Democrats ‘hate' the Constitution, says Mark Levin
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Yahoo
5 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek preparing to launch US Senate campaign, colleagues say
Democratic Iowa state representative and former Paralympian Josh Turek is preparing to launch a campaign for U.S. Senate this month, according to three of his current and former Iowa House colleagues. Turek, 46, of Council Bluffs, has won two gold medals in wheelchair basketball representing the United States at the Paralympic Games. He was first elected to the Iowa House in 2022 and is serving his second term representing parts of Council Bluffs and Carter Lake. He would join a growing field of Democratic candidates vying for their party's nomination in 2026. State Sen. Zach Wahls of Coralville, state Rep. J.D. Scholten of Sioux City and former Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Director Nathan Sage of Indianola have all announced campaigns. Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris says she is also seriously considering a bid. Turek declined to comment. But state Reps. Austin Baeth, D-Des Moines, and Timi Brown Powers, D-Waterloo, and former state Rep. Sami Scheetz told the Des Moines Register they have spoken to Turek about his plans and say he will announce his campaign in August. "He and I, I think have a shared vision of what needs to be done for the state and our country, so I'm going to be supporting his candidacy because I really do think that he is Democrats' best chance of winning the general election next November," Baeth said of Turek. Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst is up for reelection next year. She has hired a campaign manager but has not formally announced that she will seek a third term in 2026, prompting speculation about her plans. Turek has experience winning difficult races for the Iowa Legislature. In 2022, he won his first term by six votes and won reelection last fall by about 5 percentage points in a race heavily targeted by Republicans. "Josh has been one of the highest-performing Democrats in the state," Baeth said. "He has won twice in a district that Trump won. And if you drive around Council Bluffs this last October and November, you'll see yards that have a Trump sign and a Turek sign next to each other because people see him as more than a politician." Baeth said he believes Turek has the ability to compete with the other Democrats in the race, even though he's announcing a campaign later than his competitors. "He's somebody who has been doing the planning behind the scenes and I think will make up ground pretty quickly," Baeth said. "And I think the reason for that is his candidacy is unique. He's not the typical cookie cutter politician." Brown-Powers said she believes Turek's work ethic is one of his biggest assets in a race where "to win this you have to give 100%." "This is a guy who gets out of his wheelchair and crawls up steps to knock on a door, so there's some grit and work ethic there," she said. "He's not going to be easily turned away by anything." Turek, who was born with spina bifida, has said his success has been possible because of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was led in Congress by former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin. His colleagues said Medicaid and health care access will be central pillars of his campaign because of his own experience. Medicaid will also be a major feature of the campaign because of Ernst's vote to pass President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" which includes tax cuts and cuts to spending on Medicaid and food assistance programs. The legislation extends and deepens tax cuts signed by Trump in 2017 while cutting Medicaid spending by nearly $1 trillion over a decade. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says 10 million people are expected to become uninsured over a decade as a result of the bill. "The big, beautiful bill or the reconciliation bill is going to be a huge focus of this upcoming campaign," Scheetz said. "And I think there's definitely not a better messenger on Medicaid and the cuts to Medicaid in our state than Rep. Turek." Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@ or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek preparing to mount US Senate campaign
Bloomberg
6 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
The 10-Year Treasury at 4.5% May Be the New Normal
Bloomberg News is now tracking the daily gyrations and cumulative impact of Donald Trump's second term on stocks, the dollar, 10-year Treasury notes, gold and Bitcoin. Click here to see the tracker. President Donald Trump wants lower interest rates. Achieving that objective will require overcoming bigger obstacles than Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Washington Post
7 minutes ago
- Washington Post
China is winning the trade war Trump started
In January, President Donald Trump declared trade war on China. It gives me no pleasure to report that China — a ruthless anti-American dictatorship — is winning. But the evidence is inescapable. You can see it in the economic numbers: China's economy grew by an average of 5.3 percent in the first half of the year, America's by only 1.25 percent. You can see it, too, in Trump's failure to wring significant concessions from Beijing. While most countries have acquiesced to U.S. trade bullying, China has not. In April, Trump hiked U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 percent. China retaliated with 125 percent tariffs on U.S. goods. Then President Xi Jinping ramped up the pressure by restricting exports of rare earth metals to the United States, threatening to halt production of everything from cars to fighter jets. Trump had to back down, agreeing to cut U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods to 30 