President Donald Trump is preparing to slap tariffs on Chinese goods early Friday, the first shot in a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. Tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods are scheduled to take effect at 12:01 a.m. in Washington. Beijing has said retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods ranging from soybeans to…
President Trump arrived in Switzerland on Thursday for two days at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Trump is expected to meet with world leaders, host a dinner for European business leaders, mingle with the elites at a reception, and give a keynote speech Friday. Trump is only the second sitting U.S. president to attend…
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the second time in three months Wednesday, bumping the benchmark rate by one quarter-point. Wednesday’s rate hike shows Fed officials “forged ahead with an interest-rate increase and additional plans to tighten monetary policy despite growing concerns over weak inflation,” Bloomberg noted. The Fed’s inflation target is 2 percent;…
In April, the U.S. economy added 211,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to a new post-crisis low of 4.4%. This is the lowest unemployment rate since May 2007. Wages, which are closely tracked by the Federal Reserve, rose 0.3% month-on-month, as expected. The the annual increase in wages, however, disappointed with wages up just…
In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, President Trump said “there is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea,” but he is hopeful that the U.S. can find other ways to work with the country regarding its nuclear and missile programs. “We’d love to solve things diplomatically,…
President Trump has admitted that running the country is not quite as easy as he thought it would be. In an interview with Reuters published Thursday, Trump opened up about his impressions from his first 100 days in the White House, saying he feels like he’s in his “own little cocoon” and misses driving. “I…
President Donald Trump has announced that he will not pull the U.S. out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite numerous promises to do so. Trump informed the leaders of Mexico and Canada of his decision Wednesday, and the White House later confirmed that the president had “agreed not to terminate NAFTA at this…
On Wednesday, President Trump will announce his plan to overhaul the tax code, including his proposal to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, White House officials told The Washington Post on Monday. Independent analysts have estimated a cut this severe could cost the federal government $2.4 trillion over 10 years,…
Ivanka Trump was booed and hissed on stage Tuesday in Germany, according to reporters who were at the W20—a Group of 20 conference focused on international women’s issues. Ivanka Trump called her father, the 45th president of the United States, a “tremendous champion” of families, reportedly leading to the hostile audience reaction. President Trump tweeted…
On Monday, prosecutors in South Korea announced that they have indicted former President Park Geun-hye on corruption and abuse of power charges that could send her to jail for life. Park, 65, was impeached in December, formally removed from office March 10, and arrested March 30 amid a national scandal that has also swept up…
On Wednesday, President Trump publicly contradicted several long-stated policy views, bringing his stances more in line with Washington orthodoxy. Meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump said of the military alliance: “I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete.” A week after calling China the “world champion” of currency manipulation, a common refrain…
The U.S. economy added just 98,000 non-farm jobs in March, falling significantly short of the 185,000 new jobs economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted. Despite the weak gains, the unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent from 4.7 percent, hitting the lowest level in nearly a decade. The Labor Department’s Friday report also cut the estimate…
President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is reported to have omitted dozens of contacts with foreign officials and leaders in recent months on his top-secret security-clearance application form. In order to get clearance, Kushner, according to The New York Times, was required to note all such encounters with foreign governments over the past seven years, but…
A letter signed by Prime Minister Theresa May has been delivered to European Council President Donald Tusk, formally triggering Britain’s exit from the European Union. The letter was handed over by Tim Barrow, Britain’s permanent representative to the EU. By invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, Britain now has two years to negotiate an…
President Trump unveiled his 2018 budget proposal Thursday, providing the clearest view yet of the policies he wants to use to deliver on his campaign promises. The plan includes a $54 billion increase in defense spending and a substantial bump for border security, while calling for deep cuts to most federal agencies, including roughly 30…
Nonfarm employers added a seasonally adjusted 235,000 jobs in February, above economists’ expectations for a 197,000 gain. Employers added a revised 238,000 in January for the best back-to-back performance since June and July 2016. One area of strength those two months: construction jobs. Over the past three months, total job growth has averaged 209,000. That…
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said told CNBC on Thursday that carbon dioxide is not a “primary contributor” to global warming, calling for more debate and analysis on the issue. “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree…
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said North Korea fired four ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, with three landing in his country’s exclusive economic zone. A South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman said “several projectiles” fired from North Korea’s North Pyongan province flew about 620 miles. The U.S. and South Korea are conducting…
The White House has said construction could begin quickly on President Trump’s border wall using “existing funds and resources” from the Department of Homeland Security, but a DHS document says the agency so far has identified just $20 million that could be redirected to the project, Reuters reported Wednesday. The document, which was given to…
President Trump’s nominee for U.S. commerce secretary won Senate confirmation on Monday, paving the way for work to begin on renegotiating trade deals with China and Mexico. Billionaire Wilbur Ross was confirmed with a Senate vote of 72-27, with support from 19 Democrats. Ross will now be at the helm of an agency with over…
President Trump on Tuesday morning blamed former President Obama for leaks of classified information from the White House and for protests in the wake of a controversial executive order halting immigration from seven predominantly-Muslim countries to the U.S. Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox and Friends, during which he gave no evidence…
President Trump will address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern time, looking to refocus his presidency and rally support for his policies from Republicans in Congress and the public at large, amid historically low approval ratings. Trump advisers say the president will tout what he has described as early…
On Monday, the Senate is expected to confirm two of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees, Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary and David Shulkin to head the Department of Veteran Affairs. The vote on Mnuchin, a former top Goldman Sachs executive and Hollywood financier, will be much closer than Shulkin’s confirmation. Republicans argue that Mnuchin is well-qualified…
President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a “lengthy” and “very cordial” phone conversation Thursday evening, the White House said in a statement, and “President Trump agreed, at the request of President Xi, to honor our ‘one China’ policy.” Trump had irked Beijing by speaking with Taiwan’s president on the phone soon after his…
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Friday that rolls back the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulatory law, first put in place after the 2008 financial crisis. “Americans are going to have better choices and Americans are going to have better products because we’re not going to burden the banks with literally hundreds of…
U.S. equities rose on Wednesday after a series of executive orders from President Donald Trump increased bullish sentiment on Wall Street. “Traders have been waiting for more details on infrastructure spending and now they have it in a very clear format,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets. “There is nothing bigger than…
President Donald Trump meets Tuesday with the CEOs of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler in the Oval Office. “I want new plants to be built here for cars sold here!” Trump tweeted Tuesday. Trump made a point on the campaign trail of slamming American automakers for importing cars from Mexico and vowed a border tax…
U.S. employers added 156,000 jobs in December, capping a year of slower but solid hiring. The report is the last major snapshot of the economy President-elect Donald Trump will inherit from President Barack Obama. The Labor Department says the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.7 percent from a nine-year low of 4.6 percent. Hourly pay…
President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly working with advisers on a plan to restructure the country’s top spy agency due to a belief that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has become politicized. This comes after Trump has publicly mocked U.S. intelligence agencies and their conclusion that Russian-backed hackers were involved in disrupting the…
President-elect Donald Trump says he knows “things that other people don’t know” about Russia’s alleged hacking during the presidential election. Speaking to reporters outside his Mar-A-Lago estate while on his way to a New Year’s Eve party on Saturday night, Trump promised to disclose the information in a few days, saying “you will find out…
