April 17th, 2025: China Finally Blinks In Tariff War & Gaza Talks Collapse Again
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It's Thursday, the 17th of April. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. We'll start things off with another update on the heated trade conflict between the U.S. and China. After days of back-and-forth retaliations and recriminations, Beijing now says it's open to talks, but only if President Trump shows some respect.

Later in the show, Hamas has rejected Israel's latest ceasefire offer. Ooh, look, I'm currently wearing my not-surprised face. The proposal called for a pause in fighting, the release of more hostages, and even talks on disarming Gaza militants. But Hamas isn't budging. And in part, they're not budging because, well, frankly, they really don't care how many Gaza residents have died as a result of

Hamas's 7 October 2023 attacks and Israel's subsequent response. Plus, the latest on negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. Iran's foreign minister says uranium enrichment is non-negotiable just days before talks resume in Rome. Washington, meanwhile, insists that the program can't continue as is.

And in today's back of the brief, a shakeup at the Pentagon. Three senior Defense Department officials, including a top advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have been placed on leave as part of a leak investigation. But first, today's PDB Spotlight.

China appears to have made overtures to the Trump White House in the ongoing trade war with the U.S. After weeks of tit-for-tat retaliatory trade measures, Beijing is now signaling it may be open to negotiations, but only on its terms.

According to Bloomberg, Chinese officials are laying out several conditions before they'll come to the table. Among the top demands, more, quote, respect from President Trump and his team. That reportedly includes dialing back disparaging comments from U.S. cabinet members and maintaining a more consistent negotiating posture.

More specifically, it would probably require an apology from Vice President J.D. Vance, who last week said that America was borrowing money from, quote, Chinese peasants. Apparently, and this is not a surprise, the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, didn't take too kindly to that comment. China also wants the White House to address concerns around American sanctions in Taiwan. Specifically, Beijing is pushing for a rollback of targeted sanctions on Chinese firms and officials.

On Taiwan, Chinese officials insist the U.S. scale back military and diplomatic support, viewing it as interference in what they consider internal affairs. Finally, Beijing also wants the U.S. to designate a point person to oversee talks. China has no preference, apparently, for who that is, but they want the person to be clearly speaking and acting with Trump's authority. It's reported that Xi Jinping also wants a pony.

A spokesman for China's foreign ministry put it this way, quote, "...if the U.S. really wants to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation, it should stop exerting extreme pressure, stop threatening and blackmailing, and talk to China on the basis of equality, respect, and mutual benefit." End quote. At the White House, Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt responded earlier this week, saying President Trump is open to reaching a deal, but that Beijing needs to make the first move.

This all comes as the White House has confirmed that certain Chinese products are now subject to tariffs as high as 245%. Meanwhile, the economic toll on China, well, is becoming harder to ignore.

According to the South China Morning Post, container shipping traffic is plummeting on Trans-Pacific routes. Bookings from China are down between 30 to 60 percent over the next three weeks, forcing some shipping companies to cancel routes altogether. A market intelligence firm cited in the report, Liner Lidicum, said the tariffs have

have effectively priced many Chinese exporters out of the American market, especially smaller manufacturers in southern China who simply can't absorb the cost.

So while Beijing may not like the pressure campaign, the numbers suggest that it's starting to take a bite out of China's exporting. And for now, they're inching toward the negotiating table. At least apparently it seems that way. Whether that leads to a deal or a deeper standoff could come down to how both sides play during the next few weeks.

All right, coming up next, Hamas rejects Israel's latest ceasefire proposal, and Iran draws a red line ahead of nuclear talks, declaring uranium enrichment is non-negotiable. I'll be right back.

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Hamas has rejected a new ceasefire proposed by Israel that offered a 45-day pause in fighting the release of hostages and negotiations on disarming terror factions in Gaza, stalling what mediators had hoped might be a breakthrough in efforts to end the war. The proposal, delivered to Hamas by mediators in Cairo over the weekend, was seen by Egyptian officials as a pivotal opportunity to shift the trajectory of the conflict.

Speaking to NPR on Tuesday, mediators said there'd been cautious optimism that an agreement could be reached within weeks, but that optimism faded amid hardline positions. As part of the proposed deal, Hamas would free 10 living hostages over the course of the six-week truce, roughly half of those believed to be alive in Gaza, starting with Israeli-American Eden Alexander on the first day. In

In exchange, Israel would free nearly 1,400 Palestinian prisoners and terrorists, many serving life sentences. During the 45-day ceasefire, Israel and Hamas would begin, quote, day-after negotiations aimed at reaching a permanent end to hostilities, including terms for the disarmament of Hamas and other Gaza-based terror factions. If those talks produced an agreement, well, the remaining hostages would be freed before the six-week period expired.

According to mediators, the offer also includes a provision to ease Israel's restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid, including food, fuel, and medicine, into Gaza. However, Israel demanded the establishment of a new distribution mechanism to prevent the diversion of supplies by Hamas. That's a point that remains under active discussion.

Yet, even as the proposal offered a diplomatic off-ramp, Egyptian officials cautioned that Israel could shred any potential ceasefire if a deal does not include U.S. guarantees for a permanent end to the war. While Hamas has expressed willingness to release additional hostages, it's firmly rejected Israel's demand for disarmament, calling it a non-starter. The terror group insists that any agreement must include a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza

a permanent cessation of fighting, and international guarantees to begin reconstruction in the territory where more than 90 percent of homes have been damaged or destroyed, according to UN estimates. It's important to note that on Tuesday, Hamas claimed it had lost contact with the guards responsible for holding Eden Alexander, blaming Israeli airstrikes for severing communications. Israel declined to comment on the allegation.

