Trump news live: Tariff threat to Canada, Mexico and China sends shockwaves through markets

By Katelyn Caralle, senior US political reporter

Global markets reacted loudly negatively when Donald Trump announced his plans to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.

The president-elect wrote two posts on his social media platform on Monday claiming he plans to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on products from China and 25 percent on products entering from Mexico and Canada.

Trump says the intention is to punish the countries for not acting to defuse the border crisis, saying they will remain “until drugs, especially Fentanyl, and all illegal aliens continue to invade our country.” will stop!’

In response to the news, the Mexican peso weakened further on Tuesday and the Canadian dollar fell to its lowest level since 2020.

The markets in Japan and China closed at a lower level and the markets in the United Kingdom also opened.

A sign in Tokyo shows Japan’s Nikkei index falling this week after Trump’s tariff announcement

A 33-year-old assistant nicknamed the “human printer” has left newly elected President Donald Trump’s staff “nervous” over her overly fawning letters and undying loyalty to their boss.

Natalie Harp wrote Trump’s devotional missions last year, which showed an almost Christian devotion to the 78-year-old new commander in chief.

The New York Times reported Monday that sources felt uncomfortable about the submissive messages.

“You are the only thing that matters to me,” the former right-wing presenter wrote in one of the letters.

“I never want to let you down,” she said, calling Trump her “Guardian and Protector in this life.”

In another letter, she told Trump she wanted to get back to “that synergy” she used to have with him, where “we talked about everything and nothing.”

“I want to give you joy,” she wrote, “to feel like we can get through the day without ever having to talk about ‘work.’

Democratic National Committee employees are asking for charitable donations following significant layoffs during a dramatic downsizing after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election.

The pleas for donations sparked outrage on social media as memories of the massive $1 billion Kamala Harris campaign spending were still fresh, including millions of dollars spent hosting celebrity-filled town halls for the vice president .

Two-thirds of DNC staffers were laid off Wednesday as part of the downsizing, with just one day’s notice and without severance pay, the union said.

“These cuts go well beyond the typical campaign cycle and impact employees who were previously told their positions would be retained after the election,” read the statement from the union protesting the layoffs.

The DNC’s union fund portrayed laid-off workers as victims of the party and urged individuals to send donations to soften the blow.

“We are heartbroken to see our colleagues – who spent countless hours electing Democrats – leave under these circumstances.

For Donald Trump it was self-evident, but for a young fan with a fashionable haircut this was a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.

While driving around his Trump International golf course in West Palm Beach this week, Trump stopped to say hello to his fellow golfers — and made an extraordinary offer to a young admirer.

Wearing his signature red MAGA cap and a matching red quarter-zip jacket with what appears to be the seal of the President of the United States on the front, Trump is seen in the social media post as he drove around among golfers taking practice swings.

Then he sees a cute young girl in a sky blue polo shirt and blue jeans, surprised by her head full of thick, dark brown curls pulled back from her face by a band or tie.

Gavin Newsom plans to defy Donald Trump as he stiffs key MAGA ally Elon Musk, while California plans an electric vehicle rebate program that deliberately leaves out Tesla.

California’s governor plans to introduce a state tax credit on the purchase of electric cars if the Trump administration eliminates the federal tax cut.

Newsom even bragged that his policies have made Tesla and Musk “so damn successful.”

The new discounts could exclude Tesla and other automakers with large market shares in an effort to promote more competition, the governor’s office said. But that must be negotiated with the state legislature.

Tesla has 55% of the EV market share in California, up from 64% a year ago. Hyundai and BMW are the next two largest EV sellers in the state, with just 6.4% and 5.5% respectively.

Musk, whose company is the only one that actually produces electric cars in the Golden State, clearly felt left out and denounced Newsom’s proposal.

‘Even though Tesla is the only company that produces its electric cars in California! This is insane,” he wrote on X.

A top NATO chief has urged business leaders to prepare for a “war scenario” after rising tensions around the world.

The warning comes as Germany announced it was drawing up a list of bunkers and other underground facilities that could shelter civilians in the event of an attack.

During a speech in Brussels yesterday, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer warned that NATO members needed to adjust their production and distribution lines to be less vulnerable to blackmail from countries such as Russia and China.

The chairman of NATO’s Military Committee said: “If we can ensure that all critical services and goods can be delivered no matter what, then that is an important part of our deterrence.”

Speaking at a meeting of the European Policy Center think tank, he described deterrence as going well beyond military capability, as all available instruments could and would be used in wars.

“We see that with the growing number of acts of sabotage, and Europe has seen that with energy supplies,” Bauer said.

Meanwhile, Germany is investigating methods to keep the civilian population safe in the event of a conflict.

This would involve reopening Germany’s 579 World War II and Cold War bunkers and repurposing underground parking garages and metro stations as shelters.