out Musk’s Plans at DOGE, by The New York TimesChief Justice Allows U.S. to Continue Freeze on Foreign Aid Payments, by Zach Montague, Michael Crowley and Adam LiptakOrgan Transplant System ‘in Chaos’ as Waiting Lists Are Ignored, by Brian M. Rosenthal, Mark Hansen and Jeremy WhiteGene Hackman, Hollywood’s Consummate Everyman, Dies at 95, by Robert BerkvistTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [email protected].
Full Episode
From The New York Times, it's The Headlines. I'm Tracey Mumford. Today's Thursday, February 27th. Here's what we're covering. The United States economy is starting to show signs of strain under President Trump's aggressive agenda. It's still the strongest economy in the world, but economists warn that the relative calm that Trump inherited could be in jeopardy.
When he took office last month, there was stable growth and inflation was easing. Three of Trump's big policy moves could shift that. First, there's the widespread funding freezes. They've thrown billions of dollars of projects focused on infrastructure and clean energy into limbo, rattling businesses and states that had already started working on them. And U.S.
farmers took a hit when the crops they export for foreign aid programs got caught up in the spending pause. On the tariff front, Trump's plans to put hefty surcharges on America's biggest trading partners, China, Canada and Mexico, could cause prices to rise at home and trigger trade wars. Consumers are watching warily.
A recent survey of consumer sentiment showed the largest monthly decline in four years. And the flood of government layoffs is also contributing to the unease. The dismissed federal workers are a small percentage of the overall American workforce. But tens of thousands of people losing their jobs at once could affect what has been a historically strong labor market.
Trump has acknowledged that his policies could bring some initial pain. His plan is that cutting taxes and government spending, as well as other initiatives, will offset that. But even some of his biggest supporters have expressed concern about where the economy is headed.
Last week, Larry Kudlow, a Fox Business host who served in the first Trump administration, said, quote, "...at least for now, the economic signals are flashing slower growth and higher inflation. Not good."
Meanwhile, we have to get the prices down, not the inflation down, the prices of eggs and various other things. Eggs are a disaster.
One of the biggest economic issues that Trump ran on, the price of groceries, is still front and center for many Americans, especially egg prices. The bird flu outbreak has pushed those prices to record highs. Trump acknowledged the situation in his first cabinet meeting yesterday and... All right, y'all want to talk eggs?
Yeah. Let's do it.
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