Summary
Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. And you can also follow along with our continuing coverage of the US’s tariffs announcement here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
Donald Trump signed four executive orders boosting coal production this afternoon. The orders direct government agencies to “end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry,” including by ending the leasing moratorium on coal on federal land, accelerating all permitted funding for coal projects, protecting coal power plants scheduled to be shuttered, and investigating state or local governments that “discriminate against coal”.
The US will impose a staggering 104% tariff on China at 12.01am ET on Wednesday. The decision comes after Beijing did not lift its retaliatory tariffs on US goods by Trump’s Tuesday noon deadline. Meanwhile, Canada’s retaliatory 25% tariffs on some American cars will go into effect at 12.01 ET tonight. Trump says a “major” tariff on pharmaceutical imports is coming “very shortly”.
During his executive order ceremony this afternoon, Trump tried to assuage fears of a recession, saying that tariffs are bringing in $2bn a day. The White House has also said that nearly 70 countries have reached out looking to begin negotiations to lower or postpone their tariffs.
A federal judge ruled that the White House’s decision to block the Associated Press from its press pool is unconstitutional. The ruling comes nearly two months after the White House first barred an AP reporter from the Oval Office over the outlet’s decision to continue using the term “Gulf of Mexico” after Donald Trump issued an executive order renaming the body of water the “Gulf of America.”
The US will take back the Panama Canal from Chinese influence, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said during a rare visit to to the nation still unsettled by Trump’s threats to take back the canal. Just hours after his visit, the Chinese Embassy in Panama issued a statement calling Hegseth’s comments part of “a sensationalistic campaign” to “sabotage Chinese-Panamanian cooperation”.
An immigration judge has ruled that if the Trump administration cannot provide evidence supporting Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation by 5pm tomorrow, she may order his release on Friday. Earlier today, Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla published an exclusive letter to her husband with the Guardian.
A New York judge will hear arguments tomorrow about the legality of Donald Trump’s deportations of Venezuelan immigrants, one day after the supreme court issued a ruling saying immigrant rights advocates had filed their case in the wrong state. After the supreme court issued its ruling yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union re-filed its case in Manhattan.
Hours after the Internal Revenue Service formalized an agreement to share tax information of undocumented immigrants with Homeland Security, the acting head of the Irs has decided to step down. The acting Irs commissioner, Melanie Krause, is the third person to lead the tax agency since Donald Trump took office in January.
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With Donald Trump’s 104% tariff on Chinese goods scheduled to go into effect overnight, Chinese businesses based in Yiwu – home to the world’s largest wholesale market – are prepared to focus their business on trade with countries outside the US.
My colleague Amy Hawkins reports:
Wang Guiying has been selling wholesale picture frames in Yiwu for 30 years. She says that fewer than 10% of her customers are in the US, a much smaller share than when she first set up shop. These days, most of her buyers are from the Middle East.
Speaking to Republican leaders this evening, Donald Trump urged House holdouts to approve a Senate budget proposal.
“Just get the damn thing done and stop showboating,” he said at a meeting of the National Republican congressional committee. “If we don’t do it, it’s going to be a disaster. And you just better hope that people believe that it was the Democrats’ fault, because you know they’re very good at saying it was our fault.”
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Trump says 'major' pharma tariff coming soon
Donald Trump says his administration is planning to announce a “major” tariff on pharmaceuticals “very shortly”. The president discussed the tariff at an event with the National Republican congressional committee, Reuters reports, saying such a duty would incentivize drug companies to relocate to the United States.
“We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals and once we do that they’re going to come rushing back into our country because we’re the big market,” he said. “So we’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals and when they hear that, they will leave China, they will leave other places because they have to – most of their product is sold here and they’re going to be opening up their plants all over our country.”
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With Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs scheduled to go into effect overnight, Asian markets are feeling the effects of growing investor fears. As markets in Japan opened Wednesday morning, the Nikkei 225 had fallen 3%.
During an executive order signing ceremony today, Trump boasted that Japan and South Korea are sending representatives to the US to make a deal to avoid the tariffs he has levied against them. The Trump administration is poised to levy a staggering 104% tariff against China at midnight tonight.
In the hours since Donald Trump signed four executive orders boosting coal producting, a host of environmental groups have released statements criticizing the orders.
“Again and again politicians fly through coal country with false promises about revitalizing industry, when what they mean is milking the last bit of profits out of Appalachia for the benefit of executives and shareholders,” Elisa Owen, Kentucky Senior Beyond Coal Campaign Organizer, wrote in a statement through the Sierra Club. “Standards that keep our air, water, and working conditions safe: gutted. Cheaper alternatives to producing electricity: boxed out of the market. Unions to defend good paying jobs: undermined at every turn. ‘Reviving coal’ has always been about coal executives, not coal country.”
“Coal is a disaster for our health, our wallets and the planet. President Trump’s efforts to rescue failing coal plants and open our lands to destructive mining is another in a series of actions that sacrifices American lives for fossil fuel industry profit,” said Jill Tauber, vice-president of litigation for Climate & Energy at Earthjustice. “Instead of investing in pollution, we should be leading the way on clean energy.”
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Speaking at a dinner for House Republicans, Donald Trump is seeking to sooth fears about the economic impacts of his tariffs.
“Companies are pouring back into our country,” Trump said at the National Republican congressional committee dinner. “I know what the hell I’m doing. I know what I’m doing, and you know what I’m doing, too. That’s why you vote for me.”
He added that after years of countries ripping off the United States, “now it’s our turn to do the ripping”.
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Hours after the Internal Revenue Service formalized an agreement to share tax information of undocumented immigrants with Homeland Security, the acting head of the Irs has decided to step down, the New York Times reports. The Times cites three people familiar with the matter. The Washington Post shares the same news, citing two people familiar with the situation.
The acting Irs commissioner, Melanie Krause, is the third person to lead the tax agency since Donald Trump took office in January.
Here’s my colleague Rachel Leingang with more on the data sharing agreement earlier today:
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Cornell and Northwestern have joined the ranks of universities that have had funding frozen by the Trump administration amid ongoing civil rights investigations, the New York Times reports.
Citing two administration officials, the Times reports that the Trump administration has frozen more than $1bn in funding for Cornell and $790m for Northwestern. That raises the amount of university funding frozen by the administration to $3.3bn as Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania face similar investigations.
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The text of the four executive orders that Donald Trump signed earlier today regarding coal production in the United States is now available on the White House website.
The orders are titled: “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241”, “Regulatory Relief for Certain Stationary Sources to Promote American Energy”, “Protecting American Energy From State Overreach” and “Strengthening the Reliability and Security of the United States Electric Grid”.
Key event
A New York judge will hear arguments tomorrow about the legality of Donald Trump’s deportations of Venezuelan immigrants, one day after the supreme court issued a ruling saying immigrant rights advocates had filed their case in the wrong state.
