Trump tariffs live: Vietnam, India and Israel reportedly in talks over new trade deals – as it happened

Much of the day has focused on the continued fallout from the major escalation of Trump’s trade war. Despite China clapping back to Trump’s tariffs with a 34% levy on US goods, Trump doubled down on his tariff policies (which he reportedly chose the formula for himself) saying “China played it wrong” and asserting: “My policies will never change.” Here’s what else we covered: The markets closed at a steep slump today, ending a brutal week of decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2,231.07 points, a 5% drop, while S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite each took 5.97% and 5.82% hits respectively. The supreme court has granted the Trump administration’s plea to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in teacher-training money as part of its anti-DEI efforts. Agricultural products are among those severely slumping on the futures market on Friday, after China announced retaliatory tariffs on American exports Vietnam, India, and Israel are reportedly already in talks with the president as some countries work to negotiate new trade deals with the US to lessen the blow from tariffs. California’s governor Gavin Newsom is hoping to make some deals of his own, calling on international trading partners to negotiate tariffs with the Golden State directly. A federal judge ruled today that Columbia University must give students, including detained activist Mahmoud Khalil, 30 days’ notice before giving documents to Congress. A federal judge ruled today that Columbia University must give students, including detained activist Mahmoud Khalil, 30 days’ notice before giving documents to Congress, the Associated Press reports. The representative Tim Walberg, chair of the House education and workforce committee, celebrated the ruling, claiming that barring all document handovers would create obstacles in a congressional investigation into antisemitism on college campuses. The inquiry has targeted protesters and outspoken students who demonstrated against the violence against civilians by Israel in the war in Gaza, and the schools where protests took place. Activists and lawyers had hoped for a stronger ruling that would stop the school from complying, but the decision enables the legal fight to continue. “We now know that the government is testing the First Amendment’s limits, and the limits of what we as a society will allow,” the lawyers wrote in a statement. “We, as a collective, must stand together against these unlawful incursions into our protected speech.” Even some of Republican members of Congress are beginning to feel uneasy about the economic backlash from his trade wars. Senator Ted Cruz, who has typically stood behind the president’s actions, said Friday that retaliatory tariffs like those the US is already seeing from China and other countries would be “a terrible outcome”, the New York Times reports. “It would destroy jobs here at home and do real damage to the US economy if we had tariffs everywhere,” he said, speaking on his podcast. Senator Chuck Grassley, meanwhile, introduced a bill this week to claw back trade policy authority from the executive branch. “For too long, Congress has delegated its clear authority to regulate interstate and foreign commerce to the executive branch,” Grassley said in a statement. “Building on my previous efforts as Finance Committee chairman, I’m joining Sen. Cantwell to introduce the bipartisan Trade Review Act of 2025 to reassert Congress’ constitutional role and ensure Congress has a voice in trade policy.” California’s governor Gavin Newsom is hoping to make some deals of his own, calling on international trading partners to negotiate tariffs with the Golden State directly. “California is not Washington DC” the governor said in a written statement outlining that his state leads the US in agriculture and manufacturing and will be hit hard by Trump’s trade war. “As the fifth largest economy in the world, the Golden State will remain a steady, reliable partner for generations to come, no matter the turbulence coming out of Washington.” In a lengthy announcement, the governor’s office highlighted that California is the largest importer in the US and its $3.9tn GDP IS 50% larger than the next largest state. But, they added, roughly 40% of California imports come from Mexico, Canada and China, and the countries are also the top three export destinations. “The magnitude of these tariffs on our North American allies, and the retaliation, will also result in major disruptions to cross-border supply chains, including the mutually beneficial co-production that takes place in the California-Baja mega-region,” the post reads, adding that this will also impact recovery from the devastating LA fires that roared through neighborhoods in January. “With this announcement, Governor Newsom is directing his Administration to identify collaborative opportunities with trading partners that protect California’s economic interests – workers, manufacturers, and businesses – and the broader supply chains linked to the state’s economy.” Some countries are working to negotiate new trade deals with the US, in an attempt to lessen the blow from tariffs, CNN reports. Vietnam, India, and Israel are reportedly already in talks with the president. From CNN: The outreach between Trump and those countries – a small fraction of the targets of his steep, sweeping levies – is seen as a first wave of negotiations as countries strategize how to respond to Trump. Some, like China and Canada, have already announced plans to retaliate. The reciprocal tariffs will go into effect April 9 at 12:01 am ET, according to a senior White House official.” While some in the administration maintain that economically disruptive move is part of a plan by the president to change global trading patterns, Trump told reporters on Thursday that he believes the tariffs will give him more power to make deals with leaders around the world. “Every country has called us. That’s the beauty of what we do, we put ourselves in the driver’s seat,” Trump said. “The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.” Agricultural products are among those severely slumping on the futures market on Friday, after China announced retaliatory tariffs on American exports, the New York Times reports. From soybean contracts to cattle, oats to hogs, nearly all products in the agricultural sector were down. Farmers across the US are feeling the impact of Trump’s policies, as funding cuts, tariffs, crackdowns on migrant workers and gutted USDA programs continue to cause chaos and wreck havoc. Trump spoke to the agricultural sector in his address to Congress last month, warning that there would be “a little bit of an adjustment period”, but for farmers who often operate close to the edges – and who largely backed Trump in the 2024 election – fears are mounting. “I think any farmer will tell you that we will take some short-term pain, but do not make this a long-term extended trade war, because that just won’t be good for agriculture or for the country in general,” Bob Hemesath, an Iowa farmer who grows corn and raises hogs told NBC News in March. “I know that this is the way President Trump believes he’s going to create better markets long term. I hope he’s correct. But my fear is that once you lose