Trump Throws Economy Into Chaos by Already Switching up on Tariffs

Negotiations between Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have delayed U.S. tariffs on America’s neighbor by at least a month.

The news came Monday after Trump reportedly spoke with Sheinbaum about her country’s commitments at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We had a good conversation with President Trump with great respect for our relationship and sovereignty; we reached a series of agreements,” Sheinbaum posted on X Monday morning.

“1. Mexico will immediately reinforce the northern border with 10,000 members of the National Guard to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States, particularly fentanyl. 2. The United States is committed to working to prevent the trafficking of high-powered weapons to Mexico,” she continued.

“3. Our teams will begin working today on two fronts: security and trade. 4. They are pausing tariffs for one month from now.”

The White House has not yet released an official statement on the sudden deal, but Trump did post about it on Truth Social.

He called the discussion a “very friendly conversation” and revealed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick would participate in negotiations with Mexican officials during the one-month pause on the tariffs.

“I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a ‘deal’ between our two Countries,” Trump wrote.

Trump signed an executive order on Saturday imposing a 25 percent tariff on goods and a 10 percent tariff on energy products from Canada and Mexico, as well as a 10 percent tariff raise on goods from China for the country’s purported failure to intervene in the dissemination of chemicals used to develop the lethal drug fentanyl. Practically overnight, the tariffs launched America and its biggest trading partners into a multinational trade war that raised prices on everything from gas to beer.

Canada immediately announced retaliatory tariffs of its own, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing an equal tariff hike on $20 billion in U.S. goods starting Tuesday. China, meanwhile, has vowed to bring a case against the United States before the World Trade Organization, the entity that oversees global commerce.

On Sunday, China’s Foreign Ministry threatened to take “necessary countermeasures to defend its legitimate rights and interests.”

“China calls on the United States to correct its wrongdoings, maintain the hard-won positive dynamics in the counternarcotics cooperation, and promote a steady, sound and sustainable development of China-U.S. relationship,” the ministry said.

The FBI is investigating more than 2,400 agents and employees who worked on cases related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

According to an internal FBI document obtained by NBC News, the agency is using its own case file management system to track down agents who worked on January 6–related cases. Targeted employees are being asked to fill out a questionnaire about their role in the investigation.

Employees must provide the information by Tuesday afternoon, ABC News reported. The request for information came from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove just days after the Justice Department swept its own agency of prosecutors who worked on January 6–related cases.

The FBI questionnaire asks agents what role they had in any of the cases, whether they made any arrests, and whether they appeared in court, among other things. It was sent to employees on Friday, the same day six senior FBI officials were ordered to resign if they didn’t want to be fired.

But the agency of more than 38,0000 employees is pushing back against the Justice Department’s incessant witch hunt for Donald Trump’s enemies, urging affected agents to hold their ground.

“Do NOT resign or offer to resign. While we would never advocate for physical non-compliance, you need to be clear your removal is not voluntary,” the FBI Agents Association wrote in an email obtained by CNN.

In a letter to Bove released Sunday, lawyers for implicated FBI agents warned that the firing of agents who worked on cases involving Trump is a “direct assault on the national security of American citizens.”

“If you proceed with terminations and/or public exposure of terminated employees’ identities, we stand ready to vindicate their rights through all available legal means,” the letter reads.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump are trying to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

In a live broadcast on his social media site X Sunday, Musk said the Trump administration was in the process of getting rid of the entire agency, saying, “It’s beyond repair.”

“As we dug into USAID it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms. If you have an apple with a worm in it, you can take the worm out. If you have a whole ball of worms, it’s hopeless,” Musk told his online audience. “USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple … that is why it’s gotta go. It’s beyond repair.”

USAID staff were sent an email telling them not to come into the office Monday unless they had  essential on-site duties. Trump seems to agree with Musk’s plan, telling reporters Sunday that the agency had “been run by a bunch of radical lunatics, and we’re getting them out … and then we’ll make a decision (on its future).”

