CASSIS, France (AP) — In the moment when her world shattered three years ago, Stephanie Mistre found her 15-year-old daughter, Marie, lifeless in the bedroom where she died by suicide.
“I went from light to darkness in a fraction of a second,” Mistre said, describing the day in September 2021 that marked the start of her fight against TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app she blames for pushing her daughter toward despair.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org. Helplines outside the U.S. can be found at www.iasp.info/suicidalthoughts.
Delving into her daughter’s phone after her death, Mistre discovered videos promoting suicide methods, tutorials and comments encouraging users to go beyond “mere suicide attempts.” She said TikTok’s algorithm had repeatedly pushed such content to her daughter.
“It was brainwashing,” said Mistre, who lives in Cassis, near Marseille, in the south of France. “They normalized depression and self-harm, turning it into a twisted sense of belonging.”
Now Mistre and six other families are suing TikTok France, accusing the platform of failing to moderate harmful content and exposing children to life-threatening material. Out of the seven families, two experienced the loss of a child.
Asked about the lawsuit, TikTok said its guidelines forbid any promotion of suicide and that it employs 40,000 trust and safety professionals worldwide — hundreds of which are French-speaking moderators — to remove dangerous posts. The company also said it refers users who search for suicide-related videos to mental health services.
Before killing herself, Marie Le Tiec made several videos to explain her decision, citing various difficulties in her life, and quoted a song by the Louisiana-based emo rap group Suicideboys, who are popular on TikTok.
Her mother also claims that her daughter was repeatedly bullied and harassed at school and online. In addition to the lawsuit, the 51-year-old mother and her husband have filed a complaint against five of Marie’s classmates and her previous high school.
Above all, Mistre blames TikTok, saying that putting the app "in the hands of an empathetic and sensitive teenager who does not know what is real from what is not is like a ticking bomb.”
Scientists have not established a clear link between social media and mental health problems or psychological harm, said Grégoire Borst, a professor of psychology and cognitive neuroscience at Paris-Cité University.
“It’s very difficult to show clear cause and effect in this area,” Borst said, citing a leading peer-reviewed study that found only 0.4% of the differences in teenagers’ well-being could be attributed to social media use.
Additionally, Borst pointed out that no current studies suggest TikTok is any more harmful than rival apps such as Snapchat, X, Facebook or Instagram.
While most teens use social media without significant harm, the real risks, Borst said, lie with those already facing challenges such as bullying or family instability.
“When teenagers already feel bad about themselves and spend time exposed to distorted images or harmful social comparisons," it can worsen their mental state, Borst said.
Lawyer Laure Boutron-Marmion, who represents the seven families suing TikTok, said their case is based on “extensive evidence.” The company "can no longer hide behind the claim that it’s not their responsibility because they don’t create the content,” Boutron-Marmion said.
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok’s algorithm is designed to trap vulnerable users in cycles of despair for profit and seeks reparations for the families.
“Their strategy is insidious,” Mistre said. “They hook children into depressive content to keep them on the platform, turning them into lucrative re-engagement products.”
Boutron-Marmion noted that TikTok’s Chinese version, Douyin, features much stricter content controls for young users. It includes a “youth mode” mandatory for users under 14 that restricts screen time to 40 minutes a day and offers only approved content.
“It proves they can moderate content when they choose to,” Boutron-Marmion said. “The absence of these safeguards here is telling.”
A report titled “Children and Screens,” commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron in April and to which Borst contributed, concluded that certain algorithmic features should be considered addictive and banned from any app in France. The report also called for restricting social media access for minors under 15 in France. Neither measure has been adopted.
TikTok, which faced being shut down in the U.S. until President Donald Trump suspended a ban on it, has also come under scrutiny globally.
The U.S. has seen similar legal efforts by parents. One lawsuit in Los Angeles County accuses Meta and its platforms Instagram and Facebook, as well as Snapchat and TikTok, of designing defective products that cause serious injuries. The lawsuit lists three teens who died by suicide. In another complaint, two tribal nations accuse major social media companies, including YouTube owner Alphabet, of contributing to high rates of suicide among Native youths.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to parents who had lost children while testifying last year in the U.S. Senate.
