Trump announces ‘reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world’
Donald Trump has begun his “liberation day” event announcing sweeping tariffs, saying he will sign an executive order announcing “reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world”.
“April 2, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn,” Trump began. “For decades our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far,” by both allies and enemies, he added.
Key events
David Smith
On an overcast day with a temperature of 61F, hundreds of people are gathered for the first rose garden event of Donald Trump’s second term.
Among them are Robert Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, Florida senator Rick Scott and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who is standing with the media.
Some members of the audience are wearing orange or white hard hats and fluorescent construction worker vests.
Nine big US flags are draped along the colonnade behind the speaker’s lectern. State flags are lining the colonnade that leads to the Oval Office.
A marine band is playing easy listening tunes.
Trump announces ‘reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world’
Donald Trump has begun his “liberation day” event announcing sweeping tariffs, saying he will sign an executive order announcing “reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world”.
“April 2, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn,” Trump began. “For decades our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far,” by both allies and enemies, he added.
The stock exchanged closed today with the Dow Jones up 200 points, or 0.56% just minutes before Donald Trump appeared at the White House to begin his “make America wealthy again” event where he is expected to announced sweeping tariffs.
The S&P 500 increased 0.67%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.87%.
World braces as Trump to announce sweeping tariffs
As Donald Trump prepares to announce a slew of tariffs this afternoon in what he has termed “liberation day”, the world is watching with bated breath.
In Mexico, where some avocado producers in Michoacán have halted work ahead of the announcement, President Claudia Sheinbaum tells the New York Times that her government will announce its response Thursday, but that she’s not preparing to retaliate. “It’s not an issue of: ‘If you slap tariffs on me, I slap tariffs on you,’” she said. “Our interest is strengthening the Mexican industry.”
Meanwhile, in Canada, parliament member Taylor Bachrach of Fort St James, British Columbia told CNN that people who derive their income from the region’s softwood lumber industry are “very concerned about what today’s announcement is going to mean”. He adds that Canadian officials are considering how to make “an impact with retaliatory tariffs while minimizing the impact on our own economy and on Canadian workers and Canadian jobs”.
At home, a new poll from Marquette University Law School found that more than half of US adults think tariffs will hurt the economy and increase inflation. That news comes as a new analysis from the Michigan-based think tank Anderson Economic Group found that auto tariffs could raise the price of imported cars by up to $20,000.
Interim Summary
With Donald Trump expected to shortly reveal his new global tariffs policies, here is a look at where things stand:
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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.
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Donald Trump has told his inner circle that Elon Musk will be taking a step back from the Trump administration, Politico reports. According to three people familiar with the matter who spoke to the outlet, both Musk and Trump have agreed in recent days “that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role”, Politico reports.
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The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has pushed back against reports that Donald Trump has told his inner circle that Elon Musk will be taking a step back from the Trump administration. Leavitt said: “Elon Musk and President Trump have both publicly stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at Doge is complete.”
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Mitch McConnell has privately indicated to Democratic senator Tim Kaine that he would support Kaine’s resolution to undo Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Kaine told reporters that he approached McConnell on the Senate floor yesterday evening. He said: “I said, ‘I want to talk to you about my Canadian tariffs bill.’ And, you know, I didn’t even get to the question, and he said, ‘I’m with you.’”
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The Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has warned that Donald Trump’s rollout of new tariffs would increase prices and ultimate drive the US into a recession. “It’s recession day in the United States of America.” He said, adding: “That’s what the Trump tariffs are going to do: crash the economy.”
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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.
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Biden’s former health secretary Xavier Becerra has announced his run to be California’s next governor. The 67-year-old Sacramento native and former attorney general of California released a video on Wednesday which Politico first reviewed, saying: “You need a leader who can be tough.”
Mike Waltz’s team set up at least 20 Signal group chats for various global issues – report
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.
Two of the sources said they were in or have direct knowledge of at least 20 such chats, Politico reports.
Reports of Waltz’s team’s use of the chat follows a bombshell scandal that broke last week after the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added into a Signal group chat by Waltz regarding US airstrikes on Yemen.
Waltz and the White House have yet to publicly comment on the latest Politico report.
Robert Tait
Democrats were tasting unfamiliar triumphalism on Wednesday after the election for a vacant Wisconsin supreme court seat turned into an emphatic repudiation of Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s richest supporter and key ally.
Musk endured a wave of gloating on Twitter/X, his own social media platform, after Brad Schimel, a Trump-endorsed judge that he spent $25m supporting lost by 10 percentage points to Susan Crawford, whose victory sustained a 4-3 liberal majority on the court.
On a day that Trump has earmarked as “liberation day” to mark his long-awaited rollout of trade tariffs, Democrats seized on the result as a referendum on Musk – who has spearheaded the president’s slashing of federal government workers and spending programmes – while casting it as a platform for a recovery in next year’s congressional midterm elections.
