(NewsNation) — Beijing has vowed to “fight to the end” after President Donald Trump threatened China with an additional 50% tariff if the East Asian country doesn’t abandon its retaliatory 34% tariff set to hit Thursday.
If Trump adds a 50% tariff to the previously announced 34% tariff set to take effect later this week, in addition to the standing 20% tariff, the total amount comes to 104%.
China’s Ministry of Commerce called Trump’s latest ultimatum a “mistake on top of a mistake.” Beijing said the tariff exposes the United States’ “blackmailing nature” and that China will never accept the massive levies.
On Tuesday, U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer confirmed that the tariffs are sill scheduled to go into effect on Wednesday: “The nature of the emergency is not something we can wait on anymore.”
Trump on Truth Social Tuesday said China “wants to make a deal, badly,” and that the U.S. is “waiting for their call. It will happen!“
Nations negotiate with US over tariffs
While China is not at the negotiating table, several countries are taking a seat.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to strike a deal with Washington on Monday, offering to eliminate the trade deficit and trade barriers with the U.S.
Trump has directed his treasury secretary to begin working with Japan and to lead negotiations with the U.S. trade representative.
The European Union on Monday said it is ready to negotiate a zero-for-zero tariff resolution on industrial goods, though Trump said Monday that offer is not good enough.
Dow leaps Tuesday, spelling potential stock market rebound
Wall Street opened in the green on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 up by at least 3%. The Dow recorded a 1,300-point jump.
The leaps come after days of dropping market trends and dismal future projections which caused concern among lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, business owners and consumers alike.
But Trump has remained undeterred. He’s likened his “Liberation Day” tariffs to medicine needed to heal the country’s economy.
“It’s what is expected. The patient was very sick. The economy had a lot of problems,” he said on Thursday. “It was a sick patient. It went through an operation.”
Musk calls top trade adviser Navarro ‘a moron’
Elon Musk on Tuesday continued a spat with one of Trump’s lead advisers on trade, Peter Navarro.
Navarro, during a CNBC appearance, said Musk is a “car assembler,” rather than a “car manufacturer,” pointing to parts of Musk’s products he claims are made internationally.
Musk called the comments “demonstrably false,” and called Navarro a “moron.”
When NewsNation asked about the exchange, a White House official responded, “Whatever.”
Musk on Saturday also criticized Navarro’s academic qualifications in a social media post: “A Ph.D. in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing.”
Navarro responded to the message during a Sunday interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“Look, Elon, when he’s in his DOGE lane, he’s great. But we understand what’s going on here. We just have to understand. Elon sells cars,” Navarro said. “And he’s simply protecting his own interests as any businessperson would do.”
Musk has made other headlines, including his alleged direct appeals to Trump to reverse his decision on tariffs, two sources told the Washington Post.
The outlet reports that Musk made personal appeals to Trump over the weekend. The attempted intervention, confirmed by two people familiar with the matter who spoke on a condition of anonymity, has not brought success so far.