Kimmel on Trump’s tariffs: ‘He drove the economy into a sand trap and took a mulligan’
Late-night hosts recapped another day of chaos, as Donald Trump institutes a surprise 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs after global markets plummet.“This is day 79 of Trump-o-mania,” said Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday.“It’s been fun, watching this lunatic gamble our life’s savings this week.It’s like handing a social security check to your dog and sending it to Caesar’s Palace.‘If the dealer has 16, stay, OK?’”Wednesday marked “another rollercoaster of a day”, as Trump “hit the snooze button on all those big, beautiful tariffs he levied”.
In the early afternoon local time, Trump announced a surprise 90-day pause on his sweeping tariffs plan, “which puts us right around the Fourth of July to blow things up again”, said Kimmel,“The world of finance was relieved, to say the least,” he noted, as the markets shot up after Trump’s announcement,“Think about that: the best thing Trump has done for America was undo the incredibly dumb thing he did,” Kimmel quipped,“Imagine if he quit? He could usher in a whole new era of prosperity,”In the meantime, “our job, I guess, is to sit back and watch him take credit for solving the financial crisis he created”.
“He stopped the tariffs without a single deal with a single country in place,So much for that spine of steel,” Kimmel continued, referring to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s characterization of the president,“Turns out the spine of steel was no match for the brain of mashed potatoes,”Still, “it has been funny watching them try to spin this”, Kimmel said, pointing to comments from Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who said: “It took great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment,”“He stayed the course – it was a golf course, but he stayed it,” Kimmel laughed.
“He did not stay the course! He drove the economy into a sand trap and took a mulligan, that’s what he did.”“After the big White House announcement and days of market turmoil and global uncertainty and cabinet officials defending him on TV, Trump is backing down,” Seth Meyers said on Late Night.“None of this makes any sense, especially because just yesterday, Trump’s White House said he was definitely not considering a pause.”Meyers quoted Leavitt, who said a pause was “not his mindset”.“Trump doesn’t have a mindset,” Meyers retorted.
“He reacts to news the way a Roomba reacts to walls.The pause is happening because Trump unleashed chaos on the economy for no reason.Even his own supporters on Wall Street have been flipping out, and it’s worth remembering they were ecstatic when he won in November.”“But even when they were jubilant, the one hesitation Wall Street had was Trump’s tariffs.They just got over it by convincing themselves he would do it in a very measured, thoughtful manner,” said Meyers before several clips of financiers, such as the JP Morgan CEO, Jamie Dimon, expressing hope that Trump would be reasonable with tariffs.
“Why do you guys convince yourself after everything we’ve been through that Trump would do this in a way that makes sense!“Trump’s supporters on Wall Street and the Republican party freaked out, which is why he caved and paused the tariffs,” he surmised,“He thought telling everyone to chill out would work, but it did not,” On Truth Social, Trump wrote: “BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well,The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!”“Nobody knows more about cool than a 78-year-old golfer with words on his hat,” Meyers laughed,“All of this chaos is happening for no reason, and in the process it’s hurting real people.
”And on the Late Show, Stephen Colbert observed “another day of historic market losses thanks to Trump’s random-ass tariffs”, followed by a surge in the Dow after Trump announced his pause,The “mad emperor of global trade decreed” a 90-day pause to the tariffs, under the guise of “negotiations” with other countries,“Thank goodness that 1,18pm today, Donald Trump made a decision that at the last minute saved our nation from a previous decision by Donald Trump,” Colbert quipped,“Look, I have no idea what Trump is doing with these tariffs – something apparently I have in common with Donald Trump,” he added.
“But the point is: economic nuclear winter is on pause for 90 days.“Apparently, this is a negotiation and his policies have changed – a slight adjustment from this weekend, when they said, ‘this is not a negotiation’ and ‘my policies will never change’,” Colbert said, quoting the president.“His policies will never change, especially his policy that his policies always change.That one? Solid as a rock – for now.”Colbert also mocked Trump’s social media plea to “BE COOL!” as “not that reassuring, actually.
