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Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Wall St's TACO tariff code is good for Trump, ‘If he can take the win,' ex-staffer reveals to CNN
While Wall Street's 'TACO trade' strategy has riled President Donald Trump, his former White House staffer argues it might actually be a 'win' for the president. In the wake of Trump's tariff volatility, Wall Street investors are now engaging in TACO trade: buying stock in the slump, knowing that the president's backtracking will inevitably cause a stock market rebound. During an appearance on Friday's episode of CNN News Central, former White House director of strategic communications Alyssa Farah Griffin argued that the net effect of the TACO trades has been positive for the president. 'Trump was handed three huge political wins this week, if he can accept them and just take the win,' she told host John Berman. The acronym, which stands for 'Trump Always Chickens Out,' a dig at the president's on-again, off-again approach to tariffs, has been adopted by financial analysts after Financial Times columnist Robert Armstrong coined it. The conservative pundit commented on a challenging week for the president, following Elon Musk's departure from the White House and the U.S. Court of International Trade's decision to block Trump's tariffs, which an appeals court temporarily reinstated on Thursday. 'And then finally, TACO, he's going to hate this,' she said. 'We all know what we saw, how he reacted to the reporter's question,' Griffin added, making reference to the president rebuking a reporter in the Oval Office Wednesday for asking him a 'nasty' question about the new Wall Street moniker. 'But that is huge that Wall Street traders have actually learned how to sort of call Trump's bluff. So he's not able to cause this sort of market volatility that we saw in the first few months,' she added. 'Those are all good things in the long run for Donald Trump's economy and for his future agenda. But all of them look like losses, but actually are wins if he can simply take the win.' Last week, Trump threatened to impose 50 percent tariffs on goods from the European Union from June 1, sending stocks and the dollar sliding. Two days later, Trump said he'd delay imposing the levies until July 9, with markets reopening Tuesday well in the green. After levying 125 percent tariffs on China earlier this month, Washington and Beijing agreed to a 90-day suspension. Stock markets surged after the announcement. The president defended his decision Wednesday, stating it was a 'negotiation' tactic, not a flip-flop.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bolton on Trump ‘white genocide' claim: ‘It's just not true'
Former national security adviser John Bolton said President Trump's allegations of white genocide in South Africa were unfounded, during a Friday appearance on 'CNN News Central.' Trump engaged in a heated back-and-forth Wednesday with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa over the claims. 'I don't profess to be an expert on South Africa, so I asked experts on the staff of the NSC [National Security Council], what's up with this killing of white farmers, displacement, seizure of their lands? And they came back and said, there's nothing. It's just not true,' Bolton said during his CNN appearance. 'South Africa has a high crime rate in urban areas and rural areas. It's a big problem, Black and white. It's a big problem,' he added. The Trump administration has agreed to admit white South African farmers to the United States as refugees amid claims of genocide. During the Oval Office visit, Trump showed footage he falsely claimed was filmed in South Africa while those on tape shouted 'kill the farmer' and chanted about shooting Afrikaners. The clip grabbed from Reuters was actually captured in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than a thousand miles away from South Africa. Bolton questioned who vetted the video prior to the president presenting it to Ramaphosa in front of cameras. 'The films the president showed, the articles that he handed President Ramaphosa, was any of that run by the American intelligence community or our experts in the State Department, the Defense Department and elsewhere? Did anybody vet that information?' Bolton asked on air. Despite proof that the video was not captured in South Africa, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down on the video during Thursday's press briefing. 'It's unsubstantiated that that's the case,' NBC News's Yamiche Alcindor told Leavitt. 'No, it's true that the video showed image of crosses in South Africa about white farmers that have been killed and politically persecuted because of the color of their skin,' Leavitt responded. 'Those crosses are representing their lives, and the fact that they are now dead, and the government did nothing about it,' she continued. Bolton said the Trump administration's false claims will impact the country's global standing with other heads of state after a series of contentious meetings with world figures, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. 'It's a real blow to American credibility even leaving aside the theater in the Oval Office with Ramaphosa, with Zelensky, with Macron, with Carney. After a while, people would rather go sea shipping than meet with Donald Trump,' he told CNN. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hindustan Times
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Jake Tapper exposes Joe Biden aides' secret plan to put him in Wheelchair for potential second term