After the supreme court issued its ruling yesterday saying that the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act must be heard in a jurisdiction where Venezuelan immigrants are actually being held, the American Civil Liberties Union re-filed its case in Manhattan. The US district judge Alvin K Hellerstein, a Clinton appointee, is scheduled to hear the first arguments in the case at 10am ET tomorrow.
“Contrary to the administration’s wishful characterization, the Supreme Court emphatically rejected the government’s position that they could whisk people away without giving them an opportunity to challenge their removal to a foreign prison,” the ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt told the Washington Post. “The Court simply issued a technical ruling that the challenges should be by habeas corpus, but in no way remotely suggested the Trump administration would win these challenges.”
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Just hours after defense secretary Pete Hegseth visited Panama, saying the United States will “take back the Panama Canal from China’s influence”, the Chinese Embassy in Panama has issued a statement calling Hegseth’s comments part of “a sensationalistic campaign”.
“The U.S. has carried out a sensationalistic campaign about the ‘theoretical Chinese threat’ in an attempt to sabotage Chinese-Panamanian cooperation, which is all just rooted in the United State’s own geopolitical interests,” the embassy wrote.
“China has never participated in the management or operation of the Panama Canal, nor has it interfered in the affairs of the canal,” it added. “It has always respected Panama’s sovereignty over the canal.”
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More than 4,000 people have signed a petition urging Avelo Airlines to end its recent agreement to fly federal deprotation flights for the Trump administration.
The petition, which was launched by the New Haven Immigrant Heritage Coalition, reads: “We pledge to boycott the airline until they stop plans to profit off Ice flights that are tearing families and communities apart.”
My colleague Anna Betts has more:
As House speaker Mike Johnson whips votes for the Senate’s budget proposal, which the House is slated to vote on tomorrow, some Republican lawmakers are criticizing the plan.
At least six House Republicans tell CNN they’re leaning “no” on the measure, saying it does not do enough to cut spending.
“I’ve got a bill in front of me, and it’s a budget. And in my opinion and in my view, it will increase the deficit. And I didn’t come here to do that,” said Texas representative Chip Roy.
An immigration judge has ruled that if the Trump administration cannot provide evidence supporting Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s deportation by 5pm tomorrow, she may order his release on Friday.
My colleague Delaney Nolan has the whole story:
Earlier today, Khalil’s wife, Noor Abdalla published an exclusive letter to her husband with the Guardian. In it, Abdalla writes: “I could not be more proud of you, Mahmoud.”
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Canadian tariffs on US cars to go into effect at midnight
Canada’s retaliatory 25% tariffs on some American cars will go into effect at 12.01 ET tonight, said Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister.
“President Trump caused this trade crisis – and Canada is responding with purpose and with force,” Carney wrote in a social media post.
The tariffs apply only to vehicles not already covered by the US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade agreement.
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In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published this evening, senator Mitch McConnell criticized Donald Trump’s executive order focused on election security. The Kentucky Republican and former Senate majority leader argues that the order is an instance of federal overreach on states’ powers.
“Elections may have national consequences but the power to conduct them rests in state capitols,” McConnell wrote.
He warns that “even a targeted federal mandate to strengthen election integrity today could make it easier for a future Democratic president and Congress to use more sweeping mandates to carry out a complete federal takeover of American elections”.
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A federal judge has ruled that the White House’s decision to block the Associated Press from its press pool is unconstitutional.
“Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists—be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere—it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints,” US district judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, wrote. “The Constitution requires no less.”
The ruling comes nearly two months after the White House first barred an AP reporter from the Oval Office over the outlet’s decision to continue using the term “Gulf of Mexico” after Donald Trump issued an executive order renaming the body of water the “Gulf of America.”
The government has a week to respond to the ruling.
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Trump dismisses criticism of tariffs, claiming US makes $2bn a day from levies
Now that Donald Trump’s executive order signing ceremony has concluded, we’re turning our focus back to the other news of the day – including the state of the stock market just under a week since Trump ordered sweeping tariffs on the United States’s global trading partners.
Wall Street closed today on another day of falling stocks, after US markets opened at higher levels this morning. The S&P fell 1.6%, wiping out an earlier gain of 4.1%. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones lost 0.84% and the Nasdaq composite dropped 2.1%.
During his speech, Trump addressed criticism of his tariff policy, saying that the United States is making $2bn a day in tariffs. He added that Japan and South Korea are sending representatives to the US to make a deal to avoid the tariffs Trump has levied against them.
“America is going to be very rich again very soon,” he said.
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Trump signs four executive orders to boost US coal mining and production
Donald Trump has signed four executive orders on coal.
The first directs all departments and agencies to “end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry” including by ending the leasing moratorium on coal on federal land and accelerate all permitted funding for coal projects.
The second imposes a moratorium on the “unscientific and unrealistic policies enacted by the Biden administration” to protect coal power plants currently operating.
The third promotes “grid security and reliability” by ensuring that grid policies are focused on “secure and effective energy production” as opposed to “woke” policies that “discriminate against secure sources of power like coal and other fossil fuels”.
And the fourth instructs the justice department to “vigorously pursue and investigate” the “unconstitutional” policies of “radically leftist states” that “discriminate against coal”.
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Donald Trump has been joined on stage by a West Virginia coal miner, named Jeff Crow, and Tony Campbell of the East Kentucky Power Cooperative. Both applauded Trump for lowering regulations on coal.
Donald Trump is now criticizing the Green New Deal and saying that climate change will create more “waterfront property”.
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Donald Trump adds that “as part of our historic deregulatory efforts” today, his executive order will grant “immediate regulatory relief to 47 counties operating 66 coal plants” across the country.
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Trump says he’s directed energy secretary Chris Wright to save the Cholla Power Plant – located near the Navajo Nation’s capitol in Window Rock, Arizona, “which has been slated for destruction”.
Donald Trump is now discussing the wildfires that devastated southern California in January, returning to a debate he’s continued with California governor Gavin Newsom about water access in the state’s Central valley.
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Trump is now discussing his mass deportations of Venezuelan migrants, thanking El Salvador for accepting the 238 Venezuelans he deported last month.
He also addressed court challenges to the deportations: “We’ve been forunately winning those cases, but we have judges that are out of control,” he said.
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Trump claims US makes $2bn a day from tariffs
Donald Trump has turned to addressing criticism of his tariff policy, saying that the United States is making $2bn a day in tariffs. He adds that Japan and South Korea are sending representatives to the US to make a deal to avoid the tariffs Trump has levied against them.
“America is going to be very rich again very soon,” he said.
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Donald Trump says his executive order on coal will also direct the federal government to “fight unconstitutional state or local regulations” on coal.
Trump says his executive order will also direct energy secretary Chris Wright to “use billions of dollars in federal funding to invest in the future of coal technology”.
