Trump girds for trade war

by Jonathan Easley - 04/01/25 5:04 PM ET

IN HIS BROADEST TRADE MOVE YET, President Trump will outline sweeping tariffs during a White House Rose Garden event Wednesday.

Trump met with his trade team Tuesday to hammer out the final details for the announcement, which threatens to ignite a risky global trade war that economists warn would be a major drag on the economy.

The administration is playing its cards close the vest, saying everyone will find out at the same time just how big the president will go.

Longtime U.S. allies in Mexico, Canada and the European Union appear to be primary targets.

But it’s unclear if the levies will target individual countries or industries or be broadly implemented with a flat rate on items manufactured outside the U.S.

So far, Trump has promised 25 percent tariffs on all automobiles and parts created outside of the country.

“Too many foreign countries have their markets closed to our exports,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. “This is fundamentally unfair. The lack of reciprocity contributes to our large and persistent annual trade deficit that’s gutted our industries and hollowed out key workforces. Those days of America… being ripped off, are over.”

The countries Trump has been threatening are promising to retaliate with tariffs of their own.

“Europe has not started this confrontation,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. “We do not necessarily want to retaliate but, if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it.”

Leavitt acknowledged there are “legitimate concerns” voiced by some Republicans that the tariffs will raise prices for consumers or drag on their constituents’ investment portfolios.

Traditionally, Republicans have opposed tariffs.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said Tuesday on CNN “there‘s no question about it, a tariff is a tax,” although he said he’d withhold judgement on Trump’s moves to see how they unfold.

“There’s absolutely going to be short-term pain,” Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) said on CNN’s “The Source.”

Stocks have been mixed this week after a sharp month-long decline.

U.S. manufacturers expressed concern about tariffs in Tuesday’s monthly business survey from the Institute for Supply Management.

DEMOCRATS LOOK TO FIGHT BACK

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) hopes to force a vote on a resolution that would nullify the emergency declaration Trump used to slap tariffs on Canada.

That resolution could pass the Senate if it attracts a few Republicans, but it would almost certainly die in the House.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is urging Republicans to defeat the resolution, arguing the tariffs are necessary to stop the flow of fentanyl coming into the country across the northern border.

Trump also made that case on Truth Social.

“By their weakness, the Democrats have allowed Fentanyl to get out of hand,” he said. “The Republicans and I have reversed that course, strongly and quickly. Major additional progress is being made. Don’t let the Democrats have a Victory.”

On the southern border, The Associated Press reports that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has quietly built a special operations force to fight the drug cartels.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WRONGLY DEPORTED SALVADORAN

The Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing that it wrongly deported a man to El Salvador and says it’s unable to secure his return to the U.S.

Abrego Garcia was granted asylum protections by an immigration judge in 2019, although Vice President Vance wrote in a social media post that the same judge at the time “determined he was a member of the MS-13 gang.”

Garcia was swept up last month as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which has since been paused by a federal judge.

The Trump administration wrote in the court filing that Garcia, a father of three living in Maryland, was deported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center due to “an administrative error.” The U.S. does not have the authority to extract him from the “megaprison.”

Civil liberties groups have warned that swift deportations under the Alien Enemies Act could lead to wrongful deportations due to the individuals not receiving due process.

Leavitt on Tuesday acknowledged the “clerical error,” however she said that Garcia was nonetheless in the U.S. illegally.

She also claimed that the administration has evidence that he’s a member of the gang MS-13 and was involved in human trafficking.

“Foreign terrorists have no legal protections in the United States,” Leavitt said.

MEANWHILE…

A federal judge paused the Trump administration’s plans to lift protections from deportation for more than 600,000 Venezuelans, writing that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s move to do so “smacks of racism.”

It’s the latest volley between the courts and the Trump administration over mass deportation efforts.

Republicans have accused the courts of overreach, with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introducing a bill this week to limit the scope of judicial rulings.

💡Perspectives:

• The Hill: Social Security isn’t the third rail of American politics any more.

• Salon: Bracing for ‘Liberation Day.’

• The Hill: Signalgate pulled back the curtain on the administration.

• Forbes: Trump is right to end the debt ceiling.

Read more:

• HHS begins layoffs in ‘painful’ reorganization.

• Pentagon offering new round of voluntary resignations, retirements.

• Trump administration initiating review of Harvard contracts.

• Melania Trump honors courageous women at awards ceremony.

