memeorandum: China to impose 34% retaliatory tariff on all goods imported from the U.S. (Ruxandra Iordache/CNBC)

5:20 PM ET, April 4, 2025

Top Items:

Inside President Trump's whirlwind decision to upend global trade — Ultimately, Trump resolved to follow his own instincts — and was surrounded by senior officials who enabled him. — Not long after President Donald Trump's inauguration, the administration's economic staff went to work …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Mediaite and PoliticusUSA

New Republic:

“Horrifying”: Trump's Weird, Confused Rant to Media as Markets Tanked — After President Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from all over the globe, prompting the markets to implode, he took a question about it on Thursday. He ranted and rambled delusionally about how everything is just great.

Discussion: The Hill, ABC News, Washington Examiner, Politico, Associated Press, New York Times, MeidasTouch News, Raw Story and CBC News

Financial Times:

America's astonishing act of self-harm — Trump's tariffs will upend the global economic order and tarnish US prosperity — If it endures, Donald Trump's decision on April 2 2025 to enact sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs on US trade partners will go down as one of the greatest acts of self-harm in American economic history.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Wealth of Nations, Reason, To the Contrary and Vox

CNBC:

Dow drops 1,400 points, Nasdaq set to close in bear market as Trump tariff sell-off worsens: Live updates — The stock market took another pounding Friday after China retaliated with new tariffs on U.S. goods, further lending credibility to fears of a trade war that could spark a global a recession.

Ben Leonard / Politico:

Ted Cruz warns Trump tariffs could be ‘terrible for America’ — Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz is warning about major risks for the American economy and its automotive industry thanks to President Donald Trump's trade war, saying it could result in the biggest tax hike in a “long, long time.”

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Media Matters for America, The Independent, Blaze Media, The Daily Wire, The Hill, Washington Examiner, New Republic and Representative Jared Golden

Keith Bradsher / New York Times:

Trump's Trade War Escalates as China Retaliates With 34% Tariffs — The Chinese government said it would match President Trump's tariff, and also barred a group of American companies from doing business in China. — China has struck back at President Trump on Friday.

Ivana Saric / Axios:

Gavin Newsom angles for California exemptions to Trump trade war — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday he is pursuing agreements with other countries to ensure California is exempted from retaliatory tariffs aimed at the U.S. — Why it matters: President Trump's “Liberation Day” tariffs spurred global blowback.

Discussion: Fox News, Reuters, Business Insider, CBS News, New York Post, Twitchy, WAGA-TV, New York Times, The Hill, Politico, The Wrap, Raw Story, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post

Nikki McCann Ramirez / Rolling Stone:
Trump Shares Video About How He Is ‘Purposely Crashing the Stock Market’

Discussion: CNBC, New York Times, New York Magazine, Fortune, New Republic, Forbes, Blaze Media, Raw Story and Mediaite

New Republic: Transcript: Trump's Tariff Madness Can Be Stopped. Here's How.

South China Morning Post:
Breaking | China hits back at US with 34% tariff on American imports in retaliation for Trump's duties

Nate Silver / Silver Bulletin:
Wall Street thinks Trump's tariffs will eat Main Street alive

Discussion: Center for Strategic …, Yahoo Finance and Wall Street Journal

Scott Horsley / NPR:
The job market remains incredibly healthy — but the tariff storm could upend things

Discussion: Fox Business, New York Times, Challenger …, Jared's Substack, The Independent, OutsideTheBeltway, Daily Caller News Foundation, The Guardian, Scripps News, RedState, Washington Times and Quartz

Wall Street Journal:
Dow Futures Slide and Bonds Rally After China Retaliates to Trump Tariffs

Discussion: CNBC, Fortune, al.com, KTVZ-TV, Axios, Associated Press, Mock Paper Scissors, The Independent, Magnolia Tribune and Fox Business

Ruxandra Iordache / CNBC:
China to impose 34% retaliatory tariff on all goods imported from the U.S.

