Good morning and happy Tax Day Eve to our friends at the IRS. As we all rush to pay our HOA USA dues before tomorrow’s deadline, Katy Perry is heading to space on a Blue Origin rocket with Oprah’s best friend and Jeff Bezos’s fiancée. Starring in 2025’s weirdest crossover episode is certainly one way to stay relevant. Space-themed single dropping in 3…2…

TRADE

🎢 Tariffs are up, tariffs are down (for now)

If one thing is certain about Trade War 2025, it’s the uncertainty of it all. Days after announcing dozens of new tariffs, President Trump paused them for 90 days to allow for negotiations. Now we’re getting news that a host of electronics are exempt from the import taxes.

Exemptions, you say? That's right. Everything that matters in life is exempt from Trump’s reciprocal tariffs. We’re talking smartphones, laptops, TVs, routers, and more. Don’t get too excited, though: Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the exemptions are only temporary and that electronics will be hit by new "semiconductor tariffs" in "a month or two.”

• Most new tariffs were already on ice for now, but it’s full-speed ahead on those targeting China.

• Trump raised tariffs on China to 145%. China responded by raising tariffs on U.S. goods to 125% (and complaining to the World Trade Organization).

The president clarified Sunday that this isn’t a blanket exemption. Electronics from China are still subject to the “existing 20%” tariffs targeting China for its role in the fentanyl crisis.

What about that 10% global tariff? Electronics are exempt from that one, too (for now). Most other goods are still subject to it, however, since the pause only affects the country-specific reciprocal tariff rates.

• Lutnick said the administration wants to free the U.S. from reliance on "foreign countries for fundamental things we need." He called the relative lack of domestic electronics manufacturing an issue of “national security.”

Stocks rallied last Wednesday after the pause was announced before quickly dropping again on Thursday. The market looks good for a rally today on the back of the exemption news. Friday's report that inflation tanked from 3.2% to 2.7% should help, too. Consumers, though? They're pretty freaked out by this whole tariff situation.

One thing that's not exempt? Gaming consoles. That’s not great news for Nintendo ahead of the Switch 2 launch. But the potential new tariffs on all computer chips might make that a moot point.

GOVERNMENT

🕊️ The State Department is hard at work on two notable deals. Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Friday in pursuit of a peace deal for Ukraine. In the Middle East, the U.S. and Iran finished the first round of "constructive" talks to end Iran's nuclear weapons program. A second round is set for this week. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio asked State employees around the world to report instances of “anti-Christian bias” by coworkers during the Biden administration.

🚢 The Department of Defense (DoD) signed a new deal allowing the U.S. to deploy troops to Panama-controlled bases around the Panama Canal. Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth says the deal allows U.S. warships to skip the line and pass through the canal for free. The news is a win for President Trump as he attempts to reassert U.S. influence over the canal. It follows U.S. firm BlackRock announcing its purchase of two canalside ports from a Chinese company.

👩‍🚀 The U.S. Space Force officer in charge of Pituffik Space Base in Greenland has been fired by President Trump. After Vice President Vance's visit to the base last month, Col. Susannah Meyers emailed staff saying Vance's comments ragging on Denmark were "not reflective" of the base. The Pentagon said that undermined the president (Meyers' commander-in-chief), and she had to go.

IMMIGRATION

⚖️ Trump pushes deportations as Congress eyes voting reform

The Supreme Court said the Trump administration needs to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. This is the guy who was deported from Maryland to a notorious prison in El Salvador despite an old court order forbidding that for safety reasons.

• Justices dumped a lower court’s demand that he be returned by midnight tonight as an intrusion of executive branch power.

• Refresher: He came here illegally in 2011, was picked up by immigration cops in 2019, and was given a work permit in 2019 (but not legal status).

The administration is arguing over exactly what “facilitate” means since he’s in the custody of a foreign country. The White House says it can only remove domestic obstacles to Abrego Garcia’s return but can’t force El Salvador to do much of anything.

Elsewhere in immigration court, a judge ruled Friday that a Palestinian student can be deported. The feds want to show Mahmoud Khalil the door for his activism at Columbia University. His speech was "otherwise lawful" but could harm U.S. foreign policy goals by driving anti-Israel protests on college campuses.

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Khalil’s "antisemitic protests and disruptive activities” are fostering “a hostile environment for Jewish students” in the U.S.

Over in Congress, the House passed the SAVE Act. The bill would require states to verify that voters are U.S. citizens before registering them to vote. Proponents say that’s pretty easy to do and claim the bill even allows for document discrepancies common after changing your name. But critics fear it will disenfranchise tons of eligible voters (like married women and the disabled). The bill heads to the Senate now, where it almost certainly dies a slow death.

Down on the border, President Trump directed the military to take control of the Roosevelt Reservation to deter illegal immigration. That's a 60-foot-wide bit of federal land on the border from California to Texas.

TRIVIA

Being a member of Congress has its perks. Sure, you’re probably hated by about half your constituents. But look on the bright side: You get to send ‘em mail for without postage! All that “franking privilege” mail is supposed to be nonpolitical… but it’s usually just thinly veiled campaigning (this is Congress we’re talking about). Today’s question: What is the current cost of a single U.S. postage stamp? 

Hint: It was 60 cents in 2022 and has since been raised four times.

BRIEFS

● Meta’s big antitrust trial starts today following a six-year investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC says Meta bought Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 to kill its competition and maintain an illegal monopoly over social media.

● The Senate confirmed Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine as the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Since he’s now the highest-ranking officer in the military (and the president’s top military advisor), the Senate also promoted him to the four-star rank.

● Hours after celebrating Passover, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family were evacuated from the governor's mansion due to an arson attack around 2:00 a.m. Sunday. The mansion received significant damage in the blaze.

● The House passed a budget framework seeking at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts as part of President Trump's push for one "big, beautiful bill." A final budget should come by early summer and add a few new tax cuts while preserving Trump’s 2017 cuts.

QUOTE

ANSWER

Don’t tell Grandma, but a postage stamp in 2025 costs a cool 73 cents — though the USPS wants to bump that up to 78 cents soon. Either way, sending something 3,000 miles across the country for the cost of about half a bag of Skittles doesn’t seem like a bad deal to us.