WSJ What’s News - Countries Negotiating With Trump Over Tariffs Turn to Goldman Sachs

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

P.M. Edition for April 28. As countries scramble to appease President Trump over tariffs, they are turning to Goldman Sachs for guidance. WSJ reporter AnnaMaria Andriotis joins to discuss what advice the nations are getting. Plus, President Trump has taken aim at universities in recent months; now, a number of elite universities are banding together to resist his actions. We hear from WSJ higher education reporter Doug Belkin about how they are going about it. And President Trump is set to sign an executive order that would create a nationwide list of sanctuary cities and states in an effort to target Democratic jurisdictions that don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. How to negotiate with President Trump over tariffs? Countries seek Goldman Sachs advice. Everything really comes down to Trump's feelings. So as you're looking for a pathway to better trade terms and lower tariffs, you might want to consider addressing these issues that both Trump and Musk have publicly basically blasted. Plus, Trump escalates his battle against Democratic-led states and cities that don't fully cooperate with immigration authorities.

And elite universities are banding together to resist the Trump administration. It's Monday April 28th. I'm Alex Osila for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. Over the past few months the Trump administration has taken aim at universities like Harvard and Columbia because it says the universities have not done enough to protect Jewish students from antisemitism. Now we're exclusively reporting that universities are banding together to resist the Trump administration's actions. A White House spokesperson said that the Trump administration is committed to reforming higher education and combating antisemitism. WSJ higher education reporter Doug Belkin

is here now to discuss. Doug, how many universities are part of this collective? There's about 10 universities that are part of the collective right now. They're mostly private, wealthy, blue state universities that have been approached by the Trump administration or are fearful that they are next. They see themselves as the locus of resistance and they do believe that the number will grow.

So why are these universities doing this? What is their goal here? The Trump administration is asking a lot of several universities right now and they're threatening to, and in some cases they have moved, to freeze or cancel research funding and grants. So universities are a really tight spot. Things that the Trump administration is asking for start with asking the schools to prevent anti-Semitism to make sure that harassment of Jewish students ends. But it goes a little bit beyond that.

The administration is asking for oversight of things like admissions and faculty hiring and to some extent curriculum and teaching and research. And that would end the independence of the universities and that's where they are not willing to go right now. Is it that the universities are trying to avoid the fate of some top law firms where one deal led to the others following suit? Right. The law firms were picked off one by one,

and the universities are trying to avoid that negotiating error by banding together and trying to draw a line that they can all hold to make it more difficult for the administration to essentially impact any one of them individually. Can they succeed in resisting the Trump administration this way? Or is there something that could undermine their efforts?

That's the $64,000 question right now. When Harvard was given a list of demands by the task force, they went public with that list. And in that list, they said that they would not meet a number of the demands. Harvard has said that they've sued on the grounds that their First Amendment rights and their due process rights have been abused. And so they're hoping that the judge will stop the Trump administration. The issue that's at play here, though, is that the administration has a lot of different levers. They could potentially stop international students from enrolling. They're going after their tax-exempt status.

It's not clear legally where they'll win and where the Trump administration will win. And beyond that, there's future research funding that the Trump administration could make harder for Harvard to get or the universities to get. And so it's not clear how this will play out. That was WSJ reporter, Doug Belkin. Thank you, Doug.

Thanks very much. US stocks wobbled throughout the day and major indexes ended the day mixed. The Dow rose about 0.3 percent, the S&P 500 was up about 0.1 percent, and the Nasdaq fell 0.1 percent. In times of economic turmoil, many investors turn to hard assets like gold and silver. This current moment is no exception. Gold is up around 41% over the past 12 months, and last week it reached a record high in dollar terms before pulling back. And silver has risen around 23% over the past year, lower than gold but still beating the

S&P 500's 6% return over that period. Deputy editor of Heard on the Street, Aaron Back, told our Your Money Briefing podcast, What Makes Commodities Like Gold and Silver So Appealing to Investors Trying to Hedge Against Financial Chaos. You obviously have fear of inflation. Inflation tends to be good for gold. You also have fear of a more general nature. You have fear that there's political instability in the United States. You have fear that the role of the US dollar is being undermined. Let's say you had to take your money out of the United States in a hurry and there were

capital controls. Hard assets like precious metals, diamonds, things like that become more attractive in those types of situations. If I have my money in a bank account, it's subject to all sorts of controls on what I can do with it, transfer out of the country. Your dollars or your treasury bonds, those are US assets, they carry a US passport, gold, silver, diamonds, platinum. Part of the reason they are attractive is they could have a buyer anywhere in the world. It's a similar case for Bitcoin. But basically gold is like nature's Bitcoin.

