Musk slams ‘puppetmasters’ after protesters struggle to explain why they call Trump a ‘fascist’ in viral video
Elon Musk slammed the alleged “puppetmasters” behind anti-Trump demonstrations this weekend after viral video showed protesters struggling to explain why they believe President Donald Trump is a “fascist.” “The problem is the puppetmasters, not the puppets, as the latter have no idea why they are even there,” Musk posted to X on Sunday accompanied by video footage of protesters stumbling over what issues they have with Trump. “He just does everything he wants… He’s a convicted felon, you know, that’s all I know,” one protester in the video said after tripping over why he believes Trump is a “fascist,” while holding a sign reading, “The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go.” The footage was recorded by Ted Goodman, a political strategist who launched a livestream program with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, on Saturday in Washington, D.C. “One of the things is he’s trying to control the media,” another protester in the video responded when asked for evidence Trump is allegedly a “fascist.” WATCH: ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTERS SLAM BUDGET REFORMS, LABEL ADMINISTRATION ‘ROBBER BARONS’ “Doesn’t every president try to control the narrative?” Goodman pressed. “They try to control their own narrative. But one of the things that Trump has done, for example, is the renaming the Gulf of Mexico and then not allowing the Associated Press to come into the White House,” the protester continued. The first protester explained in the video that he was there after he “saw people were hanging out,” while the second protester explained he was there due to “executive overreach.” ‘ASTROTURF’: CRITICS SPECULATE TESLA PROTESTS ARE NOT A GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT, BUT CAREFULLY ORGANIZED CAMPAIGN The first protester added that he had been given a sign describing Trump as a “fascist,” as well as a printed one-sheeter that declared, “We are facing fascism… The time to act is now!” alongside a photoshopped image of Trump with a Hitler-styled mustache. Video of the protesters racked up more than 12 million views on X by Sunday afternoon. More than 1,200 protests were held across the nation on Saturday as critics gathered to protest the administration, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), reciprocal tariffs, federal layoffs and immigration reform. FEDS ON ALERT FOR TESLA ‘GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION’ AFTER NATIONWIDE VIOLENCE LEADS TO ARRESTS “[I’m] protesting how horrible things have become in our country,” one protester told Fox News Digital from a demonstration in New York on Saturday. “I mean, we’ve been taken over by a bunch of robber barons who are trying to take away all of our rights, benefits and liberty.” “I am protesting what is happening with this blessed country, the democracy that was advanced democracy now in transition to a dictatorship, and we are almost in a fascist state right now – only because the rule of law is bending right now, and it may break,” another protester told Fox Digital. The protests this weekend follow mass protests targeting Tesla last weekend. Elon Musk, who is helping lead DOGE and is a staunch Trump ally, is the CEO of Tesla and has seen anti-Trump critics physically attack, monetarily boycott, and protest the car company over his politics. VANDAL STRIKES CYBERTRUCK, TESLA OWNER HITS BACK “Who is funding and organizing all these paid protests?” Musk posted to X last weekend of the recent anti-Tesla protests. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Amid the protests, a local news outlet, media personalities and conservative critics speculated that the anti-Tesla protests were embroiled in “astroturfing,” which is defined by Merriam-Webster as a campaign “falsely made to appear grassroots.” Fox News Digitals’ Kaylee Holland and Madeline Coggins contributed to this report.
