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Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump Aides Create Loyalty List Ranking Corporations by Support
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump's aides have created a scorecard ranking hundreds of companies based on their efforts to support his signature tax cut law, a White House official said Friday. The US-Canadian Road Safety Gap Is Getting Wider Festivals and Parades Are Canceled Amid US Immigration Anxiety To Head Off Severe Storm Surges, Nova Scotia Invests in 'Living Shorelines' Five Years After Black Lives Matter, Brussels' Colonial Statues Remain For Homeless Cyclists, Bikes Bring an Escape From the Streets The list ranks 553 different businesses as either 'strong, moderate, or low' partners on the megabill, which extended and expanded tax cuts from the president's first term and provided billions of dollars in additional funding for immigration enforcement. It's not clear how the scores will affect the way the federal government deals with the firms, but the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, suggested that companies' rankings could change based on present and future support for presidential initiatives. Trump has made unusual, high-profile interventions in the business world since returning to the White House in ways that critics have said run counter to the Republican Party's traditional commitment to free-market capitalism. The president has defended himself as a pro-business leader. Recently, the Trump administration has considered taking an equity stake in Intel Corp. and got Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to pay the government 15% of revenues from chip sales to China. The creation of the list comes as Trump has struggled to sell the public on the benefits of the legislation. Just 32% of Americans say they approve of the tax and spending bill versus 46% who disapprove, according to a Pew Research poll released this week. The president's job approval sat at just 38% in the same survey. But the administration is ratcheting up efforts to sell the benefits of the legislation, with Trump on Thursday holding an event at the White House to tout a new $6,000 deduction for seniors on Social Security benefits. Cabinet officials have scheduled events across the country in support of the legislation. Companies favorably ranked by the White House included DoorDash Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc., according to Axios, which first reported the existence of the list. The rideshare companies have touted a provision that allows some taxpayers to deduct as much as $25,000 in reported cash tips from their income taxes. Airlines including United Airlines Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. were credited for their efforts supporting the bill's $12.5 billion allocation for new air traffic control infrastructure. Americans Are Getting Priced Out of Homeownership at Record Rates What Declining Cardboard Box Sales Tell Us About the US Economy Bessent on Tariffs, Deficits and Embracing Trump's Economic Plan Dubai's Housing Boom Is Stoking Fears of Another Crash Twitter's Ex-CEO Is Moving Past His Elon Musk Drama and Starting an AI Company ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
San Francisco Chronicle
24 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
President Trump ramps up takeover of Washington's police department. Here's what to know
Federal troops are patrolling the National Mall and neighborhoods across Washington in President Donald Trump's extraordinary takeover of the police department in the nation's capital. Now the Trump administration is moving to install its own emergency police commissioner, a big step forward in one of the most sweeping uses of federal authority over a local government in modern times. While Washington went to court on Friday to block Trump's takeover, how it will play out and whether the federal government views this as a potential blueprint for dealing with other cities remains up in the air. Here's what to know about the situation and what might come next: Why is Trump taking over the police in DC? The Republican president this week announced he's taking control over Washington's police department and activating National Guard troops to reduce crime, an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. But District of Columbia officials say the action isn't needed, pointing out that violent crime in the district reached historic 30-year lows last year and is down significantly again this year. Can he do that? D.C.'s status as a congressionally established federal district gives Trump a window to assert more control over the the district than other cities. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser didn't offer much resistance at first, allowing city workers to clear homeless encampments and work closely with federal immigration agents. But on Friday, the heavily Democratic district asked for an emergency court order blocking Trump officials from putting a federal official in charge of D.C. police. So who is in charge of police in Washington? Right now, it's unsettled. Trump's administration announced Thursday that the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration will take over the police chief's duties, including authority over orders issued to officers. It's unclear where the move leaves the city's current police chief, Pamela Smith, who works for the mayor. Smith says upending the command structure would be a 'dangerous' threat to law and order. What's at stake The showdown in Washington is the latest attempt by Trump to test the boundaries of his legal authority to carry out his tough-on-crime agenda, relying on obscure statutes and a supposed state of emergency to speed up the mass deportation of people in the United States illegally. What are the federal troops doing in DC? About 800 National Guard troops are being activated, with Humvees parked along the Washington Monument and near Union Station. Troops have been spotted standing outside baseball's Nationals Park and neighborhood restaurants. The White House says guard members aren't making arrests but are protecting law enforcement officers who are making arrests and helping deter violent crime. Trump says one of the objectives will be moving homeless people far from the city. How long can this go on? Trump has the authority to do this for 30 days and says he might look into extending it. But that would require congressional approval. Whether Republicans in Congress would go along with that is unclear. Some D.C. residents have protested against the increased police presence. For some, the action echoes uncomfortable historical chapters when politicians used language to paint predominantly Black cities with racist narratives to shape public opinion and justify police action. Washington is very different from any other American city, and the rules that govern it give the federal government much more control than it would have anywhere else. Whether Trump is using this as a blueprint for how to approach cities — largely Democratic cities — that he wants to exert more control over remains to be seen.
