Tariffs Take Effect
New tariffs are set now on an array of imported products. Though the rates aren’t as steep or numerous as President Donald Trump initially threatened, they’re still substantial, averaging 15%, about six times higher than they were a year ago.
Still to come: additional tariffs on imports of pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, critical minerals and other key industrial products.
There are also lots of exceptions: the administration has excluded more than a third of US imports by value.
More than $1 trillion of these excluded materials and products were delivered to the US in 2024, according to a Bloomberg analysis of federal trade data. That includes about $750 billion excluded from his April 2 tariffs plus $400 billion or so covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement free trade pact reached in Trump’s first term, which gave cars and other products a break on new duties.
Trump landed tariff-rate deals with the European Union, the UK, Japan, and South Korea; unilaterally set rates on other countries, including India and Brazil; and offered negotiating extensions like the one in place for Mexico. He increased the tariff on goods from Syria to 41%; Laos and Myanmar, 40%; Switzerland, 39%; for some goods from Canada, 35%; and set 19% rates for both Cambodia and Thailand, along with a range of rates for other countries.
- Here’s a full list of the new rates
- And keep up with developments on Bloomberg’s Tariff Tracker here.
Plans remain fluid about how the US will handle the many nations that don’t have a new agreement in place. Read More
Also Read: Trump Tariff Power at Risk After Skepticism by Appeals Court
Recess Watch
We’d love to tell you exactly when Congress will be fully on its August recess. But it’s too soon to say.
The House is already out, and the timing of the gavel drop in the Senate will depend on how many more of Trump’s nominees leaders want to get confirmed, and how much they’ll try to accomplish on their fiscal 2026 spending bills.
In this morning’s BGOV Budget , Jack Fitzpatrick explains how a proposal for a four-bill spending package fell apart last night, raising questions about senators’ ability to get together today on a smaller bill bundle.
The mini-omnibus was doomed by the fight over moving the FBI’s headquarters to Maryland — or rather not moving to Maryland, since Trump reversed those plans. Bringing the bill that includes FBI funding up for a floor vote required unanimous agreement, and the objection of Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) stopped it cold.
Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said senators could strip the Commerce-Justice-Science portion of the package and “see where it goes from there.”
And while we’re examining Capitol Hill dynamics, Jonathan Tamari describes the shift in congressional leadership styles from top down to bottom up. Read More
Outnumbered in Austin
Look for opponents to dominate testimony about new congressional district lines when the Texas House’s redistricting committee meets today in Austin.
Ex-Rep. Colin Allred (D), a former voting-rights lawyer running for the Senate in 2026, said he plans to testify against a map designed to send as many as five more Republicans to Washington.
That proposed map would add more GOP-favoring voters to the districts of Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez in south Texas. It would also consolidate Democratic districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin metropolitan areas, Greg Giroux reports.
Democrats are calling it a partisan gerrymander that would dilute Black and Latino voting power. “I would anticipate a number of lawsuits within hours, not days,” John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, told reporters.
The Texas legislature is under Republican control, so all the minority party can control are court filings and the arguments they offer in the court of public opinion. It’s a different story in California, where Democrats are in charge.
Possible Counterpunch
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said a vote on counter-gerrymandering could be set up for November.
Andrew Oxford reports that consultants and researchers are already circulating maps that would allow Democrats to pick up five or so of the state’s nine Republican congressional districts, including seats currently held by Reps. Darrell Issa, Doug LaMalfa, Ken Calvert, David Valadao, and Kevin Kiley.
California’s constitution gives the redistricting powers to an independent commission. Newsom said he could call a special election on the issue, or legislators could try redrawing maps on their own under a novel legal theory. The new maps would be used in the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections, and the commission would revise the lines after the next Census, he said.
“This is not going to be done in a back room. This is not going to be done by members of some private group or body. It’s going to be given to the voters for their consideration in a very transparent way” and only if Texas acts first, he said.
Sanctions Deadline
Trump has set a week from today as the deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war against Ukraine.
“We have about eight days, so yeah, we’re going to put sanctions,” Trump said yesterday. “I don’t know that sanctions bother him.”
Ahead of the deadline, Trump said special envoy Steve Witkoff would head to Russia.
The penalties Trump has said he’s envisioning are generally referred to as secondary sanctions because they would target Moscow’s export customers. For instance, India will faceadditional levies — on top of its 25% tariff rate — penalizing New Delhi for its purchases of Russian energy and weapons. Read More
Also Read: Ships With Russian Oil Idle Off India as Refiners Seek Steer
Eye on the Economy
The University of Michigan’s consumer confidence gauge will be updated this morning, providing another data point about how likely Americans will be to make the big purchases that keep production lines — and US jobs — going.
Equally interesting will be the updated unemployment rate being released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Next week, companies and economists will be paying attention to a Census Bureau report on changes in the value of new orders placed with US manufacturers.
That report comes out Monday, a day ahead of updated figures on imports and exports from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Before You Go
Drug Prices: Trump escalated his pressure campaign on pharmaceutical companies, sending letters to 17 of the world’s largest drugmakers demanding they charge the US what other countries pay for new medicines. Read More
Efficiency Report: The government paid nearly $15 billion for 200,000 federal employees not to work after taking deferred resignation packages, according to a report from Senate Democrats. The Trump administration contends that more than 156,000 federal employees took deferred resignation offers or are otherwise being paid to stay home, but at a savings of $20 billion, Ian Kullgren reports. Read More
Rate Rant: Trump called today on the Federal Reserve board to “assume control” if Chairman Jerome Powell does not lower interest rates. The social media post called Powell a “stubborn MORON.” Read More
Trump’s Venue: Construction will begin in September on a 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom estimated to cost $200 million. “It’ll be a great legacy project, and I think it’ll be special,” Trump told reporters yesterday. “It’s a private thing. I’ll do it and we’ll probably have some donors or whatever.” Read More
Touchy Subject: The Washington Post reports that references to Trump’s two impeachments at the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History were removed from a display, with a spokesperson saying the content that’s been there since September 2021 was intended to be temporary. Now, the exhibit notes that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal.”
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