Townhall, by Steven Moore Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/9/2025 4:43:13 AM President Donald Trump has predicted that his tariffs could raise as much as $6 trillion over the next decade in federal tax collections. These include up to 104% tariffs on China, plus the combination of reciprocal tariffs -- we charge them whatever they charge us. Also, don't forget the protectionist tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos, lumber, etc.The tariff rates put on the table by Trump are higher than those at any other time in the last century, so it is no wonder we've seen a painful stock selloff, reducing asset values by well over $7 trillion.
PJ Media, by Benjamin Bartee Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/9/2025 4:41:03 AM The cuts made to the so-called “foreign aid” agency USAID (which doesn’t actually have humanitarianism as its primary purpose) in the first days of the Trump 2.0 administration affected various global vaccine initiatives, many of which were pet projects of self-styled philanthropist Bill Gates.In an attempt to ensure these projects remain federally funded, Gates has reportedly been quietly lobbying the administration behind the scenes to protect the billions that flow to his “non-profit” ventures.
Putting aside the ultimate question of why Bill Gates isn’t under a federal prison, why do we allow creatures like this to slink around the White House trying to convince Trump,
The Hill, by Julia Manchester Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/9/2025 4:38:49 AM President Trump told House Republicans on Tuesday that his tariffs will help them ahead of the midterm elections in 2026.
“We’re going to win the midterm elections and we’re going to have a tremendous, thundering landslide. I really believe that,” Trump said, speaking at the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner.“It’s so important that we pass the big, beautiful bill,” he continued. “And I really think we’re helped a lot by the tariff situation that’s going on, which is a good situation,” “It’s going to be legendary, you
The Federalist, by Shawn Fleetwood Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/9/2025 4:36:49 AM In a 54-45 vote, the U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Elbridge Colby to be the next under secretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon. Several Democrat senators joined Republicans in supporting Colby, including Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Elisa Slotkin of Michigan, and Mark Kelly of Arizona. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was the lone Republican to vote against the nominee’s confirmation.
Colby’s nomination was advanced to the full Senate following a vote by the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. The committee did not release a final vote tally, only saying in a press release that Colby’s nomination was reported “favorably” in a roll call vote.
New York Post, by Shane Gavin Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/9/2025 4:22:13 AM The acting head of the Internal Revenue Service will resign in the wake of a deal struck on behalf of the agency that will see it share tax data on undocumented immigrants.
Melanie Krause, a commissioner at the IRS who is the third person to serve as its chief since the start of the year, will pack up her desk as part of the deferred resignation program offered by the Trump administration, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday.
The news of her plans to leave the federal agency comes less than a week before the deadline for individual tax returns.
New York Post, by Victor Nava Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/9/2025 4:20:47 AM The US government on Wednesday began collecting tariffs imposed by President Trump on roughly 90 countries, including a whopping 104% levy on China.
The sweeping reciprocal tariffs, which hit US allies and adversaries alike, went into effect just after midnight and are in addition to a 10% baseline levy imposed on April 5.
Trump, 78, slapped China with the steepest duties on imports after the People’s Republic imposed retaliatory 34% tariffs on US goods in response to the 34% import fee the president announced last week. “It was a mistake for China to retaliate,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
Israel Unwired, by A I Abelow Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/9/2025 4:17:24 AM I don’t think an Israeli Prime Minister was ever invited to the White House so quickly before. So what is going on???
It’s actually unbelievably historic!!!
Most people today still think they’re watching a local war.
They see Gaza, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran etc. and think: ‘Ah, it’s just another Middle East war with the Sunni/Shia world trying to destroy Israel. It’ll pass.’
They could not be more wrong.
What’s unfolding right now is nothing less than a global war for the future of the free world — and Israel is at the center of it all.
President Trump’s last minute invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu isn’t just another diplomatic photo-op. It’s historic.
New York Post, by David Propper Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/8/2025 7:21:54 AM Congestion pricing will likely remain in the heart of Manhattan until the fall under an agreement struck between the Trump administration and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority — before a federal judge then ultimately decides the controversial toll’s fate, according to court documents.
The revelation came Monday after the deal was conveyed to Judge Lewis Liman on Friday — the same day US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy rode the beleaguered city subway system with Mayor Eric Adams and ripped the MTA for its high spending.Congestion pricing will remain in the heart of Manhattan until at least the fall, according to court documents.
New York Post, by Charles Gasparino Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/6/2025 5:45:16 AM Wall Street’s Trump supporters — and they are legion — were riding high.
They cheered a completely sentient president who took office promising to enact a bold agenda of tax cuts, deregulation and un-woking college campuses, including Ivy League institutions many of them attended.
Then came the trade war. Trump is not only blowing up the markets (aka their livelihoods), they fear, but the economy and probably his presidency along with GOP control of Congress when the midterms come next year.
He could even be paving the way for the word-salad queen, Kamala Harris to re-emerge in 2028.
I’m not saying I subscribe to this doom and gloom.
American Thinker, by Clarice Feldman Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/6/2025 5:38:52 AM The two biggest stories of the week, as I see it, are the effects of demanding reciprocity in barriers to trade and the Supreme Court putting the leash on out-of-whack federal district court judges.
It’s my personal belief that the strongest nations have a large, productive middle class. In recent decades, domestic fiscal profligacy and unfair international trade practices have hollowed out countless working-class communities, emptied middle-class pockets, and steadily eroded middle-class lives. Both the Administration’s ordering of reciprocal tariffs and cutting wasteful and corrupt use of tax revenues seem to me an effort to return these people and communities to once-commonplace normal, decent, and dignified living.
Gatestone Institute, by Nils A. Haug Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/6/2025 5:25:51 AM The apparent normalization of jihadist-Islamist radicals, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, became frighteningly real when a video revealed that two Muslim immigrant nurses working in a Sydney hospital boasted that one of them had "killed Israeli patients" and the other had sworn to "let them die."
After local Sheikh Wesam Charkawi declared his support for the two nurses, "Pro-Palestinian teachers led dozens of schoolchildren in chants of 'Allahu Akbar' outside a western Sydney public school" in support. Charkawi, who is employed by the New South Wales Department of Education, was "ordered to work from home after defending the two nurses in an Instagram post."
American Thinker, by Charlton Allen Original Article Posted by Mercedes44 — 4/6/2025 5:24:01 AM When President Donald Trump slapped a fresh round of tariffs on European and Asian imports, the professional hand-wringers and legacy press clodpolls sprang into choreographed action.
Headlines and television anchors blared warnings of trade wars, economic isolation, and diplomatic fallout. The bureaucratic priesthood that worships at the altar of “free trade” without reciprocity—from Brussels to Brookings—launched into familiar homilies: tariffs are regressive, Trump is reckless, and globalism is gospel.
But let’s pause the hysteria momentarily and apply something vanishingly rare in today’s media-industrial complex: perspective.
The prevailing orthodoxy treats tariffs as anathema to prosperity—an outdated relic of 19th-century mercantilism. But this overlooks a simple truth: