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%.” Trump also raised the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that the pause was not a result of the brutal selloffs in the financial markets but rather because other countries are seeking negotiations. About an hour later, Trump told reporters that he pulled back on many tariffs because people were getting “yippy” and “afraid.”
Here's the latest:
Administration reopens office that helps victims of crimes committed by immigrants
The Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office was opened under Trump’s first term and then closed under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
The office helps victims receive automated custody status information about immigrants and helps them make victim impact statements in court cases, among other things.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the office’s reopening during a news conference with families of people who had been killed by people in the country illegally.
‘The bond market right now is beautiful,’ Trump says
Trump said he was watching the markets the past few days and said that “it looked pretty glum,” and that he saw on Tuesday that on the bond market, “people were getting a little queasy.”
“The bond market right now is beautiful,” the president told reporters at the White House.
Trump defended his decision to launch the tariffs, sending shocks into the market, because the situation with the U.S.’s trading partners “wasn’t sustainable.”
“Somebody had to pull the trigger. I was willing to pull the trigger,” he said.
The president said he would consider exempting some companies hit particularly hard by the tariffs, but when asked how he would make those determinations, he said, “Just instinctively.”
“You almost can’t take a pencil to paper. It’s really more of an instinct,” he said.
Trump says he loves watching racing — but has no desire to participate
Trump hosted champions from NASCAR, IndyCar and IMSA in the Oval Office, then chatted with them outside, near race cars parked on the White House driveway.
Trump asked how fast NASCAR champions Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney could go in cars like the one parked by the South Portico. When told it was 190 mph (306 kph), “One ninety? You can have it,” Trump said.
Informed that other vehicles for IndyCar and international motorsports were even faster, the president said he wouldn’t ride in those “if you paid me.”
Trump said he was a racing fan, adding that many people “don’t realize what great athletes they are.”
‘Brilliantly executed’: Pundit who called mass tariffs unsuccessful reverses course
The whipsaw-like nature of Wednesday could be seen in the social media posts of Bill Ackman, a hedge fund billionaire and Trump supporter.
“Our stock market is down,” Ackman posted on the social platform X. “Bond yields are up and the dollar is declining. These are not the markers of successful policy.”
Ackman repeated in the post his call for a 90-day pause. When Trump embraced that idea several hours later, an ebullient Ackman posted that Trump had “brilliantly executed” his plan and it was “Textbook, Art of the Deal,” a reference to Trump’s bestselling 1987 book.
Trump says he pulled back on some tariffs because people were getting ‘yippy’ and ‘afraid’
Trump was asked about volatile markets and his decision to back off on many tariffs after previously suggesting he wouldn’t do so.
His comments came as he was chatting with reporters during an event with racing champions on the White House driveway.
Senate Democratic Leader calls Trump’s tariff strategy ‘chaos’
“He keeps changing things from day to day. His advisors are fighting among themselves, calling each other names, and you cannot run a country with such chaos,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer at a news conference that had originally been scheduled to call attention to the stock market plunge.
Schumer added that the danger from Trump’s tariffs had not passed and attributed his backing down to the reaction from across the country.
“Donald Trump is feeling the heat from Democrats and across America about how bad these tariffs are,” Schumer said. “He is reeling, he is retreating, and that is a good thing.”
Poll: Voters anticipated short-term harm to the US economy from Trump’s tariffs
About 7 in 10 voters believed that Trump imposing tariffs on dozens of countries was going to hurt the U.S. economy in the short-term, according to a Quinnipiac Poll conducted before the president announced a 90-day pause on most of those tariffs.
But there was less consensus that the long-term impact would be negative.
About half of voters believed the tariffs would hurt the U.S. economy in the long term.
Republican voters were about evenly divided on whether the tariffs would help or hurt the U.S. economy in the short term: 46% said they would help, and 44% said they would cause short-term pain.
Almost all Democrats and about three-quarters of independents believed the tariffs would harm the economy in the short term.
Melania Trump thanks House committee for advancing ‘Take It Down Act’ bill
In a written statement, the first lady called the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s 49-1 vote a “significant step in our bipartisan efforts to safeguard our children from online threats.”
She urged the full House to “swiftly pass” the “Take It Down Act.” In March, Trump made a rare appearance on Capitol Hill by a first lady to personally lobby for the bill.
The Senate passed the measure in February.
The bill would make it a federal crime to knowingly publish or threaten to publish intimate imagery online without an individual’s consent. Social media platforms would have 48 hours to remove such images and take steps to delete duplicate content after a victim’s request.
Senate Republicans cheer Trump’s tariffs announcement
GOP senators were attending a luncheon when Sen. Roger Marshall stood up and announced that Trump was backing down on most tariffs.
