US stocks plummet in after-hours trading as experts warn Americans could see higher costs – as it happened (2025)

Closing summary

Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. And you can also follow along with our continuing coverage of the United State’s tariffs announcment here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:

• Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on US trade partners across the world in an event today he nicknamed “liberation day”. The tariffs range from 10% to 49% on all goods imported from abroad. He also added that a 25% tariff on all foreign automakers will go into effect at midnight. World leaders responded to news with a mix of confusion and tempered concern.

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• Four Senate Republicans joined with Democrats to pass a resolution this evening aimed at preventing the president from levying tariffs on Canada. The news came just hours after Trump announced broad “reciprocal” tariffs on many countries, but not Canada or Mexico.

• Despite a 10% tariff levied on all goods imported from the United Kingdom, British leaders say the United States remains the UK’s “closest ally”.

• Earlier in the day, Trump told his inner circle that Elon Musk will be taking a step back from the Trump administration, Politico reports. According to the outlet, both Musk and Trump have agreed “that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role”.

• National security adviser Mike Waltz’s team has regularly set up group chats on Signal to coordinate official work on various global issues from different parts of the world including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, Politico reports. According to four people who have been personally added to the chats and who spoke to the outlet, sensitive information was discussed in the chats.

• A US judge on Wednesday dismissed the federal corruption case against New York City mayor Eric Adams, adding that the charges cannot be brought again. US district judge Dale Ho’s decision to dismiss the case with prejudice was in line with the recommendation of a lawyer he asked to offer independent arguments, but contrary to the justice department request for a dismissal without prejudice, Reuters reports.

This blog will be closing shortly. In the meantime, you can follow along with our coverage of the United States’s tariffs announcement here:

Mike Pence, the former vice-president who turned into a vocal critic of Donald Trump’s after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, has voiced his disapproval of the president’s new tariffs.

“The Trump Tariff Tax is the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history,” Pence wrote in a post on social media. “These Tariffs are nearly 10x the size of those imposed during the Trump-Pence Administration and will cost American families over $3,500 per year.”

The Senate has passed a resolution aimed at preventing Donald Trump from imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.

The resolution passed this evening after four Republicans joined Democrats to support the measure. They included senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnel of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

The legislation is unlikely to pass in the Republican-controlled House, but demonstrates a powerful rebuke of Trump just hours after his “liberation day” tariff announcement.

Union leaders have reacted to Donald Trump’s tariff announcement cautiously, saying the president must prioritize workers by improving conditions for them at home.

The president of the largest federation of unions in the United States, the AFL-CIO, said strategic tariffs can be helpful, but that they must be paired with policies that support workers’ rights.

“Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s attacks on trade union workers’ rights at home, gutting of the government agency that works to discourage the outsourcing of American jobs and efforts to erode critical investments in U.S. manufacturing take us backward,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “We will continue to fight for trade policy that prioritizes the interests of working people without causing unnecessary economic pain for America’s working families.”

In a brief break from tariff-related news, Tufts University has filed a declaration in support of Rümeysa Öztürk, a doctoral student from Turkey who was arrested by plainclothes immigration officials last week.

“The University has no information to support the allegations that she was engaged in activities at Tufts that warrant her arrest and detention,” the statement reads.

Regarding a student opinion article published in the university newspaper, which officials cited in her arrest, the University said that “this opinion piece was not in violation of any Tufts policies. Further, no complaints were filed with the University or, to our knowledge, outside of the University about this op-ed.”

It added that: “The free movement of our international community members” is “essential to the functioning of the University and serving our mission”.

The “reciprocal tariffs” Donald Trump announced today could raise the average US tariff rate to 25% from a current rate of about 3%, according to Omair Sharif, an economist and founder of Inflation Insights.

Sharif added that the duties would top the 20% rate imposed by the Smoot-Hawley tariffs levied in 1933, which were widely blamed for worsening the Great Depression.

Despite a 10% tariff levied on all goods imported from the United Kingdom, British leaders say the United States remains the UK’s “closest ally”.

Jonathan Reynolds, the Business secretary, told the Associated Press, “the US is our closest ally, so our approach is to remain calm and committed”.

He added that the UK government is working to negotiate a trade deal to “mitigate the impact” of the tariff Trump announced today.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has told foreign leaders processing the news of the United States’s “reciprocal tarrifs” to “sit back, take a deep breath, don’t immediately retaliate”.

Speaking with CNN this evening, Bessent added:

“A trade war depends on the country. But remember that the history of trade is we are the deficit country. The deficit country has an advantage. They are the surplus countries. The surplus countries traditionally, always lose any kind of trade escalation.”

Bessent added that “doing anything rash would be unwise.”

The text of Donald Trump’s executive order announcing “reciprocal tariffs” is now available on the White House website.

In it, Trump declares a national economic emergency in response to the US trade deficit.

The order states: “I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that underlying conditions, including a lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships, disparate tariff rates and non-tariff barriers, and U.S. trading partners’ economic policies that suppress domestic wages and consumption, as indicated by large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States. That threat has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States in the domestic economic policies of key trading partners and structural imbalances in the global trading system.”

Cuba, Belarus, North Korea and Russia were exempted from reciprocal tariffs because “they are already facing extremely high tariffs and our previously imposed sanctions preclude any meaningful trade with these countries” an unnamed White House official has told the New York Times.