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 US’s tariffs announcement here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:

• Donald Trump took questions from reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. In it, Trump indicated that he would attend “direct talks” with Iran on Saturday, that it “would be a good thing” to have the United States “controlling and owning the Gaza Strip”, and that European Union “rules and regulations” are “non-monetary barriers” on trade.

• Shortly after Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu, Iranian officials and state media disputed Trump’s claims that the US is scheduled to participate in “direct talks” with the country this weekend, indicating that the country understood it was entering indirect talks moderated by Omani officials.

• In a 5-4 decision, the US supreme court will allow the Trump administration to continue deporting Venezuelan migrants under an 18th-century wartime law.

• After a phone call with Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba this morning, Trump directed US treasury secretary Scott Bessent to open negotiations with the Japanese government.

• Trump abruptly threatened to raise his tariffs on China by an additional 50% if China doesn’t withdraw its (retaliatory) tariffs of 34% by tomorrow. That would raise Trump’s tariff on China to an unprecedented 104%.

• During speeches this afternoon, Democratic leadership in the House and Senate warned that Trump’s tariffs are teeing up “a nationwide recession”.

• After US stock markets opened this morning on bear market territory, the Cboe Volatility Index, also known as Wall Street’s “fear gauge”, reached “crisis levels” as it skyrocketed to its highest level since the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Canada has requested World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute consultations with the US over Trump’s decision to impose a 25% duty on cars and car parts from Canada, the WTO said today.

• Mexico is seeking to avoid retaliatory tariffs against the US but is not ruling them out, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said.

• The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is ending a half-century of partnerships with the federal government to serve refugees and children, saying the “heartbreaking” decision follows the Trump administration’s abrupt halt to funding for refugee resettlement.

• Health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr will direct the CDC to stop recommending states add fluoride to their drinking water.

• In a social media post, Trump backed the Senate’s budget proposal – lending his support to the plan as House speaker Mike Johnson tees up a vote on the budget later this week despite still not having enough votes to guarantee its passage.

Homeland security employees have received a second email asking them to consider voluntarily resigning, retiring or taking a “buyout” of up to $25,000, Reuters reports, citing an internal email.

Staff members have one week to consider the options.

The notice represents the Trump administrations ongoing effort to shrink the federal government by aggressively laying off government workers. In a symbol of the agency’s importance to Trump’s mass deportation plans, however, law enforcement staff were exempted from the program.

In a 5-4 decision, the supreme court will allow the Trump administration to continue deporting Venezuelan migrants under an 18th-century wartime law.

The deportations may continue under the Alien Enemies Act, the court ruled, provided migrants get “reasonable time” to attend a hearing before they are repatriated.

The court’s three liberal justices dissented, alongside conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett.

After two straight days of deep plummets, markets appear to be slightly more stabilized this afternoon. The Dow was down 0.9% while the S&P 500 dropped 0.2% for the day. The Nasdaq was 0.1% up – a small gain, considering the index entered a bear market last week.

Stocks briefly went up in the morning going off an unverified rumor that the White House would delay tariffs, which was quickly squashed by the administration. Stocks ticked slightly down, then back up, in the afternoon.

Tech stocks had a particularly rocky day. Some companies, including Amazon and Meta, saw small gains, while Apple and Tesla both saw drops of at least 6%.

During a speech this afternoon, Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said: “Donald Trump is teeing up a nationwide recession” and asked Senate majority leader John Thune to allow a vote on legislation that would require congressional approval for more tariffs.

“The Republican leader should make passing tariff legislation the top priority of the Senate this week,” he said. “Leader Thune has a responsibility to listen to American families worried about the price of groceries, worried about their retirement, worried about keeping their jobs, worried about the future.”

Donald Trump has said that he would veto such a bill if the Republican-led House and Senate were to both vote on and pass the legislation.

Asked if his administration is prepared to take military action against Iran, Trump says Iran would be in “great danger” if ongoing direct talks fail.

