President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs, April 2, 2025, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) |
When President Donald Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs, AP journalists reported on the consequences for everyday Americans and others around the world. Here's what AP's Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Zeke Miller said: Covering the White House is a team sport, but sometimes it takes an army — and a telephoto lens — to capture a fast-moving and far-reaching story. That was the case in early April as President Donald Trump held a Rose Garden announcement of stiff new import taxes on most of the world.
Before AP journalists across Washington and around the world could spring into action to report on the impacts the tariffs bring to the U.S. and global economies, we first needed to know what exactly was being announced.
With most White House officials in the dark about the hastily drafted plans, our photographers' long lenses scored the first look at the new tariff rates printed on posterboards prepared for reference by the president. It was only after zooming in on our computers that we could make out the specific rates: 34% on China, 32% on Switzerland, 10% on a host of other territories, including uninhabited islands home primarily to penguins.
In the following hours and days, we worked with our colleagues across a dozen time zones to capture the stock market reaction and other countries' disbelief at the formula used to upend the global economy. We interviewed small business workers concerned about the effects the tariffs would have on their livelihoods. We spoke to U.S. manufacturers hoping the protectionist policy might bolster their bottom line. And we heard from consumers worried about the potential they would bring about rising prices.
It was a whole-of-AP operation, relying on the work of dozens of journalists to tell all angles of the fast-developing story.
Or at least nearly all. Our request to interview those penguins went unreturned. |
