- Tesla CEO Elon Musk is sharply escalating his attacks on top Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro.
- U.S. markets opened higher after three days of steep losses.
- President Donald Trump’s tariffs will go into effect at midnight tonight unless they are lifted.
- Trump has threatened new 50% tariffs on China unless Beijing lifts its retaliatory duties on U.S. exports.
- The president says China “wants to make a deal, badly, but they don’t know how to get it started.”
- Former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez says the U.S. and China are in a full blown trade war.
- Newly confirmed U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, is testifying before the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing on “The President’s 2025 Trade Policy Agenda.”
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the EU is willing to negotiate with the U.S. on tariffs, yet is also preparing to retaliate.
- Two billionaire Trump backers, Ken Langone and Ken Griffin, are furious about the tariffs.
- Trade is an integral part of Capitalism
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky tore into the zero-sum view of trade that Trump has repeatedly espoused in defense of his sweeping tariff plans.
“It’s based on a fallacy” that “somehow, in a trade, someone must lose,” Paul said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The idea that “someone’s taking advantage of you, and China is ripping you off or Japan is ripping you off — it’s absolutely a fallacy,” he said.
“Every trade that occurs in the marketplace is mutually beneficial,” said the like-minded son of the staunchly libertarian former congressman Ron Paul. “If you have a free society and I want to trade with you, if you want to sell me your coat and I give you $200 for it, we both agree to it and we’re both happy.”
CNBC