Discussion: Associated Press, Reuters, The Daily Wire, RedState, The Daily Caller, Daily Mail, Al Jazeera, New York Post, NPR, Axios, Automotive Dive and CBS News, more at Techmeme »

Dharna Noor / The Guardian:
‘Oligarchy’: Trump exempts big oil donors from tariffs package

Discussion: Barron's Online, Canary Media and Politico

Rebecca Robbins / New York Times:
Trump's Next Tariffs Target Could Be Foreign-Made Medicines

Discussion: The Hill and Forbes

New York Times: Swiss Indignant to Make the Top 10 of Trump's Tariffs List

Rebecca Davis O'Brien / New York Times:
Live Updates: U.S. Job Growth Strong Amid Trade War Worries

Discussion: Axios, CNBC, Breitbart, The Daily Wire, One America News Network, The Guardian, Magnolia Tribune, The Hill, The National Pulse, Washington Examiner, Foreign Policy, New York Post, The Daily Signal, UPI, Townhall, CBS News and The American Conservative

Associated Press:
How Trump's latest tariffs could affect your wallet

Discussion: Fox Business, The Federalist and Las Vegas Review-Journal

Gary D. Robertson / Associated Press:

North Carolina judges side with Republican colleague in close Supreme Court election — A North Carolina appeals court sided Friday with the trailing Republican candidate in an extremely close state Supreme Court election, a ruling that could flip the result of the nation's only 2024 race that is still undecided.

Discussion: WRAL-TV, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Washington Examiner, Axios, The Gateway Pundit, WCCB Charlotte's CWWCCB … and Democrats

New York Times:
Appeals Court Orders Thousands of Voters to Verify Information in Contested N.C. Election

Discussion: Washington Post

Matt Cohen / Democracy Docket:
NC Voters Must Fix Ballots in 15 Days, Court Rules

Discussion: Twitchy

Adam Edelman / NBC News:
New court decision in a disputed North Carolina race means 65,000 votes are a step closer to be being thrown out

Discussion: Democracy Docket and Talking Points Memo

Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:

House Republican moves to rein in tariff powers — Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon said he plans to introduce a companion bill to the bipartisan Senate legislation aimed at reclaiming Congress' authority over tariffs, becoming the first House Republican to openly challenge the powers President Donald Trump …

Discussion: Associated Press

Jordain Carney / Politico:
More Republicans back bill giving Congress a say on tariffs

Discussion: The Hill and Spectrum News

Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Congress has power over tariffs, but stopping Trump isn't likely as of now

Discussion: National Constitution Center

Caitlin Oprysko / Politico:
‘Everyone is terrified’: Business and government officials are afraid to cross Trump on tariffs

Discussion: Raw Story

Liz Essley Whyte / Wall Street Journal:

Ousted Vaccine Chief Says RFK Jr.'s Team Sought Data to Justify Anti-Science Stance — Peter Marks says the new health secretary's team wants to show vaccines aren't safe while promoting dangerous and unproven treatments — The top vaccine regulator ousted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr …

Associated Press:

The US must return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison, judge says — A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to arrange for the return of a Maryland man to the United States after he was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison …

Discussion: Reuters, NPR, Politico, Washington Examiner, The Hill, New York Times, RedState, KTVZ-TV, WAGA-TV, IJR, Townhall, Baltimore Sun, The Gateway Pundit, Associated Press, UPI, CBS News, USA Today and Forbes

Washington Post:
Judge orders Trump administration to bring back Md. man mistakenly deported

Discussion: Fox News, Axios and CBS News

Ben Quinn / The Guardian:

Russell Brand charged with rape and sexual assault — Actor and comedian charged with rape, indecent assault, oral rape and two counts of sexual assault, say police — The comedian and actor Russell Brand has been charged with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape as well as two counts of sexual assault.

