Trump news at a glance: markets react with confusion as Trump appears to move goal posts on tariffs again

The Guardian

8 hours ago

Stock markets slipped amid confusion as to when – and at what level – new US tariffs would be applied, as Donald Trump's self-imposed 9 July deadline edged closer.
The US is close to finalising several trade agreements in the coming days and will notify other countries of higher tariff rates by Thursday, the president said on Sunday, with the higher rates to take effect on 1 August.
'President Trump's going to be sending letters to some of our trading partners saying that if you don't move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,' treasury secretary Scott Bessent told CNN.
Trump in April announced a 10% base tariff rate on most countries and higher 'reciprocal' rates ranging up to 50%. However, Trump also said levies could range in value from 'maybe 60% or 70% tariffs to 10% and 20%', further clouding the picture.
With very few actual trade deals done, analysts had suspected the date would be pushed out, though it was still not clear if the new deadline applied to all trading partners or just some.
Trump said on Sunday that his administration plans to start sending letters on Monday to US trade partners, dictating new tariff rates to be imposed on goods they sell to Americans. 'It could be 12, maybe 15,' the president told reporters, 'and we've made deals also, so we're going to have a combination of letters and some deals have been made.'
Kevin Hassett, who heads the White House National Economic Council, told CBS that there might be wriggle room for countries engaged in earnest negotiations. 'There are deadlines, and there are things that are close, and so maybe things will push back past the deadline,' Hassett said, adding that Trump would decide if that could happen.
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Donald Trump called Elon Musk's decision to start and bankroll a new US political party 'ridiculous' on Sunday. 'Third parties have never worked, so he can have fun with it but I think it's ridiculous,' the president told reporters traveling with him back to the White House from his New Jersey golf club.
He then elaborated, at great length, in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. 'I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely 'off the rails,' essentially becoming a TRAIN WRECK over the past five weeks,' the president wrote.
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Trump said he believed a hostage release and ceasefire deal could be reached this week, which could lead to the release of 'quite a few hostages.'
He was speaking after Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel for talks in Washington, praising Trump's return to the presidency.
'We have never had such a friend in the White House … We have already changed the face of the Middle East beyond recognition, and we have an opportunity and the ability to change it further and to enable a great future for the state of Israel, the people of Israel and the entire Middle East,' Israel's prime minister told reporters.
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Laura Loomer has emerged as the most prominent Maga America First influencer in the early days of Trump's second term.
In early April, Loomer, a 32-year-old pro-Trump online influencer widely seen as a rightwing conspiracy theorist, met with Trump and gave him a list of names of people on the staff of the national security council that she believed were not loyal enough to Trump or at least had professional backgrounds that she considered suspect. Trump fired six staffers.
Later, national security adviser Mike Waltz, whom Loomer had criticized for his role in the Signalgate chat leak scandal, was ousted as well.
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Donald Trump announced on social media that he had signed a federal emergency declaration that would free additional resources to support local efforts in search and rescue operations in Texas after deadly flooding. Trump also posted a letter saying federal efforts would be coordinated by Benjamin Abbott of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). In May, that agency's acting administrator was fired after he told Congress he did not believe it was 'in the best interest of the American people to eliminate' Fema, which Trump has said he plans to do.
Asked on Sunday if he is still planning to phase out Fema, Trump told a reporter: 'Well, Fema is something we can talk about later, but right now they're busy working.'
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David Smith asks if Trump's expansion of presidential powers is setting the stage for future Oval Office holders?
Adam Gabbatt writes that although Trump's mega-bill has been widely criticized in the press, Fox News sees it differently.
Catching up? Here's what happened 5 July.