TARIFFS AND TRADE: With Trump's Aug. 1 revised tariffs deadline looming, world leaders and businesses across the globe are scrambling to untangle the situation. Trade deals with the U.S., when they exist, have proven vague, and the president has often pushed back deadlines and adjusted tariff rates for individual countries and multi-member blocs after initial negotiations.
Trump on Saturday threatened to slap 30 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and the European Union. The president's announcements took aim at two of Washington's largest trading partners and threatened to upend the global economy if implemented. U.S.-E.U. trade in goods totaled nearly $1 trillion last year. The U.S. and Mexico are linked in a North American trading zone under a trade agreement negotiated during Trump's first term. Almost $840 billion in goods pass between them.
French President Emmanuel Macron called on the EU to "defend European interests resolutely" after Trump's latest tariff threat.
"It is more than ever up to the commission to assert the union's determination to defend European interests resolutely," Macron said on the social platform X. "In particular, this implies accelerating the preparation of credible countermeasures, by mobilising all the instruments at its disposal, including anti-coercion, if no agreement is reached by 1 August."
▪ The Hill: Here's a running list of Trump's tariff letters to various countries.
▪ The Atlantic: Households will pay an average of $2,400 more for goods this year due to Trump's policies, experts estimate.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: Economists expect stronger growth and job creation and a lower risk of recession.
Since Trump first announced his slate of "reciprocal" tariffs on April 2, trade negotiators representing various countries have scrambled to keep up. Trump has pushed back deadlines at the drop of a hat. Some negotiations have faltered at the eleventh hour, requiring concessions — such as Canada abandoning its digital services tax — to restart.
At times the tariffs have also appeared tied to issues beyond trade. With Brazil, Trump has gone after the country's prosecution of its former president. And Trump has accused Canada of not doing enough to curb the flow of fentanyl over the northern border.
Airlangga Hartarto, the Indonesian minister for economic affairs, met with U.S. officials in Washington on Wednesday. He described talks with Washington to The New York Times like "going through a labyrinth" and arriving "back to Square 1."
"We're still far away from making real deals," Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomics at ING Research in Germany, told the Times, saying the uncertainty is "poison" for the global economy.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Sunday defended Trump's 50 percent tariff against Brazil — a country with which the U.S. has a trade surplus.
On ABC News's "This Week," Hassett said the president has the authority to impose new tariffs if he thinks there is a national defense emergency or a national security threat.
"The bottom line is that what we're doing absolutely, collectively across every country is we're onshoring production in the U.S. to reduce the national emergency, that is, that we have a massive trade deficit that's putting us at risk should we need production in the U.S. because of a national security crisis," he said.
Trump's letter announcing the tariffs on Brazil focused on the ongoing criminal case against his political ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro.
▪ The New York Times: Most nations are still negotiating with the U.S. in hopes of avoiding punitive tariffs. At the same time, they're looking to diversify their trading partners.
EPSTEIN FILES: Trump over the weekend defended Attorney General Pam Bondi amid continued fallout over the Trump administration's handling of material related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Bondi is doing "a FANTASTIC JOB" in her role and called into conservative activist Charlie Kirk's radio show to express his support for the attorney general.
Bondi on Sunday also made an appearance in Trump's box at the FIFA Club World Cup final in New Jersey, where the president participated in the award ceremony after Chelsea beat Paris Saint-Germain, 3-0.
The attorney general has faced backlash from MAGA allies after promising earlier this year to release files on Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in jail. The Justice Department and FBI issued a memo this month concluding Epstein had no "client list" and killed himself, despite theories otherwise long pushed in conservative circles.
Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino has been at the center of the internal fighting over the Epstein situation, with a source familiar confirming to The Hill that he was furious over how the documents were handled.
Trump was asked Sunday by reporters if Bongino, previously a far-right podcaster, was still the deputy FBI director, and whether they had spoken recently.
"Oh I think so. I did, I spoke to him today. Dan Bongino, very good guy. I've known him a long time. I've done his show many many times. He sounded terrific, actually. No, I think he's in good shape," Trump said.
▪ The Hill: Bondi reportedly fired several Department of Justice employees with ties to former special counsel Jack Smith, who probed Trump's handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
▪ The New York Times: The FBI is using polygraphs to test officials' loyalty.
FLOOD RESPONSE: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday said a new Federal Emergency Management Agency rule she initiated for contracts approval did not delay federal responses to deadly flooding in Texas, as reported by news outlets. "Absolutely false," she told NBC's "Meet the Press."
ELMO, NO: The "Sesame Street" Elmo account on social media platform X was hacked Sunday with an antisemitic post, among others, and references to Trump and Epstein. The posts were later deleted.
"Elmo's X account was compromised today by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts," a spokeswoman for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind "Sesame Street," said in a statement.
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