those markets to other suppliers, it’s very hard to get them back.” The supreme court has granted the Trump administration’s plea to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in teacher-training money as part of its anti-DEI efforts. The justices ruled in favor of the Trump administration on Friday, granting an emergency request to stay a federal court order that would have required $65m in Department of Education funds to eight states to be reinstated. The order came after eight states – California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin – sued over the withdrawn grants, which were supposed to fund teacher recruitment. The Trump administration canceled the funds, claiming the programs included DEI materials and were in violation of the president’s executive orders. A federal judge in Massachusetts issued a temporary restraining order against the administration in March, which would have stopped the termination of the grants in question until the lawsuit is resolved, finding that the states were likely to win their claim. The administration made its case to the supreme court that federal courts were acting beyond their authority, “by ordering the Executive Branch to restore lawfully terminated grants across the government, keep paying for programs that the Executive Branch views as inconsistent with the interests of the United States, and send out the door taxpayer money that may never be clawed back” Scotusblog reported back in March. The justices split 5-4, with chief justice John Roberts joining the three liberal justices in dissent. The markets closed at a steep slump today, ending a brutal week of decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2,231.07 points, a 5% drop, while S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite each took 5.97% and 5.82% hits respectively. “The bull market is dead,” Emily Bowersock Hill, CEO and founding partner at Bowersock Capital Partners told CNBC today, lamenting another rough day for Wallstreet in the wake of Trump’s tariffs, adding that “it was destroyed by ideologues and self-inflicted wounds”. The declines are among the biggest seen since the Covid pandemic roiled economies around the globe in 2020. CNBC also reports that the CBOE Volatility index, a measurement of investors’ fear, spiked above 40, “an extreme level seen only during rapid market declines”. Much of the day has focused on the continued fallout from the major escalation of Trump’s trade war. Despite China clapping back to Trump’s tariffs with a 34% levy on US goods, Trump doubled down on his tariff policies (which he reportedly chose the formula for himself) saying “China played it wrong” and asserting: “My policies will never change.” His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, also shrugged off market falls, insisting: “The markets will adjust.” Well they did adjust, in a way – Wall Street tumbled at the open after China’s retaliation. The Dow dropped over 2,000 points, its biggest drop since June 2020, and leaving the Nasdaq in bear market territory. Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, warned the global tariffs assault is set to raise prices and slow down economic growth, defying Trump’s demands for an immediate interest rate cut. Leaders around the world are still scrambling with how to respond to the turmoil, with the EU calling US tariffs “damaging and unjustified”, and the likes of Vietnam, Cambodia and the state of California seeking exemptions. Automakers have already started shifting gears, while the likes of Apple, Nike and Amazon weigh the costs to their businesses – not for big oil though, who found themselves (checks notes) exempt from the tariffs package. Away from global market chaos: A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must return to the United States a Maryland man who was unlawfully deported to El Salvador last month despite a court order that he not be sent there. US district judge Paula Xinis told a Justice Department lawyer: “This was an illegal act. Congress said you can’t do it, and you did it anyway.” The government claims it has no way to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the US, but Xinis has given them three days to do so. A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated a court order by halting the disbursement of hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) grants to states, and ordered Fema to disperse the funds. Trump extended the TikTok ban deadline – the second time the president will have delayed the ban or sale of the social media app to a non-Chinese buyer, and will punt the deadline to 75 days from now. Members of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Doge team arrived at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, the agency told Reuters, a signal it could become the latest US government unit to face job cuts. That’s all from me, Lucy Campbell. My colleague Gabrielle Canon is here to steer you through the rest of the day’s news, so stay tuned. Members of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team arrived at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, the agency told Reuters, a signal it could become the latest US government unit to face job cuts. “Staff from the Department of Government Efficiency are currently working at Peace Corps headquarters and the agency is supporting their requests,” the agency said in a statement on Friday. The Peace Corps, which sends volunteers across the globe to help countries with education, health and economic projects, had so far remained under the radar amid the cost-slashing drive of the Musk-led Doge. The purpose of the visit was not immediately clear, but the arrival of Doge staff at an agency is often followed by layoffs. Fridays have become some of the most nerve-racking times for mass firings of civil servants since Donald Trump took office and established Doge. Doge did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Since the Peace Corps was established in 1961 by then-president John F. Kennedy, more than 240,000 Americans have served as Peace Corps volunteers. It is widely seen as one of the most visible instruments of US soft power abroad. Trump has taken steps to dismantle key pillars of America’s soft power, including the US Agency for International Development, the US Institute of Peace and government-funded broadcasters like Voice of America. A federal judge ruled on Friday that the Trump administration must return to the United States a Maryland man who was unlawfully deported to El Salvador last month despite a court order that he not be sent there. Reuters reports that the US government has acknowledged that the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man whose lawyers say he was in the country legally, was made in error. But it says it had no legal authority to bring him back to the US. US district judge Paula Xinis told a Justice Department lawyer: This was an illegal act. Congress said you can’t do it, and you did it anyway. Xinis has given the government three days to return Abrego Garcia to the US by 7 April. The court heard that Abrego Garcia lived in the US legally and had a work permit. One of his lawyers, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told the judge there was no legal basis for the deportation. They admit they had no legal authorization to remove him to El Salvador. The public