Amazon has denied a report today that it planned to disclose the cost of US tariffs imposed by president Donald Trump to its products, after the White House widely denounced the move.
The company said it never considered listing tariffs on its main retail site and nothing was implemented on any company site. “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products,” a company spokesperson told Reuters.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier she had discussed the initial news with Trump and his response was: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.”
The comments caused Amazon shares to dip 2.2% in premarket trading, according to Reuters.
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Asked about recent polls indicating Donald Trump’s dire approval ratings at the GOP leadership press conference this morning, House speaker Mike Johnson seemed to acknowledge the second Trump administration’s “rocky start”.
He said:
In any new administration, it’s a rollercoaster. When you come in and you make dramatic change, which is what he did – he’s delivering on the promises made – there’s some bumps along the road. I mean, we’re changing everything.
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It’s game time for the budget reconciliation, the scramble for which continues in the House today with three more markup sessions getting started. But, however, optimistic the tone struck by treasury secretary Scott Bessent this morning or speaker Mike Johnson yesterday evening, the GOP still hasn’t figured out where the dramatic spending cuts are going to come from. The party has promised to eradicate trillions of dollars from the deficit, and is privately debating controversial changes to Medicaid or social safety net programs relied on by tens of millions of Americans in order to do it – something that at least a dozen Republican lawmakers have publicly said they will not support.
My colleague Graeme Wearden notes that shares in Amazon have dropped 1.3% at the start of trading, after the White House accused it of a “hostile” act for showing consumers the cost of tariffs.
The White House’s attack on Amazon is a “significant” move which could alarm the financial markets, says Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading platform XTB.
She writes that it’s a sign that the US administration is targeting companies who disagree with them – that means an increase in political risk.
Brooks explains:
The US administration has changed its tone towards tariffs yet again on Tuesday. The White House Press secretary and the Treasury Secretary accused Amazon of a ‘hostile political act’, after Amazon planned to expose the cost of tariffs to its consumers. This comes days before Amazon reports earnings on Thursday, and its stock price fell ahead of the US open and is down more than 2% so far.
The US administration has mostly saved its ire for other countries that it believes gives the US a raw deal in global trade. Now it appears that the US administration is targeting US companies who question the logic of its moves. This is significant. Financial markets have been roiled by political interference in the global economy in recent weeks. Investors do not digest political risks well, so if the Trump administration is now publicly accusing US companies of hostile acts if they disagree with the President’s US economic policy then this could stop the recent recovery rally in risky assets.
Political analyst Ian Bremmer has also questioned the White House’s argument, suggesting that telling a customer the cost of tariffs on their goods is no different than flagging the sales tax on a receipt.
You can follow all of Graeme’s reporting on our business live blog:
Key takeaways from White House press briefing with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent
Donald Trump will sign an executive order on auto tariffs today as he tries to cushion the impact of his tariffs on US carmakers.
The Trump administration wants to provide companies looking to relocate to the US full expensing of factories and equipment purchases and make it retroactive to 20 January, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said.
Bessent repeated his assertion that “tariffs are unsustainable for China” and claimed that China could lose up to 10m jobs if the high tariffs remain in place. He said “the onus will be on them” to remove tariffs, despite Trump starting the tariff war, and also would not say whether the US and China were talking directly to negotiate a deal.
Bessent added that he does not anticipate supply chain shocks from Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Amazon’s announcement that it will include the price of tariffs on the price-tag for products is “a hostile and political act”, according to Trump.
Bessent said tariff revenue has the potential to provide income tax relief, repeating an assertion from Trump yesterday that some people’s income taxes could be lowered or even completely eliminated due to tariffs.
An announcement could be coming soon on a trade deal with India, Bessent said, adding that he “can see the contours of a deal” with South Korea, and that the US has had “substantial talks” with Japan.
The United States would like to see the internet tax in the European Union removed, Bessent said.
Bessent also claimed discussions with House speaker Mike Johnson over plans to extend Trump’s tax cuts are going well and the bill is moving forward better than expected.
