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President Donald Trump is telling investors coming to the United States that his “policies will never change,” after announcing sweeping tariffs that have sent the stock market into a tailspin.
This is a signal from Trump that he is standing firm in his 10% baseline tariffs on imports from all countries, with higher tariffs on 60 countries that have a high trade deficit with the United States.
“THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!” Trump posted Friday morning on Truth Social.
Last night, aboard Air Force One, Trump suggested that he is open to negotiating with other countries on tariffs, telling reporters that “every country’s called” the US since his announcement, but it would depend on whether they offered something “phenomenal” in return.
“Tariffs give us great power to negotiate,” Trump said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday downplayed concerns people may have of traveling to US and being detained and suggested Russia will have to decide if they are serious about peace as the top US diplomat talked to reporters in Brussels, Belgium.
Here’s a look at what he said while speaking to reporters:
Detention concerns: He downplayed concerns international travelers may have of coming to US and being detained, saying that most do not have problems.
“If you’re not coming to the United States to join a Hamas protest, or to come here and tell us about how right Hamas is, or … stir up conflict on our campuses and create riots in our streets and vandalize our universities, then you have nothing to worry about,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Russia peace talks: Rubio said the US will know “in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace” in Ukraine
The top US diplomat noted that he and others met with top Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev and “he’ll take some messages back.”
“The message is the United States needs to know whether you’re serious or not about peace. Ultimately, Putin will have to make that decision. The Russian Federation have to make that decision. The Ukrainians have shown a willingness to enter, for example, into a complete ceasefire to create space for negotiation,” Rubio told reporters in Brussels.
Myanmar response: He defended the US’ response to the devastating earthquake in Myanmar, which has come under scrutiny in the wake of the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID.
“We’re not the government of the world. We’ll provide humanitarian assistance just like everybody else does, and we will do it the best we can. But we also have other needs we need to balance that against,” he told reporters in Brussels.
The top US diplomat argued that Myanmar’s military junta government “would have impeded our response no matter what.”
Oil prices sold off aggressively on Friday to their lowest levels since 2021 on mounting concerns that the trade war will badly damage the global economy.
Here’s where things stand: US oil plummeted 8% to $61.92 a barrel in recent trading. That builds on a 6.6% plunge on Thursday driven by concerns about tariffs and a surprise production increase by OPEC+.
Crude fell to as low as $60.81 a barrel on Friday, the lowest intraday level since April 2021. Oil is on pace for its worst day since mid-2022.
President Donald Trump has advocated cheaper energy prices as a way to tackle the cost of living. But oil prices are primarily falling this week for a bad reason: surging recession fears.
Oil traders fear the trade war will slow economic growth to the point that it curbs demand for energy.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he does not think the Trump administration’s imposition of high tariffs — including on its European allies — violates the transatlantic alliance’s treaty.
Speaking to reporters at a summit of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Rutte also said the meeting remained “laser-focused” on keeping NATO territory safe and that the tariffs were a separate issue.
“We have seen in the past that you will have discussions between members of the (NATO) alliance on other issues and defense, which will not immediately impact the capability and the ability of allies to deliver on the common defense security. So, I think these two are really separate,” Rutte said. “We should keep them separate and should not get them to interfere in our discussions.”
Rutte was responding to a reporter’s question referring to Article 2 of NATO treaty, which states: “They will seek to eliminate conflict in their international economic policies and will encourage economic collaboration between any or all of them.”
American Soybean Association Chairman Josh Gackle said China’s upcoming 34% reciprocal tariffs on all imports from the US “creates additional challenges for us as farmers” as soybean season approaches.
“Coming from North Dakota, it’s specifically important here. A vast majority, 60 to 70% of the soybeans that we grow in any given year are destined for that Chinese market. So it creates added uncertainty, additional risks in a time where the farm economy in general is struggling,” he said Friday on “CNN News Central.”
Gackle, a North Dakota farmer, said China has been a reliable partner in a reliable market for decades and he hopes the Trump administration recognizes agriculture exports are important to rural America. He also pointed to short-term and long-term consequences of the tariffs.
“There’s this short-term impact of loss in the market price, but there’s also long-term considerations. And when you you get into a trade situation like this, China and other countries, they’re going to start to look to other suppliers. One of our biggest competitors when it comes to soybeans and corn as well is South America, specifically Brazil,” the chairman said.
Watch more from CNN’s Marc Stewart about the effect on US farmers:
@cnnMarc Stewart explains who will be impacted most by China’s retaliatory tariffs #cnn #cnnnews
More than 275,000 layoffs were announced last month, reaching a level not seen since the pandemic, according to a new report published Thursday.
The biggest culprit was one particular employer: The federal government.
The government announced plans to axe 216,215 jobs, accounting for nearly 80% of the 275,240 layoffs announcements made by US employers in March, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas’ latest report. It’s the third-highest monthly total behind April 2020 (671,129) and May 2020 (397,016).
