Trump admin accused of ‘market manipulation’ after abrupt U-turn on reciprocal tariffs: Live updates
Donald Trump urged the world to “be cool” 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, Trump declared: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”
Hours later, the president performed an extraordinary U-turn. He paused and reduced tariffs on most nations for 90 days while increasing tariffs 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 orchestrated a reverse “pump and dump” scheme with the American economy: drive stock prices down only to buy them up before prices rise again. Democratic Senator Adam Schiff is calling for an investigation into market manipulation or insider trading.
Later, 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. 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.”
Trump executive order aims to ease U.S. weapons exports
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to review the rules governing exports of military equipment, aiming to facilitate U.S. defense firms in selling their products abroad.
“We’re unable to provide weapons systems in a reliable, effective way to key allies of ours, and the key driver of that is inefficiencies and inconsistencies with the process by which we approve foreign military sales,” White House aide Will Scharf said at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
“So this executive order is going to direct your Department of Defense, Department of State, other relevant departments and agencies, to rework our system of foreign defense sales to ensure that we can provide equipment creating American jobs and providing obviously revenue to American defense manufacturers, but provide key military equipment to our key allies in a reliable, effective way,” he said.
Reuters reported on April 1 that Trump was planning to issue an order that would relax rules governing the export of military equipment, similar to legislation proposed by Michael Waltz, his national security adviser, last year when he served as a Republican member of the House of Representatives.
The order could increase sales for big U.S. defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Boeing.
Currently, the U.S. Arms Export Control Act grants Congress the authority to review arms exports to other countries based on their status as close allies and the size of the proposed sale.
Reporting from Reuters
Dow surges nearly 3,000 points on news of Trump’s tariff pause
Stock markets surged after President Donald Trump announced a pause on most of his sweeping tariffs, with both the Dow Jones and the NASDAQ breaking records for the largest point gains in a single day.
The stock markets closed with massive gains after Trump announced the change in his tariff plan. At close, the Dow soared 2,962 points, while the NASDAQ surged 1,857 points, marking the largest single-day point gains for both indices. The S&P 500 also closed up 9.5 percent for one of its best days since 2008.
Mike Bedigan and Kelly Rissman tracked the markets today.
Pam Bondi declared a Virginia man a top MS-13 gangster. Now the DOJ wants to drop his case
The Department of Justice on Wednesday asked a federal court to withdraw its case against a Virginia man that top officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed was a senior “terrorist” within the ranks of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, less than two weeks after the man’s arrest.
Josh Marcus explains what’s going on.
Former homeland security adviser calls Trump pursuing enemies ‘incredibly disturbing’
Olivia Troye, former White House Homeland Security and Counter Terrorism Adviser in the first Trump administration, has spoken out after Donald Trump ordered his Justice Department to investigate to of his political enemies.
Troye wrote on X: “This is incredibly disturbing. I warned Trump would do this & that he would falsely try & claim ‘treason.’ He’s issuing Executive Orders targeting Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor—two Republican officials who served in his first admin. Ordering the DOJ to investigate them—for what? For telling the truth? This isn’t justice. It’s retribution. This is authoritarianism plain & simple.”
Judge rules Newsmax defamed Dominion Voting Systems
A Delaware judge ruled Wednesday that the conservative news outlet Newsmax Media defamed Dominion Voting Systems through its false reporting, which accused the voting machine company of rigging the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in damages to be determined by a Delaware jury in a trial scheduled to begin on April 28 in Wilmington, said Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis.
The Denver-based company sued Newsmax in 2021 for airing false claims that Dominion machines had stolen the election from President Donald Trump, who was defeated by President Joe Biden.
Read on…
Sanders would not be surprised if people played stock market knowing about Trump’s tariff reversal
Talking about the possibility of market manipulation or insider trading off the back of Donald Trump’s tariffs reversal today, Senator Bernie Sanders said: “Would I be surprised if there are were people who, hours before, knew exactly what Trump was going to do in rescinding his tariff proposals, understanding that the stock market would soar and you make huge amounts of money… No, I would not.”
Sanders says tariffs used to protect American jobs are good idea, however…
Senator Bernie Sanders is currently on CNN, appearing in a town hall opposite host Anderson Cooper. Naturally, the first question was about tariffs.
The independent senator from Vermont cut Cooper off and talked to the audience about how living paycheck to paycheck was shortening the lives of working-class Americans.
Getting back to tariffs, Sanders — who has voted against free trade agreements during his career — said that tariffs used selectively are a good idea if they protect American jobs.
However, he added: “But to arbitrarily, out of nowhere, come up with a tariff that they can’t even justify or explain to virtually every country on Earth is absolutely counterproductive.”
RECAP: Trump dramatically changes course on tariffs with 90-day pause while hiking duties on China to 125%
John Bowden and Andrew Feinberg report from Washington, D.C.
The president’s decision followed several days of sharp losses on the stock market. In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed that his reversal was a result of what White House officials have claimed are dozens of foreign nations reaching out with the intention of re-negotiating trade policy with the United States, rather than implementing tariffs of their own.
He said on Wednesday afternoon that his decision was made in response to days of market panic and rippling effects across various economic sectors, which Trump and other White House officials spend days unsuccessfully trying to quell.
Read on…
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.”
Source: independent.co.uk
