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 United States’s tariffs announcment here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
The New York stock exchange closed on its worst day of trading since June 2020 – during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. The main indices saw their worst one-day falls in five years as Donald Trump claimed that “the markets are going to boom” in response to his sweeping tariffs. As Friday morning dawned in Asia, markets opened lower there as well.
The 500 richest people in the world lost a combined $208bn today as stock markets plunged, Bloomberg reports. US billionaires – and Trump allies – like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were the most affected.
Prominent Republicans, including Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz, criticized Trump’s tariff announcement. McConnell, the Kentucky Republican senator and former Senate majority leader, said they are “bad policy and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most”. While Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, says he is “not a fan of tariffs” and that he hopes Trump’s are “short-lived”.
Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr says some personnel let go from and programs shuttered at the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday will be reinstated. The announcement came the same day that a federal judge said she will temporarily block the Trump administration from cutting $11bn in federal public health funding.
A coalition of 19 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that a recent executive order signed by the president seeking to overhaul the nation’s elections was unconstitutional. The attorneys general are asking a judge to declare the provisions “unconstitutional and void”.
The Pentagon’s inspector general’s office announced it was opening an investigation into defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of an unclassified commercial texting application to coordinate strikes on Yemen’s Houthis. Hegseth outlined details of a US airstrike in Yemen in a Signal group chat that included the vice-president, JD Vance, as well as Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, who mistakenly added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, to the chat.
Several members of Donald Trump’s embattled national security council have been fired, Axios reports. The firings come a day after conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer visited the Oval Office and pressed Trump to fire specific NSC staffers for disloyalty.
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Australia dodged the worst of Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs yesterday, when the president imposed only the base 10% tariff on the country. But Trump did criticize Australia by name during his speech for not importing more American beef.
Calla Wahlquist in Australia has more on the US-Australia meat trade war:
Australia introduced a ban on US beef imports in 2003, in response to an outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease.
It was technically lifted in 2019, subject to an ongoing biosecurity review that in practice means no imports of fresh beef. The sticking point is the US’s reliance on live cattle imports from Canada and Mexico to bolster its national herd.
Read on below for more:
The 500 richest people in the world lost a combined $208bn today as stock markets plunged in response to Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement yesterday, Bloomberg reports.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has been active for 13 years, this is the fourth largest one-day drop in billionaires’ wealth.
US billionaires – and Trump allies – like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were the most affected.
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In an interview with Newsmax this evening, JD Vance said he thought the stock market response “could be worse” after Donald Trump announced his administration’s “reciprocal” tariffs yesterday.
US stock markets saw their worst day of trading since 2020 today as investors grappled with the implications of Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
“Look, one bad day in the stock market compared to what President Trump said earlier today — and I think he’s right about this — we’re going to have a booming stock market for a long time because we’re reinvesting in the United States of America,” Vance said. “We’re feeling good.”
As Friday morning dawns in Asia, markets are opening lower as investors respond to Donald Trump’s sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs, the highest of which were levied against Asian nations.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 2.o7% and South Korea’s Kospi index fell 1.15%.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.06%.
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The Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr says some personnel let go from and programs shuttered at the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday will be reinstated.
He said the cuts were meant to streamline the agency but that “there were a number of instances where studies that should not have been cut were cut, and we’ve reinstated them. Personnel that should not have been cut were cut. We’re reinstating them. And that was always the plan.
“We talked about this from the beginning. We’re going to do 80% cuts, but 20% of those are going to have to be reinstalled because we’ll make mistakes,” he added.
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Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, says he is “not a fan of tariffs” and that he hopes Donald Trump’s are “short-lived”.
Speaking with Fox Business, Cruz said: “I think it is a mistake to assume that we will have high tariffs in perpetuity. I don’t think that would be good economic policy.”
He added that he hoped the president would use the duties as “leverage to lower tariffs across the globe”.
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The head of the International Monetary Fund says Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs “clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook”.
“It is important to avoid steps that could further harm the world economy,” said IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva. “We appeal to the United States and its trading partners to work constructively to resolve trade tensions and reduce uncertainty.”
The fund will meet with the World Bank later this month to discuss global economic issues, including the recent US tariffs.
The Trump administration is reportedly now taking aim at Brown University, widening its threats to withhold federal funding for schools deemed to be in conflict with its edicts.
As the fifth university to potentially face a financial hit from the administration, Brown stands to lose $510m over several years, the New York Times reported Thursday, a sizable blow that could seriously impact research.
Brown administrators have not confirmed the news, which was first published by the right-wing website The Daily Caller. But provost Frank Doyle said the university was aware of “troubling rumors emerging about federal action on Brown research grants”, in an email sent to school officials.
From the NYT:
Like many of its Ivy League peers, Brown was the site of clashes over the war in Gaza. But it was also one of a small number of universities that made deals with students to end their protest encampments in the spring, agreements that came under criticism for being too soft on students.