In December, Australia enacted a groundbreaking law banning social media accounts for children under 16.
In France, Boutron-Marmion expects TikTok Limited Technologies, the European Union subsidiary for ByteDance — the Chinese company that owns TikTok — to answer the allegations in the first quarter of 2025. Authorities will later decide whether and when a trial would take place.
When contacted by The Associated Press, TikTok said it had not been notified about the French lawsuit, which was filed in November. It could take months for the French justice system to process the complaint and for authorities in Ireland — home to TikTok’s European headquarters — to formally notify the company, Boutron-Marmion said.
Instead, a Tiktok spokesperson highlighted company guidelines that prohibit content promoting suicide or self-harm.
Critics argue that TikTok’s claims of robust moderation fall short.
Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, dismissed TikTok’s assertion that over 98.8% of harmful videos had been flagged and removed between April and June.
When asked about the blind spots of their moderation efforts, social media platforms claim that users are able to bypass detection by using ambiguous language or allusions that algorithms struggle to flag, Ahmed said.
The term “algospeak” has been coined to describe techniques such as using zebra or armadillo emojis to talk about cutting yourself, or the Swiss flag emoji as an allusion to suicide.
Such code words "aren’t particularly sophisticated,” Ahmed said. "The only reason TikTok can’t find them when independent researchers, journalists and others can is because they’re not looking hard enough,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed’s organization conducted a study in 2022 simulating the experience of a 13-year-old girl on TikTok.
“Within 2.5 minutes, the accounts were served self-harm content,” Ahmed said. “By eight minutes, they saw eating disorder content. On average, every 39 seconds, the algorithm pushed harmful material.”
The algorithm “knows that eating disorder and self-harm content is especially addictive” for young girls.
For Mistre, the fight is deeply personal. Sitting in her daughter’s room, where she has kept the decor untouched for the last three years, she said parents must know about the dangers of social media.
Had she known about the content being sent to her daughter, she never would have allowed her on TikTok, she said. Her voice breaks as she describes Marie as a “sunny, funny” teenager who dreamed of becoming a lawyer.
“In memory of Marie, I will fight as long as I have the strength,” she said. “Parents need to know the truth. We must confront these platforms and demand accountability.”
Associated Press writers Haleluya Hadero and Zen Soo contributed to this story.
Stephanie Mistre, 51, holds a picture of her daughter, Marie Le Tiec, a teenager who died by suicide in 2021, on Dec. 10, 2024, in Cassis, southern France. (AP Photo/Tom Nouvian)
A black and white photo of Marie Le Tiec, a teenager who died by suicide in 2021, is seen alongside candles and religious items in her bedroom, on Dec. 10, 2024, in Cassis, southern France. (AP Photo/Tom Nouvian)
Stephanie Mistre, 51, holds a picture of her daughter, Marie Le Tiec, a teenager who died by suicide in 2021, on Dec. 10, 2024, in Cassis, southern France. (AP Photo/Tom Nouvian)
President Donald Trump is hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday as he escalates pressure on the Arab nation to take in refugees from Gaza — perhaps permanently — as part of his audacious plan to remake the Middle East.
The visit is happening at a perilous moment for the ongoing ceasefire in Gaza. Hamas, accusing Israel of violating the truce, has said it is pausing future releases of hostages and as Trump has called for Israel to resume fighting if all those remaining in captivity are not freed by this weekend.
Here's the latest:
The Palestinian militant group said the president’s comments were “racist” and “a call for ethnic cleansing.”
The group declared Tuesday that Gaza’s residents have endured relentless bombardment and aggression but remain steadfast in their homeland.
In a statement on the messaging app Telegram, Hamas accused Trump of seeking to “liquidate the Palestinian cause and deny the national rights of the Palestinian people.”
Trump repeated his plan Tuesday for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and remove its population. Neighboring Arab governments and the Palestinians have roundly rejected the idea.
United Nations experts define ethnic cleansing as a policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove the civilian population of another group from certain areas “by violent and terror-inspiring means.”
It comes as federal agencies work to comply with Trump’s executive order last month to release thousands of files.
