KIX Kitties and K9s: Meet Kendra!

KIX Kitties and K9s: Meet Kendra!

This week’s featured pet from Second Chance Pet Adoptions is Kendra.

She’s one year old and gets along well with cats and older children. She’s shy at first, but if you take the time to get to know her, she has so much love to give. All she needs is a little patience and a quiet, cozy home where she can feel safe. Once she trusts you, she’ll be your gentle, loyal companion — happy to curl up near you or in your lap and enjoy belly rubs (without the claws 😸). She may not be the boldest cat in the room, but if you have a kind heart and a little patience, you could be the purr-fect match.

If you are interested in adopting Kendra, please visit the “Adopt” page at secondchancenc.org.

Second Chance Pet Adoptions
6003 Chapel Hill Rd., Ste. 133
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 851-8404

KIX Kitties and K9s is brought to you by Aluminum Company. Aluminum Company of North Carolina, your number one choice for windows, doors, gutters, and exterior home remodeling. Visit them at aluminumcompany.com for a free estimate.

Spring Thaw Smoothie

Spring Thaw Smoothie

Spring Thaw Smoothie

Photo by Getty Images

Spring Thaw Smoothie Recipe from The First Mess

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: N/A

Serving size: 1 serving

Ingredients

  • ½ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
  • ¼ cup non-dairy plain yogurt (see notes)
  • 1 tablespoon peanut butter
  • 1 tablespoon coconut butter
  • ½ teaspoon lemon juice
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 small orange, peeled
  • 1 medium carrot, chopped (about ½ cup chopped carrot)
  • ½ banana, preferably frozen

Directions

  1. Blend!
  2. Enjoy
Supreme Court allows Trump’s firings of independent agency board members to take effect, for now

Supreme Court allows Trump’s firings of independent agency board members to take effect, for now

By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to oust two board members who oversee independent agencies, for now. The action seems to signal the court’s support for President Donald Trump’s effort to remove limits on his power to hire and fire.

Chief Justice John Roberts signed an order pausing a ruling from the federal appeals court in Washington that had temporarily restored the two women to their jobs. They were separately fired from agencies that deal with labor issues, including one with a key role for federal workers as Trump aims to drastically downsize the workforce.

Roberts handles emergency appeals from the nation’s capital. He called for the two board members, Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board, to weigh in by early next week.

It’s not clear why Roberts would have paused the appellate ruling unless he and his colleagues believe it was likely wrong.

The immediate issue confronting the justices is whether the board members, both initially appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, can stay in their jobs while the larger fight continues over what to do with a 90-year-old Supreme Court decision known as Humphrey’s Executor. In that case from 1935, the court unanimously held that presidents cannot fire independent board members without cause.

The ruling has long rankled conservative legal theorists, who argue it wrongly curtails the president’s power. Roberts was part of the current conservative majority on the Supreme Court that already has narrowed its reach in a 2020 decision.

Soon the high court could narrow it further or jettison it altogether.

In its emergency appeal, the administration also suggested the justices should take up and decide the broader issue of presidential power. The court could hear arguments at a special session in May and issue a decision by early summer, Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 7-4 to return Wilcox and Harris to their jobs while their cases play out. The action of the full appeals court reversed a judgment from a three-judge panel that had allowed the firings to go forward.

The NLRB resolves hundreds of unfair labor practice cases every year. The five-member board lacked a quorum after Wilcox’s removal. Wilcox was the first Black woman to serve on the NLRB in its 90-year history. She first joined the board in 2021, and the Senate confirmed her in September 2023 to serve a second term expected to last five years.

The other board in the case reviews disputes from federal workers and could be a significant stumbling block as the administration seeks to carry out its workforce cuts.

The board members’ reinstatement “causes grave and irreparable harm to the President and to our Constitution’s system of separated powers,” Sauer wrote. Harris and Wilcox are removable “at will” by the president, he wrote.

In the lower courts, Wilcox’s attorneys said Trump could not fire her without notice, a hearing or identifying any “neglect of duty or malfeasance in office” on her part.

