--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, April 4th.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. We're coming on the air because the stock market is plummeting in response to President Trump's escalating trade war.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Dow dropped more than 1,600 points, or about 4 percent. Losing approximately $3 trillion of value.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: President Trump's global trade war has fueled the worst stock market drop-off since the pandemic.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You can see the giant red arrow pointing down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Yesterday, his new tariffs caused panic for investors and for companies as they scrambled to figure out how they'll shoulder the costs and what of those they may pass on to customers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Apple, which could be affected by the new 54% tariff on Chinese-made goods, saw its stock drop sharply.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So did Amazon. And Nike, which makes a lot of its products in Vietnam, now facing a 46 percent tariff, also dropped.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Other tech companies, shipping companies and car companies took a hit, too.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This is a big change. I'm not going to shy away from it, but we needed a big change.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In the face of the economic fallout, the Trump administration has been defending the tariffs and calling for patience.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Let Donald Trump run the global economy. You got to trust Donald Trump in the White House.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's why they put him there. Let him fix it. I understand. It's broken.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The president himself acknowledged the tariffs could cause pain, but said they're necessary to rebalance years of unfair trade agreements.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You'll see how it's going to turn out. Our country's going to boom.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, the first place many Americans will likely feel the tariffs is the grocery store.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Shoppers may see the impact in the produce section as soon as this month.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The price of bananas from Guatemala or grapes from Peru could go up. Along with other imported fresh fruits and vegetables.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Then, analysts say the price hikes will hit other staples like sugar and coffee, which is already at a historic high.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And the higher costs will spread across industries.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Volkswagen already announced it will add a fee to the price of cars it imports into the U.S.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Earlier this week President Trump hosted the far activist Laura Loomer at the White House and the Times has learned that she came ready with a list of government officials she claimed were disloyal to the president.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: She railed against the staffers by name and attacked their character in a half-an-hour meeting in the Oval Office.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Yesterday, Trump fired six of them who served on the National Security Council.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Loomer is a longtime Trump ally who has pushed baseless conspiracy theories in the past, like that September 11th was an inside job.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: She and other Trump loyalists have been making an effort to target White House staffers they claim are not fully on board with Trump's America First agenda.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: When asked about the firings, Trump said he appreciated Loomer's input, calling it constructive, but he denied that she directed the purge.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The head of the National Security Agency was also ousted yesterday, though neither the White House nor the Pentagon has confirmed it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One U.S. official told The Times that General Timothy Haack was another name on Loomer's list.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Some in the administration had been skeptical of Haack, who was appointed by President Biden.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They felt he wasn't moving quickly enough to eliminate diversity programs.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Now, two other updates on the Trump administration.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: First, the yeas are 53, the nays are 45, and the nomination is confirmed.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Senate has confirmed Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Trump's pick to run Medicare and Medicaid.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The celebrity talk show doctor will now oversee the programs, which provide insurance to nearly half of all Americans.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Oz's nomination was controversial, in part because he spent years promoting a private insurance plan for older Americans known as Medicare Advantage.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He's had close ties to companies selling the plans, which have come under intense criticism for allegations of overcharging the government and denying patients necessary care.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Oz has said that he would sell his interest in dozens of health care-related companies and investment funds to mitigate some of his conflicts of interest.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And President Trump has been escalating his attacks on the nation's top law firms.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Since he took office, he's been issuing executive orders targeting firms associated with his political rivals, stripping their security clearances, limiting their access to federal buildings, and trying to cut off any government contracts the firms might have.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump went after a firm that worked with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, the firm where Robert Mueller, who once investigated Trump, worked, and, most recently, the firm that employs Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Different firms are taking different approaches in response to these threats.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Some are fighting them in court. Others are reaching conciliatory agreements with President Trump, either after he has issued orders against them or just in anticipation of doing so.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My colleague David Enrich has been covering Trump's pressure campaign against the law firms.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He says the president's willingness to go after them isn't just about revenge.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's also a show of force, as the Trump administration faces more than 150 lawsuits challenging its policies.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Regardless of how these individual law firms respond, Trump's message is aimed at a much broader group.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's aimed at lawyers and law firms all over the country and saying to them that if they stand up to him and oppose him, there could be hell to pay.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And if all of this sounds theoretical, it's not.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The lawyers I've been speaking to say that they've already seen this chilling effect actually at play with law firms shying away from representing certain clients or taking on certain cases because they're afraid of what the administration might do.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For generations, the United States has been far behind Europe and Asia in rail travel.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But recently, I took a new train in Florida that's trying to change that.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My colleague Michael Kimmelman is the Times architecture critic who covers cities and transportation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He says some of the country's most high-profile rail services are in trouble.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Amtrak had a $700 million operating deficit last year, and the high-speed rail project that's supposed to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco is years behind schedule.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But the private rail project that Michael visited in Florida, called Brightline, is on track to break even after launching just a few years ago.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Brightline is a new service on old tracks that had been around for more than a century freight tracks.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The trains themselves are new, sleek, and modern, with comfortable leather seats in new stations with all sorts of airport-style services.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It's the brainchild of a man named Wes Edens, a billionaire investor who realized that there was an opportunity on routes between cities like Orlando and Miami to tap into the millions and millions of people for whom that distance is a pain to drive and a pain to fly to.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Like almost every other rail project in American history, Brightline is also a real estate venture.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It has been building buildings around its stations in Florida.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And that strategy of trying to make money from the land around the stations is a way to turn a profit, even if the trains themselves are not profitable.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And now it has plans for a second service to connect Las Vegas with the suburbs of Los Angeles.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And in Las Vegas, it's purchased 100 acres on the Las Vegas Strip, which it plans to develop into a whole new mixed-use neighborhood.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Critics point out that private rail is not going to solve all of America's rail problems.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And they're right. Private rail is not going to go to a lot of places which need to be served by rail.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And rail travel, like roads, should be a public good and not based on profit.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But Brightline's numbers are rising pretty quickly.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Some 3 million people rode the train last year. They expect 4 million and maybe double that by 2028.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: So Brightline is showing that there is a demand out there.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And that may translate to other cities and other places where people have long been used to just getting in their car.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today on The Daily, Times reporters dig into the fallout from President Trump's tariffs on the Friday Roundtable.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: That's next in The New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Original theme by Dan Powell.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, and Paula Schumann.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The headlines will be back on Monday.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Thank you.
