President Donald Trump unveiled his reciprocal tariff plan Wednesday during a Rose Garden event the White House billed as “Liberation Day.”
With most of his cabinet on hand, as well as auto workers from Michigan, among others, Trump announced that he would be charging countries essentially half what his administration calculates, on average, they are imposing on the United States.
Further, there will be a 10 percent baseline across the board.
Trump called it a “kind reciprocal tariff” policy, saying he would be embarrassed to charge the full amount other countries are imposing on U.S. goods.
First on a list that Trump pointed to during the announcement was China, which he said charges the U.S. a 67 percent tariff (his chart indicated the administration’s tariff calculations include currency manipulation and trade barriers).
In response, Trump said his administration will be imposing a 34 percent tariff on Chinese goods.
For three years, the U.S. economy has been buffeted by rapid inflation, high interest rates and political instability at home and abroad. Yet it has proved surprisingly resilient, supported by the sturdy pillars of robust consumer spending, a rising stock market, and healthy balance sheets for households and businesses alike.
But one by one, those pillars have begun to crack under the weight of tariffs and uncertainty. The all-out global trade war that President Trump declared on Wednesday could be enough to shatter what had arguably been the economy’s final source of support, the strong job market.
“The strength of the consumer is coming down to the jobs market,” said Sarah House, an economist at Wells Fargo. “And it’s increasingly perilous.”
The sweeping tariffs that Mr. Trump announced on Wednesday, and the duties that U.S. trading partners quickly imposed in retaliation, sent stock indexes around the world tumbling on Thursday. The effects won’t be limited to the financial markets: Economists say tariffs will raise prices for consumers and businesses, which will lead employers to pull back on hiring and, if the tariffs remain in place long enough, lay off workers.
“If the economy isn’t growing as fast, or it isn’t growing at all, you don’t need as many workers,” Ms. House said.
Economists will get their latest glimpse of the job situation on Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release March figures on hiring and unemployment.
Two of the world’s largest automakers announced on Thursday that they are offering America First deals on new vehicles for customers or making production changes while seeking to take advantage of President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on foreign-assembled vehicles.
For the next several months, Ford will be touting a “From America, For America” deal, which will offer new customers the chance to purchase vehicles at employee pricing, potentially knocking thousands of dollars off the going rate.
Steve Croley, the company’s chief policy officer, told “Fox & Friends” that Americans deserve a break for going out of their way to buy American-made cars.
“We’re going to offer customers the same deal that our employees get. That’s worth thousands of dollars,” he told host Brian Kilmeade.
“We’ve heard some uncertainty from our customers and we want them to be assured that Ford, the most American auto company, is going to do right by them, as are our dealers. We make the most cars here, we employ the most, we export the most, and so we here at Ford, we’re in a good position to address customers’ concern and give them a really great deal on a great vehicle,” he added.
Economist EJ Antoni, bucking the mainstream hysteria, is explaining that Donald Trump isn’t launching a trade war; he’s exposing the extremely unbalanced trade war the U.S. has been losing for decades.
In a hard-hitting op-ed for Fox News, Antoni compared Trump to one of his Republican presidential predecessors, U.S. Grant, for sheer grit and determination in spite of smear campaigns and prophecies of failure. The reality is that other countries have been imposing unfair tariffs on American goods while demanding no reciprocal tariffs for years. Trump is just insisting that other countries pay the same tariffs they require us to pay. The trade war already existed; it’s just that Trump wants to win.
Antoni insisted, “Trump is being attacked for being anti-free trade or for starting a trade war, but the opposite is true. For most of the last half century, the global economy has become entrenched in a pseudo-free trade that artificially disadvantages American exporters.”
He added, “In this sense, other nations declared a trade war on America decades ago, and our leaders never fought back.“ Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are meant to pressure other nations that do, in fact, rely on American trade and American consumers “to reduce their trade barriers and end a trade war that already exists.”
Nike stock is plunging on Thursday, the day after President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs that will end the nation’s decades-long free trade policy.
“NKE was last seen 11.3% lower at $57.62, as investors digest the long-term impact of rising supply chain costs on the company’s margins,” Schaeffer’s Investment Research reports. “The stock is set to snap a three-day win streak, extending its late-March post-earnings bear gap and hitting its lowest level since November 2017. Nike stock now carries a 23.5% year-to-date deficit.”
