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Good morning and welcome to White House Watch!
Our dignitary of the day is Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, who will visit Donald Trump at the White House in a hugely consequential meeting. Europe’s security is on the line.
In the meantime, let’s talk about:
Trump is sticking to his guns as he wages his trade wars.
He and his advisers are moving to radically reshape the US economy, aiming to transform the country from a black hole of consumption with a huge trade deficit to a manufacturing beast.
His primary tools in this economic pivot — aggressive tariffs and government spending cuts — have roiled the stock market and raised fears about a potential slowdown in growth. Yesterday the EU and Canada retaliated against Trump’s steel and aluminium levies, escalating the trade war.
And this morning, Trump threatened to slap 200 per cent retaliatory tariffs on alcohol imports from the EU if the bloc doesn’t get rid of its duty on US whiskey, which kicks in on April 1.
The president has so far shrugged all this off, with the White House dubbing it a period of “economic transition”.
The cadre of former business leaders administering his economic shock therapy are not interested in moderating the president. Instead, they’re backing his message that the US may need a recession before reaping what they claim are the sweeping benefits of Trumponomics.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, a former hedge fund manager that Wall Street was really excited about, has signalled that the new administration won’t come rescue the market.
Meanwhile, Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, has privately expressed scepticism about imposing significant tariffs on imports, according to people familiar with the matter.
This has emboldened Trump loyalist Peter Navarro, who is a staunch supporter of aggressive trade policy.
The increased power of more radical figures in the White House has helped turn an initial bump in stock prices — amid promises of tax cuts and rapid deregulation — into a market rout as investors realise that the administration has not come to play.
Investors are also worried about the so-called Mar-a-Lago Accord, a plan by Stephen Miran, chair the Council of Economic Advisers, to weaken the dollar, which could further destabilise markets.
Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, has not been a check on the president the way Gary Cohn, who did the job in Trump’s term, was.
Also egging Trump on are the financial elite. Two of Wall Street’s most powerful executives — Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon and Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman — have vaunted the upsides to Trump’s policies.
The latest headlines
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What we’re hearing
Since his dad won the election, Donald Trump Jr has rapidly expanded his business interests.
He has investments across industries including the financial, media, pharmaceutical, gun, cryptocurrency, betting and alcohol sectors — all with an anti-woke twist. Trump Jr is focused on companies that draw conservative audiences, capitalising on the backlash to DEI and ESG that is a hallmark of his father’s second administration.
Out of the president’s five children, Trump Jr, who helps run the family’s golf and resort business, is the most politically active. He was instrumental in the selection of JD Vance as his father’s running mate and promotes their “America First” worldview on his podcast, Triggered.
Donald Trump’s fortune is closely intertwined with his eldest son’s. The president has made Trump Jr the sole trustee of what’s thought to be his largest financial asset: his $3.2bn stake in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (TMTG), the parent company of Truth Social. Trump Jr is a board member of TMTG too.
Trump Jr told the FT that despite his control of his father’s businesses, he works “very carefully to ensure that we have proper conflict protocols”.
He’s also entrenching himself further in the so-called parallel economy — a nascent ecosystem targeting consumers with conservative or Christian values who are critical of “woke businesses”.
He has become an adviser to three publicly traded US companies: drone manufacturer Unusual Machines, conservative online marketplace PublicSquare and fintech Dominari Holdings. In each case, the company’s share prices jumped on the news.
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