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      Donald Trump announces he will pause threatened 50% tariffs on Europe after call with EU chief – US politics live

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      Donald Trump has warned that if Vladimir Putin attempts to conquer all of Ukraine, it will lead to the “downfall” of Russia, while also criticising Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a Sunday night post on Truth Social.“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump wrote in a social media post, adding, “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”Earlier on Sunday the US president told reporters that was he was “very surprised” that his Russian counterpart had intensified the bombardment of Ukrainian cities despite the US president’s efforts to broker a ceasefire.Pressed by a reporter to say if he was now seriously considering “putting more sanctions on Russia”, Trump replied: “Absolutely. He’s killing a lot of people. What the hell happened to him?”In his post on Sunday night, Trump also criticised Zelenskyy, saying the Ukrainian president was “doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does.”“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.”Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you all the latest news lines throughout the day.Donald Trump has announced that he will pause his threatened 50% tariffs on the European Union until 9 July, after a “very nice call” with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.The European Commission president announced in a social media post that she had spoken with Trump and secured the delay to give the two sides more time to negotiate.European assets rallied on Monday, Reuters reported. The euro hit its highest level against the dollar since 30 April, while European shares surged and were poised to recoup the previous session’s losses.“Europe is ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” von der Leyen wrote. “To reach a good deal, we would need the time until July 9.”Brussels and Washington have been locked in negotiations in a bid to avert an all-out transatlantic trade war, after Trump’s tariff threat on Friday dramatically raised the stakes.Trump warned he would impose 50% tariffs on all of the bloc’s imports into the US, saying “discussions with them are going nowhere”, adding that the tariffs would be applied from 1 June. Trump claimed he was “not looking for a deal”, repeating his longstanding view that European states had “banded together to take advantage of us”.For the full story, see here:In other news:

      President Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” by unleashing the largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine and said he was weighing new sanctions on Moscow, though he also scolded Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump posted the remark on Truth Social as sleeping Ukrainians woke to a third consecutive night of Russian aerial attacks, listening for hours to drones buzzing near their homes and eruptions of Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire.

      The United States demanded that South Korea resolve the large trade imbalance between the countries during recent trade talks, South Korean media reported on Monday. The US repeatedly raised the issue of the trade imbalance in the commodity sector and both countries agreed it was necessary to address it, broadcaster YTN and the Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed South Korean trade official who was part of the trade delegation.

      Trump said on Sunday his tariff policy was aimed at promoting the domestic manufacturing of tanks and technology products, not sneakers and T-shirts. Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One in New Jersey, Trump said he agreed with comments from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on 29 April that the US does not necessarily need a “booming textile industry” – comments that drew criticism from the National Council of Textile Organizations. “We’re not looking to make sneakers and T-shirts. We want to make military equipment. We want to make big things. We want to do the AI thing with computers,” Trump said.

      Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday he has written to US president Donald Trump to organise a meeting between the United States and the Asean regional bloc. Malaysia is chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations grouping this year.

      Hong Kong’s education bureau has called on the city’s universities to “attract top talent” by opening their doors to those affected by the Trump administration’s attempt to ban Harvard from enrolling international students. Last week the Trump administration revoked Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, effectively banning the university from accepting foreign students.

      Federal judges are discussing a proposal that would shift the armed security personnel responsible for their safety away from the Department of Justice and under their own control, as fears mount that the Trump administration is failing to protect them from a rising tide of hostility. The idea of creating their own armed security detail emerged at a meeting of about 50 federal judges two months ago, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

      Trump has been warned by fiscal hawks within his own party in the US senate that he must “get serious” about cutting government spending and reducing the national debt, or else they will block the passage of his signature tax-cutting legislation known as the “big, beautiful bill”. More

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      Trump Delays E.U. Tariffs Until July 9

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      President Trump said he would give the European Union more time to negotiate a trade deal before 50 percent tariffs take effect.President Trump said on Sunday that he would delay imposing 50 percent tariffs on all imports from the European Union until July 9 to allow more time for trade negotiations.In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said that he had spoken to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, about his recent threat to enact the tariffs on June 1 if a trade deal could not be reached in the next week.Mr. Trump has expressed frustration over negotiations with the E.U., saying that the union has been slow to offer trade concessions during a 90-day window to reach a deal that satisfies the administration. But his threat to hit the union with a steep tariff raised the chances of an economically destabilizing trade war with one of the world’s largest economies.On Sunday, Mr. Trump appeared to relent, at least for now.“The Commission President said that talks will begin rapidly,” Mr. Trump wrote, referring to Ms. von der Leyen. The European Commission is the executive arm of the European Union.Ms. von der Leyen, in a separate social media post on Sunday, said that she had a “good call” with Mr. Trump and had conveyed to him that the E.U. needed extra time to reach a trade deal. She said that talks would advance “swiftly and decisively.”“The E.U. and the U.S. share the world’s most consequential and close trade relationship,” she wrote.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump says he is hitting EU with 50% tariff as trade talks are ‘going nowhere’

