If Trump's Tariffs Are So Bad, Where's the Recession?
We have been told, by adherents of diverse creeds of the dismal pseudoscience, that the president's sweeping tariff plans would be a short route to economic disaster: Smoot-Hawley, the Sequel. Set aside that the infamous 1930 legislation was probably only a mere contributor to the calamity that followed rather than its author, the history and received wisdom are clear, premised on basic economic principles: Tariffs are a tax that have especially adverse consequences—increasing prices paid by importers and, ultimately, consumers; and, because of the income effect of a tax rise, at the same time depressing demand.
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Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
Trump removes official overseeing jobs data after dismal employment report
President Donald Trump has removed the head of the agency that produces monthly jobs figures for the US after a report showed hiring slowed in July and was much weaker in May and June than previously reported. Mr Trump, in a post on his social media platform, alleged that the figures were manipulated for political reasons and said that Erika McEntarfer, the director of the Bureau of Labour Statistics, who was appointed by former president Joe Biden, should be fired. He provided no evidence for the charge. 'I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,' Mr Trump said on Truth Social. 'She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.' Mr Trump later posted: 'In my opinion, today's Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.' The charge that the data was faked threatens to undercut the political legitimacy of the US government's economic data, which has long been seen as the 'gold standard' of economic measurement globally. Economists and Wall Street investors have long accepted the data as free from political bias. After Mr Trump's initial post, labour secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said on X that Ms McEntarfer was no longer leading the bureau and that William Wiatrowski, the deputy commissioner, would serve as the acting director. 'I support the President's decision to replace Biden's Commissioner and ensure the American People can trust the important and influential data coming from BLS,' Ms Chavez-DeRemer said. Friday's jobs report showed that just 73,000 jobs were added last month and that 258,000 fewer jobs were created in May and June than previously estimated. The report suggested that the economy has sharply weakened during Mr Trump's tenure, a pattern consistent with a slowdown in economic growth during the first half of the year and an increase in inflation during June that appeared to reflect the price pressures created by the president's tariffs. 'What does a bad leader do when they get bad news? Shoot the messenger,' Democratic senate leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a Friday speech. Ms McEntarfer was nominated by Mr Biden in 2023 and became the commissioner of the Bureau of Labour Statistics in January 2024. Commissioners typically serve four-year terms but since they are political appointees can be fired. The commissioner is the only political appointee of the agency, which has hundreds of career civil servants. The Senate confirmed Ms McEntarfer to her post 86-8, with now vice president JD Vance among the yea votes. Mr Trump focused much of his ire on the revisions the agency made to previous hiring data. Job gains in May were revised down to just 19,000 from a previously revised 125,000, and for June they were cut to 14,000 from 147,000. In July, only 73,000 positions were added. The unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.2% from 4.1%. 'No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers,' Mr Trump wrote. 'She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can't be manipulated for political purposes.' Mr Trump has not always been so suspicious of the monthly jobs report and responded enthusiastically after the initial May figures came out on June 6 when it was initially reported that the economy added 139,000 jobs. 'GREAT JOB NUMBERS, STOCK MARKET UP BIG!' Mr Trump posted at the time. That estimate was later revised down to 125,000 jobs, prior to the most-recent revision down to just 19,000. The monthly employment report is one of the most closely-watched pieces of government economic data and can cause sharp swings in financial markets. The disappointing figure sent US market indexes about 1.5% lower Friday. Sign in to access your portfolio
Fox News
a few seconds ago
- Fox News
WATCH: Trump says he is hopeful Hillary Clinton will be investigated for election fraud
Speaking with reporters on Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump expressed that he is hopeful former presidential opponent Hillary Clinton will finally be investigated for election fraud. Shortly before departing for New Jersey, Trump was asked by a reporter, "Will Hillary Clinton finally be investigated for election fraud?" Trump answered, "I hope so, I hope so. I don't know whether or not that'll happen, but I hope so." During his brief exchange with reporters outside the White House, Trump also repeatedly criticized Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, whom he recently removed. The president connected his recent decision to fire McEntarfer, whom he accused of falsifying jobs report numbers, to efforts to sway previous elections against him. "You have to have honest reports and when you look at those numbers or when you look at just before the election and then after the election, they corrected it by 8 or 900,000 jobs," he said. "Why should anybody trust numbers? You go back to election day. Look what happened 2 or 3 days before with massive, wonderful jobs numbers, trying to get him elected