Brown became one of only a handful of universities to agree to a board vote on divesting from Israel. The Brown Corporation, the school’s governing board, ultimately voted against divestment, saying it held no direct investments in companies protesters had named as having ties to Israel.
In recent weeks, as other universities faced backlash over their perceived acquiescence to the Trump Administration, Brown’s leaders spoke out, vowing steadfast commitment to their academic freedoms.
In a letter shared publicly on the university’s site, President Christina H Paxson promised that Brown would not buckle under pressure.
“The nation has witnessed what many in higher education fear may be only the first examples of unprecedented government demands placed on a private university as a condition for restoring federal funding,” she said.
Paxson outlined three core values and the school’s response to protect them: following the law, defending academic freedom and freedom of expression, and a commitment to providing resources to international community members.
“If Brown faced such actions directly impacting our ability to perform essential academic and operational functions,” she said, “we would be compelled to vigorously exercise our legal rights to defend these freedoms, and true to our values, we would do so with integrity and respect.”
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19 Democratic AGs sue Trump over elections EO
A coalition of 19 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Thursday, arguing that a recent executive order signed by the president seeking to overhaul the nation’s elections was unconstitutional.
The lawsuit accuses the president of overstepping his authority with last week’s action, which they say amounts to an ”unconstitutional, antidemocratic, and un-American attempt to impose sweeping voting restrictions across the country”.
The lawsuit is the latest challenge to the president’s order, which includes proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration and new ballot deadline rules. the order threatens states that don’t comply with federal funding cuts.
It lists President Trump, the attorney general Pam Bondi as defendants. The attorneys general are asking a judge to declare the provisions “unconstitutional and void”.
“My fellow attorneys general and I are taking him to court because this Executive Order is nothing but a blatantly illegal power grab and an attempt to disenfranchise voters, California attorney general Rob Bonta said in a statement. “Neither the Constitution nor Congress authorize the President’s attempted voting restrictions. We will not be bullied by him. We will fight like hell in court to stop him.”
Trump’s elections order also faces legal challenges brought by the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Governors Association, and Senate and House Democratic leaders, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by two nonprofit organizations, The Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund. Both of these lawsuits were filed in the US district court for the District of Columbia.
When Trump signed the order, Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary, called the order “the farthest-reaching executive action taken” in the country’s history.
Despite Trump’s public anti-tax stance, his decision to sharply increase tariffs would amount to the largest tax hike in decades, Reuters reports.
The intel comes from a JP Morgan note, which concluded that the tariffs account for a 22% increase and warns that “sustained restrictive trade policies and reduced immigration flows may impose lasting supply costs that will lower U.S. growth over the long run”.
Trump’s trade policies have spiked risks of a global recession according to the bank, which raised chances to 60% from 40%.
The US stock market closed today on the worst day of trading since 2020, with all three major index funds down as Apple and Nvidia lost a combined $470bn.
Our colleagues have more on the financial fallout of Donald Trump’s massive “reciprocal” tariffs announced yesterday:
Today so far
Thanks for joining our coverage of US politics, and particularly the fallout from Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs announcement yesterday. Here are the key headlines we’ve been following so far today:
The New York stock exchange closed on its worst day of trading since June 2020 – during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. The main indices saw their worst one-day falls in five years as Donald Trump claimed that “the markets are going to boom” in response to his sweeping tariffs.
Canada will retaliate against “unjustified, unwarranted” tariffs imposed by the United States with a 25% taxes on US vehicles, Mark Carney announced on Thursday. The US has placed 25% taxes on Canadian steel, aluminum and vehicles.
Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican senator and former Senate majority leader, has criticized Donald Trump’s latest tariffs, saying that they are “bad policy and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most”. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One today that tariffs on imported semiconductor chips and pharmaceuticals will be coming “soon”.
The US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said that the administration is “months away” from making a decision about whether to make payments to farmers to offset any impact from tariffs. Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs were mostly criticized by farm and food groups for their potential to shrink markets for farmers and raise prices for consumers.
A federal judge said she will temporarily block the Trump administration from cutting $11bn in federal public health funding. US District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island said she will approve a temporary restraining order while hearing a case brought by 23 states and the District of Columbia.
Mike Pence will receive the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in May for his refusal to go along with the 6 January attack on the US Capitol. The JFK Library Foundation shared the announcement today, saying the award will recognize Trump’s former vice-president “for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021.”
The Pentagon’s inspector general’s office announced it was opening an investigation into defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of an unclassified commercial texting application to coordinate the 15 March launch of US strikes on Yemen’s Houthis. Hegseth outlined details of a US airstrike in Yemen in a Signal group chat that included the vice-president, JD Vance, as well as Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, who mistakenly added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, to the chat.
Several members of Donald Trump’s embattled national security council have been fired, Axios reports. The firings come a day after conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer visited the Oval Office and pressed Trump to fire specific NSC staffers for disloyalty.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Nato allies on Thursday that Washington remained committed to the alliance but expected them to spend far more on defence and would give them some time to do so. Rubio met fellow Nato foreign ministers gathered in Brussels, with some European officials saying they were reassured by the renewed commitment to the alliance at a time of rising tensions over Trump’s new trade tariffs.
