Live updates: Trump slams trade partners as he unveils new tariffs

President Trump on Wednesday said that the 1930s Great Depression wouldn’t have happened if tariffs had continued, while announcing his massive tariff plan to hit trading partners.

The president argued that before the income tax on U.S. citizens was established in 1913, the U.S. leaned into tariffs and was collecting money from other countries. Then he argued that the U.S. ended tariffs, despite a tariff act from President Herbert Hoover at the time.

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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday swore in newly elected Florida Reps. Jimmy Patronis (R) and Randy Fine (R).

The two won special elections on Tuesday, and their quick entry to the House gives Johnson some additional room to navigate the GOP’s razor-thin margin. The House now stands at 220 Republicans and 213 Democrats, meaning Johnson can lose three GOP votes and still pass a party-line bill. At one point this year, that margin stood at one vote.

The two lawmakers, who were both endorsed by President Trump, paid tribute to the president in their first floor speeches as representatives. 

“With the Republican majority here in Congress, President Trump and the White House, we have the opportunity of a lifetime to fix this country,” Patronis said. 

Fine invoked the first assassination attempt on Trump in his address, saying he believes Trump’s “life was saved in Butler Pennsylvania, so he could save the world.” 

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday said he is “working on every possible accommodation” to make it easier for mothers to serve in Congress amid the impasse between GOP leadership and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) over parental proxy voting.

“Proxy voting aside, I am actively working on every possible accommodation to make Congressional service simpler for young mothers,” Johnson wrote on X. “As the pro-family party, our aim as Republicans is to support those principles while also defending our constitutional traditions.”

Asked by The Hill about what adjustments he is eyeing, Johnson cited a room for nursing mothers and potentially allowing mothers of young children to use their official funds to travel between their home districts and Washington.

“We’ve got a lot of ideas on the table,” he said. “We need a room for nursing mothers if they need that, that’ll be right off the House floor. We have a family room but there may be ways to improve access and make it even easier. We’re looking at the travel policies, potentially the use of [member representative allowance] to allow travel for mothers with young children to be able to transport them back-and-forth so they get more time with them.”

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that “time will tell” whether Trump’s tariffs will be effective, adding that he is still willing to give the White House room to maneuver on the topic.

Thune said that while he “appreciate[s] the work” Trump and his team has put in to determine the wide range of tariffs going into place, he remains concerned with the potential impact on agricultural states.

“As you know, I’ve got my issues,” he said. “I represent a state that’s very dependent upon exports, so that’s always a consideration for me, first and foremost. There’s a home-state interest there.”

“But I do appreciate the president’s focus on making sure that we’re getting better deals and giving businesses an incentive to do business here in the United States and create jobs here,” Thune said.

“I think time will tell,” Thune continued. “We’ll see, as these get applied, what kind of results we get from that, how long it takes and perhaps … these will be temporary based on how other countries respond.

When asked if he’s worried about rising costs for consumers, he said that it’s a “consideration.”

“But … I’m willing to give him some room to negotiate this and to see what happens from it, and give it the benefit of the doubt,” he added. “But we’ll be paying close attention … to the impacts on agriculture.”

Senate Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a 70-page budget resolution that they say would give Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a staunch ally of President Trump, the power to determine whether extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts officially adds to the federal deficit.

Republicans say the bill empowers Graham to use a “current policy” budget baseline to score an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as not adding to the deficit, neither in the 10-year budget window from 2025 to 2034 nor in the years beyond that window.

That would set the stage for advancing Trump’s legislation agenda around a Democratic filibuster, and would, if it survives a Democratic procedural challenge, enable Republicans to make Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent.

Graham in a statement said he has authority under Section 312 of the Congressional Budget Act “to determine baseline numbers for spending and revenue.”

“Under that authority, I have determined that current policy will be the budget baseline regarding taxation. This will allow the tax cuts to be permanent — which will tremendously boost the economy,” he said.

Read more here.

After just under an hour of remarks, Trump wrapped his tariff announcement and signed two executive orders: one imposing new reciprocal tariffs, and another addressing low-value imports.

Mexico and Canada do not fall under the reciprocal tariffs

White House officials said Canada and Mexico continue to be subject to the tariff regime due to fentanyl.

Stock market futures took a huge dive on Trump’s tariff announcement, which took place after the markets closed on Wednesday. S&P 500 futures slipped 1.6 percent in after-hours trading, while Nasdaq futures dropped 2.4 percent immediately following Trump’s announcement in the White House Rose Garden.

The market closed Wednesday with slight gains after a mostly calm session.

Trump said Wednesday he will impose new import taxes on goods from dozens of countries. Here is the White House’s list of how much it plans to charge importers for goods from each nation by April 9.