“I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran’s going to be in great danger,” Trump says. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and if the talks aren’t successful I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran.”

Trump refers once again to the Gaza Strip as “an incredible piece of important real estate”.

He says that the United States’ “controlling and owning” the Gaza Strip would be a good thing, again floating a shocking proposal that he put forward multiple times during the opening weeks of his administration (incidentally, it was during Netanyahu’s last visit).

“Having a force like the United States there, controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing,” he doubles down.

He then claims Palestinians don’t want to live in Gaza, so moving them to different countries would be a good thing.

He once again calls the strip “oceanfront property”.

Trump says the EU’s offer zero-zero tariffs on cars and industrial goods isn’t happening.

Asked if the tariffs are permanent or open to negotiations, Trump says: “They can both be true, there can be permanent tariffs and there can be negotiations.”

There are things we need beyond tariffs, like open borders, says Trump.

“China is a closed country,” he claims, charging tariffs so high on things like cars that nobody buys them.

Donald Trump says the US and Iran are participating in direct talks over the Iranian nuclear program, a surprise announcement after Iranian officials had appeared to rebuff US calls for such negotiations.

Iran had pushed back against Trump’s demands that it directly negotiate over its nuclear program or be bombed, though it had initially left the door open to indirect discussions.

“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during talks with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable,” Trump said. He did not elaborate.

Asked if he would be open to a pause in tariffs to allow for negotiations, Trump says: “We’re not looking at that.”

He says there are many countries coming to negotiate deals with the US. These will be fair deals, he says. In some cases they’ll be paying substantial tariffs, he adds.

He reiterates his threat to add another 50% tariff on Chinese imports unless that country withdraws its threat to add a [retaliatory] 34% tariff on its goods.

Donald Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu are speaking from the Oval Office now. I’ll bring you all the main lines.

US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said Donald Trump has tasked him with opening negotiations with the Japanese government in response to tariffs imposed by the US president.

It follows the phone call that took place earlier today between Trump and Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, in which Ishiba told Trump that his tariff policies are extremely disappointing and urged him to rethink. Ishiba also said he agreed with Trump to continue constructive dialogue on the issue.

In a post on Twitter/X, Bessent said the call was “very constructive” and Trump had tasked “me and @USTradeRep to open negotiations to implement the President’s vision for the new Golden Age of Global Trade with @JPN_PMO Shigeru Ishiba and his Cabinet”.

Trump’s decision to impose a 25% levy on auto imports, and a “reciprocal” 24% tariff on other Japanese goods, is expected to deal a huge blow to Japan’s export-heavy economy with analysts predicting the higher duties could knock up to 0.8% off economic growth. The call took place after Asian markets slumped dramatically on Monday, with Japan’s benchmark Nikkei stock index plummeting by nearly 9%.

Japan has so far taken a measured approach with Ishiba signaling earlier in the day that Tokyo would not seek direct confrontation with Washington over the tariffs.

After the phone call Trump said Japan was sending a “top team to negotiate” on trade.

Continuing his announcement post on X, Bessent said:

Japan remains among America’s closest allies, and I look forward to our upcoming productive engagement regarding tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers, currency issues, and government subsidies. I appreciate the Japanese government’s outreach and measured approach to this process.

Bessent goes on to contrast Japan’s “measured” approach with that of China’s “retaliation”. (If Trump goes ahead with the increases announced today then China, unlike Japan, is potentially facing a 104% tariff on goods imported by the US, lest we forget). Bessent said:

China has chosen to isolate itself by retaliating and doubling down on previous negative behavior. Over 50 countries have responded both openly and positively to @POTUS @realDonaldTrump’s historic action to create a fairer, more prosperous system of global trade. We look forward to meaningful negotiations with them over the coming weeks.

