Trump tariff updates: US president compares tax hike to medical ‘operation’

Thanks for joining us for coverage of day 74 of US President Donald Trump’s second term.

For more coverage about the fallout from Trump’s tariffs, read our story about how US trade partners are responding here. Or watch experts discuss the possible fallout from the policy here.

We hope to see you again soon.

This live page will be closing soon. Here’s a recap of today’s major events:

• Stock markets dipped across the world, in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of global tariffs against US trading partners.
• Experts have said Thursday marked one of the worst days on the stock market since 2020.
• Trump, however, dismissed the market turmoil, claiming that the economy is “going very well”.
• According to US media reports, Trump sacked several national security officials following a meeting with far-right activist Laura Loomer.
• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that Ottawa will impose a 25-percent retaliatory tariff on US auto imports.
• At a summit in Brussels, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington wants the NATO military alliance “to be stronger”.
• In a 15-82 vote, the US Senate killed a bill, introduced by Bernie Sanders, that aimed to block the transfer of heavy bombs to Israel.

On board Air Force One, Trump has offered another glowing endorsement of his adviser, Elon Musk, amid rumours that the billionaire is soon to leave his administration.

“Elon is fantastic,” Trump told reporters, adding that the Tesla CEO can “stay as long as he likes”.

Musk is slated to leave once his 130-day term as a “special government employee” expires in May.

“He’s going to stay a certain period of time and then he’s going to get back to his businesses full time. But he’s doing a fantastic job,” Trump said as he flew to south Florida for the weekend.

The US president appears unfazed by the stock market plunge after his tariff announcement.

Watch his comments reassuring Americans about the future of the economy.

Legislators in the Senate have voted 53-45 to confirm Mehmet Oz — a physician and TV personality — to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the programmes that provide healthcare coverage to low-income and elderly Americans.

A Trump ally, Oz ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in Pennsylvania in 2022. He is of Turkish descent and identifies as a “secular Muslim”.

His political aspirations, however, have been dented by dubious claims he has made in the past, including that green coffee extract and raspberry ketone were “miracle” supplements for weight loss. He has been accused of peddling pseudoscience in the name of medicine.

Last month, a Gallup poll showed that 59 percent of Democratic respondents sympathised with Palestinians, while only 21 percent sympathised with Israel.

It remains to be seen if that growing support for Palestinians will be reflected in the Democratic Party’s leadership.

In the Senate today, only 15 out of the 47 Democrats and left-leaning independents voted to advance a bill to block heavy bombs to Israel.

One Democrat voted present.

That means, about 66 percent of the Democratic caucus favours continuing to send arms to Israel — more than three-fold the percentage of rank-and-file Democrats who sympathise with the country, based on the Gallup survey.

UN experts and rights groups have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

Trump’s reciprocal tariffs have sent global financial markets reeling, but Trump will be focused on a different type of green this evening.

The US president is travelling to Florida to attend a kickoff for the Saudi-funded LIV Golf tour, which will be holding a tournament at his Doral Golf Club this weekend.

After a dinner, Trump will head to his nearby Mar-a-Lago estate. The trip is the ninth time Trump has travelled to Florida since taking office on January 20 and the eighth time he has gone to Mar-a-Lago, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Ozturk is one of several university students who have been targeted for deportation under the Trump administration for voicing pro-Palestine sentiment.

A PhD student at Tufts University from Turkiye, Ozturk was apparently singled out for an op-ed she wrote for the school’s newspaper last year. She was arrested by ICE officers in plainclothes last week.

Her lawyers argue that she was sent to immigration detention in Louisiana despite an order requiring the court to be notified of any transfer from Massachusetts. In a hearing today, they appealed for her case to be heard in the northern state.

“The government quietly and quickly hopscotched Ms Ozturk across multiple states in a concerted effort to evade accountability,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts.

The hearing comes after a judge this week ruled that the case challenging Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil’s immigration arrest could be heard in New Jersey.

That ruling meant that any appeals to the case would not be heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which encompasses Louisiana and is considered the most conservative in the country.

Only 15 senators voted to advance Bernie Sanders’s bill to block the transfer of heavy bombs to Israel, despite the horrific atrocities the Israeli military is accused of committing in Gaza.

But the vote shows cracks have been forming within the Democratic Party over support for Israel.

All 15 of the resolution’s backers were Democrats or left-leaning independents, in a chamber where there are only 47 in total.

The following senators voted to advance the bill: Sanders, Dick Durbin, Martin Heinrich, Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine, Andy Kim, Ben Ray Lujan, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Brian Schatz, Tina Smith, Chris Van Hollen, Elizabeth Warren and Peter Welch.

Some of those senators are influential figures in the party.

Durbin, for example, is the top Democrat in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kaine was a vice presidential nominee in 2016. Murphy has been a rising star within the party, particularly on foreign policy. Markey, Merkley, Welch and Warren are all veterans of the progressive movement.

Notably, all the senators representing Vermont, Massachusetts and Hawaii voted to advance the bill.

Tammy Baldwin, another Democrat, voted present.

My statement on voting to block the transfer of more weapons to the Netanyahu government. pic.twitter.com/A1wMc5DUvl

— Senator Brian Schatz (@SenBrianSchatz) April 3, 2025

It was on his way to South Florida that Trump gave his first comments to the media since announcing his “reciprocal tariffs”.

Trump downplayed the stock market’s steeped drop, which saw the S&P 500 have its lowest day since 2020.

He said the market jitters were expected and that the “operation” was now over, echoing a post he wrote earlier on Truth Social.

