(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon’s independent watchdog has announced it has agreed to a request from top senators and is launching a probe into the use of the commercial messaging app Signal by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior Trump administration officials to discuss a future U.S. military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen.
Last week, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., sent a letter to DOD acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins requesting an expedited inquiry into that Signal discussion.
“The purpose of this memorandum is to notify you that we are initiating the subject evaluation,” Stebbins wrote in a memo to the offices of the secretary of defense and the deputy secretary of defense. “We are conducting this evaluation in response to a March 26, 2025 letter I received from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, requesting that I conduct an inquiry into recent public reporting on the Secretary of Defense’s use of an unclassified commercially available messaging application to discuss information pertaining to military actions in Yemen in March 2025.”
“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business. Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements,” Stebbins added in the memo.
“We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds. We plan to perform this evaluation in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency ‘Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation,'” he said.
Last week, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, revealed he had been added to a Signal text group that appeared to include senior Trump administration national security officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance, discussing plans to strike against Houthi targets in Yemen in mid-March.
Senior Trump administration officials including Hegseth pushed back on The Atlantic’s description of the conversation and argued no classified war plans had been discussed.
(WASHINGTON) — For decades, Donald Trump has used a signature phrase to show his contempt for countries he says cheat and take advantage of the U.S.: “They’re ripping us off.”
He used those very words again Wednesday as he capped off his long-standing personal grievance by announcing sweeping tariffs in the Rose Garden.
From trade deals to NATO security procedures, Trump has claimed that the U.S. has been given less return value, resources and, ultimately, respect for the amount of money, political will power and other resources that America has given the world.
While Trump’s rhetoric has gone well beyond the norms of traditional international diplomacy, his views have been shared by other U.S. leaders for a long time, according to Paul Poast, an associate professor in the department of political science at the University of Chicago.
“He’s saying the quiet part out loud,” Poast told ABC News. “You can go all the way back to [President Harry] Truman, where U.S. leaders have made that comment, that the U.S. has been doing more than its fair share. He’s just using an extreme version of a complaint made.”
While Trump’s unprecedented approach has made headlines and seen pushback from world leaders from allies, including Canada and Mexico, the two nations he’s previously targeted with tariffs, Poast said it was too early to tell if the continued tough talk will affect international relations but he noted the rest of the world is taking notice.
US being ‘laughed at’ Trump has long blasted other countries for what he claimed are unfair practices toward the U.S. and its businesses. In 1987, he took out full-page ads in the New York Times, Washington Post and other major newspapers arguing that the U.S. needed to scale back its support of Japan at a time when that country’s economy was dominating Americas.
“Let’s not let our great country be laughed at anymore,” he wrote.
Two years later, Trump continued his criticism of Japan along with Saudi Arabia and West Germany in an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer where he argued for taxes and tariffs.
“America is being ripped off. And I’ll tell you what. We’re not going to have an America in 10 years if it keeps going like this. We’re a debtor nation, and we have to tax, we have to tariff, we have to protect this country. And nobody’s doing it,” he said.
The phrase would be repeated for years and amplified on the 2016 campaign trail, during his first term, his first and second reelection campaigns and now in his current term.
[“With] great consistency, actually, because I’ve been talking about it for 40 years, but because I saw what was happening 40 years ago,” the president said Wednesday during his tariff announcement.
Poast said that Trump’s grievance is derived from the perceived value of their exports versus imports, which he said can be oversimplified.
To the average American, seeing more foreign-based products versus U.S. made goods gives an appearance that there is an imbalance, but when it comes to foreign relations and the economy — the impact is more nuanced, he said.
“The U.S. trade policies always included limited import, and we are getting a lot from other countries economically,” Poast said.
Regarding the intangible benefits to support such as the economic aid, the military, assistance and political backing, the arguments about being “ripped off” get more obtuse, according to Poast.
“I think during the Cold War it was easier to convince people to spend it. You had a key figure you’re trying to stop Russia from winning and spreading communism,” Poast said. “Now it’s much harder to have that argument because of how divided we are.”