Staffers at the agency say about 600 employees lost access to USAID computer systems overnight, and the Trump administration placed two security chiefs at the agency on leave over the weekend after they refused to turn over restricted classified information to Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” henchmen. On Saturday, the USAID website was taken down. 

Abby Maxman, president and CEO of prominent charity Oxfam America, said in a statement that “dismantling USAID would be a callous, destructive political power play that would have deadly consequences for millions of people living in dire humanitarian emergencies and extreme poverty.”

If Trump and the tech mogul–fascism enthusiast succeed in destroying the agency, it could have devastating results. USAID is the largest single contributor of humanitarian assistance worldwide, and the president’s foreign aid freeze last week has already wasted thousands of dollars’ worth of perishable food and forced international organizations to make hard decisions regarding their beneficiaries’ lives.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to walk back the aid freeze last week, only to cause more confusion, and this latest news about USAID is going to cause shock waves across the U.S. and the world. With the president’s ill-advised tariffs kicking in over the weekend as well, America’s international image is taking a nosedive.  

Canada is ready to fight fire with fire—and burn Republicans in the process.

As Trump’s aggressive 25 percent tariffs on the country went into effect at midnight, Canada responded with retaliatory tariffs of its own.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced over the weekend that the country will impose 25 percent tariffs on more than $105 billion worth of U.S. goods like alcohol, coffee, clothes, and furniture. On Sunday, he clarified the retaliation will also include “precision strikes” against red states, with tariffs on Kentucky whiskey, Florida oranges, and appliances from South Carolina, according to The Wall Street Journal. This set of tariffs drops Tuesday.

Canada also plans to levy another tariff on cars, trucks, and agriculture in three weeks. Ontario and British Columbia, some of the largest consumers of U.S. alcohol, are blocking its sale in those provinces after spending $700 million per year on them. And on Monday, Ontario dumped a $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Mexico, not to be outdone, planned to announce its own set of Republican-targeted retaliatory tariffs on Monday while also starting a “Made in Mexico” campaign. But at the last minute, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the two countries had come to an agreement delaying the start of Trump’s tariffs by at least one month.

Still, the trade war with Canada is expected to significantly hurt the consumer the most. Inflation will rise, as will unemployment. Even Trump himself knows this.

“THIS WILL BE THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA! WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!)” the president wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID. WE ARE A COUNTRY THAT IS NOW BEING RUN WITH COMMON SENSE — AND THE RESULTS WILL BE SPECTACULAR!!!”

We’ll see just how much pain red states are willing to bear for Trump’s trade war very soon.

This piece has been updated.

Donald Trump’s tariff war with the nation’s biggest trading partners will affect just about every sector of life for the average American.

Fox News compiled a list of items that are already affected by Trump’s executive order, which is slated to take effect on Tuesday.

Those products include groceries such as avocados, maple syrup, ground beef, cherry tomatoes, sugar, bananas, nuts, cooking oil, squash, cucumbers, strawberries, and pineapples. The order also had immediate ramifications for countless other business sectors, raising the price on everything from liquor to gas.

Children’s toys, shoes, beer and alcohol, and crude oil were all hit in Trump’s 25 percent tariff hike on Canada and Mexico, alongside an additional 10 percent tariff on China. Car manufacturers BMW, Audi, Nissan, and Mazda were also affected, as was American-owned Ford. And every industry that relies on lumber and steel, from artisan goods to construction, will also see mark-ups as the materials themselves become more costly.

Economic experts have always cautioned that Trump’s tariff plan would hurt the country. In a joint letter released before the election, nearly two dozen Nobel Prize–winning economists formally warned against Trump’s economic plan, arguing that the MAGA leader’s stiff tariff increases and tax cuts would spell disaster for the average American.

Economist Larry Summers reiterated that concern on Saturday after Trump announced the tariffs. “This is a ‘Stop or I’ll shoot myself in the foot’ threat. It defies economic logic,” Summers told CNN. “It means higher prices for consumers. It means more expensive inputs for American producers.”

