Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump is assembling his policy team with familiar faces from his first term and signaling they would have roles in his potential 2025 Republican presidential administration. Trump and his allies have been meeting and talking by phone for months, sculpting the policies that will define his second term should he win the presidency in 2024. The names of the inner circle were revealed Friday in the latest effort by the Trump campaign to counter outside conservative organizations' efforts to vet and staff a future 2025 administration. Among these aides are former trade representative Robert Lighthizer, former White...

Catch a panel discussion on keeping America's border secure, fending off the threat of China, and more, featuring Rep. Chip Roy, Liz Wheeler, Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, Peter Schweizer, and Michael Pillsbury.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday cast doubt on the possibility of passing an updated North American trade deal by the end of 2019. “I’m not even sure if we came to an agreement today that it would be enough time to finish,” she said, referencing an end-of-year timeline many had hoped for on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Pelosi was scheduled to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in her office later in the day to try to hammer out final details...If passed, USMCA would be a central achievement for Trump going into the 2020 elections. As a...

U.S. Trade Rep. Lighthizer: China ‘Reneging’ on Previous Commitments in Talks *Lighthizer Says U.S. on Friday to Raise Tariffs to 25% From 10% on $200 Billion in Chinese Goods *Lighthizer: ‘We’re Raising the Tariffs’ Effective Friday Morning *Lighthizer: Has Seen ‘Erosion in Commitments by China’ in Last Week *Lighthizer: Talks Will Continue With China Officials Thursday, Friday *Lighthizer Says Doesn’t Know Why China Position Shifted *Treasury Sec. Mnuchin: Over the Weekend New Information Showed Issues With China *Mnuchin: China ‘Trying to Go Back With Language That Had Been Clearly Negotiated’ *Lighthizer, Mnuchin Spoke to Reporters in Washington Briefing Monday Afternoon...

Senate Republicans feel that President Trump has once again pulled the rug out from under them on trade, leaving GOP lawmakers frustrated over their inability to influence the White House’s policy on an issue that could have major economic and electoral ramifications. Days after a group of Republican senators relayed to Trump at a White House meeting their concerns about trade tensions with Canada, Mexico, Europe and China, Trump over the weekend threatened new tariffs on China, escalating a fight with Beijing and rattling markets. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said after the stock markets closed Monday that higher tariffs...

Washington veteran Michael Pillsbury has quietly become a key figure behind Trump's confrontational China policy, to the dismay of Beijing — and some fellow China experts. -- A day before President Donald Trump departed for the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, several top officials gathered in the Oval Office to strategize about Trump's highly anticipated meeting there with China's president. Seated around Trump's Resolute Desk were Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. On couches a few feet away were White House chief of staff John Kelly, Trump's son...

people being considered are the White House budget chief, Mick Mulvaney, and a Republican congressman from North Carolina, Mark Meadows. Other names in the mix include Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Trump's former deputy campaign manager, David Bossie.

Two Republican senators announced Wednesday that they will oppose Robert Lighthizer, President Trump’s nominee for United States Trade Representative, ahead of his likely confirmation this week. Sens. John McCain (Ariz.) and Ben Sasse (Neb.) told Lighthizer in a letter released Wednesday that they’d vote against him because “your confirmation process has failed to reassure us that you understand the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) positive economic benefits to our respective States and the nation as a whole.” “We fear that you do not have an appreciation for the millions of jobs created by this free trade deal, and that...

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the post of U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, is a free trade skeptic, who served as deputy U.S. trade representative under President Ronald Reagan.In May of 2011, Lighthizer wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Times in response to a possible Trump campaign — in 2012, in which he asked:Given the current financial crisis and the widespread belief that the 21st century will belong to China, is free trade really making global markets more efficient? Is it promoting our values and making America stronger? Or is it simply strengthening our adversaries and creating a...