Trump Hits Iran’s Trading Partners With 25% Tariff

Jessica Mendoza (0:00)

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Luke Vargas (0:22)

Tehran offers nuclear talks with Washington, but President Trump leans towards strikes ahead of a briefing on US options for Iran. Plus, Minnesota sues the Trump administration over its immigration tactics, and data centers push power grids to their limit with no end to construction in sight.

John Medina (0:41)

Pretty much every market that we're seeing is double-digit growth across the board.

Luke Vargas (0:46)

It's Tuesday, January 13th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. President Trump is set to meet with senior officials today as he weighs how to respond to anti-regime protests in Iran. We report that the White House is considering a last-ditch offer from Iran to resume nuclear talks, an option backed by Vice President JD. Vance, while Trump is leaning toward military strikes. Other options include launching cyber attacks or boosting anti-regime accounts online. But the US didn't wait for today's meeting to dial up the pressure on Tehran. Yesterday, Trump okayed 25 percent tariffs on countries that do business with Iran. Journal reporter Gavin Bade told us that Turkey, India, Pakistan and Armenia could be hard hit by those tariffs. But it is China, Iran's top trading partner, that could be most affected.

Gavin Bade (1:44)

The US and China are supposedly in a trade truce right now. After a meeting last October between President Trump and Xi Jinping, where they agreed to keep the trade war to a dull roar for the next few months in anticipation of a leaders' summit this spring. One would assume if the Trump administration increases tariffs on China by 25 percent, that could put that summit at risk coming this spring. The other question is about what legal authority would underpin this tariff threat.

Typically, when Trump has threatened tariffs like this before, he has used the emergency powers under a law called IEPA, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The catch here is that the Supreme Court is about to rule whether Trump's use of IEPA is legal or not. That could happen as soon as Wednesday. So you could see him issuing or threatening these tariffs under IEPA, and then the Supreme Court coming back literally a day later and saying, you're not allowed to do that.

Luke Vargas (2:43)

Back in Iran, we report that a battle over information is intensifying, with Tehran dialing up efforts to jam Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service and hunt down users. Iranians have leaned heavily on the service, including to share videos of protests after the government throttled phone services and shut down most internet connections for the country's 90 million inhabitants last week. Minnesota is suing US immigration officials in a bid to end what it calls an unlawful surge of federal agents in the state. The suit, which names agencies including ICE and US Customs and Border Protection, as well as top officials including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, alleges that agents have acted illegally while carrying out operations, sparking fear and distress among residents. It also argues that the administration is using a sprawling welfare fraud scandal in the state as a pretext for the president to retaliate against his political opponents and sow discord in left-leaning cities. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Keith Ellison (3:47)

The deployment of thousands of armed, mass DHS agents to Minnesota has done our state serious harm. This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities and Minnesota, and it must stop.

Luke Vargas (4:00)

Speaking on Fox News, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons defended his agency, saying it was carrying out its lawful law enforcement mission and justified its deployment to the state.

Todd Lyons (4:11)

You know, we only are increasing our numbers because ICE agents are getting attacked due to the lax policies that Minnesota has.

Luke Vargas (4:18)

The Minnesota suit follows similar efforts to rein in ICE in other states, including Illinois, California, New York, New Jersey and Tennessee.

It's earnings season again, at least for banks. Investors will be scouring JPMorgan Chase's Q4 results this morning for clues about American consumer health, with December's inflation report filling in more details at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. Economists polled by the journal expect consumer prices rose 2.7 percent from a year earlier. Pharmaceutical company ABVI has struck a deal with the Trump administration in exchange for tariff and pricing exemptions. ABVI plans to lower Medicaid prices, invest $100 billion in its US operations, and expand the range of medicines it offers directly to patients through the government portal TrumpRx. Work on a major wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut can now resume despite objections from the Trump administration. The ruling from a federal judge marks a temporary win for the offshore wind industry as President Trump seeks to block any windmills from being built. The case is the first of three challenging the administration this week, following Trump's order in December to freeze five big projects on the East Coast over national security concerns. And the AI boom is pushing America's largest power grid to the brink. 67 million people in a 13 state region stretching from New Jersey to Kentucky share their power supply with a slew of AI data centers in Northern Virginia. During periods of high demand, the grid's capacity is in danger of exceeding supply, which could force grid operator PGM to call for rolling blackouts during extreme weather. Well, if grids are struggling now, how will they cope with a projected $3 trillion in global data center spending over the next five years? Moody's Ratings' John Medina joins us to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the data center buildout after the break.