Free Republic

For the first time in decades, the United States will see fair trade as President Donald J. Trump announces tariffs to level the playing field for American workers and businesses.Despite the rhetoric from politicians and the media, studies have repeatedly shown tariffs are an effective tool for achieving economic and strategic objectives — just as they did in President Trump’s first term.A 2024 study on the effects of President Trump’s tariffs in his first term found that they “strengthened the U.S. economy” and “led to significant reshoring” in industries like manufacturing and steel production.A 2023 report by the U.S. International...

Protectionist tariffs typically help one specific industry when a country is dumping products into our country because it costs less for the other country to make it than it does for American manufacturers to make it. These are the type of tariffs people think of when they threaten a repeat of Smoot-Hawley. President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are very different from protectionist tariffs. According to the fundamental definition, “reciprocal” means doing an equal thing back. In this sense, the protectionist tariffs President Trump is responding to were levied first by another country on US goods. The United States is not initiating...

As I thought, President Trump is off to a great start thanks to the much better team of people he now has compared to last time. One exception: he brought back Peter Navarro, allowing him to design the massive April 2nd tariff orders. Dr. Navarro for most of his career was a Hillary Clinton Democrat who promoted terrible economic ideas, just like fellow Ph.D. economist Paul Krugman.His obsession is protective barriers that will bring back manufacturing to America, especially autos. But he is about 50 years behind the times. He still thinks it’s 1970 and Japan and Germany, with brand...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Sunday that he won’t back down on his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries even out their trade with the U.S., digging in on his plans to implement the taxes that have sent financial markets reeling, raised fears of a recession and upended the global trading system. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he didn’t want global markets to fall, but also that he wasn’t concerned about the massive sell-off either, adding, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa has announced he will suspend tariffs on goods imported from the US in an attempt to build a "positive relationship" with President Donald Trump's administration. The move comes days after Trump imposed 18% tariffs on Zimbabwean exports to the US. "This measure is intended to facilitate the expansion of American imports within the Zimbabwean market, while simultaneously promoting the growth of Zimbabwean exports destined for the United States," he said on X. Zimbabwe has had strained diplomatic relations with the US since it adopted a controversial land policy about 25 years ago, and because of its...

The two leaders are expected to discuss US tariffs on Israel, the war in Gaza and Iran’s rapidly growing nuclear program. If the visit does take place, Netanyahu will be the first foreign leader to meet with Trump since he announced plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on dozens of nations. Imports from Israel will be hit with a 17% levy under the president’s plan. Netanyahu will likely attempt to negotiate a deal to remove the new tariffs on the Jewish state.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on NBC to discuss the current MAGAnomic tariff program and global trade reset. Bessent outlines how the history of President Trump’s tariff approach toward China (’17-’19) did not result in higher consumer prices for goods from China.Secretary Bessent, like the rest of the MAGAnomic team, cuts through the talking points with direct evidence and analysis that destroys the preferred media narrative. Video and Transcript Below: [Transcript] – KRISTEN WELKER: And joining me now is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Secretary Bessent, welcome back to Meet the Press.SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Kristen, good to see you.KRISTEN WELKER: It’s...

Margaret Brennan is very worried about the penguins of the Heard and McDonald Island being able fill their orders for EU heavy industrial equipment, against the backdrop of President Trump’s 10% tariffs. Secretary Lutnick points out the issue of transnational shipping, as Brennan sits flummoxed.That’s just one of the talking points from the ever-insufferable Margaret Brennan in this left-wing narrative engineering under the pretense of an interview. WATCH:[TRANSCRIPT] – MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, welcome to “Face the Nation.”COMMERCE SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK: Great to be here.MARGARET BRENNAN: We see about 60% of Americans have money in the stock market, which mean...

WASHINGTON/TAIPEI/VERONA, Italy- More than 50 nations have reached out to the White House to begin trade talks since U.S. President Donald Trump rolled out sweeping new tariffs, top officials said on Sunday as they defended levies that wiped out nearly $6 trillion in value from U.S. stocks last week and downplayed economic fallout. On Sunday morning talk shows, Trump's top economic advisers sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the U.S. in the global trade order. They also tried to minimize the economic shocks from last week's tumultuous rollout, ahead of Monday's expected bumpy opening of Asian...

Jake Tapper has denied being "of the left." On Sunday's edition of CNN's State of the Union, host Tapper, in a loaded question, asked Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins: "How long do you anticipate this tariff chaos is going to be going on? 30 days, 60 days, 90 days?" In response, Rollins wryly responded: "We're now two days in, right? You've got two days of data. Everyone, especially on your side, on the left, is freaking out." Snapped back Tapper: "I'm not on the left."That earned a sardonic laugh [see screencap] and "thank you" from Rollins. So, Tapper is "not...

