U.S. stocks tumble; House adopts Republican budget

Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., largely defended Elon Musk tonight while adding that he did not agree with all of the actions of the tech billionaire's Department of Government Efficiency.

Asked by an audience member at a CNN town hall what he is doing to control Musk, Mackenzie accused Democrats of trying to "demonize" Musk. He said Musk's detractors are "fighting against cutting waste, fraud and abuse in our government."

At the same time, Mackenzie said he does not agree with all the moves Musk and DOGE have made.

"There are things that have gone too fast, too quickly, and hopefully we can rein them in on certain things," Mackenzie said, pointing to changes at the Social Security Administration that limited people's access to certain services.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said he agrees with tonight's Supreme Court ruling that requires the Trump administration to "facilitate" the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to an El Salvador jail.

"Yes, and he should be returned, and obviously they should follow the law there," Lawler said at a CNN town hall.

A voter had asked Lawler whether he agreed with the ruling.

Vice President JD Vance and other Trump officials have repeatedly accused Garcia, a legal resident, of being a member of the gang MS-13. The Trump administration has said his deportation was an “administrative error.”

The people tasked with keeping the country safe from foreign government hackers and cybercriminal gangs say they feel like they’re under attack, not from their usual adversaries but from the administration they work under.

Trump’s order yesterday calling for a Justice Department investigation into Christopher Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has sent fresh shock waves through the agency’s hallways, according to five employees who spoke with NBC News. Each spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The White House is downsizing the agency for at least the third time in three months.

“It’s a really tough time for all of us right now,” an employee said. “Every day feels somehow more bizarre than the last. It is incredibly difficult to focus on our mission.”

Read the full story here.

When Trump withdrew Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, she was given private assurances that she would not only rejoin the House GOP leadership team, but also reclaim her coveted spot on the House Intelligence Committee, according to two Republican sources with knowledge of the deliberations. 

Two weeks later, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is still scrambling to figure out how to deliver on the promise to place her back on the committee, even after the move was announced publicly. 

The conundrum for Johnson is that he has to either remove a Republican who currently sits on the high-profile Intelligence Committee, which could cause strife among existing members, or be forced to change House rules to add a member. House rules dictate that the committee may be made up of no more than 25 members with a maximum of 14 from one party, which is how many Republicans are currently on the panel.

Read the full story here.

Trump announced a pair of nominations on social media tonight, that of an official focused on religious freedom and another tasked with monitoring antisemitism.

In a Truth Social post, Trump nominated former Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., who is also a former pastor, as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

"As Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Mark helped us secure many Victories," Trump wrote. "In his new role, Mark will work incredibly hard to expose Human Rights Violations, champion Faith, and help us secure Life Saving Results."

Walker was first elected to Congress in 2015 and served until 2021. Trump had endorsed his opponent, Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., in the GOP Senate primary in 2022. Trump’s campaign selected Walker last year as director of outreach for faith and minority communities.

In another Truth Social post, Trump said he would nominate Yehuda Kaploun to he U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, ambassador-at-large.

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to release former FBI confidential source Alexander Smirnov, court documents say. Smirnov was charged with and pleaded guilty to conduct related to false statements to his FBI handler and tax-related misconduct after he gave disinformation about the Biden family’s involvement in Ukraine and a Ukrainian business, according to court documents.

Smirnov is appealing the case, and prosecutors have asked that he be allowed out of custody pending his appeal. He was sentenced to six years in prison in January under his plea agreement.

Prosecutors, who took over the case publicly today, according to filings, wrote that “the United States intends to review the government’s theory of the case underlying Defendant’s criminal conviction.”

The case was brought by the office of special counsel David Weiss, who was looking into allegations of illegal conduct by Hunter Biden — the former president's son — and any other matters that came up as a result.

The Supreme Court said today that the Trump administration is required to “facilitate” the release of a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to an El Salvador prison.

