Elon Musk attacks Peter Navarro

Nationwide Financial Council director Kevin Hassett says that the Trump administration is “managing a large variety of requests for negotiations” from nations searching for to be spared from aggressive new U.S. tariffs.

“It’s difficult to undergo them,” Hassett stated in a Fox Information interview.

“There are such a lot of to undergo that we’re really on the point of current a plan for [Trump] on who and when” to talk with, Hassett stated.

— Kevin Breuninger

Taiwan Overseas Minister Lin Chia-lung stated his nation is ready to barter with the U.S. on tariffs and different commerce points.

“Concerning the negotiation content material, whether or not it’s lowering tariffs or funding procurement, particularly the non-tariff commerce boundaries that the U.S. is worried about, we have now ready numerous plans,” Chia-lung advised reporters.

“So long as the negotiation time and technique are confirmed, we are able to negotiate with the US at any time,” he stated.

— Dan Mangan

A rising a part of Walmart‘s enterprise might make it extra resilient towards tariffs and a doable recession.

Walmart’s membership program Walmart+ is growing — and the corporate says it’s driving loyalty amongst clients. Subscribers accounted for almost half of all spending on Walmart’s web site and app in its most up-to-date fiscal 12 months, the corporate advised CNBC.

That offers Walmart just a few benefits if Trump’s tariffs elevate its enter prices or set off an financial downturn. Because the memberships are extremely worthwhile, they provide Walmart room to maintain costs of groceries and different staples low even when the corporate’s bills improve.

Walmart+ is gaining floor at time for Walmart. The retailer gave a financial outlook that disappointed Wall Street in February — even earlier than Trump introduced the steep duties on key U.S. commerce companions.

— Jacob Pramuk and Melissa Repko

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky tore into the zero-sum view of commerce that Trump has repeatedly espoused in protection of his sweeping tariff plans.

“It is primarily based on a fallacy” that “in some way, in a commerce, somebody should lose,” Paul stated on CNBC’s “Squawk Field.”

The concept “somebody’s making the most of you, and China is ripping you off or Japan is ripping you off — it is completely a fallacy,” he stated.

“Each commerce that happens within the market is mutually helpful,” stated the like-minded son of the staunchly libertarian former congressman Ron Paul. “You probably have a free society and I need to commerce with you, if you wish to promote me your coat and I provide you with $200 for it, we each comply with it and we’re each completely satisfied.”

“The commerce is at all times a win-win.”

— Kevin Breuninger

California Rep. Ro Khanna says Trump’s tariffs have been hitting his district in Silicon Valley exhausting, particularly with delayed IPOs and mergers.

“I am listening to that these are a few of the most self-destructive, wealth-destroying insurance policies that any fashionable president has had,” Khanna stated on CNBC’s “Squawk Field.”

The Democrat stated the tariffs have damage not simply the tech firms, but in addition the producers.

Khanna additionally singled out Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, calling Lutnick’s declare that tariffs would result in extra iPhone manufacturing false.

“I do know Lutnick loves Nineteenth-century insurance policies, however he ought to perceive Twenty first-century manufacturing,” Khanna stated.

Khanna’s suggestion for Trump? “Herald new individuals on an financial staff, guarantee the nation you are by no means going to do blanket tariffs once more, that was a mistake, and that you will have a look at issues sector by sector.”

– Laya Neelakandan

Companies and customers need certainty as Trump’s steep tariffs loom, says Levi Strauss CEO Michelle Gass.

“The primary factor that everyone’s wrestling with proper now, ourselves, the business and most significantly, the buyer, everyone is wrestling with the uncertainty that is on the market. We’d like some readability,” she stated on CNBC’s “Mad Cash.”

The denim retailer reported first-quarter outcomes earlier at present, and maintained its earnings and gross sales outlook for the 12 months. Levi’s didn’t embrace the consequences of the brand new duties in its steerage.

Any value hikes the corporate makes to offset the tariffs could be “surgical,” she stated on the corporate’s earnings name.

Levi’s manufactures a few of its merchandise in nations like Cambodia and Vietnam, which can face 49% and 46% tariffs, respectively, beneath Trump’s plan.

— Jacob Pramuk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is sharply escalating his assaults on high Trump commerce advisor Peter Navarro as he defends his automobile firm and chafes towards the administration’s tariff plans.

“Tesla has probably the most American-made vehicles. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks,” Musk, Trump’s high marketing campaign donor, wrote on X, the social media platform he owns.

“Navarro is really a moron. What he says right here is demonstrably false,” Musk wrote in one other put up.

Musk was responding to Navarro’s rivalry in a CNBC interview on Monday that Musk just isn’t a automobile producer however a automobile “assembler” whose automobiles are product of many components sourced from abroad.

Days earlier, Musk in a since-deleted X put up stated Navarro “ain’t constructed s—.” In a separate put up, Musk questioned Navarro’s credentials, writing, “A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a nasty factor, not factor.”

Musk presently works for Trump as head of the White Home DOGE initiative. As Trump commits to his staunchly protectionist agenda, Musk has just lately signaled his assist for free-trade insurance policies.

White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt shrugged off questions on Musk’s assaults on his colleague.

“No matter,” Leavitt advised CNBC’s Eamon Javers. “We’re probably the most clear administration in historical past expressing our disagreements in public.”

— Kevin Breuninger and Eamon Javers

Cambodia is being hit with the most important single nation tariff charge of all, at 49%.

