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“We’re going to start being smart, and we’re going to start being very wealthy again,” President Donald Trump announced today as he laid out a plan that risks derailing America’s economy. At his “Liberation Day” event, he unveiled a 10 percent–minimum tariff on all imports, with no change for Canada and Mexico but significantly higher rates for other countries, such as China and India, that far exceeded what many economists had expected.
With today’s announcement, Trump is tariffing essentially all foreign goods. The administration says that the levies will bring in some $6 trillion, which would amount to the biggest tax hike in U.S. history. Some of the most perplexing updates are in countries where the United States has existing free-trade agreements, such as South Korea, my colleague Annie Lowrey, who covers economic policy, told me. The Trump administration claims that South Korea has a 50 percent tariff on the U.S., but it is basing its tariff estimations in part on currency manipulation and trade barriers. It hasn’t yet provided evidence confirming that such factors, insofar as they exist, are equivalent to a 50 percent tariff.
Such all-encompassing tariffs will cost each American family thousands of dollars, economists predict. Americans will likely feel the effects of this while standing in a grocery-store aisle, purchasing auto insurance, or undertaking home renovations. These levies have the potential to increase inflation and slow down the economy in the longer term, and the uncertainty of what happens next will also contribute to the confidence of shoppers and businesses. “The way that Trump does tariffs is he often makes these really big announcements and then rolls them back,” perpetually modifying the rules, as in a game of Calvinball, Annie explained. “That’s really hard if you’re a business. Should we wait this out? Are they actually going to do it?”
Given the sweeping nature of the new tariffs, Trump may have just essentially encouraged other countries to consider banding together to impose further tit-for-tat levies on the United States. The best-case scenario, Annie told me, is that after some countries threaten reciprocal tariffs, a negotiation is reached that allows Trump to feel like he has won but also “gives some certainty” to businesses and people; shoppers absorb high costs at first, but then the uncertainty declines. If Republicans realize after this whole ordeal that this level of chaos could affect their chances at reelection and opt for fewer surprises going forward, the economy could bounce back, she argued.
America’s economy is full of mixed signals right now—or at least it was, before Trump’s announcement. “If you knew nothing about it and you came in and looked at the main figures, you would say this is not an economy in a recession or anything close to it,” Annie said. The unemployment rate is fairly low, at 4.1 percent; GDP numbers are strong. But things start looking worrisome when you consider that consumer confidence is the lowest it’s been since early 2021, and that Trump’s new tariff plan won’t quell those fears. The solution for the kind of post-tariff downturn the economy might face is simple: Remove the tariffs. But the Trump administration is not likely to let them go easily, Annie noted: “We could be getting ourselves into a bad situation where we’ve taken options for improving the situation off the table.”
Illustration by Jonelle Afurong / The Atlantic. Sources: alfalfa126 / Getty; MirageC / Getty.
The New Singlehood Stigma
By Faith Hill
Just to be clear: Today is, in many ways, the best time in American history to be single.
In the 18th century, bachelors paid higher taxes and faced harsher punishments for crimes than their betrothed counterparts. (“A Man without a Wife,” Benjamin Franklin said, “is but half a Man.”) Single women—more likely, naturally, to be seduced by the devil—were disproportionately executed for witchcraft …
Forgive me, then, if I sound ungrateful when I say this: Americans are still extremely weird about single people. But now the problem isn’t just that singlehood is disparaged; sometimes, it’s that singlehood is celebrated. Relentlessly, annoyingly celebrated.
The current results with 69% of the vote counted (source: CNN) is s follows.
That’s a pretty big lose for Elon Musk’s ability to throw tens of millions around to get what MAGA wants out of a given state-level election.
While I would not want to make too much out of this contest, it ain’t nothing. It should be seen to be at least in part a comment on the Trump admininstration and Musk’s antics.
Note that Wisconsin is closely divided at the state level in terms of partisan voting (as I noted yesterday).
I don’t have time for much analysis at the moment and will likely be scarce for the next several days.
I would note that the two Florida special elections held today will result in the GOP retaining those seats, as was expected given the large R leans in both districts.
Actor and comedian Russell Brand has been charged with one count of rape, one count of oral rape, two counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault.
As global stock markets fall, personal investments including pensions and stocks and shares could be affected
Global stock markets have been falling sharply for a second day running after Donald Trump’s announcement that the US planned to charge tariffs on goods from around the world. A global trade war intensified when China responded on Friday by announcing tariffs of 34% on imports of US goods, accelerating the market sell-off. For people in the UK, there are reasons to be concerned about the falls:
President Donald Trump said he hopes Elon Musk sticks around “as long as possible” following reports suggesting the billionaire advisor was on his way out of the administration.
While speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Thursday, Trump called Musk “fantastic” and a “patriot” and teased that he and DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) found something “horrible” in their continuing effort to audit federal spending and recommend cuts.