New York Post
24 minutes ago
- New York Post
It's the Age of Trump — and he's forging a new political era
If you had to sum up President Donald Trump's second term so far in one word, you could do worse than 'epic.' Trump may be on the path to the most consequential presidency since Ronald Reagan's. We don't know how it will end — an unforeseen crisis could upend everything — but the emphasis has been on governing ambition from Day 1. Advertisement Even if Trump's second term ended tomorrow, he would have left a significant mark. Consider his signature issues of trade and immigration. Advertisement For all the talk about how he doesn't have core convictions, Trump has favored tariffs for decades and has instituted a tariff regime that — absent discrediting economic turmoil — is likely to endure. This would have seemed almost unthinkable when Trump descended the elevator in 2015, and a relatively free-trade consensus prevailed in US policy. He's brought border crossings to a historic low, and the United States could experience negative net migration for the first time in 50 years. Advertisement Again, this is a big change, and one that it's hard to imagine anyone besides Donald Trump effecting. He's dealt a blow to DEI programs in the federal government and is making it harder for colleges and universities to pursue race-conscious policies. His election coincided with the beginning of a pullback from DEI in the private sector, one that his administration has encouraged. DEI was the culmination of a half-century campaign by the left for quotas in hiring and admissions and other racialized policies. Trump's counteroffensive could represent an inflection point. Advertisement Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters He's signed a tax and spending bill that makes permanent the tax cuts from his first term, funds a large-scale investment in immigration enforcement and includes a meaningful reform of Medicaid. He bombed the Iranian nuclear program, at the very least setting it back for years. He cajoled commitments for greater defense spending out of NATO countries. Almost any one of these items would be a notable first-six-months accomplishment, but he's done them all, with lots of other activity besides. His environmental and energy officials are rolling back the left's climate agenda. Trump defunded public broadcasting and kneecapped the Department of Education (for now). His administration has taken important steps to protect female sports and to keep minors from being subjected to 'gender-affirming care.' Advertisement He's pushed universities into adopting reforms and probably upended forever the assumption that billions of federal dollars would flow to top universities as a matter of course. His election was both a symbol of, and a catalyst for, the woke tide's receding. Trump has what is, in recent memory, an unprecedented grip on his party and has remade it in his image over the last decade. If a Trump-endorsed GOP nominee wins the general election, he would be the George H.W. Bush to Trump's Reagan. Advertisement In sum, the rise of Trump in 2016 represented a break with what had been the post–Cold War consensus, although it was incompletely realized and seemingly a political fizzle when voters ousted him in the COVID election of 2020. Biden was a partial return to a more conventional politics. Now, with his second term, Trump is more fully effecting a transition to a new era — which alone makes him a highly consequential figure. The usual caveats apply: Again, a catastrophe could scramble all of this, and to say Trump is important is not to endorse everything he's doing, whether big (e.g., the tariffs) or small (e.g., firing the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner). Advertisement Since he's done so much unilaterally, it's subject to relatively easy reversal if a Democrat is elected in 2028. But there's little doubt we are witnessing something historic. Steve Hayward called his volumes on the Republican giant of the 1980s 'The Age of Reagan' — and Arthur Schlesinger wrote both 'The Age of Jackson' and 'The Age of Roosevelt.' Advertisement The equivalent of Hayward or Schlesinger decades from now will probably be justified in continuing the trope: All indications are that we are living in the Age of Trump. Twitter: @RichLowry