On Wednesday evening, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs — adding a 34 percent tariff on China, a 46 percent tariff on Vietnam, a 49 percent tariff on Cambodia, a 32 percent tariff on Indonesia, and a 36 percent tariff on Thailand, among a long list of others.
Shares in Nike, Adidas, and Puma dropped sharply after Vietnam was targeted with a 46% tariff rate, Cambodia with 49%, Bangladesh with 37% and Indonesia with 32%, while Trump hiked tariffs on China by an extra 34 percentage points, following the earlier 20% tariffs. [Emphasis added]
“Companies that worked hard over the years to reduce reliance on China by leaning into countries like Vietnam just learned there really isn’t a place to hide,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Simeon Siegel said. [Emphasis added]
Ford Motor said on Thursday that it was lowering prices on most of its vehicles to the same levels it charges employees in a bid to boost sales as President Trump’s tariffs on imported cars took effect.
The tariffs began on Thursday on vehicles imported from Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany and other countries. The duties — 25 percent of the value of the vehicle in most cases — are expected to increase prices of new cars and trucks and dampen demand.
About half the vehicles sold in the United States each year are produced in other countries. Mexico is the top source of those cars and Canada is among the largest. For three decades, the United States, Canada and Mexico have had a free-trade zone, and automakers have moved parts and vehicles freely among the three countries.
Ford’s new program, which the company is calling “From America, for America,” could help reduce a large inventory of unsold cars. In February, Ford had more cars in inventory as measured by how many days it would take to sell them all than all but three other brands — Jaguar, Mini and Dodge — according to Cox Automotive, a research firm.
General Motors is the latest automobile company to respond to President Donald Trump’s newly implemented auto tariffs, announcing it will be ramping up production in Indiana.
The shake-up for GM, known for brands such as Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC, will bring about an uptick in production at its plant near Fort Wayne, Indiana, which is known for producing Chevrolet’s Silverado 1500 and GMC’s Sierra 1500. The increase in productivity will also extend to hiring hundreds of temporary employees.
“General Motors will be making operational adjustments at Fort Wayne Assembly, including hiring temporary employees, to support current manufacturing and business needs,” a spokesperson for the automaker said in a statement. “We continuously update and revise production schedules as part of our standard process of evaluating and aligning to manage vehicle inventory.”
(LifeSiteNews) — Author Whitney Webb said that globalists need a “WWII type” catastrophe in order to usher in a new financial system using digital IDs and digital currencies.
In an interview published by Library of Wealth, Webb, the author of One Nation Under Blackmail: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime That Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein, discussed the monetary system that the globalist elite plans to roll out.
Webb said the globalists “ just need some sort of big event on the scale of World War II or some large event that’s equally disruptive in order to be like: ‘Alright, now it’s time for a new financial governance system after this big event,’ like they did after World War II.”
”I think they sort of give it away when they say that this is the new Bretton Woods movement that needs to be seized,” she stated. “Bretton Woods was what came out of World War II essentially and was the creation of a new financial governance system.”
Despite last-minute pressure from President Donald Trump, four Senate Republicans on Wednesday bucked demands to back his plan for sharp new tariffs on Canada, a slap in the face that he has promised not to forget.
A midnight missive by President Trump early Wednesday morning wasn’t enough to prevent the four Republicans from joining with unanimous Democratic support to pass a resolution denouncing President Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Of the four — Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) — only Collins is up for reelection next year while McConnell has announced his intent to retire.
Trump previously implored the four holdouts to “get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy.”
In a fiery floor speech on Wednesday, Sen. Paul accused Trump of placing a tax hike on the American people by leveeing his new tariffs.
“This is a tax, plain and simple,” he said of Trump’s Canada tariffs. “Taxes should not be enacted by one person. So I will vote today to end the emergency. I will vote today to try to reclaim the power of taxation, the power of the tariff, to where the Constitution designated it should properly be, and that is in Congress.”
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is facing global blowback after announcing a dramatic series of tariffs on countries around the world, with U.S. adversaries and allies alike promising crushing responses that could devastate the American economy.
Stock markets in the United States, Europe and Asia plunged in the aftermath of President Trump’s announcement, which included a 10% base rate hike on nearly all foreign imports. Still other countries and trading blocs, including China, the European Union, South Korea and Japan, were hit with higher rates.
