Free Republic

U.S. President Donald Trump's moves to take China to task on trade are likely to backfire as his sweeping global tariffs hit allies as well as rivals, according to former national security advisor John Bolton.

Honda is reportedly preparing to significantly expand its US manufacturing footprint in response to the Trump administration’s sweeping new tariffs on foreign imports. The Japanese automaker is considering shifting production of several key models from Mexico and Canada to the US with the goal of ensuring that 90% of the cars it sells in the states are built domestically, according to a report in the Nikkei newspaper. Honda plans to boost its production in the US by up to 30% over the next two-to-three years, the outlet reported. The move would be a direct response to President Donald Trump’s recently...

BELTON, Texas (KWTX) - The highly-anticipated trial of Caysen Allison, 21, charged with murder in the killing of Joe Ramirez at Belton High School back in May 2022, began on April 14, 2025, in a 146th District Court packed with families, friends, witnesses and many others who have been waiting three years to learn Allison’s fate. EDITOR’S NOTE: Some of the details mentioned below could be graphic to some readers. Allison has been out on bond since July of 2022 after a judge dropped his $1-million bond down to $175,000. He has been on house arrest ever since. An arrest...

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...

President Donald Trump threatened Mexico on Thursday with tariffs and sanctions if it continues "stealing" water from Texas. Trump's comments referred to a 1944 water treaty for the "Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande," which requires Mexico to send 1.75 million acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande every five years. The U.S. is required to send Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet of water every year from the Colorado River. The New York Times, based on International Boundary and Water Commission data, stated that from October 2020 to October 2024, Mexico provided only...

Republican lawmakers say there’s a good chance that President Trump’s trade war will boomerang on Republicans politically in 2026, as rising prices and shrinking growth could offset other accomplishments by the GOP. Republican senators are pointing to the 1932 and 1982 elections as historical examples of when trade wars and resulting price inflation hurt their party at the ballot box, and they are worried that history could repeat itself. Many Republican lawmakers view tariffs as a tax hike on American consumers, and some note that the last two times Congress enacted tax hikes on the scale of Trump’s recent tariffs,...

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...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said on Sunday said he’s questioning President Trump’s “endgame” in his approach to tariffs, saying the ongoing “volatility” isn’t good for businesses. “One thing I learned in the private sector is unpredictability can work pretty well in the negotiation, but the private sector — businesses want certainty. They want stability. They don’t like to see volatility,” Johnson said in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.” “And, so, I’ve just been questioning exactly what’s the endgame here? What’s the strategy?” he continued. Johnson called himself an “unabashed free trader” and touted what he sees as the...

When his camera stopped working on his iPhone recently, New Yorker Richard Medina didn't waste any time. With the threat of tariff-fuelled price hikes on smartphones bearing down, he quickly called his phone company for a new one. "I said, 'We've got to switch this out now,'" the 43-year-old recalled. "Let's take care of it." The move was a sign of the pressure rising across the US, where households are being buffeted by what could be staggering price rises, and even possible shortages triggered by the sweeping tariffs that US President Donald Trump announced this month. Some are trying to...

San Diego officials say Mexico is continuing to release millions of gallons per day of raw sewage into the city’s waters despite its promises to end the flow that has sickened Navy SEALs and San Diego residents. “Mexico just dumped 6 million gallons of sewage into the Tijuana River—after promising they wouldn’t,” said San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond on X. “We are at the mercy of a foreign government that continues to pollute our waters—while we get stuck with the consequences.” Desmond also said Navy SEAL training is often being shifted farther north in San Diego from Coronado, where...

Thousands of illegal immigrants facing potential involuntary removal from the U.S. have instead opted to self-deport through an app provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The number of immigrants who have opted to self-deport over the last month using the CBP Home app is over 5,000, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data shared with Fox News Digital. The self-deportations come as the Trump administration has ramped up a messaging campaign aimed at encouraging illegal immigrants to leave the country voluntarily, most recently releasing a flyer addressed to “illegal aliens” that threatens new fines for those...

It came down with an announcement that those who are in the U.S. illegally and refuse to leave will be charged $998 per day until they go, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced. One senior Trump administration official said the fines will be retroactive up to five years, dating back to 2019, which could result in penalties totaling over $1 million in some circumstances

The formula used by the Trump administration to levy reciprocal tariffs contains a serious math error that over-inflates the impact by about a factor of four, economists at the American Enterprise Institute said. Why it matters: The conservative think tank says the error led to tariff rates massively higher than they should have been to achieve the goals the administration sought.

President Trump proclaims his tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. Good luck finding workers to fill them. A common lament among employers, especially manufacturers, is they can’t find reliable, conscientious workers who can pass a drug test. Single women might commiserate: A good worker, like a good man, can be hard to find these days. Blame government, which showers benefits on able-bodied people who don’t work while at the same time subsidizing college degrees that don’t lead to productive employment. The result is millions of idle men and millions of unfilled jobs—what an economist would call a...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he won’t back down on his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries even out their trade with the U.S., digging in on his plans to implement the taxes that have sent financial markets reeling, raised fears of a recession and upended the global trading system. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he didn’t want global markets to fall, but also that he wasn’t concerned about the massive sell-off either, adding, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that President Donald Trump was “wrecking our economy” by imposing tariffs, freezing federal funds and laying off government workers. Host Kristen Welker said, “Let’s start out by talking about President Trump’s tariffs. He calls this an economic revolution. He says these tariffs are necessary to reset the global economic order and so that the United States is treated fairly on the world stage. How do you respond to that? Do you agree with any part of that?”

Move over, Smoot and Hawley. President Trump has anointed himself America’s greatest protectionist, and he’s launching a global trade war to prove it. On Wednesday, Trump slapped a minimum 10 percent tariff on all imports, plus additional “reciprocal” tariffs on 60 other countries that have the temerity to sell us things we want to buy. He dubbed it “Liberation Day” to mark the freeing of Americans from the supposedly oppressive burden of trading with others.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that it is a “fallacy” to think tariffs will help the country’s economy as President Trump gears up to impose massive reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners. Paul, who has spoken out against tariffs previously, joined The Hill’s “Rising” on Wednesday, where he discussed his disagreement with tariffs, calling them “a tax.” “On tariffs, I think it’s just economically — it’s a fallacy to think that it’ll help the country,” the Kentucky senator said. “Tariffs are a tax, and if you tax trade or if you tax anything, you’ll get less of it.”

The president launched a new chapter in U.S. trade, imposing a 10 percent universal tariff on trading partners and higher reciprocal levies on some.. WASHINGTON—Just 72 days after taking office, President Donald Trump announced on April 2 sweeping trade policy changes, introducing what he called “reciprocal tariffs” for all countries and declaring it “Liberation Day in America.” For decades, the United States has kept low trade barriers, promoting free trade agreements with minimal or zero tariffs—at least on its part. Those days are now over. ​​At a White House event, Trump presented a large chart outlining baseline and reciprocal tariff...

President Donald Trump has called for the impeachment of a federal judge who ruled the administration overstepped its authority in deporting alleged members of a Venezuelan gang, but social media claims that Judge James Boasberg's orders are invalid because he filed an improper oath of office are false. The wording of the document matches that required by law and legal experts say it is not basis to challenge the legitimacy of the jurist who has been on the bench since 2002.