President Donald Trump isn't messing around when it comes to using tariffs -- both for leveraging economic trade and punishing nations that believe they can get one over on the United States.
According to Breitbart, President Trump sent shockwaves through the markets this week when he announced an added 100% tariff on Chinese imported goods after the communist nation announced a restriction on rare earth mineral exports.
The news of the new tariffs sent the markets into spiral mode, with most major markets taking a sharp dip given the gravity of the level of tariffs Trump said he'll slap on China on November 1.
The president's announcement was a direct response to China restricting rare earth minerals, which they happen to have a vast majority of control over on the global scale, giving the communist nation great leverage in the tech and AI fields that drive global trade.
China's announcement of stringent restrictions on rare earth mineral exports is a big blow not only to the United States but also to other Western countries that heavily depend on China's supply.
China has incredible leverage on the rare earth minerals market, as Breitbart noted:
China processes approximately 90 percent of the world’s rare earths, minerals critical for manufacturing semiconductors, electric vehicles, and military equipment. Its dominance in processing gives Beijing significant leverage over global technology supply chains.
The announcement also chilled relations, with an upcoming meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the rocks.
Breitbart noted:
The measures would take effect Nov. 1, Trump said on Truth Social, potentially raising the average U.S. tariffs on many Chinese goods above 150 percent. Trump also said he saw no reason to proceed with a planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea later this month.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social account, stirring immediate reactions in the market and the media.
“It has just been learned that China has taken an extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade in sending an extremely hostile letter to the World, stating that they were going to, effective November 1st, 2025, impose large scale Export Controls on virtually every product they make, and some not even made by them," Trump wrote.
Users across social media offered mixed reactions to Trump's announcement.
"Investors should brace themselves. trump’s 100% tariff on china kicks in nov 1. this will fire up the trade war over their export controls. expect higher us costs and supply shake-ups. and most importantly, diversify wisely my friends," one X user wrote.
Another X user wrote, "We gave President @realDonaldTrump a mandate in 2024, which included ending decades of unfair trade. Call the ball, Mr. President. We back you 100%."
Only time will tell if it was a good call.
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation honoring Christopher Columbus, the great Italian explorer who brought Western civilization, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to the Americas.
Lauding Columbus as "the original American hero" and a "giant," Trump called for Monday, Oct. 13 to be celebrated as Columbus Day, rejecting years of left-wing attacks on the navigator and his legacy, as the New York Post notes.
“Columbus Day -- we’re back, Italians,” Trump declared after signing the proclamation.
“We love the Italians,” the president added.
While many Americans remember classroom lessons about Columbus "sailing the ocean blue," in recent years, there have been efforts to disparage the bold navigator as one of history's criminals for opening the New World to European settlement with his daring trans-Atlantic voyage in 1492.
Despite his heroic accomplishments, some argue Columbus should be condemned for setting in motion the dispossession of the natives.
Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, was the first U.S. president to acknowledge Indigenous People's Day, a move that many saw as an attempt to sideline Columbus and his memory. But "those days are finally over," Trump said.
"Today our Nation honors the legendary Christopher Columbus -- the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth," Trump wrote.
The statement went on, "This Columbus Day, we honor his life with reverence and gratitude, and we pledge to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory."
Efforts to denigrate Columbus are particularly offensive to Americans of Italian descent, for whom Columbus is a cultural icon.
Columbus Day was initially established as a federal holiday by President FDR, following years of anti-Italian sentiment at the turn of the 20th century. The killing of 11 Italians in New Orleans in 1891 remains the worst mass lynching in American history.
With his order, Trump clarified that Columbus should be celebrated as a hero by all Americans.
“Before our very eyes, left-wing radicals toppled his statues, vandalized his monuments, tarnished his character, and sought to exile him from our public spaces," it said.
The president's statement added, “Under my leadership, those days are finally over -- and our Nation will now abide by a simple truth: Christopher Columbus was a true American hero, and every citizen is eternally indebted to his relentless determination.”
A supermajority of the Senate has passed a nearly $1 trillion spending bill for the military, even as the bitter government shutdown continues with no end in sight.
