Trump Live: President Claims Tariffs Are ‘Doing Very Well’ Amid $3 Trillion Wall Street Decline and Global Recession Worries

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump unveiled extensive tariffs affecting several U.S. trade partners — an announcement that surprisingly included a selection of uninhabited islands off the coast of Antarctica.

The Trump administration has instituted a 10 percent “reciprocal tariff” on Heard and McDonald Islands, which are Australian territories situated close to Antarctica, known for their penguin populations, seals, and glacial formations.

These islands are entirely devoid of a human population and can only be reached after a two-week boat journey from Perth.

Katie Hawkinson has the full story.

Laura Loomer expressed her excitement over President Trump referring to her as a “patriot” aboard Air Force One on Thursday.

Loomer, known for her conspiracy theories and inflammatory comments, met with Trump on Wednesday and urged him to dismiss several members of the National Security Council — and reports suggest he has acted on her recommendations.

After their discussion, Trump hailed her as “a very good patriot and a very strong person.”

“It’s an honor, President Trump. Thank you. I will always support you. I will continue my vetting audit of the Trump administration and will submit my findings for your review,” she stated.

“I’ve consistently emphasized the existence of a vetting crisis, and I’m grateful President Trump took my concerns and investigative findings seriously. I will keep striving to support him and his administration. Loyalty matters. Vetting matters!”

Watch Trump deliver his remarks here:

According to analysts, Trump’s latest round of tariffs could dramatically raise the price of Apple’s iPhones.

The phones are primarily manufactured in China, which faces a projected 54 percent tariff next week. If these import duties remain, Apple faces a tough decision: absorb the costs or pass them on to consumers.

If they opt for the latter, the cost of iPhones could substantially increase, potentially rising by over 40 percent.

Analysts informed Reuters and USA Today that an iPhone 16 Pro Max, currently priced at $1599, might reach nearly $2300 if consumers are charged a 43 percent markup.

Donald Trump voiced his support for Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French far-right National Rally party, criticizing the court’s ruling that prevents her from running for president in 2027.

“The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen exemplifies how European Leftists manipulate legal frameworks to silence free speech and confine their political adversaries, even to the extent of imprisoning them,” he posted on Truth Social on Thursday night.

Trump then reflected on his own legal struggles, comparing them to Le Pen’s trial after her conviction for misappropriating European Parliament funds earlier this week.

“This same strategy was deployed against me by a group of deluded individuals, including Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, and Lisa Monaco, who spent nearly a decade obsessing over it, only to fail because the American public saw them for what they truly are: corrupt lawyers and politicians,” he continued.

The president concluded with a bold declaration: “FREE MARINE LE PEN!”

Leading congressional Democrats expressed outrage following the reported firing of General Timothy Haugh from his position as National Security Agency director after Trump’s meeting with conspiracy theorist and far-right activist Laura Loomer.

“It’s astonishing that President Trump would dismiss the nonpartisan head of the NSA while failing to hold anyone accountable for leaking classified information via Signal — particularly as he reportedly takes staffing advice from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office,” remarked Senator Mark Warner from Indiana.

House Intelligence Committee member Jim Hines voiced his deep concerns on platform X about this decision.

Wall Street’s selling frenzy persisted on Friday after China imposed a 34 percent tariff on all American goods imported into the country, a move compounded by analysts raising recession risk forecasts.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slipped more than 2.5 percent while S&P 500 futures fell over 2.6 percent, adding to a 4.8 percent loss from Thursday.

China has retaliated with a 34 percent tariff on all U.S. goods as of Friday, matching Trump’s recent tariffs on Chinese imports.

These import duties on American products will come into effect on April 10, as stated by China’s Finance Ministry.

Additionally, China’s Ministry of Commerce has added 11 American companies to its “unreliable entities” list, effectively barring them from conducting business in the country.

“The enforcement of export controls on pertinent items by the Chinese government, under the law, aims to better protect national security and interests, while fulfilling international obligations such as non-proliferation,” the Commerce Ministry remarked, as reported by Reuters.

Trump’s comprehensive tariffs triggered turmoil across Wall Street, causing a staggering loss of approximately $3.1 trillion in market value, marking the largest one-day decline since the Covid pandemic.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged by 4 percent, while the S&P 500 decreased by 4.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the tech-focused Nasdaq fell by 6 percent, driven by declines in major stocks like Apple, Nvidia, and Amazon.

Donald Trump’s new set of global tariffs has sparked significant economic uncertainty.

JPMorgan’s Chief Economist Bruce Kasman disclosed that the bank now forecasts a 60 percent likelihood of a global recession occurring in 2025, an increase from 40 percent.

“The disruptive policies from the U.S. have been recognized as the greatest risk to the global economic outlook throughout the year,” Kasman noted in a research report on Thursday. “The repercussions of this tax hike are likely to be amplified — due to retaliation, diminishing U.S. business confidence, and interruptions to supply chains.”

JPMorgan’s economists describe tariffs as fundamentally a tax increase impacting U.S. households and businesses buying foreign goods. They regard the complete implementation of the announced policies as a major macroeconomic shock.

At the national level, Goldman Sachs has echoed JPMorgan’s assessments, raising its probability of a U.S. recession in 2025 to 35 percent, up from 20 percent earlier this week.

“The elevation in our recession probability underscores the sharp decline in consumer and business confidence over the past month,” their report emphasized.

Other Wall Street firms, including Barclays and Deutsche Bank, have similarly warned of a heightened risk for the U.S. economy potentially slipping into recession this year.