Legacy media, DC journos come around to investigating Dem scandals years after conservatives sounded alarm
Legacy media and longtime politics reporters are increasingly reporting on scandals that rocked the Democratic Party ahead of the November election, shining additional light on political issues that Republicans had long spotlighted and railed against. “A full 4½ years after The Post’s bombshell series on Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling schemes, The New York Times has deigned to take an interest in the former First Son’s corruption,” the New York Post’s editorial board wrote in a piece last week slamming the New York Times for reporting on Biden corruption allegations years after other outlets had already uncovered reported details. “We’d say the Times’ willingness to at long last cover this comes better late than never, but it only published the story now that it doesn’t remotely matter anymore,” the editorial board continued. The New York Times declared in an article published on Friday that former first son Hunter Biden “sought support from the State Department” to aid his former employer, Ukrainian energy company Burisma, while his father served as vice president. Hunter Biden allegedly leveraging his last name and father’s political status in the U.S. has long been criticized by conservatives, who have alleged that Hunter and his father engaged in influence-peddling through Burisma. BIDEN’S CLAIM TO HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF HUNTER’S BUSINESS DEALINGS IS BECOMING HARDER TO MAINTAIN Hunter Biden was paid millions of dollars while serving on the board of Burisma after joining the company as legal counsel in the spring of 2014 before being elevated to the Board of Directors later that year. The Bidens were accused by Republicans of having “coerced” the Burisma CEO into paying them millions of dollars in exchange for their help in getting the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company fired during the Obama administration. The 46th president denied any involvement in his son’s business dealings. Biden issued his son a sweeping 10-year pardon before exiting the Oval Office in January that protects Hunter Biden from offenses he “has committed or may have committed” from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024. Alleged Biden family influence-peddling has echoed from the halls of Congress to social media channels on X, but legacy outlets and left-wing media outlets often didn’t give a platform to the allegations. CNN’S JAKE TAPPER GETS RIPPED ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ‘TRYING TO REWRITE HISTORY’ WITH NEW BOOK ON BIDEN’S DECLINE Jonathan Turley, Fox News’ contributor and Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, published an op-ed for Fox News Digital on Sunday remarking on the NYT’s piece that was published years after other outlets and experts investigated alleged Biden family influence-peddling. “For years, some of us have written about the Biden family’s multimillion-dollar influence-peddling operation and the Justice Department’s refusal to charge Hunter Biden with being an unregistered foreign agent. Now, years later, The New York Times has found evidence suggesting that the former president’s son was acting as a foreign agent as early as the Obama administration, when his father was vice president,” Turley wrote. Media veterans and legacy outlets have leaned into reporting on and investigating a handful of other scandals and political news that conservatives had long sounded the alarm on, including that the coronavirus likely originated out of a lab in China, as well as on President Biden’s mental decline in the lead-up to the election last year. PUBLIC WAS MISLED BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY ABOUT COVID ORIGINS, NY TIMES COLUMNIST ARGUES The New York Times ran a column last month claiming the scientific community “badly misled” the public in an effort to suppress the theory that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, even after the paper’s own science writer called the theory “racist.” “We Were Badly Misled About the Event That Changed Our Lives,” the March 16 piece published by NYT columnist and Princeton sociology professor Zeynep Tufekci, argued that the scientific community long suspected COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab, but purposefully “hid or understated crucial facts,” to mislead the public about the lab’s “terrifyingly lax” safety precautions. ‘MOST DAMNING EVIDENCE’: HUNTER BIDEN’S FULL PARDON RESURFACES DECADE OF CONTROVERSIES, ‘INFLUENCE-PEDDLING’ “We have since learned, however, that to promote the appearance of consensus, some officials and scientists hid or understated crucial facts, misled at least one reporter, orchestrated campaigns of supposedly independent voices and even compared notes about how to hide their communications in order to keep the public from hearing the whole story,” Tufekci wrote. The Trump administration’s CIA reported earlier this year that the lab leak was the likely origin of the COVID-19 virus, which had previously been passed off by media outlets and scientists as a likely conspiracy theory. The New York Times defended that it had reported on the lab leak theory multiple times across the years, including in 2021, when approached for comment by Fox News Digital on the recent articles on both Hunter Biden and the lab leak theory. “The New York Times has intensely pursued every theory and lead on the origins of Covid-19, documented the political debate, funding, influence, and shifts in thinking among the scientific community, and reported on China’s censorship campaign that has stifled the search for truth. The Times has helped readers navigate the coronavirus pandemic through independent, verified reporting, and any insinuation that we have not thoroughly pursued leads is false,” a NYT spokesperson said. And a newly released book by longtime D.C. reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” investigates Biden’s mental decline in the lead-up to the general election, calling him a “shell of himself.” “All of them,” Parnes told Vanity Fair of who in Biden’s inner circle is most to blame for covering up his mental decline when he was in office. “It’s pretty remarkable how they kept him very closed off. He was a shell of himself. When he entered the White House, he was so, so different from the man who I covered as vice president, a guy who would hold court in the Naval Observatory with reporters until the wee