The room responded with applause, some cheers and relief, said senators who were in the meeting.
“It really lightened up the lunch discussion,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, adding that there were “a lot of smiles.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., said he was relieved by the announcement and “we all would rather see the market rise than fall.”
Republicans in recent days have become louder with their concerns that Trump’s sweeping tariffs would harm the economy.
In the Senate, they have pushed the White House to negotiate trade deals rather than double down on the tariffs.
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.
▶ Read more about how Trump is now facing off with global markets
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.”
Trump’s schedule for Wednesday
This afternoon, at 2 p.m. ET, Trump will participate in a photo opportunity with NASCAR racing champions.
At 2:30 p.m. ET, he will sign more executive orders.
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This entry has been corrected to show that Trump will participate in a NASCAR photo opportunity on Wednesday, not attend a future Daytona 500 race.
Beijing asks its citizens to think twice before visiting the US
China has issued a travel advisory asking its citizens to evaluate the risks of visiting the U.S. as tourists and to exercise caution.
The advisory, issued by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, cited the deterioration of the China-U. S. economic and trade relations as well as the “safety situation” in the U.S.
The advisory came shortly after China raised its tariffs on the U.S. to 84% as the trade war between the two countries escalated.
Trump to issue executive orders on deregulation
As the White House grapples with the economic fallout of Trump’s new tariffs, the president is shifting his focus to loosening regulations.
He is expected to sign a slew of executive orders later Wednesday that are centered around deregulation, according to a White House official. That person was granted anonymity to preview Trump’s plans.
— Associated Press reporter Seung Min Kim contributed to this report from Washington.
‘China’s military has too large of a presence in the Western Hemisphere,’ Hegseth says
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth again put China at the center of U.S. priorities in the Western Hemisphere on Wednesday, one day after calling the world power a threat to the Panama Canal.
Speaking at a regional security conference in Panama City, Hegseth said that China-based companies were controlling land and critical infrastructure in strategic sectors.
“China’s military has too large of a presence in the Western Hemisphere,” Hegseth said. “Make no mistake, Beijing is investing and operating in this region for military advantage and unfair economic gain.”
He called on the region’s governments to work together to deter China and address threats posed by transnational drug cartels and mass immigration.
EU imposes new tariffs on $23B in US goods
European Union member states voted to approve the retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.
The tariffs will go into effect in stages, with some on April 15 and others on May 15 and Dec. 1. The EU executive commission didn’t immediately provide a list of the goods on Wednesday.
Members of the 27-country bloc repeated their preference for a negotiated deal to settle trade issues: “The EU considers U.S. tariffs unjustified and damaging, causing economic harm to both sides, as well as the global economy. The EU has stated its clear preference to find negotiated outcomes with the U.S., which would be balanced and mutually beneficial.”
The head of the EU’s executive commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has offered a zero-for-zero tariffs deal on industrial goods, including cars.
But Trump has said that’s not enough to satisfy U.S. concerns.
China uses WTO meeting to lash out at Trump’s tariffs
A Chinese envoy at a World Trade Organization council meeting on Wednesday said the U.S. tariffs infringed on the right of countries to develop, and noted that earthquake-hit Myanmar was facing an “exorbitant” 44% tariff and even an “uninhabited island, home only to penguins and seals” faced a 10% tariff.
The official said Trump’s tariffs contravened U.S. commitments under WTO rules, and the “so-called ‘reciprocal tariff’ has set the very architecture of the multilateral trading system ablaze.”
The Chinese diplomatic mission in Geneva provided a copy of the statement in the closed-door session to The Associated Press but declined to identify the speaker by name.
Contacted by the AP, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva declined to comment.
Trump promotes investing in US as antidote to higher tariffs
Trump says tariffs will be “ZERO” for companies that come back to America.
“This is a GREAT time to move your COMPANY into the United States of America,” the Republican president wrote on his social media site as he continues defending the sweeping global tariffs he announced last week that have since roiled the stock market.
U.S. stock futures were sinking again in premarket trading on Wednesday after massive U.S. tariffs against China kicked in overnight, followed by China retaliating with a huge tariff increase on U.S. imports.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to meet with Trump
Whitmer is in Washington to give a speech Wednesday on the economy and will meet with Trump at the White House in the afternoon, according to the governor’s spokesperson.
Whitmer is among a handful of Democratic governors who have spoken about finding ways to work with a Republican president who pushes policies they disagree with.
Whitmer and Trump also met at the White House last month.
