TARIFFS, ANDS OR BUTS: Trump appears to be retreating even further on his punitive tariffs, announcing today that he is delaying the 25 percent levies on Mexico until next month for all imports that fall under the existing USMCA trade deal. However, Trump made no mention of whether his tariffs on Canada will also be delayed. What Trump said: “This Agreement is until April 2nd. I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President [Claudia] Sheinbaum. Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the Border, both in terms of stopping Illegal Aliens from entering the United States and, likewise, stopping Fentanyl. Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation!” What it means: “The tariffs on Mexican goods would, in theory, go back into force the same day the White House says it plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on all U.S. trading partners, based off a calculation of the trade barriers each foreign country imposes on U.S. goods,” POLITICO’s Ari Hawkins writes. The (live) view from Wall Street: “Dow drops more than 400 points, S&P 500 hits lowest since early November on trade policy fatigue,” by CNBC’s Alex Harring and Pia Singh The backstory: On Monday, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and Sheinbaum both tried to get Trump on the phone to talk him down on tariffs. No dice. So both dispatched deputies to bend the ears of Trump’s top aides, to no avail. Trump went ahead with the 25% tariffs on Tuesday, “making clear the fatal flaw in the negotiating process: Only Trump speaks for Trump, and the president wanted to move forward,” WSJ’s Vipal Monga, Santiago Pérez and Gavin Bade report in a behind-the-scenes look on how the saga unfolded. A WHOLE LOTTA LAYOFFS: In the latest sign of how significant Trump’s shakeup has been for the economy since taking office again, layoffs from U.S. employers “jumped to levels not seen since the last two recessions amid mass federal government job cuts, canceled contracts and fears of trade wars,” Reuters reports. The raw numbers: “Global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said on Thursday that planned job cuts vaulted 245% to 172,017 last month, the highest level since July 2020, when the economy was in the grips of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was the highest February total since the Great Recession 16 years ago.” Meanwhile: The Labor Department noticed today that applications for jobless benefits “fell last week as the labor market remains sturdy ahead of an expected purge of federal government employees,” per AP’s Matt Ott. “The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits fell by 21,000 to 221,000 for the week ending March 1, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s significantly fewer than the 236,000 new applications analysts expected.” Related read: “The Recession Trade Is Back on Wall Street,” by WSJ’s Sam Goldfarb: “Investors entered 2025 optimistic that an already strong U.S. economy could get an extra boost from an administration pushing market-friendly tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks. Instead, trade tensions and signs of slowing growth have driven major indexes lower in recent weeks.” THE DOGE WAGS THE TAIL: In remarkable comments that illustrate the level of command that Elon Musk’s DOGE operation has already exerted across the government, acting Social Security Administration Commissioner Leland Dudek told a group this week that DOGE is essentially in charge of the SSA, WaPo’s Lisa Rein, Jeff Stein and Hannah Natanson report. “Things are currently operating in a way I have never seen in government before,” Dudek said. The details: “In a meeting Tuesday with his senior staff and about 50 legal-aid attorneys and other advocates for the disabled and elderly,” Dudek “referred to the tech billionaire’s cost-cutting team as ‘outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs.’” He continued: “‘DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,’ Dudek told the group, according to the notes. ‘I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.’” The latest cuts: The gutting of the government has come to the CIA, NYT’s Julian Barnes and Mark Mazzetti report. “Some officers hired in the last two years have been summoned to a location away from the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va., and asked to surrender their credentials to security personnel,” though it’s not clear how many officers are set to be fired and not all probationary employees will be impacted. NYT notes that there “appeared to be fewer firings in key areas like collecting information on China and Mexican drug cartels.” Still, the cuts have “devastated morale, and cut productivity this week.” ONE-WAY TICKET TO NOWHERE: Five Democratic senators are asking DOJ in a letter to AG Pam Bondi to open an investigation into whether Musk is using his perch in the Trump administration to get advertisers back onto his X platform, WSJ’s Suzanne Vranica reports. TEST CASE: Musk’s efforts to remake the federal government are also straining a rarely tested 50-year-old law meant to protect sensitive information on millions of Americans, POLITICO’s Alfred Ng writes. “At least a dozen lawsuits trying to stop the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency from tapping into tax records, student loan accounts and other troves of personal data have invoked the Privacy Act of 1974 since January.” INTERESTING READ: “Many Chinese See a Cultural Revolution in America,” by NYT’s Li Yuan: “People in China are expressing alarm at what seems to be an authoritarian turn in the United States, long their role model of democracy, that feels familiar.” Good Thursday afternoon. Thanks for reading Playbook PM. Drop me a line at gross@politico.com.
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