Trump finds a new way to impose sweeping tariffs across the world

Summary

Apple News Today
Episode: "Trump finds a new way to impose sweeping tariffs across the world"
Date: July 24, 2026
Host: Gideon Reznick (in for Shumita Basu)

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Apple News explores President Donald Trump's newly announced sweeping global tariffs affecting 60 countries. The episode examines the novel legal grounds for these tariffs, reactions from trading partners, and discussion of potential legal and economic implications. It also covers developing U.S. news, including the death of Mississippi student Nolan Wells, prediction market chaos over LeBron James' free agency decision, political updates from Maine, and a quirky controversy over a Viking ship damaged during a Hollywood production.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s Global Tariffs: Expanded Use of Trade Laws

• Background: The Trump administration has unveiled new double-digit tariffs, ranging from 10% to 12.5%, targeting 60 economies (00:40–01:00).
• Legal Maneuvering:
  • After the Supreme Court ruled in 2025 that Trump lacked unilateral authority to impose tariffs (“Liberation Day tariffs”), his administration sought other legal mechanisms to reimpose similar duties (01:07–01:13).
  • Now, the administration is using Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, traditionally aimed at specific countries (notably China), but now applied to a broad coalition (01:29–01:55).
  • Quote (Alicia Diaz): “This is really again, the first time that they've used multiple countries at once. This is most of our major trading partners all lumped into this one single action.” (00:11)
• Rationale: The tariffs are justified by allegations that these nations have not sufficiently regulated or have utilized forced labor in their supply chains (01:57–02:03).
• International Reactions: Some targeted countries dispute the claims, stating they are working to address forced labor, and legal challenges may follow (02:03–02:29).
• Notable Actions:
  • Recent tariffs have included new 50% duties on many Canadian goods and actions against Brazil (02:37).
  • Trading partners must now seek country-specific exemptions and renegotiate trade deals struck after prior Trump tariffs (02:55).
• Policy Continuity:
  • Quote (Jamison Greer): “The specific authorities this administration is using have changed, but the trade strategy has not. We are committed to continuing to use tariffs and to negotiate deals to support the re-industrialization of our economy, protect American workers and increase their wages and shrink our trade deficit.” (03:10)
• Future Outlook: Further tariffs could target countries subsidizing manufacturing overcapacity (03:33).

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2. National Spotlight: The Death of Nolan Wells

• Incident: Nolan Wells, a Black college freshman from Mississippi, was found dead after a July 4th island gathering (03:35–04:14).
• Community & Activist Response:
  • The case attracted attention from civil rights leaders, including Colin Kaepernick (who funded a second autopsy) and Rev. Al Sharpton, who offered rewards for information (04:23).
  • Quote (Rev. Al Sharpton): “We cannot say it was racist, but we cannot say it was not racist.” (04:35)
• Investigation Details:
  • Wells reportedly stayed behind on Horn Island as others left, planning to catch a ride on a remaining boat—he did not (05:01–05:46).
  • An independent autopsy was inconclusive, partly because Mississippi authorities retained key body parts and did not include a toxicology report (06:14–06:42).
  • Quote (Nick Juden, reporter): “What everyone is waiting on… is the official autopsy. So, so much of this case is entirely determinant on what we find in this autopsy report.” (07:04)
• Ongoing Developments:
  • The NAACP called for a full DOJ review; the official autopsy is withheld until grand jury review (07:24).

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3. LeBron James’ Free Agency and Prediction Market Turmoil

• Financial Frenzy: Over $250 million traded in prediction markets on LeBron James’ next NBA team (08:03).
• Media Influence: A premature Miami Heat video drove betting surges, highlighting market sensitivity to ambiguous information (08:11–08:47).
• Insider Trading Concerns:
  • Markets like Kalshi and Polymarket have seen issues with those using inside information, raising ethical questions (09:00).
  • Quote (Rick Mace): “One example recently is President Trump. The person that was operating his teleprompter in the White House was alleged to have used inside information to kind of enter into contracts on prediction markets.” (09:00)
• Regulatory & League Responses:
  • Both platforms are instituting new safeguards.
  • The NBA opposes wagering on sensitive elements, arguing such markets are “susceptible to manipulation or vulnerable to inside information” (10:01).
  • Quote (Rick Mace): “I think this is going to be kind of a flash point where the leagues are going to have to decide, hey, how much are we going to push back...” (10:22)
• Market Realities: Most users lose money; top earners reap most gains (10:46–10:58).

