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The first two years of Donald Trump's presidency haven't exactly been filled with stellar ratings from the public. Trump's approval rating in Gallup has never -- not one time -- been above 50% since he was sworn into office. His overall job approval number in the Real Clear Politics' average is below 44%. Almost six in 10 people disapproved of how Trump has handled the Russia investigation in a CNN-SSRS poll last month. On and on it goes -- bad numbers following bad numbers, leaving the poll-obsessed Trump to cherry-pick a piece of data here and there that suggests he...

As POTUS Donald Trump prepares to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss a deal to end the current trade war between the world’s two biggest economies, the American political commentariat has panned it as another opportunity for China to ‘pull one over’ on this ‘hapless, bumbling president.’ Citing Trump’s ‘inability’ to come to terms with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un over denuclearization, they have left Americans who still listen to them with the impression that now it’s China’s turn to embarrass him and the United States — and at the president’s own resort at Mar-a-Lago. But the reality...

No incumbent president pulling 55 percent on the economy and unemployment can be counted out for reelection, however anemic his overall job approval might be.In fact, this poll is a reminder of how solid Trump’s 2020 prospects would look if he was a bit less … Trumpy, for lack of a better word.It’s mostly Republicans driving that number but he’s at 53 percent approval on the economy and 56 percent on unemployment among independents, a group that gives him an overall job approval of just 35 percent. Those are also the only two out of 14 categories tested in...

Full headline: Winning: Trump, Xi close to ‘trade deal’ as Chinese farmers warn government they’ll need subsidies to compete with U.S. farm productsAs official Washington preoccupies itself with the latest alleged “crisis” involving some aspect of the Trump administration, the White House has been quietly but steadily making progress on its key trade objectives. Last year POTUS Donald Trump announced that his negotiators had reached a deal with Mexico and Canada to rework NAFTA into a new United States Mexico Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA). The agreement awaits action in the U.S. Congress and the legislatures of the other two countries,...

There’s been no end to the complaints on the left (and portions of the right as well) about President Trump’s use of tariffs to attempt to craft better trade deals for the United States. The results have been a mixed bag thus far, with some efforts delivering results (see: Mexico and Canada) and others seeming to fall short (the auto industry is a good example there). But some of the greatest consternation on display around punditry panels has been caused by the President’s aggressive stance toward China, arguably our largest trading partner. Trump’s complaints about their habitual theft of...

President Trump, in an expletive-laden speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday, accused FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team of trying to take him out with “bulls---” and accused a top Clinton aide of not having recovered “from getting his a-- kicked.” Trump accused his opponents of moving away from a narrative of Russian collusion as Mueller prepares to file his report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He said that the report was being produced “by people who weren’t elected.” “Unfortunately you put the wrong people in a couple of positions and they leave people...

About 3-in-4 American voters favor a populist-nationalist “America First” legal immigration, trade, and foreign policy platform from candidates running for office that prioritizes protecting the way of life and economic security of United States citizens above all else. The latest Harvard/Harris Poll finds near unanimous support for populist-nationalist candidates among Republicans, conservatives, and President Trump supporters, as well as a majority of support from all voters. The findings are the latest evidence that the open borders, globalization, and endless wars ideology of former administrations — such as President George W. Bush’s — has very little support with the American electorate.

The Big Apple’s fast-food industry, The New York Times recently reported, has long served as a laboratory for progressive politicians and the nation’s labor machine.

The long-awaited first read on Q4 GDP has just come out, with results better than expected: +2.6%, whereas analysts had been pivoting right around that 2.0% figure ahead of the release. The historically strong Q3 results were revised upward in its third and final headline: 3.5%. Even though it’s too early to take the long view of 2018 GDP as a whole, this 2.6% number joins the 2.2%, 4.2% and now 3.5% from the previous quarter to put preliminary GDP at 3.125%, or above 3% for the first time since prior to the Great Recession a decade ago. That this...

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said on Wednesday it would move to formally suspend a scheduled tariff increase on Chinese goods “until further notice” following President Donald Trump’s decision to delay his Friday deadline for a U.S.-China trade deal. The statement was issued after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer’s testimony to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, in which he said USTR was following a legal process to implement the delay. “In accordance with the president’s direction, the Office of the United States Trade Representative will publish a notice in the Federal Register this week to suspend the scheduled...

