The Headlines - The Worst Stock Market Drop in Years, and Dr. Oz’s New Government Job

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

Plus, what's so hard about building trains? On Today’s Episode:Trade War Sets Off ‘Max Pessimism’ in Global Markets as Stocks Plunge, by Joe Rennison, Danielle Kaye, River Akira Davis and Eshe NelsonGrocery Shoppers Will Feel the Tariffs First in the Produce Aisle, by Kim SeversonTrump Fires 6 N.S.C. Officials After Oval Office Meeting With Laura Loomer, by Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan and Ken BensingerSenate Confirms Dr. Oz to Oversee Medicare and Medicaid, by Reed Abelson and Susanne CraigTrump’s Not-So-Subtle Purpose in Fighting Big Law Firms, by David EnrichWhat’s So Hard About Building Trains?, by Michael KimmelmanTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Friday, April 4th. Here's what we're covering. U.S. markets plunged today in the wake of President Trump's announcement of new tariffs. On Wall Street, it was the worst day since 2020. The Dow dropped more than 1,600 points points or about 4 percent. Losing approximately three trillion dollars of value. President Trump's global trade war has fueled the worst stock market

drop off since the pandemic. You can see the giant red arrow pointing down. Yesterday his new tariffs caused panic for investors and for companies as they scrambled to figure out how they'll shoulder the costs and what of those they may pass on to customers. Apple, which could be affected by the new 54% tariff on Chinese-made goods, saw its stock drop sharply. So did Amazon. And Nike, which makes a lot of its products in Vietnam, now facing a 46% tariff, also dropped. Other tech companies, shipping companies, and car companies took a hit too.

This is a big change. I'm not going to shy away from it. But we needed a big change, Lawrence. In the face of the economic fallout, the Trump administration has been defending the tariffs and calling for patience. Let Donald Trump run the global economy. You got to trust Donald Trump in the White House. That's why they put him there.

Let him fix it. I understand. It's broken. Let him fix it. The president himself framed the tariffs as a painful but necessary medical procedure needed to treat a sick patient, in this case, the U.S. economy. You'll see how it's going to turn out. Our country's going to boom.

Meanwhile, the first place many Americans will likely feel the tariffs is the grocery store. Shoppers may see the impact in the produce section as soon as this month. The price of bananas from Guatemala or grapes from Peru could go up, along with other imported fresh fruits and vegetables. Then analysts say the price hikes will hit other staples like sugar and coffee, which is already at a historic high. The higher costs will spread across industries. Volkswagen already announced it will add a fee to the price of cars it imports into the U.S. Earlier this week, President Trump hosted the far right activist Laura Loomer at the White House.

President Trump hosted the far-right activist Laura Loomer at the White House, and the Times has learned that she came ready with a list of government officials she claimed were disloyal to the president. She railed against the staffers by name and attacked their character in a half-an-hour meeting in the Oval Office. Yesterday, Trump fired six of them, who served on the National Security Council. Loomer is a longtime Trump ally who has pushed baseless conspiracy theories in the past, like that September 11th was an inside job. Loomer and other Trump loyalists have been making an effort to target White House staffers they claim are not fully on board with Trump's America First agenda. When asked about the firings, Trump

said he appreciated Loomer's input, calling it constructive, but he denied that she directed the purge. The head of the National Security Agency was also ousted yesterday, though neither the White House nor the Pentagon has confirmed it. One US official told the Times that General Timothy Hawk was another name on Loomer's list.

Some in the administration had been skeptical of Hawk, who was appointed by President Biden. They felt he wasn't moving quickly enough to eliminate diversity programs. Now two other updates on the Trump administration. First, the yeas are 53, the nays are 45, and the nomination is confirmed. The Senate has confirmed Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Trump's pick to run Medicare and Medicaid. The celebrity talk show doctor will now oversee the programs, which provide insurance to nearly half of all Americans. Oz's nomination was controversial in part because he spent years promoting a private insurance plan for older Americans known as Medicare Advantage.

He's had close ties to companies selling the plans, which have come under intense criticism for allegations of overcharging the government and denying patients necessary care. Oz has said that he would sell his interest in dozens of healthcare-related companies and investment funds to mitigate some of his conflicts of interest. And President Trump has been escalating his attacks on the nation's top law firms. Since he took office, he's been issuing executive orders targeting firms associated with his political rivals, stripping their security clearances, limiting their access to federal buildings, and trying to

cut off any government contracts the firms might have. Trump went after a firm that worked with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, the firm where Robert Mueller, who once investigated Trump, worked, and most recently, the firm that employs Kamala Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff. David Enrich, Ph.D., Ph.D. Different firms are taking different approaches in response to these threats. Some are fighting them in court. Others are reaching conciliatory agreements with President Trump, either after he has

issued orders against them or just in anticipation of doing so. Danielle Pletka, Ph.D. My colleague David Enrich has been covering Trump's pressure campaign against the law firms. He says the president's willingness to go after them isn't just about revenge. It's also a show of force as the Trump administration faces more than 150 lawsuits challenging its policies. Regardless of how these individual law firms respond, Trump's message is aimed at a much broader group.

It's aimed at lawyers and law firms all over the country and saying to them that if they stand up to him and oppose him, there could be hell to pay. And if all of this sounds theoretical, it's not. The lawyers I've been speaking to say that they've already seen this chilling effect actually at play with law firms shying away from representing certain clients or taking on certain cases because they're afraid of what the administration might do. And finally...

For generations, the United States has been far behind Europe and Asia in rail travel. But recently, I took a new train in Florida that's trying to change that. My colleague Michael Kimmelman is The Times architecture critic who covers cities and transportation. He says some of the country's most high-profile rail services are in trouble. Amtrak had a $700 million operating deficit last year, and the high-speed rail project

that's supposed to connect Los Angeles to San Francisco is years behind schedule. But the private rail project that Michael visited in Florida called Brightline is on track to break even after launching just a few years ago. Brightline is a new service on old tracks that had been around for more than a century, freight tracks. The trains themselves are new, sleek and modern, comfortable leather seats in new stations

with all sorts of airport-style services. It's the brainchild of a man named Wes Edens, a billionaire investor, who realized that there was an opportunity on routes between cities like Orlando and Miami to tap into the millions and millions of people for whom that distance is a pain to drive and a pain to fly to. Like almost every other rail project in American history, Brightline is also a real estate venture. It has been building buildings around its stations in Florida, and that strategy of trying to make money from the land around the stations is a way to turn a profit even if the trains themselves

are not profitable. And now it has plans for a second service to connect Las Vegas with the suburbs of Los Angeles. And in Las Vegas, it's purchased a hundred acres on the Las Vegas strip, which it plans to develop into a whole new neighborhood. Critics point out that this is not the solution to what ails rail travel in the United States, and they're right. Private rail is not going to go to a lot of places which need to be served by rail, and rail travel, like roads, should be a public good and not based on profit. But Brightline's numbers are rising pretty quickly.

Some three million people rode the train last year. They expect four million, and maybe double that by 2028. So Brightline is showing that there is a demand out there and that may translate to other cities and other places where people have long been used to just getting in their car. — Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, Times reporters dig into the fallout from

President Trump's tariffs on the Friday roundtable. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. This show is made by Will Jarvis, Jessica Metzger, Jan Stewart, and me, Tracy Mumford, original theme by Dan Powell. Special thanks to Isabella Anderson, Larissa Anderson, Jake Lucas, Zoe Murphy, and Paula Schuman. The headlines will be back on Monday.