Principals

1. Sweeping tariffs take effect
2. Trump’s team of rivals
3. Trump weighs taxing rich
4. New tax polling
5. Trump lobbies budget hawks
6. Dem’s Tea Party
7. Pence group targets tariffs

PDB: Furman says imports are ‘a wonderful thing’

Greer faces House … Fed to release minutes … Bloomberg: Former Meta exec to testify that company aided China

Trump upends global trade

President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs took effect overnight, further spooking global markets and leaving countries across Europe and Asia grappling with how to respond. The levies include a total 104% tariff on China, which brings tariffs on many Chinese goods to about 120%, according to China expert Bill Bishop. Stocks in Asia and Europe fell, after a brief respite on Tuesday as hopes rose on Trump’s talk of dealmaking. Administration officials cited talks with some 70 countries, but US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer cautioned senators in testimony that “the trade deficit has been decades in the making and it’s not going to be resolved overnight.” The EU is set to consider retaliatory tariffs that hit red states, per Politico. Meanwhile Trump appears to be doubling down, threatening to soon announce “major” pharmaceutical tariffs.

Trump’s top advisers at odds

Trump’s economic advisers are becoming a team of rivals when it comes to advancing his market-breaking tariffs, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller, Morgan Chalfant and Shelby Talcott report. Ask Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett about negotiating on tariffs, for example, and you’ll hear four different answers. While Trump’s advisers are largely united on the spirit of his trade agenda, the mixed messages point to fundamental disagreements about how to address trade deficits. “It’s something that we’ve never had a discussion about before, in terms of: ‘Here’s a policy, let’s theorize about it — and then let’s try it and see what works.’ And that’s where we are. We’re at the try-it phase,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said. The results, however, are unsettling investors and frustrating congressional Republicans.

Trump open to higher taxes on rich

Republicans’ tax bill isn’t likely to raise income taxes on high-earning Americans — yet the idea is being discussed at the highest levels of government, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports. Trump was asked last week by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., about the possibility of letting income taxes rise for the highest earners — and the president responded that he’d be fine with that. To be sure, that’s far from a full-throated endorsement, and getting this proposal into law would require a herculean effort by Trump and the handful of Republicans who support it. “I believe the White House wants it,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said. “Now, could you get Republicans in Congress to pass that? I don’t know.” Several Republican leaders said on Tuesday they want to keep rates where they are for everyone, a sign of coolness toward increasing taxes in general.

Poll: Republicans OK with tax increase on high earners

Americans would support increasing taxes on high earners to pay for tax cuts on tipped income, according to new polling shared with Semafor. J.L. Partners surveyed 1,019 registered voters this spring and found strong support for that proposal. Overall, 52% of respondents said they would support cutting taxes on tips and increasing taxes on high earners, compared to just 26% of those who said they would prefer keeping taxes on high earners and tips where they are now. And a majority of Republicans backed that option as well, 54% to 26%. “If you needed any more proof that the Republican party has changed, this is it,” said James Johnson, a co-founder of J.L. Partners. “That voter realignment continues — and though it may frustrate some congressional Republicans, Trump’s grassroots strongly back his tax policy.”

— Burgess Everett

Budget hawks take to the White House

GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman brought a list of demands to a White House meeting to discuss Republicans’ pending budget framework on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the meeting. It’s a sign of the uphill battle Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have to win over a group of House members who aren’t happy with the Senate’s revisions to the budget proposal and want much deeper cuts. More than 15 members attended the meeting, which lasted close to two hours, according to a White House official. By the end, Trump was able to convince at least two members at the meeting — Reps. Greg Steube, R-Fla., and Ron Estes, R-Kan. — to flip their vote and support the framework. He chided the conference’s other budget hawks at the RNCC dinner, urging them to “stop grandstanding.”

— Kadia Goba

A Democratic Tea Party starts to take shape

As Trump continues to test the limits of presidential power, Democrats are trying to frame themselves as patriotic defenders of American tradition against a mad king, Semafor’s David Weigel writes. Elected Democrats had until recently shied away from the F-word; now lawmakers — from Minnesota progressive Ilhan Omar to House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark — are referring to Trump and his rhetoric as “fascist.” “In many ways, this is a small ‘c’ conservative movement,” said Ezra Levin, a co-founder of Indivisible, the advocacy organization behind the hundreds of “Hands Off” rallies that took place across the country over the weekend. “MAGA is not a conservative movement. It is deeply reactionary.” Even critics of Democrats from the left, like Sen. Bernie Sanders, have leaned into anti-authoritarian messaging, arguing that the party lost touch with working Americans as a broader crisis of democracy deepens.

