Treasury secretary Scott Bessent says China tariffs are not sustainable as US signals willingness to de-escalate
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that high tariffs between the US and China are not sustainable, as Donald Trump’s administration signaled openness to de-escalating a trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has raised fears of a global recession.
US stocks rallied on hopes that the two countries might lower the steep trade barriers they have erected over the past month, though there was no sign that negotiations might start anytime soon.
Bessent said the tariffs – 145% on Chinese products and a retaliatory 125% on US products – would have to come down before trade talks can proceed, but said Trump would not make that move unilaterally. Bessent told reporters:
Neither side believes that these are sustainable levels. As I said yesterday, this is the equivalent of an embargo and a break between the two countries in trade does not suit anyone’s interest.
The Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported that the White House is considering cutting tariff levels to as low as 50% on Chinese imports in a bid to lower tensions. A White House spokesperson dismissed any reports as “pure speculation” and said news on tariffs would come from Trump himself.
“We are going to have a fair deal with China,” Trump told reporters, but did not outline any specifics. The tariff levels outlined in the Journal report would likely still be high enough to deter a significant chunk of trade between the world’s two largest economies.
Bessent said the third quarter of this year is a “reasonable estimate” for achieving clarity on the ultimate level of Trump’s tariffs.
Key events
Stock markets rise as Trump backtracks on high China tariffs and firing Federal Reserve chair
Lauren Almeida in London and Lauren Aratani in New York
Stock markets rose around the world after Donald Trump said his tariffs on China would come down “substantially” and he had “no intention” of firing the chair of the US central bank, Jay Powell.
Weeks of tough talk on trade from White House officials have rattled investors and Trump now appears to be softening his tone. The president told reporters in Washington on Tuesday he planned to be “very nice” to China in trade talks and that tariffs could drop in both countries if they could reach a deal, adding:
It will come down substantially, but it won’t be zero.
Overnight in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei rose by nearly 2%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 2.4% and the South Korean Kospi gained 1.6%. The rally spread to Europe in early trading on Wednesday, with the UK’s FTSE 100 index up 1.6%, while the Italian FTSE MiB rose by 1.1%. Germany’s Dax gained 2.6% and France’s Cac 2.1%. Meanwhile, US stocks opened on a high Wednesday morning, with the Dow rallying over 800 points, and the Nasdaq Composite up over 3%.
On Wednesday, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, also took a softer, optimistic tone on China in remarks delivered at the Institute of International Finance in Washington DC, saying that China “knows it needs to change”. He said:
If China is serious on less dependence on export-led manufacturing growth and rebalancing toward a domestic economy … let’s rebalance together. This is an incredible opportunity.
Bessent told investors in a private meeting on Tuesday that he expects a “de-escalation” of the trade war between China and the US in the “very near future”.
‘America First’ does not mean America alone. To the contrary, it is a call for deeper collaboration and mutual respect among trade partners.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent says China tariffs are not sustainable as US signals willingness to de-escalate
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that high tariffs between the US and China are not sustainable, as Donald Trump’s administration signaled openness to de-escalating a trade war between the world’s two largest economies that has raised fears of a global recession.
US stocks rallied on hopes that the two countries might lower the steep trade barriers they have erected over the past month, though there was no sign that negotiations might start anytime soon.
Bessent said the tariffs – 145% on Chinese products and a retaliatory 125% on US products – would have to come down before trade talks can proceed, but said Trump would not make that move unilaterally. Bessent told reporters:
Neither side believes that these are sustainable levels. As I said yesterday, this is the equivalent of an embargo and a break between the two countries in trade does not suit anyone’s interest.
The Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported that the White House is considering cutting tariff levels to as low as 50% on Chinese imports in a bid to lower tensions. A White House spokesperson dismissed any reports as “pure speculation” and said news on tariffs would come from Trump himself.
“We are going to have a fair deal with China,” Trump told reporters, but did not outline any specifics. The tariff levels outlined in the Journal report would likely still be high enough to deter a significant chunk of trade between the world’s two largest economies.
