Trump raises tariffs on Chinese goods as trade war escalates
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump angrily escalated his trade fight with China on Friday, raising retaliatory tariffs and ordering American companies to consider alternatives to doing business there.
He also blamed Jerome Powell, the man he appointed as chairman of the Federal Reserve, for the state of the domestic economy, wondering who was a “bigger enemy” of the U.S. — Powell or Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Even by the turbulent standards of the Trump presidency, his actions, all done via Twitter, were notable, sending markets sharply lower and adding to a sense of uncertainty on the eve of his trip to France for a meeting of global economic powers.
Trump’s move came after Beijing announced Friday morning that it had raised taxes on U.S. products. He huddled with advisers, firing off tweets that attacked China and the Fed. And he mockingly attributed a Wall Street drop of 573 points to the withdrawal of a marginal candidate from the Democratic presidential race. The Dow Jones average eventually closed down 623 points.
The president attacked the Fed for not lowering rates at an informal gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where no such action was under consideration. Powell, speaking to central bankers, gave vague assurances that the Fed would act to sustain the nation’s economic expansion, but noted that the central bank had limited tools to deal with damage from the trade dispute.
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‘Our bigger enemy’: Trump escalates attack on Fed chief
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump launched a furious and highly personal Twitter attack Friday against the Federal Reserve and Chairman Jerome Powell, fuming that the Fed once more “did NOTHING!” and wondering who is “our bigger enemy” — Powell or China’s leader.
The outburst came after Powell, speaking to central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, gave vague assurances that the Fed “will act as appropriate” to sustain the nation’s economic expansion. While the phrasing was widely seen as meaning interest rate cuts, he offered no hint of whether or how many reductions might be coming the rest of the year.
Powell had barely finished speaking before Trump escalated his criticism of the Fed, which he has repeatedly accused of keeping rates too high. For months, the president has ridiculed Powell, the man he picked to lead the Fed.
“As usual, the Fed did NOTHING!” Trump tweeted, adding, “We have a very strong dollar and a very weak Fed.” He went further by saying: “My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powel (sic) or Chairman Xi?” — a reference to China’s President Xi Jinping. Trump later corrected the name spelling.
Asked by reporters late Friday if he wanted Powell to resign, Trump responded, “Let me put it this way: If he did I wouldn’t stop him.”
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US stocks tumble as US-China trade war rattles investors
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 600 points Friday after the latest escalation in the trade war between the U.S. and China rattled investors. The broad sell-off sent the S&P 500 to its fourth straight weekly loss.
Stocks tumbled after President Donald Trump responded angrily on Twitter following China’s announcement of new tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. goods. In one of his tweets he “hereby ordered” U.S. companies with operations in China to consider moving them to other countries — including the U.S.
Trump also said he’d respond directly to the tariffs — and after the market closed he delivered, announcing that the U.S. would increase existing tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese goods to 30% from 25%, and that new tariffs on another $300 billion of imports would be 15% instead of 10%. Those announcements are likely to influence stock markets in Asia when trading opens there Monday.
Friday’s developments mark the latest escalation of an ongoing trade dispute between Washington and Beijing that has given investors whiplash as they try to assess its potential impact on the global economy. The tweets from Trump around 11 a.m. ignited a wave of selling as investors fled stocks in favour of U.S. government bonds, pushing yields higher. The price of gold also rose.
“The market is spooked by the escalation in the trade war,” said Janet Johnston, portfolio manager at TrimTabs Asset Management. “Investors are looking for an endgame and we haven’t seen it yet.”
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Is Trump’s economic team up for a trade war?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a trade war against China that has shaken the global economy, President Donald Trump gathered his most trusted economic aides in the Oval Office.
The assembled brain trust for Friday’s urgent consultations included an economics chief best known for his stint as a cable TV commentator; a trade adviser whose pro-tariff views are outside the economic mainstream; and a treasury secretary (joining by phone on his way back from vacation) who made millions off the housing crisis and then turned to financing Hollywood movies.
Where past presidents have relied on top academics, business leaders and officials with experience in prior administrations, Trump has gone a different route, building a crew of economic advisers known more for their allegiance to him than their policy chops.
Now, facing a test caused largely by Trump’s determination to force China to provide the U.S. with better trade terms, questions are mounting about whether the team is up to the challenges that lie ahead — and whether Trump would listen to them anyway.
The key for any president in a moment of economic uncertainty is to have a talented team of advisers he can listen to and trust, said Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist who was a top aide to President Barack Obama.
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N. Korea test-fires missiles again after joint drills end
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Saturday in the seventh weapons launch in a month, South Korea’s military said, a day after it threatened to remain America’s biggest threat in protest of U.S.-led sanctions on the country.
The North had been expected to halt weapons tests because the 10-day U.S.-South Korean drills, which it views as an invasion rehearsal, ended earlier this week.
President Donald Trump downplayed the latest launch.
“Kim Jong Un has been, you know, pretty straight with me. … He likes testing missiles but we never restricted short-range missiles. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters outside the White House late Friday night.
Saturday’s launches were made from northeastern South Hamgyong province, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. They flew about 380 kilometres (236 miles) at the maximum altitude of 97 kilometres (60 miles), the military said.
