Trump live updates: President says tariffs rollout ‘going very well’ despite plunging stock market

Along with Apple, Tesla stock also slumped in after-hours trading on Wednesday following Trump’s tariff announcement on a day he has long billed “Liberation Day.”

Shares of Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company plunged about eight percent in after-hours trading.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to brush off the so-called “hysteria” surrounding America’s future in NATO before speaking at a gathering of foreign ministers in Brussels Thursday mourning.

“The United States is in NATO. As we speak right now the United States is as in NATO as it has ever been. Some of this hysteria and hyperbole that I see in the global media and some domestic media in the United States about NATO is unwarranted,” he said. “President Trump has made it clear that he supports NATO. We’re going to remain in NATO.”

“We want NATO to be stronger. We want NATO to be more viable and the only way… is if our partners – the nation states that comprise this important alliance – have more capability,” he added.

Rubio added that the current war in Ukraine and in the Middle East is a reminder that “hard power is still necessary as a deterrent.”

“We are on a realistic pathway to every single one of the members committing and fulfilling a promise to reach up to five percent spending – that includes the United States will have to increase its spending,” he said. “Because if the threats are truly as dire as I believe they are… then that threat needs to be confronted by a full and real commitment.

He concluded by stating that Trump is not against NATO, but he is “against a NATO that doesn’t have the capabilities that it needs.”

Wall Street is bracing for markets to open at 9:30 a.m. Thursday after Donald Trump unveiled his latest wave of tariffs on what the president called “Liberation Day.”

Trump’s announcement sent shockwaves through markets around the globe Wednesday, with the S&P 500 plunging 2.8 percent and the Nasdaq 100 losing more than 3 percent in the U.S., according to exchange-traded funds tracking the markets Wednesday.

Tech goliaths Apple and Tesla saw their stock slide more than six and eight percent respectively in late-night trading.

“The amount of economic uncertainty as is measured is so massive now that markets feel like they are on a razor’s edge,” a top New York hedge funder told the New York Post on the condition of anonymity.

President Donald Trump has privately told Cabinet members that Elon Musk will step back from his role in the administration soon, according to several reports.

Musk, who has been leading the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce and budget drastically, will soon step into a supporting role, anonymous Trump insiders told Politico and ABC News. Trump discussed this with Cabinet members at a March 24 meeting, Politico reports.

The tech mogul is officially designated as a “special government employee,” which means his role expires after 130 days. That would mean the role ends in late May or early June, but many expected the White House to extend the role or find another way to keep him in a front-line position, ABC News reports.

Katie Hawkinson reports from Washington D.C.

Four Republicans joined every Democratic senator in a resolution Wednesday to oppose President Donald Trump’s tariffs against Canada, Washington Bureau Chief Eric Garcia writes.

Senators voted 51-48 to reject the national emergency Trump declared earlier this year to justify slapping 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports.

The vote followed Trump’s announcement of his “Liberation Day” tariffs, a series of across-the-board levies of at least 10 percent on all nations.

Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine joined Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who crafted a resolution to oppose Trump’s tariffs with Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia.

Donald Trump’s latest batch of global tariffs sent shockwaves through markets, seeing Apple stock slide more than six percent in late-night trading Wednesday.

The president announced that blanket 10 percent tariffs on all countries and much higher levies on “worst offenders” such as China and Taiwan.

The majority of Apple’s devices are manufactured in China and other Asian countries.

Stocks broadly got hit by Trump’s announcement with the S&P 500 plunging 2.8 percent, while the Nasdaq 100 lost more than 3 percent, according to exchange-traded funds tracking the markets.

Nevertheless, Trump praised Apple – along with other tech goliaths including Meta and Nvidia – for investing in the U.S.

“Apple is going to spend $500 billion, they never spent money like that here,” Trump said. “They’re going to build their plants here.”