As reported by The Hill, the Senate voted 70-20 to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), setting aside $924.7 billion for the armed services in fiscal year 2026.
The next step is for the House and Senate armed services committees to negotiate a compromise bill that both chambers of Congress accept.
The NDAA had been in limbo on the Senate floor for nearly a month, but the impasse broke Thursday as lawmakers finally agreed to debate a series of amendments.
"We simply cannot delay this process any longer,” Senate Armed Services chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) said on the Senate floor. “Let me make it clear: If we do not bring this to the floor today, this matter will not have time for deliberation on the Senate floor, and we’ll have to basically pretend that we’re having a conference between House and Senate members, and a very small group of senators will have to write this bill and bring it to the floor for final passage. That’s not the way this ought to be done.”
While the final vote tally was bipartisan, the amendment process reflected some sharp disagreements over the military's role.
Democrat senators used the "vote-a-rama" to target Trump's National Guard deployments to cities run by soft-on-crime Democrats. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who received attention as an advocate for alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia earlier this year, issued a proposal to stop Trump from deploying the National Guard without the consent of a state's governor, but the amendment failed.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) proposed an amendment, which was also rejected, to stop a donated Qatari jet from being retrofitted to replace Air Force One.
“Retrofitting this foreign-owned luxury jet to make it fully operational will cost hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. That’s money that shouldn’t be wasted,” Schumer said.
The senators also agreed to repeal the authorizations of force for the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, approving an amendment from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).
A bipartisan amendment to help protect military bases from drones also passed. The amendment was proposed by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
The troops are facing lost paychecks without a deal to end the government shutdown before Oct. 15. Senate Democrats, led by Schumer, have repeatedly rejected bills to fund the government without Obamacare-related add-ons.
“The executive branch, the president, is working on ways that he may have, as well, to ensure the troops are paid,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) at a press conference.
The White House confirmed Friday that federal layoffs have begun, as the administration tries to pressure Democrats to end the shutdown.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
For years already, Democrats and other leftists have described conservatives as "Nazis" and President Donald Trump as a "Hitler."
It's not because they are doing the things of the evil empire during World War II; it's because they have a political ideology and agenda that disagrees with Democrats and leftists.
But the constant and incessant characterizations have produced their results: An explosion of threats against the president, federal officers and their supporters that in all likelihood should not be ignored.
For example, the Department of Homeland Security posted online an audio of a threat delivered by telephone to the spouse of a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
"I don't know how you let your husband work for ICE, and you sleep at night. F–k you, f–k your family. I hope your kids get deported by accident. How do you sleep? F–k you. Did you hear what happened to the Nazis after World War II? Because it's what's going to happen to your family," said the woman making the threat.
Homeland Security explained, "Antifa terrorists are threatening the FAMILIES of our law enforcement. We will hunt these sickos down and put them behind bars. In Texas, the spouse of an ICE officer received a voicemail filled with violent threats. If you don't believe that radical anarchists want ICE law enforcement dead, listen to this."
Social media commenters joined the conversation, with, "The party of love, peace, and tolerance," and "I was reliably told that this never happens."
Recently, a sniper attacked an ICE facility in Texas, and authorities said the attacker was aiming at officers, but instead killed two detainees.
Another jumped straight to a conclusion: "These people are demons."
Yet another, "Democrats must cut out their anti-ice rhetoric."
The New York Post said, "The Department of Homeland Security has condemned the 'dangerous' doxxing of immigration agents and their families as the agency pleads to dial down the pervasive and escalating rhetoric emanating from lefty politicians and media outlets."
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said, "The men and women of ICE and CBP are fathers and mothers, sons and daughters. They get up every morning to try and make our communities safer. Like everyone else, they just want to go home to their families at night. The violence and dehumanization of these men and women who are simply enforcing the law must stop."
Physical assaults already have exploded by 1,000% on federal agents, authorities have noted.
The report said three women were indicted last month, accused of stalking an ICE agent to his home.
"When they arrived at the agent's home, they continued streaming while shouting to bystanders that their 'neighbor is ICE,' 'la migra lives here' and 'ICE lives on your street and you should know.' They publicly disclosed the agent's home address and encouraged viewers to 'come on down,'" the report said.