Updated
A federal judge said she will temporarily block the Trump administration from cutting $11bn in federal public health funding.
US District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island said she will approve a temporary restraining order while hearing a case brought by 23 states and the District of Columbia.
New York Attorney General Letitia James reacted to the judge’s decision on social media, saying: “We’re going to continue our lawsuit and fight to ensure states can provide the medical services Americans need.”
The $11bn in cuts that the Trump administration had proposed would have predominantly affected funding for Covid-19 related initiatives, mental health and substance use treatment.
While speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump also mentioned tariffs could give him the power to make a deal with China over TikTok.
“We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say we’ll approve a deal but will you do something on the tariffs. The tariffs give us great power to negotiate,” he said. He then clarified that he was not currently in talks with China and was just using TikTok as an example.
He added “we’re very close to a deal with a very good group of people” with “multiple” investors interested in the social media platform.
Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One today that tariffs on imported semiconductor chips and pharmaceuticals will be coming “soon”.
He added that the “reciprocal” tariffs he announced yesterday have put the US “in the drivers seat.”
“Every country is calling us. That’s the beauty of what we do,” he said. “If we would have asked these countries to do us a favor. They would have said no. Now they will do anything for us.”
The Senate has confirmed Mehmet Oz – a former heart surgeon and TV personality – as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Oz will take the lead at the agency, which provides health care coverage to more than 160 million Americans – but which is facing significant changes as Congress debates cuts to the Medicaid coverage.
For more, read on below:
Volkswagen will add an import fee to its cars sold in the United States, the German automaker told its dealers today according to the Wall Street Journal.
The news comes the same day Donald Trump’s 25% tariff on foreign automobiles went into effect. Volkswagen said it will announce the exact fee by mid-April.
In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, the manufacturer said it wanted to be “very transparent about navigating through this time of uncertainty.”
While countries around the world grapple with the meaning of the United States’s new “reciprocal” tariffs, two countries that were exempt from those particular duties – Mexico and Canada – are still preparing for the fallout of other trade decisions.
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum announced plans to counter Trump’s tariffs earlier today, with a focus on increasing domestic production of items it has historically imported from the US, including natural gas.
Although Mexico was not named in Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs announcement, the country is still subject to a 25% tariff on automobiles, steel and aluminum.
“Yesterday, something very important happened: the recognition of the free trade agreement between Mexico, Canada and the United States, which is fundamental at this moment,” she said during a speech in Mexico City.
Meanwhile, in Canada, prime minister Mark Carney announced that Canada had introduced a 25% tariff on automobiles made in the United States.
“We take these measures reluctantly,” he said. “And we take them in ways that’s intended and will cause maximum impact in the United States and minimum impact here in Canada.”
Newly appointed as the Canadian prime minister, Carney added that he hoped to bring together a “coalition of like-minded countries” in search of an alternative to the US: “If the United States no longer wants to lead, Canada will.”
Updated
Mike Pence will receive the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in May for his refusal to go along with the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
The JFK Library Foundation shared the announcement today, saying the award will recognize Donald Trump’s former vice-president “for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021.”
After Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Trump put pressure on Pence to reject the results. When a mob of the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the election, some chanted that they wanted to “hang Mike Pence.” Secret Service agents removed the vice-president from the Capitol, but Pence returned later to continue certifying the election results after the building was secured.
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Stock Exchange closes on worst day since 2020 but Trump insists stocks will 'boom'
The New York stock exchange has closed on its worst day of trading since June 2020 – during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The main indices saw their worst one-day falls in five years as Donald Trump claimed that “the markets are going to boom” in response to his sweeping tariffs.
The S&P 500 index is down 4.9% at the close, which Reuters flags is the biggest one-day drop since June 2020.
The Dow has also posted its biggest one-day drop since June 2020, down 4%.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq tumbled 5.9%, its worst single-day performance since March 2020.
The scale of the sell-off, wiping trillions of dollars off the value of US companies, highlights just how alarmed investors are by the tariffs, and the fears they could lead to a recession.
Speaking to reporters earlier on Thursday, Trump denied market turmoil presented a problem. The president said:
I think it’s going very well. It was an operation like when a patient gets operated on and it’s a big thing. I said this would be exactly the way it is … We’ve never seen anything like it. The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom.
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As news of Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs settles in today, the president’s allies on the far-right are reacting to news that their countries will face higher duties.
In Italy, premier Giorgia Meloni told state television that she believes Trump’s decision to impose 20% tariffs on exports from Europe was “wrong”, but “it is not the catastrophe that some are making it out to be”.
She added that the government will meet next week to discuss its response: “We need to open an honest discussion on the matter with the Americans, with the goal – at least from my point of view – of removing tariffs, not multiplying them”.
Meanwhile, Argentinian president Javier Milei – who gifted tech billionaire Elon Musk a chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February – said he hoped to meet Trump this evening at the “American Patriots Gala”. In response to the tariffs, Milei posted a link to the Queen song Friends will be Friends on social media.