Jennifer Rankin in Brussels and Angela Giuffrida in Rome

The EU has said it offered the US a “zero-for-zero” tariff deal on cars and industrial goods weeks before Donald Trump launched his trade war, but that it would not wait to defend itself.

Maros Šefčovič, the EU commissioner for trade, said he had proposed zero tariffs on cars and a range of industrial goods, such as pharmaceutical products, rubber and machinery, during his first meeting with the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, on 19 February.

He said the EU remained open for talks, while suggesting nothing would be concluded soon:

Right now we are in the early stages of discussions, because the US view tariffs not as a tactical step, but as a corrective measure.

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU had offered “zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods” and that offer remained on the table.

The scheduled joint news conference with Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu has been canceled. No reason was given. The two leaders will instead take questions in the Oval Office from a smaller group of reporters, the White House has said.

Netanyahu has arrived at the White House for his meetings with Trump, making him the first world leader to get a second audience with the US president during his second term.

It’s another day of fast-moving US political news and there is a lot more to come. Our business blog is keeping up with market turmoil from tariffs news but there’s plenty of politics around this too. And Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due at the White House at the top of the hour. Stick with us to catch all the news as it happens.

Here’s where things stand:

• The European Union is “in early stages of discussions” with the US, complicated “because the US view tariffs not as a tactical step, but as a corrective measure,” EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said, adding that “while the EU remains open to and strongly prefers negotiations, we will not weigh endlessly until we see tangible progress”.

• British business tycoon Sir Richard Branson said that US tariffs are a “colossal mistake” and America could “face ruin for years to come” if Donald Trump doesn’t reverse his decision. He added that the widespread adverse reaction so far was “predictable and preventable.”

• Donald Trump this morning abruptly threatened to raise his tariffs on China by an additional 50% from 9 April if China doesn’t withdraw its (retaliatory) tariffs of 34% by tomorrow. In a social media post the US president also said “all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated”.

• The White House has dismissed reports today that Donald Trump is going to pause the implementation of his sweeping tariffs for 90 days as “fake news”. A frenzy erupted when Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, was asked on Fox News whether the Trump administration was considering a 90-day pause and he gave quite a vague answer.

• Britain will fight to secure an economic partnership with the United States while also working to lower trade barriers with key partners around the world in the wake of Trump’s tariffs, prime minister Keir Starmer said today. “Nobody is pretending that tariffs are good news,” Starmer said as he visited a Jaguar Land Rover factory in Solihull, West Midlands.

• At the opening bell of the New York stock exchange stocks slid again. The S&P 500 shares index, the broad measure of US shares, was down 3.4% at the start of trading – bear market territory. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 3.1% and the tech-focused Nasdaq index was down 3.9%.

• Peter Navarro, widely seen as the architect of Trump’s tariff plans, earlier today dismissed tech-billionaire Elon Musk’s push for “zero tariffs” between the US and Europe, calling the Tesla CEO a “car assembler” reliant on parts from other countries.

• Japan’s prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said today that he told Trump in a phone call that his tariff policies are extremely disappointing and urged him to rethink.

• Canada has requested World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute consultations with the US over Trump’s decision to impose a 25% duty on cars and car parts from Canada, the WTO said today.

• Mexico is seeking to avoid retaliatory tariffs against the US but is not ruling them out, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said.

• Donald Trump said on social media today that the US Federal Reserve should cut interest rates. But Kevin Hassett, director of the US national economic council, yesterday denied that the tariffs were part of a strategy to pressure the central bank and said there were would be no such “political coercion”.

The EU is “in early stages of discussions” with the US, complicated “because the US view tariffs not as a tactical step, but as a corrective measure”, Maroš Šefčovič said.

But the EU trade commissioner said that “while the EU remains open to and strongly prefers negotiations, we will not weigh endlessly until we see tangible progress”.

The EU has prepared a “robust list of countermeasures” on steel and aluminium after receiving feedback from over 600 stakeholders, he said.

