Surrender or Resist? The Dilemma Facing Allies Caught in Trump’s Trade War
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What are the key highlights from the Trump administration's group chat?
What we learned from the new Trump team's war chat text that The Atlantic has released. Plus, the president is set to announce his plans for tariffs on the automotive industry. And when confronted with Trump's tariffs, U.S. allies face a choice. Agree to his demands or fight back.
It's a game of psychology at this point. People are just trying to read Trump because I think everyone realizes in the end that despite the people around him, the only guy who makes a decision is Trump ultimately. So they are trying to use whatever levers they think work with this very complicated man.
What are Trump's new automotive tariff plans?
It's Wednesday, March 26th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. President Trump is set to announce later today tariffs on automobiles. The tariffs are expected to be narrower than the administration once envisioned and are expected to apply to finished vehicles coming into the U.S., but not automotive parts. Trump said for months that he would impose reciprocal tariffs on April 2nd that would equalize U.S. tariffs with those other countries' charge. But he has suggested in recent days that some countries might not be subject to duties equal to what they charge. An administration official said the White House is considering a plan that would offer nations some lenience. Later in the show, we'll talk about the dilemma facing governments on the receiving end of U.S. tariffs. The news about the U.S.
automotive tariff plans weighed on stocks, with automaker shares coming under pressure. General Motors and Stellantis have been among the hardest hit, though Ford Motor has held up better. Meanwhile, new data out today showed that durable goods orders rose 0.9 percent in February, blowing past expectations for a 1 percent decline. That wasn't enough to keep major U.S. indexes afloat today.
How are U.S. stock markets reacting to Trump's tariff announcements?
The Dow fell about 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 dipped about 1.1 percent, and the Nasdaq ended the day down about 2 percent. The Atlantic magazine has released more texts from the Signal Group chat with Trump administration cabinet members in which editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally included. The texts show that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted plans for the timing and weapons to be used in a military strike against Houthi militants at least two hours before the bombs were scheduled to drop. Testifying before Congress today, U.S. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard denied that the information shared in the chat was classified.
What was revealed in the Signal Group chat with Trump officials?
The conversation was candid and sensitive. But as the president and national security advisor stated, no classified information was shared. There were no sources, methods, locations, or war plans that were shared.
For more on the texts and their implications, I'm joined by national security reporter Alex Ward. So Alex, what did we learn from these texts that were released today? Oh, oh, so much. There were attack plans discussed in this chain. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth basically said, look, guys, these fighter jets are leaving at this time. They might bomb at this specific time. And then National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, he said, hey, we've found out that actually one of these targets was successfully eliminated, a.k.a. killed.
Is the information in the Signal Group chat classified?
This is the kind of conversation you have in the secure rooms of the Pentagon. In the Situation Room of the White House. You do not have this on Signal, which is an unclassified venue and it's publicly available and it's on unclassified phones that. presumably people can hack and get access to. So let's talk about this designation of classified because there's already been quite a lot of debate about this. Tulsi Gabbard, as we just heard, as well as other members of the administration, have said the information shared in this Signal Group chat was not classified. Would information like this that was shared that we have screenshots for normally be classified? Literally any former official who's dealt with this from any administration, Republican or Democrat, would tell you this is classified information. It strains credulity that this was at any point unclassified. There's also guidance from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the office that Tulsi Gabbard leads, from September of 2024.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What are the key highlights from the Trump administration's group chat?
0:03–0:36
2
What are Trump's new automotive tariff plans?
0:36–1:55
3
How are U.S. stock markets reacting to Trump's tariff announcements?
1:55–2:34
4
What was revealed in the Signal Group chat with Trump officials?
2:34–3:20
5
Is the information in the Signal Group chat classified?
3:20–4:17
6
Who might face consequences from the Signal Group chat leak?
4:17–5:34
7
How are U.S. allies responding to Trump's trade war?
5:34–12:11
Speakers
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