Free Republic

I cannot imagine why it would not be broadcast live.

President Trump will hold a major news conference on reciprocal tariffs at 1 pm EST on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. Watch LIVE on RSBN!

The economy has often soared under Republicans who protected domestic industry.“Make America Great Again” will, given the astonishing victory it produced for Donald Trump, be recorded among the most successful slogans in political history. Yet it raises a question: how did America first become the world’s greatest economic power? In 1998, in The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to the Gods of the Global Economy, this writer sought to explain. However, as the blazing issue of that day was Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton, it was no easy task to steer interviewers around to...

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell is speaking out against President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans, warning that starting trade wars with U.S. economic partners could force higher costs on American families and businesses. Trump’s “aggressive proposals leave big, lingering concerns for American industry and workers,” the senator from Kentucky wrote in an op-ed Wednesday in Louisville’s Courier-Journal. The op-ed is a rare example of a senior Republican in Congress who is willing to publicly criticize the president’s economic strategy. Trump, who has called tariff his “favorite word,” recently slapped broad import duties on Canada, Mexico and China, plus additional tariffs on...

https://x.com/TonySeruga/status/1886110888731840537Just love how uneducated both Americans and Canadians truly are.Here are just some historic tariffs Canada hits America with.Milk: 270%Cheese: 245%Butter: 298%Chicken: 238%Sausages: 69.9%Barley seed: 57.8%Bovine/meat: 26.5%Cars: 25%HVAC: 45%Vacuums: 35%Cable boxes: 35%TVs: 45%Steel: 25%Aluminum: 45%Copper: 48%Take a guess how much financial aide the U.S. sends Canada EVERY YEAR and how much military defense $$$$ we provide?

Hong Kong will file a complaint on recent US tariffs imposed on the city to the World Trade Organization, claiming the United States has completely ignored the city's status as a separate customs territory, chief secretary Eric Chan said on Tuesday (Feb 11). "This is absolutely inconsistent with the WTO rules. Of course, they have totally disregarded Hong Kong is a separate customs territory," Chan, the China-ruled city's number two official, told reporters. "We will file a complaint to the WTO regarding this unreasonable arrangement," he said without giving specifics. Chan was responding to a US decision to impose 10...

President Trump said Sunday that he will announce 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the United States on Monday. Mr. Trump, speaking on Air Force One on the way to New Orleans to attend the 2025 Super Bowl, said he would also announce "reciprocal tariffs" on Tuesday or Wednesday, which he said will go into effect immediately. This means that the U.S. would impose import duties on products in cases where another country has levied duties on U.S. goods. "If they charge us, we charge them … every country," he said, adding, "If they are charging us...

<p>Compared with the blanket US tariffs, China’s measures — which target US exports of liquefied natural gas, coal, crude oil and farm equipment as well as some automotive goods with levies of 10 per cent to 15 per cent — were seen as creating space for negotiations to avert a wide trade conflict.</p>

Patrick Bet-David explains how DOGE led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy can cut income taxes to 0% potentially.

NEWBERRY COUNTY, S.C.—Just before the start of Donald Trump’s first term, this small county with acres devoted to chicken and egg farming made a bid to revive its manufacturing glory days. The timing was perfect: Trump was talking about imposing tariffs on imports, and foreign companies looking to avoid them were open to setting up shop in the U.S. The county landed Korean manufacturer Samsung Electronics, whose washing machine factory now employs more than 1,500 workers and brings the county $1 million each year in tax revenue. Two other Korean firms followed Samsung to Newberry to supply parts for its...

When Donald Trump's fortunes took a downturn in the 90s and he needed to raise cash fast, he sailed his 282ft (85m) superyacht, the Trump Princess, to Asia hoping he could attract Japan's wealthy. It wasn't the first time the businessman had sought out Japanese buyers or lenders for his projects. In the cut-throat world of New York real estate, Trump had a front-row seat from his Fifth Avenue skyscraper of Tokyo's buying spree in the 80s of iconic US brands and properties, including Rockefeller Center. It was then that his worldview on trade and America's relations with its allies...

