Free Republic

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that President Donald Trump’s tariffs were a “one-time price adjustment.” Bessent said, “I don’t think it’s a radical change. It’s just a much needed course adjustment. And when we go back and look at what’s happened, there’s a new paper out called the China Shock and it talks about what happened post 2004, that some of the communities recovered, but the workers never recovered and that it was much more devastating on a human level. And what we are trying to do is make free trade fair trade, because the...

Marc Rosenberg, founder and CEO of The Edge Desk in Deerfield, Illinois is getting ready to introduce a fancy ergonomic chair designed to reduce customers’ back pain and boost their productivity. He figures the most expensive one will sell for more than $1,000. But he can’t settle on a price, and he is reluctantly reducing the shipment he’s bringing to the United States from China. There’s a reason for his caution: President Donald Trump’s ever-changing, on-again, off-again tariff war with America’s three biggest trading partners – Mexico, Canada and China. The latest reversal came Thursday. Two days after imposing 25%...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) signaled Thursday that President Trump’s threat to levy tariffs on key trading partners of the U.S. is hurting his constituents, saying “when we start losing, you back off.” “Almost every industry in Kentucky has come to me and said, ‘It will hurt our industry and push up prices of homes, cars,’ and so, I’m going to continue to argue against tariffs,” Paul said late Thursday in an interview with CNN. The Kentucky Republican argued the U.S. has “more leverage” than any other nation, but not “all the leverage.” He urged the Trump administration to be “smart”...

Justin Trudeau was brought to tears as he spoke of the ongoing feud with President Trump and the US-imposed tariffs that have rattled Canada in his final days as prime minister. Trudeau, 53, appeared at a press conference on Thursday in Ottawa, where he discussed childhood health care, but became visibly emotional while vowing that he’s always “Canadians first.” “On a personal level, I made sure that every single day in this office, I put Canadians first, and I have people’s backs, and that’s why I’m here to tell you all that we got you,” the outgoing PM said as...

Walmart, one of the nation’s biggest retailers, is telling its China-based suppliers to absorb the cost of President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on Chinese-made products. Sources told Bloomberg News that Walmart is asking Chinese suppliers to cut their prices — some by as much as 10 percent — so that Trump’s increased tariffs on China will be absorbed by the retailers rather than American consumers. Chinese suppliers are reportedly trying to resist any lowering of their prices while some manufacturers are having to go outside China to source their materials. A spokesperson for Walmart told Bloomberg that the retailer is...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said Mexico won't be required to pay tariffs on any goods that fall under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade until April 2, but made no mention of a reprieve for Canada despite his Commerce secretary saying a comparable exemption was likely. "After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This Agreement is until April 2nd." Earlier on Thursday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the one-month reprieve on...

After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement. This Agreement is until April 2nd. I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum. Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the Border, both in terms of stopping Illegal Aliens from entering the United States and, likewise, stopping Fentanyl. Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation!

It looks like it’s Warren Buffett’s turn to say, “I told you so.” Late last year, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO was busy selling stocks when the S&P 500 logged more than 50 record closes, leading many market observers to scratch their heads. Now, the answer looks much clearer. The stock market’s 2025 slump proves Berkshire’s fourth-quarter trades to be prescient. Buffett was at odds with the bullish sentiment that marked the end of 2024, according to Berkshire’s latest 13-F filing, which tracks its holdings. In the last three months of 2024, Berkshire sold some $5 billion of Bank of America...

.."For 40 years, we’ve seen the devastating effects of so-called 'free trade' on the working class," the UAW, headed by Shawn Fain, said in a press release. "Corporations have been driving a non-stop race to the bottom by killing good blue-collar jobs in America to go exploit some poor worker in another country by paying poverty wages. Tariffs are a powerful tool in the toolbox for undoing the injustice of anti-worker trade deals." "We are glad to see an American president take aggressive action on ending the free trade disaster that has dropped like a bomb on the working class,"...

Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman’s CEO Lawson Whiting said on Wednesday Canadian provinces taking American liquor off store shelves was “worse than a tariff” and a “disproportionate response” to levies imposed by the Trump administration. Several Canadian provinces have taken U.S. liquor off store shelves as part of retaliatory measures against President Donald Trump’s tariffs. “I mean, that’s worse than a tariff, because it’s literally taking your sales away, (and) completely removing our products from the shelves,” Whiting said on a post-earnings call. Canada on Tuesday also imposed 25% tariffs on goods imported from the U.S., including wine, spirits, and beer....

China has said it is “ready for war” with America as it raises defence spending and imposes retaliatory tariffs on US imports. In a direct threat to Donald Trump, China’s representatives in America said: “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight until the end.” Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, in turn said the US is “prepared” to go to war. “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war,...

President Donald Trump will exempt automakers from proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada for one month after pleas from industry leaders. “We are going to give a one month exemption on any autos coming through USMCA,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press conference on Wednesday. “Reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect on April, 2, but at the request of the companies associated with USMCA, the president is giving them an exemption for one month so they are not at an economic disadvantage,” she continued.

Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on Monday rolled out his “Canada First” response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs, borrowing Trump’s branding strategy while insisting his tariffs on Canadian goods are “unjustified.” Part of Poilievre’s strategy includes faulting the Liberal Party of outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for doing “nothing” to make Canada less dependent upon the U.S. economy, even though the threat of Trump’s tariffs was painfully clear. “They’ve left us helpless,” Poilievre complained before debuting his own strategy, blasting the Liberals for weakening the Canadian economy with high taxes and heavy regulations that pushed Canadian businesses across the border...

The White House on Wednesday announced a one-month tariff exemption for automakers after President Donald Trump spoke a day earlier with heads of General Motors , Ford Motor and Stellantis . Automakers have urged Trump to waive 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada on vehicles that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s rules of origin. “Reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect on April 2, but at the request of the companies associated with USMCA, the president is giving them an exemption for one month so they are not at an economic disadvantage,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on behalf...

Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada yesterday, citing frustrations with both nations' efforts to help secure their respective borders and crack down on fentanyl trafficking. President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed a call with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discuss a resolution to the tariff standoff. Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada yesterday, citing frustrations with both nations' efforts to help secure their respective borders and crack down on fentanyl trafficking. "Justin Trudeau, of Canada, called me to ask what could be done about Tariffs. I told him that many people have died from Fentanyl...

China warned it is ready for any “type of war” with the US in an alarming escalation as President Trump’s tariffs went into effect. “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said late Tuesday. Tensions grew stiff between the two nations on Tuesday as Trump bumped up a 10% tariff on Chinese imports to 20%, claiming the trade measure would halt the flow of fentanyl into America. Jian’s statement, reiterated on X by...

President Donald Trump could reduce the 25 percent tariffs that he imposed Tuesday on Canada and Mexico, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview on Fox Business Network, less than 18 hours after the duties went into effect. “Both the Canadians and Mexicans were on the phone with me all day today trying to show that they’ll do better” on reducing fentanyl flows into the United States, Lutnick said. “So I think [Trump] is going to work something out with them.” “It’s not going to be a pause — none of that pause stuff,” he continued. “But I think...

During an interview that took place during NBC’s coverage of President Donald Trump’s speech before Congress, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) responded to a question on President Donald Trump using tariffs to try to get other countries to do more about illegal immigration and fentanyl by saying that Trump’s rhetoric on the subject “reminded me that he views the whole world through the prism of victimhood.” Host Kristen Welker asked, “What about his argument, though, he says, look, these countries are taking advantage of the United States. He says that these tariffs are necessary, not just to deal with people who...

President Trump announced new tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as well as China on Monday, sending the stock market plummeting. This morning, stock prices continued to fall, with the overall market only down a couple of percentage points, although certain individual stocks have fared worse. Tesla, for example, is down more than 10 percent since Monday's tariff announcement. Legacy automakers' stock prices dropped, as well, although not nearly as sharply as Tesla's. Unfortunately for everyone connected to the auto industry in any way, the complex, international supply chain it relies on leaves the auto sector uniquely exposed, the Wall Street...

Facing the potential for tariffs on Mexican assembled autos, Honda has cancelled plans to invest in a new auto factory in Guanajuato, Mexico, beginning in November 2027. Instead, the car company will retool the Civic auto production facility in Greensburg, Indiana, keeping jobs in the USA.TOKYO, March 3 (Reuters) – Honda has decided to produce its next-generation Civic hybrid in the U.S. state of Indiana, instead of Mexico, to avoid potential tariffs on one of its top-selling car models, according to three people familiar with the matter.The change underscores how manufacturers are scrambling to adapt to U.S. President Donald Trump’s...