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Donald Trump’s tariff war has dived deeper into chaos after a cabinet official telegraphed new levies on semiconductors – a crucial component in electronic goods – just days after the Trump administration exempted computers and smartphones from reciprocal tariffs.
Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said in an interview with NBC that the tariff exemption on several electronic devices was just temporary and that new duties would come in “a month or two”. Semiconductors would be targeted with new tariffs, he said.
Trump was forced to intervene, saying he would lay out the new tariffs on Monday and any relief would be short-lived. “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding: “Especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!”
Here are the key stories at a glance:
US markets on rollercoaster as Trump says electronics were never exempt
US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery after the announcement of smartphone and computer tariff exemptions, and shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar. That outlook could change and hinges on what Trump may announce on Monday.
Trump denied they were ever actually exempt from tariffs because a previous tariff still exists on them. “There was no Tariff ‘exception’,” Trump said in a social media post on Sunday, adding that the levies were merely “moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’”
Hedge fund billionaire says US may face ‘worse than a recession’
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio said he was worried the US would experience “something worse than a recession” as a result of Trump’s trade policies. Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, the 75-year-old hedge fund manager said: “I think that right now we are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession. And I’m worried about something worse than a recession if this isn’t handled well.”
He added: “We have something that’s much more profound. We have a breaking down of the monetary order. We are going to change the monetary order because we cannot spend the amounts of money.”
‘Everything’s fine with Elon,’ says Trump adviser Navarro after Musk calls him ‘moron’
Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser to Trump, said he and Elon Musk were “great” after the president’s billionaire business adviser publicly called him “a moron” who was “dumber than a sack of bricks” over his stance on tariffs.
“I’ve been called worse,” Navarro said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press in some of his most extensive remarks about the insults Musk directed at him days earlier. Praising Musk’s role in the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge), Navarro added: “Everything’s fine with Elon.” Navarro’s evident attempt to be magnanimous came after Musk criticized Trump’s proposals for global tariffs, which the president has since set at 10% on all countries, with some nations receiving higher trade levies.
Man in custody after Pennsylvania governor’s home set ablaze, say police
Police say a person is in custody after a suspected arson fire at the mansion of Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro. No one was injured in the blaze but the fire damaged parts of the home where Shapiro and his family slept.
Pennsylvania state police colonel Christopher Paris identified the man in custody as Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, and said the investigation was continuing. Francis Chardo, the Dauphin county district attorney, said forthcoming charges would include attempted murder, terrorism, attempted arson and aggravated assault.
Trump is ‘fully fit’ and manages high cholesterol, says White House physician
Donald Trump – who at 78 is the oldest person to ever be elected US president – controls high cholesterol with medication and has elevated blood pressure but is “fully fit”, White House physician Sean Barbella said in a report released on Sunday, two days after Trump underwent a routine physical.
Barbella wrote that Trump exhibited “excellent cognitive and physical health” and that he was up to date on all recommended vaccines. Trump himself has previously spread debunked claims about links between vaccines and autism.
9/11 responders and survivors shaken by US health cuts
A program that provides free healthcare to first responders and survivors of the World Trade Center terror attacks has been in turmoil for months, with services cut, restored and cut again as part of the Trump administration’s “restructuring” of the federal health department. Following the most recent cuts, groups representing survivors and even Democratic US senators say they have no clarity on how the program will continue to provide benefits.
“This is bureaucratic cruelty,” said Michael Barasch, an attorney who represents thousands of first responders and survivors of the attacks. Barasch described people suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from picking up body parts after the attack, unsure of whether their medical services will continue. Other were cancer patients, anxious about what services they could access, he said.
US deports 10 more alleged gang members to El Salvador, says Rubio
The US has deported another 10 people that it alleges are gang members to El Salvador, secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Sunday, a day before that country’s president, Nayib Bukele, is due to visit the White House. Rubio praised the alliance between Trump and Bukele as “an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere”.
Trump administration officials have repeatedly made public statements alleging that detained immigrants are gang members – claims they have not backed up in court. The Trump administration has deported hundreds of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
Featured essay: the rise of end times fascism
In this essay, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor argue that the governing ideology of the far right has become “a monstrous, supremacist survivalism” and that the world must build a movement strong enough to stop them.
“It is terrifying in its wickedness, yes. But it also opens up powerful possibilities for resistance,” they write. “To bet against the future on this scale – to bank on your bunker – is to betray, on the most basic level, our duties to one another, to the children we love, and to every other life form with whom we share a planetary home.”
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 12 April 2025.
