Principals

1. Inside Trump’s tariff reversal
2. Global markets surge
3. Trump’s China trade war
4. Johnson tries again on budget
5. GOP warned on Medicaid
6. DCCC’s 2026 plans
7. Whitmer at the White House

PDB: Republicans huddle with Fed’s Powell

Consumer price index released … Fed’s Bowman sits for confirmation hearing … WSJ: US-Russia prisoner swap

Inside a wild 7 days in Washington

At least three Republican senators lobbied President Donald Trump directly to use the leverage created by his massive tariff regime to pressure US allies to cut their own tariffs, Semafor’s Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller, Shelby Talcott and Liz Hoffman report. And he appears to have listened. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, all spoke to Trump directly about using the opportunity created by his tariffs to strike some deals. When Trump announced he would do exactly that, there was applause in the Senate Republican lunch. “Jubilation is too strong a word, but it was positive,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, of the mood. The news also spurred a rally on Wall Street. One senior Wall Street executive told Semafor Trump’s decision was “the financial and economic equivalent of Khrushchev turning the ships around.”

Global stocks breathe sigh of relief

Global stocks surged on the news of Trump’s tariff pause, reflecting widespread relief in Europe and Asia. Japan’s Nikkei closed up 9%, while Taiwan’s stock market jumped 10% and South Korea’s Kospi surged 6%. European stocks jumped upon opening on Thursday. US stocks also surged: the S&P 500 notched its largest single-day gain since 2008 (and its third-largest since World War II). To be sure, there are still lingering concerns about the impact of existing tariffs — including the 10% baseline levy Trump settled on, and persisting high tariffs on China. And Wall Street is worrying about the risk of lasting damage to the US economy. “President Trump’s surprise pause… upends any pretence that we understand his strategy,” strategists at ING admitted.

Trump reverts to China trade war

Trump doubled down on his trade war with China on Wednesday and pledged to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 125%, but was still insisting that Beijing wants to “make a deal.” China’s retaliatory 84% tariffs on US goods begin today, and the country also plans to hit back at US companies using other tools, like trade blacklists and export controls. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that the US would cut trade deals with its allies, who’d then “approach China as a group,” and one administration official suggested countries negotiating with the US could raise their own tariffs on China. But Trump’s tariffs have already strained US relationships. It’s “hard to argue that China looks like a less reliable or attractive partner than the US” right now, said Anna Ashton, an expert on US-China relations.

— Morgan Chalfant and Shelby Talcott

House GOP pulls budget resolution

House Republicans will try again to advance their party’s tax agenda today, after leadership yanked the blueprint from the floor Wednesday amid opposition from fiscal hawks. At issue: daylight between spending cuts outlined in the Senate-passed resolution and deeper ones the House already greenlit. Hardliners “were concerned that we’re going to get rolled” in the final legislation, “so we’re going to put some wording in there,” Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., told reporters after huddling with a dozen or so holdouts and Republican leaders off the House floor for over an hour, as the rest of the chamber waited. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters leaving that meeting that he’d called Trump, who is “very supportive of us working together.” Johnson added later that “if we have to come back next week, then we’ll do that.”

— Eleanor Mueller and from Kadia Goba

Group warns GOP against Medicaid cuts

The health care industry is pressuring Republicans to avoid cutting Medicaid as GOP lawmakers search for avenues to pay for Trump’s legislative agenda. The Coalition to Strengthen American Healthcare is launching a new ad today, shared first with Semafor, that warns of “devastating cuts” to a program that some 30 million children rely on. The spot, which will air nationally on cable, is part of a larger seven-figure “Faces of Medicaid” campaign from the group that is designed to dissuade Republicans from cutting the popular health program for low-income and disabled Americans. Any language touching Medicaid is likely to be a sore spot in GOP budget talks, as moderate and vulnerable members say they’ll vote against a reconciliation bill that cuts too deeply.

How Dems plan to run on Trump’s tariffs

House Democrats’ campaign chief is mapping out how her caucus can wield Trump’s tariffs against Republicans next year. “It’s important that we continue to talk [about] not only the impact, but what we could be doing instead,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., told Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller. “We could be focused on helping working families. We could be engaged in policy where we look at how we build a strong economy going forward.” DelBene sat down shortly after the DCCC unveiled the 35 House seats Democrats want to flip in the midterms, saying Republicans “have broken the promise to lower costs.” Meanwhile, DelBene’s party has grappled in real time with framing the tariffs, Semafor’s David Weigel writes; national Democrats have settled on framing Trump’s trade policy as needlessly chaotic, but they’re cautious of abandoning tariffs as an economic lever.

