Trump Unveils Sweeping New Tariffs Expected to Cost Americans $100 Billion a Year

Trump uses bogus claims to continue to impose a national sales tax on Americans

Jake Johnson

On July 23, Donald Trump  unveiled a new package of tariffs targeting 60 countries that account for over 99% of US imports, a move that—if upheld in court—would cost Americans an estimated $100 billion per year in the form of higher costs.

The duties, ranging from 10% to 12.5%, were announced as part of Trump's effort to maneuver around repeated court rulings against his sweeping tariffs, including by the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court. Jamieson Greer, the Trump administration’s top trade official, pointed to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to justify the new tariffs, introduced with the purported goal of penalizing countries “for their failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”

Observers questioned the administration’s pretext. “Magically, the US tariff probe on forced labor practices is done perfectly in time to replace the generalized but expiring Section 122 tariffs,” noted Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove, referring to the legal authority Trump cited for earlier tariffs.

Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) acknowledged that “Section 301 is a law Congress passed,” but added, “What was passed in 1974 was authority to respond to specific unfair trade practices after investigation.”

“What is being done with it now is a tariff on 99% of American trade, set by Trump, with no expiration, no vote, and no ceiling,” said Levin. “If a delegation that broad is lawful, then the tariff power in Article I means very little. The Supreme Court struck down the last version of this policy in February. The response was to avoid Congress and find a different statute and rebuild substantially the same tariffs, effective the same minute the old ones lapsed.”

The list of countries targeted by the Section 301 tariffs includes Canada, Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico, Russia, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

Between the start of his second administration and January 2026, Trump’s tariffs cost American families $1,700 each on average as importers passed burdens onto consumers in the form of higher prices. The tariffs have also hammered small businesses, increased hardship for farmers, and failed to arrest the decline of American manufacturing jobs.

This looks like the perfect challenge for ICE

“Weird Clams” Reveal a New Invasion Along the U.S. Northeast Coast

By University of Massachusetts Amherst

Empty Manila clam shells blanketing the
 intertidal zone in Boston Harbor’s Spectacle
Island. Credit: Aly Putnam

A stretch of Atlantic shoreline that had remained free of Manila clams now appears to support reproducing populations of the invasive shellfish.

Biologists led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, MIT Sea Grant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Center for Coastal Studies confirmed that Ruditapes philippinarum has established itself along the northwestern Atlantic coast. Published in Biological Invasions, the findings capture a rarely documented stage of biological invasion, when a species is first becoming established and beginning to spread through a new region.

Manila clams are native to waters extending from Russia’s Sakhalin Islands through Japan and southern China. Since at least the early 20th century, however, people have introduced them both intentionally and accidentally to the Pacific coast of North America and to Europe, allowing the species to spread across much of the Northern Hemisphere.

The clams are widely valued as food and support an industry worth about $7 billion annually. At the same time, dense populations can compete with native shellfish, hybridize with related species, and alter surrounding ecological communities.

Co-author Bastidas in Squantum, Massachusetts,
holding a native quahog clam. Mussels and Manila
clams are visible in the tray. Credit: Carolina Bastidas

Their arrival may also bring some benefits. Manila clams can provide abundant food for seabirds, crabs, raccoons, and other animals that prey on shellfish.

“Given that Manila clams are everywhere else in the northern hemisphere, it was only a matter of time before they showed up here, and we’ve been keeping an eye out for them,” says marine scientist Aly Putnam, who is a postdoctoral researcher at UMass Amherst and lecturer at Smith College, as well as the paper’s lead author.

A text message starts the search

The Northeastern U.S. had represented the last major gap in the Manila clam’s Northern Hemisphere range. Evidence that the species had reached this coastline emerged from something remarkably ordinary: a text message.

During the summer of 2025, Putnam was leading a small workshop on intertidal biodiversity at Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor when El Fernekees Hartshorn sent her a photograph of an unfamiliar clam. Fernekees Hartshorn, a recent University of Rhode Island graduate who had worked with Putnam on regional Rapid Assessment Surveys for marine invasive species, suggested that the shellfish might be a Manila clam. Fernekees Hartshorn is also a co-author of the paper.

Sociopathic Trump Delivers Absurd—and Terrifying—Address to the Nation

Trump's latest efforts to end democracy

Robert Reich for Inequality Media

The real message to be drawn from Trump’s address to the nation is that he will call into question the votes of every state and city that chooses a Democratic senator or representative in the 2026 midterm elections. He’ll push Republican governors and mayors not to certify the results. He’ll demand recounts and audits.

