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Trump Administration Live Updates: President Delays E.U. Tariffs to Allow More Time for Negotiations

Where Things Stand

• E.U. tariffs: Maros Sefcovic, the European Union’s trade commissioner, was expected to speak on Monday with Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, a day after President Trump said that he would delay imposing 50 percent tariffs on all E.U. imports to allow more time for trade negotiations. Mr. Trump has previously expressed frustration with the European Union, saying it had been slow to offer concessions. Read more ›

• Trump criticizes Putin: Mr. Trump called out President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for unleashing one of the largest aerial assaults in the war against Ukraine, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens across the country. He wrote that Mr. Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” and was bombarding Ukraine’s cities “for no reason whatsoever” amid cease-fire talks. Mr. Trump added that he was considering more sanctions on Russia in response. Read more ›

• Policy bill: Mr. Trump on Monday again urged the Senate to pass a wide-ranging domestic policy bill voted through by the House last week, putting pressure on fiscal conservatives in the Senate who have urged significant changes to the bill. “Now is the time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work,” he said in a post on social media. Speaker Mike Johnson has warned that major changes could jeopardize passage of the bill in the House. Read more ›

Noem visits Israel amid tensions between Trump and Netanyahu.

Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, met with officials in Israel on Sunday and Monday as she underscored American support for Israel amid policy disagreements between the two countries.

Ms. Noem met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and attended a ceremony on Monday that commemorated two Israeli embassy aides who were killed last week in a shooting in Washington.

Speaking at the ceremony, Ms. Noem said President Trump “extends his greetings and his grief to all of you, and he stands with you as we fight this hatred in the world.” She also spoke of “a unity among us that will help us defeat our enemies.”

Israeli leaders presented her visit as proof of strong United States-Israel relations, following disagreements between Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu over how best to approach Iran and its proxies in Yemen, and Mr. Trump’s growing frustration with the continuation of the war in Gaza. Mr. Trump did not visit Israel during a recent tour of the Middle East, an omission interpreted as a sign of tension with Mr. Netanyahu.

According to Mr. Netanyahu’s office, Ms. Noem spoke in a meeting on Sunday of her “unwavering support for the prime minister and the state of Israel.” She also expressed “great appreciation” for Mr. Netanyahu’s conduct of the war, his office said.

Ms. Noem also met on Sunday with her Israeli counterpart, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister for national security. Mr. Ben-Gvir’s office said he “thanked his counterpart for American support for Israel and for President Trump’s immigration plan,” referring to the president’s proposal in February to displace Gaza’s residents while the United States leads the rebuilding of the territory.

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Stock markets in Europe were rising on Monday, after President Trump delayed steeper tariffs on the European Union to allow time for trade negotiations. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index rose about 1 percent, essentially regaining the ground lost on Friday, when Trump threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff within days. U.S. markets are closed for the Memorial Day holiday, but futures trading implies that they will also rise when trading resumes tomorrow. The moves followed a familiar pattern, with stocks veering up and down in response to presidential pronouncements on tariffs from threats to delays to concessions. “These retreats are so frequent that investors should rationally expect them,” said Paul Donovan, chief economist of UBS Wealth Management.

President Trump on Monday again urged the Senate to pass a wide-ranging bill voted through by the House last week to deliver his domestic agenda, putting pressure on fiscal conservatives in the Senate who have urged significant changes to the bill. “Now is the time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work,” he said in a post on social media, in which he praised House Speaker Mike Johnson for his work to get the bill passed.

Bernd Lange, who heads the committee for international trade in the European Parliament, called the American threat of 50 percent tariffs on products from the European Union “completely unjustified.” Speaking to German public television ZDF before flying to Washington on Monday, Lange said that European negotiators were hoping that offers to reduce the trade deficit by agreeing to buy more American liquefied natural gas and advanced microchips, would lead to a lowering of the existing tariffs, but that he did not “believe that we will be able to reduce everything to zero.”

President Trump’s announcement that he would give the European Union more time to negotiate a trade deal before 50 percent tariffs take effect came after he spoke with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, on Sunday. “The call was initiated by President von der Leyen, but in fact there was, it seems, a mutual intention to speak to each other,” said Paula Pinho, a European Commission spokesperson at a news briefing on Monday. “With this call, there’s now also a new impetus for the negotiations,” Pinho said. She would not give details on what was discussed, but said that the two sides agreed to “fast track” talks.

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Maros Sefcovic, the European Union’s trade commissioner, will speak with Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, on Monday, a day after President Trump said that he would delay imposing 50 percent tariffs on all imports from the E.U. until July 9 to allow more time for trade negotiations. News of the call was announced by Paula Pinho, a European Commission spokesperson, at a briefing earlier on Monday.

U.S. envoy says the Syrian government will help find missing Americans or their remains.

