US politics live: Trump refuses Aussie exemption, doubles tariffs due to ‘abusive threat’ from one country

Donald Trump has refused to exempt Australia from US tariffs as he furiously doubled tariffs on another country, leading panicked stock markets to sink.

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics.

US President Donald Trump has refused to exempt Australia from US tariffs on steel and aluminium despite saying he would give the matter “great consideration”.

That let down came hours after he upped some tariffs on Canada to 50 per cent after one Canadian province put a surcharge on electricity exported to the US.

Mr Trump said Canada’s move was an “abusive threat” as he threatened even more tariffs.

US stockmarkets, not unexpectedly, fell as the prospect of an all out trade war with its neighbour.

Elon Musk has also been very active, first labelling a US senator a “traitor” for supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia, then appearing on TV to discuss his work, ambiguous as it is, in the Trump administration.

Donald Trump’s political opponents, the Democrats, pounced on one part of Mr Musk’s interview with Fox Business.

“Entitlement spending – which is most of the federal spending, is entitlements,” Mr Musk said.

“So that is the big one to eliminate. That’s the sort of half-trillion, maybe $600 to $700 billion a year.”

The Democrats are particularly fixated on the word “eliminate” there. Not reform. Not pare back. Eliminate.

Look, Mr Musk’s meaning was open to interpretation, and the Democrats have chosen the most literal, damaging interpretation possible, as you would expect.

“There were howls of protest and denial from the (Republicans) any time we pointed out that they want to cut Social Security. Now the most powerful official in the White House goes on TV and calls it ‘the big one to eliminate’,” said former cabinet secretary and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, for example.

But even the most generous interpretation of Mr Musk’s words would conflict with what Mr Trump promised voters during last year’s election campaign.

Of course Mr Trump also promised to bring grocery prices down on day one, and to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, and so forth. So take it all with a dollop of salt.

Read on for the latest updates.

Originally published as US politics live: Trump refuses Aussie exemption, doubles tariffs due to ‘abusive threat’ from one country