Imagine an America where factories hum again, jobs return to towns long left behind, and the heartbeat of industry pulses stronger than it has in years.
Under President Donald J. Trump, that vision is becoming reality.
Democrats spent years pushing a narrative that manufacturing’s decline was inevitable, a so-called Trump Effect they blamed on him while their own policies accelerated the bleeding. Trump has ended that lie. American manufacturing is surging back, and the numbers prove it.
Republicans must recognize this triumph, especially now, as midterm season unfolds. They should defend it fiercely, for Democrats’ woke leftist base would dismantle every gain with vindictive speed if handed power again.
Manufacturing is expanding for the third straight month. Its key index posted the highest reading since 2022. New orders are rising for the third consecutive month as both American and overseas buyers seek U.S.-made products. Production has grown for five months running and is accelerating at a pace unseen before the disastrous Biden-Harris era. The Philadelphia Fed’s Manufacturing Index surged in April, beating forecasts.
The parent company of Facebook, Meta, has announced plans to lay off nearly 10% of its total workforce, 8,000 positions, starting in early May 2026. These layoffs may not be the only layoffs, as more might be announced after May of this year.
Meta Reportedly to Cut 8,000 Jobs in Upcoming Layoffs Amid AI Cost Pressures – MLQ.ai– news.google.com News Source EXCERPT:
Key Points
Meta to eliminate about 8,000 positions, roughly 10% of its global workforce of nearly 79,000, starting May 20.1
Cuts aim to offset costs of AI infrastructure investments and streamline operations with AI-assisted workers.1
Additional layoffs expected in second half of 2026, though details on scale and timing unclear.1
Follows earlier reports of potential cuts up to 20% of staff.1
President Donald Trump and Republicans are hoping to cash in politically on the extra amount of cash in Americans’ wallets this Tax Day.
Across the country, Americans are cashing in on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s tax provisions and receiving a boost from real wage growth in the Trump economy.
“This tax season, nearly half of all filers have claimed tax cuts that every single congressional Democrat voted against,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told The Daily Signal.
The financial relief from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now commonly referred to as the Working Families Tax Cuts by Republicans in Congress, has become a major talking point for the GOP in recent months, as the party argues that strong economic fundamentals have helped soften the economic impact of the war in Iran.
Donald Trump hasn’t done interviews with neutral journalists who could challenge him in years. Trump’s venues of choice are either cell phone interviews that last a minute or two or conservative media like Fox News and Newsmax.
The Fox News interviews are heavily manufactured, usually pretaped, and edited before they air.
It takes a special level of incompetence to go on a network that is propagandistic and supportive and botch a softball question in such a friendly and managed environment.
The issue that is driving the special election results that Democrats have been dominating, and the Democratic Party’s midterm generic ballot lead that has been growing, is the economy. Inflation and rising prices are driving voter outrage directed at this president and his administration.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said a large swath of the country’s farmers will be unaffected this planting season, despite the rising fertilizer costs stemming from the Iran war.
“The good news is that about 80% of our farmers, actually, last fall locked in their fertilizer,” Rollins said to reporters outside the White House on Monday. “So as we’re moving into planting season, it’s only about 20% to 25% of our farmers that didn’t lock that in. We are working directly to ensure that we can get them what they need and it won’t bankrupt them.”
As the war moves into its second month, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz has led not only to higher oil prices but also higher fertilizer prices, as Persian Gulf-based companies face difficulty exporting their supplies through the closed-off strait.
The U.S. Postal Service is seeking to temporarily place a fee on packages due to rising fuel prices as the war in Iran continues to rattle energy markets.
The 8% fuel surcharge on packages under Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select is expected to take effect on April 26 and remain in place until Jan. 17, 2027. The Postal Regulatory Commission must review and approve the fee before it is enacted. If approved, first-class stamps and other mail services would not be affected.
“Transportation costs have been increasing, and our competitors have reacted with a number of surcharges,” the service said in a statement on Wednesday. “We have steadfastly avoided surcharges, and this charge is less than one-third of what our competitors charge for fuel alone.”
The development comes as the war in Iran has triggered the largest disruption to the global energy supply in history, due largely to Iran’s sweeping blockage of the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices have spiked roughly 40%, approaching a record $120 a barrel earlier this month before stabilizing slightly.
