Poll on Trump's economy, shutdown and 'the menswear guy' on tariffs
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Today, a new poll shows that Americans worry Trump's economic policies are too erratic. Are Senate Democrats raising the risk of a shutdown? And will Made in America make clothes more expensive? We hear from the menswear guy. It's Thursday, March 13th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday.

I'm Sharon Reich-Garson in New Jersey. And I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool.

I'm saving so much! Burlington saves you up to 60% off other retailers' prices every day. Will it be the low prices or the great brands? You'll love the deals. You'll love Burlington. I told you so. The train hijacking in Pakistan is over. And rescued passengers are receiving medical care.

Pakistani security forces stormed the train that had been hijacked by separatist militants and killed all 33 attackers. The military says 21 hostages and four security troops were also killed during the day-long standoff. U.S. President Donald Trump says he'll impose additional penalties if the European Union follows through with its plans to enact counter-tariffs on some U.S. goods next month.

Speaking from the Oval Office, just hours after 25% duties on all U.S. steel and aluminum imports took effect, Trump pushed back on the idea that his stop-start tariffs reflect inconsistent policy. It's not called inconsistency, it's called flexibility. And we now have some data about how Americans feel about it all. Our politics editor Scott Malone is here to unpack what we've learned from our latest poll.

A Reuters Ipsos poll completed on Wednesday found that a majority of Americans, 57%, believe that President Donald Trump has been erratic in his economic policies in his first weeks in office. That comes at a time that Trump has started trade wars with some of the nation's largest trading partners, including Canada, Mexico, and China.

And that trade war and the on-again, off-again nature of it has contributed to significant sell-offs in stocks in the United States and other parts of the world. There was a pronounced partisan breakdown in voters' views with about nine out of ten Democrats saying they believe Trump's policy has been erratic.

compared to three out of 10 Republicans. So that's a minority view on the Republican side of the aisle, but a significant minority view. It's also important to note that the poll found that Americans' top concern, the thing that they really want Trump to be tackling, is inflation and the cost of living. Six out of 10 respondents cited that as their top goal for him. That's substantially more than cited other Trump priorities.

And it's also important to note that seven out of ten respondents to the polls said they believed that tariffs would push the cost of groceries and other everyday items higher. That's particularly significant because it suggests that members of the public may be concerned that Trump's actually contributing to a problem they expect him to fight. Russia has given the U.S. a list of its demands for a deal to end the war with Ukraine. That's according to two sources familiar with the matter.

It's not clear exactly what Moscow has on the list or whether there's a willingness to hold talks with Kiev before those demands are accepted. But on the battlefield, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the front lines in Kursk for the first time since Ukraine attacked the region. Appearing in military fatigues, Putin ordered top commanders to defeat Ukrainian forces as soon as possible.

A U.S. judge has extended his order blocking federal authorities from deporting detained Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil. U.S. District Judge Jesse Fuhrman wants more time to consider if the arrest was unconstitutional. In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Khalil's wife says she was naive to believe he was safe from being arrested.

You can read what she had to say about his case on Reuters.com or on our app by following the link in the pod description. Senate Democrats say they'll reject a stopgap funding bill that would fund the government through September. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is calling for a one-month extension to allow time for Congress to consider individual spending bills. The move raises the chances of a government shutdown at the end of the week.

Beau Erickson is in Washington. The argument that Senate Democrats were telling us today is that the bill that passed the House is a partisan bill, they said, that incorporated no Democrat feedback in it and that it creates a so-called slush fund for President Donald Trump by placing fewer requirements on how the administration has to spend this money. So they said,

Because Democrats were not given a voice in this process, we are not going to put forward these kind of procedural votes in order to move the funding bill forward. They say four weeks would allow both Democrats and Republican appropriators to get back in the room and work on a longer term government funding package that incorporates federal

priorities from both parties. Now, how would it work for Democrats to actually be able to get this extension? Right now, the Senate Democrats, they are saying they are going to hold firm together and that they will not vote to advance the bill forward to kind of that final passage. That's called a cloture vote.

I think it's important to note, though, that there are some Democrats already who seem like they are willing to support the House pass spending bill. One specifically, I spoke with Senator John Fetterman today. He's a moderate Democrat from Pennsylvania, and he told us, look, there is some pressure to vote for this bill, especially for Democrats in competitive states, the more moderate ones, because Democrats

if they do not come up with an alternative, they could look like they are the ones that are withholding their votes and potentially causing a shutdown at the end of this week. Security forces in Argentina clash with an unlikely mix of retirees and soccer fans. At a protest against President Javier Millet's pension cuts, police used water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse the demonstrators.

President Trump says his tariffs will incentivize companies to start making their goods in the U.S. again. But our reporting has found that with clothing, that's easier said than done. We asked men's fashion writer Derek Guy, that's right, the menswear guy online, what made in America really means for garments.

Well, the Federal Trade Commission has an actual rule for that. And the rule is, is that most, if not almost all of the item has to be made in the United States. So for a garment, that means the fiber is grown in the United States. The fiber is spun into yarn in the United States and then woven into fabric in the United States and then made into a garment in the United States.

So some things may not be worth reshoring. Whether or not things will reshore back to the US really depends on the type of item. On some level, it's hard to reshore certain items, like very basic t-shirts or cheap jeans.

Partly because as the U.S. has moved towards a post-industrial economy, the most productive parts of our economy tends to be in knowledge-intensive services. And so the thing about the garment industry is that it still remains fairly labor-intensive. Someone still has to cut and sew the item.

And other things just can't be reshored, right? We can't grow the goats that are necessary to harvest cashmere. So some of those fibers at least have to be brought in from parts of China and Mongolia. And while we have you, on Wednesday, President Trump took particular interest in Vice President J.D. Vance's socks. I love these socks. What's with these socks? LAUGHTER

For listeners who haven't seen them, they were white with green shamrocks in honour of the visiting Irish leader.

So Derek, what's your take? Did he pull it off? I think it would have looked better in dark socks. I mean, I have to admit, I'm not crazy about these kind of like novelty socks. George H.W. Bush famously loved fun socks. I think it's easier to pull them off when you're George H.W. Bush in his older years. But if you had to, and certainly when the Irish leader is coming to visit, I think it's, you know, as much as there's an occasion to do so, that's maybe an occasion to do so. But it would have been better if he wore darker socks.

You can read more on why a major shift to US clothing production is unlikely by following the link to our Reuters article in the description.

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For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.