Trump threatens to double tariffs on South Korea if they do not pay for Alaska natural gas pipeline – US politics live

Donald Trump is now flying to Alabama for a campaign rally but, before he left the White House, he took a moment, as fears grow over a US economy that added just 29,000 jobs last month, to boast about his new helipad and point to a massive crane towering over the White House ballroom he is constructing.

“I hope you like what you’re seeing here,” Trump told reporters, pointing to the new helipad. “That’s getting all sorts of awards,” he said, without explaining who, exactly, was handing out awards for White House home improvement projects.

“And the best of all,” the president continued, turning to point at the ballroom construction site. “Look at that. You see the new crane? The red boom, that’s one of the biggest cranes in the world; that lifts up the steel for the roof. Pretty cool, right?”

Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for Alabama on Friday, Donald Trump expressed sympathy for the Cornell University students accused of gang-rape, saying “they won’t get a fair shake” from Letitia James, the state’s attorney general, who has been charged with investigating the alleged gang-rape as a special prosecutor.

Trump was asked by the Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy to comment on the appointment James by Kathy Hochul, the New York governor.

“Letitia James is a corrupt person,” Trump replied. “I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at, because they won’t get a fair shake.”

The president has harbored an intense hatred of James since she won a civil fraud lawsuit against him and his family real estate business in 2024, when a New York state judge ruled that he was liable for conspiring to commit fraud by inflating his net worth to obtain favorable loan terms.

Trump ended the brief exchange with reporters after taking that question from Doocy. Earlier this week, Trump suggested that Doocy would be a good fit for the job of defending him as his White House press secretary.

As he left the White House for a campaign rally in Alabama on Friday, Donald Trump was asked by a reporter if he had “jumped the gun” by announcing on Wednesday that South Korea had agreed to pay for a $54bn natural gas pipeline in Alaska, only for a Korean official to contradict him on Thursday, saying that Korea had only agreed to “initiate a review” of the possible investment.

“No, I didn’t jump the gun,” Trump replied. “Let’s see if they don’t want to do it. That’s okay with me. I’ll just charge them more.”

When he announced the pipeline project in an Oval Office ceremony on Wednesday, the president claimed that the Korean investment was part of a deal he struck in 2025, to lower tariffs on imports from South Korea in return for billions of dollars of investments in the US.

“They said they didn’t sign it?” Trump asked the reporter on Friday. “Tell them if they don’t sign shortly, I’m going to double it up, okay?”

FBI director Kash Patel has reportedly commissioned a classified report to examine where the agency “fell short” and to ensure “those failures are not repeated”, according to MS Now, citing unnamed current and former officials and a copy of an internal memo.

The officials told MS Now that while they don’t know the contents of the report, they expect it includes the FBI work into the Russia investigation and the more recent special counsel investigations involving the alleged mishandling of classified documents, and attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

The sources also said that by formalizing the so-called “Patel Report”, it will be more difficult to challenge long-running political arguments within the FBI.

Hakeem Jeffries has joined the chorus of Democrats using today’s job report to slam the Trump administration’s economic agenda.

“Inflation is up, job creation is down and the reckless war of choice in Iran has been a disaster,” said the House minority leader, who is hoping for his party to reclaim the majority in the lower chamber this November. “Republicans have crashed the economy.”

• New figures, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, show that the number of new jobs added in the US was weaker than expected, while unemployment saw an uptick. The US added 29,000 new jobs in September, significantly fewer than the roughly 90,000 economists forecasted. Unemployment increased slightly to 4.2% – up by 0.1 point compared with last month’s data.

• Democrats quickly slammed the figures as emblematic of Donald Trump’s “failing economic agenda”. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, added that the president’s leadership “keeps pushing prices up”. Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, noted that “American families are being squeezed on all sides by Trump’s disastrous economy”, in response to Friday’s figures.

• The White House, however, projected confidence about the latest figures. Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson, highlighted the addition of “9,000 manufacturing jobs and 12,300 factory construction jobs over the month” as proof that Donald Trump’s “reindustrialization agenda is working”. She noted that “wages are up over last year” – despite the fact they have not kept up with inflation.