Republicans are going public with their worries about Trump’s tariffs
Manufacturers struggling to make long-term plans. Farmers facing retaliation from Chinese buyers. U.S. households burdened with higher prices.
Republican senators are confronting the Trump administration with those worries and many more as they fret about the economic impact of the president’s sweeping tariff strategy that went into effect on Wednesday.
In a Senate hearing and interviews with reporters this week, Republican skepticism of Trump’s policies ran unusually high. While GOP lawmakers directed their concern at Trump’s aides and advisers — particularly U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer, who appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday — it still amounted to a rare break from a president they have otherwise championed.
Lawmakers had reason to worry: the stock market has been in a volatile tumble for days, and economists are warning that the plans could lead to a recession.
▶ Read more about Republican leaders’ reactions to Trump’s tariffs
US restores urgent food aid but not in Afghanistan and Yemen, where millions need it
The Trump administration has reversed sweeping cuts in emergency food aid to several nations while maintaining them in Afghanistan and Yemen, two of the world’s poorest and most war-ravaged countries, officials said Wednesday. The United States initially cut funding for projects in more than a dozen countries, part of a dramatic reduction of foreign aid led by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Aid officials warned the cuts would deny food to millions of people and end health programs for women and children.
The administration informed the World Food Program of its reversal on Tuesday, according to two U.N. officials.
The WFP said on Monday it had been notified that USAID was cutting funding to the U.N. agency’s emergency food program in 14 countries.
It was not immediately clear how many of those cutoffs still stood.
▶ Read more about the restoration of food aid
Trump administration halts $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell, $790 million for Northwestern
More than $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell University and around $790 million for Northwestern University have been frozen while the government investigates alleged civil rights violations at both schools, the White House says.
It’s part of a broader push to use government funding to get major academic institutions to comply with Trump’s political agenda. The White House confirmed the funding pauses late Tuesday night but offered no further details on what that entails or what grants to the schools are being affected.
The moves come as the Trump administration has increasingly used governmental grant funding as a spigot to try and influence campus policy — previously cutting off money to schools including Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.
That has left universities across the country struggling to navigate cuts to grants for research institutions.
▶ Read more about the halt in federal funding to colleges
China is raising its retaliatory tariff on the US to 84%, up from 34%, effective April 10
China has again vowed to “fight to the end,” raising tariffs on American goods to 84% to match Trump’s addition of a 50% tariff, while adding an array of additional countermeasures on Wednesday.
The 84% tariff will go into effect on Thursday and comes as a 104% tax on the country’s exports to the U.S. went into effect. “If the U.S. insists on further escalating its economic and trade restrictions, China has the firm will and abundant means to take necessary countermeasures and fight to the end,” the Ministry of Commerce wrote in a statement introducing the white paper.
The government declined to say whether it would negotiate with the White House, as many other countries have started doing.
“If the U.S. truly wants to resolve issues through dialogue and negotiation, it should adopt an attitude of equality, respect and mutual benefit,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian on Wednesday.
Are more tariffs coming?
As part of a flurry of countermeasures, China has said it will levy its own 84% tariff on all U.S. goods — up from 34% — starting Thursday.
Trump quickly criticized China’s move, but China maintained that it would “fight to the end” and take countermeasures against the U.S. to protect itself.
The trade war between the U.S. and China isn’t new. The two countries had exchanged a series of tit-for-tat levies in recent months — on top of tariffs imposed during Trump’s first term, many of which were preserved or added to under former President Joe Biden.
While China has taken the toughest approach so far, several other countries signaled that they are evaluating their own responses to Trump’s levies.
We may see more retaliation in the future, but some have signaled hopes to negotiate. The head of the European Union’s executive commission is among those offering a mutual reduction of tariffs — while warning that countermeasures are still an option.
Trump’s latest round of tariffs are poised to go into effect. Here’s what we know
Trump has launched tariff wars with nearly all of America’s trading partners. And there’s no end in sight.
Several sweeping new taxes on goods from other countries are already here — and more took effect on Wednesday. Trump has promised higher rates for his latest and most severe volley of duties, which he calls “reciprocal” tariffs.
Trump announced his latest — and most sweeping — round of tariffs on April 2, which he dubbed “Liberation Day,” as part of his “reciprocal” trade plan. In a fiery speech claiming other countries had “ripped off” the U.S. for years, Trump declared that the U.S. would now tax nearly all of America’s trading partners at a minimum of 10% — and impose steeper rates for countries he says run trade surpluses with the U.S.
The 10% baseline already went into effect Saturday. And when the clock struck midnight, the higher import tax rates on dozens of countries and territories took hold.
▶ Read more about Trump’s latest round of tariffs
The Associated Press