Read more here about Trump’s full tariff plan.

President Trump announced Wednesday that he reached another deal with a major law firm, Milbank LLP, as he seeks to punish organizations with ties to his political critics.

Milbank is the latest in a string of firms looking to cut a deal with the president after he signed orders in recent weeks reviewing security clearances and government contracts for several Big Law companies, which he says have acted improperly.

In his announcement, Trump said Milbank has agreed to perform at least $100 million worth of pro bono legal services on shared initiatives throughout his administration. Examples include assistance for veterans, law enforcement officials and first responders as well as work to ensure “fairness” in the justice system and combat antisemitism.

Read the full story here.

Trump said the calculation of the new tariffs is based in part on the values of non-tariff barriers imposed on the U.S. by other countries. These include measures like protective technical speculations for exported products and currency adjustments. Trump’s new calculations update the US Trade Representative’s foreign trade barriers designations, which was made more lenient under the Biden Administration.

The higher reciprocal tariffs included 35 percent on China, 20 percent on the European Union, 46 percent on Vietnam, 32 percent on Taiwan, 24 percent on Japan, 26 on India, 21 percent on Switzerland, 32 percent on Indonesia, 24 percent on Malaysia, a huge 49 percent on Cambodia and 10 on the United Kingdom.

Among the countries being targeted with reciprocal tariffs are China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, India, South Korea, Thailand, Switzerland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and the European Union.

Trump said those reciprocal tariffs will be calculated by combining the rate of tariffs and non-monetary barriers like currency manipulation, then divided in half.

“The tariffs will be not a full reciprocal. I could have done that, I guess. But it would have been tough for a lot of countries,” Trump said.

Top Trump administration officials mingled with laborers in the Rose Garden on Wednesday afternoon as the president announced new tariffs.

The president touted the attendance of several members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the major labor union which has grown closer to Trump. Trump also called up a Michigan autoworker to tout the benefits of the president’s new auto tariffs.

Speaking form the Rose Garden, Trump added that today is one of the most important days in American history.

“This is one of the most important days… in American history; it’s our Declaration of Economic Independence. For years, hard-working American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful… But now it’s our time to prosper,” He said.

Watch live here.

Trump kicked off his tariff announcement by criticizing several major U.S. trading partners for charging higher tariffs on American manufactured goods and crops than their goods face in the U.S.

“The American people are paying a very big price,” Trump said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday said President Trump’s trade war “financial gut punch” for average Americans.

“For the average American family, Donald Trump’s trade war is a financial gut punch. They’re going to pay an extra $6,000 a year on average,” Schumer said in a post on the social platform X.

“And it’s all just so Trump can give tax breaks to his billionaire buddies,” he added.

Schumer’s comments came as Trump was preparing to unveil new import taxes in the hundreds of billions of dollars Wednesday

President Trump on Wednesday is speaking now at a “Make America Wealthy Again” event at the Whit House where when he is announcing his reciprocal tariffs policy on other nations.

Watch live here.

Several Cabinet officials were in the Rose Garden for President Trump’s tariff announcement, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Education Secretary Linda McMahon, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, HUD Secretary Scott Turner, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Vice President Vance were also in attendance, as well as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

The odds of a recession are rising, researchers for Goldman Sachs said Sunday.

The researchers raised their odds for a recession in the next 12 months from 20 percent a month prior to 35 percent. They said they raised their odds because of factors including White House comments suggesting comfort with economic struggle so they can go forward with their policy.

Trump is preparing to unveil new import taxes in the hundreds of billions of dollars Wednesday, with the president reportedly still picking between a flat tariff on all imports, a flat tax targeting imports from specific countries or customized import tax rates for other countries.

Senate Republicans have unveiled their budget blueprint, which would serve as the basis for advancing large portions of President Trump’s domestic agenda.

The GOP is trying to use a process called reconciliation, which bypasses the Senate filibuster and could pass with only Republican votes.

“Today is one of the most important steps toward ensuring the Republican majority fulfills its promise to the American people that we will secure our border, strengthen our national security, make President Trump’s tax cuts permanent, and reduce spending,” Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement.

He added, “We cannot expect any Democrat to help us seriously reduce spending or make the Trump tax cuts permanent. This responsibility falls upon the Republican majority and I am confident we will rise to the occasion.”

The House and Senate previously passed competing budget resolutions and have spent weeks trying to get on the same page. The resolution lays out parameters under which lawmakers would then craft a final bill.

Senate Republicans say they expect to work through the weekend to pass the measure.

The Trump administration is expanding its tariffs on foreign metals to aluminum cans and the beer that they come in, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday.