After carefully reviewing all of it, we have worked to table a robust list of countermeasures, while balancing the burden across all member states, we will be sending the final list and tariff levels to them later today.

The vote is set for 9 April, with the final list adopted on 15 April, and then duties on products will kick in on that day for the first set of measures, and on 15 May for the remaining ones.

Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that her government would like to avoid imposing reciprocal tariffs on the US after Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans, though she said it could not be ruled out.

Mexico, which ships nearly 80% of its exports to the US, was not included on Trump’s list of global, across-the-board tariffs announced on nations last week, which Sheinbaum hailed as a major success.

But it is subject to Trump’s previously imposed tariffs of 25% on steel, aluminum and automobiles, as well as on goods that do not comply with the regional USMCA trade pact.

Reuters reports that Sheinbaum said at her regular morning press conference that economy minister Marcelo Ebrard would continue negotiations with US officials in Washington.

As much as possible we would like to avoid imposing reciprocal tariffs. We won’t rule it out, but we prefer continuing with talks.

Sheinbaum said slapping a retaliatory tariff of 25% on US steel and aluminum shipments “would represent price increases in Mexico.”
“We aren’t ruling it out, but we prefer to continue with dialogue,” she added.

Mexican officials have said US steel and aluminum tariffs are unjustified as Mexico imports more in the sector from the US than it exports to the US.

The nation’s peso and main stock index weakened more than 1% by mid-morning on Monday, part of a market plunge worldwide as Trump threatened to further increase tariffs on China.

US tariffs are a “colossal mistake” and America could “face ruin for years to come” if Donald Trump doesn’t reverse his decision, Richard Branson said.

In a thread on X, the British billionaire and Virgin founder said:

The ongoing market response to last week’s US tariff announcement was both predictable and preventable.

Even if you agree with the premise of these tariffs, every reasonable effort should be made to give US companies sufficient time to adapt.

With global markets in free fall and the dollar weakened, Branson warned there would be “catastrophic results for ordinary Americans and for the rest of the world”, including US consumers facing higher costs and medium-sized enterprises facing bankcruptcy.

This is not a winning long-term strategy. The US government can still turn things around, but it must act in the next few hours.

Branson added:

This is the moment to own up to a colossal mistake and change course.

Otherwise, America will face ruin for years to come.

Donald Trump has threatened to raise his tariffs on China by an additional 50% from 9 April if China doesn’t withdraw its (retaliatory) tariffs of 34% by Tuesday.

He also said “all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated”.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote:

Yesterday, China issued Retaliatory Tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation, despite my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set. Therefore, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

The White House has dismissed reports that Donald Trump is going to pause the implementation of his sweeping tariffs for 90 days as “fake news”.

Asked on Fox News whether the Trump administration was considering a 90-day pause, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, gave quite a vague answer. Here is the clip:

“Fake news,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt then told CNBC after the headline was read out.

And in posts on X from the Rapid Response 47 account, launched by the Trump administration in February to “hold fake news accountable”, the White House called the claims “wrong” and “fake news. “Wrong. Not only did Director Hassett not say this (clip below), @POTUS has been clear — “it all has to change, but especially with CHINA!!!”

Britain will fight to secure an economic partnership with the United States while also working to lower trade barriers with key partners around the world in the wake of Donald Trump’s tariffs, prime minister Keir Starmer said on Monday.

Reuters reports that Starmer has sought to secure a deal that would remove the need for tariffs, even as the new US economic policy sent global markets into a tailspin and sparked fears of a global recession.

On Monday he said the UK would continue to work for a US deal but the country’s fate had to be in its own hands, adding that the imposition of 25% tariffs on the car industry would be a “huge challenge for our future, and the global economic consequences could be profound”.

“When it comes to the US, I will only strike a deal if it’s in our national interest,” he said.

He added that Britain was “also going to work with our key partners to reduce barriers to trade across the globe, accelerate trade deals for the rest of the world, and champion the cause of free and open trade right across the globe”.

