Trump issues 10% tariffs warning over BRICS policies
Why it matters: While Trump didn't elaborate further, BRICS issued a statement hours earlier saying the 11 nations-strong bloc that includes Brazil, Russia, India and China had "serious concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures which distort trade," which it said was "inconsistent with" World Trade Organization rules.
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Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump slipping with Black voters after 2024 gains
President Trump is seeing signs that his approval is slipping with Black voters after notable gains with the demographic in last year's election. Recent polling suggests African American voters, already more disapproving of Trump than other demographic groups, have been souring on the president. Decision Desk HQ aggregates find more than70 percent disapprove of his job performance, while around a quarter approve, putting him in one of the weakest positions with the group since returning to the White House. Although Black voters overwhelmingly backed former Vice President Kamala Harris in November, Trump made significant inroads for a Republican, winning about 15 percent, according to a Pew Research Center study released last month — double the percentage he took in 2020. Republicans touted the development as a sign of their expanding coalition, but the latest numbers could signal risks for Trump and the GOP heading into the midterms and beyond. 'We've seen his overall approval rating go down. And that's got to come from somewhere. The African American vote is his newest vote, and that's probably going to be the first to go,' said Scott Tranter, the director of data science for DDHQ. Trump's overall approval rating sits underwater at a net score of negative 7 points, according to the latest averages, after enjoying above-water scores in the weeks after taking office. He hit a disapproval high in April, recovered slightly in May and early June, then dipped in July. Among African Americans, Trump's at a net rating of roughly negative 47 points in the DDHQ aggregate. Since mid-June, his disapproval has climbed from around 63 percent to roughly 72 percent — up nearly 20 points from his first couple of weeks back in office. Although losing some ground is to be expected, given Trump's overall score, 'the African American movement, it's measurable, it's significant,' Tranter said. 'He's about the same in where he is with Hispanics as he was on Inauguration Day, but it's very clear he's lost with African Americans.' Trump's November gains didn't occur in a vacuum or all at once. While the overwhelming majority of Black voters identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning, the party's decades-long advantage has weakened somewhat based on polling and some election results. Republicans attributed the improvements to a feeling among some Black voters that Democrats took their support for granted without specifically addressing their needs. 'President Trump's historic performance with Black voters in November marks a significant shift in our community, showing that more people are willing to look beyond party labels and focus on real, tangible solutions,' said Janiyah Thomas, who served as Black media director for Trump's 2024 campaign. She said these voters appreciated his focus on economic growth and criminal justice reform during his first term. Trump signed bipartisan legislation in 2018 called the First Step Act to reduce mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes. Thomas argued 'false media narratives' overshadow Trump's achievements, and all Americans want 'real results: safer communities, better jobs, and opportunities to build a better future,' she said. Republican strategist Melik Abdul said an uptick in Black support for Republican candidates has happened since at least 2018, suggesting the change is less about Trump and more about the party. 'We focus so much of our attention at the national level that we ignore what's happening on the state level,' he said, pointing to the inroads that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) made with Black voters in their 2022 reelection campaigns. But he argued Trump and the party have 'misread' what they should learn from the increase and wrongly presume that the new voters they gained will stay. He attributed the shift in 2024 to dissatisfaction with the Biden administration, warning the votes for Trump aren't 'static' going into the midterms next year. Abdul said he doesn't read as much into any single approval rating poll because they are often in response to the news of the day, but he isn't surprised to see a drop in support given some developments in his second term, like the Department of Government Efficiency's cuts and concerns about Medicaid cuts as a result of the Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill, which he signed into law Friday. 'You hear the concerns that people have around Medicaid, whether it personally will impact them or not,' he said. 