Trump’s Day One: A Look at His Opening Moves in the White House

President-elect Donald Trump made a multitude of “day one” promises throughout the campaign to begin work on an array of issues, setting himself up for an extremely busy first day back in office.

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Commentary: Trump’s Tariffs Will Make America Great Again

Donald Trump

Elections have consequences, and those consequences are dire for free market dogmatists in the Republican Party.

The tariff debate is over. President Donald Trump won, and it is not even close. Americans overwhelmingly support efforts to punish countries like China for their unfair trade practices. Even President Joe Biden, who ran blatantly misrepresenting the Trump economic record, has kept the Trump tariffs on steel and aluminum in place.

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California U.S. Rep. John Duarte Unveils Plan to Rescue Bankrupt Farmers from China’s Economic Assault

Texas Farmer in field

Republican California Rep. John Duarte unveiled his plan to save American farmers from possible financial ruin due to long-standing Chinese tariffs in an exclusive interview Wednesday with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Tariff Proponents Say U.S. Needs Trade Fairness, but Critics Warn Costs of American Goods Will Rise

Construction site

President Joe Biden held a press conference Tuesday extolling the tariffs on Chinese products — including steel, aluminum, electric vehicles, solar panels and semiconductors — he is rolling out. The president argued that China aggressively subsidizes the products America imports, which makes it difficult for U.S. businesses to compete.

“Back in 2000, when cheap steel from China began to flood the market, U.S. steel towns across Pennsylvania and Ohio were hit hard,” Biden said.

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Biden Says Americans Can Buy Any Car Despite His Administration Forcing EVs to Be Huge Share of Sales by 2032

President Joe Biden driving a car

President Joe Biden suggested Tuesday it is false that his administration is restricting consumer choice in the automobile market, but his administration recently finalized a rule that will force electric vehicles (EVs) to make up a much larger share of overall auto sales over the next decade.

Biden made the remark during a Tuesday speech about his administration’s decision to significantly bolster tariffs against Chinese products including steel, semiconductor chips and EV batteries. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule in March that requires manufacturers to make EVs constitute between 35 percent and 56 percent of new cars sold in 2032, according to CNN.

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Biden Jacks Up Tariffs on Chinese Electric Vehicles, Critical Minerals

BYD Chinese electric car

The Biden administration on Tuesday formally announced significant increases in tariffs targeting imports of electric vehicles (EVs) and other green energy technology from China.

The strengthened tariffs are designed to make it harder for cheaper Chinese green products, like electric vehicles, to flood the U.S. market and displace American companies, the White House said in its official announcement. Beyond EVs and critical minerals, the administration is also increasing tariffs on Chinese steel, computer chips, EV batteries and certain solar components.

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Report: US EV Manufacturing Faces ‘Extinction-Level Event’

Electric Vehicle Factory

An Alliance for American Manufacturing report called for tariffs to protect the U.S. electric vehicle market from an “extinction-level event” caused by Chinese competitors.

The report follows Chinese EV maker BYD, the world’s largest EV maker, releasing a $14,000 EV in February that could “demolish” domestic EVs, often $40,000 more expensive.

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Auto Executives: Chinese EVs Could ‘Demolish’ U.S. Production

BYD Electric Vehicle

Detroit placed the U.S. on wheels but if Motor City wants to go electric it faces fierce global competition.

Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD outsold Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2023. The foreign automaker said it produced more than 3 million new energy vehicles in 2023 compared to Tesla’s 1.8 million.

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Biden Looks to Tariffs to Bolster Struggling Electric Vehicle Market

Tesla Charging

The Biden administration is considering increasing tariffs on some Chinese products related to his green agenda, like electric vehicles (EV), in an effort to boost poor market demand and protect domestic industries, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Officials are considering setting higher rates on the already existing tariffs originally placed under the Trump administration, covering around $300 billion in Chinese goods, with Chinese EVs already having a 25% import tax, according to the WSJ. New tariffs could help domestic EV manufacturing, which has struggled with stagnant market demand, only rising from 3% in January to 4% in September of total vehicles sold in the U.S., while the share of EVs produced out of all vehicles has risen from 3% to 6% in that same time frame.

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China’s Low Standards, Tariffs, Forced Labor Threaten U.S. Food Security, Agribusiness Experts Say

American grocery shelves are rapidly filling up with cheap canned food imported from China, displacing American producers’ goods and raising concerns about food safety and food security, U.S. trade associations and experts are saying.

According to the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI), a trade association supporting manufacturers of cans for both food and non-food items and their suppliers, American producers are at a disadvantage because they have to pay U.S. steel tariffs, which do not extend to finished Chinese-produced canned foods.