Starmer has spoken to the leaders of France, Germany, Canada and the European Commission in recent days as governments consider a response to Trump’s tariffs.

“Nobody is pretending that tariffs are good news,” Starmer said as he visited a Jaguar Land Rover factory in Solihull, West Midlands.

Nobody is pretending that tariffs are good news. You know that better than anyone – 25% tariffs on automotive exports and 10% on other goods, that is a huge challenge for our future, and the global economic consequences could be profound.

JLR said on Saturday it would pause US shipments of its British-made cars for a month as it considers how to respond to the tariffs. Calling JLR Britain’s “leading exporter of goods”, Starmer told the car sector: “We are backing you to the hilt.”

My colleague Andrew Sparrow is covering the latest from UK politics here:

Ding Ding! The opening bell of the New York stock exchange is ringing out, and stocks are sliding again.

The S&P 500 shares index, the broad measure of US shares, is down 3.4% at the start of trading – which takes it into ‘bear market territory’ (more than 20% below its record high).

The Dow Jones industrial average shed 1,191 points at the open, a fall of 3.1%, to 37,123 points.

And the tech-focused Nasdaq index is down 3.9%.

Traders will be reacting to the warnings from the likes of Goldman Sachs that the trade war increases the risks of a US recession, with Donald Trump not showing any signs of backing down.

Bloomberg points out that Wall Street has lost around 13% of its value since Thursday, which is the third-worst three-day run ever, after the early days of Covid-19 in March 2020, and during the 2008 financial crisis.

Donald Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, on Monday dismissed tech-billionaire Elon Musk’s push for “zero tariffs” between the United States and Europe, calling the Tesla CEO a “car assembler” reliant on parts from other countries.

Navarro, widely seen as the architect of Trump’s tariff plans, told CNBC Musk had done a good job with his work to streamline government, but his opposition to duties was not surprising, the latest salvo in a growing feud between the Trump advisers.

“When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White House - and the American people understand - that Elon is a car manufacturer, but he’s not a car manufacturer. He’s a car assembler,” Navarro said, adding that many Tesla parts came from Japan, China and Taiwan.

“What we want, and the difference in our thinking and Elon’s on this, is that we want the tires made in Akron, we want the transmissions made in Indianapolis,” he said.

On Saturday, Musk said that he hoped for “a zero-tariff situation” in a video-link interview with Matteo Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and the leader of the far-right League party, during a League congress in Florence.

At the end of the day, I hope it’s agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone between Europe and North America.

His comments come after Trump’s Wednesday announcement of 20% tariffs on goods from the EU.

In an exchange that same day on his social media platform, X, Musk slammed Navarro, who has championed the tariffs.

“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” Musk said about Navarro’s academic background, adding: “He ain’t built sh*t.”

Japan’s prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday that he told Donald Trump in a phone call that his tariff policies are extremely disappointing and urged him to rethink, per Retuers.

“I’ve told the president that Japan has been the biggest investor in the United States for five straight years and the tariff policies could hurt our Japanese companies’ investment capabilities,” Ishiba told reporters after the call with Trump.

Ishiba also said he agreed with Trump to continue constructive dialogue on the issue.

Trump’s decision to impose a 25% levy on auto imports, and a “reciprocal” 24% tariff on other Japanese goods, is expected to deal a huge blow to Japan’s export-heavy economy with analysts predicting the higher duties could knock up to 0.8% off economic growth.

The call took place after Asian markets slumped dramatically on Monday, with Japan’s benchmark Nikkei stock index plummeting by nearly 9%.

Japan has so far taken a measured approach with Ishiba signaling earlier in the day that Tokyo would not seek direct confrontation with Washington over the tariffs.

“We have no intention to engage in direct confrontation,” he said, per The Japan Times. “While Japan is willing to cooperate in creating jobs in the United States, we also strongly urge the removal or reduction of tariffs to support that effort.”

