Business
Trump Imposes 25% Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum From Foreign Countries
President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on Monday, re-upping a policy from his first term that pleased domestic metal makers but hurt other American industries and ignited trade wars on multiple fronts.
The president signed two official proclamations that would impose a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum from all countries. Mr. Trump, speaking from the Oval Office on Monday evening, called the moves “a big deal.”
“It’s time for our great industries to come back to America,” the president said.
A White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly told reporters on Monday that the move was evidence of Mr. Trump’s commitment to use tariffs to put the United States on equal footing with other nations. In contrast with Mr. Trump’s first term, the official said, no exclusions to the tariffs for American companies that rely on foreign steel and aluminum will be allowed.
The measures were welcomed by domestic steelmakers, who have been lobbying the Trump administration for protection against cheap foreign metals.
But the tariffs are likely to rankle America’s allies like Canada and Mexico, which supply the bulk of U.S. metal imports. They could also elicit retaliation on U.S. exports, as well as pushback from American industries that use metals to make cars, food packaging and other products. Those sectors will face significantly higher prices after the tariffs go into effect.
That is what happened in Mr. Trump’s first term, when the president levied 25 percent tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum. While Mr. Trump and President Joseph R. Biden Jr. eventually rolled back those tariffs on most major metal suppliers, the levies were often replaced with other trade barriers, like quotas on how much foreign metal could come into the United States.
Studies have shown that while Mr. Trump’s first round of metal tariffs helped American steel and aluminum producers, they ended up hurting the broader economy because they raised prices for many other industries, including the auto sector.
The steel tariffs followed other intense trade threats. In his three weeks in office, the president has already threatened more tariffs globally than he did in his entire first term, when he imposed tariffs on foreign solar panels, washing machines, metals and more than $300 billion of products from China.
Since Jan. 20, Mr. Trump has put an additional 10 percent tariff on all products from China, and came within hours of imposing sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico that would have brought U.S. tariff rates to a level not seen since the 1940s. Together, those moves would have affected more than $1.3 trillion of goods.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday, Mr. Trump said his steel tariffs were “the first of many” to come. He said his team would be meeting over the next four weeks to discuss tariffs on cars, pharmaceuticals, chips and other goods.
Mr. Trump said on Sunday that he also planned to move forward this week with so-called reciprocal tariffs, which would raise certain U.S. tariff rates to match those of foreign countries.
American steelmakers welcomed the tariffs. In a statement on Sunday, Kevin Dempsey, the president of the American Iron and Steel Institute, said the group welcomed Mr. Trump’s “continued commitment to a strong American steel industry, which is essential to America’s national security and economic prosperity.”
But industries that use metals to make other products said overly broad protections would hurt them.
“Tariffs and other broad trade tools can make America great again, but there are unintended consequences for our nation’s food security when a tariff is placed on tin-plate steel,” said Robert Budway, the president of the Can Manufacturers Institute, which represents companies that make cans for fruits and vegetables.
The United Steelworkers union, which has members in Canada, said that it welcomed Mr. Trump’s effort to help the industry but that “Canada is not the problem.”
The new measures will mainly affect U.S. allies. The largest supplier of steel to the United States in 2024 was Canada, followed by Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Vietnam, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute. Canada is also a major supplier of aluminum to the United States, followed distantly by the United Arab Emirates, Russia and China.
Late Monday, the governments of Canada, Mexico and Brazil had yet to respond to the tariffs. Brazil’s government said it did not have a response to Mr. Trump’s announcement of steel tariffs because it had not yet received any official communication from the U.S. government on the issue.
In his first term, Mr. Trump levied tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum using a national security provision called Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. That angered allies like Mexico, Canada and the European Union, which said they were not a security threat.
Mr. Trump used those tariffs as a negotiating tool. His officials reached agreements with Australia, South Korea and Brazil, and rolled back some of those barriers on Canada and Mexico when they signed a revised trade agreement with the United States. The Biden administration later reached agreements with the European Union, Britain and Japan to roll back some of their trade restrictions.
