Big tech has gained a major exemption from Donald Trump’s trade war after the US president exempted smartphones, computers and other electronics from the 125% levies imposed on imports from China as well as tariffs imposed on other countries.
Experts had previously warned tariffs would cause electronic consumer prices to spike in the US, with Apple reportedly chartering cargo flights to bring in 600 tons of iPhones from India rather than China amid the cratering trade ties between the two countries.
Dan Ives, the global head of technology research at financial services firm Wedbush Securities, said on Saturday: “This is the dream scenario for tech investors … Smartphones, chips being excluded is a game-changer scenario when it comes to China tariffs.”
The move will benefit many countries in South-east Asia, for whom tech exports are a key part of their US trade. It coincides with a visit to the region this week by Chinese president Xi Jinping on his first official foreign trip this year.
Catch up with the key Trump administration stories of the day:
A few weeks ago, Dane began stocking up on paper towels, toilet paper and “piddle-pads” for their shih-tzu, while his wife upgraded from an iPhone 8 to 14. The 73-year-old in South Carolina said the purchases – which were made to get ahead of Donald Trump’s trade policies – reminded him of the early weeks of the Covid pandemic.
“It’s scary,” Dane said. “Prices are going to go up because of tariffs … It’s going to be messy.”
The chaos of last week posed a serious challenge to many aspects of rightwing US media, which often acts as a largely unquestioning cheerleader for Trump and his Maga movement.
Despite warnings of a recession, Fox New host Sean Hannity described the start of the tariff war as “a day that will be remembered as a turning point and the start, I hope for every American, of a new golden age”. Fox Business, a sibling network, had guests who criticized the tariffs, Fox News personalities told viewers nervous about their investments that everything would work out well.
The Trump administration on Saturday confirmed that a Maryland man who was wrongly deported last month remains confined in a notorious prison in El Salvador.
However, the White House filing did not address the judge’s demands that the administration detail the steps it was taking to return Kilmar Abrego García to the United States.
Donald Trump has authorized the military to take over control of land at the US-Mexico border as part of the president’s broader efforts to crack down on undocumented immigration. The president’s memorandum allows the US armed forces to “take a more direct role” when it comes to securing the boundary in question.
Harvard University professors are suing to block the Trump administration’s review of nearly $9bn in federal contracts and grants awarded to the Ivy League school as part of a crackdown on what the White House says is antisemitism on college campuses.
The group said in a lawsuit filed on Friday in a Boston federal court that the administration was trying to unlawfully undermine academic freedom and free speech.
The US has demanded control of a crucial pipeline in Ukraine used to send Russian gas to Europe, according to reports, in a move described as a colonial shakedown.
Volodymyr Landa, a senior economist with the Centre for Economic Strategy, a Kyiv thinktank, said the Americans were out for “all they can get”. Their bullying “colonial-type” demands had little chance of being accepted by Kyiv, he predicted.
Amir Makled thought he was being racially profiled. A Lebanese American who was born and raised in Detroit, the attorney was returning from a family vacation when he said an immigration official at the Detroit Metro airport asked for a “TTRT” agent after scanning his passport.
“So I Googled what TTRT meant. I didn’t know,” Makled said. “And what I found out was it meant Tactical Terrorism Response Team. So immediately I knew they’re gonna take me in for questioning.”
After lighting a fuse under global financial markets, Donald Trump stepped back – all the way to a Florida golf course. A week later, having just caved to pressure to ease his trade tariffs, the US president defended the retreat while hosting racing car champions at the White House.
Trump has spent time golfing, dining with donors and making insouciant declarations such as “this is a great time to get rich”, even as the US economy melted down. It was a jolting juxtaposition that prompted comparisons with the emperor Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned, or insane monarchs who lost touch with reality.
Catching up? Here’s what happened on 11 April.
