Trump News

Trump has 'botched' his whole tariff plan with a single slip of the tongue: report

The Atlantic's Jonathan Chait claimed in an article Friday that President Donald Trump's plan to encourage American manufacturing by imposing huge import tariffs was doomed from the moment he offered to negotiate with targeted countries.

"The key to making it work was to convince businesses that the new arrangement is durable," Chait wrote. "Nobody is going to invest in building new factories in the United States to create goods that until last week could be imported more cheaply unless they’re certain that the tariffs making the domestic version more competitive will stay in place."

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'Made my mouth drop open': Expert 'astonished' as Trump lawyer makes courtroom admission

In a Maryland court on Friday, the Justice Department dropped what one lawyer called a jaw-dropping claim.

The DOJ faced off against lawyers for an immigrant that the administration has admitted was mistakenly sent to an El Salvador prison.

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Here's the reason Trump won't rescue dad wrongly sent to El Salvador prison: expert

If President Donald Trump's administration brings back to the U.S. any of the deportees he sent to El Salvador, it could have significant ripple effects for his administration, a legal analyst claimed Friday.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland immigrant who had protected legal status, was sent to a notorious prison in the Central American country under the accusation that he had gang ties, the Associated Press reported on April 1.

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Trump appointees called out for 'laughable' bid to make friends with FBI rank and file

After years of attacking the agency, President Donald Trump's appointees to head up the FBI are now trying to curry favor with the rank and file in their quest to make changes, reported The New York Times — but for some, these efforts look less than sincere.

In fact, noted the report, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino are using their own attacks on the organization as proof it needs a culture change: "the two men have pulled a kind of bait-and-switch: In recent emails to thousands of FBI employees, they have sought to use the bureau’s damaged reputation — a reputation that they themselves helped tear down — as a rationale for bringing reforms to the supposedly broken organization."

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Trump personally chose the 'mocked formula' used to determine tariffs: reporter

President Donald Trump personally selected the formula that the U.S. government will use to determine the percentage of reciprocal tariff to be implemented on a country, territory, or island, according to a Friday report.

The Washington Post's Jeff Stein wrote that numerous aides at the National Economic Council, Council of Economic Advisers, Commerce Department, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative confirmed the president made the decision himself.

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'Liberating ourselves from lower prices': Ex-GOP lawmaker blasts 'self-destructive' plan

A former Republican congressman tried to make sense of president Donald Trump tipping the U.S. economy toward recession.

The president announced double-digit tariffs on at least 90 nations Wednesday, sending stock markets into a tailspin and stoking fears of a recession, and former congressman Charlie Dent told MSNBC that he couldn't see any logic to Trump's decision.

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'Now?' Trump called out on CNN for golfing during 'a very volatile time' of his own making

CNN's Dana Bash was gobsmacked that President Donald Trump opted to play golf Friday while the U.S. economy was melting down due to the tariffs he imposed on dozens of countries earlier this week.

On Friday, stocks continued their downward spiral, losing more than 3,000 points in two days. China announced it was retaliating with 34% tariffs on U.S. goods. And Fed chairman Jerome Powell said Trump's tariffs "raise risks of faster inflation and slower growth," according to The New York Times.

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'Not going to fool anybody': Ex-GOP aide warns Capitol Hill will 'start turning' on Trump

A former aide to two House Speakers is warning that President Donald Trump will need a hefty spin to handle the fallout of the implementation of tariffs on goods from countries around the globe.

For the second day in a row, the U.S. Dow Jones sank below 40,000 for the first time in nearly a year amid fears about a possible trade war, said MSNBC's Jose Diaz-Balart on Friday.

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'What worries me most': Ex-Labor chief predicts 'rude shock' as Trump plans take effect

The labor market added far more jobs than expected last month, but former labor secretary Robert Reich warned that Americans could be in for a "crude and rude shock" in the coming weeks.

The U.S. added 228,000 jobs last month, far more than the 140,000 that economists had expected, and that number was nearly double the 117,000 roles added in February, but the former labor secretary under Bill Clinton told CNN's "The Situation Room" that president Donald Trump's tariffs would have far-ranging consequences for the economy.