In many cases, trade deals and agreements also have come with benefits to the U.S. such as military bases, reduced rents for U.S.-based offices and other reimbursements, he added.
Nonetheless, Poast said that U.S. presidents of all political backgrounds have pushed allies to do more when it comes to trade and support, and many times come up short of their negotiations.
“The big difference is that Trump gets angry and starts name calling, whereas someone like [President Barack] Obama would be like ‘I’m not mad, I’m disappointed,'” Poast said.
Trump’s rhetoric during his first term did appear to make strides with one nation: Japan.
Then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was well-versed with Trump’s war of words toward his country, curried favor with the president shortly after he won the 2016 election.
“He was like, ‘I need to show Trump the value of cooperating with Japan and I need to convince him that we are important,'” Poast said of Abe. “And it worked to the point where Trump came around and invited him to the White House, and Trump visited him in Japan and they had a strong partnership.”
Trump mentioned his dealings with Abe in his Rose Garden unveiling.
“They all understand they’re ripping us off,” he said.
“Shinzo Abe, he was a fantastic man … I went to him and I said, ‘Shinzo, we have to do something’ — trade is not fair.’ He said, ‘I know that. I know that,'” Trump said Abe responded.
Countries such as France, Germany and China have not been as flattering to Trump compared to Japan during his administrations in the public eye, but they have continued to negotiate trade and foreign policy plans, but rarely gave Trump everything he wanted.
“When it comes to his demands, this is the question always ask for Trump. What extent is he making demands and trying to be a deal maker?” Poast said. “It’s the idea that you come out with the outrageous idea and then negotiate down.”
Trump’s second term, however, has seen the president push through with his proposals, including the worldwide tariffs and increased calls for the takeover of Greenland, Canada and Panama.
The talk has resulted in more verbal pushback from world leaders calling out Trump for his rhetoric.
“We have to accept that the U.S. is not the single global power anymore, and other countries are now adjusting,” Poast said.
Poast said it doesn’t know if Trump’s tactics will set a new norm for international relations but did note that the political polarization of the international community and the magnified scope of the world stage has shifted the conversations and visible tensions.
“I think any adjustment that does happen will be less with Trump and his rhetoric but the changing power structure in the world system. We are living a world that is more multi-polar and we will see more shifts. Trump did not create that he may be more of a product of that and make light of that,” he said.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer; Photo credit: Jacob M. Langston for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The White House has fired a handful of National Security Council staffers following a Wednesday meeting with far-right political activist Laura Loomer, who made recommendations to President Donald Trump about who he should fire, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Loomer met with Trump Wednesday, shortly before his tariff announcement in the Rose Garden, the sources said. Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance and the head of personnel Sergio Gor were involved in the meeting. Rep. Scott Perry was also present, but he was scheduled to meet with Trump about a variety of different topics, the sources added.
“NSC doesn’t comment on personnel matters,” NSC spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement.
The New York Times was first to report on Trump’s meeting with Loomer.
“Out of respect for President Trump and the privacy of the Oval Office, I’m going to decline on divulging any details about my Oval Office meeting with President Trump. It was an honor to meet with President Trump and present him with my research findings, I will continue working hard to support his agenda, and I will continue reiterating the importance of strong vetting, for the sake of protecting the President and our national security,” Loomer told ABC News in a statement.
Loomer has frequently spread misinformation. In July, she falsely claimed in a social media post that President Joe Biden had a medical emergency after landing at Joint Base Andrews — a claim for which there was no evidence.
She had also started unsubstantiated claims about family members of Judge Juan Merchan in Trump’s New York hush money case, including that his daughter posted a fake photo of Trump in jail on social media, which the court has denied. It prompted Trump to share Loomer’s posts and spread the rumors.
Loomer accompanied Trump to several campaign events last fall — a move that prompted criticism from some Republicans at the time.