CNN anchor Jake Tapper expressed his opinion on why information on Joe Biden's alleged decline in health was withheld before his resignation, blaming the former president's White House staff for fabricating information regarding his state of wellness. Tapper, who collaborated on a book on the subject with Alex Thompson of Axios, claimed in an interview to 'CNN News Central' that while many reporters were attempting to piece together how Biden was doing behind the scenes, those who worked directly with him were dedicated to misrepresenting the facts. 'Bottom line is: The White House was lying not only to the press, not only to the public, but they were lying to members of their own Cabinet,' Tapper stated during the interview. 'They were lying to White House staffers. They were lying to Democratic members of Congress, to donors about how bad things had gotten.' Also Read: Photos: Smiles and handshakes at al-Yamamah Palace as Trump, Musk meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman In order to write the book Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, Tapper and Thompson interviewed over 200 people, including a majority of Democrats who would not have been as vocal about Biden's health in the run-up to the 2024 race, according to CNN anchor. Biden's physical health deteriorated dramatically in 2023 and 2024 that 'there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair,' according to an excerpt of the book released by Axios Tuesday morning. However, Biden's team was persistent that doing so before the presidential election would be politically damaging. An anonymous representative responded to this section of the book by denying the reporting, stating that while he acknowledged 'physical changes as he got older,' his condition did not get worse and his efficiency at work was unaffected. In a statement to Axios, a person stated, 'We are still waiting for someone, anyone, to point out where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or make a presidential address where he was unable to do his job because of mental decline.' In the past, Biden's physician, Kevin O'Connor, revealed that his patient suffered from a 'stiffened gait,' which he said likely caused the 'wear and tear' on his spine. According to O'Connor, Biden's posture remained jerky after his 2024 annual exam, but it hadn't become worse over the previous 12 months. Before turning 82 last year in November, Biden withdrew from the presidential contest after a dismal debate performance with Donald Trump that heightened worries about his mental and physical well-being.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Jake Tapper Accuses Biden's White House Of Lying About Ex-President's Declining Health
CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Tuesday shared his view on why details about the reported deterioration of Joe Biden's health were not revealed prior to his departure from office, accusing the former president's White House team of spreading lies about his condition. In an appearance on 'CNN News Central,' Tapper, who co-wrote a book with Axios' Alex Thompson on the topic, said many reporters were trying to piece together how Biden was faring behind the scenes, while those working closely with him were committed to distorting reality. 'Bottom line is: The White House was lying not only to the press, not only to the public, but they were lying to members of their own Cabinet,' Tapper said. 'They were lying to White House staffers. They were lying to Democratic members of Congress, to donors about how bad things had gotten.' Tapper said he and Thompson spoke to about 200 people for their book, almost all of whom were Democrats who would not have been as candid about Biden's condition ahead of the 2024 election. An excerpt of the book published by Axios Tuesday morning claims that Biden's physical condition worsened so much in 2023 and 2024 that 'there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair' but his team was adamant that doing so ahead of the election would be politically damaging. In response to this part of the book, an unidentified spokesperson pushed back on the reporting, acknowledging 'physical changes as he got older' but stressing that his condition didn't worsen and that his performance on the job was not impacted. 'We are still waiting for someone, anyone, to point out where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or make a presidential address where he was unable to do his job because of mental decline,' the person said in a statement to Axios. Biden's physician Kevin O'Connor previously disclosed his client's 'stiffened gait,' saying it probably explained the 'wear and tear' on his spine. Following Biden's 2024 annual physical, O'Connor said Biden's gait remained stiff but hadn't worsened in the past year. Biden, who turned 82 on Nov. 20, 2024, dropped out of the presidential race last summer following a disastrous debate performance that amplified concerns about his health and mental acuity. He ceded his place to then-Vice President Kamala Harris who went on to lose to Donald Trump. Joe Biden Candidly Reflects On Kamala Harris' Loss To Donald Trump Jill Biden Opens Up About 'Hurtful' Attacks On Joe Biden's Cognition CNN Anchor Is Caught Making Face At Biden Remark, And His Next Move Is Surprising
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Trump managed to get his much-needed China trade victory
