Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries except China, whose tariffs he raised to 125% on Wednesday.
After insisting for days that he would hold firm on his aggressive trade strategy, Trump announced that all countries that had not retaliated against US tariffs would receive a reprieve – and only face a blanket US tariff of 10% – until July.
Asked why he had ordered the pause, the US president told reporters: “People were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy.”
Trump tariff pause for all but China
Stock markets soared after Trump’s announcement of a tariff pause. On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 rallied by 9.5% – its biggest single-day increase since 2008 – and the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 7.9%. Meanwhile, Republicans are quietly pushing a procedural rule that would curb the power of the US Congress to override Trump’s tariff policy.
White House insists iPhones can be US-made, Apple says no
The White House is insisting that Donald Trump’s vision of Apple’s flagship iPhones being manufactured in the US will come to fruition, despite assertions from analysts and the company itself that it would not be possible.
Run deportations like ‘Amazon Prime for humans’ - Ice chief
The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he would like the agency to implement a system of trucks that rounds up immigrants for deportation in a system similar to how Amazon delivers packages around the US.
“We need to get better at treating this like a business,” the acting Ice director, Todd Lyons, said. He added that he wanted to see a deportation process “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings”. His comments were first reported by the Arizona Mirror.
Trump orders DoJ to investigate duo who debunked claims of election fraud
Donald Trump’s persecution of critics intensified when he ordered the justice department to investigate a whistleblower and a cybersecurity director who refuted unfounded claims of election fraud.
RFK Jr: my measles response is ‘model for world’
The health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, said on a press tour that his response to a large measles outbreak in west Texas should be a “model for the world”. The statement came after Kennedy attended the funeral of a third measles victim over the weekend.
US steps up anti-protest crackdown
Anti-protest bills that seek to expand criminal punishments for constitutionally protected peaceful protests – especially targeting those speaking out on the US-backed war in Gaza and the climate crisis – have spiked since Trump’s inauguration.
Forty-one new anti-protest bills across 22 states have been introduced since the start of the year – compared with a full-year total of 52 in 2024 and 26 in 2023, according to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law tracker.
FBI chief axed from alcohol, tobacco, firearms bureau
The Trump administration has replaced the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, as the interim head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and installed Dan Driscoll, secretary of the army, in his place, according to two people familiar with the matter.
What else happened today:
Despite the tariff chaos, Trump took a moment to sign an executive order on water pressure. “I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump said.
He also signed an executive order punishing the law firm that helped a company obtain a $787.5m settlement from Fox for lies about the 2020 election.
A Democratic senator introduced a bill that would prohibit awarding government contracts and grants to companies owned by special government employees, taking aim at Elon Musk, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO.
Dr Mehmet Oz reportedly told federal staffers that artificial intelligence models may be better than frontline human physicians in his first all-staff meeting this week.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 8 April.