Perhaps foreshadowing the coming confrontation, the lawyers argued that the administration’s “only path to victory” was to persuade the Supreme Court to “adopt a more expansive view of presidential power.”

John Andrzejek won a national title with Florida to start the week. Now he’s Campbell’s head coach

John Andrzejek won a national title with Florida to start the week. Now he’s Campbell’s head coach

By AARON BEARD AP Basketball Writer

BUIES CREEK, N.C. (AP) — John Andrzejek is finally done with juggling coaching duties.

Andrzejek spent nearly three weeks fitting in work as the newly named head coach at Campbell between his duties as an assistant at Florida. Now, less than 48 hours after Andrzejek made a beeline toward midcourt at the horn to celebrate the Gators’ run to the national championship in San Antonio, he can finally focus solely on building the foundation for his own program.

“It’s been a whirlwind,” Andrzejek told reporters Wednesday at his introductory campus news conference. “I mean, when that buzzer went off, I was just sprinting on the court looking for people to hug.

“It was a long celebration, it was seven or eight hours of hugging people. We did the Riverwalk in San Antonio, had Gator fans cheering everywhere. Came back to my phone to 700 unread texts. But quickly since we got back, I’ve transitioned to being the head coach here full-time and I couldn’t be more excited for this opportunity.”

Florida beat Houston 65-63 on Monday night, then Andrzejek joined the Gators back to Gainesville for the team’s campus celebration Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, he was taking a charter flight to North Carolina to arrive at Campbell, a Coastal Athletic Association program at a private university of about 5,100 students.

The Camels have one NCAA Tournament bid in their history, a 1992 first-round loss to Duke on the way to a repeat championship.

But on Wednesday, at least, they added another tie to March Madness: their 32-year-old coach, who came armed with a strand of the clipped-down net from the title game that he held up as proof he understands what it takes to build a successful program.

The school announced Andrzejek’s hiring March 20, the day before the Gators’ NCAA Tournament opener in North Carolina’s capital city of Raleigh. But the sides planned to wait for Andrzejek to finish the ride with the Gators for him to take over the Camels.

Florida went on to reach college basketball’s biggest stage at the Final Four. That meant lots of hours switching between finishing scouting work for the Gators, then taking calls from recruits or potential staff hires with the Camels, then back to breaking down film or other tasks in Florida’s title push.

It helped that he was able to hire Landry Kosmalski, a former head coach at Division III Swarthmore, to assist from afar. Kosmalski said that included Andrzejek forwarding him names of recruits to more fully research as they put together their roster-building board.

Yet as Andrzejek noted from the Florida locker room in the Alamodome, the Camels’ sales pitch to recruits and fans got stronger with every win by the Gators.

“It’s created a lot of energy on our campus, and a lot of support and anticipation of him coming,” Campbell athletic director Hannah Bazemore said Wednesday. “And at that point, a lot of Camels turned Gators in really wanting him to be successful. I think it also helped from a recruiting standpoint for him, being able to get out there now say you’ve got a national championship coach calling you.

“It was something we couldn’t have dreamed up any better, we couldn’t have written a script any better. I think it benefitted him and it benefitted us in a tremendous way.”

It has gotten the attention of the Camels players he’s inheriting, too.

“It makes me excited,” guard Tasos Cook said. “I want to play just how those guys were playing. It looked like they were having fun playing on court, playing together.”

Andrzejek also leaned in on Campbell’s small-town vibe in Buies Creek, located about 45 minutes south of Raleigh.

He talked of growing up and baling hay in a rural town in upstate New York, describing a comfort with living here instead of “a Raleigh suburb.” And that included saying his staffers would immerse themselves in the community by being around campus, at Camels sporting events and tailgates, or at church.

He was finally clear to call it home.

“Come say hi and introduce yourselves,” Andrzejek said, promising: “We’re going to make some great memories here together too.”

Trump pauses tariffs on most nations for 90 days, raises taxes on Chinese imports

Trump pauses tariffs on most nations for 90 days, raises taxes on Chinese imports

By JOSH BOAK Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a global market meltdown, President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly backed down on his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, but raised the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.