Meanwhile Trump said Japan is sending a “top team to negotiate” on trade, referring to the conversation with Ishiba.

“Countries from all over the World are talking to us. Tough but fair parameters are being set,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, without providing more details.

Countries from all over the World are talking to us. Tough but fair parameters are being set. Spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister this morning. He is sending a top team to negotiate! They have treated the U.S. very poorly on Trade. They don’t take our cars, but we take MILLIONS of theirs. Likewise Agriculture, and many other “things.” It all has to change, but especially with CHINA!!!

Canada has requested WTO dispute consultations with the United States over Donald Trump’s decision to impose a 25% duty on cars and car parts from Canada, the World Trade Organization said on Monday.

Canada claims the measures are inconsistent with US obligations under various provisions under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994, Reuters reports.

On Thursday Mark Carney said Canada would retaliate against the “unjustified, unwarranted” tariffs. “The president’s actions will reverberate here in Canada and across the world,” the Canadian prime minister said at a press conference. “They are all unjustified, unwarranted, and in our judgment misguided.”

He said his government would impose the taxes on vehicles that are not compliant with the continental free trade deal. The new tariffs would not apply to auto parts and would not affect vehicle content from trade ally Mexico.

On Friday we reported that automakers were already starting to shift gears to adapt to the tariffs, from pausing production to raising prices or halting certain models. Of particular relevance to Canada, Stellantis, which makes Chrysler, Dodge and RAM Truck vehicles, announced on Thursday it would pause production at some plants in both Canada and Mexico.

Its Chrysler plant in the Canadian city of Windsor, which employs 4,000 people and sits across a river from US auto capital Detroit, will pause production from 7-21st April.

Donald Trump supporter and billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman has said the president is losing the confidence of business leaders and should pause his trade war – which could cause an economic collapse while damaging his supporters the most.

Ackman said Sunday in a post on X, the president has “launched economic nuclear war on every country in the world” and urged Trump to resolve trade issues via negotiation:

The president has an opportunity to call a 90-day time out.

If, on the other hand ... we launch economic nuclear war on every country in the world, business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate.

Though Trump made imposing tariffs a part of his victorious 2024 electoral campaign, which Ackman endorsed, the billionaire fund manager’s X post said:

This is not what we voted for.

In his post, Ackman also warned of lasting damage to the US’s international reputation:

By placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital.

Staying the course would mean “heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down”, Ackman’s post also said. He added:

May cooler heads prevail.

Ackman’s full post is here:

EU ministers are in Luxembourg to consider the European Union’s response to Trump’s sweeping tariff regime amid continuing market turmoil and heightened fears of a global economic recession.

It comes after Trump doubled down on his tariff policy in comments aboard Air Force One overnight. He said Europe “has treated us very, very badly,” and “has taken our leaders for a ride”, and declined to hold talks on changing tariffs “unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis”. He also repeated criticism of Europe for not spending a fair share on Nato.

The German economic minister, Robert Habeck, called US tariffs calculations “nonsense”, while French minister delegate for trade Laurent Saint-Martin criticised the “very aggressive and arbitrary” trade measures. Both stressed the need for European partners to remain united.

The EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said EU leaders will “focus our discussion on the next steps, how to prepare our next move in relation vis a vis the US,” and how to prepare Europe for any potential “trade diversion” including support for companies. But he describes the situation “as a paradigm shift [for] the global trading system”.

My colleague Jakub Krupa is covering all the latest from the meeting – and developments from Europe more widely – over on our Europe live blog:

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is in Washington for a second meeting since Donald Trump took office in January, where they’re expected to discuss tariffs, Iran, Israel’s war in Gaza, efforts to return the Israeli hostages, relations with Turkey, and the international criminal court, which has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The meeting, which NPR notes comes on the 18-month mark since Israel’s assault on Gaza began (follow our live coverage of the war here), appears to have been arranged quite last-minute. On Thursday Trump said he expected a visit soon from Netanyahu – “maybe even next week” – though Axios reported that the timing caught Israeli officials and even some in the Trump administration by surprise.