The U.S. special envoy to Syria has said that the new government in the Mideast country has agreed to help locate and return American citizens or their remains, calling it a “powerful step forward.” The Trump administration had previously demanded such cooperation in exchange for sanctions relief.

The envoy, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., who is also the American ambassador to Turkey, wrote on social media on Sunday that President Trump had made clear that returning American citizens or their remains was “a major priority” for his administration. “The new Syrian Government will aid us in this commitment,” Mr. Barrack wrote.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government.

Mr. Barrack listed the names of three American citizens who were missing in Syria: the journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in 2012 and is believed to have been held captive by the Assad regime; Majd Kamalmaz, a psychotherapist who was taken at a checkpoint in 2017; and Kayla Mueller, an aid worker who was killed while being held hostage by the Islamic State. Mr. Barrack said their families “must have closure.”

The announcement came days after the Trump administration lifted several major sanctions on Syria, a first step toward making good on Mr. Trump’s promise this month to help the country’s new leader, Ahmed al-Shara, establish a stable government after the fall of the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad last year.

When Mr. Trump made the surprise announcement during a visit to Saudi Arabia this month that he would lift some of the sanctions on Syria, it was not clear what conditions the Syrian government had agreed to. Syrian officials have not addressed the matter.

Trump rebukes Putin and calls him ‘absolutely crazy’ for escalating attacks on Ukraine.

President Trump on Sunday condemned the decision by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to unleash one of the largest offensives in Russia’s war against Ukraine, and said he was considering imposing more sanctions on Russia in response.

Speaking to reporters in New Jersey before boarding Air Force One, Mr. Trump said he was “not happy” with Mr. Putin escalating his attacks, especially as the two countries negotiate a cease-fire deal to bring the three-year war to an end.

“He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” Mr. Trump said. “I’ve known him a long time. Always gotten along with him. But he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”

He added, “We’re in the middle of talking, and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities.”

Mr. Trump continued criticizing Mr. Putin hours later, writing on social media that his Russian counterpart “has gone absolutely CRAZY” and was shooting missiles and drones into Ukraine’s cities, “for no reason whatsoever.”

“He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers,” Mr. Trump wrote.

Mr. Trump, who has largely focused on trade and other benefits to Russia if it ended its war against Ukraine, also wrote that Mr. Putin’s continued incursion could have dire consequences.

“I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” he wrote.

Mr. Trump’s remarks came after Russia carried out one of its largest drone and missile barrages of the war on Ukraine overnight, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens across the country.

Asked whether he was considering levying additional sanctions against Russia, which he has threatened several times, Mr. Trump responded: “Absolutely, he’s killing a lot of people."

Mr. Trump, who has largely sided with Russia in the war, said he was “surprised” by the escalation, continuing to downplay the fact that it was Russia that initiated the war with an unprovoked invasion.

But Mr. Trump also had harsh words for President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Zelensky had lamented what he called the “silence of America” and other countries in the face of Russia’s renewed attacks and said they were only encouraging Mr. Putin. “The world may go on a weekend break, but the war continues, regardless of weekends and weekdays,” Mr. Zelensky wrote. “This cannot be ignored.”

Sunday night, in the same Truth Social post in which he lashed out at Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump said that Mr. Zelensky was “doing his country no favors by talking the way he does.”

“Everything out of his mouth causes problems," Mr. Trump wrote. “I don’t like it, and it better stop.”

Mr. Trump also continued taking steps toward absolving himself of responsibility for ending the war, which he once said he could do in 24 hours, saying that the war “Zelensky’s, Putin’s, and Biden’s War, not ‘Trump’s.’”

Alan Rappeport and

Trump delays 50 percent E.U. tariffs until July 9.

President Trump said on Sunday that he would delay imposing 50 percent tariffs on all imports from the European Union until July 9 to allow more time for trade negotiations.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said that he had spoken to Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, about his recent threat to enact the tariffs on June 1 if a trade deal could not be reached in the next week.

Mr. Trump has expressed frustration over negotiations with the E.U., saying that the union has been slow to offer trade concessions during a 90-day window to reach a deal that satisfies the administration. But his threat to hit the union with a steep tariff raised the chances of an economically destabilizing trade war with one of the world’s largest economies.

On Sunday, Mr. Trump appeared to relent, at least for now.

“The Commission President said that talks will begin rapidly,” Mr. Trump wrote, referring to Ms. von der Leyen. The European Commission is the executive arm of the European Union.

Ms. von der Leyen, in a separate social media post on Sunday, said that she had a “good call” with Mr. Trump and had conveyed to him that the E.U. needed extra time to reach a trade deal. She said that talks would advance “swiftly and decisively.”

“The E.U. and the U.S. share the world’s most consequential and close trade relationship,” she wrote.