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      Donald Trump has said he will impose a 50% tariff on all EU imports to the US from 1 June after claiming trade talks between the two trading blocs were “going nowhere”.In a surprise announcement, the US president posted on his Truth Social platform that his long-running battle to secure concessions from the EU had stalled.He accused the EU of taking advantage of the US on trade, saying: “Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025.”Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump claimed the EU had “taken advantage” of the US and claimed the new tariffs would be imposed unless EU companies moved their operations to the US.“It’s time that we play the game the way I know how to play the game,” said Trump.Stock markets slumped in response to the news, the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed down 1% as Trump also signalled plans to impose tariffs on Apple, Samsung and other phone manufacturers. The broader S&P 500 lost 0.68%. The STOXX Europe 600 index fell by 1.7%. In London the FTSE 100 closed down 0.2% after initially dropping as much as 1.5%. Germany’s car makers were particularly hard hit, with BMW down 3.7%, Volkswagen off 2.6% and Mercedes-Benz down 4%.The US imposed a 20% “reciprocal” rate on most EU goods on 2 April, but halved that rate a week later until 8 July to allow time for talks. It has retained 25% import taxes on steel, aluminium and vehicle parts and is threatening similar action on pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and other goods.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“This is a major escalation of trade tensions,” said Holger Schmieding, the chief economist at Berenberg, on Friday. “With Trump you never know but this would be a major escalation. The EU would have to react and it is something that would really hurt the US and European economy.”EU negotiators have been locked in meetings with White House representatives since Trump’s so-called “liberation day” tariffs were first announced. Dozens of countries have been holding discussions to try to bring down their own levies before the 90-day pause elapses.The White House has relented on many of its most onerous tariffs, including lowering total tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30% after what Trump declared were constructive talks with Beijing, which lowered its retaliatory border taxes from 125% to 10% in response.A week ago the US president appeared to acknowledge that Washington lacked the ability to negotiate deals with scores of countries at once, saying the US would instead send letters to some trading partners to unilaterally impose new tariff rates.Perceptions of an easing back on a hardline approach to trade brought a period of calm to stock markets, but Friday’s threat of a 50% levy on EU goods, plus a separate threat made the same day of 25% tariffs on iPhones made abroad, have brought an end to the peace.The EU presented a fresh trade proposal to the US on Thursday. The offer included phased tariff cuts on non-sensitive goods, plus cooperation on energy, AI and digital infrastructure. The bloc was readying about $108bn in retaliatory tariffs if talks failed.To sweeten the deal, EU officials were also willing to extend a 2020 tariff-free arrangement on US lobster imports, according to the Financial Times. But it appears to have proved insufficient to persuade the US president to sign a deal allowing only his 10% universal tariff to apply to the EU, as it does the UK. More

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      Trump Threatens 50% Tariff on E.U. and 25% Tariff on Apple

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      The president threatened both Apple and the European Union with higher tariffs on social media Friday morning, saying that trade talks with the Europeans had stalled.President Trump threatened to revive his global trade wars Friday morning, saying he would apply a steep tariff to European exports starting in just over a week and warning Apple that iPhones manufactured outside of the United States would face a 25 percent tariff.The president wrote on Truth Social Friday morning that discussions with the European Union “are going nowhere” and that he is recommending a 50 percent tariff on European imports as of June 1.“The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with,” Mr. Trump wrote. He claimed the bloc’s trade barriers, taxes, corporate penalties and other policies had contributed to a trade imbalance with the United States that was “totally unacceptable.”In an earlier social media post, the president also targeted Tim Cook, the chief executive of Apple, who visited Mr. Trump at the White House last week. The president wrote that iPhones sold in the United States should be “manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else.”If they are not, Mr. Trump said the smartphones would face a 25 percent tariff.The posts appeared to rattle financial markets, with stock futures pointed sharply lower in premarket trading. In Europe, carmakers’ shares were the worst hit. Shares in Stellantis and Mercedes-Benz fell about 4.5 percent, and shares in Volkswagen and Porsche were down more than 3 percent. Estimates by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German economic research institute, showed that the tariffs would lead to a 20 percent drop in exports from the European Union to the United States in the short term, as well as a more than 6 percent increase in prices in the United States.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      EU Plans New Sanctions on Russia in Push for Ukraine Cease-fire

