STOCKS FELL FOR A THIRD CONSECUTIVE DAY Monday as markets reel from ongoing uncertainty over President Trump's sweeping new tariffs and business leaders' warnings of potentially dire consequences. Monday's closing was more of a mixed bag for investors compared to steep drops late last week. The Dow fell 349 points, or 0.91 percent, and the S&P 500 fell 0.23 percent. The Nasdaq Composite ended relatively flat. Trump, pressed during an Oval Office appearance alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on whether his tariffs on many countries will be permanent or are meant as a negotiating tactic, insisted: "They can both be true." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a press conference Monday that the European Union is "ready to negotiate" with the United States to resolve the tariff dispute.
"This is a major turning point for the United States," she said. "Nonetheless, we stand ready to negotiate with the United States." And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the U.S. is opening trade negotiations with Japan over the steep tariff hike.
But ... Trump said the trade deficit between the U.S. and China must be resolved before he is willing to negotiate a deal on tariffs he placed on Beijing, which has responded to his initial push by hiking tariffs on U.S. imports. Bessent said Sunday that dozens of countries have come to the administration to discuss ways to remove "non-tariff trade barriers," reduce tariffs and halt "currency manipulation" on their side.
"They’ve been bad actors for a long time. And it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away, be it in days or weeks," Bessent said on NBC’s "Meet the Press." |
BUSINESS COMMUNITY CHIMES IN |
Business leaders continued to speak out Monday about the Trump administration's impact on the economy. • BlackRock CEO Larry Fink: "The economy is weakening as we speak."
• Billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman: "The consequences for our country and the millions of our citizens who have supported the president — in particular low-income consumers who are already under a huge amount of economic stress — are going to be severely negative."
• JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon: "Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth." • Former Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard: "The main thing is that this has dramatically raised the risk of a Smoot-Hawley type outcome." Goldman Sachs also hiked the probability of a recession to 45 percent. |
The market surged — albeit briefly — Monday as news spread that Trump may pause his tariff order as countries try to negotiate a more favorable position. But the White House quickly dismissed the tariff delay chatter as "Fake News."
The Hill's Alex Gangitano has the details on how the short market shift was fueled by a post by a verified social media account: "The post caused major moves on the stock market, with a surge followed by a plunge within seconds."
All three major stock indexes jumped with the potential pause news, but they quickly fell back into negative territory after the report was debunked.
A CNBC spokesperson also confirmed to The Hill that the network aired a banner containing unconfirmed information about a possible pause before reporters corrected the erroneous report live on air. |
TRUMP: THERE'S A WORD FOR THAT |
Amid global market unease and dire warnings from economists and business leaders, Trump debuted a new vocabulary word Monday to take aim at critics of his tariff rollout: "Panican."
"The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!" he wrote in a Truth Social post, bestowing the new nickname to people concerned by the immediate impact of his policies.
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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is launching a new virtual "war room" to push back on the White House and streamline party messaging.
The effort will focus heavily on beefing up the party’s rapid response and mobilization, with four primary goals: expanding Democratic reach into “new information spaces,” engaging in “aggressive daily messaging to counter the Trump administration,” using “creative opposition tactics” to counter GOP efforts and utilizing online tools “to combat the lies from the right.” DNC Chair Ken Martin said of the party’s new “around the clock” endeavor:
"While Donald Trump continues to push an agenda that raises costs, destroys jobs, and ruins lives, he also continues to lie, spin, and cheat his way out of accountability. And the DNC is doubling down on its efforts to provide the American people with real facts and accurate information about the impact of his policies." |
DEMOCRATS WANT MORE DETAILS |
Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee are calling on committee chair and key Trump ally Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) to hold a hearing on Trump's tariffs.
"Tariffs can be critical to grow American industry and promote good manufacturing jobs. But many of the president’s tariffs lack a coherent strategy, generating economic chaos and giving giant corporations an excuse to raise prices on Americans," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other Democratic senators wrote in a letter to Scott on Sunday.
• Of note: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is scheduled to be on Capitol Hill this week for hearings with Senate Finance on Tuesday and House Ways & Means on Wednesday.
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💡Perspectives:
• New York Times: Everything Is Going According to Plan.
• The Hill: Trump is breaking China’s foothold in the Americas.
• The Wall Street Journal: Is Anyone a Patriot Anymore?
• MSNBC: Trump is pressuring the Federal Reserve to save his tariffs. It should |
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Israel's Netanyahu visits White House
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Trump at the White House on Monday, with the two reaffirming their commitment to Israel's fight against Hamas, as well as other bilateral partnerships.
Trump and Netanyahu entered the West Wing just before 1:30 p.m. EDT for the president's first formal bilateral meeting since ordering sweeping tariffs on global imports. Trump's plan includes a 17 percent hike on goods from Israel. Netanyahu, sitting next to Trump in the Oval Office, told reporters he's negotiating with Trump to "rapidly" rectify the White House's trade concerns. "We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States," he said. "We are also going to eliminate trade barriers."
Netanyahu called Trump a "remarkable friend" of Israel and complimented "you actually do the things you say you'll do."
The White House abruptly called off a formal press conference that would have given a wide swath of reporters an opportunity to question Trump and Netanyahu, opting instead for the two leaders to face a limited reporter pool in the Oval Office and streamed online. |
💡Perspectives:
• The Jerusalem Post: Tariff-ic timing: Trump imposing tariffs on Israeli goods is shameful betrayal.
• New York Times: As Netanyahu Heads to Washington, He Finds an Ally in Trump. • Los Angeles Times: Making America a colonizer again. |
President Trump also hosted the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at the White House on Monday (and took a swing at some Democratic lawmakers from the Golden State). |
SCOTUS showdown likely over Trump agency firings
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A federal appeals court has temporarily reinstated two independent agency leaders who the Trump administration removed in its massive government overhaul, and the Supreme Court will likely have the final say in the dispute.
Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) member Cathy Harris and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox each sued the Trump administration after they were removed from their posts shortly after Trump's inauguration. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 7-4 on Monday that they could return to work.
But the dispute likely tees up a test of Supreme Court precedent that has protected members of multimember independent agencies from unjustified removal by the president. The Hill's Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee report: "The D.C. Circuit majority emphasized it is for the Supreme Court to decide whether to overrule its own decision, but the lower courts must follow it until then."
The appeals court's unsigned ruling acknowledges as much, with the panel writing: "The Supreme Court has repeatedly told the courts of appeals to follow extant Supreme Court precedent unless and until that Court itself changes it or overturns it." |
💡Perspectives:
• New York Magazine: There’s Nothing Conservative About Trump 2.0.
• Fox News: DOGE exposed our immigration asylum disaster. That was the tip of the iceberg. • The Hill: Cutting aid overseas will have devastating consequences here at home. • Washington Post: The historically bad timing of Trump’s war on immigrants. |
Read more:
• DOJ suspends lawyer for failing to ‘vigorously’ argue case of mistakenly deported man.
• Appeals panel clears way for DOGE access to sensitive personal data at OPM, Education Dept.
• Trump orders new review of proposed US Steel acquisition.
• Bessent: Federal layoffs will help fill factory jobs created by Trump tariffs.
• Former top vaccine regulator says he blocked RFK Jr. team from database. |
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