Tariffs latest: Trump pauses reciprocal tariffs but hikes duties on China to 125%

Mike Johnson backed down on Wednesday and canceled plans to vote on a Republican budget resolution acting as the vessel for major parts of Donald Trump’s agenda.

The Republican speaker of the House set up votes Wednesday on a budget resolution authored by his peers in the Senate as the GOP moves on to the next step of the reconciliation process. But Johnson, who can suffer just three defections among his caucus for the vote to succeed, is still facing (according to various reports) more than a dozen likely or potential “no” votes from Republicans if the vote goes ahead.

John Bowden has the latest from Washington, D.C.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was “surprised” by the decision to bring her into the Oval Office today.

The presence of the Democratic governor and possible future presidential candidate confused many observers.

A Whitmer spokesperson said she was “surprised” that she was brought into the Oval Office during President Donald Trump’s news conference on Wednesday “without any notice of the subject matter.”

“Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Trump praised Whitmer during the encounter before signing orders directing the Justice Department to investigate two of his critics and targeting a law firm whose work he opposes.

The president said the move would revive an industry “that was abandoned despite the fact that it was the best, certainly the best in terms of power, real power.”

“I call it beautiful, clean coal,” he said. “We’re ending Joe Biden’s war on beautiful, clean coal, once and for all.”

But, environmentalists say increased coal-fired plants would harm Americans — and that the president’s terminology is egregiously inaccurate.

Billionaire Trump backer Bill Ackman was relentlessly mocked on X after suggesting that President Donald Trump’s trade policy reversal was “brilliantly executed.”

Gustaf Kilander has the story.

Here’s a couple of examples:

Then, minutes after the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange, Trump announced: “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!”

Four hours later, the president reversed course. He paused and lowered tariffs on goods from most nations for 90 days while raising tariffs on imports from China to 125 percent. Markets soared. White House officials — who just one day earlier said Trump would never back off — said “this was his strategy all along” and “the art of the deal” at work.

Social media erupted with accusations that the president played a reverse “pump and dump” scheme with the American economy: driving stock prices down only to buy them up before prices rose again. Democratic Senator Adam Schiff is calling for an investigation into insider trading.

The Trump administration plans to remove all members of a presidential advisory council on HIV/AIDS and has provided no timeline for replacing them as the government overhauls its prevention and treatment efforts for the disease, Reuters reports.

The 30-year-old Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) had more than 30 members before President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, as noted in an archived version of its web page.

Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed that the agency is ending the volunteer service of the council’s members, stating that this is common practice for a new administration. He did not specify a timeline.

Two sources familiar with the matter informed Reuters that all council members were to be removed. Since PACHA’s existence is required by statute, Nixon said it will “continue to provide advice, information, and recommendations” to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He did not indicate who would perform those tasks or when new members may be appointed.

A tattoo equipment supplier in Pennsylvania is worried they won’t make it to summer. A three-person team making optical scanners in San Diego saw their bills double overnight. A coffee shop in New Orleans may be forced to raise its prices.