Hysteria has erupted here and abroad over President Trump’s threats to level trade tariffs against particular countries.Both American and foreign critics blasted them variously as either counterproductive and suicidal or unfair, imperialistic, and xenophobic.Certainly, tariffs are widely hated by doctrinaire economists. They complain that tariffs burden consumers with higher prices to protect weak domestic industries that, shielded from competition, will have no incentive to improve efficiency.Their ideal is “free” trade. Supposedly a free global market alone should adjudicate which particular industry in any country can produce the greatest good for the world’s consumers, whether defined by lower prices or better...

The US Postal Service (USPS) said it has stopped accepting parcels from mainland China and Hong Kong until further notice. Letters will not be affected by the suspension, said the company, which declined to offer a reason for the decision, external. However, on Tuesday new rules came into force which closed a loophole that allowed small packages worth $800 (£641) or less to be sent to the US without paying tax or fees. It was one of the measures announced by US President Donald Trump who imposed an additional 10% tariff on all goods imported to the US from China....

(I don't know if it was posted back in late October, but this story seems very relevant to current events and shows the magnitude of the fentanyl potential threat to all of N America -- FYI, the location "Falkland BC" is between Vernon and Kamloops about a four our drive north of the border; a small aircraft or helicopter would be flying over largely barren terrain all the way south to let's say Omak WA or any other location in WA state -- no indication in story that any of this was destined for American markets -- you'll need to...

U.S. — In an unprecedented, history-making moment, a man has won an argument with a woman. The man, who is also the President of the United States, is reportedly celebrating his victory after miraculously winning an argument over trade with Prime Minister Trudeau, the second female Prime Minister of Canada. "We've never seen anything like this in recorded history," said Dr. Ben Shmellings, a historian. "This kind of thing just doesn't happen. A man getting in an argument with a female and prevailing? We're as shocked as you are." The Babylon Bee will keep you updated on the argument, as...

On CNN This Morning, Jonathan Kott, a DC lobbyist and former aide to senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), predicted that Trump supporters will give him six to eight months, but then "turn quickly" on him when the improvements in their lives he promised don't materialize. That's soothing speculation for CNN's base, but Kott's powers of prognostication have a questionable track record. Less than two months before the 2024 election, here's what Kott, in a Fox News appearance, predicted: "I think voters are still getting to know Kamala Harris. And she's introducing herself. And the more she does,...

Even in a world where President Donald Trump clearly racks up foreign policy wins, CNN’s smug harpies desperately try to convince all eight of the network's viewers that he’s really losing. CNN anchor Erin Burnett injected a hefty amount of spin into her reporting on Mexico and Canada collectively waving the white flag on their retaliatory threats against Trump’s tariffs and agreed to increase security on both the Southern and Northern borders respectively. But in Burnett’s Trump Derangement Syndrome-afflicted worldview during the February 3 edition of OutFront, this supposedly constituted “Trump backing down twice in a day.” Huh? So “what...

President Trump has now started implementing his promise to impose new or additional tariffs on goods from various countries, starting with China, Canada, and Mexico. Trump already imposed tariffs in 2018 against various countries. Now, once again, the media are all over how prices are going to jump for consumers because tariffs are a “regressive consumption tax,” and how tax receipts from tariffs won’t go up, etc. etc. Now we’ll look at what tariffs did and didn’t do last time. One, they didn’t trigger inflation, which stayed below the Fed’s target. Two, they more than doubled tax receipts from customs...

US tariff policy reduced labor productivity in the American manufacturing sector during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as Alexander Klein and Christopher M. Meissner report in Did Tariffs Make American Manufacturing Great? New Evidence from the Gilded Age (NBER Working Paper 33100). The researchers find that at the industry level, higher tariffs were associated with reduced labor productivity, greater total output, more establishments, and more workers. They also find that higher tariffs were associated with lower output per establishment, suggesting that higher tariffs led to the entry of smaller, less productive firms. The effects of tariffs varied significantly...

China’s state-run Global Times on Sunday rounded up ministers and business leaders to condemn President Donald Trump’s ten percent tariff on imports from China, which were scheduled to take effect on Tuesday. “China’s position is firm and consistent. Trade and tariff wars have no winners. The U.S.’ unilateral tariff hikes severely violate WTO rules. This move cannot solve the US’ problems at home and more importantly, does not benefit either side, still less the world,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. The Foreign Ministry insisted China has “one of the strictest and most thorough drug control policies in the world,” so...