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Trump's Tariffs Whiplash, Historic Winter Storm & USA's Olympic Milestone - Monday, February 23, 2026
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Today is Monday, February 23rd. We'll tell you about the US Supreme Court's decision to strike down most of President Trump's tariffs and what action the President has taken in response. Also, what to know about the unrest in Mexico after the country's most powerful cartel leader was killed and what it means for American travelers. Plus, a life threatening winter storm that could bring feet of snow to major US Cities, new emergency measures in response to the partial government shutdown and the final medal count from Team USA's history making showing at the Winter Olympics. Those stories and even more news to know coming up. Welcome to the Newsworthy. All the day's news in less than 15 minutes. I'm Erica Mandy. Thanks so much for being here. Let's do this. Much of President Trump's signature economic policy has been flipped on its head. In a 6 to 3 ruling, the U.S. supreme Court decided the President could not use his emergency powers law to tax imports, since that power should belong to Congress. In other words, the justices struck down Trump's biggest and boldest tariffs. The high Court's ruling could mean the US government having to refund more than $100 billion in tariff revenue to thousands of importers, but it didn't give any guidance on how exactly that should happen, leaving that issue to lower courts and trade. Lawyers say there will likely be a long road ahead of legal fights and other proceedings as companies try to recoup the money. Economists also say the high Court's decision is unlikely to have a big impact on prices for everyday Americans, partly because companies that raised prices to offset the tariffs don't seem likely to lower them now, so long as the rates are still uncertain. And also because President Trump has already announced his Plan B. Trump announced a new 15% global tariff on all imports entering the US effective immediately. But to impose them, the Trump administration will use a different legal authority than the one the Supreme Court ruled against. But under this law, the tariffs can only last for up to 150 days. After that, Congress may have to take action to extend them. If Congress does not act and they end up expiring, it's not clear if Trump could immediately restart the tariffs with another executive order. And either way, more legal challenges are also expected this time around. But the Trump administration says it has a Plan C too, and that no matter what, Trump's tariffs policy will prevail. Stay tuned. An armed man was shot and killed at President Trump's Mar A Lago estate yesterday. The Secret Service says he got into the secure perimeter around the resort at around 1:30 in the morning and when Secret Service agents and a local sheriff's deputy confronted him, he was holding a shotgun and a gas canister. Authorities say they opened fire when he raised the shotgun to a shooting position. No one besides the man was hurt. The president was not there at the time and as of early this morning he has not commented on the shooting. FBI Director Kash Patel sent a message from Italy, where he was attending the Olympics, to say the bureau is dedicating all necessary resources to the investigation. By the way, Patel has been facing some backlash over that Italy trip, especially since he took a government jet. And videos shared on social media show him drinking beer and celebrating in the locker room with winning Team USA athletes. But the FBI director defends his trip, saying he was going to meet with Italian law enforcement officials and Americans helping to provide security at the Olympics. Mexico's most wanted drug kingpin has been killed. The Mexican army took down the cartel boss known as El Mencho as well as six other cartel operatives. El Mencho was the founder and leader of the notorious Jalisco New Generation cartel that controls drug smuggling, extortion, fuel theft and more all throughout the country. One retired DEA administrator told the LA Times he was one of the most dangerous narco terrorists in the world. The US Provided intelligence support for the operation and American officials called it a great development, saying the good guys are stronger than the bad guys. But experts say his death is unlikely to actually impact the volume of drug smuggling into the US and the killing has sparked widespread unrest in Mexico, with suspected gang members setting buses and businesses on fire, blocking roads and clashing with security forces. The U.S. state Department urged Americans in several parts of Mexico, including popular vacation spots, to seek shelter and stay at their hotels for now. Other tourists are stranded since several US Airlines have suspended flights to Puerto Vallarta for now, the US State Department is recommending they keep up with local news reports for updates. Newly released records show another American citizen was shot and killed by a federal immigration agent. The shooting happened almost a year ago, months before Renee Goode's killing set off nationwide protests over ICE tactics. But ICE's connection to the earlier shooting was just reported last week. It happened in south Padre Island, Texas. Documents show 23 year old Ruben Ray Martinez was shot multiple times by an ICE officer after federal authorities say he hit another agent with his car. The Homeland Security Department described the shooting as an act of self defense, but Martinez's mother says a Texas Rangers investigator told her there were videos of the shooting that contradict federal agents story and on Friday, the Texas Department of Public Safety, which includes the Rangers, said the investigation into the shooting is still active. Nearly 40 million Americans are now under a blizzard warning, and authorities are asking people to take this seriously as it could end up becoming the most powerful winter storm in at least a decade. In many major metro areas, more than 2ft of snow is expected. In parts of New England, at least a foot and a half of snow is expected from Atlantic City to Boston, including the New York City and Philadelphia areas. And that's on top of heavy winds that could knock down trees and power lines, all in a short amount of time. The governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Delaware all declared states of emergency. New York City and New Jersey announced travel bans, meaning only emergency travel is allowed during certain hours. Other travel restrictions are in place elsewhere. Thousands of commercial flights have been canceled already this morning, and several major school districts have called off classes for today. The snow is expected to start tapering off by this evening. More news is still ahead, but first, this episode is brought to you by Rosetta Stone. I love travel. And when I got to travel internationally last year, it was so special to get to experience a different culture and explore a place that I've never been. But I also kept thinking about what it might be like if I had actually learned the language. 