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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he is withdrawing an executive order that targeted law firm Paul Weiss, saying the firm “acknowledged the wrongdoing” of an attorney who investigated the president and has pledged $40 million in free legal work to support the administration. The surprise move, which comes amid a wave of attacks by the Republican president on prominent law firms, follows a meeting between the president and Paul Weiss’ chairman, Brad Karp, according to the White House. During that meeting, Karp acknowledged the wrongdoing of Mark Pomerantz, a former partner at the New York firm, who was involved in the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Trump’s hush money payments to a porn star, the White House said. “Paul Weiss agrees that the bedrock principle of American Justice is that it must be fair and nonpartisan for all,” said Trump. Pomerantz, who worked most recently at Paul Weiss until 2022, said in a statement: I engaged in no wrongdoing by working as a prosecutor to uphold the rule of law.” Paul Weiss did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump’s executive order against Paul Weiss suspended its lawyers’ security clearances and restricted their access to government buildings and officials, citing the firm’s diversity policies and its association with Pomerantz. Trump said Thursday that Paul Weiss promised to dedicate the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal work during the president’s term toward administration priorities such as combating antisemitism and support for veterans. The firm also agreed to audit its employment practices and purge them of any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, the White House said. Trump has mounted a broad campaign against DEI practices in government and the private sector that the administration alleges are discriminatory. On Monday the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sent demands to 20 major law firms for detailed information about their diversity initiatives and racial and gender demographics. The apparent truce between Trump and Paul Weiss is in stark contrast with the response of another firm, Perkins Coie, that sued the administration after it was hit with a similar executive order this month. A judge in Washington temporarily blocked parts of the Perkins Coie order on March 12, finding the firm was likely to win its lawsuit alleging Trump’s actions violated the firm’s rights under the U.S. Constitution. Perkins Coie did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump’s decision to rescind the Paul Weiss order. Paul Weiss’ chairman Karp helped raise funds for Trump’s 2024 election opponent Kamala Harris. The firm’s partners include Loretta Lynch, who was U.S. attorney general during the Democratic Obama administration. The firm is known for guiding corporate deals on behalf of financial giants like Apollo Global Management, Blackstone Group, Citibank and Goldman Sachs, and for handling high-stakes litigation for tech industry clients such as Alphabet’s Google and Amazon.com. The companies either declined to comment or did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Paul Weiss told a judge in New Jersey on Wednesday that it was fired by a client it was defending in a bribery case because of Trump’s order. Perkins Coie in its lawsuit said seven of its clients had left the firm due to the order against it. Leslie Levin, a University of Connecticut law professor and expert on the legal profession, said Paul Weiss likely feared a client exodus. There was no playbook for how to deal with this, she said. Jasper Ward and Mike Scarcella, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
March has been a month of back-to-back blows to Elon Musks Tesla, and now theres yet another concern to add to the list. New data from Edmunds shows that Tesla drivers are on track to trade in their vehicles at an all-time high this month. According to the report, Tesla cars from model year 2017 or newer accounted for 1.4% of all vehicles traded in until March 15up 0.4% from March 2023 and 1.2% from last month. If the trend continues in the second half of March, it will represent a bleak new record of dissatisfied Tesla customers. The trade-ins are representative of the wide-scale backlash faced by the brand as Musk, its billionaire CEO, claims unprecedented administrative power in the U.S. government even while Tesla’s vehicles are recalled at alarming rates. Teslas backlog of woes Tesla’s stock has been on a sharp decline since early December, a trend thats only been exacerbated by investors mounting fears surrounding Musks sweeping cuts to federal programs and funding through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The brand’s problems are mounting almost too quickly to count: There have been plummeting sales in Europe and China, major advancements from Chinese competitor BYD, and a spike in both Tesla vandalisms and wide-scale protests as a response to DOGEs cuts. Meanwhile, Tesla just had to recall nearly every Cybertruck ever made due to an exterior panel that could detach while drivingjust one of a laundry list of design issues that have historically plagued the brand. All of this has culminated in an increasingly negative outlook for Tesla. As of yesterday, the brands stock is down 42% since the beginning of 2025, with some analysts estimating that Musk has lost more than $100 billion since December (though it’s important to note that shares are still up more than 40% year over year.) And now, Edmunds new data shows that even Tesla drivers are feeling less confident about the companys vehicles. In an interview with Reuters, Edmunds head of insights Jessica Caldwell noted that, “Brand loyalty is becoming a bigger question mark as factors such as Elon Musk’s increasing public involvement in government, Tesla depreciation concerns, and its increased saturation in major metro areas leave some longtime owners feeling disconnected from the brand. According to Reuters, Edmunds analysts predict that used Teslas prices will likely decline as Tesla trade-ins reach the market. Thats on top of a Fast Company analysis earlier this month, which found that the price of used Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles depreciated more than any other cars in 2024. Over the past couple of months, some regretful Tesla owners have resorted to putting bumper stickers on their vehicles with phrases like, I bought this before we knew Elon Musk was crazy, or even rebadging their Teslas entirely to distance themselves from the brand (and to avoid potential vandalism.) Based on Edmunds new data, it seems that many are deciding to take their disavowal one step further.