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Trump’s choice of location for his 100-day rally tonight is notable for, as Politico highlights, Michigan is a state he won, lost, then won again (in the last two decades the state has backed the presidential winner, and Macomb County as the de facto national capital of white middle America.
Per Politco:
Forty years ago, legendary pollster Stanley Greenberg pinpointed Macomb County as the epicenter of a phenomenon reshaping American politics: Working-class, socially conservative white voters who had traditionally voted Democratic felt betrayed by the party, which had given up on people like ‘us’ in favor of people like ‘them,’ and were eager to support a Republican presidential candidate who promised to make America great again. (Sound familiar?) He called them the ‘Reagan Democrats.’
Ever since, American politics has largely been shaped by a hunt for these voters — both nationally, and specifically in Macomb County, which national politicos have long treated as something like the de facto national capital of white middle America. Tonight, Trump will rally supporters at Macomb community college — the same venue where President Ronald Reagan famously declared: ‘I’m a former Democrat, and I have to say: I didn’t leave my party; my party left me.’ And he’ll do so knowing that the ‘Reagan Democrats’ of yesteryear are now firmly Trump Republicans; places like Macomb aren’t tossups in the way they once were.
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The Trump administration wants to provide companies looking to relocate to the US full expensing of factories and equipment purchases and make it retroactive to 20 January, Scott Bessent says
The United States would like to see the internet tax in the European Union removed, Scott Bessent says.
Scott Bessent says discussions with House speaker Mike Johnson over plans to extend Donald Trump’s tax cuts are going well and the bill is moving forward better than expected.
Striking an optimistic tone, Bessent says yesterday’s meeting with GOP leaders on Capitol Hill was “a very good meeting”, adding “the tax bill is moving forward”. He says:
It is going to give permanence to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act … it will give American business certainty, it will give American people certainty. And then President Trump is also adding the things for working Americans that has talked about earlier — no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, making auto payments deductible, so that will substantially address the affordability crisis.
My colleague Chris Stein has written about why Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” has been such a pain in the behind for the GOP’s budget negotiators and why it remains a major test for Republican congressional unity.
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Amazon's move to display tariff costs for consumers a 'hostile and political act', says Trump
Karoline Leavitt says that Amazon’s announcement that it will include the price of tariffs on the price-tag for products is a hostile act.
Leavitt says she had just spoken to Donald Trump about the Amazon announcement and that his message about it was:
This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.
Leavitt says: “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?”
Leavitt says Amazon’s move was not a surprise given a 2021 report by Reuters that the tech company had partnered with a “Chinese propaganda arm”. “So, this is another reason why Americans should buy American,” she adds.
She declines to say whether or not Jeff Bezos is still a Trump supporter.
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Trump to sign executive order on auto tariffs
Donald Trump will sign an executive order on auto tariffs today, Karoline Leavitt says.
Scott Bessent says that he doesn’t anticipate supply chain shocks from Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
“I wouldn’t think that we would have supply chain shock. And, I think retailers, they have managed their inventory in front of this,” he says.
Trump administration 'very close' to announcing trade deal with India, says Bessent
Asian countries including India, Japan and South Korea have been “the most forthcoming” in seeking trade deals, Scott Bessent says.
He says an announcement on India could be coming soon, citing vice-president JD Vance’s visit last week during which he and prime minister Narendra Modi “made some very good progress”.
Bessent adds that he “can see the contours of a deal” with South Korea, and that they’ve had “substantial talks” with Japan.
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Bessent claims China could lose 10m jobs to tariffs, saying they'll prove 'unsustainable' for Beijing
Chinese tariffs will soon crumble under their own weight, Scott Bessent says.
“Chinese tariffs are unsustainable for China,” Bessent said. “I’ve seen some very large numbers over the past few days that show, if these numbers stay on, Chinese could lose 10 million jobs very quickly, and even if there is a drop in the tariffs that they lose 5 million jobs.”