Kevin Hassett doubles down on Trump tariffs, says dozens of countries are asking to negotiate
White House Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett doubled down on the effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Sunday, saying dozens of countries are now seeking to open negotiations and U.S. manufacturing is booming. Hassett made the claim during an appearance on ABC News’ “This Week” with host George Stephanopoulos. He said that over 50 countries have already said they want to negotiate new trade agreements with Trump’s administration since the tariffs hit last week, though he acknowledged there may be short-term pain for consumers. He pointed to the decrease in prices that has existed since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2000, arguing that the loss of jobs outweighs the low prices. “If cheap goods were the answer, if cheap goods were going to make Americans’ real wages better off, then real incomes would have gone up over that time. Instead, they went down because wages went down more than prices went down. So we got the cheap goods at the grocery store, but then we had fewer jobs,” he said. JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO RETURN MAN MARYLAND MISTAKENLY DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR PRISON Hassett added that he has received “anecdotal word” that some U.S. auto plants are adding second shifts to their work schedules in response to the tariffs. JD VANCE TORCHES MEDIA, DEMS’ ‘DISGRACEFUL SET OF PRIORITIES’ ON DEPORTATION OF ACCUSED MS-13 GANG MEMBER Stephanopoulos then pressed Hassett to explain why Russia wasn’t targeted with any additional tariffs. “There’s obviously an ongoing negotiation with Russia and Ukraine, and I think the president made the decision not to conflate the two issues. It doesn’t mean that Russia in the fullness of time, is going to be treated wildly different than every other country,” Hassett responded. “But Russia’s one of the only countries, one of few countries that is not subject to these new tariffs, aren’t they?” Stephanopoulos pressed. “They’re in the middle of a negotiation, George, aren’t they?” Hassett countered. “Would you literally advise that you go in and put a whole bunch of new things on the table in the middle of a negotiation that affects so many American and Ukrainian and Russian lives?” “Negotiators do that all the time,” Stephanopoulos argued. “Russia is in the midst of negotiations over peace that affects really thousands and thousands of lives of people and that’s what President Trump’s focused on right now,” Hassett said.
Palestinian protester Mahmoud Khalil excoriates Columbia in op-ed
Anti-Israel organizer Mahmoud Khalil ripped the administration of Columbia University in an op-ed published in the school’s newspaper on Friday. The op-ed, titled simply “A letter to Columbia,” accuses the institution of “laying the groundwork for my abduction.” He goes on to compare President Donald Trump’s crackdown on anti-Israel protesters to Columbia’s own apathy toward Palestinians, listing other students who have been “snatched by the state.” “The situation is oddly reminiscent of when I fled the brutality of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and sought refuge in Lebanon,” Khalil wrote. “The logic used by the federal government to target myself and my peers is a direct extension of Columbia’s repression playbook concerning Palestine.” He went on to accuse Columbia administrators of manufacturing “public hysteria about antisemitism without once mentioning the tens of thousands of Palestinians murdered under bombs made of your dollars.” COLLEGES IN ICE’S DEPORTATION CROSSHAIRS SHELLED OUT DISCOUNTS, FINANCIAL AID TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: GOP REP He also targeted some fellow students at Columbia who he says helped to create a false sense that antisemitism was spreading across the campus. He also pointed to efforts by certain students to unmask anti-Israel protesters, though he did not name any individuals. JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO RETURN MAN MARYLAND MISTAKENLY DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR PRISON “Especially in light of the dual degree program with Tel Aviv University, I can’t help but think that if I were in Palestine, some of these students would be the ones stopping me at checkpoints, raiding my university, piloting the drones surveilling my community, or killing my neighbors in their homes. While students were building solidarity at Columbia, some pro-Israel students were participating in the genocide as military personnel during their school breaks, only to return to campus and claim victimhood in the classroom,” he argued. “To members of Columbia’s faculty who pat themselves on the back for their progressive leanings but are content to limit their participation to performative statements: What will it take for you to resist the destruction of your University? Are your positions worth more than the lives of your students and the integrity of your work?” he added. The message comes weeks after ICE agents detained Khalil in New York City in early March. The Department of Homeland Security alleged that he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” Last week, several Columbia University students chained themselves to a gate outside the school’s St. Paul’s Chapel in protest against Khalil’s arrest. The students demanded that the institution release the names of the trustees “who gave Mahmoud Khalil’s name to ICE.” The Columbia Palestine Solidarity Committee wrote on X that “We will not leave until our demand is met.” The school denies that any of its administrators requested ICE’s presence on campus.