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Donald Trump is highlighting the power of coal in achieving his economic goals.
“The value of untapped coal in our country is one hundred times greater than all the gold in Fort Knox,” Trump says. “And we’re going to unleash it to make America rich and powerful again.”
He later added, that coal will play an important role in “making America the mineral superpower of the world”.
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Trump claims without details that coal executive order can't be overturned
Donald Trump says his executive order will include a legal guarantee that a “radical far-left” president could not overturn his order on coal in the future. He did not include specific details on what that would be.
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Trump extols 'beautiful, clean coal' as he talks of signing executive order
Donald Trump says he will sign an executive order “that slashes unnecessary regulations that targeted the beautiful, clean coal”.
He adds that the US “will rapidly expedite leases for coal mining on federal lands”, “streamline permitting”, “end the government bias against coal”, and use the Defense Production Act “to turbocharge coal mining in America”.
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Donald Trump has called the Paris Climate accords a “scam to take money away from the United States”.
Trump withdrew the US from the global environmental agreement during his first week in office.
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Donald Trump is applauding the coal industry, and criticizing Democratic leaders for turning away from it as a form of energy – while saying China has turned toward it.
“For years, people would just bemoan this industry,” he said. “It’s one of the great, great forms of energy.”
He described visiting West Virginia during his campaign, a state where he won 70% of the vote, where he says Democrats put “thousands of thousands of coal miners out of work”.
“China opened two coal plants every single week,” while Democratic leaders like Joe Biden turned away from coal, he says.
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Donald Trump is speaking now about the importance of energy for American dominance, describing a battle with China for AI supremacy.
Standing in front of a throng of coal miners, Donald Trump has begun speaking by downplaying the environmental impact of coal.
“We’re ending Joe Biden’s war on beautiful, clean coal – and it wasn’t just Biden, it was Obama,” Trump said.
He also thanked his interior secretary Doug Burghum, energy secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin, all of whom have opposed environmental regulations.
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Trump to sign executive orders aimed at boosting coal industry
Trump is expected to sign executive orders shortly aimed at boosting the coal industry, in his latest action that runs counter to global efforts to curb carbon emissions.
Earlier, a White House official told Reuters the actions will also include efforts to save coal plants that were likely to be retired; will direct energy secretary Chris Wright to determine whether coal used in the production of steel is a “critical mineral”; and will direct interior secretary Doug Burgum to acknowledge the end of of a moratorium that paused coal leasing on federal lands and to prioritize coal leasing.
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The day so far
The US will go ahead with imposing a staggering 104% tariff on China from 12.01am ET (12.01pm China Standard Time) on Wednesday, the White House confirmed after Beijing did not lift its retaliatory tariffs on US goods by Trump’s Tuesday noon deadline. It comes as the Trump administration claims “the phones have been ringing off the hook” as countries seek to negotiate with the US on tariffs and trade. Nearly 70 countries have reached out looking to begin negotiations, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed. Earlier today Trump held a “great call” with South Korea’s acting president Han Duck-soo, and said they discussed more than just trade issues. It was also confirmed that the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni will travel to the US next week for talks on tariffs with Trump on 17 April.
The Trump administration has made it clear that it’s not just interested in talking to other countries about tariffs in order to “level the playing field” for US companies trading overseas; they are very preoccupied with the many standards, tests and regulations active in other countries that, in Jamieson Greer’s words, “obstruct US exports”. Some examples given today have come from Greer citing the US’s inability to export beef and pork to Australia (Greer said Australia blocks US pork based “based on specious fake science grounds”), shellfish to the EU, and its limited access to Japan’s agricultural market. Trump has proven very concerned with these non-monetary tariffs, he cited them a lot in his Oval Office news briefing yesterday, highlighting them as a bugbear for him regarding US companies trying to sell products to the EU in particular, and that showed no signs of letting up today.
Meanwhile, Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk reportedly made several pushes to try to get the president to back down on his tariff agenda. His failure to get Trump to listen, however, is evidence to some observers of a growing rift between the US president and the world’s richest person. Asked about the growing insult-heavy feud between Musk and top trade adviser and tariff plan architect Peter Navarro (the latest is Musk called Navarro a “moron”), Leavitt said: “Boys will be boys.”
Elsewhere:
Trump was scheduled to sign executive orders at 3pm ET (we’re still waiting on that) to boost the coal industry, in his latest action that runs counter to global efforts to curb carbon emissions. A White House official told Reuters the actions will also include efforts to save coal plants that were likely to be retired; will direct energy secretary Chris Wright to determine whether coal used in the production of steel is a “critical mineral”; and will direct interior secretary Doug Burgum to acknowledge the end of of a moratorium that paused coal leasing on federal lands and to prioritize coal leasing.
The White House insisted that US-Iran talks in Oman on Saturday regarding Iran’s nuclear programme will be direct, dismissing Iran’s insistence the discussions will be indirect.
The US will take back the Panama Canal from Chinese influence, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said during a rare visit to to the nation still unsettled by Trump’s threats to take back the canal.
The Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud’s has been in Washington today on an official visit aimed at planning Trump’s expected trip to the kingdom later this spring.
A Senate majority voted to confirm Donald Trump’s controversial nominee Elbridge Colby, a former Department of Defense official known as a China hawk, as undersecretary of defense for policy, the Pentagon’s number three post.
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem issued a federal notice that she is waiving a slew of environmental and historical preservation laws to facilitate the construction of a barrier wall and roads in the San Diego area, citing illegal border crossings and drug trafficking, Law360 reported.
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US will take back Panama Canal from 'China's influence', Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth says
The United States will take back the Panama Canal from Chinese influence, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday during a rare visit to to a nation still unsettled by Donald Trump’s threats to take back the canal.
Reuters reports that Hegseth, following talks with Panama’s government, vowed to deepen cooperation and said China would not be allowed to “weaponize” the canal by using Chinese firms’ commercial relationships for espionage.
Together, we will take back the Panama Canal from China’s influence. China did not build this canal. China does not operate this canal and China will not weaponize this canal. Together with Panama in the lead, we will keep the canal secure and available for all nations.
While Hegseth spoke about removing Chinese influence, Trump has spoken in broader terms threatening to take back the canal and not ruled out using military force to do so.
Trump has falsely claimed that China is operating the canal, something even Hegseth said was not true on Tuesday, and that Chinese soldiers are present.
Some US officials and analysts have said there are legitimate concerns about the heavy presence of a Chinese company in a strategically important channel, but believe that Trump’s remarks are really aimed at limiting Beijing’s growing diplomatic and economic presence in Latin America.
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'Boys will be boys': White House on Musk-Navarro public spat
Asked about the public sparring between Elon Musk and Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro, widely seen as the architect of Trump’s tariff plans, Karoline Leavitt says: “Boys will be boys.”