To hear more from Aaron, listen to tomorrow's episode of Your Money Briefing. Coming up, why countries trying to figure out how to respond to President Trump's tariffs are turning to Goldman Sachs for advice. That's after the break. Hey, wouldn't it be great if life came with remote control? You know, you could hit pause when you needed to, or hit rewind. Like that time you knocked down that wasps nest. Uh oh.

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advice. WSJ reporter Anna Maria Andriotis has the story. So Anna Maria, you report that South Africa, France, Saudi Arabia, and Japan are some of the countries that have sought guidance from Goldman. Why from Goldman in particular? A number of countries are speaking with various large U.S. banks that are viewed as having connectivity to the Trump administration. These talks in general are spread out across a number of banks. Goldman has for a very long time been known for its connections to U.S. government administrations,

regardless of whether it's a Democrat or a Republican who is in the White House. And this time around, the same thing is at play. Countries are seeking advice. This is definitely a tumultuous time for a number of countries, whether large or small, as they try to figure out this new world order that's being put in place

under the Trump administration. What is Goldman telling them to do? So right now, of course, for the last few weeks, the topic has been on trade and tariffs and countries seeking advice on how to handle what's coming with tariffs during this 90-day pause. So one of the things that I thought was most interesting here is that the discussions involve addressing certain issues, both domestically as well as even their international relations with certain countries as a pathway to getting lower tariffs.

And so starting from at least late February until this month, there have been discussions between Goldman executives and South African government officials in which as the South African government officials have been asking about trade and improving relations with the U.S., one piece of advice that Goldman has given, including to South Africa's president, has been to consider changing a law that requires black ownership of some companies in South Africa and changing another law that requires black ownership of some companies in South Africa, and changing another law that allows the government to seize property from landowners to address racial disparities. Now, one would say, what does any of this have to do with tariffs?

Well, the fact is these issues have drawn the ire of Elon Musk, a South African native and very prominent in the Trump administration. He has described the land seizure law as, quote, racist. Trump himself described it as a, quote, human rights violation. There was an executive order that Trump put out against South Africa about this particular law. And so the bottom line advice from Goldman to South African officials is, look,

you know, everything really comes down to Trump's feelings. So as you're looking for a pathway to better trade terms and lower tariffs, you might want to consider addressing these issues that both Trump and Musk have publicly basically blasted. And how are these countries responding to this advice? that both Trump and Musk have publicly basically blasted. And how are these countries responding to this advice? We reached out to the spokesman for South Africa's president

who provided us with a comment that Goldman's recommendations, quote, would not have found favor with the government, which has committed itself to transformation that seeks to address the past imbalances of apartheid. It really does appear that at this moment countries, whether it's South Africa or Japan, are largely in listening mode. Banks, including Goldman, are one type of party that they're seeking some guidance from, but they're basically

trying to figure out is there something to do that would maybe lower tariffs and that these individual countries would feel comfortable making these changes. That was WSJ reporter Anna Maria Andriotis. Thank you Anna Maria. Great to be speaking with you. President Trump plans to sign an executive order today escalating his battle against democratic-led states and cities that don't fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities, a key barrier to the mass deportations he's promised. The order, which was viewed by the Wall Street Journal, directs the Attorney General and

the Secretary of Homeland Security to identify within a month cities and states that aren't complying with federal immigration laws, designating them as sanctuary jurisdictions. The cities and states on the list could face a cutoff in federal funding and possible criminal and civil suits if they refuse to change their laws or practices. Trump will also direct the Justice Department to pursue civil rights cases against cities or states that, in its view, favor immigrants and the country illegally over U.S. citizens. The directive comes as the administration is facing legal challenges against actions it has already taken against sanctuary cities. And power has begun to return

to parts of Spain and Portugal after a major electrical outage caused widespread disruption to the Iberian Peninsula. Spain's grid operator said that more than 20 percent of the power capacity on the peninsula had been restored by mid-evening. And the Prime Minister of Portugal said work is underway to restore full power to the nation. The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity said initial investigations pointed to a technical or cable issue, adding that it was monitoring the situation closely. The president of the European Council said there are no indications of any cyber attack at this point. And that's what's news for this Monday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Anthony Bansi with supervising producer Michael Kosmides.

I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.