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      The European Union has now targeted Moscow’s fleet of covert oil tankers and plans more restrictions, as the Trump administration’s approach to the war shifts.European Union defense and foreign ministers approved a new package of sanctions on Russia on Tuesday, targeting covert oil exports, days after the top E.U. official announced plans for a further set of even tougher restrictions.The point is to intensify Russia’s economic pain — and by doing so, to prod President Vladimir V. Putin toward peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. The push comes as questions mount about how the United States will approach future sanctions.After a call between President Trump and Mr. Putin on Monday, the White House backed off its demand that Russia declare an immediate cease-fire. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said at a news conference that it was unclear whether the United States would join with Europe in stepping up sanctions.E.U. nations have imposed extensive sanctions on Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The ones they approved on Tuesday are the 17th set. These take aim at Russia’s so-called shadow fleet — old tanker ships that Moscow uses to covertly transport and sell its oil around the world.Officials are already discussing an 18th package. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the E.U. executive arm, said last week that officials could go after gas pipelines, hit banks and push to further crimp Russia’s global energy sales.“It takes two to want peace, and it takes only one to want war,” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said on Tuesday. “In order to make Russia want peace, also, we need to put more pressure on Russia.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Guardian view on Romania’s presidential election upset: a vote for stability and the west | Editorial

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      As Romanians voted on Sunday in arguably the most consequential election in the country’s post-communist history, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, will have been preparing to welcome a fellow disruptor to the European stage. The first round of a controversially re-run presidential contest had been handsomely won by George Simion, a Eurosceptic ultranationalist who views Donald Trump as a “natural ally” and opposes military aid to Ukraine. On the back of a 20-point lead, Mr Simion, a 38-year-old former football ultra with a taste for violent rhetoric, was so confident of winning that he made a confrontational visit to Brussels in the last days of his campaign.Those expectations were confounded in remarkable fashion at the weekend. In a dramatic reversal of fortunes, Nicușor Dan, the centrist mayor of Bucharest, benefited from the highest voter turnout in 30 years to triumph comfortably. One of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Mr Dan was a relieved Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who, in Hungary and Slovakia, already has to contend with two Putin-friendly governments on Ukraine’s western border.First and foremost, the stability promised by Mr Dan’s victory is good news for Romania, which has been in political turmoil since the original presidential election was cancelled amid allegations of Russian interference. Having made his name as a politically independent anti-corruption campaigner, he must now attempt to unite a deeply polarised country in which inequality, graft and poor public services have proved to be, as elsewhere, a launchpad for far-right populist insurgents.More broadly, the size of the second-round turnout – which included a huge diaspora vote – suggests that hitching a ride on the Trump bandwagon is as liable to motivate a mainstream backlash in Europe as generate Maga-style momentum. Given the global volatility unleashed by Mr Trump’s reckless, bullying style, and the dark shadow cast over eastern Europe by Vladimir Putin’s geopolitical ambitions, the strategic attractions of hugging the EU and Nato close are more readily apparent than they used to be. Handed the opportunity to turn east, a substantial majority of Romanian voters looked west.Elsewhere though, on a “super Sunday” of three European elections, outcomes were more ambivalent and less uplifting from a progressive perspective. The centre also held in Poland, where the liberal mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, narrowly won the first round of another crucial presidential election, ahead of the nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki. But the high combined vote for hard- and far-right candidates suggests that result may be reversed in two weeks’ time. One and a half years after Donald Tusk was given a prime ministerial mandate to bring Poland back into the European mainstream, Eurosceptic ultranationalism remains a force to be reckoned with.In Portugal, a snap election triggered by the centre-right governing party saw it retain power, but was notable mainly for the record number of votes cast for the far-right Chega party. Postal ballots could yet propel Chega to second place, ahead of the Socialist party, after a dismal night for the Portuguese left.Mr Dan’s famous victory was undoubtedly the story of the night, confounding a narrative of an inexorable rightwards shift in central and eastern Europe. But amid an ongoing cost of living crisis, and as mainstream parties echo far-right agendas on migration, the politics of Europe continue to feel anxious, polarised and alarmingly unpredictable.

