President Donald Trump shared on Truth Social that he has " authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.” Trump also raised his tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that “the market didn’t understand, those were maximum levels. The countries can think about those levels as they come to us to bring down their tariffs, their nontrade barriers.”
Here’s the latest:
White House claims Trump demonstrated ‘Art of Deal’ as he suspends some tariffs
“Many of you in the media clearly missed the ‘Art of the Deal,’” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, in a nod to the Trump’s 1987 memoir and advice book.
“You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact, we’ve seen the opposite effect - the entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets,” she added.
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to oust board members fired by president
The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency order to oust board members who oversee independent agencies, as a constitutional fight about presidential power plays out.
The quick appeal to the high court follows a ruling two days earlier in which a divided appeals court in Washington restored two board members to their jobs for now. They were separately fired from agencies that deal with labor issues, including one with a key role for federal workers as Trump aims to drastically downsize the workforce.
The immediate issue confronting the justices is whether the board members can stay in their jobs while the larger fight continues over what to do with a 90-year-old Supreme Court decision known as Humphrey’s Executor.
In that case from 1935, the court unanimously held that presidents cannot fire independent board members without cause.
The ruling has long rankled conservative legal theorists, who argue it wrongly curtails the president’s power. The current conservative majority on the Supreme Court already has narrowed its reach in a 2020 decision.
Government appeals in ruling against it over AP ‘Gulf’ dispute
The Trump administration says it will appeal a federal court decision in a case brought against it by The Associated Press. That’s the ruling Tuesday that ordered it to readmit AP journalists to White House events on First Amendment grounds.
The government filed a notice of appeal early Wednesday afternoon on behalf of the three White House officials sued by the AP. The one-page notice of appeal gave no other details.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, an appointee of President Donald Trump, ruled in favor of the AP, whose reporters and photographers had been excluded from White House events since February because the news agency had decided not to follow the president’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
Treasury secretary says markets ‘didn’t understand’ Trump’s tariff strategy
“The market didn’t understand, those were maximum levels. The countries can think about those levels as they come to us to bring down
their tariffs, their non-trade barriers,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House.
He said Trump “created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” and the Chinese have “shown themselves to the world as the bad actors.”
Trump maintaining 10% tariffs on nearly all global imports
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tells reporters that Trump is pausing his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on most of the country’s biggest trading partners but maintaining his 10% tariff on nearly all global imports.
State Department reinstates UN emergency food aid for Syria, Somalia and 4 other nations
The move comes after Jeremy Lewin, an Elon Musk associate helping lead the Trump administration’s dismantling of much of the United States’ foreign assistance program, expressed regret for killing those and other lifesaving aid programs over the weekend.
Lewin ordered funding restored on Tuesday for World Food Program emergency programs helping keep alive millions of refugees and others in Syria, Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Ecuador. That was after The Associated Press reported the cuts in emergency food support, and after appeals from the U.N. and some lawmakers.
However, the State Department said the cutoff of U.S. support for food aid would stand for Yemen and for Afghanistan, two conflict-ridden countries where millions are dependent on aid. The State Department said aid programs benefited the Taliban in Afghanistan and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, appealed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio to reverse the other humanitarian cuts, as well, saying they would have devastating consequences.
Court clears the way for Trump administration to fire thousands of probationary workers
A federal appeals court ruling on Wednesday halted a judge’s order requiring them to be reinstated.
A split panel for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the workers let go in mass firings must appeal the dismissals through a separate employment process.
The decision in a case filed by nearly two dozen states in Maryland comes a day after the Supreme Court blocked a similar order from a judge in California.
Trump says he will pause tariffs on most countries for 90 days but raise China tariffs
Trump announced that he is pausing his hiked-up tariffs on most countries for 90 days because of their interest in negotiating trade deals with the U.S. but is slapping another high tariff on China, citing a “lack of respect.”
The president made the announcement in a post on his Truth Social media network on Wednesday, causing stocks to quickly surge and the Dow Jones Industrial Average to shoot up 1,800 points.
US Pacific commander says China will seize on USAID absence in Myanmar
Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that the U.S. Agency for International Development has historically provided critical necessities, food, water and medicine to nations in the region that particularly help poor areas. Such assistance, he said, enables the U.S. to compete against China in the region.
While rescue teams from China and other nations have been prominent in the Myanmar earthquake responses, the U.S. has had no known presence on the ground beyond a three-member assessment team. America’s six-decade-old USAID has largely been dismantled by Trump through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency teams.
Asked about the lack of USAID assistance to the crisis, Paparo said, “The People’s Republic of China sees these opportunities, and they seize them.”
House Democrats say Trump’s tariffs are hurting ties with critical Pacific allies
House Democrats pressed military and defense leaders on Wednesday about the national security impact of Trump’s new tariffs, saying the increased costs are pushing allies in the Pacific away from the U.S. and closer to China.
Speaking during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said the recent economic meeting between Japan, Korea and China underscores that concern. He added, “This is driving our allies in the wrong direction.”
Democrats on the panel questioned John Noh, who is currently working as the assistant defense secretary for Indo-Pacific affairs, about whether the tariffs are hurting longtime military allies such as Australia, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam.
“We have launched a trade war against every single one of our partners in the Asia region,” said the panel’s ranking democrat, Rep. Adam Smith, of Washington.
Noh repeatedly avoided answering, saying at one point, “I’m not here to talk about tariffs.”
The Trump administration calls China the key national security challenge and has vowed to focus more on the region.
Trump is trying to reshape the global economy. It seems in open rebellion against his tariffs
Business executives are warning of a potential recession caused by Trump’s policies, some of the top U.S. trading partners are retaliating with their own import taxes and the stock market is quivering after days of decline.
Trump’s tariffs kicked in shortly after midnight on Wednesday, including 104% on products from China, 20% on the European Union, 24% on Japan and 25% on South Korea.
Administration officials have tried to reassure voters, Republican lawmakers and CEOs that the rates are negotiable - but by their own admission, that process could take months.
When a downturn appears on the horizon, investors typically crowd into U.S. Treasury notes as a safe haven, viewing the federal government as a source of stability. Not this time. Government bond prices are down, pushing up the interest rate on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note to 4.39%, a sign that the world is increasingly leery of Trump’s moves.
Judge bars US government from deporting 5 Venezuelans
Federal judges in New York and Texas on Wednesday took legal action to block the government from moving five Venezuelans out of the country until they can fight the government’s attempt to remove them under a rarely-invoked law that gives the president the power to imprison and deport noncitizens in times of war.
The men were identified as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, a claim their lawyers dispute.
Three men are being detained in a facility in Texas, while two more are being held in an Orange County, New York, facility. One man in Texas is HIV positive and fears lacking access to medical care if deported.
The actions came after civil liberties lawyers in Texas and New York sued in defense of the Venezuelans who are at risk of removal from the U.S. under a rarely-invoked law that gives the president the power to imprison and deport noncitizens in times of war.
All five men were identified by the government as belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang.
Trump administration will consider antisemitism in granting immigration benefits
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says in a press release that it will begin screening the social media activity of immigrants who request benefits, including those who apply for lawful permanent resident status, foreign students and people affiliated with educational institutions “linked to antisemitic activity.”
The guidance is “effective immediately,” USCIS says.
The administration is focusing on “antisemitic activity” on social media and “physical harassment of Jewish individuals” as grounds for denying immigration benefits requests.
The announcement does not say what it is considered as “antisemitism” or identify any educational institutions. USCIS did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for information.
USCIS says it will consider social media content that indicates “endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor.”