Trump, Musk, face blame for setbacks, but are Wisconsin, Florida elections crystal ball for 2026 midterms?
Democrats are celebrating a larger-than-expected victory in a high-profile and historically expensive election in battleground Wisconsin, in the first statewide ballot box contest since President Donald Trump’s return to power in January. And while the GOP came out on top in Tuesday’s other marquee contests, comfortably holding control of two vacant congressional seats in twin special elections in red state Florida, Democrats are spotlighting that their candidates overperformed in overwhelmingly Republican districts. Democrats are portraying last week’s contests as early referendums on Trump’s sweeping and controversial moves during the opening months of his second tour of duty in the White House, including the massive federal government downsizing being steered by billionaire White House special adviser Elon Musk. And Democrats argue that the results in Wisconsin and Florida are a sign of things to come in next year’s midterm elections. POLITICAL BAGGAGE? – POLLS INDICATE AMERICANS SOURING ON MUSK “These races proved what we’ve seen over and over again this year: people are already fed up with Trump’s chaos agenda and they’re voting for a change,” Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin emphasized in an email to supporters. But Republican National Committee chair Mike Whatley, pointing to the Florida victories, countered that “the American people sent a clear message…they want elected officials who will advance President Trump’s America First agenda, and their votes can’t be bought by national Democrats.” LIBERAL-LEANING CANDIDATE WINS FIRST MAJOR STATEWIDE ELECTION OF THE YEAR In Wisconsin, liberal-leaning Judge Susan Crawford topped conservative-leaning Judge Brad Schimel by roughly 10 percentage points, to preserve the liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is likely to rule going forward on crucial issues like congressional redistricting, voting rights, labor rights and abortion. With a massive infusion of money from Democratic-aligned and Republican-aligned groups from outside Wisconsin, which turned the technically nonpartisan race into the most expensive judicial election in the nation’s history, the contest partially transformed into a proxy battle over Trump as well as Musk, who personally inserted himself into the election. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, who has taken a buzz saw to the federal government workforce as he steers Trump’s recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), dished out roughly $20 million in the Wisconsin race through aligned groups in support of Schimel. And Musk, in a controversial move, handed out $1 million checks at a rally in Green Bay last Sunday to two Wisconsin voters who had already cast ballots in the contest and had signed a petition to stop “activist judges.” DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN LASHES MUSK IN OPENING SALVO OF SENATE BID “I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world, for justice in Wisconsin. And we won,” Crawford said in her election night victory speech. The results in Wisconsin will likely give the Democrats a jolt, and validate their efforts to target Musk. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the chamber, argued that Wisconsin voters “sent a decisive message to Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and DOGE by rejecting an extreme Republican for their Supreme Court: our democracy is not for sale.” And the DNC, looking ahead to next year’s bigger contests in the 2026 midterm elections, called the showdown in Wisconsin a “bellwether race.” WHERE TRUMP STANDS WITH AMERICANS 10 WEEKS INTO HIS SECOND TOUR OF DUTY IN THE WHITE HOUSE But veteran Republican strategist Matt Gorman noted that two years ago, when the conservatives lost their majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the liberal-leaning candidate won by 11 points. Pointing to this week’s 10-point margin, with Trump in the White House, Gorman asked”this is what Democrats are jumping up and down over?” In Florida, the double-digit victories by the Republican candidates will give the GOP a little bit of breathing room in the House of Representatives, where the party is holding onto a very fragile majority as it aims to pass Trump’s agenda. But the Democratic candidates in the two special congressional elections vastly outraised their Republican counterparts – a sign that the party’s base is angry and energized – which forced GOP-aligned outside groups to pour money and resources into the races during the final stretch. And