Trump’s previous tariff push terrified the world economy. He’s betting this time is different

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By JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump last rolled out tariffs this high, financial markets quaked, consumer confidence crashed and his popularity plunged.

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Only three months later, he’s betting this time is different.

In his new round of tariffs being announced this week, Trump is essentially tethering the entire world economy to his instinctual belief that import taxes will deliver factory jobs and stronger growth in the U.S., rather than the inflation and slowdown predicted by many economists.

On Tuesday, he told his Cabinet that past presidents who hadn’t aggressively deployed tariffs were “stupid.” Ever the salesman, Trump added that it was “too time-consuming” to try to negotiate trade deals with the rest of the world, so it was just easier to send them letters, as he’s doing this week, that list the tariff rates on their goods.

The letters marked a change from his self-proclaimed April 2 “Liberation Day” event at the White House, where he had posterboards with the rates displayed, a choice that led to a brief market meltdown and the 90-day negotiating period with baseline 10% tariffs that will end Wednesday. Trump, instead, chose to send form letters with random capitalizations and punctuation and other formatting issues.

“It’s a better way,” Trump said of his letters. “It’s a more powerful way. And we send them a letter. You read the letter. I think it was well crafted. And, mostly it’s just a little number in there: You’ll pay 25%, 35%. We have some of at 60, 70.”

When Trump said those words, he had yet to issue a letter with a tariff rate higher than 40%, which he levied Monday on Laos and Myanmar. He plans to put 25% tariffs on Japan and South Korea, two major trading partners and allies deemed crucial for curbing China’s economic influence. Leaders of the 14 countries tariffed so far hope to negotiate over the next three weeks before the higher rates are charged on imports.

“I would say that every case I’m treating them better than they treated us over the years,” Trump said.

Three possible outcomes

His approach is at odds with how major trade agreements have been produced over the last half-century, detailed sessions that could sometimes take years to solve complex differences between nations.

There are three possible outcomes to this political and economic wager, each of which could drastically reshape international affairs and Trump’s legacy.

Trump could prove most economic experts wrong and the tariffs could deliver growth as promised. Or he could retreat again on tariffs before their Aug. 1 start in a repeat of the “Trump Always Chickens Out” phenomenon, also known as TACO. Or he could damage the economy in ways that could boomerang against the communities that helped return him to the White House last year, as well as hurt countries that are put at a financial disadvantage by the tariffs.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said Trump’s letters had “extended his tariff purgatory for another month,” essentially freezing in place the U.S. economy as CEOs, foreign leaders and consumers are unclear of Trump’s actual strategy on foreign trade.

“The TACO negotiating tactic pioneered by Trump is making his threats less and less credible and reducing our trading partners’ willingness to even meet us halfway,” Wyden said. “There’s no sign that he’s any closer to striking durable trade deals that would actually help American workers and businesses.”

So far, the stock and bond markets are relatively calm, with the S&P 500 stock index essentially flat Tuesday after a Monday decline. Trump is coming off a legislative win with his multitrillion-dollar income tax cuts. And he’s confidently levying tariffs at levels that previously rocked global markets, buoyed by the fact that inflation has eased so far instead of accelerating as many economists and Democratic rivals had warned.

“By floating tariffs as high as 40% to even 100%, the administration has ‘normalized’ the 25% tariff hikes — yet this is still one of the most aggressive and disruptive tariff moves in modern history,” said Wendong Zhang, an economist at Cornell University. “This gradual unveiling, paradoxically, risks normalizing what would otherwise be considered exceptionally large tariff hikes.”

Others simply see Trump as a source of nonstop chaos, with the letters and their somewhat random tariff rates showing the absence of a genuine policy process inside his administration.

“It’s really just a validation that this policy is all over the place, that they’re running this by the seat of their pants, that there is no real strategy,” said Desmond Lachman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank.