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E-Commerce
U.S. President Donald Trump awarded Boeing on Friday the contract to build the U.S. Air Force’s most sophisticated fighter jet yet, dubbed the F-47, handing the company a much-needed win. The Next Generation Air Dominance program will replace Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor with a crewed aircraft built to enter combat alongside drones. Trump, the 47th president, announced the new jet’s name, the F-47. “We’ve given an order for a lot. We can’t tell you the price,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Our allies are calling constantly,” Trump added, saying foreign sales could be an option. “They want to buy them also.” For Boeing, the win marks a reversal of fortune for a company that has struggled on both the commercial and defense sides of its business. It is a major boost for its St. Louis, Missouri, fighter jet production business. The engineering and manufacturing development contract is worth more than $20 billion. The winner will eventually receive hundreds of billions of dollars in orders over the contract’s multi-decade lifetime. Shares of Boeing rose 4% after the news. The U.S. company beat out Lockheed Martin for the deal. Lockheed’s shares fell nearly 7%. Reuters reported Boeing’s victory before the official announcement. The plane’s design remains a closely held secret, but would likely include stealth, advanced sensors, and cutting-edge engines. “Compared to the F-22, the F-47 will cost less and be more adaptable to future threatsand we will have more of the F-47s in our inventory,” said Chief of Staff of the Air Force General David Allvin. Boeing and Lockheed did not immediately respond to requests for comment. NGAD was conceived as a “family of systems” centered around a sixth-generation fighter to counter adversaries such as China and Russia. Allvin added the F-47 will have significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, and will be more sustainable and more easily supported than the F-22. Major win Boeing’s commercial operations have struggled as it attempts to get its best-selling 737 MAX jet production back up to full speed, while its defense operation has been weighed down by underperforming contracts for midair refueling tankers, drones, and training jets. “The win is a major boost for the company, which has struggled with cost overruns, schedule delays and execution on other DoD programs,” said Roman Schweizer, an analyst at TD Cowen. Cost overruns at the KC-46 mid-air refueling tanker program have surpassed $7 billion in recent years, while another fixed-price contract to upgrade two Air Force One planes has created a $2-billion loss for the top 5 U.S. defense contractor. Boeing has faced ongoing scrutiny since a series of crises including a mid-air emergency in January 2024 involving a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 missing four key bolts. In January, Boeing reported an $11.8-billion annual lossits largest since 2020due to problems at its major units, along with fallout from a crippling strike that shuttered production of most of its jets. Boeing has ceded ground to rival Airbus in the delivery race and entered the crosshairs of regulators and customers following a series of missteps. The Federal Aviation Administration in early 2024 imposed a production cap of 38 MAX planes per month. Lockheed, which was recently eliminated from the competition to build the Navy’s next-generation carrier-based stealth fighter, faces an uncertain future in the high-end fighter market after the loss. Billionaire and presidential adviser Elon Musk has voiced skepticism about the effectiveness of crewed high-end fighters, saying cheaper drones were a better option. While Lockheed could still protest the award to Boeing, the fact Trump announced the deal in a high-profile Oval Office press conference could reduce the possibility of a public airing of arguments against the agreement from the Bethesda, Maryland-based defense firm. Mike Stone, Reuters Additional reporting by David Shepardson.
Category:
E-Commerce
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