The court partly granted and partly rejected an emergency request filed by the Justice Department contesting a judge’s order that Kilmar Abrego Garcia be retrieved from a prison in El Salvador where he was sent on March 15 along with men alleged to be Venezuelan gang members.

The decision means the administration does not immediately have to try to return Abrego Garcia to the United States because a judge-imposed deadline has already expired, but it “should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps,” the unsigned decision said.

Read the full story here.

Last month’s national NBC News poll found a near-majority of voters see CEOs of large corporations as being too supportive of Trump, while about the same share of voters also said they think the news media is too critical of him.

The poll, conducted March 7-11 (before the latest announcements and then partial pullback of global tariffs, which sparked alarm among business leaders), found 49% of registered voters saying CEOs of large corporations are too supportive of Trump, with another 29% saying the executives are dealing with him “in the right way.” A plurality of voters (46%) also say they think the media is too critical of him, while another 24% say the media is dealing with him in the right way and 25% say outlets are too supportive of him.

Trump has surrounded himself with billionaires and tech tycoons since the beginning of his second term, starting with lining the Capitol rotunda with some of the world’s wealthiest men during his inauguration ceremony. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos both got prominent seats at the event alongside Elon Musk, whom Trump has described as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency.

Meanwhile, Trump’s team has ramped up its trademark anti-media rhetoric compared to his first term — banning The Associated Press from the White House and Air Force One for refusing to adopt the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, accusing outlets of corruption and rolling out a series of lawsuits against news organizations.

Read the full story here.

Exporters at Yiwu International Trade Market were concerned about the effect of Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, and they also seemed doubtful the tactic could work for either country in the long term.

Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet is running for governor of Colorado next year, according to two sources familiar with his plans.

Bennet, who is expected to announce his campaign as soon as tomorrow, will look to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in a state that has trended toward his party in recent years. And he is the latest Senate Democrat looking to leave Washington, after three retirement announcements in recent weeks.

Kamala Harris won Colorado by 9 percentage points in November, and Polis won a second term in 2022 by 19 points. Bennet also won a third term that year by 15 points, meaning his term runs until 2028 — but he can run for governor and remain in the Senate.

Bennet will not be alone in the Democratic field, with state Attorney General Phil Weiser also in the race, creating a battle of two statewide officeholders for the post.

Read the full story here.

Congressional Democrats are questioning whether Trump and his allies may have improperly acted on his suggestion yesterday that it was a “great time to buy” stocks shortly before he announced he was cutting back on some of his new tariffs — a move that made the markets go up.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said today that Democrats “need to get to the bottom of the possible stock manipulation that is unfolding before the American people, including what, if any, advance knowledge did members of the House Republican Conference have of Trump’s decision to pause the reckless tariffs that he put into place?”

“There are several members of Congress who will be aggressively demanding answers and transparency, particularly as it relates to the stock purchase decisions that may have occurred over the last few days,” Jeffries told reporters when he was asked whether he believes lawmakers may have done something illegal or violated ethics laws.

Read the full story here.

Trump said he was not tracking a fall in the stock market today as he met with his Cabinet secretaries amid worsening trade tensions with China.

“I haven’t seen it because I’ve been here for 2½ hours,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about the market, punting to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was seated opposite him.

“Up 2, down 1 is not a bad ratio, or up 10, down 5,” Bessent then answered. “And I think, as we have talked about, as we go through the queue and settle with these countries who are going to bring us their best offers, we will end up in a place of great certainty over the next 90 days on tariffs.”

Bessent added, “I don’t see anything unusual today.”

Read the full story here.

Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, announced today that he won't seek another term in that role.

Wikler wrote on Substack: "Now is the right time for me to take a breath, and to find new ways to advance the fight for a country that works for working people, and one that honors every person’s fundamental freedom and dignity. When my third term as chair ends this June, I will be passing the torch."

"I’m going to take some time to figure out what’s next, and to spend time with a family that I fiercely love but haven’t seen enough of," he added.