The Federal Reserve may have to make an emergency rate cut soon. Inflation has fallen to the lowest levels since 2020. If this continues, it will be a BIG problem.

In this video, Victor Davis Hanson exposes the left's lies about tariffs. Hanson takes a deep dive into how progressive critics misrepresent tariffs as harmful, often portraying them as economic poison that hurts American workers and consumers. He argues that the left’s criticism of tariffs is rooted not in economic reality, but in a broader ideological opposition to Donald Trump's policies. Hanson reveals how tariffs, in many cases, are a strategic tool aimed at rebalancing trade and protecting American industries, rather than the disastrous tactic the left claims.

More than 50 countries have reached out to the White House to begin trade negotiations, US National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on ABC News on Sunday. Hassett also denied that US President Donald Trump's tariffs were an indirect means to pressure the central bank to cut interest rates In a separate interview on NBC News, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent downplayed the stock market drop since Trump announced the tariffs and said there was "no reason" to anticipate a recession based on the tariffs.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will announce Sunday that he understands the rationale behind President Donald Trump’s tariffs and that the West is entering a new economic era. “The world has changed, globalization is over and we are now in a new era,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement to the Sunday Times. “We’ve got to demonstrate that our approach, a more active Labour government, a more reformist government, can provide the answers for people in every part of this country.” The statement comes after Trump announced new tariffs on dozens of countries around the world on Wednesday,...

French President Emmanuel Macron called on Thursday for European companies to suspend planned investment in the United States after US President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs on American imports. “Investments to come or investments announced in recent weeks should be suspended until things are clarified with the United States,” Macron said during a meeting with French industry representatives. “What would be the message if big European actors invest billions of euros in the US economy at the very moment they are hitting us?” he asked. […] The comments come weeks after French shipping firm CMA CGM announced plans to...

I cannot take credit for the following but I saw this comment posted on another forum and thought I would post it here since it describes the best in the smallest amount of space why the tariffs work and how they work: "Trump is trying to crash the stock market at least 20%, causing a flight into treasuries, this will cause the fed to slash interest rates so he can refinance the debt to near 0% and cause a deflationary spiral which will lower the cost of everything. He also intends to use tariffs as an incentive for companies to...

When President Donald Trump slapped a fresh round of tariffs on European and Asian imports, the professional hand-wringers and legacy press clodpolls sprang into choreographed action. Headlines and television anchors blared warnings of trade wars, economic isolation, and diplomatic fallout. The bureaucratic priesthood that worships at the altar of “free trade” without reciprocity—from Brussels to Brookings—launched into familiar homilies: tariffs are regressive, Trump is reckless, and globalism is gospel. But let’s pause the hysteria momentarily and apply something vanishingly rare in today’s media-industrial complex: perspective. The prevailing orthodoxy treats tariffs as anathema to prosperity—an outdated relic of 19th-century mercantilism. But...

President Trump’s tariffs are already having an impact. Earlier this week, Trump announced a sweeping new trade policy that included a universal 10 percent tariff on all imports into the United States. In addition to this baseline measure, the administration introduced a system of reciprocal tariffs targeting countries with significant trade surpluses over the U.S. The tariffs vary in severity, with higher rates imposed on nations deemed to have particularly unbalanced trade relationships or who refuse to buy American goods. However, many countries are already offering the U.S. concessions: Vietnam — Following the announcement of a nearly 50 percent tariff...

Peter Navarro, the senior counselor for trade and manufacturing for President Donald Trump, tells Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow that virtually all new jobs created during the Biden administration went to newly arrived migrants who poured across the United States-Mexico border.During an exclusive sit-down interview with Marlow at the White House for The Alex Marlow Show podcast, Navarro explained mass immigration’s close relationship to free trade, where the cost of labor plummets, dragging down Americans’ wages.“Both capital and labor are mobile, okay. Now think about that. So, depending on conditions, you’re in Britain, right, labor is mobile, and the next...

The Trump Administration prevails against both trade barriers internationally and out-of-control courts at home. The two biggest stories of the week, as I see it, are the effects of demanding reciprocity in barriers to trade and the Supreme Court putting the leash on out-of-whack federal district court judges. It’s my personal belief that the strongest nations have a large, productive middle class. In recent decades, domestic fiscal profligacy and unfair international trade practices have hollowed out countless working-class communities, emptied middle-class pockets, and steadily eroded middle-class lives. Both the Administration’s ordering of reciprocal tariffs and cutting wasteful and corrupt use...