President Trump said he had a call with Vietnam leader To Lam, and said that the latter wants to cut Vietnam’s tariffs down “to zero if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S.,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Nearly $10 Trillion Evaporated Since Trump Took Office
MarketWatch: “Since Jan. 17, the Friday before Inauguration Day, the U.S. stock market has seen $9.6 trillion in value erased… Of those losses, $5 trillion has been erased just over the past two days — the largest two-day loss on record.”
Gavin Newsom Negotiating His Own Trade Agreements
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday he is pursuing agreements with other countries to ensure California is exempted from retaliatory tariffs aimed at the U.S.,” Axios reports.
White House Cancels Garden Tours Ahead of Protests
“White House spring garden tours scheduled Saturday were postponed in anticipation of large-scale anti-President Trump protests,” Axios reports.
“The mass movement is catching the eye of the Trump administration before demonstrators even take to the streets.”
The World Threatens Trump’s Agenda
Punchbowl News: “The climate in Washington and across the country — both politically and economically — is making it much more difficult for Republicans to pass a massive tax-and-cut plan. Equity markets are getting rocked. Economists are already saying that a recession is possible. It will be difficult for Republicans to make the case that they should cut government spending. One almost wonders if the president should’ve waited on his tariff regime until after the reconciliation bill was passed.”
“The last two weeks especially – with Trump’s tariff frenzy and the Signal scandal dominating – have left Senate Republicans exhausted and more grumpy than usual during their closed-door meetings, per our conversations with GOP senators this week.”
“And for the budget reconciliation package, the costs of failure could not be higher. A vast majority of Americans would see a tax increase. Remember, too, that Republicans are trying to use the legislation to raise the debt limit, which likely needs to be done by late spring or early summer.”
Trump’s Tariff Math
Matt Levine: “I have a patriotic appreciation for the U.S.’s export industry of finance, and two of that industry’s most popular products are: (1) Sprinkling some Greek letters on your work to add visual interest, and (2) Making up parameters to solve for the result you want. Even in this tariff announcement, you see the U.S. leaning into its comparative advantage.”
Laura Loomer Takes Credit for NSA Firings Too
Far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer appeared to take credit for the abrupt firings of the National Security Agency director and his deputy by President Trump yesterday.
America’s Astonishing Act of Self-Harm
From the Financial Times editorial board:
“If it endures, Donald Trump’s decision on April 2, 2025 to enact sweeping ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on U.S. trade partners will go down as one of the greatest acts of self-harm in American economic history.”
“They will wreak untold damage on households, businesses and financial markets across the world, upending a global economic order that America benefited from and helped to create.”
Trump Tries to Calm Investors
Donald Trump, on Truth Social, just before the stock market opened:
“To the many investors coming into the United States and investing massive amounts of money, my policies will never change. This is a great time to get rich—richer than ever before!”
Spoiler alert: It’s not working.
The Dollar Is Plunging
Financial Times: “Why is this happening? The orthodox view was that tariffs were positive for the dollar because they are inflationary — and therefore keep rates high — and make the US currency scarcer.”
“However, the dollar’s recent weakness could be indicative that these factors are getting swamped by broad and growing international misgivings over the US. The madness behind the methodology of the recent tariffs certainly doesn’t encourage faith in the coherence of US policymaking. Many analysts are alarmed, but probably none more than Deutsche Bank.”
Said George Saravelos, head of FX strategy at Deutsche Bank: “We are becoming increasingly concerned that the dollar is at risk of a broader confidence crisis.”
Trump’s Zero-Sum Worldview
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More Job Cuts Coming to Social Security Administration
“The Social Security Administration — already reeling from plunging customer service following a rapid downsizing under the Trump administration — is drafting plans to begin layoffs of potentially thousands more employees as soon as next week,” the Washington Post reports.
Where We’re At
Derek Thompson: “If there’s anything worse than an economic plan that attempts to revive the 19th-century protectionist U.S. economy, it’s the fact that the people responsible for explaining and implementing it don’t seem to have any idea what they’re doing, or why.”
Canada’s Liberals on Track to Victory
The Economist finds that Canada’s Liberal Party has an 83% chance to retain power after the upcoming elections — entirely thanks to Donald Trump’s belligerence towards the country, which has unleashed a wave of patriotism.
Ocasio-Cortez Would Crush Schumer in a Primary
A new Data for Progress poll finds Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) leading Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in a 2028 Democratic Senate primary, 55% to 36%, with 9% undecided.
Trump’s Ego Melts the Global Economy
Susan Glasser: “Amid the chaos of eviscerated retirement savings, blown-up supply chains, and pissed-off allies, perhaps it’s a mistake to linger on just how wrong America’s business establishment continues to be about Trump. But, wow, has this been a case of near-catastrophic wishful thinking. And I think it speaks to much of what we are still not understanding about the ways in which Trump’s second term is off to a darker, more dangerous start than his first…”
“But, of course, the real mistake has little to do with global trade policy, and much to do with a failed theory of the case about Trump. There is no rational analysis that would lead one to the conclusion that a President would single-handedly decide to blow up a century’s worth of globalization on a chilly Wednesday afternoon in April.”
Jeff Stein: “What’s striking to me is not just that Wall Street so badly underestimated downside risk—it’s that they piled all-in on post-election euphoria that assumed, contrary to all reporting, the tariffs wouldn’t happen.”
‘The Biggest Policy Mistake in 95 Years’
Jeremy Siegel, professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, told CNBC that President Trump’s sweeping tariffs could be worse for the U.S. than the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.
Said Siegel: “I think this is the biggest policy mistake in 95 years. I don’t know why Trump didn’t learn the lesson of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, because I know the Fed learned the lesson of its mistakes in 1930, ’31 and ’32. That’s one reason why the great financial crisis did not turn into a Great Depression. We flooded the banks with liquidity, which we did not do 95 years ago.”
He added: “This is a self-inflicted wound. It’s an unforced error – did not have to happen.”
House GOP Bashes Senate’s Trump Agenda Blueprint
“The Senate GOP budget plan designed to usher President Trump’s sweeping domestic priorities into law is getting an ice-cold reception from Republicans in the House, where conservatives are balking at the low levels of mandated spending cuts and the heightened deficits that could result,” The Hill reports.
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