Free Republic

Liberal comedian Bill Maher admitted that he was wrong about President Donald Trump on tariffs in a podcast posted Monday, and he’s "got to own it" because the economy is thriving. Maher made the admission on his "Club Random" podcast as he explained that he’s always truthful with his audience during a conversation with progressive YouTube host Brian Tyler Cohen. "Just to take an example, tariffs. Now I remember that I, along with probably most people, was saying at the beginning, ‘Oh, you know, by the 4th of July… the economy was going to be tanked by then,’ and I...

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that a framework trade agreement struck between the European Union and the United States was “anti-Russian” likening it to a de facto ban on buying Russian oil and gas. The U.S. struck the deal with the EU on Sunday, imposing a 15% import tariff on most EU goods. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement afterwards that the agreement would help the bloc fully phase out Russian fossil fuels in favour of American alternatives. “Purchases of U.S. energy products will diversify our sources of supply and...

On today's Morning Joe, the panelists expressed the fond desire, cloaked in analysis, that prices would eventually rise—to Trump's detriment. MSNBC's Ali Vitali nudged Franklin Foer of The Atlantic to echo the show's prevailing sentiment: "We've yet to see the true tangible impact of tariffs in some of these economic reports that we look at. But analysts do say it's coming. And this is a guy who loves to say promises made, promises kept. On this, it doesn't necessarily sound like he's going to be able to, right?Love Vitali's concluding "right?" to Foer. C'mon Franklin. Tell me prices will go...

President Donald Trump on Monday reduced to less than two weeks his deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to either reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face massive "secondary tariffs" on Moscow's trade partners. Trump previously gave Putin a 50-day deadline, which was set to expire in early September. But he signaled Monday that things were taking too long, saying "I'm going to make a new deadline of about ...10 or 12 days from today." "I'm disappointed in President Putin," Trump said in Scotland alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "Russia and Ukraine — I would have said five...

SUMMARY: * The United States and European Union have reached a trade deal which will see a blanket tariff of 15% on all EU goods imported to the US. * President Trump says the EU has promised hundreds of billions of dollars of investment and energy purchases. * Trump and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen met for talks in Scotland on Sunday - she has called the agreement a "huge deal" * The new deal is set to kick in on Friday, and means the Europe will avoid threatened import charges of 30% A trade deal...

Okay, this is a very big win. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlines some more details of the U.S-EU trade agreement. The parameters fall similar to the Japanese deal, without the banking aspect. The EU will face (and accept) a 15% tariff rate for most exports to the USA including autos, that’s huge, even with some zero-for-zero tariff sectors outlined. The primary motivating factor was to avoid the 35% tariff rate scheduled for August 1st and provide the EU corporations with certainty in their tariff rate as applied by the USA (15%). WATCH:This is almost full acquiescence to...

EU will purchase $750 Billion of US Energy EU wil invest $600 Billion in US EU Countries now open to Trade with US, no Tariffs -more as details emerge. This is huge! Trump says “biggest deal of them all!”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went on Mornings with Maria on the Fox Business Channel to tout the stimulating effect Trump's economic policies are having on business investment, saying "the tariff is bringing back manufacturing to the US and the tax reforms in the One Big, Beautiful Bill are encouraging businesses to invest more. By allowing businesses to fully deduct costs for improved facilities and machinery rather than requiring them to be amortized over a longer period efficiency and productivity can be implemented more quickly. The way that countries get rich is through long-term investments that improve productivity." "Another important step...

The Japanese essentially did not want to face a 25% tariff on automobiles exported to the USA. At the same time, they did not want to permit full USA access to several sectors of their market. The solution is quite remarkable.Japan agrees to be the bank, to essentially finance any national security priority of President Trump to the tune of $55o billion. In return, Japan gets a 15% tariff on automobiles, and 10% return on the profit of the ¹business they finance in the U.S. Japan is essentially purchasing a lower tariff rate.PRESIDENT TRUMP – “We just completed a massive...

The U.S. steel industry is back under President Donald J. Trump. After languishing under a Biden-era stranglehold — plagued by unfair foreign competition, job losses, and weakened national security as imports flooded the market and domestic production stalled — the steel industry is quickly roaring back to life.U.S. steelmakers are proving that strong leadership and protective tariffs are the keys to revitalizing American manufacturing.Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs announced record steel shipments in Q2 2025. CEO Lourenco Goncalves: “Cliffs is a major supplier of steel to the automotive manufacturers, and the Trump Administration continues to show strong support to both the domestic steel...