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      Tariff Uncertainty Threatens to Drag Down Europe’s Economic Growth

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      The European Union scaled back its forecast for growth in 2025 by nearly half a percent, as the jump in tariffs and surrounding chaos bite.Europe’s economy will grow more slowly than expected this year, dragged down by trade uncertainty from President Trump’s tariffs, despite increasingly stable prices on consumer goods and energy, European Union economists said on Monday.In its spring economic forecast, the European Commission, the trade bloc’s administrative arm, said it expected the gross domestic product of the 20 countries using the euro to grow just 0.9 percent in 2025, down from the 1.3 percent that had been forecast last fall. Economic growth across the European Union is expected to increase 1.1 percent in the same period, down from a previous expectation of 1.5 percent, the commission said.Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has been hit particularly hard by the increase in tariffs, with the commission expecting that country’s economy to stagnate as exports decline 1.9 percent in 2025. France also had its projected growth rate cut to 0.6 percent from 0.8 percent, and Italy’s fell to 0.7 percent from 1 percent.“Heightened global uncertainty and trade tensions are weighing on E.U. growth,” Valdis Dombrovskis, the European commissioner responsible for the trade bloc’s economy, told reporters in Brussels.The commission added that any de-escalation of the tensions between Europe and the United States set off by Mr. Trump’s imposition of a 10-percent import tax on European good could lead to stronger growth, as could new free trade agreements with other economic partners.On Monday, Britain and the European Union reached a deal aimed at removing some of the barriers to trade that Brexit had introduced.Growth is expected to return in 2026, the commission said, but it also scaled that projection back to 1.4 percent for the euro area, down from a previously projected 1.6 percent.One bright spot is the continued robustness of the European labor market, Mr. Dombrovskis said, citing 1.7 million jobs added last year and an expected two million to be added in the coming year.Increased spending on armaments and the military could help spur more growth across Europe, the commission said. The 500 billion euros the German government plans to invest in its defense infrastructure were not included in the forecast for this year, but they were expected to contribute a full percentage point to growth by 2028, Mr. Dombrovskis said.Germany has been stuck in stagnation for three years running, dragging down growth across all of the European Union.The economists also warned that the threat of further natural disasters, related to changes in the global climate, were a risk to growth. Europe suffered widespread flooding and extreme heat in 2024, and the continent is bracing for more extreme weather this year. More

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      Taking Inches in Battle, Russia Demands Miles in Talks

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      Moscow thinks it’s winning in Ukraine and can play hardball diplomatically. Washington sees costly, incremental gains and an unrealistic negotiating position.As the world waits to to see if he shows up in Turkey for cease-fire negotiations this week, President Vladimir V. Putin has been sending a clear message, reinforced by his officials. They are winning on the battlefield, so they should get what they want.Mr. Putin said in late March that Russian forces had the advantage on the entire front and suggested Moscow was close to vanquishing the Ukrainians — an argument the Kremlin has used to underpin hardball demands. “We have reason to believe that we are set to finish them off,” Mr. Putin said, adding: “People in Ukraine need to realize what is going on.”Andrei V. Kartapolov, head of the defense committee in the lower chamber of Russian Parliament, reiterated that message on Tuesday, saying Ukraine needed to recognize the Russian military was advancing in 116 directions. If the Ukrainians did not want to talk, he added, they must listen to “the language of the Russian bayonet.”Andrei V. Kartapolov, a senior Russian lawmaker, has said the Russian military is advancing in 116 directions.Anton Vaganov/ReutersThe hardball approach has been accompanied by gamesmanship over peace negotiations. It is unclear whether Mr. Putin will attend the talks he initially proposed for midlevel delegations on Thursday in Turkey. Mr. Zelensky upped the ante, saying he would attend and expected to see Mr. Putin, knowing Mr. Putin is loath to meet him. President Trump said he might go if the Russian president went.And Mr. Putin has left everyone in limbo.The Russian position has posed a challenge for the Trump administration, which has found Russian officials making extreme demands that the battlefield situation does not appear to justify. While Russian forces have seized the advantage and taken territory of late, they are a far cry from defeating the Ukrainians and have advanced at a very high cost.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More