percent, while Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods were reduced to 10 percent. Tariffs remain frozen at those levels despite several rounds of Washington-Beijing talks. Trump tried to market this agreement as a 'historic trade win,' but it was simply a truce. It did nothing to address long-standing U.S. complaints about China's dumping of products on the world market, theft of intellectual property and other offenses. Though the lopsided tariffs on Chinese imports might not seem so bad (until you realize they will mean higher prices for U.S. consumers), it's evident that as part of the deal — whose details have never been released — the Trump administration has essentially paused export controls on selling sensitive technology to China. In July, the administration approved the sale to China of Nvidia's advanced H20 chips, which have military as well as civilian applications. A bipartisan group of national security hawks, including former Trump administration officials Matt Pottinger and David Feith, signed a letter expressing outrage: 'We believe this move represents a strategic misstep that endangers the United States' economic and military edge in artificial intelligence (AI) — an area increasingly seen as decisive in 21st-century global leadership.' The sale of the Nvidia chips is only the latest indication of Trump edging away from his confrontation with China. The administration has also blocked visits to the United States by Taiwan's president and defense minister following Beijing's objections. While conciliating Beijing, Trump has been alienating U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region with his capricious tariff threats. The latest to suffer is India, a key U.S. partner in confronting China. Trump announced Wednesday that he was hitting India with 25 percent tariffs, to be followed by additional sanctions to punish India for buying oil and gas from Russia. It makes sense to pressure India to reduce its economic relationship with Russia, but these blunderbuss tariffs threaten to undo decades of efforts by American administrations, including the first Trump administration, to draw India into the U.S. orbit. Now there are signs of a reconciliation between New Delhi and Beijing. Trump has struck agreements with other key U.S. partners in the region to tax their exports at a rate lower than he threatened in April — but still much higher than they faced at the beginning of the year. Trump has imposed 20 percent tariffs on Vietnam and Taiwan; 19 percent on Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines; and 15 percent on Japan and South Korea. Australia, one of America's closest allies, gets a 10 percent 'baseline' tariff but 50 percent tariffs on steel, copper and aluminum and 25 percent on certain vehicles. As part of his trade negotiations, Trump has extracted vague promises from Japan and South Korea (along with the European Union) to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States. The countries that have done trade deals with Trump can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that their situation could be much worse. But Trump's bullying is leaving hard feelings in its wake. One former Japanese trade official called the U.S. deal 'humiliating,' while a Japanese economist called it 'completely unacceptable for Japan.' That's an odd way to treat allies that the United States needs to contain China. More broadly, Trump is helping China with his cutbacks to U.S. diplomacy, foreign aid and investment in scientific research. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has even fired the State Department staffers who coordinate the diplomatic response to China's aggression in the South China Sea. Trump's attempts to close down Voice of America are another gift to Beijing. From Indonesia to Nigeria, Chinese state media is filling the vacuum left behind by VOA. Trump's decision to walk away from the World Health Organization and UNESCO has also opened the door for China to increase its influence in those international organizations. Then there are Trump's plans to cut federal support for scientific research by more than 30 percent while making it harder for foreign students to attend universities in the United States. This comes as China is pouring additional billions into cutting-edge research and development. China already leads the United States in most frontier technologies, including batteries, solar panels, electric vehicles, drones, advanced optical communication systems, machine learning and high-performance computing. Trump's tariffs will do nothing to reverse these trends, while his cutbacks to R&D spending and restrictions on foreign students will only accelerate them. China's Achilles' heel has long been the fear it engenders with its aggressive behavior and lack of respect for other nations. Now, America is acting a lot like China and paying the price in global opinion. The Pew Research Center, in a recent survey of 24 nations, found that 'views of the U.S. have turned significantly more negative over the past year, while views of China have turned slightly more positive.' In the high-income countries surveyed, 32 percent now have a favorable view of China, compared with 35 percent holding a favorable view of the United States. For those of us accustomed to thinking of America as the good guy, that's a shocking convergence. Don't get me wrong: It's a good thing Trump is backing away, at least for now, from his costly trade war with China before it inflicts inflict serious damage on the U.S. economy. And, to his credit, Trump is continuing, and even enhancing, military cooperation with U.S. allies in Asia. But the trade war truce is only limiting the harm from Trump's policies; it isn't challenging China's growing power or enhancing U.S. competitiveness. Trump's tariff hikes, budget cuts and immigration restrictions are weakening America and inadvertently strengthening its chief rival.
