Trump dismisses criticism of tariffs, claiming US makes $2bn a day from levies – US politics live
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.
Key events
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Trump says “major” pharma tariff coming soon
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Canadian tariffs on US cars to go into effect at midnight
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Trump dismisses criticism of tariffs, claiming US makes $2bn a day from levies
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Trump signs four executive orders to boost US coal mining and production
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Trump claims US makes $2bn a day from tariffs
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Trump claims without details that coal executive order can’t be overturned
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Trump extols ‘beautiful, clean coal’ as he talks of signing executive order
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Trump to sign executive orders aimed at boosting coal industry
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The day so far
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US will take back Panama Canal from ‘China’s influence’, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth says
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‘Boys will be boys’: White House on Musk-Navarro public spat
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White House insists talks with Iran will be direct, despite Iran saying they will be indirect
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China has to make a deal with the US, White House says
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Nearly 70 countries have reached out seeking tariff deals, White House says
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US to go ahead with imposition of 104% tariff on China from Wednesday after Beijing did not lift retaliatory tariffs
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Iran says talks with US will be indirect, contrary to Trump’s words
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Elon Musk reportedly made several pushes for Trump to back off global tariffs surge
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Senate confirms Trump’s controversial pick for Pentagon No 3 job
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Italian PM Giorgia Meloni to travel to US next week for tariff talks with Trump
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Deadline for China to avoid 50% extra tariff passes
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Treasury secretary Scott Bessent says he expects a couple of big deals ‘very quickly’ on tariffs
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Exceptions or exemptions to tariffs not expected in the near term, says US trade representative Greer
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US trade representative Jamieson Greer testifies on Donald Trump’s trade and tariff policies before Senate committee
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Trump to sign executive orders to boost US coal industry
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Trump: ‘We are waiting for China to call’
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Wall Street surges 3% as European markets rebound on trade deal hopes
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Trump touts ‘great’ call with South Korean acting president on both tariffs and ‘non-tariff subjects’
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South Korea’s acting president talks with Trump as trade minister travels to US to negotiate 25% tariff
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Homeland security secretary to waive federal environmental laws for California border wall
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‘Everything is on the table,’ says Scott Bessent on negotiations around EU ‘non-tariff barriers’
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China tariff escalation is ‘a big mistake’, says US treasury secretary Scott Bessent after China rejects Trump’s threats
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Trump administration weighs drone strikes on Mexican cartels, NBC News reports
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Netanyahu discusses Gaza and tariffs with Trump at White House meeting
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European markets open higher after global sell-off driven by Trump tariffs
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China dismisses Trump’s threat of extra 50% tariffs as his deadline looms
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.”
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.”
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”.
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:
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.
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”.
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.”
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.”
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.”