While it’s not clear whether any of the recent firings are directly related to national security adviser Mike Waltz and his staff’s use of the messaging app, Signal to communicate about sensitive topics, it comes as Waltz has had to privately defend himself and his staff to the president and other senior White House staffers.
The day after the inauguration, the Trump administration purged more than 150 NSC staffers because the new administration wanted to make sure the the goals of the NSC aligned with Trump’s agenda. Firing the nonpolitical staffers, who typically serve two-year stints on the council, has left the NSC severely understaffed and lacking subject matter experts from across government.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Thursday was standing firmly behind President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff rollout despite markets nosediving, businesses recoiling and foreign leaders threatening retaliation.
While Trump had no public events on his schedule a day after his dramatic Rose Garden announcement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Vice President JD Vance were deployed to deal with the fallout on the morning news shows before the market selloff began.
Vance acknowledged that Trump’s massive new tariffs, which will impact virtually all U.S. trading partners, will mean a “big change” for Americans, who Trump earlier had said would feel some short-term pain.
“President Trump is taking this economy in a different direction. He ran on that. He promised it. And now he’s delivering. And yes, this is a big change. I’m not going to shy away from it, but we needed a big change,” Vance told “Fox & Friends.”
Leavitt, too, defended the policy as Trump “delivering on his promise to implement reciprocal tariffs” during an appearance on CNN.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump. This is a president who is doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term,” she said.
Neither Vance nor Leavitt, though, directly addressed the increased costs economists say U.S. consumers are all but certain to face or how they would help Americans in the short term.
“What I’d ask folks to appreciate here is that we’re not going to fix things overnight,” Vance said. “We’re fighting as quickly as we can to fix what was left to us, but it’s not going to happen immediately.”
U.S. stocks plunged in early trading on Thursday hours after Trump’s announcement of a minimum 10% tariff on all countries and more targeted “kind reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of nations he accused of treating the U.S. unfairly in trade relations.
Asked about negative business reaction, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later told CNN, “they’re not counting the factories” that he claimed would be built in the U.S. as a result.
Meanwhile, world leaders are weighing their response to Trump’s historic levies, some of which go into effect on April 5 and others on April 9.
China, which is going to be hit with a whopping 54% tariff rate, urged the U.S. to “immediately cancel its unilateral tariff measures and properly resolve differences with its trading partners through equal dialogue.”
The White House, though, says the tariffs aren’t up for debate.
“The president made it clear yesterday, this is not a negotiation. This is a national emergency. He’s always willing to pick up the phone to answer calls, but he laid out the case yesterday for why we are doing it this and these countries around the world have had 70 years to do the right thing by the American people, and they have chosen not to,” Leavitt said on CNN.
“They have ripped off American workers. They have taken our jobs overseas. The president is putting an end to that,” Leavitt continued.
“He is not backing off,” Lutnick said.
President Trump on Wednesday, as he spoke in the White House Rose Garden, had a message for targets of the plan.
“If they complain, if you want your tariff rate to be zero, then you build your product right here in America because there is no tariff if you build your plant, your product in America,” Trump said.
“I don’t concede on something that I believe to be unconstitutional. I can’t. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution. So, we’re going to find a path through this. We’re working on that,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I talked to everybody who voted against the rule, and we’ll work it out. So, we got time to do it, and those conversations continue.”
Earlier this week, nine Republicans sided with Democrats to torpedo a procedural rule that included language to kill Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s bipartisan discharge petition on proxy voting for new lawmaker parents.
The vote has thrown the House into disarray and paralyzed the chamber, leaving Johnson to find a way to break the impasse. The vote also called into question Johnson’s ability to control Republicans’ razor-thin majority.
House Republican leaders, including Johnson, had said they would take the unprecedented step to block Luna’s petition on proxy voting, which gives both mothers and fathers the ability to vote remotely up to 12 weeks after the birth of a child.
After the vote, Johnson said because it failed, “we can’t have any further action on the floor this week.” The rule that lawmakers voted on included language to block proxy voting — as well as other pieces of legislation.