As my colleague Bethan McKernan wrote on Sunday, this meeting will make Netanyahu the first foreign leader to travel to Washington in an attempt to negotiate a better deal with Trump after his administration’s decision last week to impose sweeping global tariffs that have shaken stock markets, wiping out $5tn (£3.87tn) in value from S&P 500 index companies by Friday’s close in a record two-day decline.

Israel had attempted to duck the shock 17% tariff on Israeli imports by moving preemptively on Tuesday – a day before the tariffs were announced – to drop all remaining duties on the 1% of American goods still affected by them. But Trump moved ahead with the tariffs, saying the US had a significant trade deficit with its Middle East ally and leading beneficiary of military aid.

The US is Israel’s closest ally and largest single trading partner. The two countries signed a free trade agreement 40 years ago and about 98% of goods from the US are tax-free.

An Israeli finance ministry official said on Thursday that Trump’s latest tariff announcement could affect Israel’s exports of machinery and medical equipment.

I’ll be bringing you all the key lines from the Trump-Netanyahu meeting as we get them. In the meantime, you can read Bethan’s full report here:

Donald Trump said on Monday that the Federal Reserve should cut rates.

“The slow moving Fed should cut rates,” Trump reiterated in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

But Kevin Hassett, director of the US national economic council, yesterday denied that the tariffs were part of a strategy by Trump to crash financial markets to pressure the US federal reserve to cut interest rates, insisting there were would be no “political coercion” of the central bank.

Goods imported from dozens of countries and territories are now going to be taxed at sharply higher rates, and that is expected to drive up the costs of everything from cars to clothes to computers.

China has accused the US of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying over tariffs.

Foreign affairs spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters: “Putting the US first over international rules is a typical act of unilateralism, protectionism and economic bullying.”

US president Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs last week, prompting China and other governments to retaliate quickly, AP reported.

Trump put an additional 34% tariff on Chinese goods as part of “Liberation Day”, coming on top of two rounds of 10% tariffs already declared in February and March, which the US leader said was due to Beijing’s role in the fentanyl crisis.

In response, China suspended sorghum, poultry and bonemeal imports from some American companies.

The latest retaliatory moves from Beijing include more export controls on rare earth minerals, which are critical for various technologies, and filing a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization.

Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news over the next couple of hours.

We start with the news that president Donald Trump says foreign governments would have to pay “a lot of money” to lift sweeping tariffs that he characterized as “medicine”, as financial markets indicated another week of steep losses could be in store.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated he was not concerned about market losses that has already wiped out nearly $6tn in value from US stocks, Reuters reported.

“I don’t want anything to go down. But sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said.

Trump said he had spoken to leaders from Europe and Asia over the weekend, who hope to convince him to lower tariffs as high as 50 percent due to take effect this week.

“They are coming to the table. They want to talk but there’s no talk unless they pay us a lot of money on a yearly basis,” Trump said.

Trump’s tariff announcement last week jolted economies around the world, triggering retaliatory levies from China and sparking fears of a global trade war and recession.

On Sunday morning talkshows, Trump’s top economic advisers sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the US in the global trade order. They also tried to minimize the economic shocks from last week’s tumultuous roll out. Wall Street stock futures opened sharply lower on Sunday, in a sign of further turbulence.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said more than 50 nations had started negotiations with the U.S. since last Wednesday’s announcement.

“He’s created maximum leverage for himself,” Bessent said on NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’. Neither Bessent nor the other officials named the countries or offered details about the talks. But simultaneously negotiating with multiple governments could pose a logistical challenge for the Trump administration and prolong economic uncertainty.

Bessent said there was “no reason” to anticipate a recession, citing stronger-than-anticipated US jobs growth last month, before the tariffs were announced.