{"id":133453,"date":"2025-04-12T18:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T18:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-rolls-back-some-more-tariffs-as-his-liberation-day-plans-continue-to-face-scrutiny-live-updates-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-04-12T18:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T18:29:12","slug":"trump-rolls-back-some-more-tariffs-as-his-liberation-day-plans-continue-to-face-scrutiny-live-updates-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-rolls-back-some-more-tariffs-as-his-liberation-day-plans-continue-to-face-scrutiny-live-updates-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump rolls back some more tariffs as his \u2018Liberation Day\u2019 plans continue to face scrutiny: Live updates – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Electronics exemption to Trump\u2019s tariffs are boost for high-tech companies like Apple and Tesla, as well as China, which still remains under 145 percent levy
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President Donald Trump<\/a> has exempted major categories of electronics from his tariffs<\/a> on China and other nations<\/a>, including smartphones, computers, and semiconductors, customs officials announced Friday.
The move comes despite Trump officials saying the tariffs were meant to bring tech manufacturing back to the U.S., and that there wouldn\u2019t be exceptions to the president\u2019s tariffs.
The exemption is seen as a win for the Big Tech companies and executives that have been courting (and donating millions of dollars to) Trump since the 2024 campaign<\/a>.
The same companies, like Apple, Meta, and Amazon, have taken a bruising on the stock market throughout Trump\u2019s on-again, off-again tariff regime<\/a>, much of which is now under a 90-day pause<\/a>.
Elsewhere, in a Friday order, the administration directed the military to take control of federal lands along the U.S.-Mexico border<\/a>, arguing the move gives soldiers power to temporarily detain those crossing the border illegally.
Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas<\/a> Democrat, wrote on X<\/a>: \u201cTrump wants to shift the news off his tariff economic disaster, so he\u2019s deploying the military into our own country and targeting immigrants. Insane, an abuse of our military, and true to form.\u201d
Senator Elizabeth Warren argues that in addition to market chaos, corruption is another worrying side effect to Trump\u2019s tariff agenda.
\u201cApple CEO Tim Cook donated $1 million to Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration,\u201d she wrote<\/a> on X, reacting to the news of the administration\u2019s decision to exempt large parts of the electronics trade from the tariffs. \u201cLooks like he\u2019s getting a big return on his investment.\u201d
\u201cTrump\u2019s on-and-off-again tariffs leave the door wide open for billionaire corporations to suck up for corrupt deals \u2014 while leaving small businesses, farmers, and families out in the cold,\u201d she went on.
The Trump administration is racing to explain its decision Friday to exempt large parts of the electronics trade from the administration\u2019s \u201cLiberation Day\u201d tariff agenda.
The White House has framed its tariffs as a way to crack down on China and reshore lost U.S. manufacturing, but the Friday move effectively preserves the status quo on a major area of U.S.-China trade, where U.S. tech companies like Apple design their products in America but make them overseas.
\u201cPresident Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops,\u201d Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said<\/a> in a statement to Politico on Saturday. \u201cThat\u2019s why the President has secured trillions of dollars in U.S. investments from the largest tech companies in the world, including Apple, TSMC, and Nvidia. At the direction of the President, these companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.\u201d
Donald Trump said this week tariffs will soon be announced on the pharmaceutical industry.
\u201cWe’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals. And when they hear that, they will leave China<\/a>,\u201d Trump said Tuesday at a Republican fundraiser.<\/a>
The policy could impact access to heparin, a widely used blood anti-coagulant that\u2019s made in China.
\u201cIf China retaliates with restrictions on pharmaceutical exports, that would be a serious concern,\u201d Prashant Yadav, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told<\/a> The Washington Post<\/em>.
The Trump administration has pursued it\u2019s aggressive tariff policy with the goal of bringing manufacturing jobs that moved overseas back to the U.S.
However, some argue that this reshoring won\u2019t be a positive development, and that the U.S. should instead focus on supporting the kind of high-tech manufacturing that\u2019s stepped in to replace it.
