Free Republic

"GOP Sen. Rand Paul says he expects to have enough votes in Senate to pass resolution to effectively block Trump’s tariffs. But Paul, who expects the vote Wednesday, attacked Speaker Johnson’s move to block such resolutions as “dishonesty.”" *** The background to this, via Politico: The White House warned that Trump will veto a bipartisan Senate resolution that would terminate his sweeping global “Liberation Day” tariffs. The statement of administration policy from the Office of Management and Budget, sent to congressional offices Monday, comes ahead of an expected vote this week forced by several Democrats led by Sen. Ron Wyden...

President Donald Trump said Sunday that his tariff policy will substantially reduce, even completely eliminate, income taxes for some American workers. “When Tariffs cut in, many people’s Income Taxes will be substantially reduced, maybe even completely eliminated,” Trump wrote in a 6:06 a.m. post on Truth Social. “Focus will be on people making less than $200,000 a year.” Trump continued, “Also, massive numbers of jobs are already being created, with new plants and factories currently being built or planned. It will be a BONANZA FOR AMERICA!!! THE EXTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE IS HAPPENING!!!

The man behind the president’s tumultuous tariff policies has sought for decades to set off the ultimate trade war with China.One year ago, Peter Navarro sat in a federal prison in Miami, sending messages that he was a martyr for MAGA. He had begged for help paying legal bills that he said would reach $750,000.Now Navarro has a prime seat in the Oval Office, where he is an architect of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy — butting against the secretaries of treasury and commerce and Elon Musk, who called him a “moron.”Navarro’s journey to one of the most powerful positions...

So far, American consumers have been shielded from much of the impact. But as the world of international shipping adjusts to his policies, the president is facing a potential reckoning. With the US-China trade war starting to gum up container traffic between the world’s two biggest economies, freight companies are warning of plunging bookings and a surge in “blank sailings” – where ports are skipped or voyages are called off altogether. Earlier this week, America’s most powerful retail executives trooped into the White House to deliver a blunt prognosis: tariffs on Chinese goods risked causing “empty shelves” in two weeks...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is continuing his push against President Donald Trump's tariffs, with legislation he is co-sponsoring against them to come before the Senate next week. Paul says lawmakers should be in control of tariffs, rather than Trump, through the use of a national-emergency law. The discussion will come less than a month after Paul was one of the only two chamber Republicans to vote against his party's budget, which is seen as a key part of the president's tax cuts, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. "I don't have any bad feelings towards the president, but this is...

President Trump continues to walk back his original tariff assault, and markets are pleased. They rose again Wednesday after Mr. Trump said he won’t fire the Federal Reserve Chairman and is likely to retreat from his highest China tariffs. Is this Mr. Trump’s François Mitterrand moment? Readers of a certain age will recall how the French Socialist President swept into power in 1981 promising a far left agenda of government control over the private economy. The market reaction was brutal. Within a year he had put socialism on pause and by 1983 he had abandoned most of it. He went...

The Libertarian Party of Travis County in Texas is calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump, citing alleged constitutional violations and the administration’s handling of due process for U.S. residents. In a resolution adopted Monday during the party’s monthly meeting, the affiliate formally called for Trump’s impeachment. The resolution claims that the Trump administration violated constitutional rights by denying due process to legal residents, targeting individuals for deportation based on political beliefs, and issuing executive orders that the party argues is otherwise unlawful. It also raises concerns over past remarks from the president suggesting that American citizens could be...

A group of five small businesses sued President Donald Trump on Monday, seeking to block new tariffs he has imposed on foreign imports in recent weeks. The lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade alleges that Trump has illegally usurped Congress’ power to levy tariffs by claiming that trade deficits with other countries constitute an emergency. The Liberty Justice Center, which is representing the owner-operated companies, said Trump’s new tariffs of at least 10% on imports from most countries and higher rates for scores of other nations are devastating small businesses across the country. “His claimed emergency is a...

Not since Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff has a president chosen to disregard a larger body of informed opinion than President Trump did when he instituted his protectionist trade policy. Based on a series of verifiably false grievances—wages haven’t grown in 50 years, manufacturing has been hollowed out by imports, countries with trade surpluses are “ripping us off”—Mr. Trump used constitutionally questionable powers to abrogate congressionally approved trade agreements and undermine the world’s trading system. Markets convulsed in anticipation of the massive wealth annihilation that would accompany the shredding of global supply chains and a transition to a more...

Tariffs are advertised in the name of helping American workers, but what do you know? They turn out to favor the powerful and politically connected. That’s the main message of President Trump’s decision to exempt smartphones and assorted electronic goods from his most onerous tariffs. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) late Friday issued a notice listing products that will be exempt from Mr. Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs that can run as high as 145% on goods from China. The exclusions apply to smartphones, laptop computers, hard drives, computer processors, servers, memory chips, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and other electronics. The CBP...