President Donald Trump's shock-and-awe tariff approach threatened to rupture the global financial system and drive the US economy into recession. Nervous about the prospect of empty store shelves and reignited inflation, Trump sent in his even-keeled and professional negotiators to Geneva to snag a win. The unexpectedly dramatic de-escalation with China laid the groundwork for a growing series of trade negotiations that may produce a handful of rapid-fire, if less than fulsome, bilateral agreements to reduce US trade deficits. 'We actually have a fresh start with China,' National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said in an interview on CNN News Central. 'That's the way to think about these negotiations.' The decision by both the United States and China to drop stratospheric tariffs by 115 percentage points at the conclusion of two days of talks marked the most significant development in a policy approach that has been equal parts maximalist and messy. The de facto trade embargo between the world's two largest economies had produced domestic and global economic pressure that appeared on the brink of calamity. The de-escalation sent markets soaring across the world Monday, as it shed light on a Trump administration's strategy to maintain significantly higher tariffs while incentivizing its largest trading partners to come to the table with offers. In Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Trump sent lead negotiators who are viewed by market participants and their Chinese counterparts as serious, levelheaded and empowered. As those talks start in earnest, the ongoing effort to secure deals with roughly two-dozen other countries was given a boost last week after a small-scale agreement with the UK. That provided a model for what Trump wanted in the urgent scramble to secure bespoke deals with the US, according to several foreign diplomats involved in the bilateral talks. The negotiators, parameters for negotiation and clearly serious approach from both sides that will drive the next three months are all viewed as tangibly positive signs by Trump's advisors. Whether they lead to a substantive outcome remains an open question, but as one advisor put it to CNN, 'this a hell of a lot better than the alternative both of us were staring down.' 'This is really the first time it's been possible to actually see the path to land this plane without some cataclysmic economic disaster,' a Republican senator told CNN. 'Doesn't mean we will, but that's a lot better than where we've been.' The path from the market-panic-inducing 'Liberation Day' tariff announcement on April 2 to this point was hardly linear. Trump's advisors have long insisted, against plenty of evidence to the contrary, that it was all a deeply strategic roadmap that incorporated every possibility. The fallacy of that insistence is laid bare by Trump's own view that 'flexibility' is paramount. Bessent, who is fond in private settings of talking through the game theory he sees as animating Trump's approach, cites the value of the 'strategic uncertainty' created by his boss. It was Trump, after all, who hit the pause button on his hardest hitting 'reciprocal' tariff rates on roughly 100 countries. And it was Trump who first publicly floated significant de-escalation with China after, in private internal discussions, his team weighed even more dramatic off-ramps to step back from the brink. The bond market, supply chains blinking red and increasingly apocalyptic warnings from executives across major industries all served as critical accelerants for Trump's personal pivots. The actions in some cases had the effect of hanging his own advisors out to dry hours after they'd been on television pledging there would be no exceptions, delays or revisions. There has, however, been a broad strategy designed to push trading partners to the very place the administration finds itself now, officials say. In the end, the Trump administration has somehow managed to lock into place dramatically higher tariffs – a 10% universal rate across the globe and sector tariffs that largely stand untouched. And, while recognizing that tariffs aren't going back to zero, trading partners are still lining up to get a deal done with the United States. That lawmakers and foreign diplomats alike appear willing to overlook – or even outright accept – that a 10% global tariff rate is basically a nonnegotiable reality at this point is perhaps the best window into the moment Trump has led the world into. Trump's team said that shock-and-awe strategy to get a 'win,' even out of significant tariffs that remain in place was the strategy all along. 'We have had a plan, we have a process in place, now with the Chinese, we have a mechanism in place for future talks,' Bessent told reporters in Geneva. The China talks would always be the most difficult, labor-intensive and time consuming. The lessons from Trump's first term negotiations are deeply internalized among not just his advisors, but Trump himself. For Trump, trade is the lynchpin to everything. That includes the India-Pakistan ceasefire agreement he told reporters was, in his view, primarily attributable to his promises of rapid increases in trade flows to both nations. It seemed fitting that the most astute observation in the rush to analyze the dramatic de-escalation in US-China trade relations came from the man who drove them to the brink on an entirely unrelated yet no less consequential matter. 'People have never really used trade how I use trade,' Trump told reporters Monday morning. CNN's Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.
