US stocks sold off on Friday as President Donald Trump threatened to revive the trade war with China. The S&P 500 saw its steepest loss since April.
In a post on Truth Social, the president said he believed China was “becoming very hostile” in trade talks, and that there now seemed like there was “no reason” to speak with China’s President Xi Jinping in South Korea as planned later this month.
The day was a painful reminder for investors that tariffs are still a threat to the market and the economy. Oil prices cratered in line with stocks, with brent and US crude prices down 4% on fears of weaker economic activity hitting energy demand. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped nine basis points to 4.05%.
“One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, adding that there were “many other countermeasures” that were under “serious consideration” in the US.
Trump added that China’s desire to impose export controls on items like rare earth minerals would “clog” markets and “make life difficult for virtually every Country in the World.”
A finalized trade deal with China, one of the US’s largest trading partners, has been at the top of investors’ wish list after tariff anxieties sent markets plummeting earlier this year.
“President Trump is sparking risk-off sentiments in markets,” José Torres, a senior economist at Interactive Brokers, said in a note on Friday. “Investors are clamoring for safe havens as a heavy levy increase could weigh on corporate earnings and the economic outlook.”
“Trump’s actions against China this morning were the excuse the market needed to begin correcting,” Tom Bruni, the head of markets at Stocktwits, wrote in a note.
Stocks got a boost after Trump first reached a preliminary trade agreement with China in mid-May, which involved both nations lowering tariffs for a 90-day period that has since been extended. In the last extension, the US agreed to lower its tariff rate to 30% on goods from China, while China is levying a 10% tariff on US goods through November 10.
In recent months more than one friend has said to me “Don’t you think Trump is doing great?” On each occasion my friend seemed perplexed when I say “No, he is not doing great.”
When I get into the reasons — management style, rhetoric, policies and the constant self massaging of an outsized and out of control ego — my friends are further perplexed. Talk about Trump’s numbers in the polls invariably leads to a counterpunch that the polls are always wrong or that a specific poll is rigged to make Trump look bad.
So for all my MAGA friends who think things are going great, let’s put some facts on the record. This is not about one poll from an organization that leans left. This is about multiple polls from multiple respected outlets.
This is undoubtedly where American public opinion is, and MAGA and the White House needs to accept it and change accordingly. Failure to do so will effectively end the Trump administration with Democratic majorities in the Congress issuing subpoenas on a daily basis.
The current state of the Democratic Party is the best thing Republicans have going for us as we approach the 2026 midterm election. High-ranking elected Democratic officials seem incapable of coherently and concisely explaining what their party stands for. Vehement opposition to everything Trump says or does is not a winning message.
In a normal political environment, Republicans would be staring at a disastrous showing. Lucky for them 2026, as of now, does not look like it is going to be a normal political environment. I would caution my fellow Republicans that placing our electoral destiny in the hands of our opponents and hoping they continue to screw up is not a strategy with which any of us should be comfortable.
The president’s overall approval in the polls is consistently underwater, meaning his disapproval exceeds his approval. That would not be terribly concerning until you dig into the specifics as to why that is.
Many polls ask if respondents approve or disapprove on the economy, inflation, tariffs, immigration, deportations, crime control, national guard in cities. On all of those specific policy issues Trump is underwater, on most questions significantly, meaning a majority disapprove.
I am not talking about one poll here where the pro and anti-Trump split is close. The polls are close to unanimous on the lack of popularity of Trump administration policies.
Outside of border control, for which Trump deserves great credit and liberals still do not understand was a major factor in their 2024 defeat, Trump’s actions and policies do not receive majority support. In fact, they are not close to earning majority support.
In the September Washington Post poll, 70 percent of respondents said tariffs are increasing the prices they pay for basic necessities. Seventy percent! Also in that same poll, by a margin of 59 percent to 40 percent, respondents disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy. That 70 percent is referring to the tariffs which are the basis of the Trump administration’s economic plan for America.
Hello: Is anyone in the White House awake?
Part of Trump’s problem is that when he talks about the economy, he talks about how tariffs will be great for American consumers. What he sees as positive voters overwhelmingly see as a negative. Trump’s overall lack of attention to the economy, inflation and consumer sentiment is a huge negative for the administration.