or her elected, trying to get whoever the hell was running because you go back and they came out with numbers that were very favorable to Kamala," he went on. "And then on the 15th of November or thereabouts, they added 8 or 900,000 overstatement reduction right after the election." Addressing a reporter directly, Trump added, "It didn't work because, you know who won, John? I won." Trump's comments regarding Clinton hearken back all the way to his first presidential campaign during which he warned that if he were president he would get his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her behavior. In one of the 2016 debates Trump famously quipped to Clinton that if he was president: "you'd be in jail." As president, however, Trump has not moved to prosecute Clinton, who served as former President Barack Obama's secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. This July, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released evidence that she said suggest the Obama administration promoted a "contrived narrative" that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. "There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false," Gabbard said. "They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true. It wasn't." "We have referred and will continue to refer all of these documents to the Department of Justice and the FBI, to investigate the criminal implications of this for the evidence," Gabbard said. "The evidence that we have found, and that we have released, directly point to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment. There are multiple pieces of evidence and intelligence that confirm that fact." In a July interview, Trump described the Russiagate allegations against Obama and members of his administration as "serious treason." "What they've done is so bad for this country. And it really started right at the 2016 election," Trump claimed of Gabbard's findings. "And there's a difference when you know it — and when you know it, and it's all written down for you. I mean, it's all there. It's right there. The orders, the memos, the whole thing. It's right there."
New York Post
a minute ago
- New York Post
Trump admin fires back at claims Clinton plan to ‘smear' prez with Russia ties was disinfo: ‘No one is buying your bulls–t anymore'
WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials ripped skeptics of newly released intelligence files detailing a purported Hillary Clinton campaign plan 'to tie Donald Trump to Russia' in 2016 — after the detractors claimed the sensitive documents were themselves the product of another disinformation campaign by Moscow. 'Are we really doing this?' asked Alexa Henning, deputy chief of staff to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, after the New York Times characterized the intelligence released Thursday as a likely fabricated product of Russian espionage. 'The Russia Hoax was concocted against President Trump by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, etc. by funding a FAKE Dossier and putting into a 'real' intelligence product briefed to Congress, the WH and leaked to the public by the spineless, gutless shills in the media. Where's that headline??' asked Henning on X Friday after posting screenshots of the Times piece alongside nearly decade-old articles from the Washington Post and NBC News bringing the same charge. Advertisement 'Not to mention it says in the recently released Durham annex and [House Intelligence Committee] report it says multiple times the Clinton emails were corroborated as authentic by the CIA,' added Henning. 'No one is buying your bulls–t anymore.' CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Attorney General Pam Bondi declassified the 24-page annex to special counsel John Durham's 2023 report on Thursday, emphasizing it showed coordination between Clinton's team and former President Barack Obama's administration to push a narrative that the 2016 Trump campaign was in cahoots with Russia during the election. 8 The files showed coordination between Clinton's team and former President Barack Obama's administration to push a narrative that the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the election. Bloomberg via Getty Images Advertisement Ratcliffe — who referred former CIA boss Brennan to the Department of Justice for possible criminal prosecution related to Russiagate — said in a statement Thursday the files revealed 'a coordinated plan to prevent and destroy Donald Trump's presidency.' CIA spokeswoman Liz Lyons added Friday that 'the Hillary Clinton campaign worked to plant the Trump–Russia narrative in the press—with her direct approval.' A report by the Times initially published Thursday tried to counter the administration, saying that 'a key piece of supposed evidence for the claim that Mrs. Clinton approved a plan to tie Mr. Trump to Russia is not credible: Mr. Durham concluded that the email from July 27, 2016, and a related one dated two days earlier were probably manufactured.' 8 Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released special counsel John Durham's 24-page annex of the materials Thursday. AP Advertisement The annex, which Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) released Thursday, does not show that. In 2017, the CIA determined intelligence on 'the purported Clinton campaign' — which included messages from operatives in the George Soros-founded Open Society Foundations — 'to not be the product of Russian fabrication.' Brennan also prepared a memo based on the intel to defensively brief Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, then-Attorney General Lynch, then-FBI Director Comey and then-Director of National Intelligence Clapper. Emails from Open Society's regional director Leonard Benardo — which laid bare a plan from the Clinton campaign to boost messaging 'about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections' in order to 'distract people from her own missing emails' probe — was also considered 'likely authentic' by the FBI. Advertisement 8 '[I]t will be a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump,' Benardo was quoted as writing in a July 25 email. Chairman Grassley '[I]t will be a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump,' Benardo was quoted as writing in a July 25 email. 