Free Republic

Thrifty Big Apple shoppers were rushing to stock up on the basics Wednesday after President Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs briefly went into effect — before he then announced a 90-day pause. “Pray to God that we all survive,” said Angelia Gonzalez, a 48-year-old mother who was filling her cart at the East Harlem Costco. “I feel some kind of way. I mean, I have a family.” Gonzalez travelled across town from her longtime home in West Harlem to stock up at the wholesaler over fears that prices will soon skyrocket from Trump’s massive “reciprocal” tariffs, which went into effect at...

China’s increasingly shrill and desperate efforts to prove itself tough and fearless against President Donald Trump’s tariffs hit a new low on Thursday, when Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning decided to post old footage of Mao Zedong, the founder of the Chinese Communist Party – and the worst mass murderer in history. Mao Ning’s tone-deaf decision to post 72-year-old footage of Mao declaring his determination to “fight” until we “completely triumph” against President Eisenhower illustrates how badly the Communist elite has sunk into the revisionist history pushed by the ruling Party. No sane person on Earth, outside of the...

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said on Thursday China was now isolated and other U.S. trading partners were lining up to make deals following President Donald Trump's stunning reversal of his tariff decision.Trump said on Wednesday he would temporarily lower the hefty duties he had just imposed on dozens of countries while further ramping up pressure on China."Time is not China's friend as every U.S. corporation with a supply chain based in China is seeking to move it to countries that are likely to make favorable tariff deals with the United States," Ackman said in a post on X.

Komisar von der Leyen informs the union members that she has decided to pause the retaliation tariffs against the USA, based on the 90-day pause announced by President Trump. However, in actuality there’s not much difference even within the pause as the German/EU autos are still tariffed (25%) and the steel and Aluminum tariffs’ (25%) still apply. The only gain from yesterday’s modification in the global tariff regime for the EU was a switch from 20% EU tariff to a baseline 10% tariff during the pause. The total EU relief is 10% for 90-days; but that was enough for Komrade...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused China of manipulating its currency to offset the impact of U.S. tariffs."You got to hand it to them. They're manipulating their currency today as an offset against the tariffs," Trump said at an event at the National Republican Congressional Committee.

File this one under "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished." The liberal media has been leading the charge against the Trump tariffs. So what happens when Trump heeds the warning signs and pulls back? Does the MSM applaud his statesmanship, his courage in changing course given changed circumstances? C'mon—of course not. This is the liberal media, after all. Get the rest of the story and view the video here. Thus, on today's Morning Joe, Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei, purporting to explain Trump's change of direction, declared: "Make no mistake: he panicked."

VIDEOI just knew when President Trump paused the tariffs and China ended up ISOLATED due to most of the world wanting to negotiate with him that the Morning Joe crew the next morning would go into desperate spin control. And, as you can see, I was not wrong. The pathetic Spin Control began with Willie Geist and continued with other Morning Joe guests. They can never concede that Trump did something BRILLIANT as was the case with the tariffs.

Australia has rejected China’s plea to “join hands” against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, declaring Thursday it is happy to keep negotiating with its long-term ally rather than join Beijing’s chorus of aggrieved opposition to Washington. The White House recently imposed an import tax of 10 percent on Australian goods, but for China – Australia’s biggest trading partner – it raised tariffs to 125 percent. China’s ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian argued joint resistance is “the only way” to stop the “hegemonic and bullying behaviour of the U.S.”, appealing for Canberra’s cooperation in an opinion piece on Thursday, the BBC...

The European Union will pause its first countermeasures against U.S. tariffs after President Donald Trump temporarily lowered the hefty duties he had just imposed on dozens of countries, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday. The bloc was due to launch counter-tariffs on about 21 billion euros ($23.25 billion) of U.S. imports from next Tuesday in response to Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium. It is still assessing how to respond to U.S. car tariffs and the broader 10% levies still in place. “We want to give negotiations a chance,” von der Leyen said on X....

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Laura Coates Live,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) reacted to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) partially praising tariffs by saying that most Democrats support some tariffs, but “the challenge is, in this context, there are so many folks on my side, myself included, who strongly oppose President Trump and what he’s doing, and, every single day, find ourselves disturbed by the things he’s doing,” and “a lot of folks on our side, and not just on our side, some Independents and Republicans as well, want to see us fighting and making sure that we are fighting...