These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue.
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White House insists talks with Iran will be direct, despite Iran saying they will be indirect
Confusingly, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has insisted that US-Iran talks in Oman on Saturday regarding Iran’s nuclear programme will be direct, dismissing Iran’s insistence the discussions will be indirect.
“They will be direct talks on Saturday,” Leavitt told reporters, saying she had no more details to share.
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China has to make a deal with the US, White House says
Donald Trump believes that China has to make a deal with the United States concerning additional tariffs that are set to go into effect on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a news briefing.
“The Chinese want to make a deal. They just don’t know how to do it,” Leavitt said on Tuesday. “He believes China has to make a deal with the United States.”
If China reaches out, she added, Trump would be “incredibly gracious, but he’s going to do what’s best for the American people”.
Nearly 70 countries have reached out seeking tariff deals, White House says
Nearly 70 countries have reached out to the White House looking to begin negotiations on reducing the impact of Donald Trump’s tariff policy, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Leavitt told reporters that deals will be made if they benefit American workers and address chronic trade deficits. Trump directed his team to work on “tailor-made deals” for each country that reaches out.
US to go ahead with imposition of 104% tariff on China from Wednesday after Beijing did not lift retaliatory tariffs
The United States will impose a 104% tariff on China from 12:01am ET (12:01pm China Standard Time) on Wednesday, a White House official said after Beijing did not lift its retaliatory tariffs on US goods by a noon Tuesday deadline set by Donald Trump.
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Iran says talks with US will be indirect, contrary to Trump’s words
Iran, wrongfooted by Donald Trump’s revelation that “direct talks” between the US and Iran on its nuclear programme are set to start in Oman on Saturday, insisted the talks would actually be in an indirect format, but added that the intentions of the negotiators were more important than the format.
Trump on Monday threw Tehran off guard by revealing the plan for the weekend talks and saying that if the talks failed Iran would be in “great danger”. There has been an unprecedented US military buildup across the Middle East in recent weeks, and Trump’s decision to make the talks public looks designed to press Iran to negotiate with urgency.
The US delegation to the talks will be led by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, who has also been involved in talks with Russia over the Ukraine war; and the Iranian side by its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi. Witkoff’s efforts to broker peace between Israel and Hamas and between Russia and Ukraine have so far failed.
Iran had in public been stalling about talks, saying simply that it was prepared for indirect talks with the US, but had not yet received a formal response from the US as to whether talks were going ahead. In a post on X issued some hours after Trump used an Oval Office press conference to reveal the agreement to stage weekend talks, Araghchi described the talks as an opportunity and a test. He insisted the ball was in the US’s court.
Speaking during a visit to Algiers, Araghchi elaborated that Iran wanted indirect talks. He said:
The form of negotiations is not important, whether they are direct or indirect. In my opinion, what is important is whether the negotiations are effective or ineffective, whether the parties are serious or not in the negotiations, the intentions of the parties in the negotiations, and the will to reach a solution. These are the criteria for action in any dialogue.
A new round of US-Russia consultations will take place on 10 April at the Russian consulate in Istanbul, a diplomatic source told Reuters.
In February, Russian and US teams held talks in Istanbul to try to restore normal functioning of their embassies. The talks, focused narrowly on conditions for each other’s diplomats, provided an early test of the two countries’ ability to reset wider relations.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian state-run TASS news agency reported that delegations from Russia and the US would meet for consultations in Istanbul in the coming days, citing the Russian foreign ministry.
The Russian delegation will be led by Alexander Darchiev, recently appointed as Russia’s ambassador to the US, while the US delegation will be headed by deputy assistant secretary of state Sonata Coulter, TASS reported.
Both delegations will be made up of only diplomats and the talks will focus on normalising the operations of the diplomatic missions of both countries, TASS quoted Russia’s foreign ministry as saying.
US and Russian officials met in February in the Saudi capital Riyadh where they agreed to explore the “economic and investment opportunities” that could arise for their countries from an end to the war in Ukraine, part of a broader rapprochement with Moscow sought by the new Trump administration.
Elon Musk reportedly made several pushes for Trump to back off global tariffs surge
Elon Musk made personal, repeated attempts to try to get Donald Trump to back off from the wave of global tariffs that have created turmoil in international markets, it was reported on Tuesday.
Musk’s failure to get Trump to listen, however, is evidence to some observers of a growing rift between the US president and the world’s richest person, who has been leading the White House’s efforts to curb federal spending as head of the unofficial department of government efficiency (Doge).
Two sources confirmed to the Washington Post (paywall) that Musk had made a number of personal approaches to Trump over the weekend to try to persuade him to reverse the slate of trade tariffs he announced last Thursday on a vast number of countries, many of them longstanding US allies.
Their imposition tanked stock markets worldwide on Monday, wiped trillions of dollars from the values of numerous companies, and dinged the wealth of several billionaire friends of Trump, including Musk, a founder of Tesla and SpaceX, and owner of X – whose personal fortune fell below $300bn for the first time since last year, according to reports.
At the same time as Musk was pleading with Trump, he was appearing online at a rightwing conference in Italy calling for zero tariffs between the US and the European Union. “That has certainly been my advice to the president,” he told attenders of the far-right League party conference in Florence.
On Monday, Musk intensified an insult-heavy social media feud with Peter Navarro, a key Trump ally and White House trade adviser said to be a guiding force behind the tariffs strategy. It escalated, and escalated, and escalated.
The Post said Musk’s opposition to what has become Trump’s signature economic policy “marks the highest-profile disagreement between the president and one of his key advisers”. It follows reports that the billionaire will soon be leaving government to return to running his businesses.
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A little more from US trade representative Jamieson Greer’s Senate hearing earlier, per Reuters.
Greer told senators that US companies could feel pain from reworking supply chains after Donald Trump announced his global tariff program.
Greer, who oversees the tariff implementation, told the Senate finance committee that companies should prepare to rework their supply chains for the future and source materials domestically, if needed.
We can’t keep doing the same thing we always did and if companies are having trouble adjusting their supply chain, which are very sensitive to, we have to deal. We can’t do nothing for four years.
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Senate confirms Trump’s controversial pick for Pentagon No 3 job
A majority of the Senate has voted to confirm Donald Trump’s controversial nominee Elbridge Colby, a former Department of Defense official known as a China hawk, as undersecretary of defense for policy, the Pentagon’s number three post, Reuters reports.
The Senate voted 54-45 in favor, largely along party lines. Three Democrats voted in favor of Colby and one Republican voted against him, with another Republican not voting. This is despite, the Hill notes, the private concerns from a number of Republican senators about Colby’s past statements and views.
In the role, Colby will be responsible for briefing the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on all defense policy matters.
Colby was deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development during Trump’s first term as president. He is known for arguing that the US military should prioritize competition with China and shift its focus from the Middle East and Europe.