Another case involved the arrest of f 68-year-old man in San Diego after he posted the home address of a federal lawyer online and urged people to "swat" her.
That's a "dangerous harassment tactic," the report said, where fake emergency calls are made to provoke an armed response by police.
There even are bounties being offered:
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem condemned the activities and warned about the surge in threats.
She charged that those delivering violent rhetoric actually are "making plans to ambush them and to kill them."
It was in the Dallas shooting that authorities reported the gunman apparently used a software program to track ICE agents.
Threats even have been documented against Washington officials, including Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon.
And others have been targeted, too.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump has warned multiple times that there will be "Reductions in Force," or layoffs, among federal employees because of the Schumer shutdown, the current status of the federal government as closed because Democrats in the Senate refused to vote to keep the government open unless they got $1.5 trillion in extra spending for their friends, like leftist media organizations.
He even teamed with Russell Voght, chief of the Office of Management and Budget, to make a video depicting a "grim reaper."
Now it's happening.
A report from the Mirror US said Vought has "announced that federal layoffs have started as the ongoing government shutdown enters its second week."
"The RIFs have begun," said Vought on social media, referencing an acronym for "Reductions in Force."
While referencing possible layoffs, the Trump administration also has not yet made clear whether some of the federal workers, without pay because of the Democrats' decisions in the Senate, will be given back pay after a reopening.
But there have been dark predictions about developments.
"It will be substantial, and we regret that the Democrats have shut down the government and forced workers to be put in this position," one administration official told a network.
Vought hasn't specified numbers or agencies yet.
The Trump administration also has suggested freezing, or cutting, billions of dollars of federal funding for various Democrat projects already in the budget.
The shutdown is in its10th day and Democrats have been blaming Republicans for refusing to give up $1.5 trillion in taxpayer dollars for favorite Democrat spending plans, such as NPR, as well as health care for illegal aliens.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the shutdown will end when Democrats break from their party.
Trump already has canceled about $18 billion in New York City infrastructure work over the unconstitutional used of "diversity" ideologies.
The Republicans have repeatedly offered a "clean" funding bill to keep the government running, at mostly current levels, until at least November 21. Democrats repeatedly have rejected it.
One report documented, "A spokesman for the Health and Human Services Department, in a statement to CNBC, said, 'HHS employees across multiple divisions have received reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown.'"
Unions already have sued over the administration's actions.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democrat nominee for president who lost in a landslide to President Donald Trump, giving him victories in the Electoral College, the popular vote and every single swing state, long has been an extremist on LGBT ideologies.
She was part of the Joe Biden administration that insisted even on taxpayer funding for body mutilating surgeries on children.
But now she's out with a book about how she spent a billion dollars over a few weeks in her failed campaign, and a sharp-eyed reader has spotted a significant admission: Harris confirmed that Democrats knew of the problems with having boys who say they are girls playing on girls' athletic teams.
She said that clearly was "unfair."
The confession by Harris was spotted by Macy Petty, a former NCAA volleyball player and now legislative strategist for the Concerned Women for America Legislation Action Committee, who wrote about it at Fox News.
She noted, "In her recently released book about her presidential candidacy, former Vice President Kamala Harris admits that she, too, shares concerns: 'I agree with the concerns expressed by parents and players that we have to take into account biological factors such as muscle mass and unfair student athletic advantage when we determine who plays on which teams, especially in contact sports.'"
However, Harris continued, "There was no way I was going to go against my very nature and turn on transgender people."
Petty wrote, "And there it is. Tension unmasked. When reality collides with allegiance, the Democrats choose allegiance."
The fights over boys who say they are girls and demand access to girls' teams, girls' spaces, even girls' locker rooms and showers, have erupted across the nation.
Some states have determined that sex-specific locations will be occupied by only those of that sex, and they do not allow someone with a "gender ideology" or identity to overrule science, which in fact says that being male or female is embedded in to the human body down to the DNA level, so no one actually "changes" from male to female or vice versa.