It was seemingly an attempt to narrow what had been an unprecedented trade war between the U.S. and most of the world to a showdown between the U.S. and China. The S&P 500 stock index jumped more than 7% after the announcement, but the drama over Trump’s tariffs will now be prolonged as the administration engages in negotiations that could cause uncertainties to persist in the world economy.

Trump posted on Truth Social that because “more than 75 Countries” had reached out to the U.S. government for trade talks and have not retaliated in meaningful way “I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.”

Trump later told reporters that he pulled back on many global tariffs — but not on China — because people were “yippy,” and “afraid,” adding that while he expected to reach deals that “nothing’s over yet.”

The president said he had been watching the bond market and that people were “getting a little queasy.” But after his tariff pause, Trump described the bond market as “beautiful.”

It seemed impossible to fully deny the pressure created by volatile financial markets that had been pushing Trump to reconsider his tariffs, even as some administration officials said the reversal had always been the plan. The pause was announced after the global economy appeared to be in open rebellion against Trump’s tariffs as they took effect Wednesday, a signal that the U.S. president was not immune from market pressures.

The 10% tariff was the baseline rate for most nations that went into effect on Saturday. It’s meaningfully lower than the 20% tariff that Trump had set for goods from the European Union, 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on products from South Korea. Still, 10% would represent an increase in the tariffs previously charged by the U.S. government.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the negotiations with individual countries would be “bespoke,” meaning that the next 90 days would involve talks on a flurry of potential deals. Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, told reporters that the pause was because of other countries seeking talks rather than brutal selloffs in the financial markets.

“The only certainty we can provide is that the U.S. is going to negotiate in good faith, and we assume that our allies will too,” Bessent said.

The treasury secretary said he and Trump “had a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along” and that the president had “goaded China into a bad position.” Bessent said that Canada and Mexico would now be tariffed at 10%, even though those two countries had been tariffed by as much as 25% by Trump ostensibly to address fentanyl smuggling and illegal immigration.

Prior to the reversal, business executives were warning of a potential recession caused by his policies, some of the top U.S. trading partners are retaliating with their own import taxes and the stock market is quivering after days of decline.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the walk back was part of Trump’s negotiating strategy.

Leavitt said that the news media “clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact, we’ve seen the opposite effect the entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets.”

But market pressures had been building for weeks ahead of Trump’s move, with the president at times suggesting the import taxes would stay in place while also saying that they could be subject to negotiations.

Particularly worrisome was that U.S. government debt had lost some of its luster with investors, who usually treat Treasury notes as a safe haven when there’s economic turbulence. Government bond prices had been falling, pushing up the interest rate on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note to 4.45%. That rate eased after Trump’s reversal.

Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities, said before the announcement that markets wanted to see a truce in the trade disputes.

“Markets more broadly, not just the Treasury market, are looking for signs that a trade de-escalation is coming,” he said. “Absent any de-escalation, it’s going to be difficult for markets to stabilize.”

John Canavan, lead analyst at the consultancy Oxford Economics, noted that while Trump said he changed course due to possible negotiations, he had previously indicated that the tariffs would stay in place.

“There have been very mixed messages on whether there would be negotiations,” Canavan said. “Given what’s been going on with the markets, he realized the safest thing to do is negotiate and put things on pause.”

The whipsaw-like nature of Wednesday could be seen in the social media posts of Bill Ackman, a hedge fund billionaire and Trump supporter.

“Our stock market is down,” Ackman posted on X. “Bond yields are up and the dollar is declining. These are not the markers of successful policy.”

Ackman repeated his call for a 90-day pause in the post. When Trump embraced that idea several hours later, an ebullient Ackman posted that Trump had “brilliantly executed” his plan and it was “Textbook, Art of the Deal,” a reference to Trump’s bestselling 1987 book.

Presidents often receive undue credit or blame for the state of the U.S. economy as their time in the White House is subject to financial and geopolitical forces beyond their direct control.

But by unilaterally imposing tariffs, Trump is exerting extraordinary influence over the flow of commerce, creating political risks and pulling the market in different directions based on his remarks and social media posts. There still appear to be 25% tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, with more imports set to be tariffed in the weeks ahead.

