Israel announced Tuesday that it would end all tariffs, or customs duties, on U.S. imports — just one day before President Donald Trump was set to announce reciprocal tariffs in a Rose Garden ceremony dubbed “Liberation Day.” The 1985 free trade agreement with the US has led to the fact that the overwhelming majority (approximately 99%) of goods imported from the US are already fully exempt from customs duties. Therefore, the reduction in customs duties will begin on a very limited number of products, in the category of imported food and agricultural products from the US. President Donald Trump announced today the implementation of a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, effective April 5, 2025. This decisive action aims to correct decades of unfair trade practices that have disadvantaged American workers and industries. Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, President Trump proclaimed April 2 as “Liberation Day,” marking a new era of economic independence. He emphasized that this measure is essential to protect American jobs and revitalize domestic manufacturing. “For too long, other nations have taken advantage of our open markets while imposing barriers to our products. Those days are over,” the President asserted. Trump added via Fox News: “American steel workers, auto workers, farmers and skilled craftsmen,” Trump said from the White House Rose Garden Wednesday afternoon. “We have a lot of them here with us today. They really suffered, gravely. They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once beautiful American dream. We had an American dream that you don’t hear so much about. You did four years ago, and you are now. But you don’t too often.” “Now it’s our turn to prosper, and in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt,” he said. “And it will all happen very quickly. With today’s action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before or. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base.” “For nations that treat us badly, we will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, nonmonetary barriers and other forms of cheating. And because we are being very kind, we will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us. So the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal. I could have done that. Yes. But it would have been tough for a lot of countries,” he said. “For decades, the United States slashed trade barriers on other countries, while those nations placed massive tariffs on our products and created outrageous non-monetary barriers to decimate our industries,” Trump said. “And in many cases, the non-monetary barriers were worse than the monetary ones. They manipulated their currencies, subsidized their exports, stole our intellectual property, imposed exorbitant taxes to disadvantage our products, adopted unfair rules and technical standards, and created filthy pollution havens.” The White House released a detailed chart showing how badly many countries have been ripping off American workers, charging high tariffs on U.S. goods while benefiting from America’s generosity in return. [See chart at the link.] https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/trump-unleashes-10-baseline-tariff-all-u-s/ In March 2025, the Trump administration ramped up its fight against Latin American gangs, invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport about 250 Venezuelan men to El Salvador, with plans to expel 300 more suspected Tren de Aragua gangsters soon after. These individuals, tied to the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua, were removed without standard due process, identified largely by tattoos and digital evidence. For MS-13, started by Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles and now a cross-border menace, tattoos like clasped hands (“forgive me, mother, for my crazy life”) or spider webs (power or prison time) once stood out, as a 2017 Insight Crime report on Honduran “mara” tattoos confirms. Barrio 18 uses the Virgin of Guadalupe for protection; Mexico’s La Eme stamps “13” for loyalty. Non-members sporting these tattoos face death—gangs kill to punish fakes or disrespect, enforcing iron rules. Joining these gangs means spilling blood—new recruits must commit atrocities, often murder, to earn their tattoos and prove they belong. MS-13 demands kills for full membership, a fact backed by FBI records and El Salvador’s gang history. Brazil’s PCC requires acts like killing cops before inking up, says Insight Crime. Once in, members don’t stop—they run drug distribution, human trafficking, extortion, homicide, protection rackets, and business shakedowns. MS-13’s East Coast grip, tied to Suffolk County, New York, murders, and Tren de Aragua’s growing reach show the danger plain as day, giving Trump solid ground to deport them. Gang membership itself breaks U.S. visa and residency laws, especially with groups like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua branded as terrorist-level threats. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, anyone tied to crimes—think drug trafficking or murder—or security risks is inadmissible or deportable, no questions asked. https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/gang-tattoos-u-s-immigration-legal-logic-behind/ Thousands of protesters gathered for various so-called “Hands Off!” rallies throughout the United States to protest President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. A video posted to X by ABC News showed “thousands of protesters” who had “flooded the streets” in Boston, Massachusetts, as part of a “Hands Off!” Rally. "With Trump and congressional Republicans doubling down on their agenda to gut essential services, everyday Americans are sending a clear message: Take your hands off our healthcare, our Social Security, our civil rights, our freedom, and our education,” the organizers of the “Hands Off!” rallies said in a statement, according to CBS News. @patrician This is very misleading as Trump and Musk are not cutting essentials. They are gutting fraud and waste. They are not cutting SS or Medicare or anything to the people who deserve it. I know, but the demonstrating people believe that Musk and Trump are doing that. This is mostly because of the left-wing media who continually harp that everyone's Social Security and Medicare will be cut. It is a lie but a lot of folks believe it because it was said on TV. @perhapstoday And most likely none of those people respond to anything with the common, around here anyway, saying, Who cares; we're leaving! Whatever the trigger, Friday felt like capitulation. Not just a selloff or a rout—though it was certainly that, with the Nasdaq down nearly six percent, the Dow off more than 2,200 points, and the S&P 500 hemorrhaging value like a biotech firm with a bad FDA call. No, this was something more specific: a psychological surrender to the idea that tariffs are not merely a negotiating tactic or a transitory flourish. They are, for better or worse, policy. And not just policy, but a pillar of a new economic order in which global capital doesn’t get to write the rules. The market, like a poker player who stayed in the hand far too long, seemed to be operating under the assumption that Trump would eventually fold. Surely he would blink. ...Powell took the stage and announced calmly and firmly that the Federal Reserve would not be providing any immediate monetary relief. Inflation, he noted, remains above target. Rate cuts, he hinted, are off the table for now. Like President Trump, Chairman Powell is a man who knows he is in his last act in public life. There’s no third term for him at the helm of the central bank. He’s thinking about his legacy. And he posed on Friday as a man unmoved by the howling of bond traders, impervious to the usual warnings from economists about business confidence and financial conditions. He looked out at the wreckage of the stock market and, to the market’s horror, gave it a shrug. And then, right on cue, came Larry Summers—horrified that the White House might pursue a policy the stock market doesn’t like. “We don’t have these kinds of stock market responses in response to policies that the President of the United States is proud of,” he said in an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt. “That is something entirely without precedent.” ...What was truly remarkable about Summers’ comment was what it implied: that stocks ought to have veto power over policy. The March jobs report came in hot—228,000 new jobs, a clean beat over the 140,000 expected. Wage growth held steady. Labor force participation ticked up. Not even a tremor of panic in the labor market. Wall Street had been bracing for weakness. What it got was strength. Zweig, in his characteristically thoughtful column, noted that over the long arc of history, markets recover. They always do. Which may be true. But the more immediate truth is that markets had been counting on something quite specific: that Trump’s tariffs were temporary, tactical, and reversible. That assumption may have died on Friday. What the market saw wasn’t just retaliation or volatility. It saw Trump holding his ground, and Powell refusing to cushion the blow.
Israel Ends All Tariffs on U.S. Goods Ahead of ‘Liberation Day’:
Trump Unleashes 10% Baseline Tariff on All U.S. Trading Partners Starting April 5 — Hits ‘Worst Offenders’ with Even Tougher Measures April 9:
Gang Tattoos and U.S. Immigration – The Legal Logic Behind Deportations:
Thousands of Protesters Gather for ‘Hands Off!’ Rallies Across U.S.
Breitbart Business Digest: The Market Finally Realized Trump Meant It:
Powell Refused to Panic, So Markets Panicked Instead
The Economy Also Refuses to Panic