Others oddly claim that males really are female.
Petty noted the fight endured by Riley Gaines, a swimmer who tied with a male in a competition, and was forced to watch as he was awarded the trophy.
"The moment sparked a nationwide campaign to try and convince everyday Americans that this feeling was not just instinct; it was internalized bigotry and evidence that there was noble, progressive work still to do. Only one problem. It was all a lie," the commentary explained.
Harris' comments now confirm "that not even the top Democratic leaders believed what they were selling."
Petty was in college when these war over males in female spaces erupted.
"The issue was linked to the Democrats' pro-LGBTQIA+ position, which they had insisted was the civil rights issue of our time, and now it was squarely at odds with something plainly unjust. But they were in too deep. At every turn, those who tried to find solutions to the problem of men in women's sports, including traditionally far-left organizations like Women's Liberation Front, found themselves up against the powerful political operatives of the Democratic Party. Though the ties between LGB and T were fading, the radical left insisted that to be pro-gay or pro-woman, you had to also stand for men in women's sports. Democrats obliged."
The column explained polling shows that issue played "an outsized role" in last year's election, and Democrats paid the price.
"Voters did not buy the lie that their concerns were merely internalized bigotry," she noted.
And Harris is not alone in speaking the quiet part out loud.
"California Gov. Gavin Newsom has publicly admitted that this is 'an issue of fairness – it's deeply unfair.' Yet, his state is one of the worst offenders of women's rights in this area," Petty wrote.
"As we hope this issue joins the parade of failed civil rights attacks of times gone by, voters and candidates alike should heed the warning. Never stand for a lie. Truth is our only sure foundation. Policy must be based on reality."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A major sticking point in reopening the government is the extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies. Without these subsidies, insurance premiums will double for those receiving them.
Because of this, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., is breaking ranks with the Republican Party.
It should be obvious that government benefits, once granted, are virtually impossible to take away, and a subsidy "cliff" will be politically disastrous. The subsidies were necessary to mask the fact that affordable options were being taken away, and extremely expensive coverage mandates were being imposed. The cliff was needed to mask the long-term cost of the bill.
So, what can be done now? One suggestion is a conditional extension of the subsidies combined with measures to reduce costs, based on an understanding of why costs are outrageous. The graph below shows the enormous increase in administrators, and the legislation associated with it.
Graph courtesy of AuthenticMedicine.com
All that administration is supposed to decrease "unnecessary" care. It is time to ask how many tests could be bought for the price of the staff used to deny them. For the price of a $1 million administrator, 2,000 CT scans at $500 (possible in independent facilities) could be obtained, or 82 spine surgeries (lumbar laminectomies at $12,230 at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma.
We don't know how much time is wasted by physicians and nurses in documentation that serves no purpose except to justify billing – but it may eat up half their time.
Republicans reneged on their promises to repeal the ACA. So, how about promising that "if you like your ACA plan you can keep your ACA plan," but the following changes will be made to allow affordable alternatives to arise:
Additional information:
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons reform proposals
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
University officials at Tennessee-Chattanooga have been forced to overrule the decision of the school's student government, whose members rejected the establishment of a Turning Point USA chapter there.
TPUSA, of course, has been inundated with tens of thousands of requests for new chapters in schools across the U.S., even globally, following the assassination last month of co-founder Charlie Kirk.
He was shot by an assassin and killed at a free speech event at a Utah college.
A suspect was taken into custody and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Now the dispute has erupted at Chattanooga.
School officials formally overruled the students' decision on the chapter.
Students, whose judgments were clouded by false "hate speech" claims about TPUSA, had rejected plans for the chapter.
The rejection drew multiple reactions.
Including one from Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, who asked to be apprised of developments.
Then came word of the reversal.
Not the Bee commented, "You'd think that living in a red state like Tennessee, going to a public university in a city like Chattanooga, and being a conservative on campus would all go together smoothly, wouldn't you? Well, you'd be wrong."
It continued with an explanation, "As it turns out, just a little bit of bad press has forced the hand of the university. The administration at UT has taken matters into their own hand. Glad to see quick action from the school's administrators to right this injustice."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The far-left extremists at the Southern Poverty Law Center already have seen the FBI announce it is cutting all ties with them. And a petition is demanding that the Department of Justice take the same step.