Wikler is leaving after several years of key Democratic victories in Wisconsin, a swing state known for its thin margins in statewide elections.

Under Wikler's leadership, the state Democratic Party helped Joe Biden win the state in 2020, helped Gov. Tony Evers win re-election statewide in 2022 and helped Sen. Tammy Baldwin win re-election in 2024, even as Trump won the presidential race in the state last year.

This week’s launch of “The Andy Beshear Podcast” is part of a broader series of moves by the Kentucky governor — and by a number of other high-profile Democrats — to expand their regular modes of communication.

Though he is a potential 2028 presidential candidate and has been an elected politician in his state for a decade, Beshear said in an interview that he wants to create a space where people can take a break from the daily firehose of political news and instead listen to what he called “a conversation between friends.” 

Read the full story here.

The proportion of Britons who say their country no longer has a “special relationship” with the United States has doubled in the last year amid concern over Trump’s tariffs, a survey found.

Forty percent of respondents disagreed that there is a “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom, up from 20% a year ago, according to the online survey by Ipsos UK, which was conducted from April 4 to 7.

U.S. influence is also viewed more negatively, with 41% of Britons saying the United States mostly uses its influence for bad in the world, a 25-point increase from a year ago. 

“These findings underscore a growing unease among the British public regarding the global role and trade policies of the United States — traditionally one of our most steadfast allies,” said Gideon Skinner, senior director of U.K. politics at Ipsos, which is based in Paris. “The stark decline in the British public’s belief in the ‘special relationship’ and the increasingly negative perception of U.S. influence suggests a potential cooling of transatlantic ties.”

Trump said he was not tracking a fall in the stock market today as he met with his Cabinet secretaries, a plunge that came amid worsening trade tensions with China.

“I haven’t seen it because I’ve been here for 2 1/2 hours,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about the market, punting to his treasury secretary, who was seated opposite him. 

Read the full story.

A majority of Americans say tariffs on Chinese goods will be bad for the United States and for them personally, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

Just over half of survey respondents (52%) had negative views of the tariffs, while 24% said they would have a positive effect. There was a pronounced difference between Democrats and Republicans, with 80% of Democrats saying U.S. tariffs on China would be harmful, compared with 24% of Republicans.

The survey was conducted from March 24 to 30, after Trump imposed 20% tariffs on Chinese imports in February and March but before he announced additional tariffs of 34% last week and 50% on Monday.

Trump said yesterday he was raising the overall U.S. tariff to 125% after China refused to withdraw its own 34% and 50% tariffs, and today the White House clarified that the total U.S. tariff on Chinese goods is now 145%.

Trump acknowledged at a Cabinet meeting that his tariffs will pose "transition problems" but maintained that he thinks his policies will ultimately help the country.

"There'll be a transition cost and transition problems, but in the end, it's going to be a beautiful thing," Trump said. "We're doing again what we should have done many years ago."

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg this morning ordered the departments and agencies involved in the infamous Signal group chat case to provide more detail about their efforts to preserve content from the discussion about the attack on Yemen.

Boasberg handed down the order at the end of a brief hearing, where a lawyer for the plaintiff, American Oversight, a government watchdog, contended the information they've handed over so far is too vague.

The suit alleged the administration should not have been using the messaging app and sought an order preserving the records. The chat became public because it mistakenly included a reporter, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg.

Boasberg had ordered administration to make a “prompt” effort to preserve the messages, but American Oversight complained about the level of specificity in the State Department, Defense Department, national intelligence director's office and CIA filings.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles held a meeting yesterday with top Trump administration officials to discuss a new tariff strategy after the president rolled back the sweeping tariffs he imposed on more than 75 U.S. trading partners. 

The meeting, which included Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, focused on forging a path forward with the more than 70 countries that reached out to negotiate trade deals with the U.S. over the last week, according to a White House official. The official said the countries that reached out were “some of the smallest countries in the world.”