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California’s Democratic representative Eric Swalwell has joined in a handful of lawmakers in criticizing Donald Trump’s latest tariffs, writing on X:
“Trump’s tariffs are a slap in the face to hardworking Americans, jacking up prices, straining small businesses, and risking jobs. This isn’t America first; it’s families last.”
Donald Trump is continuing to face criticism from US lawmakers after his tariffs reveal on Wednesday included tariffs on barren islands near Antartica that are populated by penguins.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer called the tariffs “one of the dumbest decisions [Trump] has ever made as president”, adding: “And that’s saying something.”
Schumer went on to say that “Donald Trump slapped tariffs on penguins and not on Putin,” in apparent reference to Trump’s 10% tariffs placed on the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands.
Similarly, Adam Schiff, Democratic senator of California, released a video address on X of featuring a baby penguin he called “George.”
The Trump administration just put a tariff on this guy. That’s right, this guy. This is George. George lived on an uninhabited island called Heard Island … and Trump just put a 10% tariff on this island which begs of course the question, ‘What did George ever do to Donald Trump and his buddies?’
This is how nonsensical these tariffs are. This is how absurd and capricious and uncoordinated these tariffs are. And while it might seem absurd and funny that they put a tariff on penguins, it shows just the reckless nature of what they are doing. They are crashing the economy and it could just not be more self-destructive. We are alienating our friends and allies and even going after poor George.
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Trump on tariffs: 'The stock is going to boom'
Speaking to reporters on Thursday amid tumbling US stock markets and $2tn wiped off Wall Street after his tariffs reveal on Wednesday, Trump said:
I think it’s going very well. It was an operation like when a patient gets operated on and it’s a big thing. I said this would be exactly the way it is … We’ve never seen anything like it. The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom.
He went on to add:
The rest of the world wants to see is there is any way they can make a deal. They’ve taken advantage of us for many years … I think it’s going to be unbelievable …
Over the last nearly 24 hours, Trump has faced widespread backlash from US lawmakers and global leaders over his tariffs plan, with senior Republican senator Mitch McConnell calling it “bad policy” while Canada – a traditional American ally – called the tariffs “unjustified” and “unwanted”.
Updated
Here is the latest chart of the S&P500 as of 2pm ET on Thursday:
Mitch McConnell calls Trump's tariffs 'bad policy'
Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican senator and former Senate majority leader, has criticized Donald Trump’s latest tariffs, saying that they are “bad policy and trade wars with our partners hurt working people most”.
In a statement on Thursday afternoon, McConnell went on to say:
They are a tax on everyday working Americans. Preserving the long-term prosperity of American industry and workers requires working with our allies, not against them.
With so much at stake globally, the last thing we need is to pick fights with the very friends with whom we should be working with to protect against China’s predatory and unfair trade practices. That includes what we do on trade.
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Pentagon watchdog opens investigation into use of Signal for Yemen attack plans
The Pentagon’s inspector general’s office announced on Thursday it was opening an investigation into defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of an unclassified commercial texting application to coordinate the 15 March launch of US strikes on Yemen’s Houthis.
“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” Steven Stebbins, the acting inspector general, wrote in a memo.
“Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”
In case you needed reminding, Hegseth outlined details of a US airstrike in Yemen in a Signal group chat that included the vice-president, JD Vance, as well as Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, who mistakenly added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, to the chat.
A firestorm of controversy over the error, revealed after the Atlantic published details of the chat on 24 March, has led to calls for those involved to resign.
On Tuesday, Politico reported that Waltz and his team have created at least 20 different group chats on the encrypted messaging app Signal to coordinate sensitive national security work.
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Trump fires multiple national security officials after Loomer visit
Several members of Donald Trump’s embattled national security council have been fired, Axios reports.
The firings come a day after conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer visited the Oval Office and pressed Trump to fire specific NSC staffers for disloyalty.
Loomer is a far-right conspiracy theorist and Islamophobic former Republican congressional candidate banned from Uber, Paypal and some social media platforms. She is notorious for promoting racism and 9/11 conspiracy theories.
One source told Axios the “bloodbath” could see as many as 10 fired. CNN has named Brian Walsh, Thomas Boodry and David Feith as three of the officials let go.
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Rubio says US is committed to Nato but Europe must spend more on defence
US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Nato allies on Thursday that Washington remained committed to the alliance but expected them to spend far more on defence and would give them some time to do so.
Rubio met fellow Nato foreign ministers gathered in Brussels, with some European officials saying they were reassured by the renewed commitment to the alliance at a time of rising tensions over Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs.
Reuters reports that Rubio dismissed doubts about US commitment to the alliance as “hysteria and hyperbole”. He told reporters:
The United States is in Nato ... The United States is as active in Nato as it has ever been. [Trump] is not against Nato. He is against a Nato that does not have the capabilities that it needs to fulfil the obligations that the treaty imposes upon each and every member state.