The FBI said it’s working to transfer the records to the National Archives and Records Administration to be included in the declassification process.
The federal government in the early 1990s mandated that all documents related to the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination be housed in a single collection at the National Archives. And while the vast majority of the collection — over 5 million records — has been made public, researchers estimate 3,000 files haven’t been released, either in whole or in part.
The FBI did not say in its statement what kind of information the newly discovered files contain.
▶ Read more about the FBI’s JFK records
The moves align with the Trump administration’s aggressive global trade agenda and ambitions to strengthen U.S. industry, but they could have an inverse effect.
On March 12, all steel imports will be taxed at a minimum of 25%, the result of two orders the president signed Monday that also include a 25% tariff on aluminum. That could have a serious impact on domestic auto companies including Ford, GM and Stellantis — and make these companies’ vehicles more expensive for the nation’s car buyers.
Tariffs on crucial products coming from outside of the U.S. places pressure on domestic sourcing of the materials, experts say. The basic rules of supply and demand could drive up costs.
▶ Read more about the tariffs’ effects on the auto industry
Following Tuesday’s meeting with Trump at the White House, Abdullah called on the U.S. to take a leading role in creating peace and stability in the Middle East.
He said addressing the dire humanitarian situation in war-torn Gaza by rebuilding it, not displacing its population, should be the main focus of all parties.
“This requires US leadership. President Trump is a man of peace,” Abdullah said in post on the social media platform X. “He was instrumental in securing the Gaza ceasefire. We look to US and all stakeholders in ensuring it holds.”
A “just peace” would see an independent Palestinian state established alongside Israel, Abdullah said.
He plans to sign the executive order Tuesday that would also include strict limits on hiring.
The Associated Press reviewed a White House fact sheet on the order, which is intended to advance Elon Musk ’s work slashing spending with his Department of Government Efficiency.
It said “agencies will undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force and determine which agency components (or agencies themselves) may be eliminated or combined because their functions aren’t required by law.”
It also said agencies should “hire no more than one employee for every four employees that depart from federal service.” There are plans for exceptions when it comes to immigration, law enforcement and public safety.
▶ Read more about Trump’s order on the federal workforce
The more than 230 research groups and 2,600 data users on Tuesday implored U.S. lawmakers to order the restoration of any data sets that were removed from the websites over the past two weeks.
Federal agencies at the beginning of the month took down scores of government webpages as staffers hurried to comply with President Trump’s order rolling back protections for transgender people, which required the removal of “gender ideology” language from websites, contracts and emails.
A federal judge Tuesday ordered government agencies to restore public access to health-related webpages and datasets they removed to comply with Trump’s executive order.
“Removing or curtailing access to these data, even temporarily, erodes the public trust that federal statistical and scientific agencies have earned,” the researchers said to congressional leaders in a letter which was organized by the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, the American Statistical Association, and the Population Association of America.
They say cuts to a federal research office that tracks students’ progress could leave the nation in the dark on schools’ effectiveness.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has terminated 89 contracts worth $881 million at the Education Department’s Institute of Education Sciences, officials said.
Education Department spokesperson Madison Biedermann declined to share the names of vendors whose contracts were cut.
The cuts are counterproductive and destructive, said Rachel Dinkes, president and CEO of the Knowledge Alliance, a coalition of education research firms.
“Cutting out at the knees the one independent agency that helps improve student outcomes is ridiculous,” she said.
▶ Read more about DOGE’s education cuts
It’s the first step in what could be a wholesale reversal of the Biden administration effort in 2023 to remove names that honored Confederate leaders, including nine Army bases.
It sets up a potentially costly, complicated and delicate process that could run afoul of the law.
“As the president has said, and I’ve said as well, we’re not done there,” Defense Secretary Hegseth said Tuesday when asked about the decision to go back to the Fort Bragg name but change the service member it commemorates.
The move signals the potential for the Pentagon to do the same for the other renamed bases — skirting the law prohibiting the military from naming a base after a Confederate leader by finding another service member with the same name.