interest lies in the government following the law. Erez Reuveni, a lawyer for the government, conceded that Abrego Garcia should not have been removed. “That is not in dispute,” Reuveni said. On 15 March, Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The administration said it sent two flights to El Salvador that day carrying deportees processed under the rarely used wartime statute and a third flight carrying people deported under other rules. A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in a court filing said Abrego Garcia was wrongfully placed on the third flight despite an October 2019 judicial order granting him protection from deportation. Lost in the weeds of Donald Trump’s trade war, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu could visit the White House as early as next week, NBC News reports. He said on Friday: We’ll speak about Israel, and we’ll speak about what’s going on. That’s another thing we’d like to get solved. Trump’s comments come as Israel restarted its ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 25 people in airstrikes on the southern city of Khan Younis in what it claims is a renewed military campaign aimed at pressuring Hamas into releasing Israeli hostages. Netanyahu on Wednesday said the army was “seizing territory” and “dividing up” Gaza, renewing fears of permanent displacement for the strip’s 2.3 million residents and inflaming worries that Israel intends to permanently take control of the territory. More than 500 law firms signed onto an amicus brief on Friday in support of a challenge to Donald Trump’s efforts to target the legal profession. “Although we do not take this step lightly, our abiding commitment to preserving the integrity of the American legal system leaves us no choice but to join together to oppose” Donald Trump’s 6 March executive order targeting Perkins Coie, the brief says. It was authored by Donald Verrilli, Jr., who served the solicitor general in Barack Obama’s administration. “In recent weeks, the President has issued not one but five executive orders imposing punitive sanctions on leading law firms in undisguised retaliation for representations that the firm, or its former partners, have undertaken, and more may be in the offing.Those Orders pose a grave threat to our system of constitutional governance and to the rule of law itself,” it says. The brief amounts to the largest statement from the legal community so far in pushing back against Trump’s efforts to retaliate against lawyers. Some major firms, including Covington and Burling – the first firm Trump punished with an executive order – and Arnold & Porter – signed on to the brief. But the brief was notable not just for how many firms signed, but who didn’t. Many of the nation’s most prominent and profitable law firms did not join. Among the major firms missing were: Kirkland & Ellis, Cravath, Swaine, and Moore, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Several of those firms were reportedly hesitant to stick their neck out and sign without support from others, according to the New York Times. So far, Trump has targeted five firms with executive orders – Covington and Burling, Perkins Coie, Paul Weiss, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale. Perkins Coie and Jenner & Block have sued and successfully gotten preliminary rulings halting most of the orders. Covington and Burling has not taken legal action on its own. Paul Weiss settled with the president and agreed to perform pro bono work and review its hiring practices in an agreement that has been widely criticized for only emboldening the president to go after other firms. Several other firms, Skadden, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and Milbank LLP have all reached pre-emptive agreements with Trump to avoid orders. Related: ‘They’re all bending’: Two more law firms reach deals with Trump to avoid executive orders This is from Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade commissioner, saying he’s held “frank” talks with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and US trade representative Jamieson Greer during which he reaffirmed to them that “US tariffs are damaging, unjustified”. “The [EU-US] trade relationship needs a fresh approach. The EU’s committed to meaningful negotiations but also prepared to defend our interests,” Šefčovič posted on X. It echoes comments from the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who on Thursday described the tariffs as “a major blow to the world economy” spelling “dire” consequences for millions of people. She said the EU was prepared to respond, but urged Trump to “move from confrontation to negotiation”. She said the EU was “preparing for further countermeasures to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail”. Related: Macron suggests pause on US investment as EU leaders condemn Trump tariffs Here’s Trump’s post on his Truth Social platform on the extension of the deadline for the sale of TikTok. My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress. The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days. We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!). This proves that Tariffs are the most powerful Economic tool, and very important to our National Security! We do not want TikTok to “go dark.” We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. Thank you for your attention to this matter! Donald Trump extended the deadline for the sale of ByteDance’s US assets of TikTok by 75 days, saying “tremendous progress” had been made but more work was needed to secure approvals, Reuters reports. “The deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed,” Trump said, explaining why he was extending the deadline he set in January that was supposed to expire Saturday. “We hope to continue working in good faith with China, who I understand is not very happy about our reciprocal tariffs.” China now faces a 54% tariff on goods imported into the US. Trump has said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with ByteDance. Trump has said his administration was in touch with four different groups about a prospective TikTok deal. He has not identified them. “We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark’,” he said. The last time US tariffs were this high was after president Herbert Hoover signed into law the controversial Smoot-Hawley Tariff bill in 1930, which saw tariffs on many imported goods averaging nearly 40%. Just as now, there was global indignation at what was seen as unreasonable protectionism by the US, with nations such as France threatening firm retaliation if it did not back down. In a Manchester Guardian report below, former French prime minister Édouard Herriot was reported to have urged European governments to work together against the tariffs, claiming it was a “matter of life or death”. European economies at the time were decimated following the first world war. As politicians sought to negotiate with the US, European businesses took a more direct course of action by boycotting US produce. In the UK, department stores even placed placards in their windows advertising an ‘Empire loaf’, which was made with 85% Canadian flour. The impact of Hoover’s tariffs were, as predicted by hundreds of economists, highly damaging to the US, with estimates of imported goods, many of which were needed by US industry and commerce, plummeting