'They hear it, and when you hear stories of people potentially losing Medicaid, obviously that's something that will impact poll numbers.' New polling from YouGov/The Economist, taken over the weekend, found 15 percent of Black voters approve of Trump, compared to 20 percent in an early June survey and 28 percent in early February. YouGov's tracker, last populated in mid-June, puts Trump's disapproval among Black Americans at roughly 86 percent, hitting the high point of his first-term ratings from the group. 'There are decisions that the Trump administration is making that could be circulating in Black communities, that could be factored in,' said Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University with a focus on African American politics. She pointed to some of the administration's controversial economic moves — which have served as a drag on his overall numbers after his 2024 messaging on the economy was seen as key to his inroads with voters of color — but also to Trump's posture toward diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and his rhetoric on racial issues. 'You may be OK with America bombing Iran over nuclear weapons, but you may take issue with having heard that Pete Hegseth and the Defense Department pulled a lot of books about Black people off the shelves at Annapolis, or pulled down pages that honor Jackie Robinson [as] a veteran because it was deemed DEI,' Gillespie said, referencing a Pentagon-ordered review of books at the Naval Academy library and what the Defense Department said was the mistaken removal of a webpage about Robinson. Brown University political science professor Katherine Tate, however, suggested that while Trump's controversial moves on culture war issues appear to be strengthening Black opposition to Trump, it's not necessarily turning off Black supporters who sided with him in 2024. '[Black] Trump supporters are pleased with the deportations and tax cuts. I think Trump has moved these [Black voters] to the GOP,' Tate told The Hill in an email. 'While not a big number, it's more than the single digits of the 1980s. So that is a legacy for Trump: he moved some Blacks to his party.' Trump won the White House by making 'a lot of promises' and tapping into voter anger and confusion, said Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright. Now, he's 'essentially giving Black America the middle finger' — but that doesn't mean Democrats don't have their work cut out for them to reclaim voters who turned to the GOP last year. 'We have to look down the field as Democrats,' Seawright said. 'Just because they don't like Trump doesn't mean that they're going to automatically wrap themselves around us.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
10 minutes ago
Trump tariffs goods from Brazil at 50%, citing 'witch hunt' trial against Bolsonaro
WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump singled out Brazil for import taxes of 50% on Wednesday for its treatment of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, showing that personal grudges rather than simple economics are a driving force in the U.S. leader's use of tariffs. Trump avoided his standard form letter with Brazil, specifically tying his tariffs to the trial of Bolsonaro, who is charged with trying to overturn his 2022 election loss. Trump has described Bolsonaro as a friend and hosted the former Brazilian president at his Mar-a-Lago resort when both were in power in 2020. 'This Trial should not be taking place,' Trump wrote in the letter posted on Truth Social. 'It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!' There is a sense kinship as Trump was indicted in 2023 for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The U.S. president addressed his tariff letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who bested Bolsonaro in 2022. Bolsonaro testified before the country's Supreme Court in June over the alleged plot to remain in power after his 2022 election loss. Judges will hear from 26 other defendants in coming months. A decision could come as early as September, legal analysts say. Bolsonaro has already been ruled ineligible until 2030 by the country's electoral authorities. The Brazilian government did not immediately respond to Trump's posting of the letter. Trump also objected to Brazil's Supreme Court fining of social media companies such as X, saying the temporary blocking last year amounted to 'SECRET and UNLAWFUL Censorship Orders.' Trump said he is launching an investigation as a result under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which applies to companies with trade practices that are deemed unfair to U.S. companies. Unmentioned in the letter was that X is owned by Elon Musk, Trump's multibillionaire backer in the 2024 election whose time leading Trump's Department of Government Efficiency recently ended and led to a public feud over the U.S. president's deficit-increasing budget plan. Trump also owns a social media company, Truth Social. The Brazil letter was a reminder that politics and personal relations with Trump matter just as much as any economic fundamentals. And while Trump has said the high tariff rates he's setting are based on trade imbalances, it was unclear by his Wednesday actions how the countries being targeted would help to reindustrialize America. The tariffs starting Aug. 1 would be a dramatic increase from the 10% rate that Trump levied on Brazil as part of his April 2 'Liberation Day' announcement. In addition to oil, Brazil sells orange juice, coffee, iron and