▶ Read more about Fort Bragg’s renaming
Terry Cole, Trump’s candidate, is Virginia’s secretary of public safety and homeland security. Cole’s law enforcement background includes more than 20 years at the Drug Enforcement Administration, including assignments in Colombia, Afghanistan, Mexico and the Middle East.
Chad Chronister, the sheriff of Florida’s Hillsborough County, was Trump’s first choice to be DEA administrator, but he later withdrew from consideration. Chronister had faced backlash from some conservatives about his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ban was put in place last week by another federal New York jurist in response to a lawsuit 19 Democratic attorneys general brought against Trump.
Justice Department attorneys told Judge Jeannette A. Vargas in a filing Sunday that the ban was unconstitutional and needed to be immediately reversed.
Vargas made changes to the ban to clarify its reach. For instance, she said Treasury Department officers nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate can access the records, making it clear Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent isn’t subject to the ban.
The lawsuit contended Musk’s ‘DOGE’ team was composed of “political appointees” who shouldn’t have access to Treasury records handled by “civil servants” specially trained in protecting such sensitive information as Social Security and bank account numbers.
▶ Read more about the DOGE lawsuit
But he said it wouldn’t require committing funds and insisted he personally would not be involved in development.
“We’re not going to buy anything. We’re going to have it,” Trump said of U.S. control in Gaza, which he said would be possible “under the U.S. authority,” without elaborating what that actually was. Trump has suggested Palestinians in the war-torn territory would be pushed into neighboring nations with no right of return.
The president spoke after meeting Tuesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who was asked repeatedly by reporters about Trump’s plan to remake the Middle East, but didn’t make substantive comments on it nor the idea that his country could accept large numbers of new refugees from Gaza.
▶ Read more about Trump’s meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II
They might seem insignificant, inspiring jokes about the plastic vs. paper debate, but the plastic straw has come to symbolize a global pollution crisis over the past decade.
On Monday, President Trump waded into the issue when he signed an executive order to reverse a federal push away from plastic straws, declaring that paper straws “don’t work” and don’t last very long. Trump said he thinks “it’s OK” to continue using plastic straws, although they’ve been blamed for polluting oceans and harming marine life.
In 2015, video of a marine biologist pulling a plastic straw out of a turtle’s nose sparked outrage worldwide and countries and cities started banning them, starting with the Pacific Island nation Vanuatu and Seattle in 2018.
▶ Read more about Trump’s executive order on plastic straws
Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for President Donald Trump, left Russian airspace with Fogel, who’s from Pennsylvania, and he’s expected to be reunited with his family by the end of the day.
Fogel was arrested in August 2021, and was serving a 14-year prison sentence. His family and supporters said he was traveling with medically prescribed marijuana.
Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said the U.S. and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to ensure Fogel’s release. He did not say what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. Previous negotiations have occasionally involved reciprocal releases of Russians by the U.S. or its allies.
Waltz described the development as “a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.” Trump, a Republican, has promised to find a way to end the conflict.
▶ Read more about the American teacher being released
The Federal Emergency Management Agency workers are accused of circumventing leadership to make the transactions, which have been standard for years through a program helping with costs to care for migrants. Officials didn’t give details on how the workers violated policies.
On Monday, Elon Musk had posted on X that his team discovered payments used to house migrants in “luxury hotels.”
The employees terminated Tuesday were FEMA’s chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant specialist, according to a statement.
They made “egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels,” the statement said.
Officials didn’t reply to emails seeking further comment.
U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington agreed Tuesday to issue a temporary restraining order requested by the Doctors for America advocacy group. The judge instructed the government to restore access to several webpages and datasets the group identified as missing from websites and to identify others that also were taken down “without adequate notice or reasoned explanation.”
On Jan. 20, his first day back in the White House, Trump signed an order for agencies to use the term “sex” and not “gender” in federal policies and documents. In response, the Office of Personnel Management’s acting director required agency heads to eliminate any programs and take down any websites that promote “gender ideology.”
Doctors for America, represented by the Public Citizen Litigation Group, sued OPM, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.
▶ Read more about access to the websites
Trump welcomed Abdullah and Crown Prince Hussein at the entrance to the West Wing.