For the full story, click here:
White House pushes back against report Musk is soon leaving administration
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has pushed back against reports that Donald Trump has told his inner circle that Elon Musk will be taking a step back from the Trump administration.
Calling the Wednesday report from Politico a “‘scoop’ [that] is garbage”, Leavitt said:
“Elon Musk and President Trump have both publicly stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at Doge is complete.”
According to three people familiar with the matter who spoke to Politico, Trump remains pleased with Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency”.
However, both Musk and Trump have agreed in recent days “that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role”, Politico reports.
Donald Trump’s tariffs plan has received some mixed reactions in New York City, with some people saying, “I believe we were lied to.”
The Guardian’s Edward Helmore reports:
Outside Macy’s in midtown Manhattan, a couple agreed on their feelings that Trump had misled voters when he vowed during the campaign to make everything cheaper. “Tariffs will affect people across the country,” said the shopper, who offered his name as Tom. “I believe we were lied to,” he said, predicting that Republican voters in red states would soon come to agree. “I think some have changed their views already, and more will continue to do,” he added.
Trump’s tariffs threaten to unleash a global trade war – and raise prices for everyone around the world. Some visitors were shocked at how expensive New York already was.
A couple from the Netherlands said they had just paid $18 for two ice-creams. “New York is already very expensive,” said one, Patrick. “Two ice-creams would be like six dollars in the Netherlands.”
A couple visiting from Indiana, who declined to give their names, revealed split thinking on the issue. “I really don’t understand the tariffs so I’m just waiting to see,” said the woman.
For the full story, click here:
Vermont’s Democratic senator Peter Welch criticized Donald Trump’s tariff’s plans on the Senate floor.
Saying that the tariffs are not only “going to do direct and immediate economic harm to everyday Vermont families and farmers maple sugar producers”, Welch said that they will also “start eroding the trust that is the benefit of good relations over time” between the US and its neighbors.
“That’s what he’s embracing, totally bad, totally wrong, doomed. And the only question is, how much pain will he inflict everyday Vermonters, before he comes to his senses and withdraws this tariff policy?” Welch added.
We reported earlier that Donald Trump has told his inner circle that Elon Musk will be taking a step back from the Trump administration, according to Politico.
A White House source has told Reuters that that Musk’s work with the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) would be done within his 130-day mandate.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has communicated that to the president multiple times, the source told the news agency.
Musk was not leaving before his Doge work was done “and no one is pushing him out”, the source added.
McConnell privately tells Democrat he would support effort to undo Trump’s Canada tariff
Mitch McConnell, the Republican senator from Kentucky, has privately indicated to Democratic senator Tim Kaine that he would support Kaine’s resolution to undo Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada.
Kaine told reporters that he approached McConnell on the Senate floor yesterday evening. He said:
I said, ‘I want to talk to you about my Canadian tariffs bill.’ And, you know, I didn’t even get to the question, and he said, ‘I’m with you.’
Kaine added that he had “rock solid support” from four Republican senators: McConnell, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Rand Paul.
The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said Tuesday’s election results in Florida and Wisconsin were a sign of the Democratic party’s strength, citing recent special elections in Iowa and Pennsylvania.
“What we’ve seen every single month this year, Democrats in special elections all over the country win or over perform,” Jeffries said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Despite the effort by some to project this notion that House Democrats, Senate Democrats, the Democratic party is cowering – we’re not cowering. We’re beating them over and over and over again.
‘This is not ‘liberation day”: House minority leader says ‘it’s recession day’
The Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has warned that Donald Trump’s rollout of new tariffs would increase prices and ultimate drive the US into a recession.
“This is not ‘liberation day’,” Jeffries said at a press conference on Wednesday. “It’s recession day in the United States of America.” He added:
That’s what the Trump tariffs are going to do: crash the economy.
Oliver Milman
Michael Waltz, the embattled national security adviser to Donald Trump, and other members of the national security council have reportedly used personal Gmail accounts to conduct government business.
The apparent use of Gmail, a relatively insecure method of communication for high-level government officials, places further scrutiny upon Waltz, who is already under pressure after adding a journalist to a group chat on the commercial Signal app, where top US officials then planned and celebrated a US airstrike in Yemen last month.
The revelations of the Gmail use come from the Washington Post, which said it has reviewed documents and interviewed three unnamed officials about the apparent security lapse.
Waltz had “potentially exploitable information” sent to his Gmail, such as his schedule and other work documents, the Post reported.
One of Waltz’s aides on the national security council, meanwhile, allegedly used Gmail for more sensitive material, such as discussing military positions and weapons systems with colleagues in other government agencies who used their government-issued accounts.