The United States imports very little steel or aluminum directly from China, since Chinese exports have long been blocked by a variety of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs. But some argue that China’s excess steel production is still flooding other markets and pushing down global prices, leaving U.S. metal makers at a disadvantage in other markets.
Brad Setser, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Chinese steel exports had basically doubled over the past two years and were creating economic issues globally as they flooded foreign markets, including in Asia and Latin America.
But Mr. Setser said he saw little evidence that Chinese steel was being routed into the United States through Canada or Mexico and undermining the U.S. industry.
“It’s pretty hard to make the case that the surge in Chinese exports globally has triggered a reduction in U.S. production,” he said. “U.S. production has been fairly stable.”
After Mr. Trump put steel tariffs into effect in 2018, U.S. steel imports steadily declined. But that trend reversed during the pandemic, when blast furnaces shuttered and supply chains seized up, and U.S. steelmakers were slower than competitors in Mexico to open back up, Mr. Setser said.
In the last few years, U.S. steel imports have been relatively flat, though they are slightly above the level when Mr. Trump imposed tariffs in his first term.
U.S. unions and major companies like Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel, which are influential with government, have argued that current protections are insufficient to keep them in business. Amid its financial struggles, U.S. Steel, the iconic Pennsylvania company, agreed to be acquired by Nippon Steel of Japan. That merger was blocked by Mr. Biden, who said he wanted to U.S. Steel to remain an American company.
Supporters of the tariffs have argued that the United States needs strong metal makers for its national defense.
Nazak Nikakhtar, a partner at the law firm Wiley Rein and an official in the first Trump administration, said the president was again “making good on his promise to impose tariffs globally and to increase tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, given their criticality to national security.”
But many economists argue that tariffs on raw materials like steel will hurt the economy, since they raise prices for other manufacturers.
A study by the nonpartisan International Trade Commission, for example, found that Mr. Trump’s earlier tariffs encouraged consumers of steel and aluminum to buy more American metals. The increase in demand pushed up metal prices and allowed American metal makers to expand, resulting in $2.25 billion of additional U.S. production of steel and aluminum in 2021.
But the tariffs also raised costs for industries that buy steel and aluminum to make other things, like industrial machinery, car parts and hand tools. Altogether, industries that consume steel and aluminum saw their production shrink by $3.48 billion as a result of the those higher costs — more than offsetting what the steel and aluminum makers had gained.
Other industries are concerned about being caught in the crossfire and targeted with tariffs as other countries retaliate. China imposed retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas, coal, farm machinery and other products on Monday in response to the tariffs Mr. Trump put on China last week because of its role in the fentanyl trade.
Mexico, Canada and the European Union have all drawn up lists of American products they could strike with their own levies in response to U.S. measures.
In response to Mr. Trump’s first metal tariffs, for example, the European Union imposed a 25 percent tariff on American whiskey. A deal negotiated by the American and European governments to suspend those tariffs is set to expire soon. If another agreement is not reached, the European Union is set to double that tariff to 50 percent on April 1.
Chris Swonger, the chief executive of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, said in a statement that the tariff would have a “catastrophic outcome” for 3,000 small distilleries across the United States.
“We are urging that the U.S. and E.U. move swiftly to find a resolution,” Mr. Swonger said. “Our great American whiskey industry is at stake.”
Colby Smith and Norimitsu Onishi contributed reporting.
Business
FKA twigs sues ex-boyfriend Shia LaBeouf over ‘unlawful’ NDA
Singer-songwriter FKA twigs is suing her ex-boyfriend, actor Shia LaBeouf, claiming that he is trying to “silence” her from speaking out against sexual abuse through the use of an “unlawful” nondisclosure agreement.
The complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, seeks a court order to prohibit LeBeouf from enforcing sections of an NDA which Tahliah Barnett — the Grammy Award-winning singer’s legal name — says violates California law.