the Democratic candidates ended up losing by 15 and 14 points in districts that Trump carried by 37 and 30 points in last November’s presidential election. REPUBLICANS HOLD CONTROL OF TWO VACANT CONGRESSIONAL SEATS IN THIS RED STATE Democrats quickly spotlighted how the party “overperformed” in Florida. And the House Majority PAC, the top super PAC supporting House Democrats, touted that the results showed “that the political headwinds are firmly at our backs heading into 2026.” But Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, argued that “Democrats just lit over $20,000,000 on fire in a doomed-to-fail effort to make two deep-red Florida districts competitive – and got blown out of the water in the most embarrassing way.” WHERE TRUMP STANDS WITH AMERICANS 10 WEEKS INTO HIS SECOND TOUR OF DUTY IN THE WHITE HOUSE The elections in Wisconsin and Florida were held on the eve of Trump’s blockbuster tariff announcement, sparking a trade war with the nation’s top trading partners and triggering a massive sell-off in the financial markets. The latest move by the president could also set the stage for an even bigger ballot box backlash next year. But Democrats have a serious brand issue right now. The party’s favorable rating sank to all-time lows in separate national polls conducted last month by CNN and NBC News. Those numbers followed a record low for Democrats in a Quinnipiac University survey in the field in February. Additionally, the latest Fox News National poll indicated that congressional Democrats’ approval rating is at 30%, near an all-time low. And Democratic activists are irate over their party’s inability to blunt Trump’s agenda. And when it comes to normally low-turnout off-year elections and special elections, the party in power – which in the nation’s capital is clearly the Republicans – often faces political
UK prime minister to admit ‘globalization is over’ in response to Trump tariffs: report
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will announce Sunday that he understands the rationale behind President Donald Trump’s tariffs and that the West is entering a new economic era. “The world has changed, globalization is over and we are now in a new era,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement to the Sunday Times. “We’ve got to demonstrate that our approach, a more active Labour government, a more reformist government, can provide the answers for people in every part of this country.” The statement comes after Trump announced new tariffs on dozens of countries around the world on Wednesday, including a 10% levy on goods from the U.K. TARIFF STOCK SHOCK: NASDAQ HITS BEAR MARKET; S&P, DOW SINK While Starmer will still argue that tariffs are wrong, according to the Sunday Times report, the prime minister will also admit that he understands the rationale behind Trump’s move and why such policies have become increasingly popular with voters. “Trump has done something that we don’t agree with, but there’s a reason why people are behind him on this,” the prime minister’s office said in the statement. Starmer is expected to emphasize the failures of free trade and mass migration specifically during the address on Sunday, the report said, arguing that it has failed millions of voters. MUSK SAYS HE HOPES FOR ‘ZERO TARIFFS,’ FREEDOM OF TRADE ZONE BETWEEN US AND EUROPE Meanwhile, the report noted that Trump ally Elon Musk seemingly publicly broke with the president during a video interview for an event in Italy Saturday, saying he hopes, eventually, for a “zero-tariff” solution between the U.S. and Europe one day. “At the end of the day, I hope it’s agreed that both Europe and the United States should move, ideally, in my view, to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone between Europe and North America,” he said. Musk also called for there to eventually be more “freedom” of movement between the two continents, an apparent break from Trump’s hard line on immigration. “That’s what I hope occurs, and also more freedom of people to move between Europe and North America if they wish,” Musk said. “If they wish to work in Europe or wish to work in America, they should be allowed to do so, in my view. So that has certainly been my advice to the president.” The White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
GOP congressman says Signal leak was ‘obviously’ a mistake, defers to president to determine consequences