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Americans Support Trump’s China Tariffs as Republican Senators Push to Remove Them

As GOP senators seek to roll back former President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China now that he’s out of office, polling indicates Americans want to keep the harsh policies in place.

“For decades, Congress cut tariffs without much thought. But we cannot continue to do that when it comes to products made in China,” Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “We should do everything possible to move supply chains out of China, but this so-called ‘China bill’ is actually subsidizing manufacturing in Communist China. It’s ridiculous.”

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Biden Loosens Trump Tariffs on Solar Panels Despite Labor Unions’ Pleas

President Joe Biden loosened tariffs placed on solar panel imports by the Trump administration Friday, paving the way for Chinese companies to produce more panels for American consumers.

Biden issued a proclamation Friday morning, increasing the tariff-rate quota on solar equipment, or the amount of solar panel components Chinese manufacturers can send to the U.S. before receiving a penalty. The action means Chinese solar cell makers may send up to 5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, double the previous amount of 2.5 GW, to the U.S. before being hit with a levy.

The White House action also exempts bifacial solar panels, or panels that absorb sunlight from both sides. Such panels, which are increasingly common, are often used in industry-scale projects and are believed to be the “future of the industry.”

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Billionaire Michael Bloomberg to Visit Minnesotans ‘Shortchanged by Donald Trump’ Wednesday

Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign announced Tuesday that the Democratic billionaire will make a campaign stop in Minnesota to discuss policies for people “shortchanged by Donald Trump.”

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Commentary: Delaying Tariffs Is Not the Answer to China’s Trade Practices

For the past two years, President Donald Trump has argued that China was paying the cost of the trade war. Following a delay in some of the tariffs from the latest round in the dispute with China, however, the president has acknowledged for the first time that tariffs have an impact on American families.

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Commentary: President Trump’s Trade War With China Is a Moral and Economic Fight for the Future of the World

Ask yourself if you were President, what would you do if you discovered that a foreign country has been waging an underground war against the nation you are sworn to protect surreptitiously killing tens of thousands of your people every year by pouring a drug so deadly that merely accidentally touching a small amount could kill you?

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‘New and Improved NAFTA’ Known as USMCA Would Prevent Outsourcing of Jobs, Steve Gill Tells Fox News

  President Donald Trump’s replacement for NAFTA continues to draw opposition from Democrats, something that Star News Political Editor Steve Gill discussed Friday on Fox News. Video of the interview is available here. Trump headed to Milwaukee to push for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a replacement for the North…

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Commentary: The Trump Tariffs Could Help Prevent Another Great Depression by Talking Currency with China

Donald Trump, Xi Jinping

by Robert Romano   A long-standing bit of conventional wisdom holds that the Great Depression, which began in 1929, was worsened and made global by tariffs in the Smoot-Hawley tariff act of 1930, and that it was not until the 1934 Reciprocal Trade Act that recovery was possible. But this…

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Commentary: President Trump’s Deal with Mexico on Illegal Immigration Proof That Tariffs Work

by Robert Romano   President Donald Trump and the State Department hammered out a deal with Mexico on June 7 that Mexico would do much more to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing the country into the U.S. on the southern border. The last-minute agreement avoided a 5 percent tariff by…

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Vietnam Says Some Chinese Exporters Are Using Fake ‘Made-In-Vietnam’ Labels To Avoid US Tariffs

by Shelby Talcott   Some Chinese exporters are putting fake “Made in Vietnam” stickers to try to avoid U.S. tariffs, Vietnam alleged Sunday. Vietnam said in a government statement that it found dozens of cases where Chinese exports, including textiles, iron, steel, and aluminum, are being illegally transferred to Vietnam where fake stickers…

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Mexico Claims Funding for Migrant Caravans Came from Some Accounts in U.S.

  The Mexican government recently claimed that some funding for the “illicit support of migrant caravans” came from individuals within the United States. In a June 6 press release, Mexico’s Finance and Tax Secretariat announced that it has “blocked the bank accounts of various individuals and corporations that allegedly participated…

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Commentary: Trump Shows Value of Tariffs as Foreign Policy Tool

by Christopher Roach   The great American foreign policy debate began with the two parties’ divide over Vietnam. Until the Vietnam War, Republicans and Democrats more or less held to a consensus on the value of containment. After the war, Republicans favored unilateralism, a strong military, and clear-sighted pursuit of…

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GOP Divided on Trump’s Mexico Tariff Threat

by Jason Hopkins   Republicans in the House and Senate appear divided in their reaction to President Donald Trump’s threats to slap Mexico with incremental tariffs. “There is not much support in my conference for tariffs, that’s for sure,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday after a closed-door lunch…