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Visit rosettastone.comnewsworthy to get started and claim your 50% off today. Go to rosettastone.comnewsworthy and start learning today. Now back to the news. It turns out the US Economy is cooling even more than economists thought. The Commerce Department's latest report shows the country's gross domestic product, aka the GDP, grew at a 1.4% yearly rate at the end of 2025. To put that into perspective, that's down from 4.4% in the previous quarter. Reports say the country's longest government shutdown hurt the economy's earlier momentum. Imports were also up, and there was a widening trade gap despite President Trump's push to revive American manufacturing. In many ways, those subtractions were offset by businesses investing in AI and American households paying more for housing, utilities, healthcare and other services. But Americans also spent less on big ticket items like cars and appliances. Now, economists are divided on what comes next. Some say the latest report signals a transition to slower growth in the coming months. Others say they expect the burden of the government shutdown to reverse in coming months, putting the economy back on track for a strong 2026. The partial government shutdown is continuing for a second week, with lawmakers and the White House seemingly no closer to a deal to fully reopen the Homeland Security Department. Trump officials dismissed Dem's latest proposal to overhaul federal immigration enforcement as as unserious, while Democrats say there hasn't been enough high level effort from President Trump or congressional Republicans to make a compromise. Either way, the Homeland Security Department is having to take some emergency measures. Effective yesterday, FEMA paused disaster aid for states long term rebuilding projects, saying it could handle bare minimum life saving operations only. DHS also shut down its Global Entry program that helps pre approved travelers return to the US from an international trip more quickly. The department briefly said it would shut down TSA's PreCheck program too, but ended up reversing course on that one. So for now, it's still operational, even while tens of thousands of TSA employees are working without pay until the government fully reopens. The CIA has taken the unusual step of formally retracting nearly 20 intelligence reports from the last decade. They include analysis on hot button topics like white nationalism, family planning and LGBTQ activists in the Islamic world. Now the reports are being deleted from agency databases. They'll also no longer be available to American policymakers. This comes in response to a review that found they were either biased or an inappropriate use of spy agency resources. Republicans praised the move, saying prior administrations mixed intelligence and politics far too often and that it's important to correct the record. But some Democrats say the retractions are actually what's political, undermining the credibility, reliability and independence of the entire intelligence community. Either way, the retracted reports do represent a small fraction of the spy agency's work. Netflix has released a posthumous interview with the actor Eric Dane. It came out as part of the series Famous Last Words that has people interviewed under an agreement their episode will only be aired after their death. The Grey's Anatomy and Euphoria actor died last week, less than one year after announcing he was diagnosed with the nerve system disease als. In his interview, Dane explained how his diagnosis taught him to be present and he said he hoped his daughters would fall in love, whether it be with a person or something to make them want to wake up each morning. Dane's interview is the second episode of Famous Last Words. The first was with the scientist Jane Goodall, who died last October. The executive producer, Brad Falchuk, does the questioning. No one else is present on set. Even the camera operators are in a different room. There are even moments where Falchuk leaves the room so the person can deliver a final message. Privately, he says very few people know who's already done an interview, but that he has several other conversations ready to go with plans for more well, that's a wrap on the 2026 Winter Olympics. Overall, the American team is coming home with 33 medals, 12 of which are gold. That's the most gold medals Team USA has ever won at a single Winter Games. One of them was earned just yesterday. In a thrilling men's ice hockey final, the American team beat Canada for the gold medal, exactly 46 years after beating the Soviet Union on the road to its last gold in what's now famously known as the Miracle on Ice game. Also over the weekend, Team USA topped the podium in two freestyle skiing events. Then it was time for thousands of athletes from 93 countries to say goodbye to the Milan Cortina Games. The closing ceremony happened last night. During the festivities, the Olympic flag was passed to the French Alps, which will host the next Winter Games in 2030. This year's action isn't totally over in Italy, though. Up next comes the Paralympics, which will kick off March 6th. That's it for the Maine News. So now it's time for Money Monday when we talk about one interesting Money related news story. But first, a quick break for our sponsor, Hiya Health. I know it can be upsetting as a parent to see how our children are flooded with products that prioritize candy like appeal over actual nutrition. But Haya took the opposite approach. Zero sugar, zero gummy junk. Just clean nutrition. And yet kids actually love their children's vitamins. At least I can say that for sure about my kid. 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To claim this deal you must go to Hiyahealth.com newsworthy this deal is not available on their regular website so go to Hiya H-E-A-L-T-.com Newsworthy and get your kids the full body nourishment they need to grow into healthy adults. Okay, now back to Money Monday. So as you know, groceries are much more expensive than they used to be, but where you shop really does make a big difference, at least according to Consumer Reports. That put out a new ranking of the most and least expensive supermarkets in the US and it found membership based warehouse clubs really do offer the lowest prices. Big box retailer Walmart was used as the baseline for the study, so it shows how much more or less affordable other chains are than Walmart. So what's the least expensive chain for groceries? Consumer Reports says Costco, with prices more than 21% lower than Walmart's. BJ's Wholesale Club and Aldi were also on the budget friendly end of the list when it comes to the priciest store, well, that would be Whole Foods with costs nearly 40% higher than Walmart. Data also showed how grocery prices can be a lot different between stores of the same chain in different metro areas, meaning the best grocery store for one region might not be ideal in another city. Consumer Reports noted how most Americans already buy food from at least two different retailers each week. And now it seems strategically planning where you shop can ultimately save you a lot of money. Thank you so much for joining us today and for supporting our show, making us part of your daily routine and telling other people about it. We'll be back with even more news to know tomorrow. For now, have a great day.