Up First from NPR
Tariffs Hit At Midnight, Small Business Reactions, National Security Firings
Fri, 04 Apr 2025
Steep new tariffs are set to take effect at midnight on nearly everything the U.S. imports. Big businesses are losing market value and small businesses feel like they're caught in the middle of something they can't control. And, a number of National Security Council staffers have been fired after President Trump met with a far-right activist. Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Pallavi Gogoi, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Damian Herring. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange and our Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What are the implications of President Trump's new tariffs?
President Trump's tariffs on nearly all imported goods will go into effect at midnight.
This is the reordering of global trade.
Will the U.S. come out ahead or fall behind? I'm Leila Fadil, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. Small business owners are reacting to the magnitude of the White House's new tariffs.
I had to come up with $15,000 of extra cash to release my goods just this last month.
How are they thinking about their future? And several National Security Council staffers have been fired following a meeting between President Trump and far-right activist Laura Loomer.
Always we let go of people. People that we don't like or people that we don't think we like.
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Chapter 2: How are small businesses reacting to the new tariffs?
We're going to talk this through with two of NPR's business correspondents, Scott Horsley and Alina Selyuk. Welcome to you both. Hello, hello.
Good morning.
So, Scott, I'm going to start with you. Judging by the stock market's reaction, a lot of investors have been really rattled by these tariffs. But, you know, Trump had been talking about this for weeks. So why are they so spooked?
Yeah, this was a seismic shakeup. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 1,600 points yesterday, or nearly 4%. The Nasdaq dropped nearly 6%. It was the biggest one-day sell-off in the stock market since early in the pandemic. President Trump has ordered a minimum 10% tax on nearly everything the U.S. buys from other countries.
He's also ordered much higher levies on things we buy from China, Japan, the European Union. Altogether, we are looking at about a nine-fold increase in tariffs now compared to what we were paying last year. And businesses are worried that it's going to cause higher prices for them. For weeks, investors have been waving the caution flag, stating they don't want a wider trade war.
But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNN the president's not about to change course.
I don't think there's any chance that President Trump's going to back off his tariffs. This is the reordering of global trade.
If these tariffs stick, it's going to upend the global trading system that the U.S. has spent decades building and leave this country more isolated from the rest of the world.
Scott, how will these tariffs affect the economy more broadly?
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Chapter 3: Who are the key players discussing the tariffs in this episode?
If you break it, you own the results.
And the president says he's also counting on these steps to raise a lot of money for the government, will they?
These are high tariffs, and they could bring in a lot of money. That's one way the administration plans to make up for the money that the government stands to lose if it extends the 2017 tax cuts. But this is not a simple matter of taking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other. Tariffs will be paid disproportionately from the pockets of working people.
That's who's shopping at Walmart and paying higher prices for imported toys and shoes and winter produce. Meanwhile, the savings from the tax cuts will primarily flow to the pockets of the wealthy. So this is a reverse Robin Hood policy, trading taxes for tariffs. It takes money from the poor and gives it to the rich. And how are other countries responding?
Other countries will likely buy less from U.S. exporters, which will hurt farmers and factories here. What's more, a lot of countries that depend on exports to the United States will find it harder to sell their goods here, and they may be pushed towards recession. Trump has ordered tariffs that are not only higher, but also broader than those we've seen before.
He's planning to tax all kinds of things that we do not and cannot produce at scale here, like tropical fruit. Even with global warming, I don't think we're going to start growing a lot of bananas in the U.S., so We're going to import the bananas, but Americans are going to pay more for them, and nervous shoppers have already started to dial back their spending.
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Chapter 4: How will the new tariffs affect the U.S. economy and consumers?
So we're going to turn to Alina Selyuk now. Alina, you've been talking to small retailers, shopkeepers, and suppliers from around the country. What have you heard so far?