This has main implications for its factories, now in a battle to outlive the subsequent few months if the tariffs are applied, as retail companions freeze orders.

Its a million staff, a lot of whom are ladies on the low-end of the worldwide earnings distribution pie, are going through monetary smash.

However a U.S. commerce group that represents retailers reliant on Cambodia says factories now primarily based in Cambodia will “completely not” be coming again to the U.S.

As an alternative, they may search out different manufacturing areas in decrease tariff regimes.

Learn the complete story: Cambodia, hit with Trump’s steepest tariffs, ‘absolutely not’ sending factories back to U.S., says trade group

— Lori Ann LaRocco

Trump says China “needs to make a deal” as his deadline for steep new tariffs attracts close to, however provides that Beijing has not but reached out to the US.

“They do not know tips on how to get it began. We’re ready for his or her name. It should occur!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump additionally held what he described as a “nice name” with South Korea’s appearing president, Han Duck-soo.

“We’ve got the confines and likelihood of an excellent DEAL for each nations.”

— Kevin Breuninger

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says China is taking part in with a “losing hand” within the escalating tariff back-and-forth between the 2 nations.

“I believe it was an enormous mistake, this Chinese language escalation, as a result of they’re taking part in with a pair of twos,” Bessent stated on “Squawk Box.”

Different nations seem like extra keen to barter than China, he stated.

“If they arrive to the desk with strong proposals, I believe we are able to find yourself with some good offers,” he stated, “and a part of the calculus of that could be that some a part of the tariffs keep on.”

Final night time, members of the administration mentioned which nations to prioritize for commerce talks, he added.

— Jesse Pound

Founder and CEO of Citadel Ken Griffin is taking purpose at Trump’s tariffs, calling them a a “enormous coverage mistake” that can damage middle-class People.

“I’m actually afraid of us abdicating our function of management for the free world,” Griffin stated at an occasion for the one hundredth anniversary of the College of Miami, per Bloomberg.

“That is the trail we’re on,” the GOP donor provides.

— Erin Doherty

Stephane Boujnah, CEO of Euronext, says the latest market selloff just isn’t an indication of panic, however merely a rotation of property.

“Since this started, cash is leaving the US to be reinvested in Europe,” Boujnah stated in an interview with France Inter radio at present.

Traders, he stated, are struggling to navigate Trump’s unpredictability, which is making the U.S. “unrecognizable.”

“We’re mourning the US that we knew … which was very related in values and establishments to Europe,” he stated. “Now it appears to be like extra like an rising nation.”

Euronext operates markets in numerous European cities, together with Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Brussels and Dublin.

— Chloe Taylor

Historic allies the U.S. and European Union ought to have zero tariffs between them, Finnish Overseas Minister Elina Valtonen urged amid the bloc’s ongoing efforts to mitigate the impression of 20% White Home duties it was slapped with final week.

“Participating in a worldwide commerce battle is the surest method to obtain a worldwide recession,” Valtonen she stated throughout a press convention, in feedback reported by Reuters. “However after all the European Union now has to react to what the U.S. has put ahead,

The EU has beforehand expressed willingness to take steps towards Washington if negotiations fail, nevertheless it has but to specify the character and extent of those potential countermeasures.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Trump will signal energy-related Govt Orders this afternoon, and ship a speech to Home Republicans this night, based on the White Home schedule.

— Christina Wilkie

Von der Leyen and Chinese language Premier Li Qiang held “constructive” talks at present that contact on a doable mechanism for commerce diversion within the wake of sweeping levies introduced by the world’s first financial system.

“In response to the widespread disruption attributable to the US tariffs, President von der Leyen pressured the duty of Europe and China, as two of world’s largest markets, to assist a powerful reformed buying and selling system, free, honest and based on a degree taking part in discipline,” based on an EU readout, which added that von der Leyen referred to as for a “negotiated decision to the present scenario” that avoids escalation.

“The leaders mentioned establishing a mechanism for monitoring doable commerce diversion and guaranteeing any developments are duly addressed,” the readout stated.

Hypothesis has been mounting whether or not Trump’s protectionist agenda will push U.S. commerce companions towards China in a bid to redress business relations.

The dialog between the Beijing administration and the EU chief takes place after Washington final Wednesday slapped China and the EU with reciprocal tariffs of 34% and 20%, respectively. Beijing has already retaliated with its personal 34% levies on the U.S., which is now threatening additional countermeasures.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The newly confirmed U.S. Commerce Consultant, Jamieson Greer, will testify earlier than the Senate Finance Committee at present at a listening to on “The President’s 2025 Commerce Coverage Agenda.”

Greer’s testimony will supply the Senate certainly one of its first alternatives to query a Trump administration official concerning the president’s commerce and tariff coverage since Trump unveiled the sweeping new tariff regime.

The listening to will start at 10:00 a.m. ET, and CNBC.com will stream the listening to on our liveblog.

— Christina Wilkie

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will go to China and Vietnam later this week, as Europe prepares to soak up the impacts of a brand new 20% tariff charge.

Sanchez is scheduled to go to Hanoi on Wednesday, the identical day the brand new Trump tariff charges go into impact. Then he’ll go to Beijing, based on his workplace.

The go to underscores the stress on EU bloc nations like Spain to reassess their commerce relationships within the wake of Trump’s tariffs.

— Christina Wilkie