Trump triples down on tariffs as historic market massacre fuels MAGA civil struggle: Live updates

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

The White House on Monday morning denied that a 90-day tariff pause was on the table.

The White House’s @RapidResponse47 X account responded: ‘Wrong. Fake News,’ to a headline that said President Donald Trump would announce a three-month reprieve.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung also chimed in.

‘Not true. Nobody can point to a transcript… because it was never said,’ Cheung posted to X.

He was correcting a post from conservative TV network Newsmax that said White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett had said in TV interview that a 90-day tariff pause on all countries except China was being considered.

Hassett had been asked about a 90-day pause on Fox News Monday morning but didn’t indicate it was a reality.

‘I think the president is gonna decide what the president is gonna decide,’ Hassett said.

The misunderstanding likely stemmed from Hassett saying ‘yes’ before noting that Trump will decide what he will decide.

Global financial markets continued to take a nosedive Monday, though briefly ticked back up, potentially due to the 90-day pause rumor.

Trump has been insistent that his tariff plan will work.

Jon Michael Raasch, Political Reporter for DailyMail.com

President Donald Trump will veto a bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill meant to curb his tariffing authority should the measure pass both chambers, according to a statement prepared by his administration.

Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced a measure that would require the president to inform Congress of coming tariffs within 48 hours of them being implemented.

It would also mandate that the tariffs need approval from Congress within 60 days of them being imposed and that Congress could end any tariff at any time.

‘If passed, this bill would dangerously hamper the President’s authority and duty to determine our foreign policy and protect our national security,’ a statement sent from the administration to congressional offices on Monday read, Axios reported.

‘If S. 1272 were presented to the President, he would veto the bill,’ the statement continued.

President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico on Monday did ‘not rule out’ imposing reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods.

Mexico is the top U.S. trading partner and has been hit by tariffs on its automobiles, steel and aluminum.

About 80 percent of Mexican exports flow over the border to the United States.

We want to avoid imposing reciprocal tariffs in so far as possible. We do not rule it out, but we prefer to continue dialogue before taking any other measures.

President Donald Trump continues to plow forward with his aggressive effort to break China, demanding they remove retaliatory tariffs or face an additional tariff by Tuesday.

Wall Street was a sea of red when stock markets opened on Monday morning.

The S&P 500 sank 4 percent Monday, capping a brutal three-day slide of 13 percent — its worst stretch since the 2008 financial crisis. If it closes at this level, it will officially enter bear market territory, down 20% from its February peak.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,363 points, or 3.5 percent, following its first-ever back-to-back 1,500-point drops on Thursday and Friday.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq dropped another 4%, deepening its plunge into bear territory. It’s now down 26 percent from its recent high, as investors continue dumping tech stocks to raise cash.

Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee shared support for a tariff deal with the European Union.

Lee, a conservative Trump ally, reposted a clip of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying she wants to make a ‘good deal.’

‘We have offered zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods,’ she said.

Lee reposted the comments writing: ‘Let’s take that deal! Much to gain!’

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

Workers on Monday cut down a White House magnolia tree that was rumored to be planted by President Andrew Jackson.

President Donald Trump had posted to Truth Social in late March that ‘everything must come to an end,’ sharing plans for the magnolia tree to be removed.

The tree stood near the doorways leading into the White House from the South Lawn.

The tree was supposedly planted using seeds from Jackson’s home Hermitage to honor the president’s late wife Rachel.

Historical photographs, however, only show the trees dating back to the 1860s.

Jackson was president from 1829 to 1837.

Trump plans to plant a new tree in the magnolia’s place.

That tree was already on the South Lawn on Monday.

It came from seeds from the magnolia being chopped down.

President Donald Trump is showing little tolerance for reporters questioning his new tariff policy even as markets tank, admonishing one questioner aboard Air Force One and blasting ‘weak and stupid’ skeptics.

Trump snapped while engaging with reporters aboard Air Force One after a weekend golfing in Florida.

It happened when a reporter asked about ‘pain in the market at some point you’re unwilling to tolerate.’ It was essentially a way to ascertain whether Trump might buckle in the face of a market meltdown amid a growing trade war or even a recession.

‘This idea of a Trump put – is there a threshold?’ she asked – trying to assess a sentiment that the administration might adjust policies to address a sinking market. ‘I think your question is so stupid,’ Trump snapped back

Even on the right, pundits and news anchors are reacting to the losses in their 401(k) and the stock market hits with shock.