Against his own promises, Donald Trump’s tariff plan will actually cost Americans more money, according to him.

For months on the campaign trail, Trump insisted—without evidence—that it would be other countries who footed the bill in negotiations, lowering the cost of goods in the United States while bringing more manufacturing employment stateside. But on Saturday, Trump’s executive order ushering in a steep 25 percent tariff on all goods and 10 percent tariff on energy products from Canada and Mexico—the country’s largest trade partners—effectively launched the nation into a trade war.

Trump’s executive order on the raised tariffs is set to take effect on Tuesday.

America’s two neighbors immediately announced retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an equal tariff hike on $20 billion in U.S. goods starting Tuesday, while Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would announce a “plan B” for trading with the American economy sometime Monday.

And Trump was forced to acknowledge that that will hurt. “We may have short term, some, a little pain, and people understand that, but, long term, the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world,” he told reporters Sunday at Joint Base Andrews.

“We have deficits with almost every country, not every country, but almost,” he continued. “And we’re going to change it. It’s been unfair. That’s why we owe $36 trillion; we have deficits with everybody.”

Meanwhile, the leaders of U.S. banks seem perfectly happy with the increased expenses. Speaking with CNBC on Sunday, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon—whose net worth is assessed at $2.8 billion—described tariffs as an “economic weapon” and said that if the fallout of Trump’s plan is inflation, then Americans should “get over it.”

“They’re an economic weapon, depending on how you use it,” Dimon said. “I would put it in perspective; if it’s a little inflationary but it’s good for national security, so be it. Get over it.”

Dimon also argued that Trump’s tariff plan could be used to settle “unfair trade” with America’s allies.

But economic experts have always believed that Trump’s tariff plan would hurt the country. In a joint letter released before the election, nearly two dozen Nobel Prize–winning economists formally warned against Trump’s economic plan, arguing that the MAGA leader’s stiff tariff increases and tax cuts would spell disaster for the average American.

Economist Larry Summers reiterated that concern on Saturday after Trump announced the tariffs. “This is a ‘Stop or I’ll shoot myself in the foot’ threat. It defies economic logic,” Summers told CNN. “It means higher prices for consumers. It means more expensive inputs for American producers.”

Trump falsely claimed in December that Mexico and Canada’s trade deficits with the U.S. were “subsidies,” rather than indicators that America’s neighbors are purchasing more goods from the U.S. than they sell to it. In 2023, that differential—or deficit, as Trump insists—was nearly $41 billion with Canada and $162 billion with Mexico, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Trump also vastly overinflated the reality of the deficits, wrongly asserting that the U.S. is “subsidizing” its neighbors to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars each.

Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” deputies have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal information of millions of federal workers.

Reuters, citing two anonymous sources, reported Friday that senior career officials at the Office of Personnel Management, the governing agency for the federal workforce, have had their access to department data revoked. They lost access to the Enterprise Human Resources Integration database, which includes the dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades, and length of service of government workers.

“We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems,” one of the officials said to Reuters about DOGE’s activities. “That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”

There is good reason to be concerned. Musk’s other efforts led to the setup of a new email server in OPM offices tasked with sending mass emails to every single federal employee. The server has already resulted in a lawsuit over potential privacy and security issues and led to a flood of spam emails being sent to various federal workers on Thursday.

Musk has installed his own loyal underlings at OPM to slash the federal workforce and convince government employees to take early “buyout” offers, though the plan looks more like simply asking workers to quit. That offer was met with a backlash from civil servants, resulting in Musk and President Trump doubling down on their proposal.

It’s a clear attempt to sweep Trump’s adversaries out of the federal workforce. The president, through Musk, has already forced out a senior Treasury Department employee over access to key government payment systems, responsible for $6 trillion of money disbursement around the country. How successful will Musk and Trump’s purge of the federal government be?

On Friday, almost immediately after the Trump administration announced that tariffs against China, Mexico, and Canada will begin on Saturday, the stock market plunged.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that tariffs of 25 percent would be implemented against Canada and Mexico, and a 10 percent tariff against China.

