Trump Tariffs
Trump threatens trade war with ‘terrible’ Spain at NATO summit– www.washingtonexaminer.com
Source Link
Excerpt:
Spain could face tariffs or other trade retaliation over its refusal to join other NATO partners in raising defense spending.
President Donald Trump has attacked the country multiple times in recent days, and now says he could start a trade war with Spain if it doesn’t comply with his wishes.
“I think Spain’s terrible what they’ve done, they are the only country that won’t pay 5%,” Trump said during a NATO summit press conference in the Netherlands.
“Spain is the only country out of all of the countries that refuses to pay,” Trump continued. “They want a little bit of a free ride, but they’ll have to pay it back to us on trade, because I’m not going to let that happen. It’s unfair. It’s unfair to NATO.”
President Trump rips into Spain for refusing to increase NATO spending.
“I think Spain’s terrible what they’ve done, they are the only Country that won’t pay 5%” pic.twitter.com/WD5JGnc2WU
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) June 25, 2025
Source Link
Excerpt:
“Prices would rise — sharply — they said, reigniting an inflation crisis that tens of millions of Americans had elected [President Donald Trump] to solve,” CNN’s David Goldman wrote on Friday. “But that massive, tariff-induced inflation spike hasn’t materialized. Not even close.”
Indeed, it hasn’t. But who exactly is Goldman referring to when he says, “they said”? Well, Goldman might want to check his own newsroom.
On May 16, CNN’s Allison Morrow wrote, “There’s no denying it now: Tariffs are raising prices.”
“Donald Trump’s pitch to Americans on the campaign trail last year included a simple (and simplistic) promise: lower prices on Day One. Even if he didn’t mean it literally, it’s now Day 115, and the results of his only significant economic policy show that the opposite is happening,” Morrow wrote.
Three days prior, CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn wrote, “Tariffs have already made mattresses, strollers and power tools more expensive.”
Some other doomsday predictions from CNN include Auzinea Bacon’s May 24 article titled “These companies will raise prices because of Trump’s tariffs,” accusing Trump of giving “many Americans whiplash” as companies announced “daunting” price hikes. “Anything from groceries and clothing to toys and cars could cost Americans more,” Bacon wrote.
Trump administration and EU officials aim to clinch trade deal– www.washingtonexaminer.com
Source Link
Excerpt:
Negotiations are underway between the United States and the European Union over a new trade deal; both sides publicly hope it will end their trade war.
Officials on both sides have expressed confidence that a deal will be reached before the July 9 deadline invoked by President Donald Trump, which will trigger a tariff hike on EU imports to 50%.
Since taking office on Jan. 20 for his second term, Trump has imposed an array of tariffs globally, even on countries and entities — like the EU — widely regarded as allies. Trump has framed tariffs as a tool to lure factories back to America, raise money for the Treasury Department, and strike more favorable trade agreements with other countries.
As for EU tariffs, Trump initially set the deadline for June 1 but agreed to delay it after a conversation with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The actual progress of the negotiations, however, depends on who you ask.
Source Link
Excerpt:
A federal appeals court agreed on Tuesday to allow President Trump to maintain many of his tariffs on China and other U.S. trading partners, extending a pause granted shortly after another panel of judges ruled in late May that the import taxes were illegal.
The decision, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, delivered an important but interim victory for the Trump administration, which had warned that any interruption to its steep duties could undercut the president in talks around the world.
But the government still must convince the judges that the president appropriately used a set of emergency powers when he put in place the centerpiece of his economic agenda earlier this year. The Trump administration has already signaled it is willing to fight that battle as far as the Supreme Court.
Source Link
Excerpt:
The United States’ new tariff on foreign cars is having an impact on the Mexican automotive industry, official data indicates.
The national statistics agency INEGI reported on Monday that Mexico’s exports of light vehicles declined 2.9% in annual terms in May, the month after the Trump administration imposed a tariff on all foreign cars. Domestic production of cars fell 2% last month, INEGI said.
United States content in vehicles made in Mexico is exempt from the 25% tariff the U.S. government imposed on foreign cars in early April, reducing the duty on Mexican cars to an average of 15%, according to Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard.
Nevertheless, the duty is detrimental to a Mexican automotive industry that had grown accustomed to tariff-free trade in North America thanks to the USMCA and NAFTA. Around 80% of the vehicles Mexico exports go to the United States.
INEGI reported that Mexico exported a total of 301,112 light vehicles last month, while 358,209 vehicles were assembled in the country.
Source Link
Excerpt:
LONDON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the United States will get magnets and rare earth minerals from China under a new trade deal and that tariffs on Chinese goods will go to 55%.
In return, Trump said the U.S. will provide China “what was agreed to,” including allowing Chinese students to attend American colleges and universities.
Several global brands are among dozens of companies at risk of using forced labor through their Chinese supply chains because they use critical minerals or buy minerals-based products sourced from the far-western Xinjiang region of China, an international rights group said Wednesday.
