Trump Tariffs – White House Remains Defiant, Says 104% Levies On China To Kick In From Midnight

The Trump administration said on Tuesday that the 104% tariffs on China would take effect from midnight on Wednesday, a sign of escalating tensions between the world’s top two economies.

According to a CNN report, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday that China missed its deadline to stand down on the 34% retaliatory tariffs that it announced in response to President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.

President Trump announced an additional tariff of 50% in response to the Chinese retaliation and threatened to terminate all meetings with the Xi Jinping administration in this regard if China did not stand down.

However, China refused to blink. Instead, its Commerce Ministry said it would “fight to the end” if the U.S. refused to de-escalate.

The ministry called Trump’s 50% tariff threat a “typical unilateral bullying tactic” and said, "China will never accept it.”

“President Trump has a spine of steel, and he will not break,” Leavitt added, according to the report.

Earlier in the day, Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that China wants to “badly” strike a deal with the U.S. on tariffs.

“China also wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to get it started. We are waiting for their call. It will happen!” he said.

Trump added that he had a “great call” with South Korea’s Acting President, Han Duck-soo.

Amid the ongoing developments on the tariffs front, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 index, edged lower by 0.1% at the time of writing.

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