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

National Security Agency and Cyber Command chief Gen. Timothy Haugh ousted — The director of the NSA, the powerful wiretapping and cyber espionage service, was fired and reassigned Thursday, according to U.S. officials. — just now — The director of the powerful wiretapping …

Julian E. Barnes / New York Times:
Head of National Security Agency and Cyber Command Is Ousted

Discussion: Reuters, The Hill, TechCrunch, NBC News, Roll Call, Fox News, CBS News, Federal News Network, Associated Press, The Status Kuo, Defense One, DefenseScoop, The Independent, The Verge, KTVZ-TV and Wall Street Journal

Holly Otterbein / Politico:

Poll: AOC leads Schumer in head-to-head New York primary matchup by double digits — The liberal group Data For Progress conducted the survey of likely Democratic voters. — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leading Chuck Schumer by double digits in a new head-to-head poll of the 2028 New York primary.

Discussion: Data For Progress, The Washington Free Beacon, Blaze Media, Latin Times, The Daily Caller, New York Daily News, Townhall, Daily Mail, Daily Caller News Foundation, 19FortyFive, Twitchy, Saywhat Politics, New York Magazine, The Gateway Pundit and New Republic

Washington Post:

IRS will cut 25% of its employees, eliminating its civil rights office — The tax agency began telling employees about the coming reduction in emails sent Friday. — Just now — The Internal Revenue Service plans to eliminate nearly a quarter of its workforce in layoffs starting Friday …

Lisa Rein / Washington Post:
Social Security faces thousands more job cuts even with service in tailspin

Discussion: Gizmodo and The Independent

Lauren Rosenthal / Bloomberg:

US Weather Agency Websites Set to Vanish With Contract Cuts — The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency is poised to eliminate most websites tied to its research division under plans for the cancellation of a cloud web services contract, a move that could snarl operations at several labs.

Discussion: KTVZ-TV

Andrew Freedman / Axios:
Canceled contract means NOAA research websites slated to go dark

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Examiner and Common Dreams

Ethan Gach / Kotaku:

Nintendo Halts Switch 2 Pre-Orders Over Trump's Tariffs — New tariffs threaten massive price hikes on gaming hardware and other consumer goods — Switch 2 pre-orders were supposed to begin on April 9. No longer. In an unprecedented move, Nintendo announced on Friday that it's halting pre-orders …

Discussion: IGN, Bloomberg, GameSpot, The Verge, Daily Kos, The Wrap, New Republic, CNBC, Reason, New York Post, Daily Mail, Forbes, Dexerto, TechCrunch, BGR, Mediaite, Gizmodo, Engadget, Ars Technica, Windows Central, Consequence, Business Insider and The Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:

Obama says he is ‘deeply concerned’ with the Trump administration's targeting of students, journalists and law firms — His comments came on the same day that former Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke out against the administration. — Former President Barack Obama said he is …

Discussion: CNN, Barack Obama, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Daily Caller News Foundation and The National Pulse

Samantha Cole / 404 Media:

Massive, Unarchivable Datasets of Cancer, Covid, and Alzheimer's Research Could Be Lost Forever — Almost two dozen repositories of research and public health data supported by the National Institutes of Health are marked for “review” under the Trump administration's direction …

Yair Rosenberg / The Atlantic:

Trump's Jewish Cover Story … The Trump administration wants you to know that it's just looking out for Jews. In recent weeks, the White House has cited anti-Semitism as the motivation for many of its controversial moves, whether deporting foreign students who allegedly engaged …

Discussion: MPR News

Zach Schonfeld / The Hill:

Judge finds FEMA withholding grants in violation of court order — A federal judge Friday ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to disburse millions of dollars of grants to Democratic-led states, finding the administration's withholding of the funds breached his previous ruling.

Discussion: Reuters, Business Insider, KTVZ-TV and The Gateway Pundit

NPR:

Trump's VA is ending a rescue program that's saved 17,000 military veterans' homes — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that it will end a mortgage-rescue program designed to help veterans who have fallen behind on their mortgages keep their homes.

Discussion: Daily Kos and MBA