President Donald Trump is holding firm on his threats to hit trade partners with tariffs if they don’t sign a deal in the coming weeks.
While Trump has been able to get numerous countries to come to the table to negotiate, there are still quite a few who are holding out.
The clock recently ran out on Trump’s prior deadline extension, so he is putting stock market concerns aside and hitting everyone with blanket tariffs.
Don’t care
On Thursday, Trump announced that the blanket tariffs were about to hit, with what seems to be a range of between 15% and 20% in most cases, but there were some significantly higher tariffs revealed.
Trump stated, “We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it’s 20% or 15%. We’ll work that out now.”
He went on, “I think the tariffs have been very well received. The stock market hit a new high today.”
Hasbro’s CEO announced that if Trump’s tariffs stayed in place, the company would have no choice but to raise prices, just in time for Christmas shopping, of course, but the president pushed back on that as well.
Trump stated, “I don’t know. I didn’t hear anything about Hasbro. I don’t care about their prices. But if they make their toys here, if they made their toys here, they wouldn’t have a price increase.”
One of the countries Trump hit hardest is Brazil, now facing a 50% tariff, with many of the Asian countries seeing tariffs of 25% or higher.
Trump also addressed his concerns with regard to Russia during the interview, announcing a major statement on his dealings with the country on Monday.
In the meantime, Trump addressed the resumption of arms shipments to Ukraine, stating, “We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%. So what we’re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and NATO is paying for those weapons.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been working on legislation that would enable Trump to drop the hammer on Russia with new sanctions. Trump commented on that, stating, “It’s a bill that the Senate is passing that very respectfully lets the president do whatever he wants, as you know.”
He added, “In other words, it’s at my option if I want to use it. They’re going to pass a very major and very biting sanctions bill, but it’s up to the president as to whether or not he wants to exercise it.”
I would say do whatever Trump needs to apply maximum pressure to get the war with Ukraine over, so it stops being a money funnel of American taxpayer dollars. Trump has to negotiate an ending to that war before the 2026 cycle gets going, or it is just one more thing that Democrats will hold over his head and that of the broader GOP to try to take the House back in the midterm cycle.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: G. McConway
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.conservativejournalreview.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