Right after the announcement, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 all suffered losses. As of publication time, the three indexes had fallen 350 points, 87 points, and 30 points, respectively.

Leavitt told reporters that the full details of the tariffs would be released when they are implemented, but all three countries have said they would respond. Canada has pledged to retaliate with tariffs of its own in a “forceful but reasonable” manner, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“I won’t sugarcoat it—our nation could be facing difficult times in the coming days and weeks,” Trudeau said to an advisory council on Canada-U.S. relations Friday. “I know Canadians might be anxious and worried, but I want them to know the federal government—and indeed, all orders of government—have their backs.”

Mexico also plans to institute its own tariffs against the United States, and China said it will “firmly defend” its interests. Regardless, Trump claims that his tariffs will force other countries to comply with his policies and raise money for the federal government, even though they’re more likely to hurt the economy as well as the average American. Beginning this weekend, Americans, whether they support Trump or not, may experience some sticker shock if they go shopping.

President Donald Trump is doubling down on his ultimatum to federal employees, sending yet another wretched email on Thursday that practically begs employees to take “deferred resignation” and leave the public sector.

The email, titled “Fork in the Road FAQ,” answered a number of questions clarifying the details of Trump’s “buyout” offer that was announced earlier this week.

The Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, sent an email to more than two million federal employees on Tuesday presenting them with the option to either return to the office full-time and adhere to “enhanced standards” of conduct or resign by February 6 and receive severance pay until September 30.

The offer naturally sparked confusion and outrage, and the “Fork in the Road FAQ” is a feeble attempt to provide federal employees with clarity and supposedly appealing incentives to quit. The memo made clear that employees who chose to resign would not have to work throughout their eight months of severance pay.

In response to a question about vacation, the OPM wrote that employees who resign are welcome to “stay at home and relax or to travel to your dream destination.”

The email also encouraged employees to get a second job while they’re on leave.

“The greater way to American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector,” the email reads, insulting the work of millions who dedicated their careers to the civil service.

The message is a blatant and desperate attempt to sweep the federal workforce clear of the president’s adversaries, and is uncannily similar to a memo from Elon Musk to Twitter employees in 2022. Musk encouraged Twitter (now X) staffers to resign unless they could commit to being “extremely hardcore.”

As nearly all of Trump’s promises are, the offer is also fraught with legal concerns. The OPM can’t promise paid leave for federal employees in agencies other than its own, and government funding is only guaranteed through March 14, not September 30.

A New York doctor has been indicted for trying to provide a patient with abortion pills across state lines.

Dr. Margaret Carpenter, her company Nightingale Medical, PC, and an unnamed third person have all been charged with “criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs,” for allegedly prescribing an abortion pill to a patient living in Louisiana, where a near-total abortion ban is in place. A Louisiana grand jury indicted all three.

This appears to be the first time a doctor has been charged with prescribing abortion pills in a state with anti-abortion laws—but it won’t be the last.

The news comes just a couple months after Louisiana reclassified abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol as “controlled dangerous substances,” making them harder for state residents to access. The new law states that anyone who has mifepristone or misoprostol without a valid prescription can be fined up to $5,000 or face up to five years in jail.

Louisiana’s draconian laws extend beyond the pills. The state has essentially had a complete ban on abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and has zero exceptions for incest or rape. Doctors found guilty of conducting abortions illegally can face up to 15 years in prison and lose their medical license.

“I have said it before, and I will say it again: We will hold individuals accountable for breaking the law,” Louisiana’s Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill said on Friday.

This indictment may also result in New York using its shield laws for the first time, which are aimed to protect doctors who prescribe potentially lifesaving abortion care to patients in states where abortion is illegal. The state of Texas has already sued Carpenter on similar grounds.

Most abortions in the U.S. are done via pill as of 2023. Carpenter’s indictment—and the rest that are surely to come—will force physicians to choose between the training and creed they know and the political whims of their president.