Bessent said the third quarter of this year is a “reasonable estimate” for achieving clarity on the ultimate level of Trump’s tariffs.
The Ukrainian delegation had “productive” talks with US envoy Keith Kellogg in London on Wednesday after planned negotiations there were downgraded, Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said on Wednesday.
“We talked about our consistent position regarding a ceasefire, also about security guarantees. For my part, I believe the meeting was very productive and successful,” Umerov said in televised comments, shortly after Donald Trump once again lambasted Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
US justice department cancels hundreds of grants for police and victims of crime
The US justice department has canceled hundreds of ongoing grants that funded everything from services for mental health care for police officers to support programs for victims of crime and sexual assault, according to internal records and four sources familiar with the matter.
At least 365 grants from the Office of Justice Programs, the department’s largest grant-making arm, were terminated late on Tuesday, two sources told Reuters. In fiscal year 2023, that office collectively awarded $4.4bn in funding, according to the justice department’s website.
Among the programs that are being targeted include grants that supported transgender victims of crime, hotlines used by crime victims, human trafficking grants awarded to organizations that work with immigrants and refugees, programs to curb juvenile delinquency and safeguard incarcerated youth, and funding to help state-run hate crime reporting, according to a partial list of terminated grants seen by Reuters.
In an email sent to Office of Justice Programs staff on Tuesday, the deputy assistant attorney general, Maureen Henneberg, said that canceled grants “no longer support the department’s priorities”. She added that the new funding priorities will focus on “certain law enforcement operations, combating violent crime, protecting American children, supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and promoting coordination of law enforcement efforts at all levels of government”.
A justice department spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.
Many justice department employees who work on managing and awarding the grants did not learn about the cancellations until the grantees were notified on Tuesday, the sources said.
Adria R Walker
Trump cuts federal grants to Louisiana plantation museum focused on reality of slavery
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS ) has terminated two grants for Black history and culture that were awarded to the Whitney Plantation, a former indigo, sugar and rice plantation in Louisiana that focuses on the truths of slavery and the experiences of people who were enslaved. IMLS provides resources and support to libraries, archives and museums in all 50 states and territories.
The termination comes as the Trump administration has both gutted federal funding aimed at arts and cultural institutions and has pushed to end state and federal initiatives in support of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The Whitney Plantation already received one of the grants this year, but the other, which was to help fund an exhibit about how enslaved people resisted on plantations, was set to be completed in June this year. Without the funding, the Whitney stands to lose about $55,000. The exhibit on resistance to slavery, on which the museum had worked for three years, was due to open in January 2026.
When the Whitney Plantation opened in 2014 as a museum, it was the first plantation in the country dedicated to memorializing slavery and honoring enslaved people – most plantations in the US, often used as sites for weddings or other lighthearted forms of tourism, instead erase the history of slavery.
In March, the IMLS itself was a target for Donald Trump and the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), which has been responsible for numerous cuts to the federal government since it began operating in January. In a March executive order, Trump called for the IMLS to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” within seven days of the order. Also in March, Doge put nearly all of the IMLS’s employees on administrative leave, rendering it difficult for the federal agency to fully function. As a result, library systems and museums across the country have reported concerns about receiving promised IMLS grants, while others, like the Whitney Plantation, have been notified that their grants are terminated.
Trump claims Russia-Ukraine peace deal close but accuses Zelenskyy of harming process and having ‘no cards to play’
Donald Trump has attacked Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Ukraine’s president said he would not recognize Russia’s occupation of Crimea.
Trump said the inflammatory statement would make a peace deal with Russia harder to achieve. “This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. He said “We are very close to a Deal”, adding that Crimea was lost years ago “and is not even a point of discussion”.
However, earlier we reported that leaks to the Financial Times and other media have indicated that Russia is willing to abandon its territorial claims to three Ukrainian regions it only partly occupies after three years of fighting in return for the US formally recognising its 2014 annexation of Crimea as part of a ceasefire agreement. Such a recognition would be a formal acknowledgment that it is possible to change borders by force, in effect creating an extraordinary post-second world war precedent.