The Department of Government Efficiency has run roughshod on the federal government, slashing funding, scrapping contracts and laying off droves of federal workers.
“Job cut announcements were dominated last month by [DOGE] plans to eliminate positions in the federal government,” Andrew Challenger, senior vice president for the global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm. “It would have otherwise been a fairly quiet month for layoffs.”
Of the remaining 59,025 cuts announced outside of the federal government, the biggest share was in technology and retail, according to the report.
The March announcements mark a stark 60% jump from February, which saw a spike of its own, and they’re up 205% from the 90,309 cuts announced in March 2024.
The DOGE-driven job cuts aren’t expected to hit the labor market data and the economy in one fell swoop. While some federal employees have been laid off immediately, others are serving out a paid notice period where they essentially quit but won’t be unemployed weeks or even months from now.
Still, DOGE’s drastic cutbacks are expected to heavily reverberate throughout local communities and the economy as a whole.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged today that “markets are crashing” following the Trump administration’s launch of sweeping global tariffs, but claimed they will recalibrate.
“Businesses around the world, including in trade and global trade, they just need to know what the rules are. Once they know what the rules are, they will adjust to those rules,” Rubio told reporters at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, responding to a question about unexpectedly high US tariffs impacting European economies.
Rubio continued: “So, I don’t think it’s fair to say economies are crashing. Markets are crashing because markets are based on the stock value of companies who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the United States.”
“We have to reset the global order of trade,” Rubio said. “The worst thing is to leave it the way it is forever. I mean, this just can’t continue. We can’t continue to be a country that doesn’t make things.”
He provided China as an example. “I mean, it’s outrageous. I mean, they don’t consume anything. All they do is export and flood and distort markets, in addition to all the tariffs and barriers they put in place,” Rubio said.
His comments come shortly after China announced it will impose reciprocal 34% tariffs on all imports from the United States starting April 10.
“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,” Rubio added.
The Trump administration has fired the director and deputy director of the National Security Agency, the United States’ powerful cyber intelligence bureau, according to members of the Senate and House intelligence committees and two former officials familiar with the matter.
The dismissal of Gen. Timothy Haugh, who also leads US Cyber Command — the military’s offensive and defensive cyber unit — is a major shakeup of the US intelligence community which is navigating significant changes in the first two months of the Trump administration. Wendy Noble, Haugh’s deputy at NSA, was also removed, according to the former officials and lawmakers.
Additional firings: The White House has also fired at least four National Security Council staffers. The firings came after Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who once claimed 9/11 was an inside job, urged President Donald Trump during a Wednesday meeting to get rid of several members of his National Security Council staff, including his principal deputy national security adviser, claiming that they are disloyal.
Loomer, who brought a list with roughly a dozen names of people she deemed insufficient in their support of Trump, also advocated for the firing of Haugh and Noble, two sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.
Former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday each delivered remarks on the state of the country under President Donald Trump’s second term and criticized the administration’s recent actions.
Obama, who preceded Trump’s first term, sharply criticized Trump’s efforts to reshape the federal government, crackdown on immigration and dissent, and intimidate news outlets and the legal establishment.
“So, this is the first time I’ve been speaking publicly for a while,” Obama said during an on-stage interview at Hamilton College. “I’ve been watching for a little bit.”
“Imagine if I had done any of this,” Obama said, later adding: “It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me, or a whole bunch of my predecessors.”
Obama went on to say that he doesn’t think Trump’s new tariff announcement “is going to be good for America.” However, he said that he is more concerned with what he described as the White House’s infringement of rights.
In separate remarks, Harris on Thursday said Trump’s moves since he returned to office were largely predictable.
“There were many things we knew would happen,” Harris said in a video of her remarks at the Leading Women Defined Summit. “I’m not here to say I told you so,” she added before laughing.
Harris said she recognizes that Trump’s return to the Oval Office has created “a great sense of fear.”
A marathon vote series, known as a “vote-a-rama,” begins tonight, as the chamber inches toward its goal of passing legislation containing much of President Donald Trump’s agenda later this year.
Democrats are expected to force Republicans to take politically tough amendment votes throughout the series, which will likely go into the early hours of Saturday morning.
Both chambers must adopt the identical budget blueprint before advancing legislation to implement Trump’s agenda, which includes new money 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.
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.
On Thursday, the Senate voted 52-48 along party lines to begin debate on the GOP’s budget blueprint.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul voted no and has indicated that he does not approve of including an increase to the debt limit in the resolution.
US stocks were set to plunge Friday after China retaliated against the United States for President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Dow futures fell 1,000 points, or 2.3%. The broader S&P 500 was set to open 2.4% lower and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was on pace to start the day 2.7% lower.
Global stock markets plunged yesterday in response to Trump’s tariff announcement, with all three major US indexes seeing their worst day since 2020, threatening to throw the global economy into recession.
Catch up here:
Here’s how the auto industry is responding:
- Layoffs at auto plants: Stellantis has “paused production” at some of its Canadian and Mexican auto assembly plants due to the newly announced tariffs — and as a result, some US workers will also be temporarily laid off.