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4. Quick News Updates (11:09–13:21)

• Minnesota Political Assassination Sentencing: Vance Belter sentenced for killing former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, wounding others, in a politically-motivated attack (11:09–11:46).
  • Quote (Hoffman family statement): “There is no justice when our family and our state will never truly heal.” (11:43)
• Maine Senate Race: Troy Jackson set to replace Graham Platner as Democratic Senate nominee following Platner's withdrawal over assault allegations (12:04–12:27).
  • Quote (Troy Jackson): “Graham told me point blank that there was nothing in his past that I had to worry about. And, you know, he lied to me and he lied to a lot of us.” (12:27)
• The Viking Ship Controversy: A Swedish Viking center claims Universal Studios damaged their replica ship during production of "The Odyssey," sparking a modest $6,000 dispute over repairs (12:46–13:21).

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5. Teaser: Trump’s Finances & Crypto Earnings

• Upcoming Interview: Guest host David Green speaks with David Kirkpatrick of The New Yorker about Trump’s 2025 earnings through his crypto company, World Liberty Financial.
  • Quote (David Kirkpatrick): “Even as I was reporting on them, I thought, this is so crazy it can't be right. But you know what? It is right.” (13:49)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “This is most of our major trading partners all lumped into this one single action.”—Alicia Diaz (00:11)
• “We cannot say it was racist, but we cannot say it was not racist.”—Rev. Al Sharpton (04:35)
• “What everyone is waiting on… is the official autopsy. So, so much of this case is entirely determinant on what we find in this autopsy report.”—Nick Juden (07:04)
• “There is no justice when our family and our state will never truly heal.”—Hoffman family (11:43)
• “Graham told me point blank that there was nothing in his past that I had to worry about. And, you know, he lied to me and he lied to a lot of us.”—Troy Jackson (12:27)
• “Even as I was reporting on them, I thought, this is so crazy it can't be right. But you know what? It is right.”—David Kirkpatrick (13:49)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:40 — Trump administration announces new global tariffs
• 01:29 — Section 301 of 1974 Trade Act explained
• 02:37 — Canada & Brazil hit with new tariffs
• 04:23 — Civil rights leaders respond to Nolan Wells’ death
• 05:01 — Timeline and evidence in Wells case
• 06:14 — Autopsy details and complications
• 08:03 — $250 million prediction market trading on LeBron James’ decision
• 09:00 — Discussion of insider information in prediction markets
• 10:01 — NBA official stance against wagering on free agency
• 11:09 — MN House Speaker shooting sentencing
• 12:04 — Maine Senate candidate replacement
• 12:46 — Viking ship dispute from Hollywood film
• 13:49 — Kirkpatrick on Trump’s surprising crypto earnings

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Conclusion

This episode delves deep into President Trump's unprecedented legal strategy for imposing tariffs, explores complex news stories ranging from racial justice concerns to sports gambling, and highlights how shifting regulatory, legal, and cultural landscapes are intersecting in politics, law, and entertainment. Through expert guests and direct reporting, listeners are provided both up-to-date news and critical analysis on how these events might unfold.

Transcript

[Narrator/Host]

Good morning.

[Gideon Reznick]

Sweeping global tariffs are back as President

[Narrator/Host]

Trump finds a novel legal argument to target U.S. imports.

[Alicia Diaz]

This is really again, the first time that they've used multiple countries at once. This is most of our major trading partners all lumped into this one single action.

[Gideon Reznick]

How the prediction markets went haywire for LeBron James next decision and the Viking

[Narrator/Host]

ship company taking issue with the makers of the odyssey.

[Gideon Reznick]

It's Friday, July 24th. I'm Gideon Reznick in for Shamit Basu.

[Narrator/Host]

This is Apple News.

[Rick Mace]

Today,

[Gideon Reznick]

the Trump administration has announced double

[Narrator/Host]

digit tariffs for 60 economies, citing concerns about forced labor.

[Gideon Reznick]

The new duties take effect today and

[Narrator/Host]

will hit the vast majority of US

[Alicia Diaz]

Trading partners on the lower end of the spectrum. Trading partners will get a 10% tariff, and that ranges up to a 12.5% tariff.

