Free Republic

One of President Trump’s objectives over the next four years is to have US revenues from tariffs become so massive that the Internal Revenue Service is no longer needed, his commerce secretary revealed Wednesday. “His goal is to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let all the outsiders pay,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.” The former CEO of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald expanded a day later on his belief that Trump’s sweeping tariff plan will be a boon for the US economy. “As the president said, reciprocal tariffs, either...

In trade relations between Germany and the U.S., the European nation has clearly been on the winning side of unfair policies, and now the president of the nation’s central bank says Germany would “suffer” if President Trump were to implement the same tariffs that they have on us. From Reuters, via Yahoo News:Trump’s tariff plans put Germany’s growth at particular risk, Bundesbank warnsGermany is particularly vulnerable to US trade tariffs, which could curb growth for years to come and hold back an economy already suffering through two straight years of contraction, Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said on Monday.Germany, Europe’s largest...

Gold is being flown from London to New York in unusually high volumes. Gold held in the UK's central bank has been trading at a discount due to tariff fears. The metal has been trading at record highs of about $2,9000 an ounce this month. Significant amounts of gold are being taken out of the UK's central bank and flown to New York, driven by fears about the impact of tariffs threatened by President Donald Trump. The uncertainty means gold held at the Bank of England has been trading at a discount to the wider market, and traders face lengthy...

Back in November, I wrote a column for Kansas Reflector that discussed the likely adverse effects of President Trump’s proposed tariffs on U.S. farmers. The piece noted that 398 million acres of cropland has been added to the mix around the world since the start of this century, notably in tropical regions such as Brazil and India. There is increasing competition for U.S. farmers in export markets. The United States alone cannot absorb all that we produce here. Many farmers voted for Trump because he promised less regulation and greater prosperity for America’s farmers. The hard truth is that, like...

Trump announced on Friday that the U.S. will enforce reciprocal trade tariffs with other nations – meaning Trump will lift American tariffs to the rates those other nations charge us.For all the self-righteous indignation by the Chinese, Germans and the huffy European Union bureaucrats, the U.S. has virtually the lowest tariffs of any major trading partner in the world (and these numbers don’t even include the VAT taxes that are rebated on exports and zing imports).We are also (by far) the richest country in the world with half of the world’s wealth, which contradicts the argument by some of our...

...on any country ripping off America.

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...