“Shia LaBeouf has tried to control Tahliah Barnett for the better part of a decade,” the filing states.
“This action was taken in response to Mr. LaBeouf’s attempt to bully and intimidate twigs through a frivolous and unlawful secret arbitration he filed against her in December in which he sought to extract money from her,” said the singer’s attorney Mathew Rosengart, national co-chair of media & entertainment litigation at Greenberg Traurig in Century City, in a statement.
Rosengart added that twigs “refuses to be bullied anymore. She is instead standing up for herself and other survivors of sexual abuse who have improperly been silenced. This is the unusual case that is not about money but about justice and upholding and enforcing California law and policy designed to protect survivors by nullifying illegal NDAs.”
LaBeouf’s attorney Shawn Holley of Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir denied the claims.
“When Ms. Barnett and Mr. LaBeouf both decided to resolve their differences and move on with their lives, no one forced her or ‘bullied’ her to stay silent,” Holley said in a statement.
“As a woman with agency, she decided to settle the case and accepted money to dismiss her lawsuit.”
The suit arises out of litigation that Barnett brought against LaBeouf in 2020, when she accused the actor of “physical, sexual, and mental abuse” during their relationship,” as well as “knowingly infect[ing]” Barnett with a sexually transmitted disease.” That case was settled last year.
In a response to the suit, the actor told the New York Times that “many of these allegations are not true.”
But he added, “I am not in the position to defend any of my actions. I owe these women the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done.”
In the statement Thursday, Holley added that the claim of sexual battery “was disputed, as were the other claims made in Ms. Barnett’s lawsuit.”
Shia LaBeouf poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film “The Phoenician Scheme” at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival May 18, 2025.
(Lewis Joly / Invision / AP)
According to the new lawsuit, LaBeouf filed a secret arbitration complaint and “improperly sought exorbitant monies” from Barnett last December, claiming she had breached their agreement by violating its nondisclosure provisions after she gave an interview to the Hollywood Reporter in October.
In the interview, Barnett was asked if she felt safe and answered that as a woman of color in the entertainment industry, she “wouldn’t feel safe” and discussed her involvement with organizations that support survivors, saying, “I think it’s less about me at this point and more about looking forward. Just, you know, moving on with my life.”
The agreement Barnett reached with LaBeouf “contained a deficient and unlawful NDA that is unenforceable,” under California’s Stand Together Against Non-Disclosure Act, according to the complaint. The law forbids NDAs from being used to silence victims of sexual misconduct.
“As the California Legislature has made clear, survivors should have the right to tell their stories without fear or coercion, and California law does not and must not allow abusers and bullies to silence them through secret agreements containing unconscionable, unlawful gag orders,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit further alleges that while LaBeouf has sought to prohibit Barnett from talking about her abuse, he has “repeatedly brought up his relationship with Ms. Barnett—on his own and without being directly asked about her—materially breaching the very confidentiality provisions that he had just contended were fully enforceable against Ms. Barnett.”
While the actor agreed to drop the arbitration in February, he has “refused to acknowledge, however, that the NDA provisions are illegal and unenforceable,” the filing states.
The latest round in LaBeouf’s legal battle with Barnett comes just weeks after a New Orleans judge ordered the actor to begin substance abuse treatment and undergo weekly drug testing after he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting two men in the city’s French Quarter. LaBeouf was also required to post $100,000 bond as part of the conditions of his release. He was charged with two counts of simple battery, the Associated Press reported.
Business
Warner shareholders to vote on Paramount takeover
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders will soon render a verdict on Hollywood’s biggest merger in nearly a decade.
Warner has set an April 23 special meeting of stockholders to vote on the company’s proposed sale, for $31-a-share, to the Larry Ellison family’s Paramount Skydance.
The $111-billion deal is expected to reshape the entertainment industry by combining two historic film studios, dozens of prominent TV networks, including CBS, HBO, HGTV and Comedy Central, streaming services and two news organizations, CNN and CBS News. The tie-up would give Paramount such beloved characters as Batman, Wile E. Coyote, and Harry Potter, television shows including “Hacks,” and “The Pitt,” and a rich vault of movies that includes “Casablanca,” and “One Battle After Another.”