Colby was closely questioned about those views by Democrats and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans during his confirmation hearing. He repeatedly declined to answer when asked if Russian president Vladimir Putin had invaded Ukraine, citing Trump’s ongoing “delicate” diplomacy.
He was strongly supported by those close to Trump, with Vice-President JD Vance, noted by the Hill, introducing “Bridge” as a friend at his confirmation hearing. He also had the backing of Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, and close ally Elon Musk.
The only Senate Republican who voted against Colby’s confirmation on Tuesday was Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the party’s former leader.
At his confirmation hearing in March, Colby also was questioned about whether his view of defending Taiwan had softened. Colby said then that Taiwan needs to dramatically increase its defense spending to about 10% of gross domestic product in order to deter a war with China.
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Italian PM Giorgia Meloni to travel to US next week for tariff talks with Trump
Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni will travel to the United States next week for talks on tariffs with Donald Trump on 17 April, her office said on Tuesday.
Meloni is facing a diplomatic balancing act as she is an ally of Trump but also under pressure to defend Italy’s export-focused industry.
Italy last year ran the third-largest trade surplus in the European Union for goods with the US, after Germany and Ireland.
The prime minister has called Trump’s decision on tariffs a mistake, but warned that EU countermeasures could escalate a trade war, and called for negotiations to mitigate the crisis.
Countries from the European Union face 25% import tariffs on steel and aluminum and cars and broader tariffs of 20% for almost all other goods under Trump’s policy to hit countries he says impose high barriers to US imports.
Although EU ministers have agreed they should prioritise negotiations, the bloc is set to approve the first retaliatory measures this week.
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The Supreme Court has blocked a ruling from a federal judge in California that had ordered the Trump administration to rehire thousands of fired federal workers who had been put on probationary status.
The court’s order said the nonprofit groups that had sued to challenge the firings did not have standing to sue. “The District Court’s injunction was based solely on the allegations of the nine non-profit-organization plaintiffs in this case,” the order says. “But under established law, those allegations are presently insufficient to support the organizations’ standing.
Deadline for China to avoid 50% extra tariff passes
The deadline President Trump gave China to withdraw their retaliatory tariffs has just now passed.
Trump wrote yesterday on his Truth Social platform “if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
China’s US embassy said yesterday it would not cave to pressure or threats over the additional 50% tariffs. “We have stressed more than once that pressuring or threatening China is not a right way to engage with us. China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Liu Pengyu, an embassy spokesman, told Agence France-Presse.
South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, said his country would not band together with other countries such as China to push back against the tariffs imposed by President Trump.
“I don’t think that kind of fighting back will improve the situation dramatically,” he said in an interview with CNN. “I don’t think it will be really profitable for the three of us, and especially for Korea.” He added that South Korea “clearly would like to negotiate” with Washington.
Trade Representative Jamieson Greer defended the Trump administration’s decision to apply a 10% tariff on Australia despite a free trade agreement, citing the country’s ban on imports of US beef and pork.
“We should be running up the score in Australia,” Greer said at today’s hearing. “Despite the agreement, they ban our beef, they ban our pork.”
Greer also told senators that negotiations with nations seeking to lower the reciprocal tariffs announced by President Trump last week would proceed country by country.
Greer claims – after first dodging the question – that it will be companies that are heavily reliant on imports from China and Asia more widely, rather than ordinary Americans, that will bear the burden of the “short-term pain” resulting from Trump’s tariff policy.
Back at Greer’s Senate hearing, he was asked to speak to Australia denying the US access to it’s huge market in beef as a result of [you guessed it] “non-tariff barriers to trade”.
Greer says yes, the US imports a lot of beef from Australia whereas Australia doesn’t take any.
He also highlights US pork, which, he says, Australia blocks “based on specious fake science grounds”.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent says he expects a couple of big deals ‘very quickly’ on tariffs
Earlier this morning, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said he expected a couple of big deals “very quickly” in relation to Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcement.
NewsNation reports that Bessent told reporters:
We have one of the Vietnamese officials coming in this week, the Japanese are very eager to get over, and I think you’re going to see a couple of big trading partners make deals very quickly.
His comments saw stocks rally at the Wall Street open as traders appear to be hoping that some of the tariffs announced last week will be negotiated away, as some countries call the White House to agree to talks.
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Exceptions or exemptions to tariffs not expected in the near term, says US trade representative Greer
Back at Greer’s Senate hearing, Greer says exemptions to Donald Trump’s global tariffs are not expected in the near term.
The president has been clear, again, that he’s not doing exemptions or exceptions in the near term.
Greer said that “Swiss cheese” in the process would undermine the goal of trade reciprocity.
The trade representative, who oversees the implementation of the tariffs, also said there is no particular timeline for trade negotiations.
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Away from Greer’s Senate hearing for a moment.
Mike Howell, the head of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s so-called oversight project, is expected to advance an inflammatory conspiracy theory before the Senate judiciary committee that pardons signed by Joe Biden are invalid because they were signed by autopen.
The snipe will be targeted at Senator Adam Schiff, who received a pre-emptive pardon over his work on the House committee investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot that Howell will say is void, a person familiar with the matter said.
In alleging that Schiff’s pardon is invalid, Howell would elevate a conspiracy theory that has taken hold in Maga circles that the former president was too mentally impaired to sign pardons himself and unaware of what documents he was endorsing.
The autopen feature uses a real pen to copy a person’s actual signature. Presidents – including Trump – have used autopens for decades, and the justice department said in a memo two decades ago that presidents could direct an aide to “affix his signature” to bills.
But Howell, leaning into concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity, started a campaign last month to cast doubt on the legitimacy on the former president’s executive actions.
After the Missouri attorney general questioned in a letter whether Biden had the capacity to sign pardons and executive orders, Howell seized on the matter and sparked a rightwing frenzy with a conspiratorial post on X: “Whoever controlled the autopen controlled the presidency.”
Howell is expected to fan the flames of the idea that a deep state cabal was secretly running the country instead of Biden before the Senate judiciary committee, during a hearing into the Freedom of Information Act.
But there is no evidence that Biden did not have the mental capacity to sign executive actions – or that they were not authorized.
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Greer tells senators that China has not indicated that it wants to work toward trade reciprocity.
Unfortunately, China for many years seems to be choosing its own path on market access. They elected to announce retaliation, other countries did not. Other countries have signaled that they’d like to find a path toward reciprocity. China has not said that and we will see where that goes.
Greer he is due to have a call with his Indian counterpart to discuss India’s “significant non-tariff barriers”.
Answering a question, Greer says, yes, he will try to include commitments on matters such as intellectual property, technical barriers to trade and science-based agricultural rules in his talks with India.
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Greer says the administration is seeking more market access in Japan regarding agriculture and in terms of “structural impediments to some [US] industrial goods in terms of standards and regulations”.
