Trump announces a US trade deal with Vietnam
'I just made a Trade Deal with Vietnam. Details to follow!' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
The 90-day pause on Trump's 'reciprocal tariffs' expires on July 9, and the administration has been working with more than a dozen key trading partners on frameworks of trade agreements ahead of the deadline.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Politico
6 minutes ago
- Politico
In Today's GOP, There Is No Choice at All
The so-called Big Beautiful Bill was always destined to pass, and it's instructive to realize why: for Republican lawmakers, this was an up-or-down vote on President Donald Trump. The sprawling measure — which at its core was really one big, beautiful tax extender — was never about those tax rates or Medicaid or the deficit. The underlying legislation was no bill at all, but a referendum on Trump. And that left congressional Republicans a binary choice that also had nothing to do with the policy therein: They could salute the president and vote yes and or vote no and risk their careers in a primary. It doesn't take a political science PhD to realize where today's GOP would land. Don't believe me, just ask the senior senator from North Carolina, Thom Tillis. Yes — to be sure alert! — there was much juggling between the two chambers of Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate GOP Leader John Thune and their lieutenants deserve credit for the creativity and flexibility they demonstrated by pacifying lawmakers uneasy about state and local tax deductions, rural hospitals and even the fate of Alaska Native whaling captains (somewhere, Don Young and Ted Stevens are smiling). But, folks, the alternative was no alternative at all. Without acting, Republican lawmakers would have risked breaching the debt ceiling this summer, tempted an across-the-board tax hike when the 2017 rates expired at the end of the year and torpedoed their president's sole legislative initiative. The last of these merits more attention. Perhaps the most remarkable story sitting in plain view in today's Washington is the gap between Trump's political and media dominance and the paucity of his legislative agenda. The president has been happy to spend the first six months of his second term signing executive orders, wielding tariffs as economic weapons and rampaging through news cycles with all manner of provocations, outbursts and threats. He's less a traditional president than the old Kool-Aid man bursting through walls. Which works quite well for somebody who measures success by attention and is mainly interested in the perception of winning than an LBJ-style collection of pens and parchment from bills signed. The second-term, free-range Trump has not even pretended to be interested in the details of lawmaking and is even less interested in forging bipartisan coalitions with people he sees criticizing him on the television shows he consumes by the hours. Also, he's mostly animated by immigration crackdowns and playing department store owner or price- fixer-in-chief, which he can mostly do on his own and battle out in the courts without consulting Congress. Recognizing as much, and that their narrow margins in both chambers would limit their ambitions, a group of GOP lawmakers wisely decided to stuff every measure they could into one reconciliation bill they could ram through the House and Senate with bare majorities. Yes, there was more money for immigration and defense, but the most significant policy changes, except for Medicaid, were modest changes to deductions on tips, overtime and auto purchases that helped Trump fulfill campaign trail promises. Those sweeteners helped keep Trump's attention, relatively speaking, and let him portray the bill in which-side-are-you-on terms that rendered the language less relevant than the stakes. The hard truth for small-government conservatives in Congress to swallow is that their primary voters care more about fidelity to Trump than reducing the size of the federal government. Any overly loud critiques by lawmakers — no matter if rooted in principle or sound politics — were angrily dismissed by Trump as so much 'grandstanding' by malcontents. He had scant interest in bill language because signing a bill is the point. Victory is in the action not the particulars. Plus, there's only room for one grandstander in today's Republican Party, as Tillis, Rep. Thomas Massie and Elon Musk (twice) have now learned. Every other actor is merely toiling in the engine room of the USS MAGA. It's fitting that this Trump-era fact of political life is most difficult for Republicans on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum to grasp. What unites Senators Rand Paul and Susan Collins, a goldbug curious libertarian and old-school New England moderate? Neither is willing to accept a purely tribal politics in which substance is secondary to a cult of personality. In fairness to Trump, he's matured enough politically to recognize the difference between hectoring Massie, Paul and Tillis and haranguing Collins. The first cohort represents states the president carried three times and, with the important exception of Tillis, can easily be replaced by another Republican. But the Mainer is the GOP version of Joe Manchin: Once she's gone, the replacement will be a conventional Democrat, not a more loyal Republican. Speaking of Manchin, he and other Democratic veterans of the last administration's legislative wars are all too familiar with the hangover that may await today's jubilant Republicans after the beautiful black ink on the bill is dry and the fireworks have all gone off. Joe Biden hardly commanded a cult of personality, but the tug of tribalism was almost as strong on congressional Democrats like Manchin, who were told to fall in line and back Biden's pricey agenda. The West Virginian eventually did so, the main legislation did little to alleviate inflation despite its name and most voters at the polls last year pointed a finger at Democrats and not global supply chains for higher costs. So Trump may not care about the details, but Democratic ad-makers in next year's midterm will — and they'll bet that the Medicaid cuts the president swore he'd never enact will do more to move voters than their tax bracket remaining the same.