steel to the U.S., among other products. The U.S. ran a $6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year, according to the Census Bureau. Trump also sent letters Wednesday to the leaders of seven other nations. None of them — the Philippines, Brunei, Moldova, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Sri Lanka — is a major industrial rival to the United States. Most economic analyses say the tariffs will worsen inflationary pressures and subtract from economic growth, but Trump has used the taxes as a way to assert the diplomatic and financial power of the U.S. on both rivals and allies. His administration is promising that the taxes on imports will lower trade imbalances, offset some of the cost of the tax cuts he signed into law on Friday and cause factory jobs to return to the United States. Trump, during a White House meeting with African leaders, talked up trade as a diplomatic tool. Trade, he said, 'seems to be a foundation' for him to settle disputes between India and Pakistan, as well as Kosovo and Serbia. 'You guys are going to fight, we're not going to trade,' Trump said. 'And we seem to be quite successful in doing that.' On Monday, Trump placed a 35% tariff on Serbia, one of the countries he was using as an example of how fostering trade can lead to peace. Trump said the tariff rates in his letters were based on 'common sense' and trade imbalances, even though the Brazil letter indicated otherwise. Trump suggested he had not thought of penalizing the countries whose leaders were meeting with him in the Oval Office — Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau — as 'these are friends of mine now.' Countries are not complaining about the rates outlined in his letters, he said, even though those tariffs have been generally close to the ones announced April 2 that rattled financial markets. The S&P 500 stock index rose Wednesday. 'We really haven't had too many complaints because I'm keeping them at a very low number, very conservative as you would say,' Trump said. Officials for the European Union, a major trade partner and source of Trump's ire on trade, said Tuesday that they are not expecting to receive a letter from Trump listing tariff rates. The Republican president started the process of announcing tariff rates on Monday by hitting two major U.S. trading partners, Japan and South Korea, with import taxes of 25%. According to Trump's Wednesday letters, imports from Libya, Iraq, Algeria and Sri Lanka would be taxed at 30%, those from Moldova and Brunei at 25% and those from the Philippines at 20%. The tariffs would start Aug. 1. The Census Bureau reported that last year that the U.S. ran a trade imbalance on goods of $1.4 billion with Algeria, $5.9 billion with Iraq, $900 million with Libya, $4.9 billion with the Philippines, $2.6 billion with Sri Lanka, $111 million with Brunei and $85 million with Moldova. The imbalance represents the difference between what the U.S. exported to those countries and what it imported. Taken together, the trade imbalances with those seven countries are essentially a rounding error in a U.S. economy with a gross domestic product of $30 trillion. The letters were posted on Truth Social after the expiration of a 90-day negotiating period with a baseline levy of 10%. Trump is giving countries more time to negotiate with his Aug. 1 deadline, but he has insisted there will be no extensions for the countries that receive letters. Maros Sefcovic, the EU's chief trade negotiator, told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France, on Wednesday that the EU had been spared the increased tariffs contained in the letters sent by Trump and that an extension of talks until Aug. 1 would provide 'additional space to reach a satisfactory conclusion.' Trump on April 2 proposed a 20% tariff for EU goods and then threatened to raise that to 50% after negotiations did not move as quickly as he would have liked, only to return to the 10% baseline. The EU has 27 member states, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The tariff letters are worded aggressively in Trump's style of writing. He frames the tariffs as an invitation to "participate in the extraordinary Economy of the United States," adding that the trade imbalances are a 'major threat' to America's economy and national security. The president threatened additional tariffs on any country that attempts to retaliate. He said he chose to send the letters because it was too complicated for U.S. officials to negotiate with their counterparts in the countries with new tariffs. It can take years to broker trade accords. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba interpreted the Aug. 1 deadline as a delay to allow more time for negotiations, although he cautioned in remarks that the tariffs would hurt his nation's domestic industries and employment. Malaysia's trade minister, Zafrul Aziz, said Wednesday that his country would not meet all of the U.S. requests after a Trump letter placed a 25% tariff on its goods. Aziz said U.S. officials are seeking changes in government procurement, halal certification, medical standards and digital taxes. Aziz he indicated those were red lines. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to arrive Thursday in Malaysia's capital of Kuala Lumpur.