Questions about how much money tariffs will generate

With Trump’s 90-day tariff negotiation period ending, he has so far sent letters to 14 countries that place taxes on imported goods ranging from 25% to 40%. He said he would sign an order Tuesday to place 50% tariffs on copper and said at the Cabinet meeting that at some point pharmaceutical drugs could face tariffs of as much as 200%. All of that is on top of his existing 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum, 25% tariffs on autos and his separate import taxes on Canada, Mexico and China.

“The obvious inference is that markets for now are somewhat skeptical that Trump will go through with it, or alternatively they think compromises will be reached,” said Ben May, a director of global economic research at the consultancy Oxford Economics. “That’s probably the key element.”

May said the tariffs are likely to reduce the growth in U.S. household incomes, but not cause those incomes to shrink outright.

Trump has said his tariffs would close U.S. trade imbalances, though it’s unclear why he would target nations such as Tunisia that do relatively little trade with America. Administration officials say trillions of dollars in tariff revenues over the next decade would help offset the revenue losses from the continuation and expansion of his 2017 tax cuts that were signed into law Friday.

The federal government has collected $98.2 billion in tariff revenues so far this year, more than double what it collected last year, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

At Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the tariff revenues could be “well over $300 billion by the end of the year.” Bessent added that “we don’t agree” with the Congressional Budget Office estimate that tariffs would bring in $2.8 trillion over 10 years, “which we think is probably low.”

The governments of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and South Africa have each said they hope for further negotiations on tariffs with Trump, though it’s unclear how that’s possible as Trump has said it would be too “complicated” to hold all those meetings.

Instead on Tuesday, Trump posted on social media that the tariffs would be charged as scheduled starting Aug. 1.

“There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change,” Trump said on Truth Social. “No extensions will be granted. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Second defendant admits to role in fatal shooting of South St. Paul father during marijuana robbery

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An accomplice in the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old South St. Paul man during a marijuana robbery has admitted to his role in the slaying.

Tre Manuel Iglesias (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

Tre Manuel Iglesias, 24, of St. Paul, pleaded guilty Monday to aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony for the 2023 killing of Avontae Troy King, who died of a gunshot to the chest outside his home.

King had gone outside to go after Andrew Michael Fisher, who had grabbed a bag of marijuana off King’s table and ran out of the home. Fisher turned around and fired once, hitting King in the chest. Fisher and Iglesias sped away.

In August, Fisher, 21, of Cambridge, Minn., was sentenced to just shy of 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to the same charge. The length of the sentence was part of a plea deal he reached with prosecutors.

Iglesias’ plea document does not include a proposed term he will receive at sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 18. Two other counts will be dismissed: aiding and abetting second-degree intentional homicide and first-degree aggravated robbery.

Iglesias entered the plea at a hearing set for a jury trial, which was to begin this week.

King was a father of two boys, who were ages 4 and 2 at the time of his killing.

‘Shoot him’

According to court documents, Fisher and Iglesias went to King’s home in the 400 block of Third Avenue South on Nov. 24, 2023. After Fisher grabbed the marijuana, he and Iglesias ran. King was close behind. Fisher, while standing on the sidewalk, turned and shot King, and they fled the scene in Iglesias’ vehicle.

A neighbor told police it was just before 5 p.m. when he heard someone outside yell, “shoot him,” so he ran to his front window and saw three people moving quickly down the street. He said as the two men moved past a car parked in the street, one of them turned around and shot King, who fell to the ground and rolled in front of the car.

Andrew Michael Fisher (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

The neighbor said the two men, who were wearing dark-colored hoodies, got into an older, black Chevrolet sedan. He called 911 and provided aid to King, who was lying in the street. He was unarmed.

King did not have a pulse when police arrived on scene. He was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

Later that night, Iglesias reported to law enforcement that he was there during the shooting.

Iglesias told investigators that Fisher had been staying on his couch for the last week. He said Fisher asked him for a ride and that they went to the South St. Paul home. He said Fisher, while standing on the sidewalk near the grassy part of the curb, shot King. Iglesias said he drove the car from the scene, according to the charges.