European allies have been anxiously seeking details on the timeframe and extent to which the US aims to reduce its engagement in Nato for weeks, in order to coordinate the process of a European defence ramp-up to avoid security gaps in Europe.
In Brussels, Rubio brought some element of response on that.
“We do want to leave here with an understanding that we are on a pathway, a realistic pathway, to every single one of the members committing and fulfilling a promise to reach up to 5% of spending,” he said, adding that this included the US. “No one expects that you’re going to be able to do this in one year or two. But the pathway has to be real.”
A European official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the meeting with Rubio was “very reassuring”.
The meeting was not confrontational. Just that allies need to do more. No bashing.
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'This is a tragedy': Canada to counter ‘unjustified’ US tariffs with 25% taxes on US cars
Canada will retaliate against “unjustified, unwarranted” tariffs imposed by the United States with a 25% taxes on US vehicles, Mark Carney announced on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced wide ranging tariffs on dozens of countries, but did not add new trade levies to Canada or Mexico. Despite the reprieve, however, the US has placed 25% taxes on Canadian steel, aluminum and vehicles.
“The president’s actions will reverberate here in Canada and across the world,” the Canadian prime minister said at a press conference. “They are all unjustified, unwarranted, and in our judgment misguided.”
In response to US trade policy, Carney said his government would impose the taxes on vehicles that are not compliant with the continental free trade deal. The new tariffs would not apply to auto parts and would not affect vehicle content from trade ally Mexico.
Given the prospective damage to their own people, the American administration should eventually change course. But I don’t want to give false hope.
Carney’s comments come against the backdrop of a global economy in turmoil. Trillions have been wiped from markets as multiple nations digest a new – and grim – trading relationship with the United States.
Carney said that it could take a long time for the US to shift approach. He added that Canada’s previously announced tariffs would stay in place.
The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.
Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the Senate agriculture committee, called the tariffs a “national sales tax” on consumers, farmers and businesses.
In a statement she said:
This is the biggest tax increase in a generation, and will increase costs by more than $5,000 a year for the average family. The economic chaos and uncertainty the president is creating is endangering our economy.
Angie Craig, the top Democrat on the House agriculture committee, said the tariffs would force American farms to close.
She said in a statement:
Increasing input costs, shutting farmers out of export markets and causing middle-class families to pay more at the grocery store is not a winning strategy. Starting trade wars puts family farmers in the crosshairs for retaliation.
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The few positive reactions came from beef and seafood groups, who said they have been disadvantaged in the global market and see the tariffs as an opportunity for growth, Reuters reports.
John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, said:
We’ve watched as multi-generational family businesses tie up their boats, unable to compete with foreign producers who play by a completely different set of rules.
Ethan Lane, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s senior vice-president of government affairs, said in a statement:
America’s family farmers have been mistreated by certain trading partners around the world. President Trump is taking action to address numerous trade barriers that prevent consumers overseas from enjoying high-quality, wholesome American beef.
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Groups that represent dairy processors and fresh produce growers and retailers said the tariffs risked higher prices for US consumers and smaller markets for farmers.
Becky Rasdall Vargas, senior vice-president of trade and workforce policy at the International Dairy Foods Association, said in a statement:
Broad and prolonged tariffs on our top trading partners and growing markets will risk undermining our investments, raising costs for American businesses and consumers, and creating uncertainty for American dairy farmers and rural communities.
The International Fresh Produce Association said it appreciated that Trump exempted fruits and vegetables covered by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) from tariffs, but added that it was concerned about tariffs on other trading partners.
Cathy Burns, the CEO of the association, said in a statement:
The global trade of fresh produce is essential to the health and well-being of people in every nation.
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Reuters has a helpful roundup of reaction from groups representing US farmers and food processors, most of which are sharply critical to Trump’s sweeping tariffs on imports. I’ll start with farmer groups.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, the leading farm lobby, said the tariffs threaten US farmers’ competitiveness and could cause long-term damage by eroding market share.
Zippy Duvall, the president of the group, said in a statement:
We share the administration’s goal of leveling the playing field with our international partners, but increased tariffs threaten the economic sustainability of farmers who have lost money on most major crops for the past three years.
The National Farmers Union also criticized the plan, saying it puts farmers at risk during a period of economic strain. Rob Larew, the NFU’s president, said in a statement.
One thing is certain: American family farmers and ranchers will bear the brunt of this global trade war. Without meaningful support and a commitment to fair trade policies, we will lose even more family farms, weaken rural economies, and ultimately drive up costs and limit choices for consumers at the grocery store.
Trump administration is 'months away' from direct payments to farmers, Rollins says
The US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins said that the administration is “months away” from making a decision about whether to make payments to farmers to offset any impact from tariffs.
Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs were mostly criticized by farm and food groups for their potential to shrink markets for farmers and raise prices for consumers.
Rollins told Fox News that the administration would consider making payments to farmers in the case of any economic hit from tariffs, but any decision was a long way off.
