Trump live: Apple stocks plummet in ‘Liberation Day’ aftershock as Republican senators defy president over tariffs – UK Times

“China urges the U.S. to immediately cancel unilateral tariff measures and properly resolve differences with trade partners through equal dialogue,” China’s commerce ministry in a statement to Agence France-Presse.

“For Australia, these tariffs are not unexpected but let me be clear — they are totally unwarranted. Trump referred to reciprocal tariffs. A reciprocal tariff would be zero not 10 percent. The admin’s tariffs have no basis in logic and they go against the basis of our two nations’ partnership,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said during a news.

“Free enterprise and competition have laid the foundations of the West’s success. That’s why Americans can listen to music on Swedish Spotify and we Swedes can listen to the same music on our American iPhones. This is why I deeply regret the path the US has embarked upon, seeking to limit trade with higher tariffs,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said.

“As a small country, we just want to survive. If he valued human rights and democratic principles, he would never mistreat small countries,” Cambodian People’s Party spokesperson Sok Eysan told the New York Times.

“My priority, and that of the government, is to protect Irish jobs and the Irish economy. And we will work with our companies, multinational companies and Irish companies, to navigate the period ahead,” Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin wrote on X.

President Donald Trump has privately told Cabinet members that Elon Musk will step back from his role in the administration soon, according to several reports.

Musk, who has been leading the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce and budget drastically, will soon step into a supporting role, anonymous Trump insiders told Politico and ABC News. Trump discussed this with Cabinet members at a March 24 meeting, Politico reports.

The tech mogul is officially designated as a “special government employee,” which means his role expires after 130 days. That would mean the role ends in late May or early June, but many expected the White House to extend the role or find another way to keep him in a front-line position, ABC News reports.

Katie Hawkinson reports from Washington D.C.

Donald Trump’s latest batch of global tariffs sent shockwaves through markets, seeing Apple stock slide more than six percent in late-night trading Wednesday.

The president announced that blanket 10 percent tariffs on all countries and much higher levies on “worst offenders” such as China and Taiwan.

The majority of Apple’s devices are manufactured in China and other Asian countries.

Stocks broadly got hit by Trump’s announcement with the S&P 500 plunging 2.8 percent, while the Nasdaq 100 lost more than 3 percent, according to exchange-traded funds tracking the markets.

Nevertheless, Trump praised Apple – along with other tech goliaths including Meta and Nvidia – for investing in the U.S.

“Apple is going to spend $500 billion, they never spent money like that here,” Trump said. “They’re going to build their plants here.”

Four Republicans joined every Democratic senator in a resolution Wednesday to oppose President Donald Trump’s tariffs against Canada, Washington Bureau Chief Eric Garcia writes.

Senators voted 51-48 to reject the national emergency Trump declared earlier this year to justify slapping 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports.

The vote followed Trump’s announcement of his “Liberation Day” tariffs, a series of across-the-board levies of at least 10 percent on all nations.

Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine joined Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who crafted a resolution to oppose Trump’s tariffs with Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia.

Donald Trump imposed tariffs on uninhabited islands home to penguins and seals and a U.S. military base on Wednesday.

The president imposed tariffs on the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean.

The mostly barren UNESCO World Heritage site was featured on Trump’s list of areas that now face a minimum of 10 percent tariffs on U.S. imports, along with mainland Australia.

Gustaf Kilander has the story.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick took a swipe at the European Union for not taking U.S. farm goods just hours after President Donald Trump imposed a new 20 percent tariff on the trade bloc.

“European Union won’t take chicken from America. They will take lobsters from America,” Lutnick told Fox News. “They hate our beef because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak.”

Watch his comments below:

But Tuesday’s elections took on an even greater significance. The races in Wisconsin and Florida were the first to go to voters since Kamala Harris’s devastating defeat in November, a swing-state sweep that saw the Democrats lose ground in every battleground state and even reliable blue strongholds.

Despite being an “off year,” many voters (especially on the left) have remained active and engaged over the first three months of Donald Trump’s presidency.