Trump admin live updates: Trump, Schumer trade barbs over Senate nominations

President Trump is slapping tariffs on Brazil and sanctions on a Brazilian judge over what the White House says is a "politically motivated persecution" of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.

Trump signed an executive order slapping another 40% tariff on Brazil, bringing its total tariff rate to 50% when combined with the 10% baseline tariff. Trump took the action to "deal with recent policies, practices, and actions by the Government of Brazil that constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States," according to a White House fact sheet about the move.

The fact sheet said that the criminal charges against Bolsonaro's "politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters are serious human rights abuses" have undermined Brazil's rule of law.

The tariffs do have carve-outs for some key imports. There are exemptions on goods including orange juice, aircraft and energy, which could reduce the impact of the duties.

That comes as the Treasury Department announced today sanctions on Alexandre de Moraes, a Brazilian Supreme Federal Court justice, who they claim has "used his position to authorize arbitrary pre-trial detentions and suppress freedom of expression."

"Alexandre de Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against U.S. and Brazilian citizens and companies,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a press release. "De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions—including against former President Jair Bolsonaro."

Bolsonaro has been charged in Brazil for an attempted coup d état. Trump and Bolsonaro have long been close, Bolsonaro attempted to travel to the U.S. for Trump's inauguration in January of this year, but that request was declined by de Moraes.

-ABC News’ Molly Nagle, Shannon Kingston and Michelle Stoddart

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday he is “pushing for aggressively” a full release of the Epstein files during a CNN interview on Wednesday.

“And by the way, so is the president. He has said the same thing. We're using every mechanism within our power to do that and to do it as quickly as possible,” he said during an interview with CNN while standing in front of a crowd at an event in Louisiana.

“I want everything to come out about the Epstein evils that is possible to be released, because the people that were involved in those unspeakable evil acts should be punished with the great severity of the law, and it should have happened a long time ago. So, I'm fully in favor of that. We have to do it in a responsible manner,” he added.

Johnson pushed back on Rep. Thomas Massie’s bipartisan effort to force a House vote on releasing the Epstein files.

“I have no interest in getting into the back and forth with Thomas Massie. He's doing what he's doing. Everybody can judge the motivation for themselves. I don't know what he's talking about,” Johnson said.

-ABC News’ Lauren Peller

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Wednesday to put a 50% tariff on copper into effect on Aug. 1.

"The Proclamation imposes universal 50% tariffs on imports of semi-finished copper products (such as copper pipes, wires, rods, sheets, and tubes) and copper-intensive derivative products (such as pipe fittings, cables, connectors, and electrical components), effective August 1," according to the White House.

Trump previously announced this tariff would go into effect, but made it official on Wednesday with the signing of this proclamation.

-ABC News' Michelle Stoddart

The White House’s top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, celebrated Wednesday's report that U.S. gross domestic product increased at a 3% annualized rate over three months ending in June.

“It's really one of the best GDP announcements or releases that you could imagine, because there's blockbuster growth way above expectation, and there's also a real, real, almost collapse in inflation,” Hassett said.

“It went down by about a percent and a half, all the way down to 2.1% which is the Fed's target. And so to have high growth with low inflation and also high income growth, personal income growth was 3% that's just like about a sweet spot for a GDP release," Hassett continued.

The GDP reading amounted to sturdy economic growth, suggesting the economy has continued to avert a significant tariff-induced cooldown. A boost in consumer spending helped propel the economic surge, the U.S. Commerce Department said. Read more about Wednesday's economic data here.

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie and Max Zahn