The Latest: Trump set to announce new tariffs in what he calls ‘Liberation Day’

The S&P 500 was 0.7% lower in early trading Wednesday morning, but it’s had a pattern this week of opening with sharp losses only to finish the day higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 240 points, or 0.6%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% lower.

Tesla helped pulled the market lower after it said it delivered fewer electric vehicles in the first three months of the year than it did in last year’s first quarter. Its stock fell 4.7% to extend its loss for the year so far to nearly 37%. Tesla, one of Wall Street’s most influential stocks, has faced growing backlash due to anger about CEO Elon Musk’s leading the U.S. government’s efforts to cut spending.

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The president is hosting a morning meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee to discuss a framework for his big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts.

The Senate is hoping to launch all-night voting later this week on the blueprint but deep differences between House and Senate Republicans over the details of the plan remain.

The Republican stands to win big if state officials award one of three available gaming licenses to Bally’s Corp., which wants to open a casino at a city-owned golf course that used to be run by Trump’s company.

In 2023, Bally’s paid Trump $60 million for the rights to operate the public 18-hole course on the Bronx shoreline, near where the East River meets the Long Island Sound.

The gaming company promptly took down the massive “Trump Links” sign that was, at one time, all but impossible to miss for drivers going the Whitestone Bridge, and renamed the course Bally’s Golf Links at Ferry Point.

But under a little-noticed side deal, Bally’s promised to pay Trump another $115 million if Bally’s were to get a license to open a casino on site.

▶ Read more about New York casinos and Trump

Some of the preschool centers had to close or furlough staff earlier this year because of glitches with a funding website. Now scores of government employees who help administer Head Start have been put on leave.

Preschool operators say they’ve received no communication from the Office of Head Start and don’t know who to turn to if they have questions about grants.

Head Start is federally funded but run by schools and nonprofits. It serves more than half a million low-income children.

▶ Read more about the Head Start program

Tesla sales declined in the first three months of the year, another sign that Musk’s once high-flying electric car company is struggling to attract buyers.

The drop of 13% is likely due to combination of factors, including its aging lineup, competition from rivals and a backlash from Musk’s embrace of right wing politics. It also is a warning that the company’s first-quarter earnings report later this month could disappoint investors.

Tesla reported deliveries of 336,681 globally in the January to March quarter. The figure was down from sales of 387,000 in the same period a year ago. The decline came despite deep discounts, zero financing and other incentives.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected much higher deliveries of 408,000.

▶ Read more about Tesla’s sales

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is traveling to Greenland on Wednesday for a three-day trip aimed at building trust and cooperation with Greenlandic officials.

Frederiksen announced plans for her visit after U.S. Vice President JD Vance visited a U.S. air base in Greenland last week and accused Denmark of underinvesting in the territory.

Greenland is a mineral-rich, strategically critical island that’s becoming more accessible because of climate change. Trump has said the landmass is critical to U.S. security. It’s geographically part of North America, but is a semiautonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark.

Frederiksen is due to meet the incoming Greenlandic leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, after an election last month that produced a new government. She’s also to meet with the future Naalakkersuisut, the Cabinet, in a visit due to last through Friday.

▶ Read more about the Danish prime minister’s trip to Greenland

Trump will hold a meeting Wednesday with aides about possible investors who could buy a stake in TikTok, a deal that could potentially stop the social media site from being banned in the United States.

The details of the meeting were confirmed by a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

There has been uncertainty about the popular video app after a law took effect on Jan. 19 requiring its China-based parent, ByteDance, to divest its ownership because of national security concerns. After taking office, Trump gave TikTok a 75-day reprieve by signing an executive order that delayed until April 5 the enforcement of the law requiring a sale or effectively imposing a ban.

Among the possible investors are the software company Oracle and the investment firm Blackstone.

Likely to attend the Oval Office meeting with Trump on Wednesday are Vice President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

▶ Read more about the potential sale of TikTok

Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to meet at the White House with a top adviser to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss plans for a Ukraine ceasefire.

A U.S. official said says Witkoff, who’s traveled several times to Moscow for talks with Putin, plans to see Kirill Dmitriev. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting hasn’t been officially announced.