By Nikki Schwab, Chief Campaign Correspondent

President Donald Trump tried to hold his MAGA coalition together Monday morning, urging supporters to not ‘be a PANICAN.’

Trump rolled out the new term and described it as a ‘new party based on Weak and Stupid people!’

He then, again, doubled down on his tariff policy.

‘The United States has a chance to do someting that should have been done DECADES AGO,’ the president posted to Truth Social. ‘Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN … Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be a result!’

The demand came as a new MAGA civil war appeared to be breaking out.

Over the weekend, DOGE leader Elon Musk was publicly critical of Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro and pushed that the U.S. and Europe needed to move toward a ‘zero-tariff situation.’

In turn, Navarro described Musk as a ‘car salesman’ during an interview on Fox News on Sunday and said Musk was being critical of the Trump tariffs due to his own business interests.

More than 50 countries have reached out to the Trump administration to negotiate tariff deals, according to a White House advisor.

‘They’re doing that because they understand that they bear a lot of the tariff,’ National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on Sunday.

Last week, the commander-in-chief implemented a 10 percent ‘baseline’ tariff on all US trading partners.

President Donald Trump revealed that his adminstration is in talks with global leaders to negotiate on trade.

He wrote the following on Truth Social:

Countries from all over the World are talking to us. Tough but fair parameters are being set. Spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister this morning. He is sending a top team to negotiate! They have treated the U.S. very poorly on Trade. They don’t take our cars, but we take MILLIONS of theirs. Likewise Agriculture, and many other “things.” It all has to change, but especially with CHINA!!!

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

With overseas markets tanking overnight, President Trump told people not to be ‘weak and stupid.’

Trump once again stood firm on his tariffs, which wiped away $5 trillion from Wall Street market value after he imposed them last week.

‘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!),’ Trump posted on Truth Social, putting the word in all-caps.

‘Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and greatness will be the result!’ Trump urged minutes before markets were set to reopen with Dow futures down sharply.

It came hours after Trump snapped at a reporter who questioned him aboard Air Force One about market pain. ‘I think your question is so stupid,’ Trump said in response.

Online dictionaries did not show a definition for Panican, so Trump may have created the word. There is a Bulgarian rock band called Panican Whyasker.

JPMorgan Chase has warned that the United States is now barreling toward a recession, and that even an immediate rollback of President Trump’s sweeping new tariffs may not be enough to prevent it.

JPMorgan’s chief economist, Bruce Kasman, issued the grave assessment on Thursday, raising the firm’s recession forecast to 60%, up from 40% just days earlier.

The revised figure came following the White House‘s announcement of a 10% across-the-board tariff on all imported goods, along with even steeper penalties for nations with sizable trade surpluses.

Trump ally Bill Ackman has warned that the world is on the brink of an ‘economic nuclear winter’ as he begged the president to hit pause on his reciprocal tariffs.

The president’s 10 percent ‘baseline’ tariff began Saturday, hitting all US imports except goods from Mexico and Canada. Further tariffs on goods from 57 trading partners, including European Union, come into effect April 9.

Asian and European markets plunged on opening Monday, with Germany‘s Dax down a staggering 10 per cent and the STOXX 600 slumping 5.8 percent. The UK’s FTSE 100 tanked to its lowest level in a year.

A painter who caught headlines for ‘purposely distorting’ an image of President Donald Trump says her business may never recover.

Sarah Boardman, the British painter who made a portrait of Trump to be hung in the Colorado Capitol, has lifted the lid on how her business has been pummeled after the Republican posted a furious response to her work.

‘Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado, in the State Capitol, put up by the Governor, along with all other Presidents, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I, perhaps, have never seen before,’ Trump said of Boardman’s work last month.

Oil prices are down, interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!), food prices are down, there is NO INFLATION, and the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries on Tariffs that are already in place. This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its Tariffs by 34%, on top of its long term ridiculously high Tariffs (Plus!), not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate. They’ve made enough, for decades, taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA! Our past “leaders” are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

The president, 78, told reporters onboard Air Force One that he has spoken to European and Asian leaders since his worldwide tariffs went into effect – devastating the world’s stock markets.

An exclusive DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners survey of over 1,000 registered voters conducted from March 31 to April 3 found that the Republican remains largely popular in the U.S.

The poll found that Trump’s approval rating rose to 53 percent, a 4-point increase over last week when it was 49 percent.

Trump’s rising approval rating is surprising given the flak the White House has received over the tariff order signed Wednesday.

It is up by 13 points since March 7 among those aged 18 to 29.