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And this is your FT News briefing. The U.S. trade war is in full effect. And Tesla's share price had a really strange day yesterday. Plus, what's next for France's far right now that Marine Le Pen has been banned from a... This is a sort of an earthquake which really will potentially shake up French politics in a way few people had envisaged. I'm Mark Filippino and here's the news you need to start your day.
The U.S. is going to impose big reciprocal tariffs on its major trading partners. That includes a further 34% levy on China and 20% on the EU. Chronic trade deficits are no longer merely an economic problem. They're a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life. President Donald Trump made the announcement yesterday. He also said the U.S. would impose a 10% tariff on all countries, including the U.K. Plus, there will be a 25% tariff on all foreign-made cars.
We're going to be wealthy as a country because they've taken so much of our wealth. Trump made the announcement after the U.S. trading day. Markets had been bracing for the new levies, but they still sent U.S. stock futures falling. It's been kind of a weird week for Elon Musk. The judicial candidate that Musk spent millions of dollars backing lost his state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin on Tuesday. And then yesterday, his company Tesla reported a big miss on delivery.
But the share price still ended the day up more than 5% after a report out of Washington. Here to explain what happened is the FT Stephen Morris. Hey, Stephen. Hello. All right, so first off, tell me about these delivery numbers. Why were investors so bummed about them? Well, people were very pessimistic seeing sales figures come in from around the world, in particular in China, Europe, and the US.
And as such, it adjusted their forecasts downwards. But these undershot even those. And they were the worst quarter for EV deliveries since 2022. So they really disappointed already quite pessimistic forecasts, which is why we saw an initially very negative reaction. in the stock. And this contrasts very unfavorably with the rise of its biggest EV competitor, China's BYD.
which has regained its crown from Tesla as the world's biggest selling EV maker and is plotting a global expansion at the moment into some of Tesla's core markets in Europe and the US. Stephen, you mentioned the stock initially went down, but like I mentioned earlier, it sure did bounce back up. What got investors so excited? Elon Musk is sort of a messianic figure out here in Silicon Valley and many of the people that invest in the stock are doing it.
based on pure faith in his ability to transform industries. What they are seeing is Elon Musk in Wisconsin trying to influence judicial races. Elon Musk in Washington trying to gut various government departments. What they're not seeing is Elon in Texas driving performance at Tesla. And the shares have plunged since an initial post-election bounce in November.
So a report came out that after a slightly disastrous election result in Wisconsin, which was seen as sort of a referendum on Musk's involvement in Donald Trump's government. A report came out that Trump has told everyone that Elon's going to be leaving the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, sooner rather than later.
So Tesla stock has risen on optimism that Musk might actually get back to his day job running Tesla, which is at the core of his vast fortune and business empire. Now, we should mention that Musk took to his social media site X yesterday to call this story, which was initially reported by Politico fake news. But Stephen, if Musk does turn his full attention back onto Tesla, and you know his other companies too, will it really make an impact or is it too early to tell?
Musk's personal brand has become incredibly divisive in the US and elsewhere, largely due to his interventions in politics and his espousing of various right-wing views and conspiracy theories. online. It seems to me that him just returning to Tesla won't actually change the perception of the brand. What the investors in Tesla are hoping is the return of Musk will help them drive the next phase of its development, which Musk says is all about autonomy.
It's driverless, wheelless cyber taxis being on the roads of Austin and San Francisco. But still remember, I mean, this is a company that I think it's fair to say is in crisis now after all that's been going on. And Stephen, what other obstacles does Tesla face?
A sort of interesting corollary of Musk's alliance with Donald Trump is that it now seems pretty set that much of the US government... support, at least on a federal level, for the transition to sort of cleaner vehicles, electric vehicles and the charging infrastructure needed to support them, that's going to be withdrawn. In a way, Musk backing Trump, spending a quarter of a billion dollars to help him get elected, really has had a tangible impact on some of the economics.
of Tesla. So whatever else happens when Musk comes back, if he is able to galvanize Tesla's performance a bit. Losing various federal and state incentives towards EVs and the infrastructure needed to support them is going to make reviving Tesla that much more challenging, at least under a Trump administration. Stephen Morris is the FT's San Francisco Bureau Chief. Thanks, Stephen. Thank you. A leading candidate to become the next president of France is out of the race, at least for now.
Marine Le Pen is the country's most well-known far-right leader, and she was primed to run in 2027. That was before she was banned on Monday. Ben Hall is the FT's Europe editor, and he joins me now. Hey, Ben. Hi. So tell me about this, Ben. What are the details? So Marine Le Pen was found guilty of embezzling actually European Union funds. The party, her Rassemblement National party, was found to have diverted about 4 million euros from EU funds into its national...
party operations and it was deemed a fraud and a criminal case was brought against her. She was found guilty on Monday and was found to have played a central role in this systematic embezzlement. And the judge ruled her ineligible to run for public office for five years. And I think this is the crucial bit. said that that ban would have immediate effect.
So this was a huge shock, I think, in the French political system. This is a sort of an earthquake, which really will potentially shake up French politics in a way few people had envisaged. And because of the magnitude of this, I'm curious about what the reaction in France has been. Well, let's start with Le Pen and her party. I mean, the reaction was one of fury and outrage.
attacking what they saw as a politicized judiciary conspiracy to prevent her from running in the presidency and to prevent French voters from having their say. What was perhaps more surprising was that there were quite a lot of criticism of the judgment from some mainstream politicians, the centre-right leader, the far-left leader, both of whom are...
strongly opposed to Marine Le Pen, and even from France's Prime Minister in somewhat more muted terms. And he even suggested in the National Assembly that there should be a debate on whether they should change the law on this issue. Do we know the next steps for how Le Pen and the RN plan to fight Herban?
They will essentially appeal using all routes they possibly can. The main one will be to try and overturn the conviction and France's appeal court said on Tuesday that it would in effect expedite the process so that it should have a hearing in her case in the appeal court next spring and a ruling in the summer and if they were to overturn the conviction or to lessen the penalty.
she could then, of course, stand in the election. In the meantime, I think she's going to try and appeal to the Constitutional Council, which is in effect France's Supreme Court. to try and overturn the immediate ban. And I think she will even appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. So, Ben, let's say the verdict is upheld, and let's talk about whether or not that is actually a likelihood. What does that mean for the future of Le Pen's far-right party?
Well, I think there are many legal experts who think that it probably will be upheld. the ruling is upheld and the penalty is upheld then Rassemblement National has to find a new presidential candidate with less than a year to go before the election. This would almost certainly be Jordan Bardella, who is actually the party head, but the sort of de facto number two. He has fervent support within the RN.
But he's also deemed to be pretty inexperienced. He's only 29. And also, if Bardella were to become the candidate, there's always been a bit of speculation that he... would sort of alter its policy and make it more right-wing actually on the economy and actually would look to build bridges with other centre-right and right-wing parties, a bit like Italy's Georgia Maloney.
That's the FT's Ben Hall. Thanks so much, Ben. Thank you. You can read more on all these stories for free when you click the links in our show notes. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Check back tomorrow for the latest business news. Hi, we're Backmarket, the home of high quality, affordable, refurbished tech. Like this laptop. It can binge 18 episodes in one weekend. That is normal, right? This laptop can also write, game, design...
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