[Narrator/Host]

That's Alicia Diaz, a trade reporter at Bloomberg.

[Gideon Reznick]

She writes that this marks the broadest

[Narrator/Host]

increase in tariffs since Trump's so called Liberation day in early 2025.

[Gideon Reznick]

Those were eventually struck down by the

[Narrator/Host]

Supreme Court, which ruled that Trump lacked the authority to act without Congress.

[Alicia Diaz]

And so the administration came back and said, okay, what are some of the other legal avenues that we can use to add duties back onto our trading partners and continue this ongoing effort to bring manufacturing back to America?

[Gideon Reznick]

Diaz told us that the Trump administration

[Narrator/Host]

is relying on Section 301 of the 1974 Trade act, which allows the President to impose tariffs on foreign countries that engage in unreasonable or discriminatory trade practices.

[Alicia Diaz]

It's traditionally been used for kind of specific cases like China. And Trump's first administration was targeted under this legal jurisdiction. But this is really, again, the first time that they've used multiple countries at once.

[Gideon Reznick]

And this latest argument follows an investigation

[Narrator/Host]

from the US Trade representative looking into how nations handle goods allegedly produced by forced labor.

[Alicia Diaz]

They concluded that about 60 economies were either using forced labor or they had forced labor enforcement in place and they weren't efficiently regulating those actions. And so some trading partners have their response, which is, you know, we're doing a lot on the forced labor front and it will be interesting to see if there are legal challenges and how those stand up in court.

[Narrator/Host]

After the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration regrouped and looked for other ways to enact Trump's agenda. And recently we've seen an uptick in announcements.

[Alicia Diaz]

We saw this week that Trump tariffed Canada, many of Canadian goods, 50%. And he also announced the results of an investigation for Brazil, which was an ongoing probe. And they're being hit with a number of duties as well.

[Narrator/Host]

Countries will need to make their case for exemptions as they look to restore the trade deals they negotiated with the Trump administration last year in response to the Liberation Day tariffs. Earlier this week, U.S. trade Representative Jamison Greer outlined the administration's commitment on Capitol Hill.

[Jamison Greer]

The specific authorities this administration is using have changed, but the trade strategy has not. We are committed to continuing to use use tariffs and to negotiate deals to support the re industrialization of our economy, protect American workers and increase their wages and shrink our trade deficit.

[Narrator/Host]

The tariffs imposed today replace a 10% global import tax that Trump brought in after the Supreme Court ruling.

[Gideon Reznick]

And according to the Washington Post, more

[Narrator/Host]

tariffs based around countries that subsidize excess manufacturing capacity could soon be on the way. The death of 18 year old Nolan Wells in Mississippi has drawn national attention from elected officials, civil rights activists and celebrities as his family searches for answers. Wells, a black college freshman, was found dead earlier this month after taking a boat to an island with friends to celebrate July 4, staying behind after most of them returned to the mainland. Authorities suspect he drowned and don't believe there was foul play. Officials have not released their autopsy, but in the absence of a full record of events online speculation has filled a vacuum.

[Gideon Reznick]

The former NFL quarterback and now civil

[Narrator/Host]

rights activist Colin Kaepernick helped pay for another autopsy, and Reverend Al Sharpton has offered tens of thousands of dollars for information that could lead to any arrests. Sharpton spoke at Wells eulogy earlier this week.

[Reverend Al Sharpton]

I do not think that it is appropriate for either side of opinions to prevail without a backup and fair investigation. We cannot say it was racist, but we cannot say it was not racist.

[Narrator/Host]

Nick Juden, an investigative reporter with the Mississippi Free Press who's been following the case, spoke with us about the details that are known.

[Nick Juden]

We know that Nolan went to Horn island with a group of friends that he'd known for a long time.

[Narrator/Host]

The group arrived on three separate boats late in the morning of July 4th for a party.

[Nick Juden]

Now the specific boat that he came on then returned to the shore around 4:30pm because of in their testimony a bilge pump issue. So a mechanical failure and there is some audio corroborating this. They reached out to a towing company around this time is the last published evidence that we've seen of Nolan Wells alive. The testimony from the friends is essentially that he stayed on the island to continue talking to a girl and that he said he'd catch a ride back with some of the other friends who came to the island on the same day.