On CNBC, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the administration was being less strategic than it was during Trump’s first term. His company had in January projected it would have its best financial year in history, only to scrap its expectations for 2025 due to the economic uncertainty.

“Trying to do it all at the same time has created chaos in terms of being able to make plans,” he said, noting that demand for air travel has weakened.

Before Trump’s reversal, economic forecasters say his second term has had a series of negative and cascading impacts that could put the country into a downturn.

“Simultaneous shocks to consumer sentiment, corporate confidence, trade, financial markets as well as to prices, new orders and the labor market will tip the economy into recession in the current quarter,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at the consultancy RSM.

Bessent has previously said it could take months to strike deals with countries on tariff rates. But in a Wednesday morning appearance on “Mornings with Maria,” Bessent said the economy would “be back to firing on all cylinders” at a point in the “not too distant future.”

He said there has been an “overwhelming” response by “the countries who want to come and sit at the table rather than escalate.” Bessent mentioned Japan, South Korea, and India. “I will note that they are all around China. We have Vietnam coming today,” he said.

What’s not yet known is what Trump does with the rest of his tariff agenda. In a Tuesday night speech, he said taxes on imported drugs would happen soon.

Ex-congressman Nickel entering race to unseat North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis in 2026

Ex-congressman Nickel entering race to unseat North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis in 2026

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel of North Carolina announced on Wednesday his candidacy to try to unseat Sen. Thom Tillis in 2026, saying a “fighter for what’s right for our state” is needed and criticizing the Republican incumbent for backing President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Nickel signaled his interest in a Senate bid in late 2023, when the Raleigh-area congressman decided against seeking a second term the next year because he determined congressional redistricting that year by Republican state legislators made it impossible to win his seat again.

A lawyer and former state senator, Nickel served in Congress though the end of last year and has sought to build up name recognition in Democratic circles statewide by supporting party policies and raising money for party candidates in 2024.

In a campaign video, Nickel linked Tillis squarely to Trump and his early-term actions, as well as those of Elon Musk, who has spearheaded the Department of Government Efficiency.

“When the chips are down, Thom Tillis lays down for the billionaires, for the extremists, for policies that hurt North Carolina,” the 49-year-old Nickel said. “This is a moment for a new generation of leadership with a fresh vision and the courage to fight for what’s right. And that’s exactly what I’ll do in the U.S. Senate.”

Tillis, who was first elected to the Senate in 2014, is already raising money for his 2026 reelection bid. His seat is considered by Democrats one of a handful that they could potentially flip next year in their effort to take back the Senate majority. Tillis’ victories in 2014 and 2020 were narrow.

Other Democrats could still enter the race, with the chief consideration going to former Gov. Roy Cooper, who was barred by term limits from seeking a third term last fall. Mentioned among the top options to be Kamala Harris’ running mate last year, the 67-year-old Cooper is the state’s most popular Democrat and would automatically be considered the front-runner in a March 2026 primary if he joined.

Cooper, who is currently on a short-term teaching stint at Harvard University, “wants to continue making a difference and he is taking time to thoughtfully consider what he does next,” Cooper consultant Morgan Jackson wrote in a text message.

Some smaller-name Republicans so far have announced a primary bid against Tillis. Some ardent pro-Trump supporters have questioned his fealty to the president.

Tillis has been engaged in a delicate balancing act of voicing skepticism of Trump’s plans for tariffs or his pick for defense secretary, but then often turning to support the president’s agenda.

The politics are clearly on his mind. During a Senate hearing Tuesday with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, he pressed the White House to think through the political ramifications of trying to remake the economy.

Tillis told Greer he was “trying to figure out if” voters would look favorably on Trump’s trade strategy next year “because a long-term play in American politics and a long-term play in American public policy formation is about 12 months.”

Still, Tillis last week voted against a Democratic effort to nullify the tariffs placed on Canadian imports.

Although Nickel talked about consensus-building while representing a Raleigh-area swing district in Congress, he was known for backing a left-leaning platform while in the legislature. Nickel highlighted on Wednesday a career that has included working as a White House staffer in Barack Obama’s administration.