President Donald Trump was forced to backtrack on his sweeping tariff plans because of a 'fire sale' in the bond market which could have triggered economic meltdown. Alongside causing turmoil in the stock market, Trump's sweeping tariff plans sparked a major US government bonds sell-off, the likes of which had not been seen since the depths of the Covid-19 crisis. Experts are saying that it was this, rather than simply the 'art of the deal,' which caused the White House to backtrack on its tariff proposals. On Wednesday, the President announced a 90-day pause on all new 'reciprocal' tariffs, in...

Donald Trump has repeatedly said that his move to impose wide-ranging tariffs is based on the simple concept of reciprocity: The U.S. should put the same conditions on imports from other countries that they impose on our goods through tariffs and other trade barriers. But the tariff scheme he announced isn’t reciprocal and isn’t based on measuring foreign trade barriers. Instead, it simply measures bilateral trade deficits and comes up with tariff numbers from there. Those are two very different things, and could be one reason why global financial markets are reacting so badly. The upshot is that, in the...

Free trade has been so beneficial to so many countries that the world may find a way to live without its biggest player.President Trump’s self-proclaimed “liberation day,” in which he announced across-the-board tariffs on the United States’ trading partners, carries an echo of another moment when an advanced Western economy threw up walls around itself.Like Brexit, Britain’s fateful vote nearly nine years ago to leave the European Union, Mr. Trump’s tariffs struck a hammer blow at the established order. He is pulling the United States out of the global economy much as Britain withdrew from a continentwide trading bloc, in...

Back in 2018, lawmakers of both parties greeted President Donald Trump’s decision to slap tariffs on Chinese imports with widespread derision. Six years later, most members of Congress are applauding President Joe Biden’s extension — and in some cases, expansion — of those tariffs, if not calling for him to go even further.

The Wall Street Journal has called for Donald Trump to be sued to prevent tariffs being imposed on Canada and Mexico. The newspaper's editorial board wrote in very blunt terms that Trump did not have the power to order the tariffs without Congressional approval. 'He's treating the North American economy as a personal plaything, as markets gyrate with each presidential whim,' the WSJ board wrote. 'It's doubtful Mr Trump even has the power to impose these tariffs, and we hope his afflatus gets a legal challenge.' The WSJ, published by Rupert Murdoch who also owns Fox News, is usually sympathetic...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) signaled Thursday that President Trump’s threat to levy tariffs on key trading partners of the U.S. is hurting his constituents. “Almost every industry in Kentucky has come to me and said, ‘It will hurt our industry and push up prices of homes, cars,’ and so, I’m going to continue to argue against tariffs,” Paul said late Thursday in an interview with CNN. His concern echoes that of Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who urged the administration to be “smart” about levying additional taxes and reciprocal tariffs. Tillis argued the U.S. has “more leverage” than any other nation,...

Former Trump advisor Peter Navarro blasted The Heritage Foundation’s “terrible” Project 2025 in a new interview on the Liberty Report with Liberty Sentinel CEO Alex Newman, adding a colorful repudiation to a mountain of criticism already pronounced against the controversial policy proposal.“Project 2025 is dead on arrival,” Navarro said. “It’s a trojan horse funded by globalists that uses some legitimate Trump policies as a veneer and then throws in a bunch of weird stuff that doesn’t reflect Trump policy at all.” (snip) “Way back when they first started, they came to me and said, ‘We want you to write the...

Death seems to follow Victoria Nuland wherever she goes. Whether it’s in Ukraine or in Sudan, people die. Victoria Nuland was known as the midwife of Maidan – the Obama-Biden point person reportedly running the overthrow of the Ukrainian Presidency in 2013-14.Ukraine 2014 Coup d’étatAfter violent events associated with the Maidan revolution protests, Ukraine’s parliament ousted President Viktor Yanukovich in February 2014 and replaced him with Petro Poroshenko. Disposed Yanukovich was an existential threat because his amicable relations with Russia impeded Ukraine from becoming a European member and NATO from expanding to Russia’s border. Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Victoria...

@mtracey Hannity opens his show tonight essentially berating Biden to launch World War III, accuses him of "emboldening" Putin if he doesn't retaliate for the drone incident, declares Russia, China, and Iran the new "Axis of Evil" Lindsey Graham warns, "We're gonna have World War III." Congressman Mike Waltz adds Iran, North Korea, China, Russia, Venezuela are "all on the march" This isn't run-of-the-mill crazy talk, this is something next level. They're really trying to will a World War into existence Video...

VLADIMIR Putin has ordered Russian intelligence agencies to ramp up the recruitment of "kamikaze" spies in Britain, leaked documents suggest. Former UK intelligence officials said Britain is currently a "major" target - and Russia will be doing everything it can to "get access to people and turn agents in useful places". Former Russian spy Boris Karpichkov, 62, previously claimed there are at least four Russian agents currently working in Westminster. MPs and their staff have been urged to stay alert as tensions ratchet up with Moscow over the war in Ukraine. In emails now seen by The Sun Online, a...