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Investors finally seem to be getting the message: Don’t underestimate President Trump’s tariffs threat. The S&P 500 fell on Monday to its lowest level since his inauguration on jitters that a new round of the Trump trade war would kick in next week.
The slump comes even as Trump offered a carrot to corporate America on Monday, insisting that as part of his efforts to help end the Russia-Ukraine war, his administration is already working on deals to gain access to those nations’ valuable natural resources.
Trump said that tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports “are going forward on time, on schedule,” and would be imposed March 4 (should the countries fail to win themselves another reprieve). “We’ve been taken advantage of,” he reiterated on Monday.
An accord on getting a cut of Ukraine’s minerals seems close, but hardly certain. One sticking point: The White House appears unwilling to meet demands by Kyiv and its European allies for American security guarantees.
But Kyiv may have won a major concession. The latest deal terms, reviewed by The Times, no longer contained a demand that Ukraine pay as much as $500 billion into a U.S.-controlled fund derived from the future sale of Ukraine’s natural resources, including oil, natural gas and minerals.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin opened the door to American companies helping develop mineral resources in Russia, as well as Russian-occupied Ukraine. The Russian president’s message, delivered to state media on Monday, tracked with statements from the Trump administration delegation at last week’s U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia.
Yet despite the “incredible opportunities” promised by Trump, Western companies are unlikely to return to Russia any time soon.
Trump has continued to abandon the Biden-era policy of isolating Moscow. That came into further focus on Monday, on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when the U.S. joined Iran, North Korea and China in voting against a United Nations measure to condemn the Kremlin for the act.
An accord on getting a cut of Ukraine’s minerals seems close, but hardly certain. One sticking point: The White House appears unwilling to meet demands by Kyiv and its European allies for American security guarantees.
But Kyiv may have won a major concession. The latest deal terms, reviewed by The Times, no longer contained a demand that Ukraine pay as much as $500 billion into a U.S.-controlled fund derived from the future sale of Ukraine’s natural resources, including oil, natural gas and minerals.
A Trump ally in Congress, Senator John Curtis of Utah, drew a rebuke from the White House on Monday for his criticism of the administration’s handling of the Ukraine crisis.
In 2025, the Apple C.E.O. has carefully cultivated his relationship to Trump, and appears to be deploying the playbook he established back in the president’s first term.
After Trump placed levies on China in 2019, Cook went to the White House in search of an exemption. The president came away impressed from that meeting, and Apple scored some concessions.
This time around, the Apple C.E.O. contributed to Trump’s latest inauguration fund and was given a prime spot at the inaugural last month.
Cook isn’t the only tech chief to court Trump. Masa Son of SoftBank last month gained Trump’s favor after signing on to the president’s signature A.I. project, Stargate. SoftBank saw a nice bump in shares after the announcement.
In Trump’s world, optics go a long way. “It’s really the art of the announcement, not the deal,” argues M.G. Siegler, the tech investor and writer. “Deals can and often do go sideways. But an announcement, those can live forever wrapped in the comfort of hopes and dreams.”
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