For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identity—promising identity, transcendence, and community, but failing to deliver... In his 1930 essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” the economist John Maynard Keynes predicted a 15-hour workweek in the 21st century, creating the equivalent of a five-day weekend... In a 1957 article in The New York Times, the writer Erik Barnouw predicted that, as work became easier, our identity would be defined by our hobbies, or our family life... These post-work predictions weren’t entirely wrong. By some counts, Americans work much less than they used to. The average work year...

Story Highlights: 58% say U.S. rates very or somewhat favorably in world's eyes 45% satisfied with U.S. position in the world Most say Trump not respected by foreign leaders

Full headline: Winning: U.S., Chinese trade negotiators will ‘speed up’ talks as Beijing agrees to buy $1.2 trillion worth of American goodsTrade talks between U.S. and Chinese negotiators were extended for two days on Friday as both sides agreed to “speed up” talks in a bid to finalized an agreement ahead of a March 1 deadline when Washington planned to impose higher tariffs on some $200 billion worth of imported goods from China. Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He said Beijing and Washington would “redouble efforts and speed up negotiations” on trade, as talks aiming to end a tariff war between the...

I now have been back in China for two years. I will be here for another two years, at least until October of 2020. After that I return to Florida. I want to give you some updated news from inside China. First, The Donald is winning the trade war…BIG TIME. As you know, I have been visiting or living in China for over 25 years. And based on that extensive knowledge, I can see the effects on the economy.

Americans For Prosperity, a free-market advocacy group funded in part by the Koch network, has offered to help House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., pass legislation that would limit President Trump's ability to unilaterally impose new tariffs. "[W]e hope to work with your office to advance legislation to require congressional approval of any proposed tariffs," said AFP chief government affairs officer Brent Gardner and Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce executive vice president Nathan Nascimento told Pelosi in a letter sent Friday and made public Wednesday. The group called on Pelosi to support the Bicameral Congressional Trade Authority Act, legislation jointly introduced...

US trade officials are believed to have told President Donald Trump that European car imports harm US national security. German car makers are concerned that Trump could use the report to justify tariffs. Any decision by the US to label European car and auto-part imports a danger to US national security would be incomprehensible, the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) has said. German car companies were responsible for more than 113,000 jobs at some 300 factories in the United States and were the biggest exporters of cars in the country, it said. “All this strengthens the United States,...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Saturday she had made clear in a meeting with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Munich Security Conference the importance of the U.S. lifting tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada. Freeland said that while Canada is now focused on its domestic ratification process for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade deal, it remains strongly opposed to the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. “The Canada position is now that we have concluded (USMCA) that is all the more reason why the tariffs must be lifted,” she...

Middle-Class Economics: USA Today ran a surprising story on Tuesday headlined "Can the middle-class revival under Trump last?" It's surprising — shocking really — because it might just be the first time a major news outlet has admitted that there has been a middle-class revival under Trump. We did a search for news stories that used the phrase "middle-class revival" since Trump took office. Other than the USAT story and a syndicated column written a year-and-a-half ago, we found none. Even a more generic search for "Trump middle class" turns up mostly stories about how Trump's tax cuts supposedly aren't...

U.S. manufacturing is once again in the news. New data shows America’s factories adding 261,000 jobs from January 2018 to January 2019. In the State of the Union, President Trump emphasized the urgency of confronting predatory trade from countries like China. There’s no doubt that America’s manufacturers are currently rebounding. The tariffs that President Trump imposed a year ago on steel, aluminum, solar panels and washing machines have already created more than 11,000 new jobs. Even U.S. car companies are doing well at home. Ford’s North American operations posted a $2 billion profit in the fourth quarter, while GM’s North...

United States Steel said Monday it will resume construction of a furnace in Alabama, adding 1.6 million tons of steelmaking capacity and hundreds of jobs. Construction on U.S. Steel’s mill in Jefferson County, Alabama, was suspended in 2015 after China’s overproduction caused a global steel glut that sent prices plummeting. The tariffs the Trump administration imposed last year have reduced the flow of foreign steel in the U.S. and allowed domestic makers to expand again. U.S. Steel Chief Executive Officer David Burritt said in a statement: Thanks to the President’s strong trade actions and improved market conditions, support from the...