The Trump administration will give countries a proposed tariff rate based on their own rates, non-tariff trade barriers and other factors while also providing an opportunity to negotiate around the “tariff wall,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday.
“On April 2, each country will receive a number that we believe represents their tariffs,” Bessent told Fox Business Network. “For some countries, it could be quite low. For some countries, it could be quite high.”
President Donald Trump has said the “reciprocal tariffs” taking effect April 2 will offset trade practices his administration deems unfair. Bessent said the tariffs are designed to protect the U.S. economy, its workers and industries.
“We are going to go to them and say, ‘Look, here’s where we think the tariff levels are, non-tariff barriers, currency manipulation, unfair funding, labor suppression, and if you will stop this, we will not put up the tariff wall,'” Bessent said of trading partners.
Developments:
∎ In an extremely rare public rebuke, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement “impeachment is not an appropriate response” after Trump called for such an action against a federal judge who ruled against the administration’s efforts to immediately deport alleged Venezuelan gang members.
∎ In another court setback for the Trump administration, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily prevented enforcement of the president’s executive order barring transgender people from the military while the measure is challenged by 20 current and prospective service members.
∎ Trump fired the two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission, Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, another move that tests the independence of regulatory agencies and may be challenged in court much like similar recent executive actions. Bedoya and Slaughter said the firings are illegal.
∎ Trump signed a memorandum Tuesday to prevent any government hiring for foreign policy positions based on diversity, equity and inclusion, according to the White House.
∎ The reduction in funding for global health projects from countries like the U.S., which has paused foreign aid under Trump, may jeopardize vaccination programs against deadly diseases such as measles and AIDS, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the WHO on his first day back in office.
A federal judge in Maryland said Tuesday that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency likely acted unconstitutionally “in multiple ways” when it abruptly shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, and he barred the cost-cutters from firing any more USAID employees or terminating USAID contracts.
Judge Theodore D. Chuang wrote that the accelerated layoffs and contract terminations “deprived the public’s elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down an agency created by Congress.”
More than two dozen former employees or contractors of USAID filed a civil lawsuit against Musk and DOGE challenging their terminations. Chuang ordered Musk and DOGE to reinstate access to email and payment systems for all current USAID employees as he continues to consider the case before issuing a final ruling.
− Aysha Bagchi
An independent nonprofit that’s funded by Congress to promote conflict prevention and resolution internationally is now in the middle of a struggle with Trump and Musk’s DOGE.
DOGE staffers with support from the Washington Metropolitan Police Department made their way into the U.S. Institute of Peace building Monday in a dramatic confrontation after being denied entry Friday and told the agency is not part of the executive branch.
Trump has sought to dismantle the institute, which was founded by Congress in 1984 with the purpose of “protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad,” its website says.
When the DOGE personnel returned Monday with law enforcement agents and evicted USIP officials, its employees called police and reported a break-in. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said USIP had not complied with Trump’s reduction order from February.
Most of the USIP board and CEO George Moose were fired by the Trump administration, a termination Moose is contesting. He told reporters his organization has been speaking with administration officials for weeks and making clear the agency is not under their jurisdiction.
“We are a private, nonprofit corporation in the District of Columbia and therefore not a federal agency, and therefore the federal government has no entitlement to come in and take over our building,” Moose said.
Trump administration officials recently considered but rejected a plan to simplify the protocols for setting new tariff rates for hundreds of nations by sorting them into three tariff tiers, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Journal, citing people close to policy discussions, said duty levels with low, medium and high rates were discussed Thursday at a meeting that included Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
However, the protocols remain fluid as Trump’s team tries to sort how to individualize a rate for each nation, the Journal reported, adding that developing reciprocal tariffs unique to each country could take six months or more.
The federal government has begun the process of reinstating more than 24,000 probationary employees who were fired before a federal judge ruled the sweeping effort to shrink the government was illegal.