We are months, literally months away, from understanding if that’s going to be necessary.
It has been a majorly challenging few years for America’s agricultural sector and across the country, farming groups are in a spin over Trump’s tough tariff approach. Indeed, with 10% of all US workers employed in or adjacent to agriculture and around 20% of all US agricultural production going overseas, some agronomists fear the ructions caused by the Trump administration could put pay to relations that took decades to develop.
My colleague Stephanie Starr reported on that earlier this week:
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US dangles billions of dollars in Congo mineral investment
The US is in talks to invest billions of dollars in mineral-rich Congo and wants to help end the conflict raging in the country’s east, Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Africa said during a visit on Thursday.
Democratic Republic of Congo, which has vast reserves of cobalt, lithium and uranium among other minerals, has been fighting Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who have seized swathes of its territory this year (you can read our coverage of the conflict here). The DRC, the US and other countries have said Rwanda is backing M23 to exploit the region’s mineral resources.
Meanwhile the US said last month that it is open to exploring critical minerals partnerships with Congo after a Congolese senator contacted US officials to pitch a minerals-for-security deal.
Reuters reports that US senior adviser Massad Boulos (who is Donald Trump’s daughter’s father-in-law) said after meeting Congo president Félix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa.
You have heard about a minerals agreement. We have reviewed the Congo’s proposal, and ... the president and I have agreed on a path forward for its development.
The details of any potential deal, or Congo’s proposal, were not made public on Thursday.
Congo’s minerals, which are used in mobile phones and electric cars, are currently dominated by China and its mining companies.
How the US will operate in Congo is unclear, but Boulos suggested that US companies will be involved.
Rest assured, American companies are operating transparently and will stimulate local economies. These are multi-billion-dollar investments.
He added that the US wants to help forge peace in the east where thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to flee amid M23’s advance, which has seen the group take over eastern Congo’s two largest cities.
We want a lasting peace that affirms the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the DRC. There can be no economic prosperity without security.
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On the need to ramp up domestic production, Howard Lutnick said the US needs to produce its own steel, pharmaceuticals, weapons and aircraft. The commerce secretary told CNBC:
We can’t allow the United States of America to not produce steel. We can’t allow the United States of America to not produce pharmaceuticals. We can’t have a war where we can’t get antibiotics and we have to call another country to make a missile or to make a plane. I mean, these are obvious things. We need to have domestic production and we need to employ Americans.
Lutnick also claimed there would be the “greatest surge” in training for American workers to learn tradecrafts, such as operating robotics.
While Wall Street is in a state of flux with plunging stocks and a weakened dollar, Howard Lutnick doubled down on his assertion that Trump’s tariffs are still “going to drive growth”.
The commerce secretary told CNN that in the context of the US’s $30tn economy: “That’s a whole lot of growth. And you’re gonna get that starting in the fourth quarter.” (As I’m sure you’re aware, we’re currently three days into the second quarter.)
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US commerce secretary: Trump 'is not going to back off' from tariff policies
The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said that there is no chance Donald Trump will back away from his tariffs which have sent shock waves across the global market.
“The president is not going to back off what he announced yesterday. He is not going to back off,” Lutnick said in an interview on CNN.
He added: “Let the dealmaker make his deals when and only if these countries can change everything about themselves, which I doubt they will.”
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Ruben Gallego, a Democratic senator of Arizona, has joined a growing number of Democrats in criticizing Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
Replying to a Reuters headline about the automaker Stellantis, which said on Thursday it was temporarily laying off 900 workers at five US facilities after Trump’s tariffs were announced, Gallego wrote:
Heck of a job @POTUS.
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Several officials within Donald Trump’s national security council have been fired, Axios reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
On Thursday, the outlet reported that the firings came a day after Laura Loomer, a staunch Trump ally and conspiracy theorist, visited the Oval Office and urged Trump to carry out the firings.
According to one source who spoke to Axios, the firings were “being labeled as an anti-neocon move”.
One official who spoke to Axios described Loomer’s visit, saying: “She went to the White House yesterday and presented them with her research and evidence.”
It remains unclear whether the reported firings and Loomer’s visit are related.
The latest report follows just weeks after the White House found itself in a scandal involving its national security adviser, Michael Waltz, who added the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg into a Signal group chat last month to discuss US strikes on Yemen.
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Trump tariffs rates around the world - visual explainer
Here are some visual explainers of Donald Trump’s latest tariff policies and how they can affect US and global trade:
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Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, has also hit back at Donald Trump’s newest tariff’s plan, saying:
“President Trump’s tariffs will raise prices on Pennsylvanians – including the tab at your local brewery. Even breweries who buy and source almost everything from the US, like @TheBrewWorks in Bethlehem, could see costs increase as a result of tariffs on the aluminum they use for their cans or the malt they use in their beer.”
In an earlier post on Thursday, Shapiro said that Trump’s tariffs “could cause real harm to Pennsylvania’s hardwood industry and the 60,000 Pennsylvanians who work in it”.