GOP Rep. Marlin Stutzman told Fox News Digital that the recent Signal leak debacle was “obviously” a mistake, but he expressed confidence in the Trump administration’s national security officials and said he trusts the president to determine whether any consequences should be handed down. “Yes, obviously, we don’t want those things to happen,” Stutzman. R-Ind., told Fox News from inside the Capitol. “We all know that President Trump is America First. He supports our military, he supports security – I mean, he is the law and order president, so he’s going to make sure that he takes care of this… he’s going to be the one to make this decision and I support whatever decision he makes.” RUBIO BREAKS SILENCE ON LEAKED SIGNAL CHAT: ‘SOMEONE MADE A BIG MISTAKE’ Stutzman’s comments came amid a reported attempt by Democratic Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to introduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, national security advisor Michael Waltz and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, each of whom were involved in the Signal chat leak. Trump confirmed Thursday aboard Air Force One that multiple employees within the National Security Council were fired, but did add that it was not many. So far, no consequences have been handed down to Hegseth, Waltz or Ratcliffe, three of the highest-ranking officials who allegedly participated in the leaked Signal chat. PENTAGON WATCHDOG OPENS PROBE INTO HEGSETH’S USE OF SIGNAL TO DISCUSS HOUTHI ATTACK PLANS Republicans have said there was no classified material shared or discussed in the leaked Signal chat, but Democrats have insisted the manner in which sensitive information was handled was still “reckless,” potentially illegal and constituted the need for repercussions. But Stutzman expressed confidence in the administration’s national security officials and the president, noting that “so far” everyone involved has taken appropriate responsibility and “they’re going to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.” “I think they’ll analyze every communication channel that they have,” Stutzman said. “I think that they’re going to be sure, especially this soon in the administration – this will be a top priority for them… we all know that there are folks all around the world trying to get into American leaders’ conversations all the time, and so they’re going to be just as diligent.”
Left-wing movie director Oliver Stone rips Democrats’ ‘lying’ Russiagate probe against Trump
Left-wing movie director Oliver Stone slammed Democrats for weaponizing federal law enforcement and “lying” in their attempts to charge the president with Russian collusion during the 2016 election. Stone, meanwhile, applauded President Donald Trump for taking steps to find out what really happened, adding that he is “absolutely” right that the federal government has been weaponized to attack political opponents. Trump recently signed a new executive order directing the FBI to immediately declassify files concerning Crossfire Hurricane, the initial investigation launched in 2016 that sought information on whether members of the Trump campaign were colluding with the Russians to undermine the election. The president has also taken steps to go after the law firms involved in the scandal, including by suspending the security clearances for their attorneys and barring them from entering any federal buildings. ‘ABSURD’: WHITE HOUSE BLASTS LAW FIRM THAT HELPED FUEL RUSSIA HOAX AFTER CHALLENGING TRUMP ORDER “Russiagate – we paid for it,” Stone said. “I applaud [what Trump is doing], and I hate what they did with Russiagate, I really do. I think it’s – again, the lying, the lying, the lying, and selling that to the American people.” When asked if he felt Trump was right about there being weaponization of the federal government against conservatives, Stone responded: “There was.” Stone, who has produced several documentaries supporting Russian narratives about Ukraine, added that the underlying premise behind Russiagate – that Russia is a nefarious actor – is wrong and “un-American.” TRUMP CUTS OFF FEDERAL RESOURCES FOR LAW FIRM THAT HELPED FUEL 2016 RUSSIA HOAX “They are potentially our best partners, as are the Chinese. I mean, we have this mentality that they’re the enemy,” Stone said. “That’s all been inculcated by propaganda. If you go out there to China, and you go out to Russia, you don’t hear that kind of vituperative dialogue.” However, while Stone said he agreed with Trump’s approach to taking on those involved with Russiagate, he did lament the president’s attacks on pro-Palestinian protesters over alleged antisemitism. “I don’t like this new thing about censorship coming from Trump,” said Stone. “Against the anti – what he calls ‘antisemitic news’ – I mean, I don’t agree. I don’t know where he’s coming from, and it’s not what he promised.”