Canned beer and empty aluminum cans imported to the U.S. will face a 25 percent tax under Trump’s recently announced tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.

The announcement came shortly before Trump was scheduled to announce a slate of new tariffs targeting potentially dozens of countries.

Senate Republicans are bracing for the passage of a bipartisan bill to undo President Trump’s 25-percent tariff against Canada, which would deal Trump an embarrassing setback on “Liberation Day,” an occasion the president has proclaimed to announce a new round of tariffs.

Four Republicans — Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.) — have indicated publicly or privately that they would vote for the resolution, according to Senate Democrats.

Paul, who is a cosponsor of the measure, said Trump’s tariff war against Canada is bad for the economy and an end-run around Congress, which he says has sole Constitutional authority to raise taxes.

“Trade is a good thing. Trade is proportional to prosperity and so tariffs are bad economically,” he said. “It’s a terrible idea to run a country by emergency where representatives to vote on raising or lowering taxes.”

Paul said tariffs “are bad for the country, bad for prosperity, bad for the economy.”

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The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has fired all of the workers in its program that seeks to help low-income Americans pay their energy bills. 

Everyone who had been working on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) was let go on Tuesday, according to now-former employee Andrew Germain.

“Every single federal staff member that worked on LIHEAP was let go, so there are no federal staff members left to work on the program,” Germain told The Hill.

He said that prior to both probationary cuts and the latest round of firings, there had been about 15 people working on LIHEAP.

The program doles out funds to states, which in turn use the money to help people pay to heat and cool their homes and prevent utilities from shutting off the air or heat.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Wednesday told reporters that he expects text of the Senate’s budget resolution to be unveiled this afternoon.

“Probably. If not today, tomorrow,” Kennedy said, adding that members are expecting a vote-a-rama to take place later this week or the weekend.

“We’re going to move this bill. We’re going to move it this weekend, and it’s going to pass,” he continued. “I don’t know whether the vote-a-rama will be Friday or Saturday. A lot of that will depend on our Democratic friends.”

“It’s a meaningful step, but it’s a baby step, folks,” Kennedy said. “This is just a blueprint. The real work starts after we do this.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) plugged FBI Director Kash Patel’s book on the “deep state” at the end of his remarks reacting to the corruption case against him officially being dropped. 

Adams said in his remarks on Wednesday that the case against should never have been brought and maintained that he didn’t do anything wrong. He said New Yorkers stop him “all the time” trying to find the rationale for why charges were brought, and he found the rationale in Patel’s book, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for our Democracy.”

“I’m going to encourage every New Yorker to read it,” he said. “Read it and understand how we can never allow this to happen to another innocent American.” 

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) set a new record for the longest Senate speech in history on Monday and Tuesday by holding the upper chamber’s floor for over 25 hours. 

Booker slammed the policies President Trump has implemented in his second White House term and criticized the Republican Party’s spending cuts in their upcoming tax legislation during his speech that last 25 hours and 5 minutes, surpassing former Sen. Strom Thurmond (S.C.), who held the previous record as he spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes. 

Booker’s effort was both a physical and mental feat that required stamina and willpower, as the New Jersey senator didn’t eat food or drink water during his marathon speech, which helped him avoid needing to use a restroom.

This is how Booker, who has represented the Garden State since 2013, accomplished the record Senate speech. Read the full story here.

Trump will meet on Wednesday with Vice President Vance, national security adviser Mike Waltz and other Cabinet officials to discuss TikTok divestiture proposals.

A White House official said “a deal” would be presented to the president.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced on the Senate floor that she will support the resolution sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) to undo President Trump’s 25 percent tariff on Canada.

Collins ticked off a litany of ways the Maine economy is intertwined with Canada and says she feels differently about tariffs targeted on Mexico and China.

Trump earlier in the day pressured former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republicans he’s labeled “disloyal” in the upper chamber to vote against Democrats’ resolution to bar his emergency declaration to impose tariffs on Canada.

In a post to Truth Social early Wednesday, Trump willed the senators to “hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy.”

Trump’s potential plan to impose a 20 percent broad tariff on all imports could put a squeeze on households, especially those on the lower end of the income spectrum, an analysis from The Budget Lab at Yale found.

In the analysis released by the policy research center this week, the group found that a 20-percent tariff on all imports would bring the average effective US tariff rate to the highest since 1872 when stacked together with the other tariffs that have taken effect in recent months.

Researchers said the proposal would increase prices somewhere between 2.1 percent and 2.6 percent, depending on how other countries retaliate to Trump’s new tariffs and the Federal Reserve’s response.

“This is equivalent to a loss of purchasing power of $3,400-4,200 per household on average in 2024 dollars,” the group said. 

Read more here.