In a Wednesday news release, Tillis campaign manager Abby Roesch called Nickel “a radical left-wing trial lawyer who was a rubber stamp for Joe Biden’s failed liberal agenda” and seeks to be the a similar rubber stamp in the Senate.

Meanwhile, Roesch said, Tillis “has a proven record of delivering results for North Carolinians,” such as helping Trump pass tax cuts in his first term and approving disaster aid — such as after Hurricane Helene.

Talking to reporters Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, Tillis said he would approach the election season by “focusing on the results. Let them speak for themselves.”

__

Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.

Roof collapse at Dominican club kills at least 113 as officials scramble to identify victims

Roof collapse at Dominican club kills at least 113 as officials scramble to identify victims

By MARTÍN ADAMES ALCÁNTARA and DÁNICA COTO Associated Press

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — The legendary Jet Set club in Santo Domingo was packed with musicians, professional athletes and government officials when dust began falling from the ceiling and into people’s drinks.

Minutes later, the entire roof collapsed. Concrete slabs killed more than 113 people and trapped dozens of others on a dancefloor where hundreds had been dancing to a lively merengue concert early Tuesday. More than 255 people were injured, authorities said.

The victims include merengue icon Rubby Pérez, who had been singing to the crowd before disaster struck. His body was found early Wednesday, said emergency operations director Juan Manuel Méndez.

Rescue crews were still searching for potential survivors more than 24 hours after the collapse.

“As long as they report that there is a missing person, we will be here,” Méndez said.

Rescue crews from Puerto Rico and Israel arrived in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday to help local authorities with the search.

Late Tuesday night, those still looking for their family and friends gathered around a man playing a guitar outside the club as they sang hymns.

So far, only 32 people have been identified in one of the worst disasters to hit the Dominican Republic. Local media reported that those who died include a cardiologist, a government architect, a retired police officer and the brother of the vice minister of the Ministry of Youth.

Also killed was MLB pitcher Octavio Dotel and Dominican player Tony Enrique Blanco Cabrera, Satosky Terrero, spokesman for the country’s Professional Baseball League, told The Associated Press.

Nelsy Cruz, the governor of the northwestern province of Montecristi and sister of seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star Nelson Cruz, alerted President Luis Abinader about the disaster. She called him from underneath the rubble but died later at a hospital.

Other victims include saxophonist Luis Solís, who was playing onstage when the roof fell, several Venezuelan bartenders and an Army captain who left behind four young girls. Grupo Popular, a financial services company, said three of its employees also died, including the president of AFP Popular Bank and his wife.

But countless more remained unidentified.

“I have been to many hospitals, and I have not found her,” said Deysi Suriel of her friend, 61-year-old Milca Curiel. Suriel lives in North Carolina and was vacationing in the Dominican Republic.

Dozens of frantic relatives crowded at the country’s National Institute of Forensic Pathology, scanning a list of the victim’s names while others went from hospital to hospital looking for their loved ones, some clutching pictures of them.

“There’s a lot of pain,” said Senator Daniel Rivera, the country’s former public health minister. “We need to have a lot of patience.”

Among those searching for their relatives was Kimberly Jones, whose godson, 45-year-old artist Osiris Blanc, and his friends were missing.

“It was their favorite place, they went there almost every Monday,” Jones said, adding that her niece also was missing.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the roof to collapse, or when the Jet Set building was last inspected.

The club issued a statement saying it was cooperating with authorities. A spokeswoman for the family who owns the club told The Associated Press that she passed along questions about potential inspections.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Public Works referred questions to the mayor’s office. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office did not respond to a message for comment.

