Buckle up. The fallout is well underway after tariff-obsessed President Donald Trump effectively declared a world trade war during his “Liberation Day” event at the White House, announcing dozens of new tariffs on countries near and far, including some uninhabited islands near Antartica. Now the global markets are absorbing the shockwaves as nearly every economist in the world either scratches their head or pulls out their hair. Below, we’re trying to keep track of the resulting mayhem — both business and political — including analysis and commentary from across the web.

The Washington Post got ahold of them. The White House doesn’t want allies suggesting the new tariffs are a negotiating tactic:

As the world tries to make sense of Trump’s sprawling new import taxes, the administration’s internal instructions say advisers should characterize the tariffs as a response to a national emergency, rather than the basis for potential trade talks, the people said. In addition to the talking points, Trump himself has told advisers the tariffs are not about setting up negotiations, two of the people said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

The internal guidance, previously unreported, comes as stock markets worldwide slump on fears of an escalating trade war. On Wednesday, Trump announced a 10 percent tariff that would apply to imports from every country, and a separate set of what he called “reciprocal” tariffs that impose a higher country-specific rate. While most analysts expect the 10 percent tariff to remain in place for the rest of Trump’s term, there has been substantial uncertainty about the purpose of the country-specific tariffs, which imposed import duties from 11 percent to 50 percent on dozens of countries.

A closing summary from the The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. markets slid Thursday in their steepest declines since 2020, as investors grappled with the threat that President Trump’s new tariff plan will trigger global retaliation and hurt the economy. Major stock indexes dropped as much as 6%. Stocks have lost roughly $3.1 trillion in market value Thursday, their largest decline since March 2020. The Dow industrials dropped 1679 points, or 4%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which powered the market higher for years, was down 6%, pulled lower by big declines in Nvidia, Apple and Amazon.com. The S&P 500, which fell 4.8%, and the other benchmarks, suffered their sharpest declines since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. The dollar meanwhile slipped to its lowest level of the year, a sign of unease over the growth outlook and fears that the flow of international funds into the country will be sharply curtailed. Inflation expectations rose.

Trump told reporters on Thursday afternoon that it was all fine: “The markets are gonna boom, the stock is gonna boom, the country is gonna boom. And the rest of the world wants to see, is there any way they can make a deal.”

As Politico reports, the Senate GOP’s No. 3 leader made his displeasure know, in a way:

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a senior Republican lawmaker from the farm-heavy state of Iowa, is spearheading new legislation that would reassert Congress’ authority over tariffs amid President Donald Trump’s trade war escalation. The........

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