\u201cThe textile industry is dead,\u201d Adolphus Jones, 71, a retired textile mill worker from Union, South Carolina, told<\/a> The New York Times<\/em>.
The region was once a hub for such manufacturing, where workers were paid low wages and suffered lung conditions from particle exposure. After such work was outsourced, the state has worked to attract companies in the bioscience and renewable energy industries, and credits a large BMW factory with lifting the area\u2019s fortunes once again.
\u201cWhy would you want to bring it back here?\u201d Jones said of the region\u2019s textile industry, which has moved to places like China and Vietnam. \u201cTruthfully, why would the younger generation want to work there?\u201d
Trump officials spent much of the last week trying to explain and justify the president\u2019s ever-evolving tariff policy.
They painted a picture of the blunt-force measures remaining in place without exceptions and bringing high-tech manufacturing back to the U.S.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Face the Nation<\/em> the tariffs would wrench electronics factories back from China, giving jobs to U.S. technicians and mechanics who would aid these highly automated assembly lines.
\u201cThe army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones \u2014 that kind of thing is going to come to America, it\u2019s going to be automated,\u201d he said.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, for his part, testified<\/a> in the Senate this week that, \u201cThe President has been clear that he’s not doing exemptions or exceptions in the near term.”
By Friday, however, U.S. officials were announcing that key electronics like smartphones and semiconductors would be exempt from Trump\u2019s tariffs.
Learn more:
New Jersey\u2019s U.S. Senate delegation is calling on Donald Trump to investigate the death of 14-year-old Amer Rabee, a New Jersey teen Israeli soldiers fatally shot last week in the West Bank.
\u201cAs New Jersey\u2019s senators, we are calling for a thorough and transparent accounting of the facts and circumstances around Amer Rabee\u2019s death and the actions of Israeli security forces,\u201d Cory Booker and Andy Kim wrote<\/a> in a letter to the president Friday. \u201cWe appreciate the difficult and dynamic nature of the situation, but also underscore our expectation that such an inquiry is possible and should be pursued when an American has died.\u201d
Rabee\u2019s family insists he was out picking almonds with friends, while the Israel Defense Forces claims he was a \u201cterrorist\u201d threatening civilians.
Here\u2019s more detail on what happened.
While Trump has ordered the military to take control of land near the U.S.-Mexico border, the details of how it will work are still undetermined.
Officials are still working to determine how to execute the plan or how long troops could detain migrants before turning them over to Border agents, according to the New York Times<\/em><\/a>.
There could also be signs to warn migrants that they are entering a military reservation if they cross the border into the U.S.
If you read one thing today…
Richard Hall <\/em><\/strong>writes:<\/em>
Donald Trump has made an art form of selling his failures as triumphs, and this week\u2019s capitulation on tariffs was his Mona Lisa.
Continue reading…<\/em>
Trump has ordered the U.S. military to take control of some federal lands. Most notably, the military will be taking over the Roosevelt Reservation.
That is a stretch of land that runs along the U.S.-Mexico border in California, Arizona and New Mexico.
It stretches about 600 miles and is 60 feet wide.
The area was created in 1907 by Theodore Roosevelt to keep the stretch “free from obstruction as a protection against the smuggling of goods between the United States and Mexico.”
Businessman and Shark Tank<\/em> panelist Kevin O\u2019Leary has emerged as one of President Donald Trump\u2019s most vocal supporters in his trade war against China.
In an appearance on CNN this evening, he called for 400% tariffs on China to force President Xi Jinping to the negotiating table \u2014 and not just regarding trade.<\/a>
He reiterated the point, saying it was a \u201cgame of chicken\u201d between the two nations, claiming that millions of workers might rise up against Xi if they lose their factory jobs if the U.S. stops buying Chinese goods, with no market to replace it.<\/a>
O\u2019Leary went on to say that the U.S. is not in a recession \u2014 no matter what others say.
Here\u2019s BlackRock CEO Larry Fink saying that we might already be in one: <\/a>
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
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