Kevin Hassett, a Trump trade adviser, said earlier today that about 15 of those countries made offers for trade deals. 

The White House said it intends to prioritize trade deals with countries in the Asia-Pacific that surround China, the only country Trump did not include in the 90-day tariff reduction yesterday. Trump has imposed a 145% cumulative tariff on Chinese goods. Japan, South Korea and Vietnam will all be key priorities as the White House devises a new trade strategy, according to the official.

The White House has told CNBC that the combined duties the administration has imposed on Chinese goods now totals 145%, effective immediately.

It's the sum of 125% duties Trump is imposing on China in response to its allegedly unfair trade practices, which was increased from an initial rate of 84%, plus the 20% tariff he had put in place in the opening weeks of his second-term response to China's alleged inaction on curtailing fentanyl flows.

Trump has also increased the tariff on lower-value items worth $800 or less to 120% from 90%, and will also increase the "per postal item" cost of those goods to $100 starting May 2 and $200 on June 1.

Transportation carriers delivering shipments from China to the U.S. must decide between the ad-valorem or the fixed-dollar-figure duty, and will be locked into the methodology they choose for any given month.

The House passed a bill today that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections in an effort to codify one of Trump’s executive actions from his second term.

Lawmakers approved the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in a 220-208 vote, with four Democrats joining every Republican present in support of the measure.

Read the full story.

Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Ruben Gallego sent a letter to the White House pressing for answers about whether anyone engaged in insider trading before Trump announced his reversal on tariffs yesterday.

In a letter to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the lawmakers requested responses to a series of questions about whether White House employees or Trump's family members were made aware of his plans to reverse tariff policy ahead of his announcement, which caused stocks to soar. Schiff and Gallego asked for Wiles and Greer to respond by April 18.

The senators also requested that the Office of Government Ethics review the situation and determine if anyone violated ethics laws or regulations around stocks or financial transactions.

NBC News has reached out to the White House for comment.

Elon Musk is expected to attend today’s Cabinet meeting, scheduled for 11 a.m., a White House official told NBC News. 

Musk stole the spotlight at Trump's first Cabinet meeting in February after his efforts to reduce the size of government ran into resistance from some Cabinet members.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., muscled a revised budget blueprint needed to advance Trump’s agenda through the House on Thursday, beating back a conservative rebellion that had threatened to sink the measure just one day earlier.

The vote was 216-214, with just two Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, and Victoria Spartz, of Indiana — joining all Democrats in opposition. Trump had endorsed the budget plan, which the Senate adopted it last weekend in a narrow 51-48 vote.

Read the full story.

Beijing Daily, a Chinese party-linked media outlet, criticized Taiwan of “kneeling” to the U.S. after the island said it won’t retaliate against Trump’s 32% tariffs.

Taiwanese authorities are “kneeling while cutting their own flesh,” an editorial said today. “The quicker you kneel, the more you bleed.”

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te wrote in an opinion piece in Bloomberg today that the island will “rapidly” expand procurement of American goods, make new investments in the U.S., and remove nontariff trade barriers in pursuit of resolving trade disputes.

In contrast, China has vowed to “fight to the end if the U.S. insists on its own way,” slapping a 104% tariff on U.S. goods in retaliation for Trump’s new duties.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he thinks he has the votes to adopt the GOP budget resolution this morning.

Some House conservatives had pushed back on the budget over concerns that the Senate would not be committed to larger spending cuts.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who met with several of the House Republican holdouts last night, said that the Senate is "aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings.”

"We have got to do something to get the country on a more sustainable fiscal path, and that entails us taking a hard scrub of our government, figuring out where we can find those savings," Thune said. "And our ambition in the Senate is, we are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings."

Read the full story.

Markets today gave up some of the soaring gains clocked in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s tariffs pause announcement as the reality set in of how far duties are still set to climb. 

The S&P 500 fell 2% in early trading. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped more than 2.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back about 1.8%, or more than 700 points.