The $31-a-share offer represents a 63% increase over Paramount Chairman David Ellison’s initial $19-a-share proposal for the company in mid-September, and a 147% premium over Warner’s stock’s trading levels prior to news of Ellison’s interest.
“This transaction is the culmination of the Board’s robust process to unlock the full value of our world-class portfolio,” Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav said Thursday in a statement. “We are working closely with Paramount to close the transaction and deliver its benefits to all stakeholders.”
Paramount hopes to finalize the takeover by September. It has been working to secure the blessing of government regulators in the U.S. and abroad.
Should those regulatory deliberations stretch beyond September, Paramount will pay shareholders a so-called “ticking fee” — an extra 25 cents a share for every 90-day-period until the deal closes.
The transaction will leave the combined company with nearly $80-billion in debt, a sum that experts say will lead to significant cost cuts.
Paramount Skydance Chairman and CEO David Ellison attends President Trump’s State of the Union address three days before clinching his hard-fought Warner Bros. Discovery deal.
(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)
For weeks it appeared that Netflix would scoop up Warner Bros.
Netflix initially won the bidding war in early December with a $27.75 offer for the studios and streaming services, including HBO Max. But Ellison refused to throw in the towel. He and his team continued to lobby shareholders, politicians and Warner board members, insisting their deal for the entire company, including the cable channels, was superior and they had a more certain path to win regulatory approval.
The Ellison family is close to President Trump. This week, Trump named Larry Ellison to a proposed White House council on technology issues, including artificial intelligence.
Warner’s board, under pressure, reopened the bidding in late February to allow Paramount to make its case. Warner board members ultimately concluded that Paramount’s bid topped the one from Netflix and the streamer bowed out. Paramount paid a $2.8-billion termination fee to Netflix and signed the merger agreement on Feb. 27.
Warner’s board is advising its shareholders to approve the Paramount deal. Failure to cast a vote will be the same as a no-vote, according to the company’s proxy.
Warner’s largest shareholders include the Vanguard Group, BlackRock, Inc. and State Street Corp.
Zaslav has significant stock and options holdings, worth about $517 million at the deal’s close, according to the proxy.
The regulatory filing also disclosed that a mysterious bidder had surfaced at the auction’s 11th hour.
A firm called Nobelis Capital, Pte., reportedly based in Singapore, alerted Warner on Feb. 18 that it was willing to pay $32.50 a share in cash.
The firm said it had placed $7.5 billion into an escrow account. However, Warner’s bankers “could not find the purported deposit at J.P. Morgan,” according to the proxy. And there was no evidence that Nobelis had any assets or any “equity or debt financing” lined up, Warner said, adding that it “took no further action with respect to the Nobelis proposal.”
Business
Video: How Kharg Island May Change the Trajectory of the Iran War
new video loaded: How Kharg Island May Change the Trajectory of the Iran War
By Peter Eavis, Gilad Thaler, Edward Vega, Lauren Pruitt and Joey Sendaydiego
March 25, 2026
-
Detroit, MI1 week agoDrummer Brian Pastoria, longtime Detroit music advocate, dies at 68
-
Science1 week agoHow a Melting Glacier in Antarctica Could Affect Tens of Millions Around the Globe
-
Science1 week agoI had to man up and get a mammogram
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago‘Youth’ Twitter review: Ken Karunaas impresses audiences; Suraj Venjaramoodu adds charm; music wins praise | – The Times of India
-
Sports6 days agoIOC addresses execution of 19-year-old Iranian wrestler Saleh Mohammadi
-
New Mexico5 days agoClovis shooting leaves one dead, four injured
-
Business1 week agoDisney’s new CEO says his focus is on storytelling and creativity
-
Texas1 week agoHow to buy Houston vs. Texas A&M 2026 March Madness tickets