At present neither Russia nor the US has gone on the record to confirm the reports, though on Monday Trump said he would be providing “full detail” on the peace proposals “over the next three days”.
Zelenskyy said on Tuesday his country could not accept recognising Crimea as Russian territory. “There is nothing new to mention or discuss. Ukraine will not recognise the occupation of Crimea,” he said, adding that it would be incompatible with Ukraine’s constitution.
Here is Trump’s lengthy (sorry) post:
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is boasting on the front page of The Wall Street Journal that, “Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There’s nothing to talk about here.” This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion. Nobody is asking Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian Territory but, if he wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired? The area also houses, for many years before “the Obama handover,” major Russian submarine bases. It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country. I have nothing to do with Russia, but have much to do with wanting to save, on average, five thousand Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, who are dying for no reason whatsoever. The statement made by Zelenskyy today will do nothing but prolong the “killing field,” and nobody wants that! We are very close to a Deal, but the man with “no cards to play” should now, finally, GET IT DONE. I look forward to being able to help Ukraine, and Russia, get out of this Complete and Total MESS, that would have never started if I were President!
Sam Levine
Donald Trump attacked the federal judge overseeing a legal challenge to his effort to punish a major law firm on Wednesday and appeared to confuse two legal cases.
Trump said on Wednesday that he was suing the firm, Perkins Coie. But it is actually Perkins Coie that is suing him for a 6 March executive order that essentially makes it impossible for the firm to do business with the federal government or represent clients who have business before it. Trump had sued Perkins Coie as part of a wide ranging lawsuit in Florida in 2022 before a different judge, Donald Middlebrooks. That case was dismissed in September 2022.
The suit filed by Perkins Coie has been assigned to US district judge Beryl Howell, whom Trump attacked on Wednesday.
“I’m suing the law firm of Perkins Coie for their egregious and unlawful acts, in particular the conduct of a specific member of this firm, only to find out that the Judge assigned to this case is Beryl Howell, an Obama appointment, and a highly biased and unfair disaster,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“She ruled against me in the past, in a shocking display of sick judicial temperament, on a case that ended up working out very well for me, on appeal,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Her ruling was so pathologically bad that it became the “talk of the town.” I could have a 100% perfect case and she would angrily rule against me. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome, and she’s got a bad case of it. To put it nicely, Beryl Howell is an unmitigated train wreck. NO JUSTICE!!!”
Neither Perkins Coie nor the White House immediately returned a request for comment.
The government previously asked Howell to be recused from the case – a request that she rejected.
“When the U.S. Department of Justice engages in this rhetorical strategy of ad hominem attack, the stakes become much larger than only the reputation of the targeted federal judge. This strategy is designed to impugn the integrity of the federal judicial system and blame any loss on the decision-maker rather than fallacies in the substantive legal arguments presented,” Howell wrote in an opinion denying the request to recuse herself.
Perkins Coie has already secured a temporary restraining order blocking portions of the order. The firm asked Howell this week to permanently block the order.
Another firm challenging a similar order, WilmerHale, has made a similar request in a separate case. The firms Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey are also suing the Trump administration in challenges of executive orders that are widely seen to be an effort to intimidate lawyers from taking on cases adverse to the administration.
Joanna Walters
In a video post announcing that he will not seek re-election next year at the end of his latest term in the US Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois had a warning.
“Right now the challenges facing our country are historic and unprecedented. The threats to our democracy and way of life are very real,” he said.
He continued: “And I can assure you I will do everything in my power to fight for Illinois and the future of our country every day of my remaining time in the Senate.”
He said he had spent half his life in national politics. “I’ve always tried to stand up to power,” he said. He pays tribute to his family and his staff and then points out that the Illinois junior senator, Tammy Duckworth, who will inherit from him the status as senior senator for the state (ie she will then become the longer serving of the two senators, with someone filling the then junior seat vacated by Durbin), is “a trusted friend and an effective leader”, adding that “she will be a real asset to Illinois and the nation” as our state’s senior senator.