While the war in Iran has sent gasoline prices soaring around the world, there are growing concerns about how the spike in the cost of other fuels could also affect consumers and the broader economy.
In Canada, the average price of diesel has surged to nearly $2.30 per litre — more than 50 per cent higher than just three months ago.
Epic Games said on Tuesday (Mar 24) it would cut more than 1,000 jobs after a drop in engagement for Fortnite, its flagship title, the latest cuts in the video-game industry whose growth has stalled amid economic uncertainty.
The cuts, along with more than US$500 million in savings from lower contracting and marketing spending and unfilled roles would put the company in “a more stable place,” Chief Executive Tim Sweeney said in a note to employees.
The cuts are the latest in the gaming sector, where companies have faced weaker growth as consumers have been sticking with proven titles amid economic uncertainty.
But even those, especially live services games, which depend on a steady stream of new content to keep players engaged, are now showing signs of cracks.
There are fears that a period of elevated oil and gas prices could trigger a damaging wave of global inflation.
Oil prices have risen more than 5 percent following an Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gasfield as the United States-Israeli war on the country continues to escalate.
Brent crude, the international standard, rose 5 percent to $108.66 a barrel on Wednesday, while US West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1, the price barometer for US oil, gained 2.5 percent to $98.65, widening its discount to Brent to the largest since May 2019 on fears of a prolonged conflict.
Late last year, my colleague Elizabeth Stauffer reported that “ultra-conservative” candidate José Antonio Kast had won a landslide victory in Chile’s presidential election.
And by “ultra-conservative,” what is really meant is running for office by promising to take actions that normal people want and need. Kast, a Roman Catholic and lawyer, had a campaign centered on restoring order, cracking down on crime and illegal immigration, and revitalizing Chile’s market-oriented economic model through spending cuts and pro-business reforms.
How is Kast doing at this point? Less than a week after his inauguration, construction of a border wall between Chile and Peru began.
Less than a week after his inauguration, Chile’s arch-conservative president on Monday began overseeing preparations to build a border barrier — part of his flagship campaign promise to block immigrants from crossing illegally.
From Chile’s northern frontier area of Chacalluta, where legions of immigrants have slipped across the Peruvian border into one of the region’s most prosperous nations, Kast vowed to implement what he calls his “Border Shield” plan. Among other steps, it involves the construction of a physical barrier at the nation’s northern border made up of ditches and fences and patrolled by drones and the military forces.
…Kast assured the public that “for all of Chile, this is a milestone.”
“We have taken clear and concrete decisions to close our border to illegal immigration, drug trafficking and organized crime,” he said. “We want to implement this without any delay.”
Diesel fuel, the lifeblood of U.S. industry, crossed an alarming and historic benchmark Tuesday.
Amid the Iran War and the Strait of Hormuz crisis, the U.S. average retail diesel prices have crossed $5 a gallon, the highest since December 2022.
This marks only the second time diesel prices have hit the historic 5-dollar benchmark, according to Reuters. Tuesday’s new average of $5.04 is now a record high, according to analysts at GasBuddy.
Meanwhile, gas prices across the country have surged 74 cents a gallon. This reportedly marks nearly a 30% increase over the past month, the highest monthly spike since Hurricane Katrina.
“The problem is, is we’re so strained financially coming into this issue,” explained Littleton, a third-generation farmer from Gibson County in the state’s northwest.
“We have had a couple of record losses over the last couple of years, so everyone’s kind of grabbing at straws anyway, and then to have input prices increase yet again, it just really couldn’t happen at a worse time.”
Littleton, who cultivates corn, soybeans, and wheat, is one of thousands of farmers nationwide who will pay significantly more this spring for the essential nutrients their crops require.
Nitrogen-based fertilizer is particularly crucial for corn, typically the largest crop in the U.S., which feeds the nation’s livestock and is converted into fuel for most U.S. vehicles.
This action has caused a significant slowdown in shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical choke point for 20 per cent of the world’s oil and natural gas.
President Trump is overseeing the return of American energy sovereignty through the construction of new oil refineries and nuclear power plants. The Biden administration had begun the process of reactivating nuclear energy by completing the construction of a nuclear power plant in George in 2024. It was the first nuclear reactor to be built in America in over 30 years.