Trump also said he was open to negotiations ahead of the April 9 start date for reciprocal tariffs – but that countries would need to offer something “phenomenal” in order to secure relief.

As countries around the world stare down Trump’s tariffs, Argentina has announced its foreign minister has sat down with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to discuss economic relations.

“Working with Secretary Lutnick and Ambassador Greer has been highly productive,” said Gerardo Werthein, who holds the title of minister of foreign affairs, international trade and worship of Argentina.

“We have achieved excellent mutual understanding and are optimistic about the relationship between our nations.”

Argentina is facing a 10-percent tariff under Trump’s plan. But today’s statement from Argentina played up the “cordial and friendly atmosphere” between the two countries, both led by far-right leaders.

It also expressed an interest in creating an “agenda aimed at strengthening trade flows between the two countries”.

Both Trump and Argentinian President Javier Milei are in southern Florida today as they accept awards at the US president’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

The US has come to increasingly rely on China for its pharmaceuticals with imports multiplying from $965m in 2013 to $7.8bn in 2024.

The industry has been of particular concern as Trump has raised tariffs on China, including adding a 34-percent reciprocal tariff on Wednesday.

But US National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett downplayed Beijing’s leverage during an interview with Fox News.

“There are lots of other places to get pharmaceuticals,” Hassett said.

“The problem is there aren’t a lot of pharmaceutical plants here in the US, and that’s why we have this policy to fix that,” he continued. “And so I don’t think people need to be worried about that, and I don’t think that they would do that.”

The US president spoke to reporters as he travelled to Florida, confirming he had been in contact with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today.

Netanyahu’s office had previously announced the call, which also included Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who withdrew from the International Criminal Court today.

Trump said Netanyahu may visit the US next week, possibly on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha says he told his US counterpart during a meeting in Brussels that his government is committed to Washington’s “peace efforts” to stop the war in Ukraine.

“Ukraine is fully commited to peace and has taken concrete unconditional steps to achieve it, whereas Russia continues to drag its feet,” Sybiha wrote in a social media post.

“I also informed my counterpart about Russia’s recent violations of the energy ceasefire.”

Since 2022, Russia has led a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a conflict Trump said he is committed to stopping.

He announced a deal last month to halt attacks on energy infrastructure, in hopes of paving the way for a broader ceasefire.

But Kyiv has accused Moscow of breaching the partial truce.

District Judge James Boasberg is currently weighing whether the Trump administration violated his March order that blocked authorities from using a 1798 wartime law to deport undocumented individuals from the US.

Boasberg had issued the order on March 15, but the Trump administration has maintained that, because two deportation flights were already in the air, they were not in violation of the order.

But the judge signalled he did not agree with that assessment at a hearing today.

There is a “fair likelihood” the Trump administration proceeded with its deportations despite the order, Boasberg said.

He added he believed Trump officials acted in “bad faith” on the day he issued the order. But he has yet to make a decision on the violation.

The Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 has sparked concern among human rights groups. They said it was used in a manner that violates immigrants’ due process.

Critics have also argued that several individuals on the deportation flights were accused of being gang members based on shoddy evidence, including misinterpreted tattoos or clothing.

Boasberg’s decision to suspend the use of the wartime law has prompted Trump to call for his impeachment. Some legal experts fear the president might try to ignore court rulings curtailing his powers.

After a dismal start in the wake of Trump’s tariffs announcement, US stocks have failed to improve before closing.

The Nasdaq closed down nearly 6 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down nearly 4 percent.

The S&P 500, meanwhile, suffered its worst day since 2020, closing 4.8 percent lower.

Republicans are echoing Trump’s talking points as the president’s tariffs rock global markets and raise fears of an economic downturn.

Trump and his allies have responded to the turmoil by:

• Arguing that free trade policies have allowed “global elites” to enrich themselves at the expense of American workers
• Stressing that the market dip is temporary and expected
• Promising a bright future of large investments in the US economy
• Citing deregulations and tax cuts as economic boosters

The administration has given public schools across the country 10 days to sign and return a certification saying they have eliminated all eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion practices, typically referred to by the acronym DEI.

Trump has broadly targeted any programmes or practices that aim to boost diversity, claiming they are inherently discriminatory. He has, for example, threatened to withhold federal funds from recipients that promote DEI practices.

In today’s announcement, state and school leaders were asked to sign a “reminder of legal obligations” acknowledging their federal money is conditioned on compliance with federal civil rights laws.

The certification also includes several pages of the Trump administration’s legal interpretation of the pre-existing laws.

The US is the world’s largest consumer of coffee by sheer tonnage: The company Cafely estimates that 1.62 billion pounds — or 734.8 million kilogrammes — are guzzled every year.

But the US itself is not a major coffee producer. So to supply its thirst for the brew, it turns abroad. And that means the coffee bean will be subject to Trump’s newly announced tariffs.

Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and Indonesia are the world’s top coffee growers and exporters, and all four are expected to face heightened tariffs.

For Brazil and Colombia, the new tariffs will be at 10 percent. But both Vietnam and Indonesia — the second- and fourth-largest grower, respectively — were among those with higher reciprocal tariffs.

Vietnam faces a 46-percent rate, while Indonesia is slated to have a 32-percent import tax.

Coffee was not the only bean staring down higher prices, though. Cacao is also imported from places like the Ivory Coast, which received a 21-percent tariff.

“Both the coffee industry and candy manufacturers will lobby hard to have the tariffs removed from these products,” analyst Judith Ganes told Reuters. “I personally doubt the tariffs will stick.”