___

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Hoecakes and Honey

Hoecakes and Honey

Hoecakes and Honey

Photo by Getty Images

Hoecakes and Honey Recipe from Wide Open Country

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serving size: 10 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fine-ground corn meal (Fresh, stone-ground, cold-milled is best)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 1/4 cups boiling water
  • 2 tbs Vegetable oil (Plus more for frying)
  • 2 tbs honey
Sugar being poured into water boiling on the stove to make buttermilk icing.
Photo by Getty Images

Directions

  1. While the water is boiling, combine the cornmeal and salt in a large bowl.
  2. Whisk the boiling water into the cornmeal then let rest for about 10 minutes.
  3. Stir in the oil and honey. The mix should be very thick, just barely pourable.
  4. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a large nonstick cast iron skillet. Once hot, spoon about 1/4 cup of the batter at a time onto the skillet.
  5. Cook until the edges are golden and crisp, then flip and cook until the other side is golden as well. It should take about 2 minutes per side.
  6. Serve warm, with a pat of butter and a side of honey.
Deputies kill armed man inside North Carolina hospital ER, sheriff says

Deputies kill armed man inside North Carolina hospital ER, sheriff says

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — Deputies fatally shot a man inside a North Carolina hospital’s emergency room Tuesday after authorities said he pointed a gun at them.

Law enforcement officers arrived at Sentara Albemarle Medical Center in Elizabeth City at 1:18 a.m. in response to a call about a man who had entered the hospital’s emergency room with a handgun, according to the Pasquotank County Sheriff’s Office. The man had pointed his gun at several staff members, and a security guard tried to restrain him before law enforcement arrived, according to authorities.

A North Carolina hospital official is calling security guard a hero after his actions trying to subdue a man with a gun who walked into an emergency room early Tuesday. Deputies later shot the gunman after authorities said he pointed a gun at them. (AP Video)

Authorities found the suspect in the emergency triage room and three of the deputies fired at him after he pointed his weapon at them, officials said.

The man received medical treatment but was later pronounced dead at the scene.

None of the officers involved in the shooting were injured, according to the sheriff’s office. The security guard who tried to subdue the man was injured and later treated at the hospital. The guard was unarmed at the time, Sentara Albemarle Medical Center president Teresa Watson said in a news conference.

The three deputies who shot their weapons were placed on administrative leave with pay as they await an investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to conclude. Pasquotank Sheriff Tommy Wooten declined to provide additional details about the suspect due to the pending investigation.

White House keeps world guessing as clock ticks down to Trump’s new tariffs

White House keeps world guessing as clock ticks down to Trump’s new tariffs

By CHRIS MEGERIAN, JOSH BOAK and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than one hour before the stock market closed on Monday, journalists gathered in the Oval Office for their only chance of the day to ask President Donald Trump about the turmoil caused by his tariff plans.

Are the new tariffs, scheduled to take effect on Wednesday, a bargaining chip to reach better trade deals? Or are they etched in stone in a mission to revamp the global economy?

Investors around the world were hanging on Trump’s every word, but he did little to clear up the situation.

“It can both be true,” he said. “There can be permanent tariffs, and there can also be negotiations.”

The markets skidded to a close. At a time when foreign leaders and business executives are desperate for clarity, the White House is sending mixed messages as it pursues conflicting goals.

Advisers have tried with some success to tamp down a days-long stock selloff by talking up tariffs as a starting point for negotiations, which could mollify Wall Street and jittery Republicans in Congress. The S&P 500 stock index was up 1.5% in Tuesday afternoon trading, with gains from earlier in the day being pared back. But the president continues to insist that he can raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue with his new taxes on foreign imports, and he’s shown no willingness to back down from an agenda that he’s advocated for decades, even before entering politics.

The ongoing paradox could erode confidence in Trump’s leadership at home and abroad after he promised a booming economy and tax cuts, not depleted retirement accounts and fears of a recession. For now, as the tariffs are set to kick in, there’s no clear resolution for what could be the most significant overhaul of international trade in a generation.

Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, urged the White House to “settle the situation.”

He said the “perception as to whether or not there’s an end game is very important.” Tillis said he is “giving the administration the benefit of the doubt” for now. But he added that “you’ve got to get it done as quickly as you can get it done.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Trump was causing economic chaos with the back-and-forth over tariffs.

“Who makes long term investments based on that?” she said. “Who hires people and trains workers based on the hope that Donald Trump will not change his mind again and again and again?”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump met with his team on Tuesday morning and “he directed them to have tailor-made trade deals with each and every country that calls up this administration to strike a deal.”