The losers and winners of Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff plan
President Donald Trump unveiled his latest tariff plan last week on “Liberation Day,” which the administration said will restore the American Dream and spark an economic boon for U.S. workers. “American steel workers, auto workers, farmers and skilled craftsmen,” Trump said from the White House Rose Garden last Wednesday afternoon in his announcement. “We have a lot of them here with us today. They really suffered, gravely. They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs, foreign cheaters have ransacked our factories, and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once-beautiful American dream. We had an American dream that you don’t hear so much about. You did four years ago, and you are now. But you don’t too often.” “Now it’s our turn to prosper, and in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt,” he continued. “And it will all happen very quickly. With today’s action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before. Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base.” The Trump administration’s tariff plan leveled a baseline tariff of 10% on all imports to the U.S., while customized tariffs were set for countries that have higher tariffs in place on American goods. The baseline tariffs of 10% took effect on Saturday, while the other tariffs will take effect on April 9. HOW WE GOT TO LIBERATION DAY: A LOOK AT TRUMP’S PAST COMMENTS ON TARIFFS Trump pointed to the European Union during his announcement, and explained the U.S. will charge the EU a 20% tariff, compared to its 39% tariffs on the U.S. Japan will see 24% tariffs, compared to the 46% the country charges the U.S., while China will be hit with a 34% tariff, compared to the 67% it charges the U.S. The customized tariffs, Trump explained, would not be full reciprocal tariffs, as his administration was “very kind” and leveled tariffs that are roughly half of what a particular nation was charging the U.S. on tariffs. “For nations that treat us badly, we will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, nonmonetary barriers and other forms of cheating,” Trump said Wednesday. HERE’S WHAT TRUMP IS REALLY UP TO WITH HIGH-STAKES TARIFF GAMBIT “And because we are being very kind, we will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us,” he said. “So, the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal. I could have done that. Yes. But it would have been tough for a lot of countries.” Fox News Digital examined the full tariff list and spoke to experts about who stands to lose the most due to the tariffs, and who will likely benefit and tackle the new tariffs victoriously. Fox News Digital spoke with Samir Kapadia, a managing principal at the lobbying and advisory firm the Vogel Group, who explained Vietnam will likely lose the most business due to the upcoming tariffs. “Vietnam has long been an amicable trade partner with the United States for a variety of sectors, whether that would be textiles and apparel or computers and consumer electronics, but there has been a gross inequity in the bilateral trade relationship. Vietnam simply doesn’t have the economy or the resources to import from the United States and to… provide that reciprocity,” Kapadia explained. Vietnam charges the U.S. a 90% tariff on imported goods to the nation. The Trump administration last week announced the Southeast Asian country will face a 46% tariff on goods imported to the U.S. Vietnam’s industries are also deeply rooted in Chinese business investments, Kapadia said. MUSK SAYS HE HOPES FOR ‘ZERO TARIFFS,’ FREEDOM OF TRADE ZONE BETWEEN US AND EUROPE “To add insult to injury, they also have been a hot bed for Chinese investment. Since the imposition of the Section 301 tariffs under the first Trump administration, which were these large-scale tariffs on Chinese imports, you had a whole number of Chinese companies across a variety of industries in the consumer product segment basically invest, instead, in factories in Vietnam as a way to circumvent paying tariffs, so the Chinese would keep their market share, but just go and make it in another country,” he explained. Trump signed a memo under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 in 2018 under his first administration targeting Chinese goods for U.S. tariffs in response to Chinese theft of American intellectual property, Trump said at the time. “This was by far the worst day for the Vietnamese government, in the sense, they’re realizing that that door has now closed. A 46% tariff – Vietnam is not an attractive country to import from. The numbers won’t work,” Kapadia said of the new rounds of tariffs targeting Vietnam. The Asian nation has already felt the pinch, and called on Trump to delay the tariffs from taking effect this weekend. AFTER TRUMP TARIFFS, JPMORGAN RAISES CHANCE OF RECESSION TO 60% Vietnam’s leader To Lam wrote a letter to Trump on Saturday, the New York Times reported, asking him to delay the imposition of the tariffs for at least 45 days and for the pair of world leaders to meet in Washington, D.C., in May “to jointly come to an agreement on this important matter, for the benefit of both our peoples and to contribute to peace, stability and development in the region and the world.” The “biggest losers” from Trump’s Wednesday announcement are “without question” China and Vietnam, Kapadia said. China was hit with a 34% tariff as part of Trump’s announcement last week, which is in addition to previous tariffs leveled on the nation. Kappadia said the newest upcoming tariff and the “high-band” tariffs of 45% on some Chinese goods puts the country’s tariff barrier at about 75% to 80%, which Kapadia predicted could grow to 150% by the end of 2025. “That’s because there’s just a