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Copper Skyrockets to New Highs: ETFs to Ride the Tariff Talks
Copper futures skyrocketed as much as 17% on Tuesday to an all-time high after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 50% tariff on imports of the commodity, sparking fears of a big supply chain disruption. The surge marked the biggest intraday increase for the commodity since smooth trading in copper has pushed the ETFs linked to this commodity higher. United States Copper Index Fund CPER spiked 8.4%. Copper miner ETFs also surged as mining companies act as a leveraged play on the underlying metal prices and thus tend to experience more gains than their bullion cousins in a rising metal market. Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF COPJ gained 2.8%, Sprott Copper Miners ETF COPP rose 2.2% and Themes Copper Miners ETF COPA increased 1.3%. The proposed tariffs, potentially effective in late July or August, are likely to drive up costs across a wide swath of the U.S. economy, impacting industries from electronics and EVs to construction and data centers. Fearing increased costs, U.S. companies accelerated their copper purchases to stockpile the metal before the enactment of any tariffs. This surge in demand drove U.S. copper prices to record highs. The sudden price surge is expected to intensify this trend in the short term (read: Copper Hits a Three-Month High: ETFs in Focus).According to the U.S. Geological Survey, over half of the refined copper used in the United States is imported — 38% from Chile, 28% from Canada and 8% from Mexico. With demand for copper expected to surge due to the global energy transition, the United States could face increasing pressure on its copper supply. Copper has been facing supply constraints due to a lack of mineral investment and reduced refinery capabilities. Analysts predict a global copper deficit of more than 200,000 tons in 2025, underscoring the imbalance between supply and growing demand. The demand for copper has been on the rise amid a rush to build data centers and the continued electrification of the global economy. The red metal is an integral element in manufacturing electric vehicles, power grids and wind turbines, especially as the global economy electrifies. It is also a key metal for cables used in data centers, whose growth has been fueled by an artificial intelligence boom. Morgan Stanley noted the tariffs would likely inflate domestic prices in the short term as import costs rise, though they expect the effect to fade as local inventories build. Bernstein, in a note released just before Trump's announcement, predicted higher copper prices through year-end amid expectations of U.S. tariff action and shifting inventories into U.S. warehouses. United States Copper Index Fund (CPER) United States Copper Index Fund seeks to track the performance of the SummerHaven Copper Index Total Return. The index is designed to reflect the performance of the investment returns from a portfolio of copper futures contracts on the COMEX exchange. United States Copper Index Fund has accumulated $219.8 million in its asset base and charges 1.04% in annual fees. It trades in an average volume of 174,000 shares a day and has a Zacks ETF Rank #3 (Hold) with a High risk Junior Copper Miners ETF (COPJ)Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF is the only pure-play ETF focused on small copper miners, selected for their potential for significant revenue and asset growth by tracking the Nasdaq Sprott Junior Copper Miners Index. It holds 44 stocks in its basket, with Canadian firms taking the largest share at 50.4%. Australia and the United States round off the next two spots. Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF has AUM of $14.8 million and trades in a lower average daily volume of 13,000 shares. It charges 76 bps in annual fees and Copper Miners ETF (COPP) Sprott Copper Miners ETF is the only ETF to provide pure-play exposure to copper miners and physical copper. It tracks the Nasdaq Sprott Copper Miners Index and charges 65 bps in annual fees. Holding 54 stocks in its basket, Canadian firms take the largest share at 45.4%, followed by 31% in the United States. COPP has AUM of $29.9 million and trades in average daily volume of 22,000 shares. Themes Copper Miners ETF (COPA)Themes Copper Miners ETF follows the BITA Global Copper Mining Select Index, which identifies companies that derive their revenues from copper mining, exploration, refining, and royalties. It holds 53 stocks in its basket, with Canadian firms making up for 34.2% followed by the United States (16.4%) and China (14.9%). Themes Copper Miners ETF has gathered $1.1 million in its asset base and trades in an average daily volume of under 1,000 shares. It charges 35 bps in annual fees. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF (COPJ): ETF Research Reports Sprott Copper Miners ETF (COPP): ETF Research Reports Themes Copper Miners ETF (COPA): ETF Research Reports This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