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NBC analyst pours cold water on Trump's investor proposal from the Stock Exchange floor

NBC business analyst Christine Romans smirked and took a dim view of a Donald Trump boast on Friday morning that now was a good time for investors to sink more money in the stock market while it was still experiencing a meltdown for the third day in a row.

Speaking with "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Jonathan Lemire, she was alerted to a Trump Truth Social post where the president wrote, "TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE. THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!"

Asked for her reaction, specifically to Trump's boast his policies would "never change," she replied, "Well, that means they think that he's not going to negotiate, even though yesterday he said maybe he would negotiate."

ALSO READ:'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs

"So again, this is all sort of Donald Trump 'Art of the Deal' stuff. In terms of always being rich, I mean $2 trillion stock market value was lost yesterday and you're going to lose another big chunk of it today so value is being lost as we speak here."

"The question is, the White House, you know the White House is talking about the 10-year note yield is kind of looking at that, not the stock market," she observed before adding, "They've really tried to decouple themselves from the stock market."

You can watch here or at the link.

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'How do you negotiate with this?' Rage as Trump suggests he's crashing market on purpose

President Donald Trump left Washington on Thursday to fly back to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. By Friday morning, the stock market was in freefall for a second day in a row.

From his Truth Social page, Trump posted a video from a person going by the handle @AmericanPapaBear, claiming Trump is purposely tanking the stock market so he can get the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.

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'Stop playing politics!' Trump snaps at independent Fed Chair while pushing for rate cuts

Donald Trump took time out from preparing for a golf tournament in his home state of Florida to lash out at Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday morning.

The president, who has been battling terrible press reports since his "Liberation Day" announcement of sweeping international tariffs, appealed to Powell to drop interest rates which would likely take some heat off the White House.

As part of his busy morning on Truth Social, he wrote that Powell has an opportunity to "change his image" by listening to the administration's demands.

ALSO READ: 'Came as a surprise to me': Senators 'troubled' by one aspect of government funding bill

"This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates," he wrote. "He is always 'late,' but he could now change his image, and quickly. Energy prices are down, Interest Rates are down, Inflation is down, even Eggs are down 69%, and Jobs are UP, all within two months - A BIG WIN for America."

"CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!" he then demanded.

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Trump's Treasury secretary 'looking for an exit door' after two months on the job: MSNBC

In the wake of Donald Trump's highly controversial decision to put in place a wall of international tariffs that has roiled the business world, the president's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is reportedly looking to move on from his current job slightly more than two months after being sworn in.

That is according to MSNBC host and former Wall Street executive Stephanie Ruhle, who appeared on "Morning Joe" on Friday.

Speaking with co-host Jonathan Lemire, Ruhle first pointed out that she has been unable to find people who support Trump's decision to begin a trade war that is causing worldwide economic chaos.

ALSO READ:'Not much I can do': GOP senator gives up fight against Trump's tariffs

"I have reached out to so many people in the Trump universe, business people who have supported Trump, who have supported President Trump and, Jonathan, I cannot find one single investor with one single argument that makes sense for these tariffs. All I'm getting is, well, this is what the president thinks. This is what he's always wanted to do."

Turning to Bessent, a billionaire who she said has had trouble defending the tariffs and seems at a loss to explain to reporters how things will pan out, Ruhle pointed out that he is not close to the president and remains an outsider in the administration.

"My sources say that Scott Bessent is kind of the odd man out here and, in the inner circle that Trump has, he's not even close to Scott Bessent or listening to him," she told host Joe Scarborough. "Some have said to me, he's looking for an exit door to try to get himself to the Fed, because in the last few days he's really hurting his own credibility and history in the markets."

"Those have said this man actually understands how the markets work and, what's happening right now, is only going to hurt markets," she added. "And even for Scott Bessent to say a few weeks ago, you know, getting cheap goods fast is 'not part of the American dream.' No, it's not part of the American dream, but it's part of the way Americans live, especially people who are economically vulnerable. They don't have the option to say, 'No, I'd like higher things that cost more.' They need low cost things because they don't make that much money."

You can watch below or at the link.

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