Read the full story here.

With rattled markets and fears of a recession, Trump was facing intensifying pressure from Republican senators, CEOs, investors and Elon Musk over his global tariffs. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for "TODAY" on his decision to hit pause on some of them.

The Democratic National Committee announced five Democrat-led town halls in congressional districts held by Republicans who haven't put on any in-person town halls recently.

High-profile Democratic lawmakers will attend the town halls, including Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, as well as Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Greg Casar of Texas and Greg Stanton of Arizona.

One of the town halls will be held in the district represented by the National Republican Congressional Committee chair, Rep. Richard Hudson. NBC News previously reported that Hudson told lawmakers to hold off on in-person town halls after several Republicans faced fierce criticism from attendees.

"Republicans still want to pretend like their constituents don’t exist, but we believe Americans deserve to have their voices heard," DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a news release.

The China Film Administration said it will “moderately” reduce the number of American films it imports, state-run broadcaster CCTV News reported today.

“The U.S. government’s wrongful imposition of tariffs on China would inevitably further reduce domestic audiences’ favorable perception of American movies,” CCTV cited a spokesperson from the agency as saying.

The agency said it will follow market rules and “moderately” reduce the number of American movie imports.

“As the world’s second-largest film market, China remains committed to high-level openness and will introduce excellent films from more countries to meet market demand,” it said, according to the report.

Trump said yesterday that more than 75 countries had called the administration to negotiate over economic policy. But the number of countries actively negotiating on tariffs is actually a fraction of that, according to the president's economic adviser, Kevin Hassett.

"Saying you’ve got a lot of countries calling, that’s one thing, right? But, you know, maybe could be calling to say, 'How’s the weather out there?'" Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, said in a CNBC interview. "But then, having people really begin negotiations to make offers, that’s a different number. That number is like closing in on 20."

About 15 countries have made "explicit offers," Hassett told reporters separately, citing the U.S. trade representative’s office. Hassett said that "we’re studying and considering" the offers and "deciding whether they’re good enough to present to the president."

The E.U. and China have agreed to immediately negotiate on prices of electric vehicles, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said today, amid trade diversion driven by Trump’s new tariffs.

The two sides will also discuss market access and automotive investment cooperation, according to a statement, as Europe grapples with fears that China will redirect cheap exports from the U.S.

Spain’s agriculture minister, Luis Planas, told reporters yesterday in Vietnam that Spain has “excellent trade relations with China,” which it seeks to expand, Reuters reported.

Global Times, a Chinese state-backed nationalist tabloid, said Europe needs to have “a cool mind and adopt a constructive approach toward China.”

“Unwarranted fears of China will not help Europe address the dilemmas it faces, especially when the US is turning the screws on the whole world,” it said today in an opinion piece.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry fired back at the U.S. after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it would be “cutting your own throat” if Europe forges closer ties with China as a pivot from the U.S.

China will “just keep producing and producing, dumping and dumping, and it’s going somewhere,” Bessent told a summit of bankers in Washington yesterday.

“Speaking of ‘cutting throats,’ the U.S. is using tariffs to threaten and blackmail the world, trying to strangle other countries and force them to compromise and yield to its bullying,” spokesperson Lin Jian said at a briefing today.

China-Spain trade has surpassed $50 billion, Lin said, adding that the two countries uphold the multilateral trading system centered on the WTO.

Trump hit pause on some of his global tariffs, sending stocks surging yesterday but what happens after the 90-day reprieve? CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin joins "TODAY" to weigh in on the future of the stock market and what the bond market signaled to top advisers.

The U.S. and Vietnam have agreed to start trade deal negotiations, Hanoi said today, hours after Trump announced a 90-day pause on his 46% duty on Vietnamese goods.

The two countries will consider removing as many nontariff barriers as possible, the Vietnamese government said in a statement according to Reuters. The move followed a meeting between Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington.