District Judge James K. Bredar granted a temporary restraining order last week demanding the Trump administration reinstate federal probationary employees terminated on or after Jan. 20. Bredar said officials failed to follow proper rules for the layoffs and weren’t truthful in claiming workers were fired for “performance” reasons. The case was filed by attorneys general in 19 states and the District of Columbia, all Democrats.
A filing late Monday in a federal court in Maryland said the reinstatement process was underway for the workers despite the “substantial burdens” the process creates for the agencies and employees. The filing said all the employees brought back would be required to go through the lengthy onboarding process. Many of the reinstated workers have been placed on paid administrative leave.
The Treasury Department leads all departments with 7,613 probationary workers being brought back; the Internal Revenue Service accounts for 7,315 of them. It is followed by the Department of Agriculture, which is reinstating 5,714 previously fired workers, and the Department of Health and Human Services, which is bringing back 3,248 employees
Despite the setback, Trump and the Musk-led DOGE are continuing their efforts to trim the federal payroll − which now numbers more than 2 million employees − by eliminating the Education Department and gutting many federal agencies.
Trump pledged to encourage production of electricity at U.S. coal plants as he continued his push for cheap energy to combat inflation while dismissing environmental concerns.
“After years of being held captive by Environmental Extremists, Lunatics, Radicals, and Thugs, allowing other Countries, in particular China, to gain tremendous Economic advantage over us by opening up hundreds of all Coal Fire Power Plants, I am authorizing my Administration to immediately begin producing Energy with BEAUTIFUL, CLEAN COAL,” Trump said in a social media post late Monday.
Trump said during a recent speech he would consider a plan to pay out $5,000 stimulus checks to taxpayers in the form of a “DOGE dividend, which would come from 20% of the savings identified by DOGE. The idea was floated by Azoria investment firm CEO James Fishback on Musk’s social media platform X, to which Musk replied, “Will check with the President.“
In a recent interview with NewsNation, Fishback said it was not enough to identify waste and fraud, saying the government should “refund the taxpayer their hard-earned money when their money was wasted and misused.” He wants checks sent only to households that are net-income taxpayers − people who pay more in taxes than they get back. Read more here.
− Maria Francis
Trump also said this week that the U.S. isn’t anticipating any exemptions on major tariffs set to go into effect next month despite fears the tariffs could drive up prices, fuel a recession and push stock prices lower. Trump said recently that 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported into the U.S. that went into effect last week are here to stay, adding that additional tariffs will kick in on April 2.
While stocks have been volatile in the last few weeks, they rallied for a second straight session Monday, shrugging off concerns of a recession even though Bessent wouldn’t rule one out. Bessent’s comments came after Trump himself declined to weigh in on the possibility of a recession this year, telling Fox’s Maria Bartiromo earlier this month: “I hate to predict things like that.”
A tariff is a form of tax imposed on imports from another country. Economists generally agree that trade barriers raise consumer prices and negatively impact economic output and income, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax policy nonprofit.
Tariffs create more demand for domestic manufacturers, but those companies are also part of the global supply chain and therefore also are affected by tariffs.
Trump has said his motivation for implementing tariffs is to get help from China, Canada and Mexico to curb the flow of migrants and illegal drugs into the U.S. The president has insisted the countries have not done enough to help address what he sees as core issues for his administration.
– Kinsey Crowley and Jonathan Limehouse
Trump won’t say whether he thinks his sweeping tariff plan could help push the country into a recession. But the threat of tariffs and the already-increasing costs of everyday items are raising concerns about where the economy is headed.
A recession could happen if more people are out of work, large companies see lower profits, the stock market slips and home prices tumble, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Generally, a recession is marked by an extended period of many months or more of economic downturn. And even when a recession is acknowledged by experts and officials, not everyone agrees on when it started or when it ends.
− Damon C. Williams and Zachary Schermele
Contributing: Medora Lee; Reuters