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Greer says nearly 50 countries, including Argentina, India, Vietnam and Israel, have approached him personally to discuss Trump’s tariffs policy and start negotiations to reduce their tariffs on the US.
US trade representative Jamieson Greer testifies on Donald Trump’s trade and tariff policies before Senate committee
US trade representative Jamieson Greer has been testifying on Donald Trump’s trade and tariff policies before the Senate finance committee.
Greer said Trump imposed tariffs to address the “emergency” of the “massive” US trade deficit. He calls the deficit “an economic and national security emergency”, adding: “We can’t ignore it.”
He cited “higher tariffs imposed by other countries on the US, as well as the effect of [there’s that phrase again] non-tariff measures that promote other countries’ exports and obstruct US exports, and other foreign economic policies favoring over-production and degrading America’s manufacturing capacity”.
He said it was “common sense” to focus on these “indicators” of “non-reciprocal trading conditions”.
As an example he cited trade in shellfish with the EU. “The EU can sell us all the shellfish they want,” he says, “but the EU bans shellfish from 48 states. The result is a trade deficit in shellfish with the EU”
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An update from Reuters on the Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud’s visit to Washington today – the official visit is aimed at planning Donald Trump’s expected trip to the kingdom later this spring, a source close to the Saudi royal court told the news agency.
Prince Faisal would also discuss Gaza and the status of Yemen’s Houthis during meetings with US government officials, the source said.
The trip was scheduled before last week’s US tariffs announcement, the source added.
Reuters reports that Trump plans to visit Saudi Arabia as early as May to sign an investment agreement in what will be the first foreign trip of his second term, with stops also planned in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Trump made Saudi Arabia and Israel the initial stops on his inaugural foreign trip during his first term in 2017.
In a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, Trump once again raised his highly controversial proposal for the US to take control of Gaza. The plan has been globally condemned, including by Saudi Arabia.
In Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia to the south, the US has launched airstrikes against the Iran-aligned Houthis in an effort to force an end to the group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. The airstrikes are the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January.
Trump to sign executive orders to boost US coal industry
Donald Trump will sign executive orders on Tuesday to boost the coal industry, a senior White House official and two sources told Reuters, in his latest action that runs counter to global efforts to curb carbon emissions.
Trump campaigned on a promise to increase US energy output and has sought to roll back energy and environmental regulations since taking office in January.
He is scheduled to sign energy related orders at the White House at 3pm ET, the White House said.
The actions will also include efforts to save coal plants that were likely to be retired, said the sources close to the matter, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The orders will direct energy secretary Chris Wright to determine whether coal used in the production of steel is a “critical mineral” the White House official said.
It also directs interior secretary Doug Burgum to acknowledge the end of of a moratorium that paused coal leasing on federal lands and to prioritize coal leasing.
Trump: 'We are waiting for China to call'
Just to highlight that in that post on Truth Social regarding his call with South Korea’s acting president, Trump said at the end that he is waiting for China to call to begin trade negotiations. Here’s that part:
China also wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to get it started. We are waiting for their call. It will happen!
Wall Street surges 3% as European markets rebound on trade deal hopes
Stocks are surging on Wall Street at the start of trading.
The S&P 500 share index has jumped by 3.3% as investors pile into stocks, up 169 points at 5,232 points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which tracks 30 large US companies, has surged by 1,380 points, or 3.6%, to 39,346 points. The tech-focused Nasdaq index jumped 3.7%.
Shares are rallying after US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that he believes the US can reach “some good deals” with trading partners.
This will bring some relief to stock holders, after the sharp plunge in share values on Thursday and Friday last week.
That follows a wild day’s trading yesterday, in which the Dow ended up down 0.9% while the S&P 500 dropped 0.2% for the day. The Nasdaq was 0.1% up.
Traders appear to be hoping that some of the tariffs announced by Donald Trump last week will be negotiated away, as some countries call the White House to agree talks.
However, as Donald Trump just posted, he is still waiting for the phone to ring from Beijing.
Trump touts 'great' call with South Korean acting president on both tariffs and 'non-tariff subjects'
We haven’t yet had South Korea’s acting president Han Duck-soo’s take on the call, but we have heard from Donald Trump, who has said the call was “great” and that the two leaders discussed tariffs, shipbuilding and potential energy deals as well as other subjects not related to trade and tariffs.
“We have the confines and probability of a great DEAL for both countries. Their top TEAM is on a plane heading to the US, and things are looking good,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, reiterating that South Korea’s trade minister was on his way to the US to meet with his counterpart for negotiations over tariffs.
Trump said they discussed “tariffs, shipbuilding, large-scale purchase of US LNG and South Korea’s joint venture [with Japan] in an Alaska pipeline” (Bloomberg – paywall – has more on that).
Away from trade and returning to this theme of qualms he has with so-called “non-monetary tariffs” – or, as he puts it here, negotiating “subjects that are not covered by trade and tariffs”, Trump said the two leaders also discussed payment for US military protection.
Here’s the full post:
I just had a great call with the Acting President of South Korea. We talked about their tremendous and unsustainable Surplus, Tariffs, Shipbuilding, large scale purchase of U.S. LNG, their joint venture in an Alaska Pipeline, and payment for the big time Military Protection we provide to South Korea. They began these Military payments during my first term, Billions of Dollars, but Sleepy Joe Biden, for reasons unknown, terminated the deal. That was a shocker to all! In any event, we have the confines and probability of a great DEAL for both countries. Their top TEAM is on a plane heading to the U.S., and things are looking good. We are likewise dealing with many other countries, all of whom want to make a deal with the United States. Like with South Korea, we are bringing up other subjects that are not covered by Trade and Tariffs, and getting them negotiated also. “ONE STOP SHOPPING” is a beautiful and efficient process!!! China also wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to get it started. We are waiting for their call. It will happen! GOD BLESS THE USA.
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South Korea's acting president talks with Trump as trade minister travels to US to negotiate 25% tariff
South Korea’s acting president Han Duck-soo has spoken with Donald Trump over the phone, a day before Trump’s 25% tariff is scheduled to kick in.
Han vowed an “all-out” response as Asia’s fourth-biggest economy reeled from Thursday’s announcement of 25% tariffs on its exports to the US, with its auto industry expected to be hit particularly hard. He said on Thursday:
As the situation is very grave with the approach of the reality of a global tariff war, the government must pour out all of its capabilities at its disposal to overcome this trade crisis.
It is the first time Trump spoke with any of South Korea’s acting leaders since he took office in January, while now-impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol, with whom Trump had a phone call the day after his election victory last November, was suspended from duties.
The phone call between Han and Trump also comes as South Korea’s trade minister is traveling to the US to meet with his counterpart for negotiations over tariffs.