Now, President Trump has overseen the approval of an oil refinery in Brownsville, Texas, and the construction of a first-of-its-kind nuclear reactor in Wyoming. The oil refinery is the first approved building of a new refinery in America in over 50 years. This same week, the nuclear power plant received its approval to build the nuclear reactor. With the need for energy for AI machines, nuclear power is sure to move to the fore of future energy planning, especially micro-reactors for individual AI machines.
Trump Is Bringing Historic Changes to the U.S. Energy Sector – Townhall
For the first time in over 40 years, the United States will be seriously expanding their energy production in two major ways. On Tuesday, it was announced that a new oil refinery and a new nuclear reactor would begin construction shortly.
JUST IN – Trump announces that “America First Refining is opening the FIRST new U.S. Oil Refinery in 50 YEARS in Brownsville, Texas,” and thanks “our partners in India, and their largest privately held Energy Company, Reliance, for this tremendous Investment.”
The national average price for regular gas continues to soar, reaching $3.578 per gallon on Wednesday morning. The price point marks a 64-cent-per-gallon increase compared to a month ago, according to AAA.
The rise in gas prices over the last month is the largest single monthly increase since 2022, when fuel costs increased by 71 cents per gallon between February and March, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Between the week of February 9, 2026, and March 9, 2026, the average price for regular grade gasoline rose from $2.902 per gallon to $3.502 per gallon, according to the EIA. Moreover, gas prices today are nearly 50 cents per gallon more expensive than a year ago, according to AAA.
Oil prices retreated Tuesday, even after Secretary of Energy Chris Wright wrongly claimed in a social media post that the U.S. Navy had escorted a tanker through the Strait of Hormuz.
“The U.S. Navy has not escorted a tanker or a vessel at this time,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Tuesday.
U.S. crude oil fell 11.94% to close at $83.45 per barrel.Brent crude, the global benchmark, lost 11.28% to settle at $87.80. Prices fell more than 17% immediately after Wright’s post.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump spoke Sunday afternoon in response to escalating global tensions as the Iran war continues to escalate and spread across the region.
The two discussed “the economy, developments in the Middle East, and trade relations between the two countries,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The two also agreed to “remain in close contact.”
Also on Sunday, the Prime Minister’s Office said Carney gathered the Incident Response Group with ministers and senior officials to discuss the ongoing war in Iran and the Middle East.
President Donald Trump says a sharp increase in high oil prices is a “small price to pay” in the fight against Iran.
“Short-term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, are a very small price to pay for the U.S. and world safety and peace,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, “ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!”
Oil prices have risen to more than $100 a barrel since the United States launched its attack on Iran in conjunction with Israel, killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and striking hundreds of Iran’s military targets.
Crude oil futures in London and New York soared almost 30% to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday, one of the biggest one-day jumps on record in early trading, threatening to raise costs of products from gasoline to jet fuel.
Friday’s jobs report showed 92,000 positions were lost in February, sending the stock market falling. The unemployment rate rose to 4.4%, and the labor force participation rate fell to 62.0%.
However, February job loss is due to several factors that don’t reflect the strength of the underlying small-business economy. Mainly, the worst winter storm since 1996 paralyzed the Northeast, trapping people in their homes, shutting down job sites, and closing retail doors. The storm dropped two feet of snow across New England, resulting in power outages affecting 600,000 people and a state of emergency throughout the region.
Generally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics highlights such large external events affecting job creation in a special section of the jobs report. But not this time. Any analysis of the February jobs report needs to include this angle.
Oil prices surged past $110 a barrel on Sunday evening, topping $100 for the first time in nearly four years, as the war in the Middle East entered its ninth day with no end in sight and the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively closed to tanker traffic.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, briefly topped $110 soon after markets opened Sunday evening, while West Texas Intermediate rose to $109.05. Both benchmarks were trading around $60 a barrel in early January.
President Trump on Sunday night sought to reassure Americans that oil prices would come down in short order.
“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” Trump said on Truth Social.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday that Japan will finance the production of synthetic diamonds and two energy projects worth about $36 billion as the initial tranche of investments under a deal reached last year following months of tariff negotiations.
Trump’s announcement that the three projects had been selected, as part of a $550 billion package that Japan committed to in exchange for his administration reducing tariffs on Japanese cars and other goods, was confirmed hours later by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
“These projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “America is building again. America is producing again. And America is WINNING again.”