Whitmer gets a little too bipartisan

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s trip to DC to give an economic speech on Wednesday ended with an awkward Oval Office appearance. In her speech, the governor ticked off bipartisan ways to manufacture more cars, chips, and ships in America. “While I share the president’s goal of bringing good-paying, middle-class manufacturing jobs back home,” she said, “it’s got to be done right.” Whitmer didn’t say how she would have approached tariffs differently than Trump. Later, Whitmer stood in the Oval Office for a lengthy press gaggle and watched Trump sign a series of executive orders that punished critics from his first administration. A spokesman for Whitmer told Semafor that she was “surprised that she was brought into the Oval Office during President Trump’s press conference without any notice of the subject matter,” and that her presence wasn’t meant as an endorsement.

— David Weigel

The World Economy Summit 2025 is bringing together the decision-makers who are shaping the future of global economic policy. The three-day summit, taking place from April 23–25, 2025 in Washington, DC, will focus on ways leaders across business, finance, tech, and beyond are navigating the complexities of tariffs, shifting trade dynamics, and evolving policy landscapes.

Featuring on-the-record conversations with Carlos Cuerpo, Minister for Economy, Trade and Business, Spain; Jan Jambon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finances and Pensions, Belgium; Jörg Kukies, Federal Minister of Finance, Germany; Éric Lombard, Minister of Economy and Finance, France; Hon. John Mbadi Ngongó, Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury & Economic Planning, Kenya; Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, United Kingdom, and more, the summit will facilitate in-depth discussions on how countries are adapting to these challenges and building resilience in a rapidly changing world.

April 23-25 | Washington, DC | Learn More

Blindspot: Pronouns and Harriet Tubman

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 White House press office is refusing to answer questions from reporters who list their identifying pronouns in email signatures, The New York Times reported.

What the Right isn’t reading: The National Park Service restored a picture of and quote from Harriet Tubman to a webpage about the Underground Railroad after initially removing them.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: House Speaker Mike Johnson’s suggestion that the House and Senate enter a formal conference negotiation to resolve differences in their spending-cut targets in the budget irked some members in the upper chamber. “They got on our case for delaying. Now they’re the ones delaying,” one GOP senator said. “The president was right, these guys are grandstanding.”

Playbook: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent played a “critical role” in convincing President Trump to change course on tariffs.

WaPo: A coalition of Democratic groups focused on young people is urging Democrats to “hold the line” against the House GOP’s voter ID bill.

White House

• President Trump’s decision to pause the most extreme tariffs was triggered by sharply rising bond yields. — NYT

Congress

• House Republicans on the Financial Services Committee’s monetary policy task force met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell Wednesday morning for “a candid exchange of ideas in a non-public setting,” according to a person in attendance, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller scoops.“When Congress understands what the Fed is doing, how the Fed is thinking — that limits risks to its independence,” the person, who was granted anonymity to discuss the off-record event, added.
• The Senate confirmed Trump’s nominee for Securities and Exchange Commission chair, Paul Atkins, as well as a handful of Trump’s picks for ambassadorships: Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel, Pete Hoekstra as US ambassador to Canada, Ronald Johnson as US ambassador to Mexico, and Kevin Cabrera as US ambassador to Panama.

Executive Orders

• The latest law firm to be targeted by name by President Trump is Susman Godfrey, which represented Dominion Voting Systems in its costly defamation case against Fox News. A pair of orders likewise targeted former cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs and Trump official turned tell-all author Miles Taylor.
• An order Trump signed Wednesday attempts to “make shower heads great again.”

Business

• The Chinese companies behind many of Amazon’s cheap products are getting ready to either hike prices to account for US tariffs or find new markets to sell in. — Reuters

Economy

• The percentage of US credit card holders making minimum monthly payments rose to the highest level in 12 years at the end of 2024. — Bloomberg

Courts

• The Trump administration took a case involving the attempted firing of two independent regulators to the Supreme Court.
• The Department of Justice will no longer allow its staff to attend American Bar Association events, after the legal industry group decried President Trump’s retaliation against law firms and issued a statement supporting “the rule of law.”

Health

• Several USDA employees working on bird flu will leave the government at the end of the month.
• In an interview with CBS that aired Wednesday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was considering a “framework” for having Medicaid and Medicare cover GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and expressed qualified support for the measles vaccine.

National Security

• FBI Director Kash Patel was replaced as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives by Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll. — Reuters
• About nine in 10 migrants deported to El Salvador last month had no US criminal record. — Bloomberg

Foreign Policy

• The US has recognized Panama’s sovereignty over the Panama Canal, Panamanian leaders said, following a visit from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
• President Trump said he would “absolutely” use military action against Iran if there is no nuclear deal: “If it requires military, we’re gonna have military.”

Technology

• Microsoft is hitting the brakes on some AI data center projects.

Media

• President Trump watched JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s interview Wednesday morning with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo — in which he said a recession was likely — shortly before deciding to pause reciprocal tariffs. — WSJ
• A judge found Newsmax aired false and defamatory claims about Dominion Voting Systems following the 2020 election, paving the way for a jury trial.

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

Joe Manchin is a former Democrat-turned-independent US senator from West Virginia. He is releasing a memoir called “Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense” this fall.