• President Donald Trump announced long-awaited reciprocal tariffs on America’s trading partners Wednesday. The U.S. will impose tariffs at about half of what other countries do, with a minimum 10% tax. “We subsidize a lot of countries,” the president said. “We’re not taking it anymore.”

It’s a day of tariffs that President Donald Trump vowed would “make America wealthy again.”

Trump on Wednesday announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs with the U.S.’ trading partners, to be set at about half of what other countries are charging America. The U.S. will impose a 10% minimum tariff, too, Trump said in a speech from the White House Rose Garden.

“They do it to us, we do it to them,” Trump said during the event, saying it was America’s turn to prosper. 

As the president delivered his speech, he held up a sign dense with charts, and shared specific examples: China taxes the United States 67%—a number Trump said accounted for currency manipulation—so the United States will tax China 34%. The European Union’s total levies against the U.S. amount to 39%, so the U.S. will tax about 20%, Trump said. The U.S. will impose 25% on South Korea, 24% on Japan and 32% on Taiwan. 

“None of our companies are allowed to go into other countries,” he said. “I say that, friend and foe, and in many cases the friend is worse than the foe.”

Trump also reaffirmed that he would place 25% tariffs on foreign-made cars and parts, effective midnight. “We subsidize a lot of countries,” the president said, blaming the trade deficit for the U.S.’ debt problem. “We’re not taking it anymore.” 

Even before Trump’s Election Day victory, some economists warned the tariffs he promised on the campaign trail could be inflationary. Ever since, his on-again, off-again tariffs and the threat of a global trade war not only pushed the S&P 500 into correction territory and tanked consumer sentiment, but set off recession calls from big banks and others in the finance world. It’s kept the central bank in wait-and-see mode, too, when it comes to interest rates. 

The fear surrounding the levies is that when companies face an extra tax on imported goods, they tend to pass those costs on to consumers. Americans are still suffering from exorbitant prices after inflation hit a scorching-hot four-decade high almost three years ago. The Federal Reserve itself sees tariff-induced inflation coming, even if it may be transitory. If business and consumer spending declines as a result of price hikes, it could slow economic activity and even usher in stagflation—a mix of stagnant growth and elevated inflation. One think tank recently called tariffs “a recipe for making Americans worse off.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Amazon has put in a bid to purchase TikTok, a Trump administration official said Wednesday, in an eleventh-hour pitch as a U.S. ban on the platform is set to go into effect Saturday.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Amazon offer was made in a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The New York Times first reported on the bid.

President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day gave the platform a reprieve, barreling past a law that had been upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, which said the ban was necessary for national security.

Under the law, TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance is required to sell the platform to an approved buyer or take it offline in the United States. Trump has suggested he could further extend the pause on the ban, but he has also said he expects a deal to be forged by Saturday.

Amazon declined to comment. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The existence of an Amazon bid surfaced as Trump was scheduled on Wednesday to meet with senior officials to discuss the coming deadline for a TikTok sale.

Although it’s unclear if ByteDance plans to sell TikTok, several possible bidders have come forward in the past few months. Among the possible investors are the software company Oracle and the investment firm Blackstone. Oracle announced in 2020 that it had a 12.5% stake in TikTok Global after securing its business as the app’s cloud technology provider.

In January, the artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI presented ByteDance with a merger proposal that would combine Perplexity’s business with TikTok’s U.S. operation. Last month, the company outlined its approach to rebuilding TikTok in a blog post, arguing that it is “singularly positioned to rebuild the TikTok algorithm without creating a monopoly.”

“Any acquisition by a consortium of investors could in effect keep ByteDance in control of the algorithm, while any acquisition by a competitor would likely create a monopoly in the short form video and information space,” Perplexity said in its post.

The company said it would remake the TikTok algorithm and ensure that infrastructure would be developed and maintained in “American data centers with American oversight, ensuring alignment with domestic privacy standards and regulations.”

