White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated during a briefing on Tuesday that the additional tariffs would go into effect at midnight.
Trump has demanded that Beijing drop its retaliatory countermeasures, but the Chinese Commerce Ministry said it preferred to “fight to the end,” saying it “firmly opposes” the president’s trade war and that it considers its response “entirely justified.”
The White House is standing by the sweeping tariff program Trump imposed on some of the United States’ biggest trading partners last week, despite a global backlash that has left the world’s stock markets jittery.
After the president dug in his heels and insisted he was “not looking at” delaying their implementation, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow that 70 nations had already approached the administration about agreeing on new trade deals to ease the pain.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk has launched an extraordinary attack on Trump’s economic adviser Peter Navarro, calling him “truly a moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” on X over the administration’s controversial tariff policy.
BREAKING: Judge rules White House must restore AP’s accessU.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden has granted the Associated Press’ injunction against the White House’s ban on access to the Oval Office and East Room.
Per the court order:
About two months ago, President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. The Associated Press did not follow suit. For that editorial choice, the White House sharply curtailed the AP’s access to coveted, tightly controlled media events with the President. The AP now sues the White House chief of staff, her communications deputy, and the press secretary (collectively, “the Government”), seeking a preliminary injunction enjoining the Government from excluding it because of its viewpoint.
Today, the Court grants that relief. But this injunction does not limit the various permissible reasons the Government may have for excluding journalists from limited-access events. It does not mandate that all eligible journalists, or indeed any journalists at all, be given access to the President or nonpublic government spaces. It does not prohibit government officials from freely choosing which journalists to sit down with for interviews or which ones’ questions they answer. And it certainly does not prevent senior officials from publicly expressing their own views.
No, the Court simply holds that under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists—be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere—it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints. The Constitution requires no less.
Oliver O’Connell8 April 2025 21:57
Fox Business mocks Peter Navarro’s ‘reciprocal trade-girl math’While “first buddy” Elon Musk continues to assail Donald Trump’s trade czar over the tariffs that have plunged the global economy into chaos, some of the president’s media allies at Fox have also ridiculed Peter Navarro while urging Trump to bench his top trade adviser.
Justin Baragona reports.
Oliver O’Connell8 April 2025 21:50
Trump taunts law firms giving him ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’President Donald Trump took a moment during his remarks about coal to taunt law firms for giving him “hundreds of millions of dollars” in “damages.”
The president said: “Have you noticed that lots of law firms have been signing up with Trump, $100 million another 100 million dollars, for damages that they’ve done, but they give you 100 million, and then they announce that, but we have done nothing wrong. And I agree they’ve done nothing wrong, but what the hell they give me a lot of money, considering they’ve done nothing wrong.”
Here’s that moment:
Oliver O’Connell8 April 2025 21:43
Mixed messaging about reshoring hight-tech manufacturing versus heavy industryOn Sunday, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick proclaimed regarding the reshoring of manufacturing to the U.S.: “The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in … little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America.”
At lunchtime today, Press Secretary Karlone Leavitt said: “Absolutely … He believes we have the labor, we have the workforce, and we have the resources to do it.”
Just now, in remarks at the event in which he will sign an executive order about coal, President Donald Trump said: “One thing I learned about the coal miners — that’s what they want to do. You could give them a penthouse on 5th Avenue and a different kind of job, and they’d be unhappy. They want to mine coal. [Hillary Clinton] was gonna put them in a high-tech industry where you make little cell phones and things.”
Watch the remarks below:
Oliver O’Connell & Alex Woodward8 April 2025 21:32
Attorney General leaves abruptly when asked to confirm whether 75% of deported migrants had no criminal recordRead more:
Attorney General leaves abruptly over migrants questionAttorney General Pam Bondi left abruptly after being pressed by the media on a report that 75% of Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador did not have public criminal records. During a press event outside the White House, Bondi was asked about a segment on CBS’s 60 Minutes which uncovered evidence that three quarters of those shipped overseas actually had no public criminal record. The Attorney General doubled down that the migrants should never have been in the country in the first place and were violent criminals. When repeatedly asked to confirm that they didn’t commit a crime, she walked away.
Gustaf Kilander8 April 2025 21:30
Wall Street closes with markets erasing early gains as tariff worries continueThe S&P 500 closed below 5,000 for the first time in nearly a year, following Tuesday’s volatile session and a strong morning rally, as investor hopes faded for any imminent U.S. delays or concessions on tariffs before a midnight deadline.
After stocks tumbled at their fastest pace since the pandemic over the last three days, investors showed some signs of hope early in the day that President Donald Trump might soften his stance or postpone the April 9 deadline for tariffs. However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on Tuesday afternoon that Trump expects the tariffs to go into effect, as nearly 70 countries have reached out seeking to negotiate to lessen the impact of U.S. trade policies.
Additional tariffs will also go into effect on China from midnight after it stated earlier that it would never accept the “blackmail nature” of the U.S. in response to Trump’s threat to increase tariffs on Chinese imports to over 100%. Furthermore, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer indicated earlier that exemptions to the global tariffs are not anticipated in the near term.
According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 75.85 points, or 1.49%, closing at 4,986.40 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 335.35 points, or 2.15%, to 15,267.91. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 319.58 points, or 0.84%, to 37,657.76, erasing an earlier rally of 1,400 points.
After falling as low as 36.48 points earlier in the day, the CBOE Volatility Index — seen as Wall Street’s ‘fear gauge’ — rose back above 54 late in the session, having reached its highest level since last August on Monday.
With reporting from Reuters.
Oliver O’Connell8 April 2025 21:07
Watch LIVE: Trump set to sign executive orders to boost US coal after announcing 104 percent tariffs on China
Oliver O’Connell8 April 2025 20:57
Senate confirms Trump pick for ambassador to JapanThe Senate has voted to confirm George Glass to be President Donald Trump’s Ambassador to Japan.
Glass served as U.S. ambassador to Portugal during Trump’s first term in office.
Thirteen Democrats joined Republicans in approving his confirmation 66-32.
Oliver O’Connell8 April 2025 20:52
Watch: Miller argues China tariff s are in response to national security threatOliver O’Connell8 April 2025 20:44
Fetterman votes with Republicans in support of HuckabeeGustaf Kilander8 April 2025 20:33