The administration’s political success depends a lot more on the price of coffee and ground beef than it does on Jimmy Kimmel’s latest stupid comment. The Trump administration requires a significant mid-course correction.
The president’s predisposition is to take things to the extreme. When he does that with his rhetoric, Americans can laugh it off. When he does that with policy it is more difficult to write it off.
President Trump sees himself as an agent of change who wants to change America into his likeness. Americans are not buying the president’s vision of what he wants the future to have in store for them.
Constitutional conservatives are sounding alarm bells about the administration’s effort to suppress criticism. The White House and its MAGA supporters need to cut back on their goals, and especially their tactics, and soon.
As President Reagan used to say “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and ally, not a 20 percent traitor.”
Trump needs to quickly recalibrate his desires down from 100 percent to 80 percent. If he fails to do so, MAGA will fade into political history alongside the Square Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier and a Thousand Points of Light, none of which left America with anything resembling an identifiable political constituency.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5545377-trump-approval-rating-decline
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is amplifying an AI-generated image of President Donald Trump, who has never served in the military, wearing a U.S. Navy uniform similar to those worn by Admirals, and claiming that he is “protecting our shores!”
Noem wrote: “President Trump LOVES the American people. That is why drug traffickers and narco-trafficking boats will no longer be allowed to transport deadly drugs into American territory. Thank you, @POTUS Trump for protecting our shores!”
The AI image is accompanied by a parody video called The Drug Boat (using an altered version of The Love Boat TV show theme song), which celebrates the fatal bombing of a boat in the Caribbean which Trump ordered, claiming the people who were on the boats were drug dealers (“terrorists”) and headed to the United States.
Note: The deadly attack in September was a departure from traditional interdiction of ships suspected of smuggling drugs in international waters. In the past, U.S. authorities (from the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard) board such vessels, seize the drugs and identify suspects to build a criminal case.
BBC News reported that since the U.S. is not engaged in war with Venezuela, the strike “runs afoul of the right to life under international human rights law.”
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, spoke out against the attack. He said: “We assume these people were bad people and drug dealers, but if they were caught off the coast of Miami, we would stop the boat. They don’t shoot at us, we don’t shoot at them, they’re confiscated, they’re put in jail, and they go through a trial to prove what they were doing.”
Paul added: “The reason we have trials and we don’t automatically assume guilt is, what if we make a mistake?” Paul added: “Off our coast, it isn’t our policy to just blow people up.””
A professor dubbed “Dr. Antifa” tried to flee the country amid threats to his life but was stopped at the gate and told his reservation had been canceled.
Mark Bray, a historian of modern Spain and the world, taught in Rutgers University’s history department in New Jersey until a Turning Point USA chapter petitioned for his firing.
“We believe in free speech and the First Amendment. However, this does not mean that one is free from the consequences of their actions,” the petition stated, calling Bray “Dr. Antifa” for the content of his academic work.
In 2017, Bray published Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, based on interviews with anti-fascists, which explores the movement’s philosophy and history. At Rutgers, he taught a course on the history of antifascism.
“My role in this is as a professor,” Bray told The New York Times in an interview shortly before his flight to Spain. “I’ve never been part of an antifa group, and I’m not currently. There’s an effort underway to paint me as someone who is doing the things that I’ve researched, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” the professor added.
Bray decided to flee the country ahead of death threats that he received following the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which led to President Donald Trump designating Antifa—a broad and decentralized political movement that opposes fascism— as a domestic terrorist organization.
On the same day Bray was set to fly to Spain with his wife and two children, Trump hosted a White House roundtable focused on Antifa.
“‘Someone’ cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second,” Bray posted on Bluesky, adding, “We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’”
Since Sept. 26, Bray had received three death threats, including one threatening to kill him in front of his students, The Washington Post reported. His address had also been leaked on social media.
Students have posted screenshots on Reddit of Bray’s emails canceling or moving classes online, with many expressing disappointment that this was happening to their professor.
“Hope he enjoys his time in Europe, I was enjoying the class discussions,” one Reddit user said, posting an email from Bray that read: “Since my family and I do not feel safe in our home at the moment, we are moving for the year to Europe. Truly I am so bummed about not being able to spend time with you all in the classroom.”