The administration has yet to articulate its goals for any talks with trading partners, other than to suggest that negotiations could take several months and that nations might also need to dramatically overhaul their tax systems and regulations to satisfy Trump’s demands. Canadian and European officials are unsure about how to proceed even as Trump administrations officials insist that as many as 70 nations are looking to start negotiations.

Trump insists that he wants to erase trade deficits that have developed as the U.S. buys more products from other countries than it sells. On Tuesday morning, Trump posted on Truth Social that he spoke with South Korea’s acting president, Han Duck-soo, about “their tremendous and unsustainable” surplus.

“We have the confines and probability of a great DEAL for both countries,” he wrote. “Their top TEAM is on a plane heading to the U.S., and things are looking good.”

But on Monday, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would “eliminate the trade deficit with the United States,” Trump appeared unmoved.

Asked if he would hold off on new tariffs on Israel, the president said “maybe not.”

“Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot,” he said, citing billions of dollars in military assistance to the country.

Trump has long advocated for tariffs as the solution to economic challenges, and his insistence that other countries are ripping off the United States is one of his most consistently expressed beliefs over the years.

Last Thursday, while flying to Florida aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters that “the tariffs give us great power to negotiate.”

On the flight back to Washington on Sunday, Trump described the tariffs as a necessity and said he was undeterred by the cratering stock market, adding that “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

Peter Navarro, a leading trade adviser, has also taken a hard line.

“This is not a negotiation,” Navarro wrote in the Financial Times. “For the U.S., it is a national emergency triggered by trade deficits caused by a rigged system.”

But other officials like Kevin Hassett, the top White House economic adviser, and Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, said scores of countries are lining up to negotiate with Trump over tariffs.

“It’s going to be a busy April, May, maybe into June,” Bessent told Fox News. He said Trump “gave himself maximum negotiating leverage, and just when he achieved the maximum leverage, he’s willing to start talking.”

Speaking Monday at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, Stephen Miran, chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, said the mixed messages over the purpose of the tariffs reflected a “healthy” internal debate.

“There are conflicting narratives because everybody has got an opinion,” he said. “And that’s fine. Disagreement is how you can enhance your arguments and avoid groupthink, and I think that’s very healthy.”

As for whether any deals could be reached before the tariffs take effect, Miran said, “that choice will ultimately remain with the president.”

Michael Strain, an economist at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said Trump is pursuing incompatible goals.

“These tariffs cannot both be an instrument to reshape the global trading order, to shift the U.S. economy away from services and toward manufacturing … and also be a tool to negotiate lower trade barriers,” he said at a panel discussion at the Bipartisan Policy Institute.

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, blamed Trump’s aides for the ambiguity, saying some of them “just like to talk.”

“There’s some uncertainty about what the president’s objective is and I think that’s a product of some of his aides, who gave conflicting reports on TV this weekend,” he said.

Kennedy said he supports Trump’s trade goals. But he’s also getting calls from businesses in his state, and he’s had no answers for them on what to expect.

Bessent visited with Republican lawmakers on Friday and told them that the tariffs were a “high level mark with the ultimate goal of getting them reduced” unless other countries retaliated, according to Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming.

“The president is a dealmaker if nothing else, and he’s going to continue to deal country by country with each of them,” Barrasso said.

But China already retaliated with plans for its own 34% tariffs, prompting Trump on Monday to threaten additional 50% tariffs against the country, for a total of 104%.

The U.S. president had a positive enough conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba that the Nikkei stock index jumped 6% on Tuesday, yet it was still unclear how a deal would work.

Trump placed a 24% tariff on Japan and a separate 25% tariff on auto imports, much higher than the 1.9% average tariff rate charged by Japan, according to World Trade Organization data. Trump has called the auto tariffs “permanent” and also installed a permanent 10% baseline tariff on most countries, suggesting a limit as to how much rates could fall through negotiations.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said Americans understand Trump is trying to address trade imbalances, and he emphasized his trust in the president.

“We are going to give him the space necessary to do it,” he said Monday.

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Associated Press writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.

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