In 1993, Democrats voted against NAFTA by 156-102 and against it in the Senate by a narrower 28-27. Now, Democrats are mourning the death of what they claim is the last vestige of NAFTA. President Trump’s tariffs, they claim, are killing the ‘free trade’ that the Dems once opposed, before they supported it, and before they opposed it. NAFTA cost Republicans the White House, but Bill Clinton’s embrace of it cost Democrats the South. Clinton had manipulated and misled working class Democrats into believing that he would either reject or fundamentally transform NAFTA and lost the white working class vote....

President Trump finally blinked. It took a week for the plunge in the stock and bond markets—along with a sustained campaign by executives, lawmakers, lobbyists and foreign leaders—to prompt Trump to roll back for 90 days a major element of his sweeping tariff plan. The president said that the reaction to the tariffs was getting a bit “yippy”—like a nervous athlete unable to perform—and he relied on his instincts to change course as he watched the bond market tank and listened to business leaders including JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon express fears of a recession. The episode was classic Trump:...

Donald Trump finally decided to take the proverbial “win” on trade and the stock market rallied nearly 3,000 points. You can thank the bond market, with an assist from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, for making it happen. We have been hyper-focused on how the stock market dropped ever since Trump declared trade war on the entire world, how he kept upping the ante, demanding ever higher degrees of compensation from our trade partners, even those who appeared to be acting in good faith and wanting to negotiate peace. He was also goaded by two of the most hawkish and protectionist...

SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - Chinese companies that sell products on Amazon are preparing to hike prices for the U.S. or quit that market due to the "unprecedented blow" from President Donald Trump's tariff hikes, the head of China's largest e-commerce association said. Trump said on Wednesday he would raise tariffs on Chinese imports to 125% from the 104% level already in effect, escalating the high-stakes confrontation between the two world's largest economies. "This isn't just a tax issue, it's that the entire cost structure gets entirely overwhelmed," said Wang Xin, the head of the Shenzhen Cross-Border E-Commerce Association, which represents...

Not much of a secret when the president tweets to the entire world to "BUY" 3 hours before the announcement. "I'm writing to the White House to demand who knew in advance that the president was gonna once again flip flop on tariffs? And are people cashing in?" "There is just all too much opportunity for people in the White House and the administration to be insider trading."

Paul Sperry @paulsperry_ DEVELOPING: Sources say Oil Patch executives have stormed the Hill to warn GOP leaders the tariff regime is tanking oil prices to a point which will undermine Trump's "Drill, baby drill!" and turn the Texas boom into bust. Crude has already plunged $15 with no bottom in sight ... 10:52 AM · Apr 9, 2025

President Trump says trade wars are easy to win. Investors think otherwise, and on Wednesday Mr. Trump decided maybe investors are right. After a flight from U.S. assets and a rout in the bond market, Mr. Trump announced a pause for 90 days on the worst of his “liberation” tariffs on most countries, China excepted. Markets celebrated with a stock-market rally on hope that perhaps Mr. Trump isn’t entirely oblivious to the damage he’s causing. The rout in dollar assets reversed, at least somewhat, and the rise in the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield eased. It would be hard to find...

President Donald Trump was forced to backtrack on his sweeping tariff plans because of a 'fire sale' in the bond market which could have triggered economic meltdown. Alongside causing turmoil in the stock market, Trump's sweeping tariff plans sparked a major US government bonds sell-off, the likes of which had not been seen since the depths of the Covid-19 crisis. Experts are saying that it was this, rather than simply the 'art of the deal,' which caused the White House to backtrack on its tariff proposals. On Wednesday, the President announced a 90-day pause on all new 'reciprocal' tariffs, in...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday the U.S. is moving toward trade agreements with key allies that will form the basis for a united economic front against China, while dismissing fears of a financial crisis as “nothing systemic.”Speaking at the American Bankers Association meeting in Washington, Bessent laid out the Trump administration’s strategy to pressure Beijing through coordinated economic diplomacy.“We can probably reach a deal with our allies,” Bessent said. “They’ve been good military allies, not perfect economic allies. And then we can approach China as a group.”He warned Europe not to break ranks or retaliate against tariffs from the...

The U.S.-China trade war heated up on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China soared to a total of 104 percent and China retaliated by announcing an 84 percent levy on U.S. goods. China furiously denounced Trump’s tariffs as “hegemonic” and called on the world to unite against Trump’s “bullying.”The Chinese Finance Ministry announced the 84 percent retaliatory tariff on Wednesday, several hours ahead of an expected retaliation from the European Union.China said it was “inevitable” that it would run a trade surplus against the United States, and it has the “determination and means” to keep fighting back against...