We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made. Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits. This Deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs — There has never been anything like it. Perhaps most importantly, Japan will open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products, and other things. Japan will pay Reciprocal Tariffs to the United States of 15%. This is a very exciting time for the United States of America, and especially for...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a new 19% tariff rate for goods from the Philippines after what he called a "beautiful visit" by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to the White House, saying U.S. goods would pay zero tariffs. "It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal, whereby The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs. The Philippines will pay a 19% Tariff," Trump said, calling Marcos a "very good and tough negotiator." Trump said the two Pacific allies would also work together militarily but gave no details. Marcos, the...

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines have reached a trade agreement. Shortly after, he also revealed more detailed terms of an agreement with Indonesia. Both agreements call for 19% tariffs on goods the US imports from the two countries, paid by American businesses, while American goods shipped there won’t be charged a tariff. Trump’s announcement of the agreement with the Philippines came after he met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House on Tuesday. “It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal,” Trump wrote on his social...

President Trump announced Tuesday that he had sealed a new trade deal with the Philippines after meeting with the island nation’s “tough” president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., at the White House. “It was a beautiful visit, and we concluded our Trade Deal, whereby The Philippines is going OPEN MARKET with the United States, and ZERO Tariffs. The Philippines will pay a 19% Tariff,” Trump, 79, wrote on Truth Social. The US has struck economic agreements with only a handful of countries so far — including with the UK and China — but the administration is hoping to announce dozens more...

In a decisive move to protect American agriculture and restore fairness, the Trump Administration’s tariffs on fresh Mexican tomato imports are already boosting American farmers, growers, and business owners.Here’s what they’re saying:Chad Smith, Smith Tomato Farm (Steele, AL): “It’s only been two days now, and we actually have a lot more calls of people having interest in doing business — and the price hasn’t even changed.”Matt Rudd, Rudd Family Farm (Browns Summit, NC): “What you see in the grocery store now, instead of all those tomatoes from Mexico and everywhere else, it should be more local and United States-grown —...

Would you look at that? Trump's tariffs are having their intended impact for American businesses. At least for now. In Alabama, farmers are showing their gratitude for President Trump's tariffs which are making business boom in the produce world. It's only been two days now and we've actually had a lot more calls of people having interest in doing business and the price hasn't even changed. So, this leveling the playing field with international trade actually ... levels the playing field? A 17% tariff was all it took?? From NBC 13 in Birmingham: Many are concerned this will mean higher...

MASERU, Lesotho —Crowds of women, bundled up in wooly hats and mittens against the sharp winter chill, wait every morning at the gates of a garment factory in Lesotho's capital, hoping that a few among them will be called in to work a shift. But no-one comes out and the factory gates – which bear the name of the Taiwanese company that runs it in red Chinese lettering – remain firmly shut. It's one of the few factories in what used to be called "the Denim Capital of Africa" that's still operating after U.S. President Donald Trump announced in April...

CEOs and foreign leaders are scrambling to figure out new rules for global commerceMajor U.S. corporations and trading partners are scrambling to adapt to a new global economy, even as President Donald Trump mulls the imposition of historic tariffs in less than two weeks. Conagra Brands, owner of Hunt’s, Duncan Hines and Birds Eye, plans to raise prices on canned goods after “suffering a tremendous amount of inflation due to tariffs on tinplate steel,” its chief executive told investors this month. Tariffs are causing Fastenal, an industrial supplier, to split its imports into separate shipments to Canada and the United...

The big problem with writing an adulatory story about someone is when you have to leave out a highly important fact that would completely upend the very premise of your fable. Such was the case with Simon van Zuylen-Wood singing high praises for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as somehow leading the resistance against President Donald Trump in his country. Mr. van Zuylen-Wood set the adoration scene of Carney early in his New York magazine story on Monday in "The Canadians Are Furious."

Since March, the son of the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been roaming the halls of the White House. Eduardo Bolsonaro, 41, is a sitting Brazilian congressman, but his latest job has been to convince U.S. officials that a dangerous Brazilian Supreme Court justice wants to throw him and his father into prison, simply for fighting against what they claim was a stolen election. And in multiple visits to Washington over the past several months, he has found a sympathetic audience. “This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent — Something I know much...