TRADE WAR !!: President Trump waited yesterday until after the financial markets closed to announce a baseline 10 percent tariff on all goods imported to the US from every country in the world plus more punitive tariffs of two or three times that for China, Japan, and Europe. 

  Trump again called it “Liberation Day” and promised that his tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners will end years of other countries “ripping us off.”  The tariffs on Chinese goods would go to 54 percent, Vietnam, 46 percent, and Taiwan, 32 percent.

  “This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history,” Trump said. “It’s our declaration of economic independence.”

  China’s trade ministry called the tariffs “unilateral bullying.”

  Stock futures took an immediate dive indicating investors are not pleased about the prospects for American business. The countries paying higher tariffs can be expected to retaliate.

  Although Trump claims that “Ghina” and other countries pay the tariffs, it’s the importer that pays and generally passes the cost along to the American distributors and customers. The tariffs are expected to result in higher prices for everything from fruits and vegetables, cheese, wine, metals and automobiles. Dinner in a restaurant will cost more. Manufacturers, producers, and politicians around the world are calculating how this affects them and what they can do about it. The same goes for importers and businesses here at home.

  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “These tariffs are a disaster for the average American family.”

  In a speech that rambled on about the greatness of his election victory, failures of the Biden administration, and how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would never have happened if he had been president, Trump rattled off a list of companies he said have promised to build factories in the US to restore the industrial base. “Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country,” he promised.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

— Politico reports that the administration group led by national security adviser Mike Waltz had at least 20 group chats on the unsecured Signal app to coordinate official business involving China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa, and Europe. Waltz was the one whose group chat on Signal regarding bombing in Yemen unknowingly included the editor of The Atlantic. 

— A federal judge in New York yesterday ended the corruption prosecution of Mayor Eric Adams but barred the Justice Department from using the threat of re-instated charges as leverage against the Democrat.

  The ruling confirmed the power of President Trump to determine the fate of prosecutions.

   Following Trump’s inauguration the Justice Department in coordination with Immigration and Customs moved to dismiss the charges against Adams brought under the Biden administration to secure the mayor’s cooperation in immigration sweeps. Adams even went to Florida to meet with Trump.

  Judge Dale Ho had little choice but to approve the dismissal, but he said in his 78-page ruling that, “Everything here smacks of a bargain: Dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.”

  Adams announced this morning that he’s withdrawing from the Democratic primary to run for re-election as an independent.

— The Department of Agriculture froze federal funding for education programs in Maine, the latest action targeting the state since its Democratic governor, Janet Mills, sparred with President Trump over the issue of transgender athletes. 

  Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins notified Mills in a letter that funding would be stopped while the agency reviews grants to Maine by the Biden administration, many of which “appear to be wasteful, redundant, or otherwise against the priorities of the Trump administration.”

— Another major law firm, Milbank in Manhattan, has capitulated to President Trump’s sanctions and agreed to donate $100 million in pro bono work for causes supported by his administration.

— Under financial threat by the Trump administration, Harvard banned all activities by its student Palestinian Solidarity Committee until June 30^th saying the organization broke university rules.

— Tesla’s first quarter sales fell 13 percent as Elon Musk’s dismantling of the federal government also turns off his electric car customers.

— President Trump’s model beautiful former lawyer Alina Habba, now the interim US attorney for New Jersey, took part in the arrest of an 18-year-old gang member while fashioning a “US Marshals” ballistic vest.

THE SPIN RACK: Multiple tornados have been ripping through the South, destroying homes and killing two people in Tennessee. Tornado watches are in place today from Arkansas to Illinois, also in Tennessee and Kentucky. — Deaths in the Myanmar earthquake have surpassed 3,000. — Jury selection enters its third day on the retrial of Karen Read, the Boston area woman accused of backing over and killing her police officer boyfriend. It’s been a case for the tabloids … and bloggers. The jury in Read’s first trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and driving under the influence, ended with a hung jury. — More than 240 people on the luxury Queen Mary 2 cruise ship have come down with the highly contagious norovirus stomach bug, sometimes nicknamed “the cruise ship virus.” This gives a new meaning to sea sick.  

BELOW THE FOLD: The Supreme Court unanimously upheld an FDA order that prohibited the marketing of flavored tobacco products, sending the case back to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Fighting the order are the makers of flavors used in e-cigarettes with names like Jimmy the Juice Man Peachy Strawberry, Signature Series Mom’s Pistachio, and Suicide Bunny Mother’s Milk and Cookies. 

  It’s as if Ben and Jerry’s ice cream was in the tobacco business.

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