“I don’t know why he’s doing this – but I know we’re going to fight like hell for our farmers and our [agriculture] sector here in PA,” he added.
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New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, has joined other lawmakers in criticizing Donald Trump’s latest tariffs policy.
Writing on X in response to a news headline of US stocks falling including the Dow plunging 1,400 points and NASDAQ being down 5%, Hochul said on Thursday morning:
This is what Liberation Day looks like.
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Stocks tumble on Wall Street following Trump's tariffs reveal
Stocks have taken a sharp fall on Wall Street following Donald Trump’s latest tariffs reveal which has sent shock waves across the global market.
The Dow Jones industrial average, which tracks 30 of the largest US companies, promptly plunged by 1,137 points, or 2.7%, to 41,087 points, the Guardian’s Graeme Wearden reports.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg has calculated that approximately $1.7tn was erased from the S&P 500 Index at the start of today’s trading.
For more live updates on the state of global stocks, follow our business live blog here:
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Vance: 'we're not going to fix things overnight'
Following widespread backlash to Donald Trump’s latest global tariffs reveal, JD Vance said in a new interview on Fox News: “What I’d ask folks to appreciate here is that we’re not going to fix things overnight.”
He added: “We know people are struggling, we’re fighting as quickly as we can to fix what was left to us but it’s not going to happen immediately.”
Vance also claimed that with the “right regulation”, Americans were “going to benefit from the fact that foreign countries can’t take advantage of us any more”, adding: “That means their jobs are going to be more secure.”
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In the aftermath of the disastrous debate against Donald Trump that ultimately ended his political career, Joe Biden skipped a White House meeting with the congressional Progressive caucus in favor of a Camp David photoshoot with the fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz, a new book says.
“You need to cancel that,” Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff and debate prep leader, told the president, as he advocated securing the endorsement of the group of powerful progressive politicians perhaps key to his remaining the Democratic nominee.
“You need to stay in Washington. You need to have an aggressive plan to fight and to rally the troops.”
As described by Klain to Chris Whipple, the author of an explosive new book on the 2024 campaign, Biden “seemed to relent. ‘OK,’ he said.”
“But the president’s resolve didn’t last,” the book continued. “That weekend, Biden and his family were at Camp David having their pictures taken” by Leibovitz.
For the full story, click here:
Eric Adams announces NYC mayor run as independent
New York City mayor Eric Adams announced on Thursday that he would be leaving the Democratic party and would instead run for re-election as an independent.
Adams’s decision, which he announced in a six-minute video on Thursday, comes after the dismissal of the federal corruption indictment against him.
“I have always put New York’s people before politics and party – and I always will. I am running for mayor in the general election because our city needs independent leadership that understands working people,” Adams said amid record-low approval ratings.
“There isn’t a liberal or conservative way to fix New York. There is a right way and a wrong way and true leaders don’t just know the right path, they have the guts to take it,” he added.
For the full story, click here:
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Lawmakers criticize Trump following new tariffs policy
Democratic and Republican lawmakers are criticizing Donald Trump’s latest tariff policy reveal which prompted global stocks to fall sharply and for the US dollar to hit a six-month low on Thursday.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer took to X and wrote: “54% tariffs on China, 10% tariffs on Iran, 0% tariffs on Russia,” adding a questioning emoji at the end.
Meanwhile, Cory Booker, the New Jersey Democratic senator who broke record this week for delivering the longest speech in Senate history against Trump’s Republican agenda, posted news headlines of several Republican senators joining Democrats in voting to undo Trump’s Canada tariffs.
“This is what happens when people speak up,” Booker wrote.
Brian Schatz, the Democratic Hawaii senator, said: “I’ve never seen a president ruin the economy on purpose.”
In response, the Democratic Connecticut senator Chris Murphy said: “This is the thing to understand. It’s all on purpose. Creating chaos and crisis.”
The Republican Kentucky senator Rand Paul, who co-sponsored a bipartisan measure to undo Trump’s Canada tariffs, wrote on X: “The tariffs that Trump detailed Wednesday mark the most significant U.S. protectionist trade action since the 1930s, when Congress imposed tariffs on more than 20,000 goods and dug the U.S. economy deeper into the Great Depression.”
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The World Trade Organization chief told member states on Thursday that it had received “many” questions about the impact of US president Donald Trump’s tariffs on trade and would respond to their questions, according to a letter.
“Many of you have been in touch about the US announcement on tariffs, asking for the Secretariat to provide an economic analysis of the impact of these tariffs and any potential reaction on your trade,” director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala wrote in a letter to ambassadors dated 3 April and seen by Reuters.
“As we are a member-driven organization, the Secretariat will be responding to your questions,” she said, suggesting that states also discuss the issues with each other.
EU to vote next week on countermeasures to Trump tariffs
European Union member states are set to vote on Wednesday April 9 on countermeasures to the United States’ steel and aluminum tariffs, a senior EU official, said on Thursday.
The Commission’s proposal will be passed as long as it is not opposed by a qualified majority of 15 member states representing 65% of EU population.
