Trump’s billionaire supporter Bill Ackman calls for 90-day pause on tariffs to avoid ‘economic nuclear war’: Live

Trump’s commerce secretary seemingly admitted yesterday that American workers would not see long-lost manufacturing jobs return as a result of the president’s new tariff strategy.

Lutnick appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday and promised that “trillions” of dollars would flow into the U.S. in the form of new investments in its manufacturing sector.

Margaret Brennan, the show’s host, questioned whether those factories would be “automated”, as Lutnick had said previously.

Pointing out that the construction of new factories “takes years” and will do nothing to bring down costs of consumer goods for Americans in the short term, Brennan added: “You said that robots are going to fill those jobs. So those aren’t union worker jobs.”

“It’s automated factories,” Lutnick conceded, while promising that American workers would build and “operate” the factories brought to U.S. shores in the coming months and years.

Here’s more on his back-pedalling from John Bowden.

CNN’s Jake Tapper clashed with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Sunday as she and other cabinet-level officials hit the interview circuit to reassure Americans in the wake of a stock market plunge as the fallout from “Liberation Day” continues.

Here’s John Bowden on how their PR offensive played out.

After welcoming the World Series-winning LA Dodgers to the East Room this morning, the president will host his Israeli counterpart this afternoon for the second time since his inauguration.

The conversation is likely to take in Gaza, tariffs and the threat posed by Iran.

We’ll bring you all the latest right here later today.

The Tesla and X boss has continued to take jabs at Trump officials defending the president’s new tariffs, appearing to want to distance himself from the controversial policy that has been roiling world markets.

The president’s tariffs have tanked global markets and the ultra-wealthy like Musk have already been feeling the blow.

According to a CNBC analysis, Musk has lost just over $30bn since Trump announced his trade war last week.

That loss and continuing volatility may explain why the billionaire has been taking pot shots at Trump officials like Howard Lutnick and economic adviser Peter Navarro.

Trump was asked yesterday about Musk speaking out of turn yesterday but managed to avoid taking his special adviser to task, despite dismissing what he had said.

Here’s Graig Graziosi with more.

We’re covering all things Trump right here, but if you’d like dedicated coverage of the market reaction to the tariff uncertainty, you can get live updates on that with Karl Matchett and Tara Cobham below.

U.S. stock futures dropped again on Sunday evening after the markets suffered a bloodbath during the week following the president’s tariffs announcement.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 4.1 percent, or 1,531 points, late last night, while S&P 500 futures dropped 4.6 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 5.3 percent.

In early trading in Japan, the Nikkei 225 dropped nearly 8 percent.

As the news emerged, Trump put out a statement on his social media platform insisting that he would follow through on his policies, despite them roiling the markets and threatening to disrupt the global financial order.

He also dug in his heels on Air Force One yesterday as he returned to Washington from yet another weekend golfing in the Florida sunshine:

His Rhian Lubin on the latest alarming slump.

Donald Trump’s billionaire supporter Bill Ackman, a prominent hedge fund manager, has called on the president to suspend his sweeping new tariffs on America’s foreign trading partners, due to come into effect on Wednesday, warning the policy could lead to “economic nuclear war.”

Writing on X, Ackman pleaded with Trump to impose a 90-day delay to allow more time for negotiations and said: “Business is a confidence game. The president is losing the confidence of business leaders around the globe.”

He continued: “By placing massive and disproportionate tariffs on our friends and our enemies alike and thereby launching a global economic war against the whole world at once, we are in the process of destroying confidence in our country as a trading partner, as a place to do business, and as a market to invest capital.”

Here’s Ackman’s post in full:

It’s worth adding that the financier was not always so critical of the president, expressing his confidence in Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as recently as December:

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in an interview this Sunday on Fox News that President Donald Trump is “probably finished” as commander-in-chief after his current term ends.

Bondi was speaking on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream when she was asked about Trump’s various remarks surrounding a third term in office.

“I wish we could have him for 20 years as our president, but I think he’s gonna be finished probably after this term.”

When questioned on her use of the word “probably,” Bondi replied: “We’d have to look at the constitution.”

Bondi picked up on Bream’s use of the phrase “heavy lift” when describing what actions would need to be taken in order to remain in office past 2028.

“There are methods which you can use,” Trump insisted on NBC News in a telephone interview last Sunday.

Millions flocked to the streets across the country in protest of President Donald Trump’s administration’s cuts to health program funding, mass firings of federal workers and steps toward shuttering entire agencies.

“Hands Off” protests, organized by nearly 200 advocacy groups, cropped up in more than 1,000 locations across the U.S. and around the globe Saturday in what became the largest day of collective action since Trump was inaugurated for a second time.

The protests aimed to put a stop to the “most brazen power grab in modern history,” organizers said. Millions — from Los Angeles to London — marched to advocate for civil rights, healthcare, democracy, workers’ rights and LGBTQ+ rights that have been under “assault” by the Trump administration and GOP Congress members, they added.

The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency has taken a chainsaw to the federal government, haphazardly firing thousands of federal workers, cutting humanitarian aid programs, and planning to shutter federal office buildings.

The Trump administration is drowning in court battles as it swiftly moves to deport a host of immigrants, implement sweeping tariffs, and attempts to ban transgender Americans from serving in the U.S. military.