[Narrator/Host]

That Juden says is a critical Piece of the testimony from Wells friends.

[Nick Juden]

The testimony here, and it is testimony, is saying that rather than just stranding Wells on a crowded, admittedly very populated beach, that there were two other boats staying on the island that he had access to and could leave on. Obviously it does not appear that Nolan got on either of those boats.

[Gideon Reznick]

One of his friends contacted his family that evening.

[Narrator/Host]

When Wells did not return and his family notified authorities, the family ordered an independent autopsy, but the results were inconclusive.

[Nick Juden]

Now it came back as inconclusive for a couple of really important reasons. One, body parts were retained by the Mississippi medical examiner after the first autopsy. Specifically parts of his neck, including the trachea and the hyoid bone. And I really want to stress here that the secondary autopsy itself is clear that this is standard forensic practice, that these are delicate structures which are likely being examined more closely for evidence of, for example, pre death injury.

[Narrator/Host]

But it means the independent autopsy was not able to fully examine the condition of Wells body. The autopsy also did not include a toxicology report.

[Gideon Reznick]

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is

[Narrator/Host]

representing the family, said in a news conference this week that the family still

[Gideon Reznick]

had questions like what were the circumstances

[Narrator/Host]

surrounding wells entering the water and what position the body was in when it was found.

[Nick Juden]

And these are critical questions without answers to which theories can't possibly be complete. But I can tell you right now that what everyone is waiting on, including the police, the lawyers and of course Nolan's family, is the official autopsy. So, so much of this case is entirely determinant on what we find in this autopsy report.

[Gideon Reznick]

The NAACP passed a resolution last week

[Narrator/Host]

urging law enforcement and the DOJ to complete a full review of the incident. And last night, the district attorney handling the case said that the autopsy report would be withheld until a grand jury can review it, which she said was standard pract.

[Gideon Reznick]

No one knows yet where LeBron James

[Narrator/Host]

will spend his next season in the NBA, but tons of people have a lot of money riding on the outcome.

[Rick Mace]

It's been a trading extravaganza that we really haven't seen before when it comes to free agency in the market.

[Narrator/Host]

Rick Mace is a sports reporter for the Washington Post.

[Rick Mace]

As of Thursday afternoon, more than $250 million has been traded just surrounding LeBron's decision and what he's going to do.

[Gideon Reznick]

James has always had a penchant for

[Narrator/Host]

drumming up media attention, particularly around decisions. But as he reportedly considers a host of teams, from the Miami Heat to the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Philadelphia 76ers, a massive sum of money is following each and every drip of new information. On Tuesday night, for example, the Heat posted a video to their YouTube channel labeled as an introductory press conference for James that drove numbers way up in the Heat's favor on the prediction market Kalshi, even as the team said the video was accidentally made public and it was only created in the event that James did sign there.

[Gideon Reznick]

But that movement points to an issue

[Narrator/Host]

with markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, and that's the real ambiguity about what constitutes information versus inside information. As Mace said, it's not just a theoretical problem.

[Rick Mace]

We've kind of seen a series of headlines over the past few months of people using inside information to place the bets. One example recently is President Trump. The person that was operating his teleprompter in the White House was alleged to have used inside information to kind of enter into contracts on prediction markets. So the same thing could happen here. LeBron James obviously knows what he's doing, but that circle of people that know before it becomes public will grow.

[Gideon Reznick]

Kalshi has added safeguards recently after some

[Narrator/Host]

of those high profile incidents. And Polymarket recently partnered with another company to monitor trading activity that might be relying on non public info. The companies insist that these are not bets because they have no vested interest in outcomes and make money on fees rather than wins or losses. Even as the NBA has partnered with sportsbooks and seems open to prediction markets,

[Gideon Reznick]

the James decision is the exact kind

[Narrator/Host]

of thing the league has worried about.

[Gideon Reznick]

In fact, the NBA told federal regulators

[Narrator/Host]

earlier this year they think that people should not be able to wager on a free agency decision.

[Rick Mace]

They said they don't think there should be markets related to officiating, injuries, disciplinary action, player transactions, all these things that they think are kind of susceptible to manipulation or vulnerable to inside information kind of moving the market around.