We’ve been here before, but this time he’s even less restrained than he was in 2020 and is surrounded by people who will do his bidding.

His address to the nation was absurd. It was riddled with so many lies that I’m reluctant to dignify them with rebuttals, but you should have them.

He mentioned a newly-declassified investigation into a voter registration group in Muskegon, Michigan that apparently had invited fraudulent registrations in 2020—but Trump didn’t mention that the applications had been caught and none of them had resulted in any ballots being sent out incorrectly. 

The FBI closed the investigation, stating “the investigation to date did not identify a criminal violation or a priority threat to national security.”

He alleged, once again, that foreign powers have hijacked votes, or that federal or state officials plotted to rig either the 2020 election. But no evidence has ever emerged showing that vote counts have been manipulated or corrupted. Intelligence reports, state audits of vote tallies and lawsuits have repeatedly affirmed official results in 2020 and other years. 

Nothing suggests China manipulated votes. Instead, US intelligence assessment says China “probably also continued longstanding efforts” to gather information on US voters and public opinion and to use that information to influence US policy “as it has during all election cycles since at least 2008.”

The most significant foreign influence operations occurred in the 2016 presidential election and were conducted by Russia, in favor of Trump, according to the Mueller report. To the extent that this and other reports appeared to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Trump’s victory, they have had the effect of fueling his distrust of US intelligence agencies.

Despite his repeated assertions that US elections are not secure, Trump during his second term has significantly cut the budget of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, including its election work. That’s because Trump grew contemptuous of the agency, and the government’s election security work generally, after it validated the integrity of the 2020 election.

So the entire performance was fake—an extension of his Big Lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

Coal pollution is cutting solar power output, study finds

Will Trump look for ways to use coal to kill wind turbines?

University of Oxford

Trump's 2-for-1 obsession: promote coal, kill green energy

New research led by the University of Oxford and University College London (UCL) has revealed that pollution from coal-fired power plants is significantly reducing the energy output of solar photovoltaic (solar PV) installations, particularly where these are expanding side by side. The findings have been published today in Nature Sustainability.

The new study mapped and assessed more than 140,000 solar PV installations worldwide using satellite data.

By combining this with atmospheric data on air pollution, the researchers calculated how much sunlight is lost and how this reduces electricity generation. They found that aerosols - tiny particles suspended in the air - reduced global solar electricity output by 5.8% in 2023. This is equivalent to 111 terawatt-hours (TWh) of lost energy – the amount generated by 18 medium-sized coal-fired power plants. 

Crucially, these losses represent a significant and often overlooked constraint on the clean energy transition. 

Presidential moments

Remind Me. Why Cuba?

I’ve Lost the Rationale for Why We’re Doing What We’re Doing

By Tom Cantlon

Cuba? My first reaction when recent news brought this up was, “Um, okay, yes, communist government, oppressed people, past possible attacks on the U.S.” But to consider each of those: Communism? 

There isn’t much left of it in the world. Out of the three or four still claiming it there is China which is primarily a typical single-top-leader with a mix of some central planning and programs with a significant amount of free-market. 

There is North Korea which is a dictatorship. Even if you could describe Cuba as truly communist, so what? It’s not going to be leading a wave of other countries becoming communist. What do we care what form they take?

Oppressed people? That’s also true in countries all over the world that we don’t seem to care about. Even further, Viktor Orban in Hungary was transitioning the country to an oppressive authoritarian system and we supported him. Is it because Cuba is in our Western hemisphere? So is Peru where President Bukele is leading a harsh authoritarian rule, but we’re making deals with him to take the immigration rejects (to put it in terms that fit Trump’s attitude) that Trump wants to get rid of. 

And much of what the Cuban people suffer is simple poverty which the U.S. has played a big role in creating. We’ve had embargoes of varying degrees imposed on them since 1960, and of course much worse now since Trump has almost cut off their ability to import oil.

How badly did China kick Trump's ass

Here's how China saw it:

Chinese researchers pick up climate research the US has abandoned

Scientists Just Confirmed What’s Driving Sea Level Rise And It’s Alarming

By Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Causes of global mean sea level rise since 1960. Credit: Zheng et al., Science Advances (2026)

Sea level rise is one of the most visible consequences of human-driven climate change. As the planet warms, oceans absorb heat and expand, while melting glaciers and giant ice sheets add increasing amounts of water to the seas. Scientists say the process is persistent, difficult to reverse, and likely to continue for centuries.

