On Politics

Thu Apr 3 2025

Rebecca Morin | Newsletter Writer

@RebeccaMorin_

Howdy, folks! It's Rebecca Morin here. A HUGE thank you to my colleague, Nicole Fallert, for subbing in for me on Wednesday.

Stocks crater as nations vow retaliation for Trump tariffs

President Donald Trump's new tariff program is already causing heartache – at home and abroad. Trump announced sweeping tariffs Wednesday of at least 10% on about 185 countries, effective April 5.

U.S. stocks plunged at the open on Thursday morning following Trump's tariff announcement. Some countries that neighbor China, including Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, received higher levies. In hopes of diversifying, several multinational companies have moved their supply chains away from China to those countries. Now, shares in companies like Walmart, Target, Five Below, Gap, Dollar Tree and Amazon that import a bulk of their goods from Asia have dropped in value. See where the market stands.

•	*World leaders expressed frustration over Trump's tariffs, with some vowing retaliation. Ursula von der Leyen*, president of the European Commission, said Trump's levies were "a major blow" that would bring rising inflation and higher bills across the globe. She said the European Union was "prepared to respond" to Trump's sweeping new levies but did not immediately announce countermeasures.
•	In a rare bipartisan rebuke, 51 senators, including four Republicans, voted on Wednesday to end Trump's tariff on Canadian goods just hours after Trump implemented 10% across-the-board tariffs on imports and additional reciprocal tariffs on goods from 60 countries.
•	*Despite the backlash, Trump remained upbeat* on social media about his new tariff program, waxing metaphorically, "The operation is over! The patient lived and is healing. The prognosis is that the patient will be far stronger, bigger, better and more resilient than ever before."
•	Although Trump believes the tariffs will spur American manufacturing, many economists worry the large-scale tariffs could further hurt a weakening economy, send the stock market plummeting *and lead to a recession.*
•	*The president's baseline tariff applies* to about 185 countries – including uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, remote external territories of Australia in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean that have more *penguins and seals than people and no apparent trade activity.*

President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025.

Carlos Barria, REUTERS

A politics pit-stop

•	Hegseth orders 'sex-neutral' fitness tests for military combat roles
•	NYC Mayor Eric Adams to seek reelection as an independent
•	Luigi Mangione faces the federal death penalty: How rare are these cases?
•	Why Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson testified at Texas capitol
•	Bill Maher posts about dinner with Trump as Kid Rock saying, "It could not have been better"

Trump approval rate slipping

Following President Donald Trump's tariff moves and his administration's handling of national security information on military strikes in Yemen, the president's approval rating has fallen to 43%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. Trump's approval has dropped 4 points from a poll conducted shortly after he took office on Jan. 20. Still, Trump's overall approval rate remains stronger than it was for most of his first term. Here's what the poll says.

A very DC photObama

What would you do if the 44th president walked through your photoshoot during Washington D.C.'s famous cherry blossom season? Post it on Instagram, of course. During a photoshoot with Virginia resident Portia Moore, photographer Briana Inell captured the exact moment that former President Barack Obama , wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, stepped into the frame as Moore's two toddlers were being photographed at the picturesque Tidal Basin. See the photos here.