Hiroshima, Nagasaki mayors invite Trump to visit on 80th anniversary atomic bombing
The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have requested that U.S. President Donald Trump visit the atomic-bombed cities this year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the attacks and the end of World War II.
'We hope that you will listen to the voices of civil society, visit the atomic-bombed cities, listen to the firsthand accounts of the hibakusha and fully grasp the inhumanity of nuclear weapons and accept the hibakusha's earnest desire for peace,' Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui and Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki wrote in
The mayors emphasized Washington's key role in reining in the proliferation of nuclear weapons as 'tensions continue to worsen' across the globe ahead of the anniversary of the attack on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and on Nagasaki three days later.
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Japan Today
28 minutes ago
- Japan Today
Trump's tariffs could pay for his tax cuts -- but it likely wouldn't be much of a bargain
By PAUL WISEMAN Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., pauses in the door of his office to answer questions from reporters about his strategy to advance President Donald Trump's spending and tax bill, at the Capitol in Washington. The tax cuts in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act would likely gouge a hole in the federal budget. The president has a patch handy, though: his sweeping import taxes — tariffs. The Congressional Budget Office, the government's nonpartisan arbiter of tax and spending matters, says the One Big Beautiful Bill, passed by the House last month and now under consideration in the Senate, would increase federal budget deficits by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. That is because its tax cuts would drain the government's coffers faster than its spending cuts would save money. By bringing in revenue for the Treasury, on the other hand, the tariffs that Trump announced through May 13 — including his so-called reciprocal levies of up to 50% on countries with which the United States has a trade deficit — would offset the budget impact of the tax-cut bill and reduce deficits over the next decade by $2.5 trillion. So it's basically a wash. That's the budget math anyway. The real answer is more complicated. Actually using tariffs to finance a big chunk of the federal government would be a painful and perilous undertaking, budget wonks say. 'It's a very dangerous way to try to raise revenue,' said Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Wharton Budget Model, who served in President George W. Bush's Treasury Department. Trump has long advocated tariffs as an economic elixir. He says they can protect American industries, bring factories back to the United States, give him leverage to win concessions over foreign governments — and raise a lot of money. He's even suggested that they could replace the federal income tax, which now brings in about half of federal revenue. 'It's possible we'll do a complete tax cut,'' he told reporters in April. 'I think the tariffs will be enough to cut all of the income tax.'' Economists and budget analysts do not share the president's enthusiasm for using tariffs to finance the government or to replace other taxes. 'It's a really bad trade,'' said Erica York, the Tax Foundation's vice president of federal tax policy. 'It's perhaps the dumbest tax reform you could design.'' For one thing, Trump's tariffs are an unstable source of revenue. He bypassed Congress and imposed his biggest import tax hikes through executive orders. That means a future president could simply reverse them. 'Or political whims in Congress could change, and they could decide, 'Hey, we're going revoke this authority because we don't think it's a good thing that the president can just unilaterally impose a $2 trillion tax hike,' '' York said. Or the courts could kill his tariffs before Congress or future presidents do. A federal court in New York has already struck down the centerpiece of his tariff program — the reciprocal and other levies he announced on what he called 'Liberation Day'' April 2 — saying he'd overstepped his authority. An appeals court has allowed the government to keep collecting the levies while the legal challenge winds its way through the court system. Economists also say that tariffs damage the economy. They are a tax on foreign products, paid by importers in the United States and usually passed along to their customers via higher prices. They raise costs for U.S. manufacturers that rely on imported raw materials, components and equipment, making them less competitive than foreign rivals that don't have to pay Trump's tariffs. Tariffs also invite retaliatory taxes on U.S. exports by foreign countries. Indeed, the European Union this week threatened 'countermeasures'' against Trump's unexpected move to raise his tariff on foreign steel and aluminum to 50%. 'You're not just getting the effect of a tax on the U.S. economy,' York said. 'You're also getting the effect of foreign taxes on U.S. exports.'' She said the tariffs will basically wipe out all economic benefits from the One Big Beautiful Bill's tax cuts. Smetters at the Penn Wharton Budget Model said that tariffs also isolate the United States and discourage foreigners from investing in its economy. Foreigners see U.S. Treasurys as a super-safe investment and now own about 30% of the federal government's debt. If they cut back, the federal government would have to pay higher interest rates on Treasury debt to attract a smaller number of potential investors domestically. Higher borrowing costs and reduced investment would wallop the economy, making tariffs the most economically destructive tax available, Smetters said — more than twice as costly in reduced economic growth and wages as what he sees as the next-most damaging: the tax on corporate earnings. Tariffs also hit the poor hardest. They end up being a tax on consumers, and the poor spend more of their income than wealthier people do. Even without the tariffs, the One Big Beautiful Bill slams the poorest because it makes deep cuts to federal food programs and to Medicaid, which provides health care to low-income Americans. After the bill's tax and spending cuts, an analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model found, the poorest fifth of American households earning less than $17,000 a year would see their incomes drop by $820 next year. The richest 0.1% earning more than $4.3 million a year would come out ahead by $390,070 in 2026. 'If you layer a regressive tax increase like tariffs on top of that, you make a lot of low- and middle-income households substantially worse off,'' said the Tax Foundation's York. Overall, she said, tariffs are 'a very unreliable source of revenue for the legal reasons, the political reasons as well as the economic reasons. They're a very, very inefficient way to raise revenue. If you raise a dollar of a revenue with tariffs, that's going to cause a lot more economic harm than raising revenue any other way.'' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
NHK
3 hours ago
- NHK
Nippon Steel officials: Trump has approved company's plan to buy US Steel
Officials at Nippon Steel say that they believe that the company's plan to purchase US Steel has been approved. The comments come after the two steelmakers announced that US President Donald Trump had approved their partnership. The officials say that the company's bid to acquire 100 percent of common shares in US Steel and turn it into a wholly owned subsidiary has been given the go-ahead. Nippon Steel and US Steel said in a joint statement released on Saturday, Japan time, that the companies have entered into a National Security Agreement with the US government. The statement says the NSA "provides that approximately 11 billion dollars in new investments will be made by 2028." The NSA also includes commitments related to governance, including a "golden share" to be issued to the US government, domestic production and trade matters. The golden share allows the US government to veto important decisions related to the management of US Steel. The companies said, "We thank President Trump and his Administration for their bold leadership and strong support for out historic partnership." They added, "We look forward to putting out commitments into action to make American steelmaking and manufacturing great again." Nippon Steel announced a plan to buy out US Steel about 18 months ago. But then-President Joe Biden issued an order blocking the purchase on national security grounds. Nippon Steel's decision to implement additional investments in the US apparently led to the revision of Biden's order by Trump, paving the way for the Japanese firm to purchase its US rival.
NHK
4 hours ago
- NHK
Trump's executive orders revise Biden's order to block Nippon Steel buyout bid
US President Donald Trump has issued executive orders that revise his predecessor's order to block Japanese firm Nippon Steel's bid to purchase US Steel. Trump's orders on Friday are based on the review results of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS. In January, then-US President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel's buyout plan, citing national security concerns. But in April, Trump instructed CFIUS to conduct a fresh review. The executive orders say a national security risk "can be adequately mitigated" if certain conditions are met. The orders also say the proposed acquisition is prohibited unless the two companies sign and remain in compliance with a national security agreement with the US Treasury Department. The document states that the president is authorized to issue further orders if necessary to protect national security. Nippon Steel and US Steel announced on Saturday that Trump approved a partnership after they signed a national security agreement with the government. On Thursday, Trump indicated that his government would acquire a "golden share" as part of a partnership deal. The holder of the special share can veto important matters related to management.