San Francisco Chronicle
19 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
After 249 years, where are we with the ‘life, liberty and pursuit of happiness' thing?
The preamble to the Declaration of Independence is something most Americans had to memorize in grade school. This is the first sentence: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' Let's see where we are with Sentence 1, on this July 4, the 249th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Over those 249 years, this country has bumped along through a Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, several recessions and multiple struggles for civil rights. There were also huge, undeniable triumphs. We sent human beings to the moon and launched dozens of spacecraft that explored the solar system. We built grand global alliances that defeated fascism — and maintained them for 80 years. We came close to mending many of the wounds caused by the Civil War through the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. We made remarkable economic and social progress over decades of slow but steady effort. The preamble notes that 'all men are created equal.' Tell that to any given oppressed group in the United States now. Are you trans? You're not better off than you were just a year ago. You can't even serve your country now, thanks to President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Trump and friends have made sure that any group that doesn't happen to be white is excluded from our national story. No diversity, equity and inclusion. History isn't being rewritten, it's being erased. Is the concept of liberty stronger today? Not seeing a lot of liberty, particularly if you're an individual seeking asylum in this country. No, you're looking at a Supreme Court that has, with a small asterisk, put birthright citizenship at risk. If the Trump administration so determines, you can be swept off the street by masked, unidentifiable federal agents, and, if they get their way, the U.S. military. Then you could be offshored to some detention facility in El Salvador or South Sudan. If you disagree with the Trump administration or even ask hard questions, you can be publicly humiliated by your president of the United States on social media. Sometimes he uses language that is implicitly violent, igniting the craziest of his followers to kill fellow Americans in the middle of the night, as happened last month in Minnesota. In 2019, Trump said 'I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump — I have the tough people, but they don't play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.' It's difficult not to see this as inflammatory rhetoric. The president himself is at liberty to sell off the reputation of the United States to the highest bidder, using his own name as a brand to sell junk products, like watches, basketball shoes and even cologne. There's even an online Trump store. Is this country truly fulfilling its promise of the pursuit of happiness? Well, you are at liberty to pursue Trump's happiness. We already know what makes him happy: constant adulation, junk food and idiotic external stimulation. His bad childhood is being passed on to us. Your happiness, as well as your physical well-being, is secondary. The Senate just passed legislation that will cut funding for rural hospitals, nursing homes and put you back to work to get Medicaid. It will add $3.3 trillion of debt and further enrich the 400 wealthiest families in the country. At least Sen. Lisa Murkowski will get those Alaskan fishing trawlers covered, though. Trump called the bill 'beautiful.' It is, if you're a billionaire. If you're not, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The last sentence of the preamble from the Declaration of Independence reads: 'But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.' It's clear that we're riding a long train of abuses and usurpations now. Emoluments? Thpppt. Fourteenth Amendment? Meh. Systematic racism? Who cares? Intimidation of academic institutions and law firms? Whatevs. Random destruction of personal reputations? Yup. Science denial? The new normal is abnormal. Is this 'absolute despotism'? I don't wish to rain on your fireworks supply, but we are perilously close to that. As we approach July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we will presumably have an election just a few months later. Don't think about egg prices this time. That's a first sentence that we should continue to celebrate.