That’s what frat guys say to each other when the pledge stops making noise,”
Sledgehammer-wielding Musk critics smash up Tesla in London art project
Protective helmets were donned and sledgehammers wielded as Elon Musk critics vented their frustration at the Tesla boss and billionaire by smashing up a disused Tesla bound for the scrapheap.The public art project was organised by the social media campaign group Everyone Hates Elon. A 2014 Tesla Model S was provided by an anonymous donor “to create a debate about wealth inequality”, a spokesperson for the group said.The participants gathered at Hardess Studios in south London on Thursday to take it in turns to swing at the car with sledgehammers and baseball bats. The destroyed electric vehicle, which retails for about £14,000, will be auctioned in the next few weeks, with all proceeds going to food bank charities
Apple said to be flying iPhones from India to US to avoid Trump tariffs
Apple is reportedly chartering cargo flights to ferry iPhones from its Indian manufacturing plants to the US in an attempt to beat Donald Trump’s tariffs.The tech company has flown 600 tonnes of iPhones, or as many as 1.5m handsets, to the US from India since March after ramping up production at its plants in the country, according to Reuters.Trump’s threatened tariffs of 26% on Indian imports are on hold for about three months after the US president called a 90-day pause, but he has announced that tariffs on goods from China – where Apple assembles most of its iPhones – will be subject to a levy of at least 145%.A source familiar with the planning behind the move told Reuters Apple “wanted to beat the tariff”
AI avatar generator Synthesia does video footage deal with Shutterstock
A $2bn (£1.6bn) British startup that uses artificial intelligence to generate realistic avatars has struck a licensing deal with the stock footage firm Shutterstock to help develop its technology.Synthesia will pay the US-based Shutterstock an undisclosed sum to use its library of corporate video footage to train its latest AI model. It expects that incorporating the clips into its model will produce even more realistic expressions, vocal tones and body language from the avatars.“Thanks to this partnership with Shutterstock, we hope to try out new approaches that will … increase the realism and expressiveness of our AI generated avatars, bringing them closer to human-like performances,” said Synthesia
Apple MacBook Air M4 review: the laptop to beat, now cheaper
Apple’s much-loved MacBook Air gets even more power, a much better webcam and an unexpected price cut for 2025, making one of the very best consumer laptops even more tempting.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The company’s thinnest and lightest laptop currently starts at £999 (€1,199/$999/A$1,699) – £100 less than last year’s model – and has Apple’s top M4 chip with a minimum of 16GB of memory, making the cheapest model much more capable
Energy demands from AI datacentres to quadruple by 2030, says report
The global rush to AI technology will require almost as much energy by the end of this decade as Japan uses today, but only about half of the demand is likely to be met from renewable sources.Processing data, mainly for AI, will consume more electricity in the US alone by 2030 than manufacturing steel, cement, chemicals and all other energy-intensive goods combined, according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).Global electricity demand from datacentres will more than double by 2030, according to the report. AI will be the main driver of that increase, with demand from dedicated AI datacentres alone forecast to more than quadruple.One datacentre today consumes as much electricity as 100,000 households, but some of those currently under construction will require 20 times more
Why you can’t just repair your phone in the US to avoid Trump tariffs
Business owners warn taxes may increase parts prices, making electronics repairs more costly than beforeTariffs that took effect in the US at midnight on Wednesday are expected to make buying new smartphones more expensive. But opting to fix an old or damaged device as a way to save money may not avoid a higher bill.“We do expect that we’ll have to increase our own parts prices some, too, unfortunately,” said Elizabeth Chamberlain, the director of sustainability at the device repair company iFixit. “We’re actively looking for sources of harvested parts from within the US. Even with higher prices on parts, however, repairs will still be much more economical than buying new
Power deliver fully-charged performance and a reminder of how good they can be | Jonathan Horn
Barbeary double helps nine-try Bath crush Gloucester in Challenge Cup
Lando Norris left searching for answers after disappointing Bahrain GP
F1: McLaren’s Piastri wins Bahrain Grand Prix to spring into title frame – as it happened
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri surges to dominant victory at Bahrain F1 GP
County cricket day three: Yorkshire thrash Worcestershire, Kent beat Middlesex – as it happened