The report by the Netherlands-based Global Rights Compliance says companies including Avon, Walmart, Nescafe, Coca-Cola and paint supplier Sherwin-Williams may be linked to titanium sourced from Xinjiang, where rights groups allege the Chinese government runs coercive labor practices targeting predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities.
Source Link
Excerpt:
The talks have been led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, with the Chinese contingent helmed by Vice Premier He Lifeng.
The talks ran for almost seven hours on Monday and resumed just before 10am local time on Tuesday, with both sides expected to issue updates later in the day.
The inclusion of Lutnick, whose agency oversees export controls for the US, is one indication of how central rare earths have become. He did not attend the Geneva talks, when the countries struck a 90-day deal to roll back some of the triple-digit tariffs they had placed on each other.
China holds a near-monopoly on rare earth magnets, a crucial component in electric vehicle motors, and its decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets upended global supply chains and sparked alarm in boardrooms and factory floors around the world.
Source Link
Excerpt:
As U.S. tariffs tighten the screws on China’s export machine, Beijing is striking back with strategic precision. Export restrictions on rare earths are now Beijing’s latest move to break down European trade barriers and push back against escalating pressure from Washington.
In today’s global trade standoff, the gloves are off. The U.S. is wielding its market clout — 25% of global consumption originates from the American domestic market. Anyone in the export business must deal with the United States. China, meanwhile, holds an current monopoly on rare earths — and is making it clear it will not hesitate to weaponize that dominance. The stakes are rising, and national interests now override globalist courtesies.
Europe is learning the hard way: in geopolitics, there are no friends, only temporary alliances. China’s tightened export controls on rare earth elements risk plunging Germany’s industrial sector into a severe resource crisis. With nearly 85% of global rare earth refining under its control, Beijing is the chief supplier of key metals like dysprosium, terbium, and yttrium — critical for electric motors, medical tech, and defense systems.
Since April 2025, access to these raw materials has been restricted to licensed exporters only — a de facto embargo. The fallout is immediate: several German manufacturers have already been forced to scale back operations. Others face complete shutdowns. Industrial metal prices continue climbing, and the fragility of global supply chains is now exposed in brutal detail. Europe’s resource dependency is becoming a major liability — and a strategic weakness in the coming trade war negotiations.
Source Link
Excerpt:
The Trump administration raised tariffs on aluminum and steel to 50% today, a move experts say could increase costs on everything from homes and cars to household and office supplies.
While the U.S. has carved out its own niche in domestic metals manufacturing, it also relies on imports from abroad to fill in the gaps: America imported 26.2 million metric tons of steel and 5.4 million metric tons of aluminum from abroad last year, according to the International Trade Administration. Canada serves as the biggest foreign source for both metals.
The White House has been aggressively trying to pare back on America’s reliance on foreign nations, imposing 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum in February, citing national security concerns. President Trump, during a visit to a U.S. Steel mill in Pittsburgh on May 30, announced he was doubling down on that rate, raising the 25% levies to 50%. The higher tariffs went into effect Wednesday at 12:01 a.m. EST.
While the new tariffs have won over some of the nation’s largest steel makers, who saw huge gains in share prices following Mr. Trump’s May 30 announcement, experts say the levies will raise cost of manufacturing on a wide range of products, making many items more expensive to buy. That’s because businesses typically pass on most or all of tariff-related costs to consumers through higher prices, according to economists.
Source Link
Excerpt:
President Trump’s renewed tariff war with China is escalating tensions far beyond trade policy. Despite a brief truce in May, Trump recently admitted that negotiating with Xi Jinping is “extremely hard,” and both sides have since accused each other of violating the agreement. As economic diplomacy unravels, the broader U.S.–China relationship grows more volatile, raising the risk that Beijing may abandon any remaining hopes for peaceful coexistence.
A conflict between the United States and China is becoming increasingly plausible, and perhaps even inevitable. Tensions in the Taiwan Strait have reached dangerous new heights, fueled by Beijing’s military modernization, its sharpened rhetoric, and its belief that Taiwan and the United States are edging closer to crossing red lines. While China still claims to prefer peaceful reunification, its rapid expansion of capabilities, including amphibious assault craft, cable-cutting tools, and joint-force interoperability, signals preparation for a military solution.
China’s greyzone operations around Taiwan, such as unannounced drills, airspace violations, and undersea cable sabotage, have become routine. This normalization of pressure steadily erodes the status quo and raises the risk of miscalculation or deliberate escalation. The shifting political climate in Taiwan under President Lai Ching-te, who has taken a hard stance against Chinese influence, and a more assertive posture from Washington have further narrowed the space for de-escalation.
Under Trump’s second term, the United States is gradually abandoning its long-held policy of strategic ambiguity. His administration has sharply increased arms sales to Taiwan, removed diplomatic language opposing Taiwanese independence, sent U.S. troops to train Taiwanese forces, and reaffirmed ties through legislation and senior-level visits. While aimed at strengthening deterrence, these steps may convince Beijing that time is running out to forcibly achieve unification before U.S. commitments harden into irreversible guarantees.