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Top US, Mexican Officials Meet on Tariffs, Migrant Surge

  Top U.S. and Mexican officials are meeting Wednesday in Washington about President Donald Trump’s threatened 5% tariff on imported products from Mexico if it does not curb the surge of Central American migrants heading north toward the United States. With Trump in Europe for 75th-anniversary commemorations of D-Day, Vice…

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Former ICE Chief on Trump’s Tariff Threat: ‘I Agree With The President 100 Percent’

by Jason Hopkins   The former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) voiced unwavering support for President Donald Trump’s plan to tariff all Mexican goods if they don’t better enforce illegal immigration. “I agree with the president 100 percent and I agree with the tariffs,” Tom Homan, who…

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China, Tariffs, Trade, Cost and Prices: An Explainer

by Rick Manning   Stock markets go up and down based upon the latest trade rumors. Predictions of price hikes make headlines, yet the inflation rate remains at the levels, 2.0 percent at last count, desired by the Federal Reserve. What is going on?  And is this even really a trade war with…

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Mexico Says It Will Negotiate with US Over Tariff Threat

  WASHINGTON — Mexico’s foreign minister says he has started negotiating with U.S. officials after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican products related to the migrant surge at the border. Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter Friday that he had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Mike…

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On Trump’s Newest Tariff, Minnesota’s Rep. Angie Craig Tweets, ‘Where Is the Adult in the Room Who Knows What the H*** They’re Doing on Trade?’

  Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN-2) sent a tweetstorm Friday night talking about President Trump’s new threatened tariffs on Mexico. “Where is the adult in the room who knows what the hell they’re doing on trade?” Craig continued by saying small businesses and farmers will be the ones affected by the…

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Commentary: Tariff Hawks Got It All Wrong When They Predicted ‘Another Great Depression’ from Trump’s America-First Trade Policies

Donald Trump

by Robert Romano   In 2016, when President Donald Trump ran on his America first trade agenda, much of the conventional wisdom was that, if implemented, his tariffs would wreck the U.S. economy. It would have the same impact as the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Act, and so the prediction goes, lead to…

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Commentary: China Left Trump with Little Choice but to Put 25 Percent Tariffs on $200 Billion of Goods

by Robert Romano   Just when it appeared that a new trade agreement with China was being finalized last week, Beijing abruptly attempted to change all the terms of the deal and walk back prior concessions that had been made to head off President Donald Trump’s threat to increase tariffs…

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New Tariffs on Chinese Products Go into Effect

  The United States has increased tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. China on Friday said it “deeply regrets” the increased tariffs and will take the “necessary countermeasures” without giving any details. The increases are going into effect amid talks between Chinese…

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Commentary: America Needs Big, Beautiful Tariffs

by Spencer P. Morrison   Jonah Goldberg writes that President Trump supports tariffs because he is “truly ignorant of some of the most basic” economic principles—or he is “deceiving the public” to push a hidden agenda. Let’s not mince words: Goldberg’s implication is that Trump is either stupid or evil…

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Trump Just Secured Another Major Trade Victory

by Jason Hopkins   The European Commission approved U.S. soybeans to be used in the production of biofuels, a decision that will fulfill President Donald Trump’s demand that the European Union buy more of the product. “Today’s decision is new proof that the European Union is delivering on our commitments,”…

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Commentary: Contrary to Some Conservatives’ Slavish Devotion Free Trade Dogma, Trade Deficits Do Matter

by Spencer P. Morrison   Steve Hanke recently set out to prove “why President Trump’s trade message and protectionist policies are rubbish” in a Forbes article. Instead, the Johns Hopkins University economist exposed himself as a word-mincing, logic-twisting sophist – just like every other intellectual mercenary associated with the faux-libertarian propaganda mill that is the…

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Trump Team Holds China’s Feet to the Fire on Trade Negotiations

Donald Trump, Xi Jinping

by Jason Hopkins   As the Trump administration continues trade negotiations with China, the U.S. delegation is taking additional steps to make sure the Communist country follows through on its pledges. U.S. and Chinese officials met Monday in the Commerce Ministry in Beijing to begin their two-day trade negotiations. The…

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GM’s Mass Layoff Includes Eliminating a Hybrid Car Obama Once Championed

by Chris White   General Motor’s decision to restructure and layoff thousands of employees Monday includes eliminating a hybrid vehicle former President Barack Obama once called the car of the future for the Detroit company. GM said Monday that it will cut roughly 14,000 people in North America and will idle factories…

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