A new international study has now provided the clearest explanation yet for what has been driving global sea level rise over the past 60 years. The research also resolves a long-standing discrepancy that had left scientists unable to fully account for all observed ocean rise.

Sea Level Rise Is Accelerating Worldwide

The study, published in Science Advances and led by researchers in China, found that global sea levels have risen by an average of 2.06 millimeters per year since 1960. More concerning, the pace has accelerated sharply in recent decades, climbing to 3.94 millimeters per year between 2005 and 2023.

Researchers determined that ocean warming is the single largest contributor, responsible for 43% of total sea level rise since 1960. When seawater heats up, it expands and occupies more space, causing ocean levels to increase even without adding extra water.

The art of the deal

He didn't like the soup

Most important part of Trump trip

China now outspends the US on scientific research

The consequences extend far beyond scientific ranking and clout

Caroline Wagner, The Ohio State University

The cause condemns the effect

China’s rapid rise in science has hit a milestone. The country’s investment in research and development has reached parity with – and by purchasing power measures has surpassed – that of the United States, according to a March 2026 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Both nations have crossed the US$1 trillion threshold on research spending.

For 80 years, the U.S. operated the most productive scientific and technological enterprise in human history. Breakthroughs and advances that came from American labs included the internet; the mRNA vaccine; the transistor and its children, semiconductors and microprocessors; the Global Positioning System; and many more.

U.S. scientific and technological leadership was nurtured by sustained public investment in research universities and federal laboratories, as well as a culture of open inquiry. These investments turned scientific discovery into economic strength – accounting for more than 20% of all U.S. productivity growth since World War II.

In contrast, China had previously spent little to nothing on research and development. Some estimates show that China was among the lowest research spenders worldwide in 1980.

As a policy analyst and public affairs researcher, I study international collaboration in science and technology and its implications for public and foreign policy. I have tracked China’s rise across every major database for more than a decade.

The most recent reports showing that China is now outspending the U.S. on scientific and technological research is a turning point worth understanding clearly because, historically, global leadership in one sector – including technology and warfare – feeds into others. U.S. dominance is in question.

TACO Don loses again

It's consistent with how other countries, organizations, and people have defeated him

Robert Reich

Last night, 90 minutes before Trump said he’d cause the death of a “whole civilization” if Iran didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz, an Iranian official said the shipping channel would be reopened for two weeks if the United States stopped bombing Iran. The U.S. has now stopped bombing Iran.

So we’re back to the status quo before Trump began his war. Only now, Iran can credibly threaten to close the strait if it doesn’t get what it wants from Trump — thereby causing havoc to the U.S. (and world) economies. Trump’s only remaining bargaining leverage is the threat of committing war crimes.

In other words, last night’s showdown was a clear victory for Iran and a clear defeat for Trump (although he’ll frame it as a victory).

The Iran fiasco is only the latest in a host of examples revealing how to defeat Trump.

In addition to Iran, similar strategies have been used by China, Russia, Canada, Mexico, and Greenland. Inside the United States, the people of Minneapolis have used them, as have Harvard University, comedian Jimmy Kimmel, writer E. Jean Carroll, and the law firms Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey, and WilmerHale.

What’s the strategy that connects them all?

All refused to cave to Trump, despite his superior military or economic power. Instead, they’ve engaged in a kind of jujitsu in which they use Trump’s power against him, while allowing Trump to save face by claiming he’s won. Consider:

Iran knew it was no match for the superior might of the U.S. (and Israel). So it used cheap drones and missiles to close the Strait of Hormuz and incapacitate other Gulf oil installations, thereby driving up the prices of oil and gas at the pump in the U.S., which has put growing political pressure on Trump, months before a midterm election. Hence, Trump has been forced stop his war.

China knew what to do when Trump imposed a giant tariff on Chinese exports to the U.S.: It put restrictions on seven types of heavy rare earth metals and magnets, crucial to U.S. defense and tech industries. Beijing continues to use these rare earth restrictions as tactical levers in ongoing negotiations over trade, rather than demand complete surrender by Trump on his trade policies.

Russia has leveraged its vast deposits of oil and natural gas with U.S. allies. It has also demonstrated its power to intrude into U.S. elections (the Mueller Report detailed a “sweeping and systematic” campaign by Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, primarily favoring Trump).