Cheong In-kyo, who will meet US trade representative Jamieson Greer during the visit, said on Tuesday that the government has been considering measures to increase imports from the US.
Cheong also said it was good news ahead of his visit that Trump said the door was open for talks over tariffs with nations other than China. (When Trump announced his additional 50% tariff threat on Monday he said all talks with China had been terminated, but later seemed to contradict himself by saying: “We’ll be talking to China.”)
“It is difficult to reduce exports, so shouldn’t we then increase [US] imports? In that regard, we have been reviewing many different packages of measures to resolve the trade balance problem,” Cheong said, before flying to Washington.
He noted that the government had had internal discussions about increasing LNG imports from the US.
Cheong added he will dispute Washington’s calculation of its 25% tariff on South Korea, which he called “problematic” given the two countries’ existing free trade pact.
Trump also announced a 46% duty for Vietnam, where major South Korean conglomerates like Samsung and LG manufacture products. That will deal a “huge blow” to South Korean exporters with production bases there, finance minister Choi Sang-mok said on Tuesday.
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Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud landed in the United States on Tuesday, an official source told Reuters.
He was part of the Saudi delegation that hosted and facilitated talks between the US and Russia in Riyadh in February. We’ll bring you more on his visit as we get it.
Homeland security secretary to waive federal environmental laws for California border wall
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem has issued a federal notice that she is waiving a slew of environmental and historical preservation laws to facilitate the construction of a barrier wall and roads in the San Diego area, citing illegal border crossings and drug trafficking, reports Law360.
In a notice of determination to be published on Tuesday in the Federal Register, Noem cited the department’s mission to secure US borders and prevent illegal entry into the country as she announced that laws including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act will be waived to accommodate the construction work.
It mirror’s Department of Homeland Security policy during the first Trump administration that waived environmental laws and other regulations to “ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads” near the US-Mexico border south of San Diego “to deter illegal crossings in areas of high illegal entry into the United States”. Then, as now, the move stemmed from a Donald Trump executive order to move forward with building his border wall.
Trump’s 20 January “Securing Our Borders” executive order was mentioned in the notice, as was a congressional mandate in the Secure Fence Act of 2006, both of which authorize the DHS secretary to maintain operational control of the international land border.
Congress in the Secure Fence Act defines “operational control” as the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists and other unlawful aliens, as well as the illegal introduction of narcotics and other contraband into the country, Noem’s notice said.
Trump’s order has directed Noem to take all appropriate action “to deploy and construct physical barriers to ensure complete operational control of the southern border of the United States”, according to Noem.
She said the US border patrol San Diego sector is an area of high illegal entry of people and narcotics.
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'Everything is on the table,' says Scott Bessent on negotiations around EU 'non-tariff barriers'
“Everything is on the table,” Bessent said when asked whether the European Union needed to lower non-tariff barriers including value-added taxes (VAT).
Everything is on the table. The academic literature shows that it’s actually the non-tariff barriers which are harder, both harder to quantify and … they’re more insidious because they’re hidden, they’re obfuscated.
His reference to “non-tariff barriers” mirrors Donald Trump’s comments from the Oval Office yesterday about his qualms with “non-monetary tariffs” regarding the EU, but he was less vague than Bessent, suggesting that EU standards, rules and regulations were “non-monetary barriers” for US companies trying to trade with the bloc.
“It’s not only tariffs, it’s non-monetary tariffs. It’s tariffs where they put things on that make it impossible for you to sell a car. It’s not a money thing. They make it so difficult – the standards and the tests,” Trump said.
“So they come up with rules and regulations that are just designed for one reason: that you can’t sell your product in those countries and we’re not going to let that happen. Those are called non-monetary barriers,” he said.
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China tariff escalation is 'a big mistake', says US treasury secretary Scott Bessent after China rejects Trump's threats
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has been on the airwaves this morning, telling CNBC that “China’s escalation is a big mistake” and insisting that the US has the upper hand in the trade war brewing between Washington and Beijing.
I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation. We are the deficit country. So what do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us? We export one fifth to them of what they export to us. So that is a losing hand for them.
Yesterday Donald Trump threatened China with an additional 50% tariff (on top of the 20% and 34% he previously announced) if it did not withdraw its retaliatory levies – due to take effect tomorrow.
Bessent’s language echoes that of China’s commerce ministry, which last night rejected Trump’s threats as a “mistake on top of a mistake” and accused the US of “blackmail”. It vowed to “resolutely take countermeasures”, adding:
China will fight to the end if the US side is bent on going down the wrong path.
Bessent also claimed that US tariff negotiations are the result of calls from other countries and not sliding financial markets.
Related: Wall Street traders on Trump tariffs: ‘Without doubt, we’re hitting a recession’
About 70 countries have reached out to the White House to begin talks, Bessent said, adding that Trump will be personally involved in trade negotiations.
You can watch the full interview here.
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President Donald Trump will sign executive orders on Tuesday aimed at boosting the nation’s coal industry, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Trump, who campaigned on a promise to increase US energy production and has sought to roll back a wide range of energy and environmental regulations since taking office 20 January, is scheduled to sign energy-related orders at the White House at 3pm, the White House said.
Trump plans to sign several executive orders directing the Interior and Energy Departments to take actions to support the industry, according to a source briefed on the details of the event. Both sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The actions will also include efforts to save coal plants at risk of retirement, the source said.
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The European Union still wants to avoid a trade war with the United States despite Donald Trump’s administration’s rejection of the “zero for zero” offer on all industrial goods put forward by Brussels, an EU spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Monday that the European Union needed to lower its non-tariff barriers, including those created by value-added taxes and food safety regulations, if it wanted to reach a deal.
“The situation hasn’t changed. We want to avoid tariffs … we are waiting for our American counterparts to engage in a meaningful way,” he said.
President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement on Monday that the United States and Iran were poised to begin direct talks on Tehran’s nuclear program, but Iran’s foreign minister said the discussions in Oman would be indirect.
In a further sign of the difficult path to any deal between the two geopolitical foes, Trump issued a stark warning that if the talks were unsuccessful, “Iran is going to be in great danger.”
Iran had pushed back against Trump’s demands in recent weeks that it directly negotiate over its nuclear program or be bombed, and it appeared to be sticking to that position on Monday.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with visiting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk made direct yet unsuccessful appeals to US president Donald Trump to reverse tariffs over the past weekend, Washington Post reported on Monday citing two people familiar with the matter.
This exchange marks the highest profile disagreement between the President and Musk, the report said. It follows Trump’s unveiling of a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the US along with higher duties on dozens of other countries.
The White House and Musk did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Musk called for zero tariffs between the US and Europe during a virtual interaction at a congress in Florence of Italy’s right-wing, co-ruling League Party over the weekend.
