March 29, 2025: Donald Trump presidency news

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President Donald Trump said Saturday he doesn’t care if automakers hike prices because of his tariffs. In fact, he encouraged them to.

Asked by NBC News’ Kristen Welker in a phone interview about whether he pressured automakers to avoid raising prices after his 25% tariffs on imported cars and parts go into effect, Trump denied that he told CEOs to control costs.

“No, I never said that,” Trump told Welker. “I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American cars.”

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Trump held a call this month with auto CEOs and threatened them with even heftier tariffs if they raise prices because of the import taxes. But Trump on Saturday said he hopes his tariffs lead to higher prices, because it will encourage automakers to build their cars and parts in the United States and persuade customers to buy American.

“I couldn’t care less,” Trump said. “I hope they raise their prices, because if they do, people are gonna buy American-made cars. We have plenty.”

Trump said the message he delivered to the CEOs was to shift production back to the United States. Foreign and domestic automakers assemble many of their cars and parts in the United States, but they also make vehicles and parts in Mexico and Canada. For decades, a free trade zone in North America has effectively treated the US, Canada and Mexico as one big country.

A Department of Government Efficiency staffer who resigned last month over racist social media posts is back at the agency and has access to sensitive government systems, according to court documents.

Marko Elez’s comeback was revealed as part of a lawsuit brought by labor unions that alleges several federal agencies gave “unlawful” access of “protected data” to DOGE workers, listing Elez as one of the employees.

The 25-year-old has been back at DOGE since at least March 5 and has been assigned to the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the filing. He has access to multiple sensitive systems at HHS, including the database that helps states enforce child support orders, the filing shows.

Elez’s return, first reported by Politico, comes after President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk — who oversees DOGE — called for him to be brought back. Elez, who previously worked for Musk’s company SpaceX, resigned in February on the heels of a Wall Street Journal report that linked him to a social media account with posts supporting racism and eugenics.

That account posted a call to repeal the Civil Rights Act, an endorsement of a “eugenic” immigration policy and repeated anti-Indian screeds within the last year, according to archived posts.

“I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” Vance said on X at the time.

Prior to his resignation, Elez was designated as a “special government employee” by the executive branch and had access to the computer system used by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service to cut more than $5 trillion in checks for the federal government each year, according to lawyers for the Justice Department.

CNN has reached out to the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services for comment.