“The reason that I said that the agenda was taken out for the week is because it was, it was all in one rule. We could have run the SAVE Act, but the rest of it would have to have been done in a different rule. And I had a big group of House Republicans who did not want to support a rule until we took care of the proxy voting situation,” he claimed.
Johnson said he is “actively working” to accommodate young mothers serving in Congress.
“While I understand the pure motivations of the few Republican proxy vote advocates, I simply cannot support the change they seek,” Johnson wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “The procedural vote yesterday was our effort to advance President Trump’s important legislative agenda while disabling a discharge petition that would force proxy voting and open a dangerous Pandora’s box for the institution.”
“To allow proxy voting for one category of Members would open the door for many others, and ultimately result in remote voting that would harm the operation of our deliberative body and diminish the critical role of the legislative branch,” he added.
Johnson said that he wants a room for mothers to nurse right off the House floor even though there is currently one in the basement of the Capitol. He said leaders are also looking at allowing the use of government money for members to fly their infant babies to D.C. with their mothers and fathers.
“We want to accommodate mothers who want to serve in Congress, and we’re the pro-family party, so we’ll do that, but we can’t do something that violates the Constitution or destroys the institution you serve,” he said.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s sweeping new set of tariffs impact friend and foe alike, but also on the list are uninhabited islands while some glaring omissions include Russia and Iran.
Trump on Wednesday unveiled “kind reciprocal” tariff rates on certain nations that the administration’s deemed the worst offenders in trade with the U.S., in addition to a minimum 10% baseline tariff on all U.S. trading partners.
“If they complain, if you want your tariff rate to be zero, then you build your product right here in America because there is no tariff if you build your plant, your product in America,” Trump said as he announced the policy at the White House.
“Likewise, to all of the foreign presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, ambassadors and everyone else who will soon be calling to ask for exemptions from these tariffs, I say terminate your own tariffs, drop your barriers, don’t manipulate your currencies,” Trump added.
At the top of the list is China, which will be hit with a whopping 54% tariff rate once the additional levies are put into effect. High levies are also being placed on the European Union, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, India and more.
Israel is also a target of “reciprocal” tariffs, despite moving ahead of Trump’s announcement to cancel all remaining tariffs on American imports (which there were very few of thanks to the Israel-United Staes Free Trade agreement that has been in place since the 1980s).
Israel, though, still got hit with a 17% rate. The Israeli government is already pushing back on the Trump administration’s calculation that Israel somehow charged a 33% tariff to the U.S., with one official calling it “puzzling.”
What else is on Trump’s list
British Indian Ocean Territory — The only inhabitants of the United Kingdom territory located in the Indian Ocean are American and British military personnel and contractors stationed at a joint defense facility.
Heard and McDonald Islands — Australian external territory of mostly barren Antarctic islands; uninhabited with no imports or exports.
Norfolk Island — This is another Australian external territory, but for some reason the Trump administration has set the reciprocal tariff rate at 29%. That is far above the 10% for Australia and other external territories. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has already expressed confusion over the area’s inclusion, as there is very little trade between the U.S. and the tiny island, which has a population around 2,000.
Svalbard and Jan Mayen — These are remote territories of Norway in the Arctic Ocean. The new tariff rate is just 5% less than it is for greater Norway, though an Mayen also has no permanent population.
Réunion — The island is considered to be an overseas department and region of France, has similar status to its counterparts in metropolitan France and doesn’t have its own bilateral trade agreements. It is generally treated by the U.S. as a part of France but the administration is setting the tariff rate for the island at 37% instead of the European Unions’s 20 % rate.
What is notably not included on Trump’s list
Russia — Moscow was omitted from the list and the White House has been claiming this is because sanctions preclude any meaningful trade. This is false. Trade has fallen dramatically between the U.S. and Russia since the onset of the war in Ukraine but last year the U.S. imported around $3 billion in goods from Russia (many times the dollar amount between the U.S. and many of the small island territories that did make the list).