Trump said:
Elon is fantastic. He’s patriot, and I think it’s a shame what they are doing it, with his car company. It’s a great car, great product. It tells you what a patriot he is. He is amazing. No, as long as he’d like I like smart people and he is a smart person. I also like him personally. When he endorsed me, that’s when I really got to know him. I knew a little bit before that but not much and then he endorsed me. It was a very strong, embracing endorsement, as we all know. I would say Elon will stay for a certain period of time and then he’s going to want to get back to his businesses full-time. But he’s done a fantastic job. We found hundreds of — think of it — hundreds, millions of dollars of fraud and abuse and waste. They are still going. They are going strong. They found something today that is horrible. It is horrible.
Trump would not reveal what this “horrible” finding was, only saying he’ll reveal it soon. The president would not give a date Musk will be exiting his role with the administration, but he said he expects it to be within a few months.
The president said he wants Musk around “as long as possible” and revealed he’s open to appointing him to a position.
“I would. I think Elon’s great. But he also has a company to run, or a number of companies to run,” he said.
Politico reported this week that the president was telling his inner circle that Musk would be departing the administration soon and DOGE would take a lower profile, though White House officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have pushed back on this, saying Musk remains a close advisor and his role with DOGE was always temporary.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris delivered an “I told you so” moment while unleashing a veiled critique of organizations she believes have stayed “quiet” out of “fear” of President Donald Trump’s “unconstitutional threats.”
Surprising the audience at Thursday’s at the Leading Women Defined Summit in Dana Point, California, Harris offered a blistering, if carefully couched, rebuke of Trump’s second term.
Harris, who ran a late-start campaign against Trump after former President Joe Bidenwithdrew from the 2024 presidential race, didn’t hit at specific Trump policies but took an open jab at those who didn’t support her.
“There were many things we knew were gonna happen,” Harris told the crowd.
“I’m not gonna say ‘I told you so…’” she added before bursting with laughter.
The audience erupted in cheers.
Harris jibed at organizations she said were “capitilating” to Trump out of “fear.”
There is a sense of fear that has been taking hold in our country. And I understand it. But we’re saying people stay quiet. That’s why we are seeing organizations stay quiet. We are seeing those who are capitulating to clearly unconstitutional threats. And these are the things that we are witnessing each day in these last few months in our country. And it understandably creates a great sense of fear.
Harris closed her remarks with a note of cautious optimism.
“There’s great power in this room. And yes, the world is watching,” she said. “But more importantly, there are people counting on us — to be kind, to be fierce, and to be together.”
CNN anchors roasted President Donald Trump over his prediction that “markets are going to boom” as the world reels from a tariff-fueled stock market selloff.
The stock market dropped like a boulder as soon as the opening bell rang Thursday morning, and closed almost 1700 points in the hole — and that was before China announced reciprocal tariffs that sent futures crashing again. But Trump, in a gaggle aboard Air Force One Thursday afternoon, predicted the stock market will “boom.”
On Friday’s edition of CNN News Central, anchors John Berman and Kate Bolduan each had quips about Trump’s prediction:
JOHN BERMAN: The whistling sound you may have heard yesterday was the Dow falling more than 1,600 points. That was yesterday.
And we’re already seeing this new fallout today. European stocks extended losses after their worst day in eight months.
The White House up until now has been shrugging it off, and the president keeps describing it like he’s an ER doctor.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: As a sick patient, it went through an operation on Liberation Day, and it’s going to be a booming country.
JOHN BERMAN: All right, again, it may have been an operation performed without anesthetic, and based on what we see this morning, it was only one incision. A lot more cuts are happening.
Question now is, what comes next? A lot, apparently. We get some new vital signs on that patient in about 90 minutes, the new jobs report is out for March. It will give us an idea of how the deep federal jobs cuts are affecting the market.
Let’s get right to CNN’s Alayna Treene at the White House in the middle of all of this in the middle of stocks diving again this morning.
Alayna, you’ve got some information about the behind the scenes maneuvering here.
ALAYNA TREENE: That’s right. I think what’s very clear, John, and it was very clear yesterday in kind of the tour of top advisors, top economic advisors from Scott Bessent to Howard Lutnick, the list goes on, that they were trying to be very deliberate in their messaging.
To make it clear that, you know, these tariffs are here to stay, that negotiations maybe could happen, but for now, that’s not really the plan, that the president and this administration are committed to really trying to see this broader… global realignment, a break in the way that trading has been done globally for the last 70 or 80 years.
…
The president himself is really trying to show no worries about that. He said yesterday when leaving the White House that the markets are, quote, “going to go boom, the stock market is going to go boom.”.
We’ll see if that ends up actually being the case. John.
JOHN BERMAN: Well, it appears the stock markets are going “boom,” just not in the way he may want.
ALAYNA TREENE: (LAUGHS).
JOHN BERMAN: Alayna Treene at the White House, thank you very much for that. Kate?
ALAYNA TREENE: And going “boom!” While we are watching it right now.
Eid al-Fitr prayers in Indonesia and Senegal, a new volcanic eruption in southwestern Iceland, the Ogoh-ogoh festival in Indonesia, the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Myanmar, unrest at a town hall in Indiana, snowboard cross in Switzerland, and much more.
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