Markets plunged Tuesday morning after President Trump seemed to raise the stakes in U.S. trade relations with both France and China.
During the NATO summit in London, he doubled-down on threats to tax French goods in retaliation for the country's taxes on U.S. tech and also suggested the China trade deal may be delayed until after the 2020 election.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer announced that the administration is considering imposing $2.4 billion in tariffs on France in retaliation for its digital tax, which investigators found would harm American technology companies. The U.S. would target cheese, Champagne, handbags, and more with tariffs of up to 100 percent.
"The American companies — the tech companies — they're not my favorite people because they are not for me," Trump said to reporters while sitting next to French President Emmanuel Macron at a NATO meeting this morning. "We want to tax them [U.S. tech companies], that's not for someone else to tax."
Macron said he believed "we can settle this situation with President Trump."
"I'm not in love with those companies. If anybody is going to take advantage of our companies, it's going to be us," Trump said during the meeting that covered the British election, the U.S. impeachment inquiry, and Trump's support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The two leaders spoke Tuesday at a summit meeting to mark the 70th anniversary of NATO — an alliance both have targeted in the past. Macron recently said NATO was experiencing "brain death," which Trump said was a "very, very nasty," and "insulting statement," though he once called NATO "obsolete."
Before the market even opened, futures were clearly taking a hit after Trump said there is "no deadline" on a trade deal with China. The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and the Dow were down more than 1 percent this morning.
"In some ways, I like the idea of waiting until after the election for the China deal," Trump said before the two-day NATO summit started this morning in London.U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods are set to rise on December 15 if a Phase 1 deal is not reached. Last month the administration indicated such a deal was close to being finalized, but after Trump signed off on legislation imposing sanctions on those who violate human rights in Hong Kong, it seemed the deal was off.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
