Trump tariffs live updates: US and Asia stock market plummets amid recession fears

The Trump administration has vowed to continue an immigration crackdown against campus activists who it deems are antisemitic, following the controversial arrest of Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil on Sunday.

“This is the first arrest of many to come,” the president warned in a post on Truth Social, accusing Khalil of being a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student.”

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”

Here’s more from Josh Marcus and John Bowden.

The Arizona Democrat and former astronaut has hit out at Elon in no uncertain terms after the world’s richest man called him a “traitor” for flying out to war-torn Ukraine and urging Americans to continue to support it.

“Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do,” Kelly responded on X.

He continued to rebuke Musk when he was interviewed by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last night, attacking him for “ruining the lives of veterans” after DOGE made heavy cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Angry, MAGA has already begun circulating a conspiracy theory accusing Kelly of being behind yesterday’s cyberattack on X (on very scant evidence indeed).

Here’s Elon claiming on Fox yesterday that the attack in question originated in Ukraine.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has indicated that Ukraine will have to give up territory occupied by Russian troops and has no path to winning the war its eastern neighbor began in February 2022.

Rubio was speaking en route to high-level peace talks with the Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia.

The delegation is being led by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff and will meet with Rubio and other senior White House figures in Jeddah to discuss an end to the three-year conflict.

America’s top diplomat told reporters that he would be questioning the Ukrainians on their willingness to make concessions to halt the fighting.

“The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things, to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form,” he said.

“I think both sides need to come to an understanding that there’s no military solution to this situation.”

The London stock market fell 79.66 points yesterday, a 0.92 percent drop, closing at 8,600.22.

Here’s more on how the ripples were felt across the Atlantic.

Wall Street fears over the possible repercussions of Trump’s chaotic tariff war with Canada, Mexico and China sent the stock market spiralling on Monday, with only a slight late rebound saving it from suffering a historically bad day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a loss of 890 points but at one stage was down 1,000, which would have put it in the top 20 worst days in market history.

The Nasdaq meanwhile tanked 4.2 percent, its biggest single-day percentage drop since September 2022, and the bellwether S&P 500 closed below its 200-day moving average for the first time since November 2023.

The sell-off continued early on Tuesday in Asian markets as investors around the world grappled with Trump’s erratic manoeuvres and his indication during a weekend interview with Fox News that the U.S. economy could be in for a recession.

Chinese, Japanese and Australian stock markets all fell on Tuesday with Japan’s Nikkei 225 index dropping about 2 percent.

South Korea’s Kospi fell as much as 3 percent.

Even Fox was concerned yesterday and some were minded to recall Trump’s attacks on the Biden administration’s handling of the economy last summer.

There were also some pretty stunning MAGA defenses of the president, from Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt praising him for having the “balls” to act against America’s top trading and partners and Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville appearing to suggest that the stock market had become too “bloated” in any case.

Here’s the latest from Rhian Lubin.

Also on Truth Social, the president has been attacking the Canadian province of Ontario after it upped levies on the electricity it supplies to the American states of Minnesota, Michigan and New York, hitting Trump where it hurts.

“Canada is a Tariff abuser, and always has been, but the United States is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer,” he fumed.

“We don’t need your Cars, we don’t need your Lumber, we don’t your Energy, and very soon, you will find that out.”

The president also said that rebel Republican representative Thomas Massie “should be primaried” (“…and I will lead the charge against him”), calling him “just another grandstander” and likening him to Liz Cheney.

Before that, he was welcoming Jeff Bezos’s decision to make old episodes of The Apprentice available on Prime Video.

Here’s more on Ontario’s fightback against Trump’s tariff aggressions.

The president was up late last night on Truth Social speaking up for his billionaire adviser Elon Musk after he endured a torrid day on Monday in which his personal net worth sank by at least $18.8bn as Tesla’s share price slumped and X suffered a major cyberattack.

Trump insisted Musk is doing “a fantastic job” in firing federal employees and scrapping aid programs and should not pay the price for assisting his administration, even pledging to go down to his nearest Tesla showroom to buy one today as a show of support/marketing stunt (he doesn’t even drive, does he?)

Musk was also generously promoted on Fox News too, with Sean Hannity appearing to be talking himself into buying a Tesla as well.

Here’s Mike Bedigan on Elon’s bad day yesterday.

Almost a decade ago, when his first campaign for the presidency was a mere publicity stunt, Donald Trump amused his audience at a meeting at Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa with a rather prescient quip: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.”

It illuminates a question that becomes more pressing, more puzzling and more depressing with every passing day of the second Trump presidency. Exactly what does this despot have to do for some people to call him out? Hopefully, not a homicide in cold blood in New York City – but still…

In Michael Wolff’s new book, All or Nothing, about Donald Trump’s resounding election victory, he describes how, for a long time, the new US president thought he had no chance.

Trump assumed that Joe Biden would not stay the course, but expected Michelle Obama to take his place. Trump was afraid of her. He did not relish confronting the smart Princeton University and Harvard Law School graduate.

Now, Canada’s Liberal Party has just chosen another Michelle Obama-esque person as its prime minister. Mark Carney might lack Obama’s obvious empathy and touch, but he is similarly rigorous, intellectually equipped, capable of fighting untruth with fact – and able to master technical detail. Self-assured and confident, he is just the sort of opponent Trump struggles with.

Asian benchmarks dove Tuesday, as worries grew about the ripple effects from President Donald Trump’s tariffs on regional economies and companies.

The stock fall in Asia echoed the sell-off on Wall Street, where investors are raising questions on how much pain Trump will let the economy endure through tariffs and other policies in order to get what he wants.