[Gideon Reznick]

As regulators and lawmakers try to catch

[Narrator/Host]

up with this new reality, the money moving around one of the league's greatest players ever might actually lead to some change.

[Rick Mace]

I think this is going to be kind of a flash point where the leagues are going to have to decide, hey, how much are we going to push back as we enter into agreements with the Kalshees or Polymarkets of the world? How much do we want to make sure they don't offer these things in the Future? You know, LeBron James, he's a unicorn. Everything he does, it transcends sport and the transaction wires. And so it's going to generate a lot more interest and activity.

[Gideon Reznick]

Even as hundreds of millions have gone

[Narrator/Host]

into these wagers, it's harder to win earnings.

[Gideon Reznick]

About 69% of accounts on polymarket and

[Narrator/Host]

70% on Kalshi lose money.

[Gideon Reznick]

And on polymarket, about 77% of gains

[Narrator/Host]

go to 1% of users.

[Gideon Reznick]

Here are a few other stories we're following today. Vance Belter, the man who shot and

[Narrator/Host]

killed former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband last year, was sentenced to two life terms plus 40 years yesterday. Belcher pleaded guilty to six federal charges against him last month in a plea deal and will avoid the death penalty.

[Gideon Reznick]

In addition to Hortman, he shot and

[Narrator/Host]

wounded Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife at their home. He admitted in court last month that he stalked his targets, who were all Democrats, before driving to their homes dressed as a police officer and attempting to kill them.

[Gideon Reznick]

The murder sparked the largest police search

[Narrator/Host]

in the state's history. Shortly after his guilty plea last month, Hoffman's family released a statement saying, quote, there is no justice when our family and our state will never truly heal. In Maine, Democrats will formally confirm their pick to replace the former Senate candidate Graham Platner tomorrow.

[Gideon Reznick]

It seems all but certain it will

[Narrator/Host]

be former state Senate President Troy Jackson. He was the third place finisher in the state's gubernatorial primary and emerged from a crowded Senate field after Platner left the race due to accusations of sexual assault, which Platner denies.

[Gideon Reznick]

Jackson and Platner campaigned alongside each other

[Narrator/Host]

during their respective primaries, and Jackson recently told Ms. NOW that he felt misled by the former Senate candidate.

[Troy Jackson]

Graham told me point blank that there was nothing in his past that I had to worry about. And, you know, he lied to me and he lied to a lot of us.

[Gideon Reznick]

Jackson will take on the longtime Republican incumbent Susan Collins in what promises to

[Narrator/Host]

be an expensive contest that may decide which party controls the Senate.

[Gideon Reznick]

And finally, what happens when you lend

[Narrator/Host]

out a replica Viking ship and you get it back with some wear and tear on it? That is the dilemma for a Swedish Viking center, which rented out its stock to Universal for the Odyssey. The center is claiming that the ship sustained damage to its stern and mast and that Universal was supposed to front the bill for that for about $6,000.

[Gideon Reznick]

Now the center is saying they didn't

[Narrator/Host]

get the money, which the movie studio is disputing. Universal certainly has the cash for it, as the Christopher Nolan epic made more than $264 million in its opening weekend.

[Gideon Reznick]

You can find all these stories and

[Narrator/Host]

more in the Apple news app.

[Gideon Reznick]

And if you're already listening to the news app right now, stick around for the latest episode of Apple News in

[Narrator/Host]

Conversation this week, guest host David Green

[Gideon Reznick]

sat down with David Kirkpatrick, a staff writer at the New Yorker, to unpack

[Narrator/Host]

the contents of President Trump's recent financial disclosure and where the money is coming from.

[Gideon Reznick]

Kirkpatrick has been tracing Trump's streams of

[Narrator/Host]

income for years, and he says that

[Gideon Reznick]

Trump's 2025 earnings from his crypto company,

[Narrator/Host]

World Liberty Financial, stunned him.

[David Kirkpatrick]

Even as I was reporting on them, I thought, this is so crazy it can't be right. But you know what? It is right.

[Gideon Reznick]

If you're listening in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News in conversation

[Narrator/Host]

to find that episode.

[Gideon Reznick]

Enjoy the weekend, and I'll be back

[Narrator/Host]

with the news on Monday.