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President’s move to suspend levies sends financial markets soaring as White House and conservative allies attempt to spin climbdown as brilliant manoeuvre by master dealmaker
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Donald Trump urged the world to “be cool” on Wednesday as his sweeping import taxes took effect, crashing global markets and sending shockwaves through the U.S. economy.
Minutes after trading began on Wall Street, he declared: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
But hours later, the president performed an extraordinary U-turn, pausing and reducing tariffs on most nations for 90 days while increasing levies on imports from China to 125 percent.
Markets surged. White House officials – who just one day earlier said Trump would never back down – claimed “this was his strategy all along” and “the art of the deal” at work.
Social media exploded with accusations that the president had orchestrated a reverse “pump and dump” scheme: driving stock prices down only to buy them up before they rose again.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff is already calling for an investigation into market manipulation or insider trading.
Asked by a reporter about when he arrived at the decision to pause the tariffs, Trump gave a muddled answer.
“For a period of time,” he said initially, before continuing: “I would say this morning. Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it. Fairly early this morning.”
A tattoo equipment supplier in Pennsylvania is worried they won’t make it to summer.
A three-person team making optical scanners in San Diego saw their bills double overnight.
A coffee shop in New Orleans may be forced to raise its prices.
Here’s Richard Hall on the American businesses not helped by Trump’s tariff walkback because they rely on goods from China.
Although the president did eventually take up the 90-day tariff pause proposed by hedge fund manager Bill Ackman in his impassioned X post, the financier is now facing ridicule for his toadying reaction.
Gustaf Kilander has more.
The same Big Tech CEOs who stood in the crowd and cheered as Donald Trump was inaugurated in January have lost a combined $80 billion in net worths since he announced sweeping tariffs on nearly every one of the U.S.’s trading partners last week.
Between “Liberation Day” on April 2 and Wednesday, April 9, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have seen their net worth plunge, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
Ariana Baio takes a closer look.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was in the Oval Office yesterday and broke with many of her colleagues when she described the president’s volatile tariffs favorably as the sort of “blunt tool” necessary to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.
Seemingly joining her California counterpart Gavin Newsom in making an early play for future conservative votes, Whitmer’s comments drew praise from Trump, who may have been as surprised by them as anyone.
Madeline Sherratt reports.
Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro were among the conservative network’s hosts claiming last night that the president’s 90-day tariff freeze was a brilliant masterstroke and not a desperate rowback.
James Liddell has more on their reaction.
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, normally a MAGA stalwart, confesses that the president has lost him on this one.
The Trump administration has abruptly replaced FBI Director Kash Patel as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll has been named interim head of ATF while continuing to lead the Army, a person familiar with the matter told The Independent.
It’s an unusual dual position that Patel was similarly in when he was tapped to lead both the FBI and ATF in February.
Here’s Ariana Baio with more on the thinking behind the move and on Driscoll.
The European Union (EU) has just announced it will put its own countermeasures against Donald Trump’s tariffs on hold for three months “to give negotiations a chance”.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on X: “We took note of the announcement by President Trump. We want to give negotiations a chance.
“While finalising the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our member states, we will put them on hold for 90 days.”
Here’s Sean O’Grady’s take on Musk’s spat with the aforementioned Peter Navarro this week as the tariff tension boiled over into public view.
The tech billionaire’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked by Trump with stripping back excess spending from the federal government, is reportedly being audited by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The GAO – a non-partisan, independent agency that works for Congress – has been investigating DOGE since last month, according to sources and records reviewed by Wired.
The audit is understood to be specifically targeting DOGE’s access to and use of sensitive government data.
Mary Papenfuss reports.
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