The president escalated tensions in the Middle East by saying Monday that the ceasefire in Gaza would end Saturday unless Hamas returned all the hostages taken in its October 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
Trump affirmed on Tuesday while greeting the king that the Saturday deadline was still in place.
“He’s a great man,” Trump said, gesturing to the king, before they stepped into the White House.
Murray, a Washington state Democrat, and the union leaders said federal workers are suffering panic attacks and losing sleep due to the “staggering and unprecedented assault” by the Trump administration and the country will suffer without them.
“They’re worried about their jobs. They’re worried about their families. They’re also worried about their work and the communities they serve,” Helen Bottcher, a former Environmental Protection Agency employee and current union leader in Seattle said during a news conference hosted by Murray.
The people being targeted inspect meat, make sure baby formula is safe, protect consumers from fraud, provide veterans with health care, send weather forecasts to wildland firefighters and ensure the Hanford nuclear waste cleanup is done properly, Murray said.
“They deserve better than to be threatened, intimidated and pushed out the door by Elon Musk and Donald Trump,” Murray said. “But make no mistake, we actually need these people to stay in their jobs or things are going to start breaking.”
“This War MUST and WILL END SOON — Too much Death and Destruction,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social website.
Most recently, Ukraine has offered to strike a deal with Trump for continued U.S. military support in exchange for developing Ukraine’s mineral industry, which would be a valuable source of rare earth elements needed to develop technology products.
Trump has said Europe should repay the U.S. what Washington has spent helping Kyiv.
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s the first time all 13 have traveled together to the U.S.
The visit comes after Trump announced tariffs planned for Canada and Mexico that have since been suspended for a month — until March 1.
Doug Ford of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, and chair of the Council of the Federation, will lead the envoy for a series of meetings and events at the U.S. Capitol.
Ford recently said Canada will pause all retaliatory measures against the U.S. after news broke that the threat of tariffs has been put on hold for a month.
Trump wants Canada and Mexico, America’s two largest trading partners, to take steps to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking.
The administration’s abrupt funding freeze also is forcing mass layoffs by the U.S. suppliers and contractors for USAID, including 750 furloughs at one U.S. company alone, Washington-based Chemonics International, the lawsuit filed Tuesday charges.
Trump administration appointee Pete Marocco is defending the USAID shutdown, claiming without evidence that “noncompliance” and “insubordination” by USAID staffers made it necessary.
It comes after after Hamas said it would call off a scheduled hostage release this weekend.
An Israeli official says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered officials “to prepare for every scenario if Hamas doesn’t release our hostages this Saturday.” The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a closed-door meeting, was not clear if Netanyahu’s order referred to all hostages, or the three scheduled for release on Saturday.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said Israel should cancel the entire ceasefire if all of the roughly 70 hostages aren’t freed by Saturday.
— Josef Federman
That’s the level President Trump has said other NATO members should meet.
Speaking to reporters in Germany, Hegseth said he believes the U.S. should spend more than it did under the Biden administration and “should not go below 3%.”
He said any final decision would be up to Trump, but said “we live in fiscally constrained times” and need to be responsible with taxpayer money.
The U.S. spends about 3.3% of GDP on defense. About two-thirds of all NATO members are spending at least 2% of GDP on defense, which is the current requested level.
Vance will visit the former concentration camp Thursday after he arrives in Munich.
On Friday, he’ll hold talks with Zelensky, says a person familiar with Vance’s schedule who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about events not yet announced.
Vance is set to address the annual Munich Security Conference on Friday.
Dachau was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis in 1933. More than 200,000 people from across Europe were held there and more than 40,000 prisoners died. U.S. forces liberated the camp during World War II. It’s now a memorial.
— Aamer Madhani
Johnson said he “wholeheartedly” agrees with Vice President JD Vance that courts shouldn’t try to control the president’s power as DOGE slashes through the federal government.
“The courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out,” Johnson said at the Capitol.
Johnson said he met with Musk as the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency is upturning the government — doing what the speaker said Republicans in Congress have been unable to accomplish alone as they try to cut waste.
Dozens of lawsuits are being filed against the Trump administration and several judges are halting its actions.