Bessent emphasized America’s position as “the deficit country,” noting that China “sells almost five times more goods to us than we sell to them, so the onus will be on them to the take off these tariffs” (though, as you will remember, Trump started the tariff war).
He declines to say whether the US and China have been talking to each other about trade, and declines to confirm Trump’s claim that he spoke to Xi Jinping.
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Asked if the goal of the administration is to have long-term tariff revenue or to make deals with countries in order to reduce those tariffs, treasury secretary Scott Bessent says it’s a bit of both.
He says tariff revenue has the potential to provide income tax relief, repeating an assertion from Trump yesterday that some people’s income taxes could be lowered or even completely eliminated due to tariffs – the “external revenue service”, Trump calls it. He posted on Truth Social yesterday:
When Tariffs cut in, many people’s Income Taxes will be substantially reduced, maybe even completely eliminated. Focus will be on people making less than $200,000 a year.
Also, massive numbers of jobs are already being created, with new plants and factories currently being built or planned. It will be a BONANZA FOR AMERICA!!! THE EXTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE IS HAPPENING!!!
He also told reporters on Sunday:
And eventually we’ll be reducing taxes very substantially for the people of our country, because the money is so great coming in from tariffs that I’ll be able to reduce taxes … to a very large extent, and maybe almost completely.
And it’s possible we’ll do a complete tax cut, because I think the tariffs will be enough to cut all of the income tax.
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Here are four sobering, universal truths from Politico to take away about Trump 2.0:
This presidency matters like few before it. In just three months, Trump has torn up the West’s postwar security settlement and its central economic premise. He’s reshaped the federal government and brought some of America’s most powerful institutions to heel. He’s threatening to go much further. And we still have 1,361 days to go.
The speed of change has been breathless. The Trump 2.0 project hit the ground running on Day 1 and has been utterly ruthless in pursuit of its goals. Never before has the “move fast and break things” edict been applied so successfully to American government. Much of this work will not be quickly undone.
Trump is pushing every boundary of what’s possible as a president. He has shown little interest in abiding by constitutional or legal norms. He has successfully shackled one of the three branches of government (the legislature) to his whims, and has the other (the judiciary) under constant attack. His political opponents are in disarray. So how this all ends is anyone’s guess.
But Trump’s power has limits. He has backed down - humiliatingly - in the face of the bond markets. He’s been aggressive and obstructionist with the courts but has walked the line on outright defying them. He’s been reduced to sending Vladimir Putin pleading messages on social media. And he is term-limited.
Trump broadcast interview with ABC News to go out at 8pm ET
To mark his 100 days in office, Donald Trump sat down with ABC News’ Terry Moran in the Oval Office for a pre-recorded interview that will go out tonight at 8pm ET.
In its primer from Sunday, the outlet cited an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll indicating that Trump is under water in a number of areas including his approval rating, which at 39% is the lowest at this juncture of any president in the past 80 years.
In addition, 53% of Americans believe that the economy has gotten worse since he took office – a key issue that propelled Trump to his historic non-consecutive second term. And 72% also believe that Trump’s policies will likely cause a recession.
The president has also faced criticism about his administration’s attempts to expand the power of the executive, with 64% of Americans saying he has gone too far, according to the poll.
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White house press secretary and treasury secretary Scott Bessent hold press briefing on economy
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and treasury secretary Scott Bessent are due to hold a press briefing shortly on the economic policies of the first 100 days of the second Trump administration. It comes as Trump prepares to make more concessions on his tariff policies, which have driven the US economy to the brink of a crisis. I’ll bring you all the key lines here.
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Trump has posted on Truth Social about the first 100 days of his second term, calling them “100 very special days”.
100 VERY SPECIAL DAYS. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!Danielle Alvarez of the RNC, and Paul Perez of Border Patrol, were GREAT on Fox & Friends (First). Thank you both! DJT
Angry voters are holding empty chair town halls as Republican members of Congress are refusing to hold those meetings with constituents.