Durbin titled the video “Time to pass the torch”. It echoes Joe Biden who came into the presidency promising to be a bridge to the next generation but then deciding to run for a second term at 81 and eventually having to drop out under pressure four months before the 2024 election, after being urged by his own party to “pass the torch”. Donald Trump then beat Biden’s successor Kamala Harris for the White House.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin will not seek re-election
Joanna Walters
Illinois’s Dick Durbin has announced he will retire after 44 years in the US Congress and as one of the most influential Democrats in Washington.
Durbin is the second highest ranking Democrat in the US Senate, behind minority leader Chuck Schumer, and the 80-year-old has announced moments ago that he will not seek re-election in 2026.
He posted on X: “The decision of whether to run for re-election has not been easy. I truly love the job of being a United States Senator. But in my heart, I know it’s time to pass the torch. So, I am announcing today that I will not be seeking re-election at the end of my term.”
Joanna Walters
In the latest legal wrinkle in the vexed and constitution-testing case of Kilmar Ábrego García, the Trump administration moments ago continued to resist the federal judge’s orders to produce information about the steps it has taken, if any, to return him to the US after he was, by the government’s admission, mistakenly removed to El Salvador without due process.
Drew Ensign, a deputy assistant attorney general, filed a sealed motion asking for a stay of the judge’s order to provide sworn testimony and documents about efforts to return Ábrego García, who was living and working in Baltimore and subject to court protection against deportation to his native El Salvador before he was snatched up by the immigration authorities last month.
The request comes just hours after federal judge Paula Xinis in Maryland castigated the Trump administration and accused it of bad faith in trying to evade her orders without fully describing why it has special privilege to do so.
Xinis had given the administration until 6pm ET today to produce information. The White House has instead filed a sealed motion for a stay of seven days of her order, the Associated Press reports, and is also requesting relief from providing daily status updates on the Ábrego García’s status and their efforts to get him back – which courts have characterized essentially as non-efforts.
Federal judge accuses White House of ‘bad faith’ in Kilmar Ábrego García case
Joanna Walters and Sam Levine in New York and agencies
The federal court that has found itself in a pitched battle with the executive branch over the summary removal of Salvadorian Kilmar Ábrego García despite a previous order against deportation has now accused the Trump administration of “bad faith” in the case.
US district judge Paula Xinis has given the Trump administration until 6pm ET on Wednesday to provide details to support its claims that it does not have to comply with orders to return the man to the US, where he was living and working in Baltimore, because of special privilege.
Xinis castigated the administration late on Tuesday saying it is ignoring court orders and obstructing the legal process. She wrote:
For weeks, defendants have sought refuge behind vague and unsubstantiated assertions of privilege, using them as a shield to obstruct discovery and evade compliance with this court’s orders.
Giving the new deadline for information, she added:
Defendants have known, at least since last week, that this court requires specific legal and factual showings to support any claim of privilege. Yet they have continued to rely on boilerplate assertions. That ends now.
The US supreme court ordered the Trump administration nearly two weeks ago to facilitate Ábrego García’s return to the US from a notorious Salvadorian prison, rejecting the White House’s claim that it couldn’t retrieve him despite the administration having admitted previously in court that it had sent him out of the country by mistake.
Earlier, we brought you Trump’s comments that he’s apparently suing Perkins Coie, one of the law firms that has sued his administration after Trump issued punitive executive orders because of their connection to adversaries or involvement in causes against him.
While we get some clarity on what Trump is actually doing, this is from Politico.
Trump appears confused here. He is suing Perkins Coie in Florida in a case before Judge Middlebrooks that has been dismissed and resulted in sanctions against him and Alina Habba.
Perkins Coie is suing HIM before Judge Howell over his retaliatory executive order. pic.twitter.com/JTEwzDU75h
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) April 23, 2025