“We’re now preparing for further countermeasures to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in remarks late Wednesday evening from Uzbekistan, calling Trump’s announcement “a major blow to the world economy.”
The British trade secretary said that the United Kingdom, one of America’s closest allies with strong ties to the Trump administration, would work over the next month to see whether it could negotiate an exemption from U.S. tariffs, or otherwise deliver retaliatory taxes. The government published a webpage asking businesses for input on identifying which American products the U.K. should implement tariffs on, with the most minimal impact on the British economy.
USDA freezes funding for Maine amid battle over transgender athletes– www.boston.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday that it had frozen federal funding for education programs in Maine, the latest in a barrage of actions targeting the state since its Democratic governor, Janet Mills, sparred with President Donald Trump over the issue of transgender athletes at the White House in February.
The agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, notified Mills in a letter that funding would be stopped while the agency reviews grants awarded to Maine by the Biden administration, many of which “appear to be wasteful, redundant, or otherwise against the priorities of the Trump administration,” Rollins wrote in the letter, according to a statement.
It was not immediately clear which educational programs would be affected by the funding freeze. The government’s statement said its latest action would not alter “federal feeding programs or direct assistance to citizens.”
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in a March 28 opinion that the Trump administration couldn’t unilaterally shut down the CFPB, with the prospect being out of its jurisdiction. On Thursday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit paused Jackson’s halt. It clarified that its ruling didn’t regard the argument’s merits but rather allowed the courts more time to consider the matter.
A security officer works inside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau building headquarters on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
“The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay pending appeal and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” the panel wrote.
The CFPB will remain open and operative during the period of review.
The bureau was one of the earliest and most controversial targets of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) founded the bureau after the 2008 financial crisis to help consumers. Critics argued that it drifted from its original purpose, becoming an opaque agency that abused its authority, pursuing targets such as a community-focused financial lending company.
One of its critics, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), introduced legislation in February to abolish it altogether, saying it had gone “rogue.”
Oversight Project govt funded NGO training illegals on ICE evasion
Undercover footage obtained by Real Muckraker shows radical government-funded Chinese-American Planning Council conducting a training on how to evade ICE and to keep illegal aliens in the United States.
Chinese-American Planning Council Chief Policy and Public Affairs Officer Carlyn Cowen was caught on undercover video giving ICE evasion training during a radical activist meeting in New York City.
This radical far-left NGO has ties to top New York Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Rep. Dan Goldman and Governor Kathy Hochul.
CPC receives over $900,000 in federal funds.
“Number one is hardening your physical space. Number three, identifying a list of individuals that are authorized to respond if ICE comes to the door and then have a clear protocol.
Top Republican House leaders have formally requested that ActBlue, one of the Democratic Party’s largest political action committees, turn over documents related to its governance and operations.
In a letter dated April 2 to ActBlue President and Chief Executive Officer Regina Wallace-Jones, the chairmen of the House committees on the Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform, and Administration requested documents and testimony from two employees of the organization.
The names of the employees whose testimony was requested were redacted in the version of the letter that was made public.
A source familiar with the investigation told The Daily Signal, “We expect ActBlue employees to participate in the transcribed interviews and submit the required documents.” The source explained, “If they fail to comply, all options are on the table.”
An ActBlue spokesperson told The Daily Signal, “As we have historically done, ActBlue will continue to respond to requests from the House committees.”
In their letter, the committee chairs said that they were seeking “to investigate ActBlue’s fraud-prevention policies and practices, which may allow bad actors to make fraudulent political donations, including from foreign sources.”
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to find outrageous abuse and waste of taxpayer money.
While digging through contracts for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a previous contract was uncovered, exposing hundreds of thousands of dollars paid out PER MONTH to do minor routine website maintenance.
The contract was not renewed, and the work is now being done internally by a VA software engineer who is spending only 10 hours a week on maintenance.
It’s a day that ends in “y,” so you know that Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett has said something absurd.
Only this time, her drivel isn’t so much infuriating, as it usually is, but actually kind of funny — though the laughs are at her expense.
The 44-year-old Crockett has recently emerged as one of the most public faces of the Democratic Party during President Donald Trump’s second term, often taking the pulpit to be the loudest and most annoying voice speaking out against the current presidential administration.
Her entire schtick is to babble endlessly (oftentimes with a peculiar accent) while using a bunch of leftist buzzwords, but she does it with a sass and attitude that some people apparently find appealing.