by nearly half. Hoover’s protectionism might have appealed to staunch Republicans, but it ruined his standing among his party’s progressives. Many Republicans who had campaigned for Hoover in the 1928 presidential election ended up endorsing Democrat Franklin D Roosevelt for president in the next election. British prime minister Keir Starmer spoke to his Australian and Italian counterparts, Anthony Albanese and Giorgia Meloni, about how they should respond to Trump’s tariffs on Friday, saying they agreed an “all-out trade war would be extremely damaging”. Reuters reports that in separate calls, Starmer said it had been “clear for a long time that like-minded countries must maintain strong relationships and dialogue to ensure our mutual security and maintain economic stability”, a spokesperson from his office said in a statement. “They all agreed that an all-out trade war would be extremely damaging and is in nobody’s interests, while agreeing to keep in close contact in the coming days.” A federal judge ruled on Friday that Donald Trump’s administration violated a court order by halting the disbursement of hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) grants to states, and ordered Fema to disperse the funds. US district judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, sided with Democratic state attorneys general in finding that the funding pause violated his injunction blocking the administration’s earlier sweeping pause of federal grants, loans and other financial aid. Those attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia said that Fema had been halting disbursements since early February in order to conduct a “manual review” of grants without clearly explaining when the process would end. They said the funding freeze at Fema appeared to be tied to an executive order the Republican president signed on his first day in office on 20 January as part of his immigration crackdown that targeted so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions”. The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, whose department oversees Fema, subsequently issued a memo directing restrictions on grant funding to sanctuary jurisdictions, which have laws that prevent state and local law enforcement from assisting federal civil immigration officers, according to court papers. Related: Trump orders review of Fema after saying disaster agency ‘is not good’ Donald Trump personally chose the formula used to determine country-specific tariffs, according to the Washington Post. Despite being presented with a variety of options to determine tariff rates for specific countries, the president ultimately chose the simple formula based on the trade deficit with each country and the total value of its US exports, the outlet reports. Those who presented various options included officials from the White House National Economic Council, the Commerce Department, the Council of Economic Advisers and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, people familiar with the matter told the Post. They added that “numerous more sophisticated approaches were developed than the one Trump selected”. Since Trump’s reveal of his tariffs, which have sent shockwaves across the global markets, economists have been stunned by what they call a formula created by “willing sycophants”. “This is not serious trade policy or grand strategy,” Adam Tooze, an economic historian at Columbia University, told the Guardian. “The boss hates trade deficits and his team of willing sycophants came up with a formula, however idiotic, that ticked the box,” he added. Donald Trump’s global tariffs assault is set to raise prices and slow down economic growth, the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell has warned, defying the US president’s demands for an immediate interest rate cut. While the US economy remains robust, Powell cautioned that there is high uncertainty over its direction. “Downside risks have risen,” he told an event in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday. The Fed chair stressed that the tariffs unveiled by Trump this week were markedly more extensive than expected – and warned the impact would likely be larger as a result. Trump promised to bring down prices while campaigning to win back the White House last year, and erroneously claimed on Wednesday they were “way down”, despite inflation holding firm. For the full story, click here: Speaking at a business journalists’ conference on Friday, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said that “it’s not clear at this time what the appropriate path for monetary policy will be.” Nevertheless, Powell did also say: “Inflation’s going to be moving up and growth is going to be slowing…but…we’re going to need to wait and see how this plays out before we can start to make those adjustments.” Meanwhile, Jerome Powell has been speaking in Virginia. Donald Trump’s new tariffs are “larger than expected” and the economic fallout including higher inflation and slower growth likely will be as well, the Federal Reserve chair said on Friday in remarks that pointed to the potentially difficult set of decisions ahead for the central bank. Powell said in prepared remarks for a business journalists’ conference: We face a highly uncertain outlook with elevated risks of both higher unemployment and higher inflation. While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it is also possible that the effects could be more persistent. Powell said it was not the Fed’s role to comment on the Trump administration’s policies but rather to react to how they might affect an economy that he and his colleagues regarded just a few weeks ago as being in a “sweet spot” of falling inflation and low unemployment. As the new policies and their likely economic effects become clearer, we will have a better sense of their implications for the economy and for monetary policy. While uncertainty remains elevated, it is now becoming clear that the tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected. The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth. Donald Trump has called on Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell to cut interest rates, saying it was the “perfect time” to do so. In a post on his Truth Social platform, the president wrote: This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates. He is always ‘late,’ but he could now change his image, and quickly. CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS! Donald Trump on Friday said he had a “productive” call with Vietnam’s leader To Lam during which Lam offered to reduce tariffs on US imports to his country. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: Just had a very productive call with To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their Tariffs down to ZERO if they are able to make an agreement with the US. I thanked him on behalf of our Country, and said I look forward to a meeting in the near future. Developing countries in southeast Asia are among the trading partners facing the highest of Trump’s tariffs - Vietnam was smacked with a levy of 46%. My colleagues reported on Thursday that one expert said Trump was likely to be targeting countries that received 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. Related: Asian countries riven by war and disaster face some of steepest Trump tariffs The sweeping package of tariffs unveiled by Donald Trump on Wednesday includes an exemption for the energy sector, which is a clear sign of the president’s fealty to his big oil donors over the American people, advocates say. Trump’s new 10% universal tariffs – which are higher for many major economies – are wreaking havoc on the global economy and are expected to increase consumer prices in the US. But the levies will not apply to many fossil fuel products, including liquefied natural gas imports, crude oil from Canada, and materials needed for making petrochemicals. (In the instance of Canada, for example, this is despite the US placing a 25% tariff on Canadian steel, aluminum and vehicles). Oil interests celebrated the carveout. Mike Sommers, head of the top US fossil fuel lobby group, the American Petroleum Institute, wrote in a social media post: We welcome President Trump’s decision to exclude oil and natural gas from new tariffs, underscoring the complexity of integrated global energy markets and the importance of America’s role as a net energy exporter. We will continue working with the Trump administration on trade policies that support American energy dominance. The exemption came after the fossil fuel industry poured $96m into Trump’s re-election campaign and affiliated political action committees, as he pledged to deregulate the sector and roll back environmental regulations. This was less than the $1bn Trump requested from the sector in an infamous meeting at his Mar-a-Lago club, but still constituted record levels of spending. Stevie O’Hanlon, spokesperson for youth-led environmental justice group the Sunrise Movement, said on Thursday: Oil and gas billionaires just bought themselves an exemption from Trump’s tariffs. While the rest of us have to deal with skyrocketing prices and rising temperatures, they’re sitting on their thrones and raking in billions. We need an end to this oligarchy now. Nintendo postpones Switch 2 preorders in US after Trump tariffs Nintendo has announced that preorders for its new Switch 2 gaming console will not begin on 9 April in the US as previously planned while the company assesses “the potential impact of tariffs”, CNN reports. In a statement the Japanese company said: Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the US will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged. Nintendo announced the Switch 2 on Tuesday, the day before Donald Trump launched his barrage of tariffs on foreign goods, which heavily target Asia, where many tech supply chains are based — including Nintendo’s. Automakers have already started to adapt to the 25% tariff imposed on car imports by Donald Trump, from pausing production to raising prices or halting certain models, AFP reports. Bank of America estimates that some 7.3m vehicles, or 8% of global auto sales, will get hit by the tariff. Ford CEO Jim Farley said in February that the tariffs will expose automakers to a “lot of cost and a lot of chaos”. Similar tariffs on car parts will also gradually come into effect, AFP reported. Volkswagen has already informed its US dealers that it will add an “import fee” to cars it ships into the country from Europe and Mexico, according to trade publication Automotive News. Bank of America estimates that US vehicle prices would rise by about $10,000 if manufacturers fully pass on the cost of tariffs and maintain their profit margins, AFP noted. Meanwhile, Stellantis, which also makes Chrysler, Dodge and RAM Truck vehicles, announced on Thursday it would pause production at some plants in Canada and Mexico. Its Chrysler plant in the Canadian city of Windsor, which employs 4,000 people and sits across a river from US auto capital Detroit, will pause production from 7-21st April. Nissan plans to stop selling in the US the QX50 SUV and QX55 crossover coupe SUV, which are both made in its Mexican factory in Aguascalientes. Trump TikTok sale deadline looms as US looks for deal China’s ByteDance faces a Saturday deadline to sell the US assets of TikTok to a non-Chinese buyer, which was imposed by Donald Trump in January, or face a ban that was supposed to take effect in January under a 2024 law. ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell the app and in court filings said that divestiture “is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally”. Trump said on Thursday his administration is “very close” to reaching a deal on TikTok, with multiple investors involved. A White House official said on Friday “if there is any news to be shared about the future of TikTok, President Trump will announce it at a time of his choosing.” Trump made the comments a day after he announced a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the US and higher duties on some of the country’s biggest trading partners, with China now facing a 54% tariff on goods imported into the country. Here’s our Beijing correspondent Amy Hawkins’s news story on China’s retaliation to Trump’s “bullying practice” with 34% tariffs on US imports. “For all imported goods originating from the US, an additional tariff of 34% on top of the current applicable tariff rate will be imposed,” Beijing’s finance ministry said. China’s commerce ministry said that it would also impose more restrictions on the export of rare earths which are used in high-tech manufacturing such as batteries and electric vehicles. It added a further 16 US companies and organisations to its export control list, meaning that Chinese companies are restricted from doing business with them. China’s state council tariff commission said: On April 2, 2025, the US government announced the imposition of ‘reciprocal tariffs’ on Chinese goods exported to the US. This practice of the US is not in line with international trade rules, seriously undermines China’s legitimate rights and interests, and is a typical unilateral bullying practice. From Nike to Apple: which US brands could be hit hardest by Trump tariffs and what’s at stake? Donald Trump’s so-called “liberation day” tariff war has so far wiped trillions off the market value of publicly traded companies, with the sweeping border taxes of up to 50% poised to wreak havoc on businesses across the world. US-based global brands from Nike to Apple have suffered some of the heaviest falls in share price and market value, as investors react to fears of price increases and a potential slowdown in consumer spending. My colleague Mark Sweney has examined some of the most exposed industries and brands. In technology, we have Apple and Amazon. Apple, the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, experienced a fall in market capitalisation of more than $300bn (£230bn) on Thursday in the worst single day drop since 2020 over fears the tariffs will dramatically increase its costs and fuel price increases for products such as its iPhone. Apple makes most of its hardware in China and two other leading production hubs, India and Vietnam, were also hit with 26% and 46% tariff rates. Other “Magnificent 7” mega-value tech companies suffered similarly. Amazon, a leading seller of imported goods from across the globe, was stripped of almost $190bn in market value. China-based sellers have more than 50% market share on Amazon’s third-party seller marketplace, according to MarketPlace Pulse. In fashion, prices of Nike’s signature Jordan sports shoes, Levi’s jeans and Gap clothes are likely to rise in the US as Trump’s tariffs hit