The office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the two officials discussed reciprocal trade and the vast economic opportunities in the bilateral relationship between their two countries. “The Trump administration will continue to engage with our trading partners to address trade barriers” and further Trump’s “America First Trade Policy,” it said on X.

Vietnam gained nearly 90% of its annual gross domestic product from exports of goods and services in 2023, according to the World Bank. Its trade surplus with the U.S. has surpassed $123 billion.

“We took note of the announcement by President Trump. We want to give negotiations a chance,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X this morning.

“While finalising the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our Member States, we will put them on hold for 90 days,” von der Leyen said, less than a day after European Union lawmakers voted in favor of retaliatory duties on the tariffs the Trump administration put on imported European steel and aluminum in February.

But “if negotiations are not satisfactory, our countermeasures will kick in,” she added.

The E.U. hasn’t yet responded to the sweeping tariffs Trump announced last week and paused yesterday following stock market convulsions, nevertheless, “preparatory work on further countermeasures continues,” von der Leyen said. “As I have said before, all options remain on the table.”

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said today that it won’t impose retaliatory measures in response to Trump’s new tariffs.

ASEAN is “deeply concerned” over the new U.S. duties and seeks a “frank and constructive dialogue” with the U.S., the 10-nation group said in a joint statement.

The region will continue to boost internal trade and investment, ASEAN added.

U.S. tariffs on southeast Asia, which were announced April 2, range from a baseline rate of 10% to the 49% duty applied to Cambodia. That's the highest percentage of any nation with the exception of China, though Cambodia's trade surplus with the U.S. is still relatively low.

A fresh report on U.S. inflation is expected to show a slight decline in price growth for March, but analysts say any results indicating such a slowdown probably don’t mean much anymore.

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release last month’s consumer price data, with forecasters predicting inflation having ticked down slightly. 

That decline would offer little respite from ongoing concerns that Trump’s unprecedented tariff plan — even after he softened it yesterday — will bring rising prices in the coming months.

“Given how much more the president has increased tariffs on China, the effective [tariff] rate is not that different in totality,” Andy Schneider, senior U.S. economist at BNP Paribas, told NBC News after Trump’s surprise announcement easing some tariffs. 

Read the full story here.

“Liberation Day” gave way to Capitulation Day last night.

Trump pulled back yesterday on a series of harsh tariffs targeting friends and foes alike in an audacious bid to remake the global economic order.

Trump’s early afternoon announcement followed a harrowing week in which Republican lawmakers and confidants privately warned him that the tariffs could wreck the economy. His own aides had quietly raised alarms about the financial markets before he suspended a tariff regime that he had unveiled with a flourish just one week earlier in a Rose Garden ceremony.

The stock market rose immediately after the about-face, ending days of losses that have forced older Americans who’ve been sinking their savings into 401(k)s to rethink their retirement plans.

Read the full story here.

Beijing's public language on its trade war with the U.S. has become increasingly bellicose and took a new turn today when the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the Trump administration's tariffs have made the U.S. a “barbarian of the 21st century.”

Trump’s tariffs will “never America great again” ministry spokesperson Huang Jingrui wrote in an open letter today in the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post.

“A tariff-wielding barbarian who attempts to force countries to call and beg for mercy can never expect that call from China,” Huang said, adding that the U.S. is “obsessed with the art of bullying and blackmailing the entire world.”

E.U. President Ursula von der Leyen said today that the region welcomes Trump’s announcement to pause tariffs for 90 days.

Von der Leyen said the E.U. remains “committed to constructive negotiations” with the U.S., according to a statement from her office.

Meanwhile, Europe continues to focus on diversifying its trade partnerships, engaging with countries that account for 87% of global trade, she said.

Trump’s tariffs have shown that the European internal market is the region’s “anchor of stability and resilience” in times of uncertainty, von der Leyen added.

Irregular trade including smuggling will most likely rise amid the U.S.' and China's tit-for-tat tariffs, an economist warns.