Now a complaint has been filed with federal authorities calling for a full review of the SPLC's status as a "charitable" organization that gives it huge tax breaks.
According to the Federalist, the Center to Advance Security in America has submitted a legal complaint asking for the full review because of the SPLC's "hyper-partisan political activity."
In fact, the complaint calls for the organization's tax-exempt status to be revoked.
"American taxpayers should not be expected to subsidize an organization that engages in daily attacks on Republicans, compares those who hold mainstream conservative beliefs to the KKK, and who consistently labels conservatives as engaging in 'hate' without any reference to any other political parties or ideologies," CASA chief James Fitzpatrick told the publication.
"We believe the American people are entitled to a full investigation into this urgent matter."
The organization sent information to Scott Bessent, treasury secretary, regarding the issues.
It explains there are "several serious concerns about [the SPLC's] compliance with federal law regarding tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) including but not limited to it no longer fulfilling a charitable purpose and its partisan political activity."
CASA also charges that the SPLC likens "normal, mainstream, conservative beliefs, to that of the KKK" and puts "political candidates and government officials, only Republicans, on their hate lists or hate watch articles," the Federalist said.
Recently, the SPLC claimed that Turning Point USA, co-founded by the assassinated Charlie Kirk, was embracing "white nationalist" conspiracies.
At the SPLC, "author Rachael Fugardi claimed that 'Turning Point USA's primary strategy is sowing and exploiting fear that white Christian supremacy is under attack by nefarious actors, including immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and civil rights activists.'"
That article claimed TPUSA is spreading "fear" to push "supremacism."
"This is the SPLC's modus operandi. SPLC's entire website is filled with inflammatory language," the complaint charges. "On at least one occasion, their content may have even led to political violence. In 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins II opened fire at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the conservative Christian think tank Family Research Council. Prosecutors stated they found on Corkins' computer and that he had identified his targets using SPLC's website. This isn't to say that SPLC's speech causes political violence. But it does serve to exemplify how it creates an environment of hate that does not serve the public interest."
WND has reported the Washington Stand confirmed a petition organized by the Family Research Council is urging the DOJ to drop any links to SPLC.
The FRC organized a petition backed by more than 30,000 signers that is urging a "complete purge" of SPLC influence from the federal government.
The petition indicted the SPLC as a "partisan smear machine" that unfairly and inaccurately has "vilified faith-driven groups like FRC, fostering national discord and, tragically, violence."
It was FBI Director Kash Patel who just days ago said the bureau has severed all ties to the SPLC.
"The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine," Patel told The Daily Signal in a statement Friday. "Their so-called hate map has been used to defame mainstream Americans and even inspired violence."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Eight people have been indicted in Texas over a scheme to provide illegal abortions.
Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on social media, "I arrested eight individuals, including foreign nationals, connected to a Houston abortionist. This cabal of abortion-loving radicals has been running illegal clinics staffed with unlicensed individuals who endangered the very people they pretended to help."
Paxton continued, "Beyond being illegal, it is evil. These dens of fake doctors will not be allowed to operate in Texas. Those responsible will be held accountable. I will always protect innocent life and use every tool to enforce Texas's pro-life laws."
The announcement came after Maria Margarita Rojas was arrested in March on charges of illegally operating a network of clinics in Northwest Houston.
"Rojas was accused of falsely portraying herself and employees as licensed medical professionals. She was also accused of performing abortions that violated restrictions set in place by the Texas Human Life Protection Act," the Washington Examiner explained.
The defendants allegedly worked with Rojas in Waller, Cypress, Spring, and Katy.
Those charged included Yaimara Hernandez Alvarez, Alina Valeron Leon, Dalia Coromoto Yanez, Yhonder Lebrun Acosta, Liunet Grandales Estrada, Gerardo Otero Aguero, Sabiel Bosch Gongora, and Jose Manuel Cendan Ley.
The indictments were handed up Sept. 26, according to Waller County court records.