Belarus, Cuba and North Korea — The White House made the same argument as it did for Russia for why they are not on the list, but in these countries’ cases, there is much less trade with the U.S. Although it is still on par or surpasses trade with some of the island territories.
Iran — There’s not a whole lot of trade between the U.S. and Iran because of the many sanctions against the country, but amid the Trump administration’s effort to impose “maximum pressure” against the regime, it’s notable that Tehran is only getting hit with the baseline 10% tariff.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Despite billionaire Elon Musk’s repeated warnings that “Western Civilization” was at stake if the conservative candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race lost, the Tesla CEO and senior adviser to President Donald Trump downplayed Tuesday’s major election defeat, writing in an overnight post that he “expected to lose.”
The billionaire, who has dominated headlines since joining Trump’s administration as the aggressive head of the Department of Government Efficiency, had gone all-in on the race.
His political groups spent more than $20 million in an effort to push conservative candidate Brad Schimel across the finish line — flooding the airwaves with television ads and saturating Google and Facebook with digital spots. He deployed a ground team across the state to turn out voters, and personally handed out two $1 million checks at a rally where he appeared onstage wearing a cheesehead hat.
But it wasn’t enough.
Schimel lost by what could be a double-digit margin, handing the world’s richest man a significant political setback and prompting questions about how eager Republicans will be to embrace Musk’s involvement in future races, including the midterms.
But despite Tuesday’s result, Musk remains undeterred in his political ambitions. According to people familiar with his operation, he still plans to play a major role in helping Republicans retain control of the House in future races, including the 2026 midterms.
Sources said Musk and his team entered the Wisconsin race knowing it would be an uphill battle. Part of the calculation, according to people close to the effort, was that Democrats in Wisconsin would likely make Musk the face of their attacks regardless, so it was better to confront them directly and make the case to voters rather than let those attacks go unanswered.
Musk’s political team had seen warning signs in the final stretch. A memo from one of his groups obtained by ABC News showed that Schimel had been trailing liberal candidate Susan Crawford by double digits earlier in the race and his numbers improved after a wave of negative advertising. But in the days leading up to Tuesday, Musk’s team saw Schimel’s numbers tank, prompting the billionaire to go on a media blitz that included multiple livestream events and an interview on Fox News.
Now, Democrats are working quickly to capitalize on Crawford’s victory and portray Musk as a liability for Trump and the Republican Party.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Schimel’s loss was a referendum on Musk.
“Wisconsin voters sent a decisive message to Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and DOGE by rejecting an extreme Republican for their Supreme Court: our Democracy is not for sale,” Schumer wrote on X.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire himself who donated more than $1 million to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin ahead of the race, wrote on X late Tuesday night, “Elon Musk is not good at this.”
Patrick Guarasci, a Wisconsin-based political operative who served as the chief strategist for Susan Crawford’s campaign, echoed that view. He said one of the key takeaways for Democrats nationally is the importance of confronting Musk’s political efforts directly.
“We didn’t back down from a fight when Elon Musk got into this race. We didn’t go looking for that fight, but we didn’t back down from it. And I think that’s probably one of the lessons learned,” Guarasci told ABC News in an interview on Wednesday.
Still, Musk’s supporters note that the billionaire also played a central role in Trump’s 2024 presidential win, particularly focusing on Pennsylvania with similar tactics.
“[Musk] journeyed to Pennsylvania where he spent a month and a half campaigning for me … and he’s a popular guy,” Trump said at a rally after his election win. “He knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers, those vote-counting computers, and we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide. So, it was pretty good, it was pretty good. So, thank you to Elon.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping new tariffs on Wednesday, which the White House dubbed “Liberation Day.”
“This is one of the most important days in my opinion in American history,” Trump said during a press conference at the Rose Garden, outside the White House. “It’s our declaration of economic independence.”
The fresh round of tariffs marked a significant escalation from previous levies slapped on some foreign goods in recent weeks.
The new tariffs feature two key policies: A uniform 10% tariff for all imports and “reciprocal” tariffs imposed on many nations that place duties on U.S. imports.