- VW will show consumers the cost: Volkswagen has told its US dealers that cars it imports from Europe and Mexico will now show the cost of the tariffs imposed on stickers that consumers look at when shopping for a car.
- Toyota says no price hikes: Toyota Motor, the world’s top automaker, has decided not to raise prices on vehicles exported to the US for now, despite Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs on auto imports, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported.
- Experts warn of pain: “The cost of vehicles will go up. It’s just math. The bottom line is there is absolutely no vehicle that won’t be impacted by tariffs,” former Ford CEO Mark Fields told CNN.
China said on Friday it will impose reciprocal 34% tariffs on all imports from the United States starting April 10.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump unveiled an additional 34% tariffs on all Chinese goods imports into the US, in a move poised to cause a major reset of relations and escalate a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
“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,” China’s State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement announcing its retaliatory tariffs.
Remember: Since returning to power in January, Trump had already levied two tranches of 10% additional duties on all Chinese imports, which the White House said was necessary to stem the flow of illicit fentanyl from the country to the US. That means Chinese arriving in the US would be effectively subject to 54% tariffs.
Stock markets in Europe fell again Friday, two days after US President Donald Trump unveiled hefty tariffs on all trading partners.
The region’s benchmark Stoxx 600 index was trading 2% lower by 5 a.m. ET, while France’s CAC was 1.6% down and Germany’s DAX index fell 2%. London’s FTSE 100, meanwhile, dropped 1.7%.
Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, a provider of online trading and investing, called Wednesday’s announcement “the most significant tariff increases in over a century.”
On Thursday, the STOXX 600 tumbled 2.6%, erasing its gains since January. The DAX fell 3% and the CAC slumped 3.3%.
But all three major indexes in the United States fell even more, posting their biggest single-day drop since 2020. The Dow lost almost 4%. The broader S&P 500 was down by 4.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged nearly 6%.
“Investors have long anticipated that the imposition of tariffs from the White House would drive (other) nations closer together while isolating the US,” Stanzl said Friday.
“This speculation has not only materialized but has also far exceeded the worst fears due to the sheer scale of reciprocal tariffs. Downgrades for US stocks are pouring in, profit estimates are being revised downward.”
France’s finance minister said the European Union was not looking at reciprocal tariffs to respond to the Trump administration’s tariffs, as that could hurt European consumers.
Instead, measures under consideration are targeted at individual firms rather than sectors, Eric Lombard said in an interview Friday with CNN affiliate BFMTV.
“We have fiscal tools, and the advantage of fiscal tools is that they can affect businesses but not whole sectors and they don’t have an impact on the cost of products in Europe. We really want to protect the citizens of the European Union as much as we can,” he said.
Lombard also said Europe would enact a “proportionate response” to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which would be aimed at bringing the United States to the “negotiating table.”
Canada’s relationship with the United States “will never be the same again” after President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said Friday.
“They (the US) want to do things differently and we understand that, and that’s why we will seek to make sure that we get to an agreement on trade but also on security because both cannot be siloed,” Joly said.
She said Trump “respects strength,” which is why Canada has imposed 60 billion Canadian dollars’ worth of counter tariffs on American products.
“We announced new counter tariffs on auto yesterday, because we think that it is ultimately the best way to get to a good deal eventually,” she said, adding Canada is putting “maximum pressure” on the Trump administration.
While no further tariffs were imposed on Canada and Mexico, two of America’s top trading partners, this week, Trump had previously announced 25% tariffs on both countries for what he called inadequate efforts to curb migration and fentanyl trafficking.
Trump later agreed to pause tariffs for products covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) free trade treaty.
The tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by the US and Canada will extend far beyond their respective auto manufacturing sectors, an economist told CNN.
“We’re not too surprised about the fact that this has put a stoppage essentially, immediately, to some production facilities. And the repercussions will play out on more and more industries that are interconnected with the auto parts sector,” said Pedro Antunes, chief economist at the Conference Board of Canada.
On Thursday, Canada imposed a 25% counter tariff on imported, US-made vehicles entering the country in response to the US implementing levies on all foreign-made cars.
Automaker Stellantis, which makes Chrysler and Dodge vehicles, halted production at several Canadian and Mexican plants on Thursday. The company also temporarily laid off 900 US based staff.
The shutdown may cause a ripple effect throughout the auto parts industry, Antunes told CNN’s John Vause.
“Truth is that, you know, the 25% tariffs that are being applied now for Canadian exports into the US of autos and parts — this is … essentially, very damaging. It’s just non-competitive. And the US auto industry will be … unable to sell those cars,” he said.
Antunes warned that reciprocal tariffs could lead to permanent layoffs and a broader economic downturn.
The United Kingdom is in talks with the United States to strike an economic agreement, according to Britain’s foreign minister.
“The UK, 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 US, something we have not seen for nearly a century,” David Lammy said Friday.
“We are engaged in discussions with the US 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 interest 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.”
