Axios AM

April 06, 2025
๐ฅ Happy Sunday! Smart Brevityโข count: 1,360 words ... 5 mins. Thanks to Erica Pandey for orchestrating. Edited by Donica Phifer
1 big thing: Trump blows up America's China policy
A bipartisan consensus on how to compete with China that took shape in President Trump's first term has exploded at the start of his second, Axios' Dave Lawler writes.
- Why it matters: Nearly everyone in Washington agrees that to win the battle for the 21st century, the U.S. needs to strengthen its alliances in Asia, shift supply chains to friendlier countries, and convince the world Washington is a more dependable partner than Beijing. Nearly everyone, that is, except Donald J. Trump.
It's not that Trump is taking it easy on China. He just increased tariffs on Chinese goods to a staggering 54%.
- China, which retaliated on Friday, faces sharp near-term economic pain.
This time, the trade war is global. And so is the backlash.
- "China is on the move, and they're going to press their advantage and try to appear as the stable, pro-trade, pro-globalization global power," says Elizabeth Economy, a China expert at the Hoover Institution and former Commerce Department official.
๐ก Breaking it down: Trump's first administration laid the foundation Biden built upon: tariffs, export controls on critical technologies, pressing allies to take stronger action on China and leaning on platforms like the Quad (U.S., Australia, Japan and India).
- But Trump returned to office with a different team and a clearer sense of his own foreign policy powers and priorities.
Now, he's trying to unravel the CHIPS Act โ which subsidized domestic production of key tech like semiconductors that are at the heart of U.S.-China competition โ and has broken with his own party on everything from banning TikTok to standing with Taiwan.
- A White House official said Trump's tariffs would bring "fairness to our trade relationships," including the "imbalanced" relationship with China.
2. ๐บ MAGA media's tiptoe

If you watched or read any legacy media outlets last week, President Trump's firings at the National Security Council and National Security Agency after an Oval Office meeting with conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer were hard to miss.
- But if you only paid attention to MAGA media, the news was hard to find, Axios' Tal Axelrod reports.
Why it matters: There was plenty of big news last week, chiefly Trump's tariff plan. But taking staffing advice on national security from a 9/11 truther also qualifies as news. Coverage around it was one of the starkest examples of the different media universes that exist for different parts of the country.
Zoom in: The New York Times called the Loomer-fueled firings "a remarkable spectacle."
- Trump told reporters on Air Force One that Loomer didn't influence the firings. Loomer has declined to say what she and Trump discussed, but said in a statement she "will continue reiterating the importance of strong vetting, for the sake of protecting the President and our national security."
MAGA media barely tiptoed near the story.
- Top MAGA podcaster Charlie Kirk posted on X: "Any person who helps expose and expel the warmongering cabal from power does this country a service."
MAGA online outlets and social media accounts focused heavily on the trade war, but also highlighted transgender teachers, local politicians and the live-action "Snow White" film's poor box office performance.
- The NSC story is a "silly distraction," said Mike Davis, the president of The Article III Project and a frequent MAGA media guest.
3. ๐๏ธ Tariff shopping spree
Some consumers are scrambling to make big-ticket purchases like laptops and cars before tariffs are slated to kick in next week, AP reports:
- John Gutierrez said he's been eyeing a new laptop for a year. He ended up ordering one Wednesday, the same day President Trump announced tariffs.
- Rob Blackwell of Arlington, Va., said he's been wanting a Cadillac OPTIQ, an electric SUV made in Mexico โ subject to tariffs on supply chains that might increase the cost. After hearing that tariffs would be announced, he made plans the weekend before to lease this OPTIQ.
4. ๐ธ 1,000 words

Crowds gathered from D.C. to Alaska to protest the policies of President Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE yesterday.
- More than 1,200 "Hands Off!" demonstrations were planned in all 50 states.

"We had about 2,000 RSVPs for cities like Raleigh, where we saw 45,000 show up," organizers told Axios yesterday. "D.C. and NYC are well over 100,000 attendees each."

5. Scoop: RFK Jr.'s surprise Texas trip

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning a hastily arranged visit to Texas after the state informed his department that a second child's death there could be linked to measles, Axios' Marc Caputo reports.
- The death is under investigation. The child was a member of the same Mennonite religious community that in February reported the death of an unvaccinated 6-year-old girl who had had measles.
- Details of Kennedy's trip to the Lubbock, Texas, area are being closely guarded by his press-averse department, but the White House was informed of his travel plans yesterday.
The big picture: Texas has the nation's highest number of reported measles cases โ 481 since late January. The nation's first confirmed death of a child with measles occurred in Texas on Feb. 26.
- The parents of that child are Mennonites and have said they stood by their decision not to vaccinate.
6. ๐๏ธ What Trump's reading
AP photographer Alex Brandon nailed these images of President Trump perusing tariff news in Rupert Murdoch papers yesterday as he arrived and departed one of his golf clubs near Mar-a-Lago.
- On the trip to Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. (his first visit of this administration), it was his go-to New York Post. Trump was reading a spread on Chinese retaliation, "CHINA: YEAH? TRY THESE TARIFFS OUT."
The White House later announced: "The President won his second round matchup of the Senior Club Championship today in Jupiter, FL, and advances to the Championship Round." (He motorcaded back at the club this morning, pooler Emily Goodin of the Daily Mail reports.)

It was The Wall Street Journal as POTUS returned to Mar-a-Lago.
- Yesterday's three Journal editorials ... "U.S. Tariffs Make Xi Jinping's Day: Trump's global trade war is a strategic gift to the Chinese leader" ... "Knives Out at the National Security Council" ... "Trump's Tariffs Get a Legal Challenge."
๐ฎ Sneak peek ... In tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, Trump can expect to see this "The Outlook" column, posted this morning: "In Matter of Days, Outlook Shifts From Solid Growth to Recession Risk ... The economy was chugging along. Then came Trump's dramatic tariff increase." (Gift link)
7. ๐ช Soldiers of color were among liberators
U.S. forces liberated Nazi concentration camps 80 years ago this month. Among the liberators were Black, Latino, Asian American and Native American soldiers whose actions today are often forgotten, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.
- Why it matters: The Pentagon recently purged references to soldiers of color from its websites, per an order by President Trump. But civil rights advocates say the liberators warrant recognition for their service at a time when many returned home to discrimination, segregation and racial violence.
More than 1.5 million soldiers of color served during World War II in the European and Pacific theaters. Black and Asian American service members were forced to serve in segregated units.
- Japanese American soldiers served while their families back home were forced into detention camps. Mexican American and Native American soldiers served with white soldiers but often faced intense discrimination.
Soldiers of color "were not only willing to fight, but eager to fight for the liberal democratic ideals of the United States, despite facing oppression of racism and marginalization at home," says Robert Williams of the USC Shoah Foundation.
8. ๐ 1 for the road: Madness finale

The final matchups for the men's and women's NCAA tournaments are set.
- For the men: The Florida Gators face the Houston Cougars, who took out the Vegas favorites, Duke, in a thriller last night. Houston went on a 9โ0 run in the final 35 seconds to clinch the win.
- For the women: The UConn Huskies will take on the USC Gamecocks, the defending champs.

The women's final tips off today at 3 p.m. ET. The men's game is at 8:50 p.m. ET tomorrow.
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