A woman told investigators she was at Iglesias’ residence that night when he and Fisher arrived there. Fisher asked her for a ride to Cambridge and she agreed. He changed out of his clothes. She said that during the drive, Fisher “mentioned shooting someone,” the charges say.

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Lolo Jones’ Olympic Training Center ban rescinded

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Team USA world champion bobsledder Lolo Jones has been granted access to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York, nearly five months after she was banned from the facility following a verbal confrontation with a member of the center’s sports medicine staff after she was denied approved medical treatment, the Southern California News Group has learned.

An attorney for the USOPC informed Jones, a two-time world champion in both track and field and bobsled, on July 3 that she would have access to housing, the weight room, sports medicine personnel and facilities and training table/nutrition for a USA Bobsled and Skeleton high performance camp at the OPTC starting July 24 should USABS request access for her, according to USOPC documents obtained by the SCNG.

The USOPC letter came a day before the deadline to apply for the high performance camp, eight weeks after Jones requested a mediation hearing with the USOPC,  and seven months before she hopes to compete in a fourth Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina, according to interviews with five people familiar with the case and USOC and USABS documents obtained by the SCNG.

Jones’ suspension has continued even though USOPC officials acknowledged she was wrongly denied medical treatment late on the afternoon of Feb. 28, a decision that prompted the verbal confrontation. The USOPC did not interview eyewitnesses, according to Jones, a USABS official, and three other people familiar with the case.

RELATED: SPECIAL REPORT: Lolo Jones banned from Olympic Training Center

Other Olympians, Team USA members and a USA BS official describe the suspension of Jones, 42, as excessive, arbitrary, retaliatory and based on little if any investigation by USOPC officials. The case, Jones and her supporters maintain, also raises serious questions about the medical care America’s Olympic hopefuls are receiving at the OPTC in Lake Placid.

“This case is a glaring example of the need for a complete overhaul of the USOPC’s medical system,” said John Manly, Jones’ Orange County-based attorney.

The suspension and the decision not to lift it, Manly said “comes from the very top of the Olympic committee which is Sarah Hirschland,” the USOPC’s CEO.

The USOPC has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

Manly was especially critical of USOPC board member Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general.

“The USOPC has made a big deal about how ‘we care for athletes’ after Nassar,” Manly said. “In reality nothing has changed. (Murthy) has taken no active role in understanding why the (USOPC) medical system is so bad. Anybody that truly cared about the (USOPC’s) mission, which was enacted by Congress and is to take care of athletes, no competent person would think this is OK.”

Murthy’s office referred questions to the USOPC.

Under the USOPC suspension, Jones has been denied access to training facilities such as the center’s weight room, sports medicine clinic and personnel, and housing and nutritional resources at a critical training period, according to USOPC documents obtained by the SCNG and interviews with Jones and four other people familiar with the case. The suspension has created competitive, financial and emotional obstacles, Jones said, that jeopardize her bid to compete in what would be her second Winter Olympics and fourth overall. The former LSU track and field star competed in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.

Jones has spent approximately $100,000 on medical and training expenses because of the suspension, Manly said. Jones has been training at LSU, where she was an NCAA hurdles champion, since the ban.

The two-time World champion in bobsled, suffering severe pain and incontinence from a training-related back injury, was initially banned from the OPTC sports medicine area March 1, a day after she called John Faltus, a top official at the USOPC Medical Clinic at the training center, “a horrible f—— human being,” during a verbal exchange after a previously scheduled treatment was canceled without explanation just days before the World Championships in Lake Placid, according to OPTC emails and interviews. Jones confirmed in an interview with SCNG that she swore at Faltus.

Faltus also alleges that Jones made an obscene gesture toward him, an allegation Jones denies.

“This behavior is a direct violation of the OPTC Code of Conduct,” Julie Marra, director of the USOPC Training Center in Lake Placid, wrote in a March 1 email to Jones. “This conduct is unacceptable, and I want to make it clear that such behavior cannot be tolerated.”

