Tag: Trump, Donald J

Trump Administration Pushes Forward With Tariffs Based on Forced Labor Laws

Media Library

The Trump administration has taken a novel approach as it looks for ways to issue new tariffs to replace the levies invalidated by the Supreme Court. It began a new trade investigation in March that targets 59 countries and the European Union with potential tariffs unless they pass laws that ban imports of goods made with forced labor. In two days of hearings about the investigation in Washington this week, human rights officials and company executives generally praised the move, saying it was likely to bring about a major expansion…

The Tragic Decline of the American Navy

Media Library

Alfred Thayer Mahan, a 19th-century naval officer and pre-eminent military strategist, believed his young country was destined to be great because of its Navy. Toward the end of his service, Mahan, then a U.S. Navy captain, wrote a landmark book about the age of sailing ships. Read avidly by kings, prime ministers and presidents — including Theodore Roosevelt, Kaiser Wilhelm II and the young Winston Churchill — the book posited the idea of a free world anchored by American sea power. Mahan believed America needed a large number of ships…

How Trump’s Iran Blockade Is Complicating a High-Stakes Trip to China

Media Library

President Trump’s declaration that he is willing to maintain a blockade on Iranian shipping until the Iranians surrender to his demands almost assures that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed by the time he arrives in Beijing in two weeks. That is exactly what Mr. Trump was seeking to avoid when he delayed his trip to China six weeks ago. And it vastly complicates a critical meeting with President Xi Jinping, forcing White House officials to rethink how Mr. Trump approaches the effort to engineer a rapprochement with China.…

Paraguay Says It’s Not Abandoning Taiwan. China Has Other Plans.

Media Library

There are odd couples. Then there’s Taiwan and Paraguay. The high-tech island nation and its rural, landlocked South American ally sit on opposite sides of the earth. United in 1957 by two military rulers — Chiang Kai-shek and Alfredo Stroessner — driven by anti-Communist fervor, this improbable duo have been inseparable ever since. Today, however, Paraguay finds itself a member of a shrinking global club. China has flexed its economic muscle to force countries, including Paraguay, to break ties with Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory. Paraguay today…

Treasury Issues More Sanctions on Iranian Oil Exports

Media Library

The Trump administration on Tuesday ratcheted up economic pressure on Iran, warning financial institutions not to allow independent Chinese refineries to buy Iranian oil and cracking down on Iran’s “shadow” banking sector. The measures were the latest actions taken as part of the Treasury Department’s “Operation Economic Fury,” which aims to cripple Iran’s economy and compel it to agree to a peace deal with the United States. After easing sanctions on Iran last month in hopes of keeping oil flowing on global markets, the Trump administration reversed course in recent…

5 Tall Tasks for John Ternus, Apple’s Next C.E.O.

Media Library

Apple said this week that Tim Cook, its chief executive since 2011, would step down and become its executive chairman in September. John Ternus, the company’s head of hardware engineering, will succeed Mr. Cook in the corner office. Mr. Ternus, who has worked at Apple for 25 years, will take over a moneymaking behemoth facing a series of pressing questions, including geopolitical threats, an unpredictable man in the White House, artificial intelligence, and the search for new ideas. Here are some of the challenges confronting Mr. Ternus: Navigating Apple’s ties…

Iran War Has Drained U.S. Supplies of Critical, Costly Weapons

Media Library

Since the Iran war began in late February, the United States has burned through around 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles built for a war with China, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile. The military has fired off more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, roughly 10 times the number it currently buys each year. The Pentagon used more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles in the war, at more than $4 million a pop, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles, leaving inventories…

Trump Reposts Anti-Immigrant Tirade Calling China and India ‘Hellhole’ Places

Media Library

President Trump provoked a broad backlash this week when he posted a transcript from a right-wing podcast in which the host referred to China and India as “hellhole” places and said recent immigrants from those countries had not “integrated” into America as “European Americans” had. The transcript, which Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social account on Wednesday night, came from a recent episode of “The Savage Nation,” hosted by Michael Savage, a popular conservative talk radio host. Mr. Trump also posted the original video clip of Mr. Savage’s podcast.…

What Questions Do You Have About the Trump-Xi Summit?

Media Library

President Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, are set to meet for a summit in Beijing in mid-May, a meeting that was first scheduled for March but postponed by Trump because of the war in Iran. The world looks a lot different from when Trump and Xi first agreed to the meeting last October. Then, one of the biggest issues for the two leaders was extending a newly announced yearlong trade truce. Now, the U.S. and Israel are at war with Iran, China’s closest partner in the Middle East. The…

Japan to Sell More Weapons Abroad, Breaking With Postwar Pacifism

Media Library

The Japanese government moved on Tuesday to allow the sale of more weapons abroad, in the latest shift away from pacifist policies imposed after World War II, as it grapples with rising security threats from China and a rapidly changing global order. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her top officials, at a meeting in Tokyo, reversed longstanding limits on the sale of Japan-made weapons overseas. The move comes days after Japan welcomed more than 30 NATO envoys for a visit meant to show stronger ties, and after Tokyo sealed a…