The universal 10% tariff amounts to a wide-ranging trade barrier that will touch every product that enters the U.S.
Trump said the measure would ensure foreign firms pay a price for benefits derived from the purchasing power of U.S. consumers.
“Foreign nations will finally pay for the privilege of access to our market,” Trump said.
In addition to the universal tariff, Trump said, the U.S. will impose tariffs on many countries that levy U.S. goods. Trump described such duties as “reciprocal tariffs,” though he noted that the U.S. would impose tariffs at half of the level of the trade barriers slapped on U.S. products.
“We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us,” Trump said. “We’re kind people.” He added later in his remarks, “This is not full reciprocal. This is kind reciprocal.”
The move departs from statements made by Trump in recent days vowing to impose reciprocal tariffs that match the trade barriers of other countries.
The reciprocal tariffs will target roughly 60 countries identified by the Trump administration as the “worst offenders,” White House officials said, noting that Canada and Mexico would be excluded from the reciprocal tariffs.
The White House calculated the cumulative cost of trade barriers imposed by each of the target nations, including tariffs as well as non-monetary measures. In each case, the U.S. will impose a reciprocal tariff rate at 50% of the level attributed to a given country.
For instance, Trump said, the U.S. estimated a total trade barrier rate of 67% for China, meaning the U.S. would impose a 34% tariff in response. The U.S. assessed a European Union trade barrier rate of 39%, Trump said, adding that the U.S. reciprocal tariff would register at 20%.
The universal 10% tariff is set to take effect on the morning of April 5, and the reciprocal tariffs will hit products on the morning of April 9, White House officials said.
Economists widely expect tariffs to raise prices for U.S. consumers, since importers typically pass along a share of the tax burden in the form of higher costs.
“For decades, the U.S. slashed our trade barriers on other countries while those nations placed massive tariffs on our products,” Trump said.
“This all happened with no response from the United States of America — none whatsoever,” Trump added. “But those days are over.”
President Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled a long-promised, sweeping set of baseline tariffs on all countries and what he described as “kind reciprocal” tariffs on nations he claimed were the worst offenders in trade relations with the U.S.
“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day,” Trump said from the White House Rose Garden, claiming the action will free the U.S. from dependence on foreign goods.
“April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” he said.
The new measures — which Trump described as “historic” — include a minimum baseline tariff of 10% and further, more targeted levies on certain countries like China, the European Union and Taiwan.
“We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us,” he said, adding, “because we are being very kind.”
“This is not full reciprocal. This is kind reciprocal,” he said.
Trump held up a chart with a list of nations and what the new U.S. tariffs against them will be. At the top was China, which Trump said was set to be hit with a 34% tariff rate as he claimed it charged the United States 67%.
The 10% baseline tariff rate goes into effect on April 5, according to senior White House officials. The “kind reciprocal” tariffs go into effect April 9 at 12:01 a.m., officials said, and will impact roughly 60 countries.
Trump described trade deficits as a “national emergency” and that his actions will usher in what he called “the golden age of America.”
“In short, chronic trade deficits are no longer merely an economic problem. They’re a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life. It’s a very great threat to our country,” he said.
Wednesday’s tariff announcement is a moment months in the making for the president, but one that comes with significant political and economic risk.
Some experts warn his moves could cause the economy to slide into a recession and markets seesawed ahead of Wednesday’s announcement, after weeks of turmoil as Trump’s tariff policy shifted and took shape.
The White House had been mum on details ahead of Wednesday’s event. One senior administration official said the situation was “still very fluid” after meetings on Wednesday morning and that Trump and his top advisers were trying to find some common ground where they agreed.
Some options debated in recent weeks, ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang reported, were a 20% flat tariff rate on all imports; different tariff levels for each country based on their levies on U.S. products; or tariffs on about 15% of countries with the largest trade imbalances with the U.S.
Wednesday’s tariffs build onto levies already imposed by the administration, including on steel and aluminum as well as certain goods from China, Canada and Mexico.