Canada and Mexico have won every tariff showdown with Trump by leveraging America’s substantial economic dependence on them for components and raw materials, but without crowing about their victories.

Greenland has leveraged public opinion globally and in the United States — overwhelmingly against an American invasion or occupation — to curb Trump’s ambitions there.

The citizens of Minneapolis and St. Paul have leveraged their asymmetric power against Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol agents by carefully organizing themselves into a force of nonviolent resistance to protect immigrants there. Their strategy showed itself to be especially effective, tragically, after Trump’s agents murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the public outcry forced the agents to leave the Twin Cities.

And he's surprised when they say "no!"

Trump blames Canada

Trump tears up relationship with America's best friend

Paul Waldman

The 1999 film “South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut” contains a rousing musical number called “Blame Canada,” in which parents of unruly children resolve to blame Canada for all their child-rearing problems.

The humor in the song derived from the fact that blaming Canada for anything seemed so absurd. They’re our kindly northern neighbor, a more polite version of ourselves! They gave us Michael J. Fox, and the Ryans Gosling and Reynolds, Bret “Hitman” Hart, and Shania Twain and Celine Dion! How could we ever be mad at them?

Today, our president is blaming Canada, in an escalating conflict driven by his most petty and vindictive impulses, doing nothing but harm to the citizenry of both countries. It’s not a complete breakup with our closest ally, but it’s drawing awfully close. And it isn’t hard to imagine it getting progressively worse as we slog through the next three years.

On January 20 in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a remarkable speech in which he all but declared the end of the post-war order that the United States and its allies created.

“We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” he said. “Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumptions that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security, that assumption is no longer valid.”

The “middle powers,” he went on, have no choice but to band together for their mutual interest, free of the delusion that they can rely on the great powers — or, more specifically, one great power. And rather than just lamenting what Donald Trump is destroying, he argued that it was always something of a lie.

“Stop invoking rules-based international order as though it still functions as advertised,” he said. “Call it what it is: a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic integration as coercion.”

Not surprisingly, Trump didn’t take it well. The day after Carney’s speech, he said, “I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn’t so grateful — they should be grateful to the US, Canada. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”

Trump pulls the US out of the World Health Organization jeopardizing global health initiatives

He says it's about "America First," but HOW does this help America?

Stephanie Soucheray, MA

The United States officially withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), one year after the Trump administration shared its intention to leave the global agency. 

At that time, the United States was said to provide about 20% of the WHO’s operational budget, but this week WHO officials said the United States has failed to pay membership dues for both 2024 and 2025, leaving the global alliance with a $278 million debt. 

The WHO says withdrawal is not complete until the United States pays its debts. 

“The United States will not be making any payments to the WHO before our withdrawal,” the State Department told NPR in a statement earlier this week. "The cost born by the U.S. taxpayer and U.S. economy after the WHO's failure during the Covid pandemic—and since—has been too high as it is."

The United States is the only country to have withdrawn from the WHO since its founding 1948. During his inauguration last year, Trump said the WHO had gouged the United States, and he blamed the agency for covering up China’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Trump had also tried to leave the WHO during his first presidential term, after the pandemic began, but President Joe Biden reversed that plan on his first day of office in 2020. 

WHO bylaws require nations to give a one-year advance notice of withdrawal and to settle all debts before the exit is complete. 

We MUST take away grandpa's car keys

Yet another loony Trump Truth Social post. From last night.

OK, this one falls apart starting with the fact that Barack Obama was NOT President in 2020 - Donald Trump was.

Trump’s blatant lawlessness will haunt America and the world for a long, long time.

From Jan. 6th to Maduro Kidnapping, the Threat Trump Poses Is Existential

Robert Reich for Inequality Media

Trump sees the world as belonging to him, Putin
and China. "Xi" refers to Xi Jinping, China's leader

Trump’s domestic and foreign policies — ranging from his attempted coup against the United States five years ago, to his incursion into Venezuela last weekend, to his current threats against Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland — undermine domestic and international law. But that’s not all.

They threaten what we mean by civilization.

The moral purpose of civilized society is to prevent the stronger from attacking and exploiting the weaker. Otherwise, we’d be permanently immersed in a brutish war in which only the fittest and most powerful could survive.

This principle lies at the center of America’s founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It’s also the core of the post- World War II international order championed by the United States, including the UN Charter — emphasizing multilateralism, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

But it’s a fragile principle, easily violated by those who would exploit their power. Maintaining the principle requires that the powerful have enough integrity to abstain from seeking short-term wins, and that the rest of us hold them accountable if they don’t.