'Now it is good for a post-convention bounce. Later the FBI will put more oil into the fire.' On July 27, Benardo apparently authored another email stating: 'HRC approved Julia's idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections. That should distract people from her own missing email, especially if the affair goes to the Olympic level,' in seeming reference to a state-sponsored doping campaign by Russia following the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. 'We now know from the recent declassification that just days before the FBI launched Crossfire Hurricane, Russian intelligence reported on Clinton allies accurately predicting that FBI would 'put more oil into the fire,'' said Lyons on Friday. 'That's no coincidence, and any objective observer can see that.' FBI analysts and officers interviewed by Durham's office 'who were well versed in the Sensitive Intelligence collection, stated that their best assessment was that the Benardo emails were likely authentic,' the annex assessed, adding that investigators were 'unable to locate' identical copies. Some FBI analysts also said 'it was possible, however, that the Russians might have fabricated or altered purported U.S. emails.' 8 On July 27, Benardo apparently authored another email. Chairman Grassley But Comey's FBI never fully vetted the accuracy of the information because it wasn't deemed 'credible' enough. Advertisement Comey later testified to Congress that the conclusion prompted his July 2016 announcement of the closure of a probe into Clinton's deletion of more than 30,000 emails from a private server. In 2020, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence informed Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that it did not 'know the accuracy' of the files. 8 In 2017, the CIA determined the intelligence was 'not be the product of Russian fabrication.' REUTERS Durham's 'best assessment' was that the 'emails that purport to be from Benardo were ultimately a composite of several emails that were obtained through Russian intelligence hacking of the U.S.-based Think Tanks, including the Open Society Foundations, the Carnegie Endowment, and others.' Advertisement His office could not 'determine definitively whether the purported Clinton campaign plan … was entirely genuine, partially true, a composite pulled from multiple sources, exaggerated in certain respects, or fabricated in its entirety.' Benardo told Durham's team that 'to the best of his recollection, he did not draft the emails.' 8 Brennan prepared a memo based on the intelligence to defensively brief Obama. AP A rep for Open Society Foundations said in a statement: 'We are a nonpartisan organization and do not engage in political campaign activity. These accusations are not just reckless, they are dangerous.' Advertisement Biden's future national security adviser Jake Sullivan, when consulted by Durham's team, said he 'could not conclusively rule out the possibility' of a Clinton plan to spread claims of Russian collusion with Trump's campaign team. Clinton's former foreign policy adviser Julianne Smith, who told The Post, 'I don't have any comment,' when reached by phone Thursday, told Durham's team that 'she neither drafted nor recalled receiving' the information. Smith added it was 'possible someone proposed an idea of seeking to distract attention from the investigation into Secretary Clinton's use of a private email server, but she did not specifically remember any such idea.' 8 Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has said 'the Obama Administration sought to delegitimize the 2016 election … subverting the will of the American people and enacting essentially a years-long coup.' AP Advertisement Texts and emails unearthed by Durham showed that Smith had communicated with other Clinton campaign foreign policy advisers about whether the FBI or other Obama agencies would 'aid that effort … by commencing a formal investigation of the DNC hack.' The former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential contender, whose office did not respond to a request for comment, didn't deny the existence of such a plan and told Durham's office the files 'looked like Russian disinformation to [her].' FBI Director Kash Patel found the intel files — along with thousands of others — stored in 'burn bags' at the bureau's headquarters in Washington, DC, a source told The Post, and said the highly classified contents contained 'evidence that the Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russia collusion hoax.' 'They're trying to cover their hind end,' Grassley charged on Fox News' 'America's Newsroom' Thursday of the parties privy to the so-called 'Clinton plan.' 8 FBI Director Kash Patel found 'burn bags' at the bureau's HQ that contained the 'evidence that the Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russia collusion hoax.' Ron Sachs/CNP / 'The cover up was so bad,' the Iowa Republican later said on Newsmax's 'The Record with Greta van Susteren.' 'Some of these documents, emails and thumb drives were in trash bags, or what you call 'burn bags.' That's where the FBI found them,' he added. 'So doesn't that tell you something about the deep state here in this city of Washington — an island surrounded by reality — that they'd do anything to cover up and [avoid] embarrassment?'