A memo from the OPM recommends federal employees “consider departure by 2 p.m.” on Tuesday.
Forecasters predict between 4 and 7 inches of snow starting Tuesday afternoon.
It’s the first snow event of President Trump’s second administration, which has prioritized bringing all federal workers back to the office five days a week. And it comes in the midst of a harsher-than-usual winter in the D.C. area. In January, prior to Trump’s inauguration, several inches of snow blanketed the area, closing down schools across the region.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson, Dave Pares, said it’s “important we take a considered approach.”
“We’re working with industry and our U.S. counterparts to work through the detail,” he said. “We are already engaging with the U.S. system on this issue.”
Asked if Britain would impose retaliatory tariffs, he said he wasn’t going to “get ahead of those conversations with industry.”
The U.S. accounted for about 5% of U.K. steel exports in 2023 and 6% of U.K. aluminum exports, according to British government figures.
The charge related to duping donors who gave money to a private effort to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. It’s a case the conservative strategist has decried as a “political persecution.”
Bannon, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty to one scheme to defraud count as part of a plea agreement that spares him from jail time in the “We Build the Wall” scheme. He received a three-year conditional discharge, which requires he stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment.
Asked how he was feeling as he left the courtroom, Bannon said, “Like a million bucks.”
Bannon spoke to reporters afterward and called on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin an immediate criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Leticia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Defense attorney Arthur Aidala called the case against Bannon flimsy, saying it was never about his client.
The district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
▶ Read more about Steve Bannon and the border wall case
The resignations are in protest of President Trump’s efforts to bring the agency to a standstill.
Eric Halperin, the director of enforcement, and Lorelei Salas, the director of supervision, sent emails this morning announcing their departures.
“As you know we have been ordered to cease all work,” Halperin wrote in an email. “I don’t believe in these conditions I can effectively serve in my role, which is protecting American consumers.”
Salas also said she could not continue to serve in her role.
“I do not believe it is appropriate, nor lawful, to stop all supervisory activities and examinations,” she wrote.
Both emails were viewed by The Associated Press.
It comes the day after Trump announced new 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum that have been decried by Europe.
Von der Leyen earlier Tuesday in a statement said the U.S. tariffs “will not go unanswered” and will trigger tough countermeasures from the 27-nation bloc.
Neither Vice President Vance nor von der Leyen directly address the tariffs in their brief comments to reporters.
Vance said he expected they would discuss trade and economic issues as well as security. Trump has been pressing for NATO members to dramatically increase domestic spending.
“We also want to make sure that we’re actually engaged in a security partnership that’s good for both Europe and the United States,” Vance said.
Von der Leyen said she hoped Europe and the United States could work together with “optimism.”
As of Friday, 65,000 workers had accepted the offer to quit while still getting paid until Sept. 30. An administration official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal figures, said the number has been growing since then.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. heard arguments over the deferred resignation program Monday in his Boston courtroom. Labor unions said the plan is illegal, while administration lawyers described it as a fair offer to workers.
— Chris Megerian
In a social media post, he says he’s directing EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to reinstate less energy efficient water standards issued in his first term. Trump incorrectly described Zeldin as “Secretary” and many of the standards he cited are regulated by the Energy Department.
Trump on his first day back in office pledged to “empower consumer choice” in vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers. He repeatedly pushed changes in his first term to increase water flow for showers and continue production of incandescent lightbulbs that are being phased out.
Most U.S. manufacturers comply with energy efficient standards imposed by Joe Biden and other presidents.
Ebrard pointed out that Mexico imports more steel from the United States than it exports to the U.S. And while steel imports from the U.S. have risen over the past two years, steel exports to the U.S. have fallen.
Furthermore, the U.S. has a trade surplus with Mexico when it comes to the value of steel and aluminum crossing the border.
“It’s unjust taking into account President Trump’s own statements,” he said.
Ebrard said Mexico will take this information to the Trump administration urging “common sense.”
“Don’t destroy what we have built over the last 40 years,” he said.
FILE - President Donald Trump stands with Jordan's King Abdullah II at the White House, June 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (Photo/Alex Brandon)