The cost of tariffs has become “prohibitive to almost every company,” Tianchen Xu, senior economist at Economist Intelligence Unit.

“As a result, trade flows in both directions will tumble, and irregular trade will proliferate, including smuggling, transshipment and systemic under-reporting of trade value during customs clearance,” Xu said in a note.

Xu said trade negotiations and a partial de-escalation in the ongoing trade war may ensue in the coming months, but those tensions are likely to worsen in the short term between the world’s two largest economies.

The owner of a California home decor and plant shop said that even in dealing locally, the sourcing of goods from China is impossible to avoid.

“Even when I’m buying local companies, local small businesses, there are things that are in China,” Kate Nelson, owner of the Greenwood Shop, said on NBC News Now.

Trump yesterday imposed, and then suspended, sweeping tariffs on countries around the world but left them in place — and increased them to 125% — for China. Even with the latest suspension, though, a 10% across-the-board tariff that Trump imposed last week will remain.

The levies, Nelson said, will greatly affect her business.

“It’s really difficult, because I look at my wholesale costs, and that would double,” Nelson said. “I don’t know how to do that. That math and having consumers pay for it — I don’t know how we do that.” 

China has responded to Trump’s tariffs with tariffs on U.S. goods. It announced an extra tariff that brings the total to 84%.

European shares rallied sharply at today's market open after President Donald Trump temporarily rowed back on the sweeping global tariffs that have collapsed markets in recent days.

The Stoxx 600, which contains Europe's largest companies, was 5.3% higher at 4:30 a.m. ET, with stocks surging across all sectors, particularly banking and industrial stocks among the worst affected by recent selloffs.

That said, gains in Europe and Asia — where Japan's Nikkei index leapt 9% — were still relatively minor when compared with the enormous plunge most major indexes have taken since Trump said last week that he would impose blanket tariffs on almost all of America's trading partners.

But he said yesterday that he would temporarily reduce new rates on imports to 10% for 90 days — prompting U.S. stocks to shoot sharply higher. The S&P 500 rose 9% to notch one of its largest daily gains in living memory, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 7.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 12% in one of its best ever trading days.

Acting South Korean President Han Duck-soo said the country must negotiate to escape tariffs after Trump paused most levies Wednesday.

“Over the next 90 days, we must make progress in all negotiations to escape the burden of tariffs, and we must put in even greater effort,” Han said at a Cabinet meeting Thursday local time, his office said.

“As a country like South Korea, which depends heavily on trade for its growth and development, I urge all ministers to put in special efforts and show determination,” Han said, according to his office.

Trump announced Wednesday he was pausing most of the tariffs for 90 days.

China opposes the U.S. tariffs and will continue with countermeasures, the country's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told the Association of Southeast Asian Nations today.

U.S. tariffs “ignore the fact that the U.S. has long profited significantly from international trade,” according to a summary by China’s Ministry of Commerce.

China “has taken decisive countermeasures,” Wang said. “If the U.S. insists on going its own way, China will accompany it to the end.”

Trump left new tariffs in place for China despite suspending most of them for other countries on Wednesday. The levies against China now total 125%

Japan’s chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said today that his government was pleased Trump suspended some of the threatened tariffs — but it urged continued review.

“We would first like to carefully examine the details of what will be announced in the coming days,” Hayashi said.

“We have explained our concerns at various levels and have urged for the reconsideration of these measures, and so we take this recent announcement by the U.S. government positively,” he told reporters at a briefing.

“We will continue to strongly urge the United States to review its reciprocal tariffs and their levies on steel and aluminum products, as well as automobiles and auto parts,” he said.

China’s State Administration Council said 84% tariffs against U.S. imports took effect at 12:01 a.m. today.

Goods shipped to China that left before 12:01 a.m. and are received before midnight Sunday won’t be subject to the tariff, China said.

China levied retaliatory tariffs in response to tariffs Trump imposed yesterday, which raise the total duties on Chinese imports to 125%.