Tesla has seen its quarterly sales drop sharply amid a backlash against Musk’s work with a new “Department of Government Efficiency.” The company’s shares are trading at $233.29 as of its last close on Monday, down over 42% since the beginning of the year.
Musk has previously said that the impact of Trump’s auto tariffs on Tesla is “significant.”
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President Donald Trump is seeking to expand the mining and use of coal inside the country in a bid to power the boom in data centers, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing a senior White House official.
In an executive order that Trump is expected to sign on Tuesday afternoon, he will set out a number of steps by the government designed to reinvigorate the coal industry, the report said.
A mother and her three children who were taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents as part of a sweep in the tiny hometown of the Trump administration’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, have been released following days of outcry from community figures, advocates and protesters calling for their freedom.
Over the weekend, about a thousand protesters marched outside of Homan’s home in a small New York village, calling for the release of the family after they were detained last month. The family has not been named or spoken out publicly.
Jaime Cook, principal of the Sackets Harbor school district where the children reportedly attended class, wrote a letter to the community pleading for the students’ safe return.
She described the students as having “no ties to criminal activity” and that they are “loved in their classrooms”.
“We are in shock,” the letter reads. “And it is that shared shock that has unified our community in the call for our students’ release.”
The family was taken into custody in a 27 March raid at a large dairy farm in the remote town that has a population of fewer than 1,500 in Jefferson county in north-western New York state, on Lake Ontario near the Canadian border. The target of the raid was reportedly a South African national charged with trafficking in child sexual abuse material, whom they apprehended, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents said.
But authorities separately picked up and detained the family, as well as three other immigrants they said were without documentation. The family was moved to the Karnes county immigration processing center, a privately run detention facility in Texas, by 30 March.
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth landed in Panama late on Monday for his first official visit to the country as questions persist about President Donald Trump’s repeated vows to take back the Panama Canal.
During his trip this week, Hegseth will meet Panamanian officials as well as defense leaders from other Central American nations who are attending a security conference in Panama City.
Trump administration weighs drone strikes on Mexican cartels, NBC News reports
President Donald Trump’s administration is considering drone strikes on drug cartels in Mexico to combat trafficking across the southern border, NBC News reported on Tuesday.
It cited six current and former US military, law enforcement and intelligence officials with knowledge of the matter.
Netanyahu discusses Gaza and tariffs with Trump at White House meeting
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, met with Donald Trump on Monday for the second time since the US president’s return to office, marking the first effort by a foreign leader to negotiate a deal after Trump announced sweeping tariffs last week.
Speaking alongside Trump in the Oval Office, Netanyahu said Israel would eliminate the trade deficit with the US. “We intend to do it very quickly,” he told reporters, adding that he believed Israel could “serve as a model for many countries who ought to do the same”.
Trump said the pair had a “great discussion” but did not indicate whether he would reduce the tariffs on Israeli goods. “Maybe not,” he said. “Don’t forget we help Israel a lot. We give Israel $4bn a year. That’s a lot.”
Trump denied reports that he was considering a 90-day pause on his tariff rollout. “We’re not looking at that,” he told reporters. “We have many, many countries that are coming to negotiate deals with us, and there are going to be fair deals.”
European markets open higher after global sell-off driven by Trump tariffs
European stock markets have risen on Tuesday in early signs of a rebound from the punishing global sell-off triggered by US trade tariffs.
Stock markets in the UK and across the EU were in positive territory in early trading on Tuesday, as some investor optimism returned after heavy falls as a result of Donald Trump’s “liberation day’” tariff announcements last Wednesday.
London’s FTSE 100 index of blue-chip stocks was 106 points higher, up 1.4%, at 7811. In Frankfurt, Germany’s Dax was 1.5% higher while France’s CAC jumped by 1.4%. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose 1.4%.
On the FTSE, theindustrial companies Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems were the biggest risers, up 5% and 4% respectively, followed by miners, oil companies and banks.
Investors are hoping that the market could stabilise as reports have emerged that the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, will lead trade talks with Tokyo, in a sign that the Trump administration will be open to negotiate on tariffs.
The news drove a modest rebound in Asian markets overnight, led by Japanese stocks. Tokyo’s Nikkei index recovered by 5.6%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose by 1.6% after its steepest drop since the 1997 Asian financial crisis on Monday.
China dismisses Trump's threat of extra 50% tariffs as his deadline looms
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the top news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that Donald Trump has threatened to impose an additional 50% tariff on imports from China on Wednesday unless the country rescinds its retaliatory tariffs on the United States by Tuesday.
The news comes on the third day of catastrophic market falls around the globe since Trump announced his trade war last Wednesday with tariffs on the US’s trading partners.
As part of that move the White House announced it would impose a 34% tariff on Chinese imports. In response, Beijing announced a 34% tariff on US imports.
In a statement on Truth Social on Monday morning, the US president said that China enacted the retaliatory tariffs despite his “warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs” would be “immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set”.
“If China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th,” Trump wrote.
“Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!” he added. “Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately.”
China’s US embassy said on Monday it would not cave to pressure or threats over the additional 50% tariffs. “We have stressed more than once that pressuring or threatening China is not a right way to engage with us. China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Liu Pengyu, an embassy spokesperson, told Agence France-Presse.
Read the full report here:
In other news:
Donald Trump took questions from reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. In it, Trump indicated that he would attend “direct talks” with Iran on Saturday, that it “would be a good thing” to have the United States “controlling and owning the Gaza Strip”, and that European Union “rules and regulations” are “non-monetary barriers” on trade.
Shortly after Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu, Iranian officials and state media disputed Trump’s claims that the US is scheduled to participate in “direct talks” with the country this weekend, indicating that the country understood it was entering indirect talks moderated by Omani officials.
In a 5-4 decision, the US supreme court will allow the Trump administration to continue deporting Venezuelan migrants under an 18th-century wartime law.
After a phone call with Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba this morning, Trump directed US treasury secretary Scott Bessent to open negotiations with the Japanese government.
During speeches this afternoon, Democratic leadership in the House and Senate warned that Trump’s tariffs are teeing up “a nationwide recession”.
After US stock markets opened this morning on bear market territory, the Cboe Volatility Index, also known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge”, reached “crisis levels” as it skyrocketed to its highest level since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Canada has requested World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute consultations with the US over Trump’s decision to impose a 25% duty on cars and car parts from Canada, the WTO said today.
Mexico is seeking to avoid retaliatory tariffs against the US but is not ruling them out, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is ending a half century of partnerships with the federal government to serve refugees and children, saying the “heartbreaking” decision follows the Trump administration’s abrupt halt to funding for refugee resettlement.
Health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr will direct the CDC to stop recommending states add fluoride to their drinking water.
In a social media post, Trump backed the Senate’s budget proposal – lending his support to the plan as House speaker Mike Johnson tees up a vote on the budget later this week despite still not having enough votes to guarantee its passage.
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