Pence group attacks Trump tariffs

Mike Pence’s political advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, is criticizing Trump’s new tariff plan in a six-figure as campaign that launched Tuesday, according to details shared first with Semafor. His nonprofit’s digital ads will urge “an end to tariffs,” arguing they’ll “counteract the pro-growth agenda that worked so well” during Trump 1.0. The first ad, revealed Tuesday, highlights a sixth-generation farmer from Iowa arguing that “tariffs increase farm output costs.” This is far from the first time Pence has tangled with Trump in recent years: The duo fell out after Pence certified the 2020 election, and the former vice president has since pushed back on a number of Trump proposals, including his disinterest in a national abortion ban and his decision to ally with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

— Shelby Talcott

Blindspot: Lawsuits and research

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: The families of US victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel sued a Palestinian American businessman, alleging he helped facilitate the assault.

What the Right isn’t reading: An economist and former Biden official whose research was cited by the Trump administration in its tariff announcement said officials got it “very wrong.”

Olugbenga Agboola, Founder and CEO, Flutterwave; Robert Bradway, Chairman and CEO, Amgen; Doug Burgum, US Interior Secretary; John Caplan, CEO and Director, Payoneer; Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO, Tapestry; Jacek Olczak, CEO, PMI and more will join the Taking the Pulse of Consumer Confidence session at the 2025 World Economy Summit. As consumer spending drives global economic growth, this session examines how shifting demographics, digital transformation, and economic uncertainty are redefining consumer sentiment and behavior worldwide.

April 25, 2025 | Washington, DC | Learn More

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: Former Rep. Wiley Nickel, D-N.C., is announcing today that he will challenge Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who is up for reelection next year.

Playbook: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was spotted “deep in conversation” with Japan’s ambassador to the US, Shigeo Yamada, at a National Cherry Blossom Festival reception last night.

Axios: The White House is shrugging off a public feud between trade adviser Peter Navarro and Elon Musk. “The fact is, we like it,” a senior White House adviser said, laughing.

White House

• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is headed to Washington next week to negotiate tariff relief with President Trump.
• White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had “floated” exploring legal avenues for deporting American citizens who are “violent repeat offenders” to El Salvador.

Congress

• The Senate confirmed Elbridge Colby as undersecretary of defense for policy; he picked up support from three Democrats, while Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted against him.
• Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., vowed to force a vote on repealing President Trump’s tariffs.
• House Democrats plan to introduce legislation that would prohibit using the budget reconciliation to cut Medicaid and SNAP benefits

Economy

• President Trump’s global trade shakeup has reopened a debate about whether trade deficits are a sign of weakness or strength. Semafor’s Liz Hoffman talked to Jason Furman, former Obama economic adviser, who argued that trade deficits are actually a “wonderful thing.”“We’re lucky that we’re able to import more than we can export. We get a higher standard of living and more funding for business investment,” Furman said.

Outside the Beltway

• Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu passed on a Republican bid for US Senate.
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton confirmed he will attempt to primary GOP Sen. John Cornyn.
• Various Trump administration agencies froze a combined total of $1 billion in grants for Cornell University and $790 million for Northwestern, as the two schools face probes into what the administration says is antisemitism on campus. — NYT

Courts

• The Supreme Court blocked an order that required President Trump to reinstate fired federal workers across six agencies.
• The ACLU filed suit to stop the deportation of a pair of Venezuelan migrants and alleged gang members who now face imminent removal, after the Supreme Court lifted a hold on their deportation cases Monday.

National Security

• The IRS agreed to share immigrants’ tax information with ICE in order to help deportation efforts. The acting IRS commissioner resigned in protest, the AP reported.
• The Trump administration ended parole protections for nearly a million migrants who entered the US through the CBP One app under the Biden administration.
• The Pentagon is offering backpay to military personnel who were forced to leave their posts after declining to take a COVID-19 vaccine.

Foreign Policy

• The Chinese government criticized Vice President JD Vance after he said on Fox News that the US had been borrowing money from “Chinese peasants.”
• The Pentagon is considering withdrawing as many as 10,000 US troops from Eastern Europe, NBC reported. US European Command chief Gen. Christopher Cavoli pushed back on that idea in testimony before Congress.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv had captured two Chinese citizens fighting for Russia.
• A major border crossing near Montreal is seeing a spike in asylum seekers coming from the US. — CBC

Technology

• Trump administration officials believe that Elon Musk’s DOGE is “using artificial intelligence to surveil at least one federal agency’s communications for hostility” to President Trump’s agenda. — Reuters
• Hackers breached an administrator’s account at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and spied on bank regulators’ emails for more than a year. — Bloomberg

Media

• A federal judge ruled the AP’s access to White House events must be reinstated, citing First Amendment grounds.

Correction

Yesterday’s Principals mistakenly suggested that Congress had moved forward with President Trump’s agenda on a two-track approach, rather than a single track.

Principals Team

Edited by Morgan Chalfant, deputy Washington editor

With help from Elana Schor, senior Washington editor

And Graph Massara, copy editor

Contact our reporters:

Burgess Everett, Kadia Goba, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Ashley Moody is a Republican senator from Florida.