Every time people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are not, the fabric of civilization frays. If such aggression is not contained, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can descend into chaos and war. It has happened before.

We now inhabit a society and world grown vastly more unequal. Political and economic power are more concentrated than ever before. This invites the powerful to exploit the weaker because the powerful feel omnipotent.

Every time people or corporations or countries that are richer and more powerful attack and exploit those that are not, the fabric of civilization frays. If such aggression is not contained, the fabric unravels. If not stopped, the world can descend into chaos and war. It has happened before.

Rhode Island Senator Reed talks about U.S. military actions in Venezuela

Question: "When you described Maduro as a lawless president who profits from his position as President, doesn’t that also describe President Trump at this point?"

Steve Ahlquist 

United States Senator Jack Reed started his press conference with a plea to Rhode Islanders to give blood:

Senator Reed: We’re here at the Rhode Island Blood Center, and it’s National Blood Donor Month, so I want to urge all Rhode Islanders to come and donate blood. I also want to thank Rhode Island, because in the wake of the Brown tragedy, there was an incredible outpouring of individual Rhode Islanders giving blood to help those who were injured. It demonstrates Rhode Island’s community vitality. The officials here told me we have a higher donation rate than most places in the country, and that contributes to Rhode Island. So let me salute everyone who donates and the wonderful people here at the Rhode Island Blood Center.

Turning to Venezuela

Senator Reed: First, you have to commend the incredible courage and skill of the men and women of the armed forces who conducted a well-conceived and courageously executed operation. There’s no question about that. You also have to recognize, and no one should have any illusions, that Nicolás Maduro was a despicable figure. He had been governing Venezuela without regard for the law and liberties. He probably was also profiting directly and indirectly from some of the drug dealers, so there’s nothing admirable about the gentleman that I could find. But we need to understand what this means on a larger scale.

It was very clear, when President Trump spoke Saturday, that in his mind, this wasn’t about drugs. To many American families who have suffered through drugs, that’s a very important topic, and they’re very concerned about drugs. Trump indicated that he is essentially taking over a government, regime change, taking over the country, taking their natural resources, oil principally, for the benefit of the big oil companies that are going in right now. This whole campaign, which started with attacks on small vessels bearing cocaine, which also has legal issues, has transformed and now been revealed to be Trump’s desire to not only take over a country, which is illegal, but to extract its precious resources. That’s not appropriate. It’s not legal either - under international or United States law.

It sets a very dangerous precedent for people like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who can now ask, “Why are they complaining about my attack in Ukraine? They do it themselves.”

The Chinese, I’m sure, are very interested in what’s happening in Venezuela because they have their eyes on Taiwan. We’re looking at a situation that is upending the international order established after World War II, following significant suffering by Americans and their victory in the war. We created an international order with a primary rule: you cannot use force against another sovereign nation. That’s Article 24 of the U.N. Charter, and that article was totally ignored.

In domestic law, Congress has the authority to declare war. This looks very much like a war-like effort, and Congress was not consulted. Congress has not been informed of many operational details. In fact, under the law, the Secretary of Defense, Peter Hegseth, is required to issue us execute orders (ex-ords) for all these operations: all the boat strikes and everything else. He’s refused to do that, even though it’s the law.

You have an administration that repeatedly defies the law, destabilizes international relations, and whose efforts will lead to a very complicated situation. You have the President, on one hand, saying he’s going to occupy Venezuela. You have Secretary of State Marco Rubio trying to walk it back, saying, “Oh no, we’re going to cooperate with them.”

We’ve seen this story before. There was a great military triumph in Iraq under George W. Bush. Twenty years later, we were still trying to extricate ourselves from what turned out to be a major geopolitical mistake that cost the lives of many service members. We have to be conscious of that now.

For weeks now, I’ve been telling everyone in the administration, the real question is, “What are you going to do when you win? Mr. President, what are you going to do? Are you going to occupy? Are you going to cooperate? Are you going to send troops in again, as he threatened last Saturday?” We’re in a very precarious situation, one that demonstrates the Trump Administration’s disregard not only for international law but also for the laws of the United States. It’s now time for Congress to step up and make sure that what is done in the future is both legal and in the best interest of the United States - not just for a weekend of headlines, but for the future of the country.

Trump expounds on NATO, peace and his greatness. WTF?

Trump, on his Truth Social, today: 

So give us Greenland and shut up.