• Also today, G7 leaders agreed to release up to 100m barrels of diesel reserves within four months, to mitigate the ongoing energy crisis as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran. On Truth Social, Trump welcomed the news after urging European allies to release their diesel reserves as fuel prices continue to rise, and he weighed an export ban. The president added that “the process will begin immediately”.

• The top Republican aligned Super Pac, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), will pause it’s multimillion-dollar ad spend in North Carolina in support of Michael Whatley, the GOP nominee for the open US Senate seat, according to multiple reports. The SLF initially announced a $71m investment in the North Carolina race back in April – noting that Whatley – the former chair of the Republican National Committee with backing from Donald Trump – was a “battle-tested leader”. Semafor first reported the news that SLF shifting its spending priority, and is now reserving a seven-figure sum for the Senate race in Kansas – which has become increasingly competitive as Trump’s approval rating hits a record low nationwide.

• Ahead of Donald Trump heading to Mobile, Alabama today, it’s worth pointing out a new poll from AP-Norc which shows that a majority of Americans blame the president for their struggle with the cost of living. More than 60% of respondents say that the economy is worse off since Trump took office, and 52% of Republicans surveyed say that the president’s handling of the cost of living has been worse than expected.

A group of environmental organizations have sued the Trump administration over its recent move to slash clean-car rules that had been aimed at reducing planet-heating emissions and boosting electric vehicles.

On Monday, the administration relaxed the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (Cafe) standards that regulate how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline.

Donald Trump said last week that the less stringent mileage requirements would “take the waste out of building cars in America” and save families “thousands on a new, beautiful and safe car”, while boosting auto production in the US.

Trump has repeatedly pledged to end what he falsely calls an EV “mandate”, referring incorrectly to Joe Biden’s target that half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. No federal policy has mandated auto companies to sell EVs.

Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, hailed the new initiative – called Freedom Means Affordable Cars – which the agency said would reduce the average cost of new vehicles by $1,300, and save consumers $138bn over the next five years.

The lawsuit is currently a petition to review the Department of Transportation’s move.

Ahead of Donald Trump heading to Mobile, Alabama today, it’s worth pointing out a new poll from AP-Norc which shows that a majority of Americans blame the president for their struggle with the cost of living.

This also comes as the latest jobs report shows tepid growth and a rise in unemployment. What’s more, wage growth has not kept up with inflation.

More than 60% of respondents say that the economy is worse off since Trump took office, and 52% of Republicans surveyed say that the president’s handling of the cost of living has been worse than expected.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) – which serves as the official campaign arm for House Democrats – moved eight districts on their map of targets this midterm cycle to “in play”.

Their list now includes, Virginia’s sixth, Washington state’s fifth, North Carolina’s 13th, Kansas’s second, Texas’s ninth, Oklahoma’s fifth, New Jersey’s second and Michigan’s first. This means the DCCC has identified 66 critical districts as competitive, in order for Democrats to reclaim control of the lower chamber.

While some forecasters expect the party to win the House, many of the competitions are neck-and-neck. The last time Democrats saw a so-called “blue wave” was in 2018 – when they flipped 41 seats.

The top Republican aligned Super Pac, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), will pause it’s multimillion dollar ad spend in North Carolina in support of Michael Whatley, the GOP nominee for the open US Senate seat, according to multiple reports.

Democrats are hoping to flip the Tar Heel state in the upcoming midterm elections, where they need to net four seats in order to reclaim control of the Senate. Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s former governor, is the Democratic nominee and is leading Whatley in every poll, in some cases by double digits.

The SLF initially announced a $71m investment in the North Carolina race back in April – noting that Whatley – the former chair of the Republican National Committee with backing from Donald Trump – was a “battle-tested leader”. Semafor first reported the news that SLF shifting its spending priority, and is now reserving a seven-figure sum for the Senate race in Kansas – which has become increasingly competitive as Trump’s approval rating hits a record low nationwide.

While a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate seat in the Sunflower state in almost a century, the race between Republican incumbent Roger Marshall and his Democratic challenger, pastor Adam Hamilton, has become more of a concern for the GOP. The Cook Political Report, a prominent election forecaster, downgraded the competition from “leans Republican” to “likely Republican” at the end of September.