The Pope Is Dead, the Markets Are Rattled, and Trump Just Made His Biggest Bet Yet

On the morning of April 25, 2026, three separate shockwaves hit at once — and Washington, Wall Street, and the Vatican are all absorbing them at the same time.

**Pope Francis died Monday at age 88**, ending a 12-year papacy that reshaped the Catholic Church's relationship with the modern world.

The announcement came from the Vatican early in the morning.

One billion Catholics around the world are now watching Rome — and the world's leaders, including President Trump, are responding.

Trump posted a tribute on Truth Social, calling Francis "a man of great faith and warmth."

But even on a day of global mourning, the machinery of American politics did not slow down.

**Markets opened with a surge** — the Dow jumping several hundred points — on renewed hope that the U.S. and China may be closer to a trade deal than the White House has let on.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held a closed-door meeting with reporters Thursday, signaling that the current 145% tariff on Chinese goods is "not sustainable" and that a deal could come "in the near future."

That phrase — "not sustainable" — is doing a lot of work right now.

It is the clearest signal yet that the Trump administration is looking for an exit ramp on the China tariff standoff.

The question is: **what does China want in return?**

Beijing has been quiet. Publicly, they've said they won't negotiate under pressure.

Privately, sources close to the talks say both sides want a deal before the tariffs start showing up in a more serious way in consumer prices.

And that's the problem — they already are.

Walmart, Target, and Amazon have all quietly warned investors that prices on a wide range of goods will rise in the coming weeks.

**Your grocery bill, your electronics, your clothing** — all of it is in the crosshairs.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, the federal workforce drama that started with DOGE is entering a new and messier chapter.

The agencies that lost thousands of workers are now struggling to process basic requests — veterans' benefits, Social Security queries, passport applications.

Wait times at federal offices have grown. Errors are piling up.

Congressional Democrats are beginning to hold field hearings in swing districts to put faces on the disruption.

Republicans, for their part, argue the short-term pain is worth long-term savings — and that the system was bloated to begin with.

**Both sides are telling the truth**, at least partially.

The federal workforce was large. Some of the cuts were to real redundancy.