In a statement to The New York Times, Rutgers University said that it “is committed to providing a secure environment — to learn, teach, work and research — where all members of our community can share their opinions without fear of intimidation or harassment.”
When asked about the threats to Bray, the White House claimed to The Times that “examples of Democrat violence are plentiful.”
After Bray announced his decision to leave the country, students launched another petition calling for the disbanding of Rutgers’ Turning Point USA chapter. As of Thursday, that petition had about 2,000 more signatures than the one calling for Bray’s firing.
“I think that all death threats and doxxing are unjustified and not how political disputes should be resolved in civilized society,” said Ava Kwan, a Turning Point USA chapter member, in an email to The Times on Wednesday. She added, “I think Dr. Antifa, who believes in violence as a political tool, should be fired, of course. Taxpayer money should not fund the salaries of terrorists.”
Bray and his family have rebooked their flight for Thursday, but hope to return to the U.S. and the classroom in the future. For now, his classes will be pre-recorded.
“I’m hopeful about returning, and I’m hopeful — and I say this as a history professor — that someday we will look back on this as a cautionary tale about authoritarianism,” Bray told The Times.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dr-antifa-professor-blocked-from-flying-after-trump-roundtable
Sound as though someone hacked into his frequent flyer or travel agency account, or had enough personal info about him to fool the airline’s customer service folks to cancel the tickets.
Hundreds of protesters have poured onto Chicago’s streets to condemn President Donald Trump‘s decision to send Texas National Guard troops into the city.
On Wednesday, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that Texas National Guard troops were headed to protect the Broadview ICE facility.
Later that evening, a military spokesperson told the Associated Press the Texas National Guard troops who had arrived in Chicago were protecting federal property in the city.
Though the total number of National Guard troops in Chicago is unclear, a mission summary from the U.S. military said there would be 200 soldiers from the Texas National Guard and another 300 from the Illinois National Guard.
Locals responded to the National Guard’s incursion into the city by marching through downtown Chicago. The city’s mayor and the state’s governor have vehemently opposed the Trump administration’s plan to send troops to the Chicago area.
The protest was broadly opposed to Trump’s immigration crackdowns and his decision to send troops into the city.
“We can stand up for people that can’t stand up for themselves,” Jinah Yun-Mitchell, 59, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “The rule of law is falling apart, so we all need to do something to make sure that it doesn’t keep going in this direction.”
Another protester, who declined to share his last name to protect himself and his family, told Block Club Chicago that he was marching for people he personally knows who have been detained by ICE.
“In my community where I teach, there’s kids not coming to school for a month at a time because they’re scared of what can happen to them,” he told the outlet. “I’m overwhelmed with blinding anger and depression for the people who are being affected.”
He said ICE agents “shot my friend in the face” with non-lethal rounds during another demonstration at an ICE facility.
The gathered protesters made their message to Trump and the masked federal agents clear, chanting: “Donald Trump, you stupid clown; ICE ain’t welcome in this town.”
Trump has justified sending troops to Chicago and Portland, Oregon, by insisting that federal immigration agents need protection in the wake of a shooting that killed two detainees at an ICE facility in Dallas. Trump is not sending the National Guard to Dallas, where the shooting actually occurred.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has moved to block the National Guard deployment, and a ruling on that request is scheduled for Thursday.
Pritzker called the military deployments “Trump’s invasion,” and Trump called for Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to be jailed.
“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Johnson said he was “not going anywhere” and that he would “stay firm as the mayor of this amazing city.”
Pritzker wrote on X that Trump was sprinting toward “full-blown authoritarianism.”
“Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power. What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?” he wrote. “Masked agents already are grabbing people off the street, separating children from their parents. Creating fear.”
The president has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act if the courts rule that his use of the National Guard is illegal.
“If I had to enact it, I’d do that,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “If people were being killed, and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I’d do that.”
As the decision looms, the National Guard and those opposing Trump in Chicago are taking to the streets.
Earlier on Wednesday, Alderman Jesse Fuentes — who was handcuffed by a federal agent on Friday — spoke to the gathered protesters.
“As your alderperson, not just of the 26th Ward because every Chicagoan matters, I will make sure that we utilize every legislative tool at our disposal to slow ICE down to protect our neighbors,” Fuentes said, according to Block Club Chicago.