Weeks into Donald Trump’s second term as president, Republican members of Congress were advised by the National Republican Congressional Committee against holding in person town halls with constituents, as several cases of Republican members of Congress being berated by constituents over federal worker firings and cuts went viral.
Police used a stun gun and arrested three protesters at a town hall held by congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene earlier this month. Attendees at a town hall held by Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley demanded answers from Grassley on the US president’s policies. New York Republican congressman Mike Lawler faced a chorus of boos from constituents at a town hall this past weekend.
On Sunday, Trump said disruptors at town halls should be “immediately ejected” and claimed without evidence that “radical left Democrats” are paying people to infiltrate town halls.
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Trump to mark 100 days in office with Michigan rally
Donald Trump will mark his 100th day in office with a speech in Macomb County, Michigan, this evening.
The president is expected to begin at 6pm local time, after a visit to the nearby Selfridge Air National Guard Base, where he will address the Michigan National Guard.
We will bring you all the latest news line from the speech later tonight.
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The Peace Corps is offering staff a second “fork in the road” buyout, according to a source familiar with the matter. Allison Greene, the chief executive of Peace Corps, sent an email to staff on Monday with an update about the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) assessment of the agency.
Greene said to expect “significant restructuring efforts” at Peace Corps headquarters, according to the email seen by the Guardian. Starting on 28 April and going through 6 May, direct hire and expert staff are being offered a second deferred resignation program, what Elon Musk’s Doge has referred to as a “fork in the road” buyout. Greene referred to this offer as “DRP 2.0”.
Eligible staff will hear from human resources and “are strongly encouraged to consider this option”, Greene wrote. The offer applies to employees both domestically and overseas.
Peace Corps will “continue to recruit, place, and train volunteers”, Greene said, indicating that the cuts are specifically for agency staff and will not affect volunteers.
A Peace Corps spokesperson confirmed that Doge began the cuts on Monday.
“The agency will remain operational and continue to recruit, place, and train volunteers, while continuing to support their health, safety and security, and effective service,” the spokesperson said.
Law-abiding migrants sent to foreign prisons. Sweeping tariffs disrupting global markets. Students detained for protest. Violent insurrectionists pardoned. Tens of thousands of federal workers fired. The supreme court ignored.
The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second term have shocked the United States and the world. On the eve of his inauguration, Trump promised the “most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history”, and what followed has been a whirlwind pace of extreme policies and actions that have reshaped the federal government and the US’s role in the world.
Let’s look at what he has achieved and destroyed.
For US foreign policy, Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office were the weeks when decades happened.
In just more than three months, the US president has frayed alliances that stood since the second world war and alienated the US’s closest friends, cut off aid to Ukrainians on the frontlines against Vladimir Putin, emboldened US rivals around the world, brokered and then lost a crucial ceasefire in Gaza, launched strikes on the Houthis in Yemen and seesawed on key foreign policy and economic questions to the point where the US has been termed the “unpredictable ally”.
The tariffs Trump has unleashed will, if effected, disrupt global trade and lead to supply chain shocks in the United States, with China’s Xi Jinping seeking to recruit US trade allies in the region.
The pace of the developments in the past 100 days makes them difficult to list. Operating mainly through executive action, the Trump administration has affected nearly all facets of US foreign policy: from military might to soft power, from trade to immigration, reimagining the US’s place in the world according to an isolationist America First program.
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Trump administration withholding $437bn in approved spending, Democrats say
President Donald Trump’s administration has so far withheld at least $436.87bn of congressionally approved funding, the top Democrats on the U.S. Congress’ appropriation committees said on Tuesday.
The frozen allotments span the federal government, according to the first estimate of the potential impoundments in the project led by Senator Patty Murray from Washington and Representative Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut, Reuters reported.
Almost $42bn was frozen or canceled for the state department, including the frozen support for USAID, along with another $62bn-plus in competitive grant funding for the Transportation Department, according to the estimate.
