President Trump is planning to gather his cabinet in the Rose Garden this week to announce a sweeping plan for global tariffs that he promised would correct decades of unfair trade relationships and stop other countries from “ripping off” the U.S. He has taken to referring to Wednesday, when the tariffs are set to be unveiled, as “Liberation Day.”
It remains unclear, however, whether Trump’s plan will result in higher levies on other nations, lower ones, or a mix — or what exactly his goal is. Many economists expect Americans will pay higher prices, and investors also appear uncertain about the economic impact of the plan: The S&P 500 rose slightly today, but finished March with its worst monthly decline in more than two years.
Trump has described the tariffs as a negotiating tool that could force other countries to drop their trade barriers, ultimately resulting in lower tariffs. But he has also talked about the tariffs as a way to raise revenue and shift supply chains back to the U.S., which would be a result of sustained higher tariffs. The president’s supporters have pushed both conflicting goals, but ultimately the president will decide a path forward.
Trump and his allies have occasionally acknowledged that the tariffs would likely, at least temporarily, impose additional costs on consumers. They are hoping to sell the public on a provocative idea: Cheap stuff is not the American dream.
In other politics news:
Trump said he was “not joking” about the possibility of seeking a third term. That would run afoul of the 22nd Amendment.
The Trump administration said it was reviewing roughly $9 billion in federal grants to Harvard, accusing the school of allowing antisemitism on its campus.
The Pentagon estimated that the U.S. had spent $40 million to jail about 400 migrants at Guantánamo.
Roughly 1,900 leading researchers accused the Trump administration in an open letter of conducting a “wholesale assault on U.S. science.”
Members of Elon Musk’s DOGE team gained access to the federal payroll system, over objections to career staff.
A House race in a deep-red Florida district was supposed to be a snoozer. It suddenly looks competitive.
The Trump family announced a new crypto venture.
Washington is now flooded in Windsor knots.