But Marra did not cite a specific violation of the code in the email or subsequently, according to documents and five people familiar with the case. The closest the code comes to directly addressing swearing or verbal altercations is one brief passage: “Unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated, including but not limited to, the following: Any act of violation of offenses, as listed in the USOPC Background Check Policy or adjudicated of federal, state, or local laws.”

The OPTC code, a USABS official acknowledged, “is arbitrary.”

“To this day,” Jones wrote in an email to SCNG, “no one has told me: Who found me in violation, what exact rule or code I broke, or what part of the Code of Conduct was allegedly violated.”

Marra and Faltus have not responded to multiple requests for comment.

“If we banned every Olympic athlete that dropped an F-bomb we’d be in big trouble,” Manly said.

Ben Towne, the OPTC trainer, set up an appointment with the sports medicine clinic for Jones to receive a massage, the first step in treating and diagnosing the back injury, according OPTC protocol. But Jones was informed after arriving at the clinic Feb. 28 that her appointment had been canceled without explanation.

Towne will be Jones’ point of contact with the OPTC sports medicine clinic beginning July 24.

Although Jones was told Faltus canceled the treatment because she was only entitled to one massage per week and she had already had a massage that week, she said: “I have never received a written explanation for why I was denied medical treatment? This is especially alarming given that I was recovering from an injury I sustained while representing Team USA. The USOPC claims to support athlete health, but in this case, they failed to uphold that duty of care.”

“One massage a week for 50 minutes for one of our top Olympians,” Manly said. “If you get hurt in prison, you get an MRI. The medical system in the federal prison system is literally better than the USOPC’s. What are we doing?

“Prisoners get better treatment than Olympians?”

Jones paid to have an MRI done after the World Championships, which revealed a herniated disc with a disc bulge, and tears in her L3, L4 and L5 vertebrae with spinal fluid leaking out.

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Napheesa Collier on an impressive streak of free-throw perfection

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Alanna Smith blocked Rachel Banham’s potential game-tying 3-point attempt with nine ticks to play in Minnesota’s game against Chicago on Sunday.

Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier celebrates her three-point basket against the Phoenix Mercury in the fourth quarter of Game 2 of a WNBA basketball first-round playoff game Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, in Minneapolis. (Bruce Kluckhohn / Associated Press)

Napheesa Collier grabbed the loose ball and was immediately fouled by Banham.

Ballgame.

Sure, Collier still had to hit at least one free throw with eight seconds to play to extend the Lynx’s lead to two possessions. But at this point, that was all but a formality.

Of course, she hit both to secure Minnesota’s 80-75 victory.

That’s what Collier does, on top of literally everything else.

Those made free throws were Collier’s 44th and 45th in a row, setting a new franchise record. The previous mark was 44, set by Candice Wiggins 15 years ago.

“Don’t jinx it,” Lynx wing Diamond Miller told the media when the subject was broached after the Chicago game.

As if something like that could stop Collier.

The player who’s sound in everything she does has now seemingly mastered one of the games most basic fundamentals that is so frequently the difference between winning and losing.

After hovering around the 80% mark – a strong number in its own right – Collier is hitting 95.4% of her attempts this season.

“That’s what Phee been doing all season long for us,” Lynx guard Courtney Williams said. “We’re confident when she be stepping up to the line.”

Collier and Kayla McBride alike. McBride was on her own personal streak, hitting 36 straight free-throws prior to missing two on Sunday.

Minnesota is armed with two of the lethalist free-throw shooters in the WNBA. Entering Tuesday’s action, 32 players had shot 50-plus times from the stripe this season. Collier is first among them in free-throw percentage, while McBride is second (94.1).

“Yeah, it’s like first to raise their hand to get the tech foul (shots) and all that,” Collier joked.

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve noted she has no role in those discussions. Whichever of their two sharpshooters have the ball at the stripe late in tight games, Minnesota knows it’s in a good position to close out yet another victory.

“They’re our closers,” Williams said. “Either one of them step up to that line, we’re all confident they’re going to step their game up.”

 

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