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Rubio tries to reassure wary allies of US commitment to Nato as Trump sends mixed signals
US secretary of state Marco Rubio and the Trump administration’s new envoy to Nato are seeking to reassure wary Nato allies of the US commitment to the alliance.
Rubio on Thursday decried “hysteria and hyperbole” in the media about president Donald Trump’s intentions despite persistent signals from Washington that Nato as it has existed for 75 years may no longer be relevant, AP reports.
Rubio and newly confirmed US ambassador to Nato Matt Whitaker are in Brussels for a meeting of alliance foreign ministers at which many are hoping Rubio will shed light on US security plans in Europe.
“The United States is as active in Nato as it has ever been,” Rubio told reporters as he greeted Nato chief Mark Rutte before the meeting began. “And some of this hysteria and hyperbole that I see in the global media and some domestic media in the United States about Nato is unwarranted.”
“President Trump’s made clear he supports Nato,” Rubio said. “We’re going to remain in Nato.”
“We want Nato to be stronger, we want Nato to be more visible and the only way Nato can get stronger, more visible is if our partners, the nation states that comprise this important alliance, have more capability,” he said.
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Donald Trump has unveiled his global tariffs on US trading partners including 10% on UK exports to the US, 20% on the EU and 34% on China.
However, the US’s closest trading partners, Canada and Mexico, have been exempt from the latest round of tariffs.
Wherever you are in the world, we’d like to hear how you might be affected by the tariffs.
What preparations or changes are you making to your business? Do you have any concerns?
Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on some of its largest trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed “liberation day”.
Trump said he will impose a 10% universal tariff on all imported foreign goods in addition to “reciprocal tariffs” on a few dozen countries, charging additional duties on to countries that Trump claims have “cheated” America.
The 10% universal tariff will go into effect on 5 April while the reciprocal tariffs will begin on 9 April.
Asian countries riven by war and disaster face some of steepest Trump tariffs
Developing nations in south-east Asia, including war-torn and earthquake-hit Myanmar, and several African nations are among the trading partners facing the highest tariffs set by Donald Trump.
Upending decades of US trade policy and threatening to unleash a global trade war, the US president announced a raft of tariffs on Wednesday that he said were designed to stop the US economy from being “cheated”.
“This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history,” said Trump on Wednesday. “It’s our declaration of economic independence.”
He hailed the moment as “liberation day”, but the tariffs are likely to be met with loud protests from some of the world’s weakest economies. One expert said Trump was likely to be targeting countries that receive investment from China, regardless of the situation in that country. Chinese manufacturers have previously relocated to countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia not only due to lower operating costs, but also to avoid tariffs.
The tariffs comes as many countries in south-east Asia are already grappling with the fallout from the cuts to USAid, which provides humanitarian assistance to a region vulnerable to natural disasters and support for pro-democracy activists battling repressive regimes.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with the news that Donald Trump’s decision to slap a 10% tariff on most goods imported to the United States, as well as higher duties on dozens of countries from rivals to allies, has intensified a global trade war that threatens to stoke inflation and stall growth.
The sweeping duties announced against the serene backdrop of the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday immediately unleashed turbulence across world markets and drew condemnation from other leaders now faced with the end of decades of trade liberalization that have shaped the global order.
Meanwhile, several Republican senators joined Democrats to pass a resolution that would block Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare rebuke of the president’s trade policy just hours after he announced plans for sweeping import taxes on some of the country’s largest trading partners.
In a 51-48 vote, four Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and both Kentucky senators, the former majority leader Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul – defied Trump’s pressure campaign and supported the measure. Democrats used a procedural maneuver to force a vote on the resolution, which would terminate the national emergency on fentanyl Trump is using to justify tariffs on Canada.
“Tariffs will hurt our families. Canada is not an enemy,” the Democratic senator Tim Kaine, the bill’s sponsor, said in a floor speech on Wednesday. “Let’s not label an ally as an enemy. Let’s not impose punishing costs on American families at a time they can’t afford it. Let’s not hurt American small businesses. Let’s not make our national security investments in ships and subs more expensive.”
Read the full report here:
In other news:
Despite a 10% tariff levied on all goods imported from the United Kingdom, British leaders say the United States remains the UK’s “closest ally”.
Trump told his inner circle that Elon Musk will be taking a step back from the Trump administration, Politico reports. According to the outlet, both Musk and Trump have agreed “that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role”.
National security adviser Mike Waltz’s team has regularly set up group chats on Signal to coordinate official work on various global issues from different parts of the world including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, Politico reports. According to four people who have been personally added to the chats and who spoke to the outlet, sensitive information was discussed in the chats.
A US judge on Wednesday dismissed the federal corruption case against New York City mayor Eric Adams, adding that the charges cannot be brought again. US district judge Dale Ho’s decision to dismiss the case with prejudice was in line with the recommendation of a lawyer he asked to offer independent arguments, but contrary to the justice department request for a dismissal without prejudice, Reuters reports.
