Tariff Rates ‘Pretty Much Set,' Says US Trade Representative
In an interview with CBS's 'Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan' taped on Aug. 1 but aired on Aug. 3, Greer said he does not expect trading partners that have yet to strike deals with the United States negotiate tariffs down in the coming days.
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Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Middecade redistricting could be risky move for Florida Republicans
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — While the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature wages 'maximum warfare' to carve new GOP House seats for the 2026 election and solidify President Donald Trump's lock on Congress, significant obstacles impede Gov. Ron DeSantis' desire to do the same in Florida. The Texas Legislature met in a special session at Trump's request and quickly came up with a new gerrymandered congressional district map last week that would take away up to five seats from the Democrats. That spurred Democrats to leave the state to prevent a vote on the new map, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in turn has threatened to oust them from office. Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he thinks Florida could come up with three to five new Republican seats, based on conversations he's had with the U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, but he has stopped short of calling for a special session himself. 'We're looking at it seriously. I would look favorably to the Legislature taking it up, so stay tuned on that,' DeSantis said last week at a news conference. That may be a tall order in a Republican-dominated Legislature that is nevertheless increasingly resistant to the state's lame-duck governor. State Rep. Alex Andrade, a top Republican from Pensacola, said Monday that DeSantis is 'not in a position to force us to do anything that we don't think is a good idea. All we'd have as an impetus for this is partisanship.' House Democratic leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa said she does not 'trust a word coming out of DeSantis' mouth about redistricting because it's all coming from Trump.' This is about Florida getting more Republican seats positioning himself for another run for president in 2028, she said. 'He is more concerned about posturing for his next political opportunity than concern about the well-being of the people of Florida,' Driskell said. So far, Florida GOP legislative leaders have remained silent on holding a special session on redistricting, which would be a massive, expensive logistical process. And there appears to be little appetite among Republican members of Florida's congressional delegation, many of whom are gearing up for reelection and unlikely to want to reshape districts in ways that change their voter base. DeSantis vetoed the Legislature's last attempt at drawing new congressional district lines and forced his own map on them in 2022, one that eliminated two Black congressional districts and spurred lawsuits from voting rights groups. The map was upheld by both the federal courts and the Florida Supreme Court. But his grip on the Legislature has slipped since he strong-armed voting districts on them. When he tried to impose his will on the Legislature in January over immigration enforcement, the Legislature rejected his plans and passed several bills of its own, creating a standoff that was resolved by a compromise. Andrade, who served as the House health care budget chief last session, said he speaks with House Speaker Danny Perez of Miami once a week, said he 'hasn't heard anything on redistricting' from the leadership. The impetus and data required for an accurate, constitutional middecade redistricting isn't there, he said. 'Odds are we'd be redistricting with no real basis, and drawing partisan lines.' That would violate the state constitution, which prohibits redrawing lines for political purposes. 'If maps were to get litigated with no other justifiable reason than political gain, we would lose in court.' Andrade said. 'There has to be some other justification for me to take it seriously.' When they drew up their congressional map based on the 2020 census three years ago, Andrade said, 'We had to bend over backwards to avoid looking partisan.' The Legislature's map would have given Republicans just two additional seats. DeSantis' map handed the GOP four seats, giving its congressional delegation a 20-8 majority and helping secure the party's narrow control of Congress in the last two elections. It would be impossible to avoid obvious partisanship this time around without conducting a new census, Andrade argued. DeSantis said he wants a new census but acknowledged it would be difficult to redistrict Florida given the short time frame between now and the midterms. 'Now they'd have to do that relatively soon, because you need time to draw maps and you need time to get that done,' DeSantis said. Redistricting is traditionally done every 10 years following the census to determine how many seats each state gets in the 435-member House of Representatives and to distribute federal funds. DeSantis argued last week that the population has grown enough to require a mid-decade census and reapportionment. DeSantis said the state was cheated out of a second new congressional seat — the state was awarded one after the 2020 census — during the last round of reapportionment because the census was poorly conducted, but Democrats said he had a chance to prevent that from happening. Democrats pushed to create a committee in 2019 to oversee the census count to make sure Florida residents didn't get undercounted and ensure that citizens get the full number of representatives they deserve. DeSantis rejected that plan, saying it wasn't the state's responsibility to make sure everyone got counted. He also said he didn't want to spend state money counting the heads of noncitizens. 'The census was off because DeSantis failed to work aggressively with local governments and community groups to make sure the marginalized populations were not undercounted,' said Daniel Smith, head of the political science department at the University of Florida. Now, DeSantis wants a middecade census that counts only the people who are legally allowed to be in the U.S. But the Constitution requires 'an enumeration' of the people in each state every 10 years, and gives Congress broad powers to decide how to accomplish that, Smith said. 'You don't get to choose who you count.' Smith said the governor has painted himself into a corner by not wanting to count noncitizens, because they're the reason Florida got even one extra seat. 'You take those people out of the equation and Florida is going to lose seats,' Smith said. Matt Isbell, a Democrat consultant who specializes in analyzing election results by district and precinct level, said DeSantis is 'full of nonsense.' Conducting a midcycle census would be a massive, expensive undertaking that may not even produce the result that DeSantis wants, he said. 'It's a gamble. You risk losing seats and right now you have 20 solid Republican seats,' Isbell said. Driskell said redistricting could easily backfire on the GOP. 'You never know what issue would be to get voters to have a change of heart,' she said. 'Voters care about having their representation taken away.' _____