The extension is the latest turnabout by Mr. Trump, whose trade policies have injected substantial uncertainty into the global economy. While announcing his recommendation for 50 percent E.U. tariffs on Friday, the president had assailed Europe’s negotiating tactics and expressed no interest in reaching a deal.

When asked if there was anything Europe could do to avoid tariffs, he had responded, “I don’t know, we’re going to see what happens,” adding, “they’ve treated us very badly over the years.”

Friday’s threat of 50 percent tariffs came after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with European counterparts as part of the Group of 7 meetings in Canada. Mr. Bessent had given no indication to his counterparts that new tariffs were coming, but he defended them on Friday. “I would hope that this would light a fire under the E.U.,” he said on Fox News.

The Treasury Secretary said that Europe has a “collective action” problem and that individual countries in the E.U. did not know how Brussels was negotiating.

Mr. Trump’s tariff threat against the E.U. came weeks after he agreed to partially pause the 145 percent tariffs he had imposed on Chinese imports.

Economists have warned that the tariffs and related uncertainty were slowing business investment around the world and disrupting supply chains. Many analysts have raised their forecasts for the likelihood of a global recession.

European officials held a call with their American counterparts for trade talks on Friday, and had earlier submitted a term sheet detailing their offers to secure a deal.

European leaders have offered to reduce tariffs on industrial goods to zero if the United States does the same, and to increase purchases of U.S. energy, among other commitments. In return, they hope to reduce tariffs Mr. Trump has applied to all European products, as well as specific tariffs on goods like cars and pharmaceuticals.

But Mr. Trump and his advisers have said they were unimpressed by Europe’s offers. They continue to criticize a European value-added tax and other policies they say discriminate against American businesses.

In a post on Truth Social Friday morning, Mr. Trump wrote that discussions with the European Union were “going nowhere” and that he was recommending a 50 percent tariff on European imports as of June 1.

Mr. Trump also threatened a 25 percent tariff on imports of smartphones made by Apple and other companies on Friday, saying they should be made in the United States.

Economists at Oxford Economics said that if implemented, the E.U. tariffs and the phone tariffs, combined, would reduce economic growth by 0.2 percentage points, raise inflation by 0.2 percentage points, and increase the unemployment rate by a tenth of a percentage point.

“The proposed tariffs on the E.U. highlight a key forecast risk, whereby tariffs remain an ongoing tool to be wielded by the Trump administration whenever negotiations hit a snag,” the economists, Ryan Sweet and Bernard Yaros, wrote.

Catie Edmondson and

Fiscal hawks in the Senate balk at Trump’s domestic agenda bill.

Two of the Senate’s staunchest fiscal conservatives said on Sunday that they would try to force significant changes to the bill passed by the House last week to deliver President Trump’s domestic agenda, signaling a precarious path ahead for the legislation.

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said on CNN that he saw the opportunity Republicans now have — with control of the House, Senate and White House — as “our only chance” to reset to “a reasonable prepandemic level of spending.”

Mr. Johnson accused the House of rushing through the process of putting the bill together and of approving legislation that would ultimately add to the deficit. And he suggested that enough of his colleagues in the Senate felt the same way to be able to enact major changes.

“I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about spending reduction and reducing the deficit,” Mr. Johnson said.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, another fiscal conservative, criticized the House package, saying on “Fox News Sunday” that it lacked concrete measures to reduce the ballooning national debt. He said that the package was “not a serious proposal,” and that Republicans should cut deeper into major drivers of the debt, including Medicaid, Social Security and food assistance programs.

“Somebody has to stand up and yell: ‘The emperor has no clothes,'” Mr. Paul said. “Conservatives do need to stand up and have their voice heard.”

Their resistance is unwelcome news for Mr. Trump, who has implored lawmakers to quickly pass the legislation carrying his agenda, and for House Speaker Mike Johnson. Last week he attended a closed-door luncheon of Republican senators and urged them not to make drastic changes to the legislation that could imperil its passage through the House.

Some of the budget hawks in the House who lent their support to their chamber’s bill already swallowed considerable reservations about the bill to vote “yes.” Mr. Johnson has warned that any major changes could put their support in jeopardy.

“We’ve got to pass it one more time to ratify their changes in the House,” Mr. Johnson said on CNN on Sunday. “And I have a very delicate balance here, a very delicate equilibrium that we’ve reached over a long period of time. It’s best not to meddle with it too much.”

A number of Republicans have also said they believe the House bill could cut too deeply into programs their constituents rely on, including Medicaid and some of the clean energy tax credits created by the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration’s signature climate law passed in 2022.

Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, has become a vocal opponent of the legislation’s provision on Medicaid, and has argued that the bill would harm “working people and their children.”

“Over 20 percent of Missourians, including hundreds of thousands of children, are on Medicaid,” Mr. Hawley said on CNN earlier in May. “They’re not on Medicaid because they want to be. They’re on Medicaid because they cannot afford health insurance in the private market.”