You know, they feel like collateral damage. The evening when the tariffs were announced, I was actually at a big reception organized by the National Retail Federation. They had scheduled a fly-in for small business owners. And when the magnitude of tariffs became clear, it was like shell shock because it's these companies that are on the hook to pay many of these fees.
For example, Sarah Wells from Virginia shared her story. She sells purses and clothes for new moms. They're like for breast pumps and breastfeeding. They're made in China. And late last year, she made a huge shipment order. It was loading at the port when the White House raised tariffs on China by 10 percent in February.
By the time it docked stateside, that tariff was raised again another 10 percent.
And I had to come up with $15,000 of extra cash to release my goods just this last month.
And now that the total tariff on Chinese imports is up to 54%, you know, Wells is reeling.
What do people like her plan to do?
You know, one common answer is retrenching and scaling back. Maybe your store shrinks the selection so there's less stuff to ship. Maybe you stop hiring, stop advertising or developing new products, essentially stop growing and go into survival mode. One retailer talked about saving a lot of money in his bank account.
It's money that he could be spending on all kinds of things to expand, hire, market. But now he wants that money to just kind of sit on the sidelines because he expects to pay big tariffs. And then the other answer is what Scott talked about. It's raising prices. Giant companies like Walmart are pressuring suppliers overseas to bear some of those tariff costs.
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Chapter 5: What challenges do small businesses face with increased tariffs?
He says business people love to negotiate their deals, make their own decisions, and, you know, live and die by them. And the sweeping tariffs take that ability out of their control.
That is NPR business correspondents Alina Selyuk and Scott Horsley. Alina, thank you. Thank you. Scott, thank you.
Good to be with you.
The director of the National Security Agency and head of U.S. Cyber Command General Timothy Hawk has been fired. This, according to top Democrats on Congressional Intelligence Committee's Senator Mark Warner of Virginia and Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut.
The New York Times and The Washington Post are reporting that the firing is in connection to a meeting between President Trump and far-right activist Laura Loomer, during which she advocated for their dismissal. Now, I want to mention here that NPR has not independently verified this. A number of National Security Council staffers have also been fired, and President Trump is downplaying that move.
Here he is talking on Air Force One last night.
Always let go of people. People that we don't like, or people that we don't think can do the job, or people that may have loyalties to somebody else. You'll always have them.
Here with more on the NSC firings is NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. Hi, Domenico. Hey, good morning. Good morning. So what do we know about these firings?
Well, Trump confirmed that there were firings at the NSC for what we don't know exactly. And the NSC said it wouldn't comment on personnel matters. But all this came after Trump met with Loomer. You know, she's someone who was close to Trump during the 2024 campaign, which raised some eyebrows, even among those on the right, because he
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Chapter 6: How are small business owners planning to cope with the tariffs?
Yeah, it's always a question with every president who they're listening to, who their advisors are. What this tells us is this is a very different group of people around Trump now than in his first term. Then there were more established, experienced people, but he really soured on those kinds of folks and moved more toward people in the right-wing ecosphere
of Trump acolytes and devotees that cropped up with him out of office. And the thing is, on any given day, you just don't know who's in Trump's ear or who he's seeking out, someone with more Washington experience or someone like Loomer. And that makes for a very chaotic and destabilizing White House.
That's NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Thank you, Domenico.
Thank you.
The crackdown on immigrants in the U.S. without legal status has left many unsure what to do. This weekend on The Sunday Story, how some immigrants are responding to the clear message that the Trump administration is sending. Leave now.
If you don't, we will find you and we will deport you. You will never return.
A look at the fear spreading in many immigrant communities. That's on the next Sunday Story from Up First.
And that's Up First for Friday, April 4th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Leila Faudel. Just a reminder, Up First airs on Saturdays, too. Aisha Roscoe and Scott Simon will have the news. Look for it wherever you get your podcasts.
Today's episode of Up First was edited by Pallavi Gogoi, Lisa Thompson, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Damian Herring. Our technical director is Carly Strange. And our executive producer is Jay Shaler. We hope you'll join us again on Monday.
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