{"id":86,"date":"2025-07-11T01:10:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T01:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/86\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T01:10:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T01:10:06","slug":"trump-readies-blanket-tariffs-as-he-brushes-off-inflation-worries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/86\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump readies blanket tariffs as he brushes off inflation worries"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to impose blanket tariffs<\/a> of 15% or 20% on most trade partners, dismissing concerns that further tariffs could negatively affect the stock market or drive inflation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it\u2019s 20% or 15%. We\u2019ll work that out now,\u201d Trump told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker in a phone call. Blanket tariffs are currently set at 10%. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the tariffs have been very well-received. The stock market hit a new high today,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n

The S&P 500 closed at a record high Thursday, but that comes after a tumultuous few months for the U.S. stock market. After Trump announced his first wave of global tariffs on April 2, the S&P 500 experienced one of its fastest 20% drops on record over the following days.<\/p>\n

Follow live politics coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump on Thursday also dismissed warnings from Hasbro\u2019s CEO<\/a> that toy prices could rise later this year as a result of tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the numbers, inflation\u2019s gone down,\u201d Trump said, later adding that Hasbro did not warn him its CEO was going to mention rising prices on a podcast.<\/p>\n

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>, inflation has eased in recent years since the Covid pandemic but remains above 2.3%.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I didn\u2019t hear anything about Hasbro. I don\u2019t care about their prices,\u201d Trump said, adding later, \u201cBut if they make their toys here, if they made their toys here, they wouldn\u2019t have a price increase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s trade agenda has stalled in recent weeks as administration officials continue to insist that he is working on dozens of agreements with foreign nations.<\/p>\n

This week, Trump publicized letters to 22 countries<\/a> establishing tariff rates, including 50% tariffs<\/a> on imports from Brazil. He also announced a 50% tariff on copper imports<\/a> that is scheduled to take effect next month.<\/p>\n

The dozens of letters come after repeated promises of \u201c90 deals in 90 days\u201d dating to April from Trump and his top officials. However, the administration did not sign any trading deals during that 90-day period. The White House and the secretaries of treasury and commerce instead reached three frameworks that could eventually be turned into full-fledged trade deals.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everybody has to get a letter. You know that. We\u2019re just setting our tariffs,\u201d Trump told NBC News on Thursday.<\/p>\n

But he added that the members of the European Union and Canada would get letters notifying them of new tariff rates \u201ctoday or tomorrow.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to do it today,\u201d Trump said, adding: \u201cI\u2019m talking European Union, which is, as you know, many countries, and Canada. We\u2019ll be putting them out over the next couple of hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 27 nations that make up the European Union are the United States\u2019 largest trading partner. American companies and consumers imported more than $600 billion worth of goods from the E.U. last year. Canada also ranks as one of the most important trading relationships for the United States, with more than $400 billion worth of Canadian goods imported into the country last year.<\/p>\n

Speaking Wednesday before the European Parliament, the E.U.\u2019s top trade official, Maro\u0161 \u0160ef\u010dovi\u010d, said negotiations were happening between the two sides \u201cevery single day\u201d to avoid getting one of Trump\u2019s tariff letters.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrucially, while other nations faced increased tariffs from the United States, the result of the letters that President Trump sent out on Monday, our negotiations have spared the E.U. from facing higher tariffs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The E.U. has more than $100 billion of retaliatory tariffs on standby that can be implemented quickly. Some of the retaliatory duties target goods made in red states, such as soybeans from House Speaker Mike Johnson\u2019s home state, Louisiana, and bourbon from Kentucky.<\/p>\n

\u2018A major statement\u2019 on Russia<\/p>\n

Trump also spoke about the status of Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine, telling NBC News, \u201cI\u2019m disappointed in Russia, but we\u2019ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday,\u201d he said, declining to elaborate.<\/p>\n

He also revealed the details of what he said was a new deal among the United States, NATO and Ukraine over the shipment of weapons from the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%. So what we\u2019re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and NATO is paying for those weapons,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

He added that the deal was reached at a NATO summit last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe send weapons to NATO, and NATO is going to reimburse the full cost of those weapons,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

It was unclear whether Trump was referring to an idea that has recently been floated of some NATO members\u2019 potentially buying U.S.-made weapons on behalf of Ukraine so the United States does not have to shoulder the cost. <\/p>\n

Trump restarted the shipment of U.S. weapons to Ukraine this week after the Defense Department this month held up a scheduled shipment<\/a> of weapons to the country at war with Russia.<\/p>\n

The pause, ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, appeared to catch many in the Trump administration, including State Department officials, by surprise<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked Thursday about that weapons pause, Trump said, \u201cI don\u2019t know anything about it.\u201d He added that Hegseth is \u201cdoing a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has publicly expressed his disapproval of Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Wednesday, Russia unleashed a deadly strike and missile attack<\/a> on Kyiv, appearing defiant against Trump\u2019s warnings.<\/p>\n

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has for months been pushing GOP leaders, including Trump, to move on a bill he introduced that would impose new sanctions on Russia. In recent days, Graham signaled that the bill<\/a> now has support from both Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.<\/p>\n

Trump said Thursday that he expected the Senate to pass the sanctions measure. \u201cIt\u2019s a bill that the Senate is passing that very respectfully lets the president do whatever he wants, as you know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, it\u2019s at my option if I want to use it. They\u2019re going to pass a very major and very biting sanctions bill, but it\u2019s up to the president as to whether or not he wants to exercise it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Selling the One Big Beautiful Bill<\/p>\n

Trump also spoke about whether he plans to travel across the country in the wake of congressional Republicans\u2019 passing a massive domestic policy package \u2014 dubbed the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act\u201d \u2014 saying he would travel \u201ca little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut honestly, it\u2019s been received so well I don\u2019t think I have to,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Trump signed the bill into law<\/a> on Independence Day after months of negotiations among the president, congressional GOP leaders and rank-and-file Republican lawmakers.<\/p>\n

The day the House passed the final version of the bill, sending it to Trump\u2019s desk, he touted its passage at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, that was billed as a kickoff to the celebration of the United States\u2019 250th birthday next year.<\/p>\n

The law extends the tax cuts passed and signed by Trump during his first term, in 2017, and imposes new temporary tax cuts on tips and overtime pay. It also provides hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending for border security and the military while imposing steep cuts to Medicaid, federal nutrition assistance programs and clean energy funding.<\/p>\n

Democrats, who are looking to flip the House and the Senate back to their control during the 2026 midterm elections, have already seized on GOP lawmakers\u2019 votes for the bill<\/a> in battleground states and districts.<\/p>\n

Trump dismissed concerns Thursday that Democrats could sway voters in their favor by highlighting the package\u2019s cuts to Medicaid and other programs in the social safety net.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said that about 2024, too,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve lost their minds, and they\u2019ve lost their way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin appeared on local and national news programs across the country this week, telling voters that their Republican representatives \u201cbetrayed\u201d them by voting for the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is, as I call it, the big, beautiful betrayal. All Republicans, every single one of them, put their oath to Donald Trump ahead of the oath to their constituents that they were elected by,\u201d Martin told \u201cPBS NewsHour\u201d<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to impose blanket tariffs of 15% or 20% on most trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}