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Trump made a major move on tariffs this afternoon, both rewarding countries that had shown a willingness to work with him to balance trade and punishing China, which has continued to retaliate with more tariffs on the U.S.
Trump announced that in response to Chinese tariffs on American goods, he would be raising the tariffs on China all the way up to 125%, effective immediately. This comes as the Chinese stock market continues to tank due to Trump’s initial tariffs.
The American markets meanwhile spiked dramatically after Trump's announcement. At the closing bell, the Dow had jumped more that 2,900 points, and the S&P 500 posted it's biggest gain since 2008 according to CNBC. The NASDAQ was also up by over 1,850 points.
Trump also announced that for the 75 countries that have already come to the table to negotiate with the Trump administration on trade, they would see a 90-day pause on their tariffs, as well as a drop of reciprocal tariffs to just 10%. That will also be effective immediately.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke outside the White House just after Trump made the announcement. He said, "China has escalated, and President Trump has responded very courageously to that, and we are going to work on a solution with our trading partners."
He went on to praise those trading partners, saying, "We have just been overwhelmed by the response from mostly our allies, who want to come and negotiate in good faith."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took some time in that same press briefing to scold the mainstream media, who have been fearmongering about the tariffs since they were announced. She said, "Many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal. You clearly failed to see what President Trump was doing here."
She pointed out that members of the mainstream media have been claiming that Trump’s tariffs would push the global economy closer to China and said, "In fact, we’ve seen the opposite effect."