Markets dive after Trump tariffs spark recession fears

Markets dive after Trump tariffs spark recession fears.

Pentagon probes Hegseth’s Signal breach.

RFK Jr. says 20% of those fired at Health and Human Services will need to be rehired.

US financial markets lost about $2 trillion in value today following Trump’s announcement of his sweeping tariff program yesterday. Many observers were expecting a violent market reaction, but the tariff program has proved to be even more extreme than many anticipated and the market reaction was correspondingly grim. Today was the biggest one-day drop since the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

Economists’ predictions have become even more dire than previously, with many saying publicly that a recession is almost certain if Trump’s tariff program moves ahead as planned. Both the price increases from tariffs and potential job losses from a recession will hit middle- and working-class families the hardest.

Senate Republicans blink

Yesterday, four Senate Republicans joined all the Senate Democrats and Independents to pass a resolution to end the emergency declaration that Trump is using to impose tariffs. This vote will likely prove symbolic as the Republican-controlled House is not likely to take it up.

Today, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA) and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell (WA) co-sponsored the “Trade Review Act 2025“. The bill would require Congress to sign off on Trump’s tariffs within 60 days of their implementation or automatically block their enforcement. The House is equally unlikely to take up this bill.

While these efforts to minimize damage from Trump’s tariff program may prove futile, Democrats and some Republicans seem eager to put the Republicans backing the program on the record. Democrats expect that the economic pain imposed by Trump’s tariffs will benefit them in the 2016 midterm elections and any special elections. Meanwhile, Republicans are hoping to contain some of the damage to their party by isolating GOP lawmakers who unquestioningly back Trump’s agenda, regardless of the consequences for their constituents.

Pentagon probes Hegseth’s use of Signal

The Defense Department’s inspector general has launched an investigation into Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s dissemination of sensitive intelligence on the messaging app Signal. Last week, The Atlantic exposed a major security lapse by Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who added the Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to their signal group chat. Despite the uproar, Trump has not dismissed either Hegseth or Waltz.

Hegseth’s participation in the chat came under particular scrutiny after he initially denied Goldberg’s claim that he had shared sensitive operational information on a strike on Yemen’s Houthis, which took place on March 15. Goldberg later called Hegseth’s bluff by publishing the portion of the chat in which Hegseth gave minute by minute attack plans, including the munitions to be used and the targets.

The DoD IG’s announcement followed a bipartisan request from the Senate Armed Services Committee for an investigation into a potential breach of protocol for disseminating classified information. Hegseth claims that he followed department protocols for declassifying information before sharing it on Signal, but officials at the Department of Defense have refuted his claim.

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After mass layoffs at Health and Human Services, RFK Jr. says 20% of those fired will need to be rehired

Earlier this week, about 10,000 employees of the Department of Health and Human Services were laid off. This was part of a downsizing effort spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Ultimately, HHS plans to reduce its workforce by about 20,000 employees.

The layoffs included workers for the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Among those fired were staff working as part of the FDA’s bird flu task force.

Now, HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., says that about 20% of those laid off will have to be rehired. Extraordinarily, he claims that this haphazard tactic of firing and rehiring was part of the plan all along.

Kennedy was not specific about which employees were to be reinstated or what programs they worked for. He only specifically mentioned the CDC’s lead poisoning prevention and surveillance branch, whose entire workforce was apparently laid off.

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