GOP Rep.: Trump megabill ‘big step in the right direction' toward fiscal responsibility
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CNN
20 minutes ago
- CNN
Bessent says tariffs will ‘boomerang' to ‘Liberation Day' levels if countries fail to negotiate deals
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said tariff letters will be sent to about 100 countries over the next several days, as the Trump administration's 90-day tariff pause comes to an end Wednesday. 'If you don't move things along, then on August 1 you will boomerang back to your April 2 tariff level,' Bessent said about trading partners Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union with Dana Bash.' President Donald Trump has suggested the letters would include duty rates at the current 10% baseline, or as extensive as 70%. Bessent said Sunday the United States would not impose 70% tariff rates on major trading partners. Bessent said that about 100 letters will be sent to small countries 'where we don't have very much trade,' many of which are 'already at the baseline 10%.' Trump on Friday touted letters as the 'better' option for countries that fail to negotiate deals before the July 9 deadline. On April 9, Trump announced a complete three-month pause on all the 'reciprocal' tariffs after insisting historically high tariffs were here to stay. Later that month, he told Time magazine that he had already struck 200 trade deals but declined to say with whom. So far, Trump has only announced deals with three countries: the United Kingdom, which maintained a 10% tariff rate; China, which temporarily paused sky-high duties on most goods from 145% to 30%; and a minimum 20% tariff on goods from Vietnam. In response to the three deals being described as 'frameworks,' Bessent said the upcoming letters 'will set their tariff rates. So we will have 100 done in the next few days.' 'Many of these countries never even contacted us,' he said, adding that 'We have the leverage in this situation,' as the country facing a trading deficit. Bessent said there may be 'several big announcements' this week, but declined to name countries that could reach deals. Bessent pushed back against August 1 as a new deadline. He also described the administration's plan as applying 'maximum pressure.' 'It's not a new deadline. We are saying, 'This is when it's happening. If you want to speed things up, have at it. If you want to back to the old rate, that's your choice,'' Bessent said about America's trading partners, and used the European Union as an example of countries coming to the table after Trump threatened 50% tariffs on EU imports. Economists have warned that Trump's trade war, especially the wide-ranging tariffs on Chinese imports, will increase costs for consumers. Some companies, including Walmart, have said they will raise prices for customers despite pushback from Trump. 'We have seen no inflation so far,' Bessent said on 'Fox News Sunday,' calling such projections 'misinformation' and 'tariff derangement syndrome.' Bessent and other Trump officials have repeatedly argued in recent months that countries like China would bear the cost of tariffs. US wholesale inflation rose slightly in May, driven in part by costlier goods, though tariff-related effects were largely muted. The Producer Price Index, a closely watched measurement of wholesale inflation, showed that prices paid to producers rose 0.1% in May, lifting the annual rate to 2.6%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released in June. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who has blasted Bessent for undermining the economic impact of tariffs, said Sunday on ABC's 'This Week' that tariffs 'will probably collect some revenue' but would come at the expense of higher inflation and less competitiveness for American producers. Also appearing on 'This Week,' Stephen Miran, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said there was no 'lasting evidence' that tariffs imposed on China during Trump's first term hurt the economy and the administration has only 'repeated the same performance' this year. 'Tariff revenue is pouring in. There's no sign of any economically significant inflation whatsoever and job creation remains healthy,' Miran said. CNN's Kit Maher and Alicia Wallace contributed to this report.
Fox News
31 minutes ago
- Fox News
Trump spending cuts, his approach to climate change attacked as catalyst of catastrophic Texas flooding
Critics of President Donald Trump wasted no time blaming staffing cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS) for the widespread death and destruction caused by the floods in Texas, a reaction the White House called "shameful and disgusting." At least 59 people, including 21 children, have been confirmed dead from the flash floods along the Guadalupe River that began Friday. Eleven children and one counselor remain missing from a girls' summer camp near the river, which flooded due to the remnants of Tropical Storm Barry. That storm made landfall over Mexico, but triggered massive unexpected thunderstorms over parts of Texas. "It only took 9 days for Trump's cuts to the [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] to kill dozens of children in Texas when Tropical Storm Barry landed this week," Grant Stern, the executive editor of Occupy Democrats, wrote on X. "The people in Texas voted for government services controlled by Donald Trump and Greg Abbott," added Ron Filipkowski, former federal prosecutor and the editor-in-chief of MediasTouchNews. "That is exactly what they (sic) getting." "What has happened to the girls at Camp Mystic is EXACTLY what one of the country's best meteorologists, John Morales, warned would happen," added Rachel Bitecofer, assistant director at Christopher Newport University's Wason Center for Public Policy. "Trump's cuts to the NOAA & NWS have critically impacted storm prediction nationwide." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference Saturday, and acknowledged some of the criticisms regarding the nation's flood notification systems, which included concerns that weather forecasts underestimated the amount of rain that ultimately fell. Noem noted that the Trump administration is "currently upgrading" the nation's flood notification technology, which she described as "ancient." "When the [weather] system came over the area, it stalled," Noem said during the press conference. "It was much more water, much like [what] we experienced during [Hurricane] Harvey, with the same type of system that was unpredictable in the way that it reacted in the way that it stopped right here and dumped unprecedented amounts of rain that caused a flooding event like this." Tom Fahy, legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, told NBC News that weather forecasting offices were adequately staffed, and "they issued timely forecasts and warnings leading up to the storm," but he added that unfilled leadership positions were "clearly a concern." "The reason Trump defunded the National Weather Service leading to the deaths of all those girls in the Texas flood is because PROJECT 2025 THOUGHT WEATHER PREDICTION SCIENCE WAS TIED TO EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE," musician Mikel Jollett wrote on X. Isaiah Martin, a Democratic candidate for Texas's 18th Congressional District, called for an immediate congressional investigation into "the Republican DOGE cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service." "We saw the affects (sic) this weekend," Martin wrote on X. "Trump defunded these agencies and we DEMAND answers. There MUST be *swift* accountability!" Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee did not directly blame Trump's approach to climate change for the deaths, but he suggested the president's efforts to peel back green energy funding are a contributing factor to increased catastrophic natural disasters, like this weekend's flood in Texas. "It is hard to make the Texas flood tragedy worse, except to know that on the same day Trump signed a bill cratering solar and wind energy that is vital in the battle against the climate change making these torrential rains more frequent," Inslee wrote on X this weekend. During an interview with CNN, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, added that he didn't think it was helpful to have open leadership positions that, if filled, could "help prevent these strategies." "I don't think it's helpful to have missing key personnel from the National Weather Service not in place to help prevent these tragedies," Castro said, adding "we have to figure out in the future how we make sure that it doesn't happen again." White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called it "shameful and disgusting" to see that in the wake of this tragedy people are politicizing what took place. "It's shameful and disgusting that in the wake of tragedy, the left's first instinct is to lie and politicize a disaster to target their political opponents. False claims about the NWS have been repeatedly debunked by meteorologists, experts, and other public reporting," Jackson said. "The NWS did their job, even issuing a flood watch more than 12 hours in advance. The Trump Administration is grateful to the first responders who sprung into action to save hundreds lives during this catastrophe, and will continue to help the great state of Texas in their recovery efforts."
Chicago Tribune
32 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Elon Musk forms new political party after split with Trump over president's signature tax cuts law
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — Elon Musk said he's carrying out his threat to form a new political party after his fissure with President Donald Trump, announcing the America Party in response to the president's sweeping tax cuts law. Musk, once an ever-present ally to Trump as he headed up the slashing agency known as the Department of Government Efficiency, broke with the Republican president over his signature legislation, which was signed into law Friday. As the bill made its way through Congress, Musk threatened to form the 'America Party' if 'this insane spending bill passes.' 'When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,' Musk said Saturday on X, the social media company he owns. 'Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.' The formation of new political parties is not uncommon, but they typically struggle to pull any significant support away from the Republican and Democratic parties. But Musk, the world's richest man who spent at least $250 million supporting Trump in the 2024 election, could impact the 2026 elections determining control of Congress if he is willing to spend significant amounts of money. His reignited feud with the president could also be costly for Musk, whose businesses rely on billions of dollars in government contracts and publicly traded company Tesla has taken a hit in the market. It wasn't clear whether Musk had taken steps to formally create the new political party. Spokespeople for Musk and his political action committee, America PAC, didn't immediately comment Sunday. As of Sunday morning, there were multiple political parties listed in the Federal Election Commission database that had been formed in the the hours since Musk's Saturday X post with versions of 'America Party' of 'DOGE' or 'X' in the name, or Musk listed among people affiliated with the entity. But none appeared to be authentic, listing contacts for the organization as email addresses such as 'wentsnowboarding@ or untraceable Protonmail addresses. Musk on Sunday spent the morning on X taking feedback from users about the party and indicated he'd use the party to get involved in the 2026 midterm elections. Last month, he threatened to try to oust every member of Congress that voted for Trump's bill. Musk had called the tax breaks and spending cuts package a 'disgusting abomination,' warning it would increase the federal deficit, among other critiques. 'The Republican Party has a clean sweep of the executive, legislative and judicial branches and STILL had the nerve to massively increase the size of government, expanding the national debt by a record FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS,' Musk said Sunday on X. His critiques of the bill and move to form a political party mark a reversal from May, when his time in the White House was winding down and the head of rocket company SpaceX and electric vehicle maker Tesla said he would spend 'a lot less' on politics in the future. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who clashed with Musk while he ran DOGE, said on CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday that DOGE's 'principles' were popular but 'if you look at the polling, Elon was not.' 'I imagine that those board of directors did not like this announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities,' he said.