CATCH UP QUICK

Attorney General Pam Bondi instructed prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
A fourth American soldier who went missing after their vehicle became submerged in a bog in Lithuania during training was found dead.
The Supreme Court appears poised to uphold a law allowing Americans injured by acts of terror in the Middle East to take Palestinian leadership groups to U.S. courts for damages.

NEWS THIS AFTERNOON

House Republicans revolt against Johnson efforts to block proxy voting for new parents

A group of House Republicans dealt an embarrassing blow to Speaker Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday, torpedoing his effort to block a vote on a bill to allow remote voting by lawmakers who become new parents.

Johnson has long opposed proxy voting under any circumstances, while Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who became a mother in 2023, has pushed for new parents to be able to vote remotely.

House Republican leaders played hardball in their efforts to block a vote on the bill.

But those efforts were defeated when Luna and eight other Republicans joined all Democrats to overcome Johnson’s hurdle.

The Hill’s Mychael Schell and Emily Brooks write:

“The revolt escalates the battle over proxy voting into a full-blown legislative war as Republicans grapple with arguments over constitutionality, supporting families, and how much power GOP leaders have over the House floor in the historically slim majority.”

The House canceled votes for the rest of the week after the rebellion.

A widespread proxy voting system for lawmakers was installed for the COVID-19 pandemic, but conservatives fought to stop it, calling it unconstitutional.

ELSEWHERE ON CAPITOL HILL…

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) wants to get his long-overdue budget resolution to the floor for a vote this week, but that could depend on a ruling from Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough.

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton has a primer on how MacDonough could make or break the Senate GOP’s plans to make Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent.

Those tax cuts could add more than $9 trillion to the deficit over the next decade without offsets, according to a new analysis from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

• Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is still going…

Booker’s filibuster on the Senate floor, which started Monday at about 7 p.m. EDT, continues this evening.

The New Jersey Democrat has been railing against the Trump administration’s sweeping cuts and government overhaul.

“These are not normal times in our nation,” Booker said at the start of his speech. “And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”

If Booker carries on until about 7:30 tonight, he could set the record for the longest floor speech in Senate history.

💡Perspectives:

• The New York Times: America’s hidden role in Ukraine’s military operations.

• The Wall Street Journal: Lawfare à la Francaise Against Marine Le Pen.

IN OTHER NEWS

Roundup: Voters head to the polls in Wisconsin, Florida

Voters are casting ballots for special elections in Florida and a state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, which are seen as early indicators of political strength for President Trump and Elon Musk.

The House races in Florida to replace former Reps. Matt Gaetz (R) and Mike Waltz (R) should be safely Republican, as Trump carried both districts by more than 30 points in 2024. But there are signs of concern for the GOP in Waltz’s former district, where internal polling shows a tight race between Republican Randy Fine and Democrat Josh Weil, who has far outraised his opponent.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) has been critical of Fine. He said at a press conference Tuesday that it won’t be Trump’s fault if the GOP candidate underperforms in the heavily Republican district.

“If there is an underperformance, which a lot of people are predicting — I think Trump won by 30. I won by 35 or something. If there is an underperformance, they will say see it shows the voters are rejecting Trump. it has nothing to do with that. This is a rejection of the specific candidate.”

In Wisconsin, Musk has made some big bets, appearing at rallies for conservative Brad Schimel and handing out $1 million checks to voters, while his outside affiliate groups plowed more than $20 million into the race.

For Democrats who have struggled to unite around a consistent message in Trump’s second term, it will be an early indicator of how far they can get on liberal grassroots anger toward Trump and Musk.

The latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll finds approval of the Democratic Party hovering near its low point at 37 percent.

MORE CAMPAIGNS…

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) threw cold water on Trump’s talk of a third term, which many Republicans see as the president trolling his critics and the press.

“You have to amend the Constitution to do it, and that’s a high bar,” Johnson said.

• Democrats are taking the Trump administration to court over his executive orders reshaping the election system.

The Democratic National Committee and other groups filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order, which requires states to obtain proof of citizenship from people when they register to vote. The order also disqualifies late-arriving absentee or mail-in ballots from the vote count in federal elections.

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will hold a town hall event in Nashville, making her the latest Democrat to rally different parts of the country.

• The Hill’s Jared Gans reports that vulnerable GOP senators are taking steps to appeal to Trump as they stare down potential primary challengers next year. Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), John Cornyn (Texas) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) have at times faced the ire of Trump’s base.