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Supreme Court: Ginsburg treated for tumour on pancreas
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has completed radiation therapy for a cancerous tumour on her pancreas and there is no evidence of the disease remaining, the Supreme Court said Friday.
It is the fourth time that the 86-year-old justice has announced that she has been treated for cancer over the last two decades and follows lung cancer surgery in December that kept her away from the court for weeks. December’s surgery was her first illness-related absence from the court since being appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993 and prompted even closer attention to her health.
As the court’s oldest member, Ginsburg has been asked questions for years about her health and retirement plans. She has also in recent years attracted particularly enthusiastic fans as the leader of the liberal wing of the court, which includes four members appointed by Democratic presidents and five by Republicans. Both liberals and conservatives watch her health closely because it’s understood the court would shift right for decades if President Donald Trump were to get the ability to nominate someone to replace her.
Asked late Friday about Ginsburg, Trump said: “I’m hoping she’s going to be fine. She’s been through a lot. She’s strong. She’s very tough. But we wish her well. Very well.”
The court kept Ginsburg’s latest cancer secret for three weeks, until she finished radiation treatment. Yet there is no obligation for justices to disclose details about their health, and Ginsburg has generally made more information available than some of her colleagues. Retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, for example, had a stent inserted to open a blocked artery in 2005 but the public only learned about it 10 months later when he returned to the hospital to have it replaced.
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Bolsonaro to send army to fight huge fires in the Amazon
PORT VELHO, Brazil (AP) — Under international pressure to contain fires sweeping parts of Brazil’s Amazon, President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday authorized use of the military to battle the huge blazes while thousands took to the streets to protest his environmental policies.
Brazilian forces will deploy starting Saturday to border areas, indigenous territories and other affected regions in the Amazon to assist in putting out fires for a month, according to a presidential decree authorizing use of the army.
The military will “act strongly” to control the wildfires, Bolsonaro promised as he signed the decree.
The armed forces will collaborate with public security and environmental protection agencies, the decree says.
“The protection of the forest is our duty,” the president said. “We are aware of that and will act to combat deforestation and criminal activities that put people at risk in the Amazon. We are a government of zero tolerance for crime, and in the environmental field it will not be different.”
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Billionaire conservative donor David Koch dies at 79
NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaire industrialist David H. Koch, who with his older brother Charles poured a fortune into right-wing causes, transforming the American political landscape and shaping U.S. policies on such issues as climate change and government regulation, died Friday at 79.
The cause of death was not disclosed, but Koch Industries said Koch, who lived in New York City, had contended for years with various illnesses, including prostate cancer.
A chemical engineer by training, Koch was an executive in the family-run conglomerate, the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 1980 and a major benefactor of educational, medical and cultural organizations.
But he and his brother became best known for building a political network dubbed the “Kochtopus” for its many-tentacled support of conservative and libertarian causes, candidates and think tanks, including the Cato Institute.
The brothers in 2004 founded the anti-tax, small-government group Americans for Prosperity, which remains one of the most powerful conservative organizations in U.S. politics, and they were an important influence on the tea party movement.
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NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the real facts:
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CLAIM: Photographs shared on social media show recent fires burning in the Amazon.
THE FACTS: Several dramatic photos of fires in the Amazon that circulated widely on Twitter and Facebook this week are not current. Three of the most shared photos were published between 2009 and 2018. One photo, taken at night, was shot in 2008 by Daniel Beltra for Greenpeace. Beltra said the photo — which shows flames spreading under trees with the ground aglow — was published in 2009 in a book for Prince Charles of England titled “Rainforests: Lifebelt for an Endangered Planet.” Of the two other photos, one shows trees burning in clouds of black smoke. It was taken by photographer Mario Tama and published by the Getty photo agency in 2014, described only as “The Amazon basin in Brazil.” The other shows a diagonal line of fire running between a burned area and untouched grass. It was taken in the municipality of Apui, in Amazonas state, by Reuters photographer Bruno Kellyin in August 2017 and published the same month. It was captured during an operation by the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources to combat illegal logging in the area. There have been a record number of forest fires in Brazil this year. As of Thursday, Brazil’s National Space Research Institute, which monitors deforestation, had recorded 76,720 wildfires across the country this year. That’s an 85% rise over last year’s figure. And a little over half of those, 40,341, have been spotted in the Amazon region.
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‘I don’t want no sympathy:’ Football helps heal ravaged town
PARADISE, Calif. (AP) — Few things are powerful enough to bring people back to the scene of their greatest tragedy. For the community of Paradise that was nearly levelled by a wildfire, football is it.
More than 5,000 people are expected at Om Wraith Field on Friday night to watch the Paradise High School Bobcats play their first game since last November’s blaze. The players will enter the stadium through the home football stands, led by last year’s seniors who never played their final scheduled game.
“I don’t want no sympathy,” said Elijah Gould, a left guard. “I want them to come take off our heads because that’s what we’re coming to do.”
The fire that raged in the foothills of Northern California took out nearly 19,000 buildings, including the homes of most of the players. Eighty-six people died, the highest total from a U.S. wildfire in a century.
Much of the town of 27,000 people dispersed. Before the fire, the Bobcats were 8-2, good enough to host a home playoff game. The school ended up having to forfeit the game.
The Associated Press