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump narrows Fed chair candidates to four, excluding Treasury Secretary Bessent
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's whittled down his list of potential Federal Reserve chair candidates to four as he considers a successor to Jerome Powell — a choice that could reset the path of the U.S. economy. Asked on CNBC's 'Squawk Box' for a future replacement to Powell, Trump named Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, and Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. 'I think Kevin and Kevin, both Kevins, are very good,' Trump said during an interview on CNBC's 'Squawk Box.' He said two other people were also under consideration, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is not among them. 'I love Scott, but he wants to stay where he is," Trump said. He did not name his other two top candidates but used the opportunity to disparage Powell, whom he has dubbed 'too late' in cutting interest rates. The news that Trump plans to make a decision on the Fed chair 'soon' comes as the Republican president has been highly critical of current Powell, whose term ends in May 2026. Trump recently floated having the Fed's board of governors take full control of the U.S. central bank from Powell, whom he has relentlessly pressured to cut short-term interest rates in ways that raise questions about whether the Fed can remain free from White House politicking. Trump has openly mused about whether to remove Powell before his tenure as chair ends, but he's held off on dismissing the Fed chair after a recent Supreme Court ruling suggested he could only do so for cause rather than out of policy disagreements. The president has put pressure on Powell by claiming he mismanaged the Fed's $2.5 billion renovation project, but he's also said that he's 'highly unlikely' to fire Powell. One of the Fed's governors, Adriana Kugler, made a surprise announcement last Friday that she would be stepping away from her role. That created an opening for Trump, who called her departure 'a pleasant surprise,' to name a new Fed governor. Trump told CNBC it's 'a possibility' that his pick to replace Kugler could also be his choice to replace Powell. Here's what to know about the two known candidates: Kevin Hassett Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, has been supportive of the president's agenda — from his advocacy for income tax cuts and tariffs to his support of the recent firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. Hassett served in the first Trump administration as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. As part of Hassett's farewell announcement in 2019, Trump called him a 'true friend' who did a 'great job.' Hassett became a fellow at the Hoover Institution, which is located at Stanford University. He later returned to the administration to help deal with the pandemic. On CNBC on Monday, Hassett said 'all over the U.S. government, there have been people who have been resisting Trump everywhere they can." Kevin Warsh A former Fed governor who stepped down in 2011, Warsh is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has been supportive of cutting interest rates, a key goal of Trump's. 'The president's right to be frustrated with Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve,' Warsh said on Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures' last month. Warsh has been increasingly critical of Powell's Federal Reserve and in July, on CNBC, called for sweeping changes on how the Fed conducts business as well as a new Treasury-Fed accord 'like we did in 1951, after another period where we built up our nation's debt and we were stuck with a central bank that was working at cross purposes with the Treasury.' He said the Fed's 'hesitancy to cut rates, I think, is actually quite a mark against them.' 'The specter of the miss they made on inflation" after the pandemic, he said, "it has stuck with them. So one of the reasons why the president, I think, is right to be pushing the Fed publicly is we need regime change in the conduct of policy.' 'He's very highly thought of,' Trump said in June when asked directly about Warsh. ___ Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report. Fatima Hussein, The Associated Press
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Says Big Banks "Debanked" Him -- Now He's Firing Back
President Donald Trump says two of America's biggest banks turned their backs on him and he's not letting it slide. In a CNBC interview, Trump accused JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) of demanding he close accounts held for decades and claimed Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) refused to accept a $1 billion deposit. "I ended up going to small banks all over the place," Trump said. He believes banking regulators were weaponized against him under the Biden administration and now says his team is preparing an executive order that would force federal agencies to investigate account closures rooted in political bias. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Sign with BAC. The banks pushed back. JPMorgan said it doesn't close accounts for political reasons and supports regulatory change. Bank of America said it serves 70 million clients and doesn't apply any political litmus test, though it acknowledged that government regulations sometimes lead to ending client relationships. Capital One, meanwhile, is in a legal battle with the Trump Organization over hundreds of accounts allegedly closed for political reasons in 2021 a claim the bank denies, citing contractual terms that allowed the closures for any reason. A judge has delayed the case as Capital One moves to dismiss. Behind all this is one key risk factor: reputation. Federal regulators, including the Fed, are now moving to drop "reputation risk" from bank exams a factor many lenders say pressured them to cut ties with certain clients. The banking industry is watching closely, with groups like the Bank Policy Institute hoping a forthcoming order will rein in what they call supervisory overreach. The issue isn't just American. In the UK, political figure Nigel Farage's bank account was closed by NatWest's Coutts unit sparking backlash, resignations, and a wider review. Trump's move could now fuel a broader reckoning with how banks decide who gets to stay and who gets shut out. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
