Trump live: President declares tariffs are ‘going very well’ despite $3 trillion Wall Street rout and fears over global recession

Trump’s latest batch of tariffs could see Apple’s iPhone prices soar, analysts suggest.

The devices are largely made in China, which is expected to be hit with a 54 percent tariff next week. If those import taxes persist, Apple has a difficult choice to make: absorb the costs or pass them on to the consumer.

If the latter, iPhones could leave a larger dent in your wallet, with costs potentially increasing beyond 40 percent.

An iPhone 16 Pro Max, which currently retails at $1599, could cost almost $2300 if a 43 percent increase was passed to consumers, analysts told Reuters and USA Today.

Donald Trump expressed support for Marine Le Pen, the French far-right politician and leader of the National Rally party, sniping the court’s decision to bar her from running as the nation’s president in 2027.

“The Witch Hunt against Marine Le Pen is another example of European Leftists using Lawfare to silence Free Speech, and censor their Political Opponent, this time going so far as to put that Opponent in prison,” he wrote on Turth Social on Thursday night.

Trump then reflected on his judicial battles and compared them to Le Pen’s trial after she was found guilty of embezzling European Parliament funds Monday.

“It is the same ‘playbook’ that was used against me by a group of Lunatics and Losers, like Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, and Lisa Monaco. They spent the last nine years thinking of nothing else, and they FAILED, because the People of the United States realized that they were only Corrupt Lawyers and Politicians,” he continued.

The president concluded his rant with: “FREE MARINE LE PEN!”

Top congressional Democrats voiced their disdain after General Timothy Haugh was reportedly fired as National Security Agency director following Donald Trump’s meeting with far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.

“It is astonishing that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan leader of the NSA while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on Signal – even as he apparently takes staffing direction from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office,” Indianapolis Senator Mark Warner said.

House Intelligence Committee member Jim Hines wrote on X that he is “deeply disturbed by the decision.”

Wall Street’s selloff continued Friday after China slapped 34 percent tariffs on all U.S. goods imported into the nation – compounded by analysts upping their recession risk predictions.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid more than 2.5 percent and S&P 500 futures dropped more than 2.6 percent after shedding 4.8 percent on Thursday.

China has struck back with 34 percent tariffs on all U.S. goods Friday matching Donald Trump’s levies on Chinese goods.

The import taxes on U.S. goods would be imposed from April 10, according to China’s Finance Ministry.

China’s Ministry of Commerce also announced that it was adding 11 American companies to its “unreliable entities” list, essentially inhibiting them from doing business in the nation.

“The purpose of the Chinese government’s implementation of export controls on relevant items in accordance with the law is to better safeguard national security and interests, and to fulfill international obligations such as non-proliferation,” the Commerce Ministry said in a statement, per Reuters.

Trump’s sweeping tariffs sent shockwaves through Wall Street, wiping about $3.1 trillion in market value in its largest one-day decline since the Covid pandemic.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 4 percent. The S&P 500 fell 4.8 percent.

And the tech-focused Nasdaq was down 6 percent — fuelled by declines from Apple, Nvidia and Amazon.

Donald Trump’s new batch of global tariffs have triggered a wave of economic uncertainty.

JPMorgan’s Chief Economist Bruce Kasman said the investment bank now sees a 60 percent chance of the global economy entering recession in 2025, up from 40 percent.

“Disruptive U.S. policies has been recognized as the biggest risk to the global outlook all year,” Kasman wrote in a research note Thursday. “The effect of this tax hike is likely to be magnified — through retaliation, a slide in U.S. business sentiment, and supply chain disruptions.”

JPMorgan economists describe tariffs “at a basic level” as a functional tax increase on U.S. household and business purchases of foreign goods. They “view the full implementation of announced policies as a substantial macroeconomic shock,” per the note.

At a domestic level, investment banking firm Goldman Sachs has echoed JPMorgan’s concerns, earlier this week raising its U.S. recession probability in 2025 to 35 percent, from 20 percent.

“The increase in our recession probability reflects the sharp deterioration in household and business confidence in the outlook over the last month,” its report stated.

Other Wall Street brokerages — including Barclays and Deutsche Bank — also warned of an enhanced risk that the U.S. economy could slip into a recession this year.

Trump fired several members of the National Security Council, including senior directors, after the meeting, Axios reports. One U.S. official told the outlet the firings are shaping up to be a “bloodbath.” The New York Times added that “at least three” senior NSC officials have been fired.

Andrew Feinberg and Katie Hawkinson report from Washington, D.C.