Other potential bidders include a consortium organized by billionaire businessman Frank McCourt, which recently recruited Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as a strategic adviser. Investors in the consortium say they’ve offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash for TikTok’s U.S. platform. Jesse Tinsley, the founder of the payroll firm Employer.com, says he too has organized a consortium and is offering ByteDance more than $30 billion for the platform. Wyoming small business owner Reid Rasner has also announced that he offered ByteDance roughly $47.5 billion.

Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with China’s authoritarian government. TikTok said it has never done that and would not do so if asked. The U.S. government has not provided evidence of that happening.

Trump has millions of followers on TikTok and has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters.

During his first term, he took a more skeptical view of TikTok and issued executive orders banning dealings with ByteDance as well as the owners of the Chinese messaging app WeChat.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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For the first time in over two centuries as a U.S. state, South Carolina lawmakers are going to try to remove a statewide elected official from office.

The Republican-dominated Senate on Wednesday decided to hold a hearing to decide if Republican state Treasurer Curtis Loftis should be removed from office over a $1.8 billion accounting error and then failing to report the problem to the General Assembly. Loftis says the attempt to oust him is politically motivated.

Loftis can be removed if two-thirds of the Senate and House vote against him. At a hearing on April 21, senators will present their case and Loftis or his attorney will have three hours to respond. The House would then follow suit with their own hearing.

Money that didn’t exist

A 58-page report released last week on the accounting error said South Carolina’s books have been inaccurate for 10 years and continue to not be corrected. The state paid millions of dollars to forensic accountants who eventually determined the missing money was not cash the state never spent, but instead was a series of errors in balancing books and shifting accounts from one system to another that were never reconciled.

The state should “not consign the ongoing fiscal oversight — the banking and investment functions of our state — to continued incompetence. In sum: if the treasurer cannot keep track of the treasury, then he should not remain treasurer,” senators wrote in their report that included more than 600 pages of exhibits.

Loftis responded by pointing out he has won four elections since 2010 and called the Senate investigation a power grab so they can get support for a bill to have the treasurer become an appointed position.

“South Carolina’s financial threat isn’t from mismanagement or missing money. The real danger comes from a relentless, politically motivated attack on my office — one that risks undermining our state’s financial reputation, increasing taxpayer costs, and stripping voters of their right to elect a Treasurer who works for the people, not special interests,” Loftis wrote in a statement.

The origins of the mistake

The problems started as the state changed computer systems in the 2010s. When the process was finished, workers couldn’t figure out why the books were more than $1 billion out of whack. A fund was created to cover the accounting error and over the years more was added on paper to keep the state’s books balanced.

The error came to light after Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom resigned in March 2023 over a different accounting mistake and his replacement reported the mystery account.

The report said Loftis not only ignored or failed to find mistakes made by his office but also rejected or slowed down attempts to independently investigate the problem.

“The treasurer tried to cover them up. He covered it up for the better part of seven to eight years,” Republican Sen. Stephen Goldfinch said.

A Senate subcommittee has held hearings to question Loftis under oath. They have been contentious. Loftis has slammed papers, accused senators of a witch hunt and threatened to get up and leave.

Showdown with senators

One move that particularly angered senators occurred after a lawmaker asked Loftis why he didn’t file reports on the state finances, as required by law. The treasurer said he would publish a report online that could include bank account numbers and other sensitive information.

Senators were in an uproar the next day. They said the report could easily be published without information that would allow cybercriminals to empty the state’s accounts.

They had the governor and the head of the state police find Loftis and demand he not publish the report. The treasurer said he was just following the Senate’s instructions.

“His volatile temperament and angry demeanor degrade those who are charged to work with him to secure the financial standing of South Carolina,” senators wrote in last week’s report.

The report also said Loftis is responsible for millions of dollars to be spent through his lack of oversight and later lack of cooperation investigating the account.

What happens next?

The Senate approved Wednesday what is called the “removal on address” hearing by a voice vote with no opposition. Lawmakers have never taken the constitutional step to its conclusion.

The resolution’s future is a little more murky in the House, where no Republicans have come out to forcefully call for the treasurer’s removal.

Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has also suggested removing Loftis from office is too drastic, but the governor does not have a major role in the process.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com