Thomas Kika

President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed that his tariffs are paid exclusively by foreign countries exporting goods into the US, but the reality remains that the costs are paid by the companies importing goods into the country and are most often passed down to consumers. Now, a new report from Fortune has found the full impact on small businesses, with tariffs siphoning thousands of dollars out of them every month.

Fortune reported the findings of the Center for American Progress (CAP), which it describes as a "left-wing think tank," from a report published on Dec. 17. According to CAP, between April, when Trump enacted his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs on nearly every country, and September, roughly 236,000 small businesses in the US paid, on average, $151,000 more in import duties compared to the same period of time in 2024. This equates to a little over $25,000 per month.

“The Trump administration’s broad, costly, and frequently shifting policies threaten to undermine one of the strongest engines of the American economy,” Michael Negron, an analyst with CAP, said in a statement about their findings. “A season of opportunity for small businesses has turned into one of uncertainty.”...

An evangelical preacher and licensed mental health counselor has been kicked off the ballot for a local race in Dallas, Texas, after her past felony convictions came to light.

Pedra Geter is an evangelical preacher based in Texas. She describes herself as "a Prophet, Evangelist, Mother, Entrepreneur and College Student pursuing my PHD in Human Resource Development" on her LinkedIn page, and more recent materials have referred to her as "Dr. Pedra Geter." The page also lists her professions as "evangelist," "televengelist" and "motivational speaker" dating back to 1999.

Geter had recently been running in the Dallas County commissioner Democratic primary, challenging longtime incumbent Dr. Elba Garcia. On Monday, however, a local NPR affiliate, KERA News, reported that her candidacy had been terminated after past felony convictions came to light, barring her from pursuing public office in Texas....

President Donald Trump has seemingly wedged a decade's worth of head-spinning decisions, feuds, gaffes and scandals into his first year back in the White House, and according to a year-end analysis fromThe Independent, at least four "outrageous" stories got buried in obscurity amid the onslaught of news.

As the outlet noted, Trump and the wider MAGA political movement are well-known for adhering to Steve Bannon's "flood the zone" strategy, which involves inundating the press and observers with so much newsworthy content that they cannot keep up, allowing some objectionable things to skate by unnoticed.

The first story The Independent highlighted was the "Friday-night massacre" of watchdog officials. Just five days into his second term, Trump fired "independent inspectors general who root out waste, fraud and abuse within federal agencies and departments" from nearly every cabinet-level agency, violating laws requiring him to give notice to Congress before doing so....

Donald Trump's much-hyped new battleship fleet, named after himself, "will never sail," a group of experts told CNBC in a new report, owing to the outdated design that will make them a "bomb magnet" in a real conflict.

Earlier this week, the president unveiled a new "Trump-class" of US Navy battleships, which he touted as "some of the most lethal surface warfare ships" and "the fastest, the biggest, and by far, 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built." Despite his enthusiasm from Trump about maintaining "American military supremacy," CNBC on Friday noted the "glaring problem" putting them at odds with reality: "battleships have been obsolete for decades."

"The last was built more than 80 years ago, and the U.S. Navy retired the last Iowa-class ships nearly 30 years ago," CNBC explained. "Once symbols of naval might with their massive guns, battleships have long since been eclipsed by aircraft carriers and modern destroyers armed with long-range missiles."
...

While he may have managed to score reelection last year with a popular vote lead, Donald Trump's "avalanche of outrages" over the course of 2025 have reaffirmed that he is "unfit for office," according to an extensive and scathing breakdown from the editorial board of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

As the board noted at the start of its new piece, it "spent 2024 warning of the dangers a second Trump administration could bring." As his first year back draws to a close, the board argued that none of his shocking decisions and actions have been surprising; it's only surprise about it all has been "the speed with which he has upended the American Experiment."

Suggesting that voters last year may have been swayed by Trump's "undeniable luck, charisma, and bravado" and "nostalgia for a pre-pandemic America," the board argued that his reelection has proven to be "a folly" where he is "no longer constrained by the guardrails the conservative establishment placed on his first presidential stint." His first term, meanwhile, was "a fluke," which saw his "worst impulses... kept in check by his cabinet" and with an economy that "sailed swiftly on the course inherited from President Barack Obama."...