Israeli officials have not publicly disclosed the full details of the proposal, but have continued to apply military pressure on Hamas. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu made a surprise visit to Israeli troops stationed in northern Gaza and reiterated the government's stance, stating, quote, We insist that our hostages be released, and we insist on achieving all of our objectives for the war, end quote.

The following day, the Israeli military revealed that it's preparing for a broader offensive if negotiations should fail. Defense Minister Israel Katz has repeatedly warned that if the hostages are not released soon, Israel will launch a wide-scale ground campaign to eliminate Hamas. The Israeli Defense Forces said no deadline has been set for a full invasion and that the timing would be left to political leadership.

The IDF warns that a major ground offensive would likely derail ceasefire negotiations entirely, yeah, that seems likely, and further endanger the 59 hostages still believed to be in Hamas' custody. All right, turning to Iran, where in a sharp escalation ahead of high-stakes nuclear talks, the regime's foreign minister declared uranium enrichment, quote, non-negotiable, rejecting U.S. demands for the full dismantlement of its nuclear program.

The statement from Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi lands just days before he's scheduled to meet President Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, for a second round of negotiations, this time in Rome on Saturday. The meeting marks the continuation of the highest-level contact between the two nations since Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord in 2018 and reinstated sweeping sanctions as part of his maximum pressure campaign.

Since returning to office, Trump has doubled down on that approach while also signaling openness to a new deal, although on his terms. But the diplomatic rift deepened this week after Witkoff appeared to reverse course. On Monday, he told Fox News that Washington would accept capped uranium enrichment up to 3.67%. Now, that's the limit that was imposed under the original 2015 nuclear deal.

But by Tuesday, Witkoff hardened his line, declaring in a post on X that Iran must, quote, stop and eliminate enrichment altogether. He added, quote, a deal with Iran will only be completed if it is a Trump deal, insisting any final arrangement must dismantle Iran's nuclear infrastructure in its entirety. The pivot drew swift condemnation from the foreign minister of Iran. He told reporters after a cabinet meeting, quote, Iran's enrichment is a real accepted matter.

He added, "We're ready to build confidence in response to possible concerns, but the issue of enrichment is non-negotiable." He closed with a warning that continued mixed messaging from Washington would only deepen mistrust and result in problems.

His warning was echoed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who acknowledged that while talks had begun on a promising note, they remained on uncertain ground. In remarks broadcast on state TV, Khamenei said, quote, the negotiations may or may not yield results, calling Iran, quote, pessimistic about the other side, but confident in its own position.

Adding to the stakes, Axios reports Trump convened top national security officials at the White House this week to prepare for the talks. Trump told reporters, quote, they can't have a nuclear weapon and they've got to go fast, threatening harsh consequences if the Iranian regime delays or defies U.S. terms. Despite the heated rhetoric, both sides have signaled that Saturday's meeting will explore a framework for future negotiations.

And notably, the first round of talks was described as, quote, constructive by both delegations. But as the clock ticks, Iran does continue to ramp up its nuclear program. It's now enriching uranium to 60% purity, which is far above civilian energy needs and dangerously close to weapons-grade levels.

Tehran insists the program is for peaceful purposes, yet it's barred international inspectors from accessing key facilities, heightening suspicions, of course, about its intentions. Whether the upcoming negotiations lead to a diplomatic breakthrough or collapse in a stalemate may hinge on whether either side bends on what Trump has called the bedrock principle that the mullahs cannot have a nuclear bomb. No nukes for you.

Okay, coming up next on the back of the brief, a Pentagon leak investigation sidelines three senior officials, including a top advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. We'll have those details next.

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In today's Back of the Brief, a leak investigation is rattling the Pentagon's top ranks as three senior officials have been placed on administrative leave, including a close advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Dan Caldwell, an advisor to Hegseth, was reportedly escorted out of the building earlier this week. Also sidelined and escorted out of the Pentagon was Darren Selnick, the Pentagon's Deputy Chief of Staff.

Both Caldwell and Selnick previously worked for a nonprofit veterans group that was run by Hegseth. In addition, Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg, was placed on leave on Wednesday. The three are now under scrutiny as part of an internal probe into unauthorized disclosures. Sources say more personnel changes may be on the horizon.

The fallout stems from a memo issued last month by Joe Casper, Hegseth's chief of staff. That memo called for an aggressive investigation into leaks and even authorized the use of lie detector tests if needed. Officials say the investigation is ongoing and could expand further depending on what's uncovered. According to a source familiar with the matter, Caldwell is accused of leaking classified documents to members of the press. While no formal charges have been filed yet, his removal,

combined with Selnick's suspension, signals a serious clampdown on internal leaks that appear to have caught Pentagon leadership off guard. Caldwell's background offers some insight into why he was trusted with a sensitive role. He's a veteran of the Iraq War and previously worked at Defense Priorities. That's a think tank focused on non-interventionist foreign policy. We have a foreign policy, but we don't like to intervene.

Caldwell's name recently surfaced in an Atlantic article detailing internal Defense Department discussions about U.S. airstrikes on Houthi targets. The report said Caldwell was tapped by Hegseth to represent the department in text message chains that included strike planning and policy debates.

The timing of the memo that launched this probe is also drawing attention. It was issued the same day that the Pentagon and White House strongly denied rumors that Elon Musk, remember him, had received a classified briefing on U.S. war plans with China. For now, the Pentagon is staying tight-lipped about the internal investigation. And that, my friends, is the President's Daily Brief for Thursday, the 17th of April. Now, if you have any questions or comments, please...

reach out to me at pdb at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, I suspect you know what to do. Just become a premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.

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