President Donald Trump has announced that he’s pausing his high tariffs on a large number of countries for 90 days, even as he raised the levies on China.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was issuing a 90-day pause and “a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10 percent.”
He also said that he’s raising the tariffs on China to 125 percent, “based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets.”
The president said the measures were “effective immediately.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted when speaking to reporters on Wednesday that “this was his strategy all along.”
This comes after Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on some of America’s biggest global trading partners went into effect, and after China responded to a huge 104 percent levy by introducing an 84 percent retaliatory levy on U.S. imports in return.
Earlier, the president urged the public to stay calm.
“BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well,” he wrote in a previous post on Truth Social. “The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!”
US Space Command sends options for missile defense system to Hegseth
U.S. Space Command has finalized its options for a missile defense system, as directed by President Donald Trump.
It submitted recommendations for Trump’s “Golden Dome” system to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for his review and approval.
This futuristic system was requested by the president during his first week in office, and if successful, it would represent the first instance of the U.S. placing weapons in space intended to destroy ground-based missiles within seconds of launch.
Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, said at a conference this week in Colorado that the system is necessary “to deter a space conflict and to be successful if we end up in such a fight.”
Officials did not provide details on what the options for the system entail.
There is considerable skepticism about the feasibility of such a system.
Cheney slams Trump for ‘special mix of incompetence and evil’
Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney has slammed President Donald Trump for his “special mix of incompetence and evil,” referencing his actions today.
Reposting a video clip on X in which the president is seen directing his Justice Department to pursue his political enemy Chris Krebs, Cheney wrote: “In a special mix of incompetence and evil, Trump has combined his disastrous implementation of 1930s tariff policies with Stalinesque targeting of political adversaries. The 2020 election wasn’t stolen and speaking the truth is only a crime in countries ruled by tyrants.”
Krebs, the first Trump administration’s administration’s most senior cybersecurity official responsible for securing the 2020 election, is being targeted by the president for declaring that claims of digital electoral fraud back then were either “unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent” while dismissing the wilder claims as “nonsense” and a “hoax.”
Supreme Court OK’s Trump to remove two Democratic members of labor boards — for now
The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed President Donald Trump to temporarily remove Democratic members from two federal labor boards, suspending two judicial orders that had protected them from dismissal.
Chief Justice John Roberts, representing the court, halted the orders from two Washington-based federal judges that prevented Trump’s dismissal of Cathy Harris from the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox from the National Labor Relations Board before their terms expired.
The court’s action, known as an administrative stay, provides the nine justices with extra time to evaluate the Trump administration’s formal request to suspend the judges’ orders while the litigation over the firings proceeds.
Roberts told lawyers for Harris and Wilcox to file a response to the government’s request by April 15.
On Wednesday, Justice Department lawyers stated in a Supreme Court filing that the lower court rulings had created an “untenable” situation.
“The president should not be forced to delegate his executive power to agency heads who are demonstrably at odds with the administration’s policy objectives for a single day — much less for the months that it would likely take for the courts to resolve this litigation,” they wrote.
U.S. District Judges Rudolph Contreras and Beryl Howell upheld federal laws that protect officials in these roles from being dismissed without cause, rejecting Trump’s argument that the measures enacted by Congress infringe upon the authority granted to the president by the U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Monday declined to pause the rulings by the judges while the cases proceed after an earlier ruling by that court had permitted the removals.
Trump’s decision to remove Harris and Wilcox was part of his extensive restructuring and downsizing of the U.S. government, which included firing thousands of workers, dismantling federal agencies, appointing loyalists to key positions, and purging career officials.
With reporting from Reuters
Watch: Trump’s tariffs story ‘not being bought by the American people’ or global economy
Canada PM calls Trump’s pause on tariffs ‘welcome reprieve’ for global economy
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney calls Donald Trump’s pause on tariffs “a welcome reprieve for the global economy.”
Carney said in a statement: “The pause on reciprocal tariffs announced by President Trump is a welcome reprieve for the global economy.
“As President Trump and I have agreed, the U.S. President and the Canadian Prime Minister will commence negotiations on a new economic and security relationship immediately following the Federal election.
“As part of today’s announcement, the President has signalled that the U.S. will engage in bilateral negotiations with a number of other countries. This will likely result in a fundamental restructuring of the global trading system.
“In that context, Canada must also continue to deepen its relationships with trading partners that share our values, including the free and open exchange of goods, services, and ideas.
“This election is importantly about who can best fight for Canadian families, workers, and businesses at the negotiating tables with the United States and other potential partner countries. The stakes have never been higher.
“I am working hard to earn that responsibility to protect our country through this crisis and to build Canada strong.”
‘Dissent isn’t unlawful’ says former White House official Miles Taylor, now targeted by Trump
Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, D.C.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order targeting a former official in his first administration by stripping him of security clearances and ordering the Department of Justice to investigate his conduct, an unprecedented step that erodes decades of separation between the president and the exercise of criminal investigatory power by the federal government.
Trump’s order targets Miles Taylor, a veteran of multiple Republican administrations who served as chief of staff to then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.
Taylor infamously penned an anonymous New York Times op-ed — and later a book — describing efforts by Trump administration personnel to shield the government from Trump’s worst instincts.
Read on…
Former White House official Miles Taylor targeted by Trump executive order
HAPPENING NOW: House Republicans scuttle MAGA budget vote after Mike Johnson fails to win over holdouts
Mike Johnson backed down on Wednesday and canceled plans to vote on a Republican budget resolution acting as the vessel for major parts of Donald Trump’s agenda.
The Republican speaker of the House set up votes Wednesday on a budget resolution authored by his peers in the Senate as the GOP moves on to the next step of the reconciliation process. But Johnson, who can suffer just three defections among his caucus for the vote to succeed, is still facing (according to various reports) more than a dozen likely or potential “no” votes from Republicans if the vote goes ahead.
John Bowden has the latest from Washington, D.C.
Watch: Dave Portnoy rips Trump for stock market volatility
Trump gives muddled answer on when he decided to pause tariffs
Asked by a reporter about when he arrived at the decision to pause the tariffs on most countries for 90 days, Trump gave a muddled answer.
“For a period of time. I would say this morning. Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about it,” the president said. He added, “Fairly early this morning.”
Earlier in the day, before announcing the pause, Trump on social media urged people to “BE COOL” and said “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
After members of his administration gave conflicting answers in recent days about whether the tariff hikes were a negotiating ploy, Trump said Wednesday, “A lot of times it’s not a negotiation until it is.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was in the Oval Office with Trump, said the European Union did not face further retaliatory tariffs like China did because the tariffs that the bloc announced Wednesday do not take effect immediately.
“I’m glad that they held back” Trump said.
Whitmer ‘surprised’ by being brought into Oval Office
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was “surprised” by the decision to bring her into the Oval Office today.
The presence of the Democratic governor and possible future presidential candidate confused many observers.
A Whitmer spokesperson said she was “surprised” that she was brought into the Oval Office during President Donald Trump’s news conference on Wednesday “without any notice of the subject matter.”
“Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Trump praised Whitmer during the encounter before signing orders directing the Justice Department to investigate two of his critics and targeting a law firm whose work he opposes.
Source: independent.co.uk