the Asian factory hubs that underpin the global garment industry. The high tariffs across many leading garment manufacturing countries also threatens significant supply chain cost increases of everything from tracksuits to sweaters. The full story is here: The New York stock market has opened, and stocks are sliding again. Following the worst day since March 2020, shares are being hammered again after China retaliated against the US by announcing 34% tariffs on US goods earlier today. The S&P 500 index, a broad measure of the US stock market, fell by 2.48% at the start of trading, down 133 points to 5,262.68. The Dow Jones industrial average, which tracks 30 large US companies, has fallen by 982 points at the open, down 2.4%, to 39,563 points. These losses mean the Dow is down 10% from its recent record high, putting it in ‘correction territory’. With the stock market in a tailspin, Donald Trump has declared that his policies will “never change” as he doubled down on his trade war a few hours after China retaliated with tariffs on US goods and claimed “this is a great time to get rich”. The president posted on his Truth Social platform on Friday: TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE. THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE!!! He added: GREAT JOB NUMBERS, FAR BETTER THAN EXPECTED. IT’S ALREADY WORKING. HANG TOUGH, WE CAN’T LOSE!!! However, as my colleague Graeme Wearden notes, Wall Street futures continue to indicate shares will tumble when trading resumes, with S&P 500 futures down 2.7%. Trump went on to claim China had “played it wrong” by retaliating to his escalation: CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED - THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO! Financial markets are plunging after China retaliated against the US over Trump’s tariffs with a 34% levy on US imports. It came two days after Trump imposed the same tariff on all Chinese imports, bringing the total US tariff on Chinese goods to at least 54%. “Vote-a-rama” begins tonight as the Senate moves forward with up to 50 hours of debate on the new budget blueprint, culminating in a marathon voting session before a final vote as late as Saturday. The goal? To pass legislation containing much of Donald Trump’s agenda later this year, his “one, big beautiful bill”. With lawmakers voting on budget amendments one by one, Democrats are expected to force Republicans to take politically painful amendment votes on issues that divide them throughout the series, for example on Medicaid and Trump’s tariffs. At the end of the vote-a-rama, the Senate is expected to adopt its budget blueprint. It then heads to the House, where some conservative Republicans have already criticized the resolution. Both chambers must adopt the identical budget blueprint before advancing legislation to implement Trump’s agenda, which includes new funding for immigration enforcement, a sweeping overhaul of the tax code, steep spending cuts and more energy drilling. The details of the legislation still need to be determined. On Thursday, following an hourslong delay and last-minute Republican rallying, the Senate voted 52-48 along party lines to begin debate on the GOP’s budget blueprint. Republican senator Rand Paul of Kentucky joined all Democrats in voting no and has indicated that he does not approve of including an increase to the debt limit in the resolution. Speaking to reporters after a Nato summit in Brussels, US state secretary Marco Rubio was asked about Trump’s tariffs, which wiped about $2.5tn off Wall Street and share prices in other financial centres across the globe. He appeared to play down the impact, saying “their economies are not crashing – they’re markets are reacting to a dramatic change in the global order in terms of trade.” What happens is pretty straightforward. If you’re a company and you make a bunch of your products in China, and all of a sudden, shareholders, or people that play the stock market realise that it’s going to cost a lot more to produce in China, your stock is going to go down. But ultimately, the markets, as long as they know what this the rules are going to be moving forward … the markets will adjust. He explained that the US has “the largest consumer market in the world, and yet the only thing we export is services, and we need to stop that”. “We need to get back to a time where we’re a country that can make things,” he added. “The president rightly has concluded that the current status of global trade is bad for America and good for a bunch of other people. And he’s going to reset it, and he’s absolutely right to do it,” he said. My colleague Jakub Krupa is covering the press conference – and developments in Europe more widely – here: The Danish prime minister has put on a show of unity with Greenlandic leaders in her first visit to the Arctic island since Donald Trump’s renewed threats to acquire the territory, telling the US: “You cannot annex another country.” Speaking alongside Greenland’s new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and its outgoing prime minister, Múte B Egede, Mette Frederiksen switched from Danish to English to address the diplomatic standoff with the Trump administration. She said: I would like to take this opportunity to send a message directly to the United States of America. This is not only about Greenland or Denmark. This is about the world order that we have built together across the Atlantic over generations. You cannot annex another country – not even with an argument about international security. Denmark and Greenland “want to cooperate with the United States”, she said. “If you want to be more present in Greenland, Greenland and Denmark are ready. If you want to strengthen security in the Arctic, as we would like, let’s do it together.” Egede said Greenland wanted to cooperate with the US on trade, but reasserted his previous comments, saying: “We are not for sale.” Meanwhile, in Brussels on Friday, Marco Rubio said Denmark should focus on the fact that Greenlanders do not want to be a part of Denmark. He told reporters at a press conference after meeting other Nato foreign ministers: “Greenlanders are going to make a decision.” He said: We didn’t give them that idea. They’ve been talking about that for a long time. Whenever they make that decision, they’ll make that decision. If they make that decision, then the United States would stand ready, potentially, to step in and say, OK, we can create a partnership with you. We’re not at that stage, but that’s what the vice-president made clear last week in his visit there. He added the US was “not going to … let China come in now and say, offer them a bunch of money and become … dependent on China”. According to the Washington Post (paywall), the White House budget office is assessing the cost of running Greenland and working out an estimate of how much revenue could be earned from its natural resources. Among the options on the table is to offer Greenland a higher figure in subsidies, approximately £500m a year, than Denmark currently does. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, will announce on Friday plans to ask countries to exempt his state from retaliatory tariffs on California-made products, Fox News is reporting. Sources have told Fox the move is a direct response to Donald Trump’s sweeping so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, which have left global markets in turmoil and nations around the world reeling. The Golden State is the largest importer and second-largest exporter in the country. Its agricultural sector, in particular, depends on exports. The Newsom administration is worried that California’s almond industry, a major agricultural exporter, will lose billions of dollars as nations like China, India and the EU move to impose retaliatory tariffs. Californian farmers grow an estimated 80% of the world’s almonds. Other top agricultural exports include dairy products, pistachios, wine and walnuts. Trade with Mexico, Canada and China is also key for California, and a Newsom official told Fox the new Trump tariffs will also affect access to critical supplies, like construction materials, needed to rebuild after the Los Angeles wildfires. The sweeping new US tariffs announced by president Donald Trump do not violate Nato treaties, the military alliance’s secretary-general Mark Rutte said on Friday after meeting Nato foreign ministers in Brussels. Rutte was responding to a reporter’s question that referred to article 2 in the Nato treaty which states: “(Nato allies) will seek to eliminate conflict in their international economic policies and will encourage economic collaboration between any or all of them.” The Trump administration is taking aim at Brown University with threats to freeze $510m in grants, widening its promise to withhold federal funding from schools it accuses of allowing antisemitism on campus, according to multiple media outlets including Reuters and the New York Times. University officials said they had not yet been formally notified, but the school was among dozens warned last month that enforcement actions could be coming as the administration seeks to crack down on academic institutions . As at many universities across the US, students at the Rhode Island Ivy League school protested Israel’s attacks against Palestinians last autumn, raising a cluster of tents on the grassy quad at the heart of campus. But, unlike at many of its sister schools, Brown administrators chose to negotiate rather than clear the demonstrations forcefully. Trump has called the protesters antisemitic, labeling them sympathetic to Hamas militants and foreign policy threats, and has threatened to slash federal funds universities depend on to fuel important research. In an email to campus leaders on Thursday shared by a Brown University spokesperson, the school’s provost, Frank Doyle, said the university was aware of “troubling rumors emerging about federal action on Brown research grants” but added it had “no information to substantiate any of these rumors”. “We are closely monitoring notifications related to grants, but have nothing more we can share as of now,” he added. You can read the full story here: China says it has filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over Trump’s tariffs imposed on its exports. “China has filed a lawsuit under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism,” Beijing’s commerce ministry said in a statement. We will have more on this as soon as we get it. China’s finance ministry has said it will impose additional tariffs of 34% on all US goods from 10 April as a countermeasure to sweeping tariffs imposed by Donald Trump. As we reported in an earlier post, the Chinese ministry of commerce had called on the US to cancel the tariffs and promised unspecified countermeasures. China has been hit particularly hard by the new tariffs, which take the total levy on Chinese imports to over 50%. The higher levies are due to come into effect from 9 April. China, a key exporter to the US, of everything from clothing to kitchenware, has already announced a raft of retaliatory measures expected to raise prices for US consumers. “There are no winners in trade wars and tariff wars,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said earlier this week. “It’s clear to everyone that more and more countries are opposing the unilateral bullying actions of the US”. My colleagues have done a useful explainer breaking down what Trump’s tariffs are and how they’ve affected the economy since the announcement. Here is an extract from it: What exactly are the new tariffs Trump is imposing? Trump’s new tariffs are twofold. First, all imported goods will be subject to a 10% universal tariff starting 5 April. Then, on 9 April, certain countries will see higher tariff rates – what Trump has deemed “reciprocal tariffs” in retaliation for tariffs the countries have placed on American exports. Keep in mind that tariffs are paid by American companies that are importing goods such as wine from Europe or microchips from Taiwan. Some of the highest tariffs will be put on imports from Asian countries, including China, India, South Korea and Japan. EU exports will also have a 20% tariff. How did the White House calculate the tariffs? The administration said that it looked at the trade deficit between the US and a specific country as a percentage, and then considered that to be a tariff. So, for example, the value of US goods that are exported to China are 67% of the value of the Chinese goods that are imported into the US. The White House calls this definition a “tariff” placed on American goods, though a deficit and a tariff are not the same thing. It then halved the “tariff” and used that percentage to represent the new levy that the US would place on goods from that country. Nato foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels today to talk about Russia’s war on Ukraine. Increased defence investment is a key item on the agenda. But some of European’s foreign ministers, including the UK’s David Lammy, have been asked about Trump’s sweeping tariffs on the way in. Speaking to journalists, Lammy suggested Trump was taking US economic policy back almost a century by embracing protectionism. The British foreign minister explained: The United Kingdom, like France, is a great maritime nation. We are a nation that believes in open trade, and I regret the return to protectionism in the United States, something that we’ve not seen for nearly a century. As you know, we are consulting with business and industry. At this time, we are engaged in discussions with the United States to strike an economic agreement and an economic deal. And of course, we have been absolutely clear that all options are on the table as we ensure the national interests of the British people, who will be very concerned at this time about how this affects the bottom line for them and their economic welfare. We will put their national interest first, and it’s in their national interests to be negotiating with the United States an economic agreement at this time, but keeping all options on the table. You can keep up to date with all the developments in UK politics in Andrew Sparrow’s brilliant live blog. Donald Trump said he thinks his tariff plan is going “very well” despite his announcement causing chaos in global markets. Speaking to reporters last night, the US president said: I think it’s going well. It was an operation - like when a patient gets operated on and it’s a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is. We have 6 or 7 trillion dollars coming into our country and we have never seen anything like it. The markets are going to boom, the stock (market) is going to boom, the country is going to boom and the rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal. They have taken advantage of us for many many years. Trump’s brash comments came despite the US financial market having suffered its biggest one-day loss since June 2020 on Thursday. American markets all closed lower – the Dow Jones dropped nearly 4% while the S&P 500 fell close to 5%. As the Guardian’s media business correspondent Mark Sweney notes in this story, the economic fallout has continued today. Japan’s Nikkei index fell almost 3% on Friday, ending the week down 9%, while Tokyo’s Topix was down 4.5%. South Korea’s Kospi closed down 1.3%. In London, the FTSE 100 fell 41 points at the open on Friday morning. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index fell 2.2% amid fears of a global recession after Trump’s announcement of the steepest trade barriers in more than 100 years. Here is a video of Trump announcing the sweeping tariffs on Wednesday. They were regularly touted on the Republican’s presidential campaign trail but their scale have taken many commentators by surprise: Lauren Gambino is political correspondent for Guardian US Senior senators introduced new bipartisan legislation on Thursday seeking to claw back some of Congress’s power over tariffs after Donald Trump unveiled sweeping new import taxes and rattled the global economy with sweeping new import taxes. The Trade Review Act of 2025, co-sponsored by Senator Chuck Grassley, a top Republican lawmaker from Iowa, a state heavily reliant on farm exports, and Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, whose state shares a border with Canada, would require the president to notify Congress of new tariffs, and provide a justification for the action and an analysis on the potential impact on US businesses and consumers. For the tariff to remain in effect, Congress would need to approve a joint resolution within 60 days. If Congress failed to give its consent within that timeframe, all new tariffs on imports would expire. The legislation would also allow Congress to terminate tariffs at any time through a resolution of disapproval. You can read the full story here: Sweeping new tariffs announced by Donald Trump on Wednesday risked sparking a global trade war and have provoked widespread dismay and threats of countermeasures from countries around the world. Traders are warning about a US or even global recession, as stock markets continue to be hit by a brutal sell-off by investors. Tariffs are border taxes charged on the import of goods from foreign countries. Importers pay them upon entry to the customs agency of the country or bloc that levies them. Chinese goods, already subject to a 20% levy, received an additional 34% tariff, taking the total tariff to 54%. The additional levy takes effect on 9 April. China’s commerce ministry called the move “a typical act of unilateral bullying” and vowed to take “resolute countermeasures to safeguard its rights and interests”. New Civil Liberties Alliance, a conservative legal group, on Thursday filed what it said was the first lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, alleges that Trump lacked the legal authority to impose the sweeping 2 April tariffs as well as duties authorised on 1 February under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. In a statement, NCLA senior litigation counsel Andrew Morris said: By invoking emergency power to impose an across-the-board tariff on imports from China that the statute does not authorize, President Trump has misused that power, usurped Congress’s right to control tariffs, and upset the Constitution’s separation of powers. The lawsuit asks a judge to block implementation and enforcement of the tariffs and undo Trump’s changes to the US tariff schedule, according to Reuters. My colleagues Hugo Lowell and Joseph Gedeon have more in this story on the surprise firing of Gen Tim Haugh, who had been the director of the National Security Agency for just over a year, having been nominated by former president Joe Biden in May 2023. His removal was revealed by Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, ranking member of the House intelligence committee, and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee. The firings come as Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz continues to fight calls for his ouster after using the publicly available encrypted Signal app to discuss planning for the sensitive 15 March military operation targeting Houthi militants in Yemen. Warner said on Thursday night, “It is astonishing, too, that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan, experienced leader of the National Security Agency while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app – even as he apparently takes staffing direction on national security from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office.” Haugh met last month with Elon Musk, whose “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, has roiled the federal government by slashing personnel and budgets at dozens of agencies. In a statement, the NSA said the meeting was intended to ensure both organizations were “aligned” with the new administration’s priorities. Good morning, and welcome to our US politics blog. Donald Trump fired Gen Tim Haugh, the director of the US National Security Agency (NSA) on Thursday, according to the top Democrats on the congressional intelligence committees. The Washington Post reported yesterday evening that Haugh and his civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, had been dismissed from their roles. Haugh also headed US Cyber Command, which coordinates the Pentagon’s cybersecurity operations. Maggie Dougherty, who oversaw international organizations at the White House National Security Council (NSC), which advises the president on national security matters, was also let go, two sources told Reuters. Earlier on Thursday, Trump said he had fired “some” White House national security council officials, a move that came a day after far-right activist and social media personality Laura Loomer raised concerns directly to him about staff loyalty. Loomer, during her Oval Office conversation with the president, urged the president to purge staffers she deemed insufficiently loyal to his “Make America Great Again” agenda, according to several people familiar with the matter. The move, which reportedly caught intelligence officials by surprise, has prompted an angry backlash from congressional Democrats. Senator Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said in a statement: “General Haugh has served our country in uniform, with honor and distinction, for more than 30 years. At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyber threats … how does firing him make Americans any safer?” Representative Jim Himes, the ranking member on the House intelligence committee, said he was “deeply disturbed by the decision”. “I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security first – I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this administration,” Himes added. “The intelligence committee and the American people need an immediate explanation for this decision, which makes all of us less safe.” The Trump team viewed Gen Haugh skeptically in part because he served as a top deputy at the cyber command under the Democratic president Joe Biden. We will have more on this story and other political news shortly.