Dmitriev runs Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and has been a key interlocutor in discussions between the Trump administration and the Kremlin on numerous issues, including the Ukraine war and the release of American detainees in Russia.

The official said the Treasury Department had to temporarily suspend U.S. sanctions on Dmitriev so he could legally travel to the United States.

— Matthew Lee

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker ended his record-setting speech the same way he began it, more than 25 hours earlier: by invoking the words of his mentor, the late congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis.

“He endured beatings savagely on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, at lunch counters, on freedom rides. He said he had to do something. He would not normalize a moment like this,” Booker said of Lewis’ work as a young activist during the Civil Rights movement. “He would not just go along with business as usual.”

A break from “business as usual” was what Booker had in mind as he performed a feat of political endurance, holding the Senate floor for 25 hours and 5 minutes while delivering a wide-ranging critique of Trump and his policies.

In doing so, Booker broke the record for longest Senate floor speech, a mark that had belonged for decades to Strom Thurmond, the avowed segregationist from South Carolina who filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

▶ Read more about Booker’s record-breaking speech

According to the White House, at 4 p.m., Trump will participate in the “Make America Wealthy Again” event in the Rose Garden. This is when he’s expected to announce his so-called reciprocal tariffs.

The Trump administration has halted dozens of research grants at Princeton University, the latest Ivy League school to see its federal money threatened in a pressure campaign targeting the nation’s top universities.

Princeton was notified this week that several dozen federal grants are being suspended by agencies including the Department of Energy, NASA and the Defense Department, according to a campus message sent Tuesday by Christopher Eisgruber, the university’s president.

Eisgruber said the rationale was not fully clear but that Princeton will comply with the law. The school is among dozens facing federal investigations into antisemitism following a wave of pro-Palestinian protests last year.

“We are committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination, and we will cooperate with the government in combating antisemitism,” Eisgruber wrote. “Princeton will also vigorously defend academic freedom and the due process rights of this University.”

▶ Read more about the pause in research grants at Princeton

Trump says his tariff announcements slated for Wednesday will amount to a “Liberation Day” for the U.S. But American businesses and financial markets are unlikely to be freed from the uncertainty generated by his often stop-and-go trade policy.

Some big questions will be resolved when Trump announces what are expected to be reciprocal tariffs, and companies will have a greater sense of how many countries will be affected and how high the duties will be.

But more tariffs are in the pipeline and could target specific industries such as pharmaceuticals, copper and lumber. And the United States may reach deals with other countries that could alter the reciprocal tariffs. There will also be countless details that could take months to resolve to determine precisely which imports will be hit with taxes.

As a result, few analysts expect Wednesday’s announcement to bring the certainty that many businesses — and Wall Street investors — crave.

▶ Read more about the impact of Trump’s tariffs

A trio of elections on Tuesday provided early warning signs to Republicans and Trump at the beginning of an ambitious term, as Democrats rallied against his efforts to slash the federal government and the outsize role being played by billionaire Elon Musk.

In the marquee race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, the conservative judge endorsed by Trump and backed by Musk and his groups to the tune of $21 million lost by a significant margin in a state Trump won in November. And while Florida Republicans held two of the most pro-Trump House districts in the country, both candidates also underperformed Trump’s November margins.

The elections — the first major contests since Trump’s return to power — were seen as an early measure of voter sentiment as Trump works with unprecedented speed to dramatically upend the federal government, clashing with the courts and seeking revenge as he tests the bounds of presidential power.

▶ Read more about the Florida and Wisconsin election results

The president was foreshadowing his upcoming announcement of so-called reciprocal tariffs on both friends and foes of the United States.

He calls it “liberation day” to free the U.S. from what he says are years of unfair trade practices.

Most economists say it’s a risky move that could plunge the U.S. economy into a downturn and upset decades of alliances.

Trump posted about “liberation day” early Wednesday on his social media platform.

He’s scheduled the announcement for 4 p.m. ET in the White House Rose Garden.

▶ Read more about Trump’s expected tariff announcement