Meet the Trump-picked lawmakers giving Speaker Johnson a full House GOP conference
House Republicans will finally begin this week with a full conference for the first time this year. Newly minted representatives Randy Fine, R-Fla., and Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., won special elections in the Sunshine State’s 6th and 1st congressional districts, respectively, Tuesday night. It’s going to give some much-needed wiggle room to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who has been wrestling with a one- to two-vote margin since the 119th Congress began at the beginning of January. In separate interviews with Fox News Digital this week, both lawmakers signaled they would be team players focused on advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda, likely welcome news for House GOP leaders as they navigate a conference that’s been deeply fractured on key issues like government spending. SCOOP: TRUMP ALLY DONALDS SHOWCASES CAMPAIGN CASH SURGE SINCE ANNOUNCING FLORIDA GOVERNOR RUN “We do not need the team to fight within itself. Everyone’s got to keep their eye on the prize,” Fine said. “How do we make Speaker Johnson successful? And when we do that, how do we make President Trump successful? My focus is helping the team be successful. That will help my constituents. That will help Florida. That will help the country.” Patronis told Fox News Digital some of his top priorities would be the military and veterans and advancing Trump’s policies on government efficiency, the border crisis and fentanyl trafficking. The military is particularly important to Patronis, who until recently was the chief financial officer of Florida. The 1st Congressional District, which had been represented by former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., maintains a heavy military presence in multiple branches of the armed forces. Patronis pledged his office would be “doing everything we can” to help the military installations continue to “protect our nation.” On veterans’ care, the new Florida congressman lauded Trump’s first administration for backing reforms aimed at enabling veterans to seek care outside of VA hospitals but said it was “mothballed” under the Biden administration. “It’s really allowed those vets to seek services in their own community instead of traveling out of state,” he said, pledging to work to get it back on track. While he did not mention the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) specifically, Patronis signaled he aligned with its goals of transparency in federal spending. “I’m a big believer that the citizens of the state of Florida spend their money better, a heck of a lot better, than Washington, D.C., does,” Patronis said. “I like being a watchdog. … I like to ensure that that transparency is the norm, that we have, you know, a public that is informed and aware how their tax dollars are being used.” Fine, when asked about his agenda items, deferred largely to the president. “The big agenda item for me is gonna make sure we get President Trump’s agenda passed. Look, it’s a narrow majority, and you have to support the team captain,” Fine said. DESANTIS REBUKES REPUBLICANS FOR BACKING BILL FOR CARBON SEQUESTRATION TASK FORCE: ‘ABSOLUTELY EMBARRASSING’ He pointed out that Florida’s Republican majority grew significantly during his tenure in both houses of the state legislature. “It didn’t get there overnight. It’s because Republicans showed that we knew how to govern, and we hit singles and doubles and triples every day. And the voters rewarded us,” Fine said. “The goal needs to be go from a five-vote majority to a 15, to a 25, to a 35, and you do that by governing and putting points on the board every day.” Both Republicans made clear, however, that their principles would follow them from the Sunshine State to the nation’s capital. Patronis said he was looking at starting work on insurance reform, a critical issue in Florida, a state that regularly deals with natural disasters. “When you’ve got high insurance rates, when you’ve got inflation the way it is, home ownership is more of a dream than a reality,” he said. “We rolled out several solutions when I was CFO.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Among the initiatives he mentioned was legislation to create a tax-free savings account to help homeowners during national disasters, a bill that was introduced by Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., a fellow delegation member. Fine maintained to Fox News Digital that he “can’t give carte blanche” guarantees to House GOP leaders but said he foresaw few if any future points of contention. “I was the only Republican Jew in the Florida legislature for eight years. I got this crazy nickname, the ‘Hebrew hammer,’ which I finally decided to embrace,” Fine said. “If, God forbid, they were going to do something that stood in the way of [fighting antisemitism], that would be an example where my principals would override, and I wouldn’t be able to be with the team.”