The Democrats also detailed $943m frozen for the Head Start early-education program and more than $10bn in frozen and canceled funding for the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
“Just 100 days into office, president Trump and Elon Musk are continuing their unprecedented assault on our nation’s spending laws, and it is families, small businesses, and communities in every part of the country who are paying the price,” Murray and DeLauro said in a statement.
“No American president has ever so flagrantly ignored our nation’s spending laws or so brazenly denied the American people investments they are owed.”
US probes Harvard and its law review for 'race-based discrimination'
President Donald Trump’s administration said on Monday it was probing whether Harvard University and the Harvard Law Review violated civil rights laws when the journal’s editors fast-tracked consideration of an article written by a member of a racial minority.
News of the new probe came hours after a federal judge agreed to expedite Harvard University’s lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from freezing $2.3bn in federal funding that the Ivy League school has warned will threaten vital medical and scientific research, Reuters reported.
The announcement of the probe by the US Departments of Education and Health and Human Services said Harvard Law Review editors may have engaged in “race-based discrimination” in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“Harvard Law Review’s article selection process appears to pick winners and losers on the basis of race, employing a spoils system in which the race of the legal scholar is as, if not more, important than the merit of the submission,” Craig Trainor, the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement.
A Harvard University representative said the school is “committed to ensuring that the programs and activities it oversees are in compliance with all applicable laws and to investigating any credibly alleged violations.”
Donald Trump plans to cushion the impact of his tariffs on US carmakers by easing some duties on foreign vehicle parts, his administration has said.
“President Trump is building an important partnership with both the domestic automakers and our great American workers,” the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said in a statement provided by the White House.
“This deal is a major victory for the president’s trade policy by rewarding companies who manufacture domestically, while providing runway to manufacturers who have expressed their commitment to invest in America and expand their domestic manufacturing.”
The move means car companies paying tariffs would not be charged other levies, such as those on steel and aluminium,, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the development.
Carmakers would be able to secure a partial reimbursement for tariffs on imported auto parts, based on the value of their US car production, under the plans.
Cars made outside the US will still be subject to Trump’s tariffs but will be exempt from other levies. The plan is expected to be officially confirmed later on Tuesday.
Carney warns 'Trump is trying to break us' as president marks 100 days in office
Good morning and welcome to our blog covering US politics as Donald Trump prepares to mark the first 100 days of his second presidency and as his northern neighbour Mark Carney celebrates his election win in Canada with a warning that “Trump is trying to break us”.
My colleague David Smith offers this critique of the chaotic last 100 days:
In three months Trump has shoved the world’s oldest continuous democracy towards authoritarianism at a pace that tyrants overseas would envy. He has used executive power to take aim at Congress, the law, the media, culture and public health.
Still aggrieved by his 2020 election defeat and 2024 criminal conviction, his regime of retribution has targeted perceived enemies and proved that no grudge is too small.
You can read his excellent, full piece here:
Trump’s rule was key to Carney’s win amid the US president’s trade tariffs and even suggestions of annexing Canada. Accepting victory this morning, Carney warned:
“America wants our land, our resources, our water. These are not idle threats. Trump is trying to break us so America can own us. That will never happen.”
In other news:
Nearly 100 days in office and Donald Trump continued to steadily address his campaign promises to crack down on immigration and focus on law and order. The president issued three new executive orders on Monday, which included taking aims at so-called “sanctuary cities” and shoring up legal protections for police accused of misconduct.
Prosecutors filed charges against Mario Bustamante Leiva for allegedly stealing Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem’s purse.
Trump created a “Fema review council” to “fix a terribly broken system” of delivering aid to Americans struck by disasters, naming defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Noem to the council.
House Republicans proposed paying tens of billions of dollars for Trump’s border wall construction.
Trump threatened to veto the bipartisan Senate resolution focused on “liberation day” tariffs.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are seeking unaccompanied immigrant children, sparking fears of a “backdoor family separation”.
As Canadians headed to the polls, Trump issued a statement threatening Canada’s independent sovereignty, describing the border between the two nations as an “artificially drawn line from many years ago”.
Congressman Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the oversight committee, announced he will not run for re-election after being diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer.