The actions have strained relations with Canada and Mexico, two key allies and neighbors. Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week the U.S. and Canada’s deep relationship on economic, security and military issues was effectively over.
Canada has vowed retaliatory tariffs and Mexico said it will give its response later this week. The European Union, too, said it has a “strong plan to retaliate.”
But Trump and administration officials are plowing full steam ahead, arguing America’s been unfairly “ripped off” by other nations for years and it’s time for reciprocity.
“For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike,” Trump said on Wednesday.
The economy was the top issue for voters in the 2024 presidential election, with Americans casting blame on President Joe Biden for high prices and Trump promising to bring families financial relief.
The administration has painted tariffs as a panacea for the economy writ large, arguing any pain experienced in the short term will be offset by what they predict will be major boosts in manufacturing, job growth and government revenue.
“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base,” Trump said. “We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers. And ultimately, more production at home will mean stronger competition and lower prices for consumers.”
But economists say it will be American consumers who bear the brunt of higher costs to start.
It’s unclear how much leeway the public is willing to give Trump to get past what he in the past called “a little disturbance.”
Already, little more than two months into his second term, polls show his handling of the economy is being met with pushback.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey published on Monday found a majority of Americans (58%) disapprove of how Trump has been handling the economy.
On his protectionist trade negotiations with other nations, specifically, 60% of Americans said they disapproved of his approach so far. It was his weakest issue in the poll among Republicans.
Trump’s GOP allies on Capitol Hill have said they’re placing trust in the president, but acknowledged there will be some uncertainty to start.
“It may be rocky in the beginning but I think this will make sense for Americans and it will help all Americans,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday alongside other members of Republican leadership.
Democrats, meanwhile, pledged to fight the tariffs “tooth and nail” and were trying to force a vote aimed at curtailing his authorities to impose levies on Canada.
“Trump’s done a lot of bad things. This is way up there,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier on Wednesday.
ABC News’ Mary Bruce, Katherine Faulders and Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats on Wednesday vowed to fight President Donald Trump’s tariffs “tooth and nail” and criticized his policies as having started an “absurd, crazy, chaotic trade war.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer held a news conference just hours before Trump’s big tariff reveal, where he urged Republicans to join Senate Democrats on a measure to block tariffs on Canadian goods.
“They know they’re a tax hike on the American people,” he said. “They know that the stock market is in turmoil, risking people’s retirements. They know that consumer confidence is down and the odds of a recession — something people hate, it’s harder to find a job, keep a job, maintain your weekly budget if a recession occurs — and now our greatest financial prognosticators are saying the chances of recession because of these tariffs, this tariff tax, goes way up.
“So, we’re going to fight these tariffs tooth and nail. Trump’s done a lot of bad things. This is way up there,” Schumer said.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat who introduced the resolution to block Trump’s tariffs on Canada, said he expected a vote to occur between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET.
Unlike most legislation in the Senate, the resolution will only need a simple majority to pass. Just a handful of Republicans would need to side with Democrats to hit that vote threshold.
President Trump, in an early morning post on his social media platform, pressured Republicans to oppose the measure — going so far as to call out some specific members of his party by name.
“Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, will hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change,” he wrote on his social media platform.
The president added the bill “is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans, namely these four, in that it is not going anywhere because the House will never approve it and I, as your President, will never sign it.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also preemptively slammed Trump’s tariffs, saying they will make goods more costly.
“This is not Liberation Day. It’s Recession Day in the United States of America,” Jeffries said. “That’s what the Trump tariffs are going to do.”
Top House Republicans, meanwhile, expressed confidence in President Trump ahead of this Rose Garden unveiling. Though they admitted their may be some “short-term pain” as a result.
“I trust the president’s instincts,” Speaker Mike Johnson said when asked by ABC News if he’s concerned. “We are fully supportive of his initiatives, and we’ll see how it all shakes out.”
“The president talked in the State of the Union that that may be some short-term pain, ultimately, long term we’re going to get more things made in America, and we’re going to get fair treatment of America by other countries,” said Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