Forbes
23 minutes ago
- Forbes
Bitcoin Price On The Brink As Congress Introduces A New ‘Groundbreaking' Crypto Bill
Bitcoin has surged toward its all-time high in recent weeks, adding around 50% since dropping to its April lows as crypto changes the game for Elon Musk's SpaceX and ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Front-run Donald Trump, the White House and Wall Street by subscribing now to Forbes' CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor where you can "uncover blockchain blockbusters poised for 1,000% plus gains!" The bitcoin price, which is braced for a 'big' month ahead after the White House crypto czar teased a major update, has climbed to give bitcoin a total market capitalization of more than $2 trillion, with bullish traders predicting a looming bitcoin price boom. Now, as traders eye 'trillions and trillions' of dollars that remain on the sidelines, bitcoin and crypto-backing senator Senator Cynthia Lummis has introduced a bill to Congress she described as 'groundbreaking.' Sign up now for the free CryptoCodex —A daily five-minute newsletter for traders, investors and the crypto-curious that will get you up to date and keep you ahead of the bitcoin and crypto market bull run Forbes Bitcoin Braced For A Surprise $22 Trillion Fed Price Earthquake By Billy Bambrough U.S. president Donald Trump has declared himself the first "crypto president," helping the bitcoin ... More price soar. AFP via Getty Images 'This groundbreaking legislation is fully paid for, cuts through the bureaucratic red tape and establishes common-sense rules that reflect how digital technologies function in the real world,' Lummis said in a statement. The bill would see small crypto transactions of less than $300 exempt from taxes, as well as crypto lending, and defer taxes on income generated from crypto mining and staking until tokens are sold. It would also apply the typical 30-day wash rule to crypto, removing a loophole that has allowed crypto investors to sell tokens at a loss and then quickly buy them up again while still claiming a tax deduction. Lummis highlighted estimates from the congressional joint committee on taxation that estimated the bill would generate about $600 million through 2034. 'We cannot allow our archaic tax policies to stifle American innovation, and my legislation ensures Americans can participate in the digital economy without inadvertent tax violations,' Lummis said. Lummis had tried to squeeze the crypto tax reforms into U.S. president Donald Trump's so-called "one, big, beautiful" bill but ran out of time before the Senate sent it to the House. Sign up now for CryptoCodex —A free, daily newsletter for the crypto-curious Forbes 'Trillions And Trillions'—Bitcoin Headed For A 'Big' July As Trump And Fed Create Perfect Crypto Price Storm By Billy Bambrough The bitcoin price has rocketed higher over the last year, propelled by U.S. president Donald Trump's ... More return to the White House. Forbes Digital Assets Trump's "one, big, beautiful bill," designed to overhaul the U.S. tax-and-spend landscape and power the country's next phase of growth while adding an expected $3 trillion of debt and raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, has been passed by the House of Representatives. House Republicans have meanwhile declared the week beginning July 14 "crypto week," in which policymakers will focus on three major crypto bills—the stablecoin Genius Act, the market structure Clarity Act and the Anti-CBDC [central bank digital currency] Surveillance State Act. The Trump administration's pro-bitcoin and crypto agenda has been named as a catalsyst for a bitcoin price break out in coming months. 'We expect bitcoin to print new all-time highs in the second half of the year, buoyed by growing ETF [exchange-traded fund] and corporate treasury flows, as well as U.S. policy and regulatory developments,' Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered Bank, said in an emailed note. Spot bitcoin ETFs, led by the world's largest asset manager BlackRock, as well as so-called bitcoin treasury companies that have sprung up in the wake of Michael Saylor's bitcoin-buying giant Strategy, have hoovered up more than $100 billion worth of bitcoin between them in the last few years.
