Tag: Trump foreign policy

How Trump’s Tariffs May Kill The Economy

Donald Trump tweeted in May that by imposing a 25 percent tariff on $250 billion of Chinese goods “China would greatly slow down, and we would automatically speed up!”

But that’s not what’s happening, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported today. Economic growth is easing in developed countries with one big exception – China.

In a report released today, the OECD provided four revealing graphics covering the United States, the 32 OECD countries from New Zealand to Austria, the Eurozone which uses a common currency and China.

View the complete June 16 article by David Cay Johnston of D.C. Memo on the National Memo here.

Mexico Releases Text Of ‘Secret’ Agreement With US On Refugee Policy

When President Donald Trump announced last week that he would not be imposing tariffs on Mexican goods being imported to the United States as he had threatened, he said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government had agreed to major concessions on refugee policy.

The New York Times quickly pointed out that the concessions the governments had agreed to had already been established months before, making it look like Trump had simply backed down from an empty threat. But Trump insisted this was wrong. There was, he said, a secret additional agreement with Mexico that included even more significant concessions.

And on Tuesday, Trump even waved around a folded piece of paper in front of reporters, claiming it was the secret deal. One intrepid reporter took a close-up shot of the paper, and because of the sunlight shining through it, parts of the text were visible. I suggested that, though it wasn’t entirely clear what the deal amounted to, the visible text indicated it was mostly vague promises.

View the complete June 14 article by Cody Fenwick from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Trump claims farmers wept behind him when he signed an executive order. Video shows otherwise.

The scene President Trump illustrated while addressing a southwest Iowa crowd this week was like something out of a storybook.

He harked back to Feb. 28, 2017, when he sat in the Oval Office surrounded by, as Trump put it Tuesday, “homebuilders and farmers mostly, and ranchers.” The president was preparing to sign an executive order instructing a review of the Obama-era Waters of the United States rule, which he and other critics opposed for levying excessive federal regulation over farmers’ land.

When he put pen to paper, Trump recalled, the nearly two dozen men and women standing behind him wept with joy. The emotional outpouring was apparently a first for a contingent in the room, as many of them had never cried before.

View the complete June 13 article by Michael Brice-Saddler on The Washington Post website here.

Trump’s Tariffs Could Nullify Tax Cut, Clouding Economic Picture

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s tax cuts provided a temporary jolt to the United States economy by putting more money into taxpayers’ pockets. The tariffs that Mr. Trump has grown so fond of may have the opposite effect.

Two new analyses show that the tariffs Mr. Trump is using to punish China, Mexico, Europe and other governments would more than wipe out any gains from his $1.5 trillion tax cut for low- and middle-income earners, leaving them with less money to spend into a consumer-driven economy. Higher earners would fare only slightly better, with their tax gains significantly eroded but not entirely washed away.

The potential for Mr. Trump’s tariffs to nullify his signature tax cut shows how the president’s trade war could undermine his biggest selling point going into his 2020 re-election campaign: a strong economy.

View the complete June 3 article by Jim Tankersley on The New York Times website here.

Trump says U.S. to impose 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports beginning June 10 in dramatic escalation of border clash

President Trump on Thursday said he would impose a 5 percent tariff on all goods entering from Mexico unless it stopped the flow of illegal immigration to the United States, a dramatic escalation of his border threats that could have sweeping implications for both economies.

The White House plans to begin levying the import penalties on June 10 and ratchet the penalties higher if the migrant flow isn’t halted. Trump said he would remove the tariffs only if all illegal migration across the border ceased, though other White House officials said they would be looking only for Mexico to take major action.

After the 5 percent tariffs are imposed on June 10, the White House said it would increase the penalties to 10 percent on July 1 and then an additional 5 percent on the first day of each month for three months. The tariffs would stay at 25 percent “until Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory,” a statement by the president said.

View the complete May 30 article by Damian Paletta, Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Five takeaways on Trump’s Japan trip

President Trump spent Memorial Day weekend in Tokyo, where he was Japan’s first state guest since the enthronement of the new emperor.

Trump received the red-carpet treatment from the imperial family, took in a sumo tournament and golfed with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

But the president was often fixated on the same topics that have consumed him recently in Washington, D.C., launching attacks on former Vice President Joe Biden and weighing in on nuclear tensions with North Korea and Iran.

View the complete May 28 article by Brett Samuels and Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

Trump and Abe’s ‘Unshakable Bond’ Shows Some Cracks in Tokyo

TOKYO — Standing at side-by-side lecterns inside the gilded Akasaka State Guest House in Tokyo, President Trump and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan sought to show the world the strength of what Mr. Abe called their “unshakable bond.”

The joint news conference that followed made it clear that being in lock step with Mr. Trump can be a precarious position for any world leader.

After the two men strode to the podium on Monday afternoon, Mr. Abe declared that the friendship and alliance had been further cementedby a day on the golf course, inside the sumo arena and at a robatayaki dinner with their spouses. He said that he and Mr. Trump were “completely on the same page” on issues like trade and North Korea.

View the complete May 27 article by Annie Karnie and Katie Rogers on The New York Times website here.

Still angling for a deal, Trump backs Kim Jong Un over Biden, Bolton and Japan

TOKYO — President Trump on Monday denied that North Korea had fired any ballistic missiles or violated the United Nations Security Council resolutions, taking the word of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over the assessments of his own national security adviser and his Japanese host. He praised the murderous dictator as a “very smart man.”

He also again sided with Kim over former vice president Joe Biden, after his Democratic rival was branded a “fool of low I.Q.” by North Korea’s state media for calling the North Korean leader a dictator and a tyrant.

At a joint news conference with Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, Trump gave cover to Kim as he directly contradicted his national security adviser, John Bolton, as well as Abe, by arguing that Pyongyang had not launched ballistic missiles this month or violated U.N. Security Council resolutions.

View the complete May 27 article by Ashley Parker and Simon Denyer on The Washington Post website here.

Trump to send 1,500 troops to Middle East to counter Iran

President Trump on Friday announced that the U.S. will send roughly 1,500 troops to the Middle East in order to counter Iran’s influence in the region.
Trump emphasized that the new deployment will provide force protection for existing troops in the area amid heightened tensions with Tehran.
The president approved the additional forces on Thursday following a meeting with acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford at the White House.
“We want to have protection,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

View the complete May 24 article by Ellen Mitchell and Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

‘Don’t fall for it’: Arizona congressman and former Marine who ‘gets the same intel’ as Tom Cotton warns some GOPers are ‘exaggerating’ the Iran threat

Before Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona pursued a career in politics, he served in the United States military: Gallego was a Marine infantryman in Iraq in 2005. And the 39-year-old Democratic congressman is warning that the push for a military confrontation with Iran in 2019 is full of misleading assertions.

Gallego, now a member of the House Armed Services Committee, received a classified briefing on May 17—and the following day, he told the Washington Post, “What I saw was a lot of misinterpretation and wanting conflict coming from the administration and intelligence community. Intel doesn’t show existential threats. Even what it shows, it doesn’t show threats to U.S. interests.”

The claim that Iran poses a major threat to the U.S. in 2019, according to Gallego, is mainly being advanced by National Security Adviser John Bolton and Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas. On Saturday, Gallego took to Twitter and warned, “I get the same intel as Cotton. He is greatly exaggerating the situation to spur us to war. Don’t fall for it.”

View the complete May 20 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet website here.