‘We’ve got trillions of manufacturing that’s going to come back,’ says treasury secretary Bessent
As Donald Trump’s tariffs on swathes of major US trading partners take effect today, his treasury secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with MSNBC earlier that things have “just gotten out of balance” and “we’ve stopped making things in the US,” when quizzed about tariffs issued against key allies like South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the EU.
Bessent added that he’s confident that tariffs will reinvigorate American manufacturing, citing the corporate commitments from the likes of Apple.
“We want to get rid of these big deficits that we have with countries that have created these big surpluses and gutted our manufacturing base,” he said. “We’ve got trillions and trillions of manufacturing that’s going to come back, and we’re going to see that over the next couple of years.”
Bessent went on to describe this period as a “manufacturing renaissance”.
Key events
Oliver Milman
Across the US’s fabled but overstretched national parks, unusual scenes are playing out this summer – following budget cuts by Donald Trump’s administration.
Archeologists are staffing ticket booths, ecologists are covering visitor centers and the superintendents of parks are even cleaning the toilets.
The National Park Service (NPS), responsible for maintaining cherished wildernesses and sites of cultural importance from Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty, has lost a quarter of its permanent staff since Trump took office in January, with the administration seeking to gut the service’s budget by a third.
But the administration has also ordered parks to remain open and accessible to the public, meaning the NPS has had to scramble remaining staff into public-facing roles to maintain appearances to the crowds of visitors. This has meant much of the behind-the-scenes work to protect endangered species, battle invasive plants, fix crumbling infrastructure or plan for the future needs of the US’s trove of natural wonders has been jettisoned.
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Senator Cornyn says FBI grants request to locate state lawmakers
Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas said today that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has approved his request for the agency to help locate and arrest Democratic state lawmakers, who left the state last week to break quorum in protest over a GOP-drawn congressional map.
“I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable for fleeing Texas. We cannot allow these rogue legislators to avoid their constitutional responsibilities,” Cornyn said in a statement.
Cornyn wrote a letter to FBI director Kash Patel earlier this week, imploring him to help round up and arrest the state legislators – many of whom are waiting out the remainder of Texas’ special session in blue states.
Lutnick claims ‘$50bn’ in monthly tariff revenue
Also making the cable news rounds today is commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who said the US can expect “to be heading towards $50bn a month in tariff revenue,” in an interview with Fox Business Network.
“And then you’re going to get the semiconductors, you’re going to get pharmaceuticals, you’re going to get all sorts of additional tariff money coming in,” he added. “Everybody understands you’ve got to see to the American consumer. The American consumer is the most powerful factor in the Earth for the economy.”
Bessent says ‘$300bn’ likely in annual tariff revenue
When asked about how much money the US can expect to bring in from Donald Trump’s tariffs each year, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that $300bn was “a good start”. He compared this to the $77bn brought in from tariff revenue in 2024.
“This year, we could have about 300 billion of new revenue, which is 1% of GDP. And then there’s a chance that that could be higher in ‘26,” Bessent said in an interview with MSNBC.
‘We’ve got trillions of manufacturing that’s going to come back,’ says treasury secretary Bessent
As Donald Trump’s tariffs on swathes of major US trading partners take effect today, his treasury secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with MSNBC earlier that things have “just gotten out of balance” and “we’ve stopped making things in the US,” when quizzed about tariffs issued against key allies like South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the EU.
Bessent added that he’s confident that tariffs will reinvigorate American manufacturing, citing the corporate commitments from the likes of Apple.
“We want to get rid of these big deficits that we have with countries that have created these big surpluses and gutted our manufacturing base,” he said. “We’ve got trillions and trillions of manufacturing that’s going to come back, and we’re going to see that over the next couple of years.”
Bessent went on to describe this period as a “manufacturing renaissance”.
Trump to sign executive orders on 401k choice and ‘debanking’
A White House official tells the Guardian that the president will sign two finance-related executive orders today.
The first will be an action that allows 401k holders to “to access alternative assets” such as private equity, according to details shared with the Guardian.
The second order will focus on Trump’s claims of banks discriminating against conservatives. This would punish banks for the process of “debanking” – which involves limiting financial services based on religious or political beliefs.
More details emerge about shooting at Georgia military base
We’ve gotten more details about the shooting on an army base in Georgia on Wednesday. A reminder that an active-duty soldier opened fire at Fort Stewart military base yesterday, wounding five other soldiers before being taken into custody.
Officials said the alleged shooter was 28-year-old Sgt Quornelius Radford, who was assigned to Fort Stewart.
Brig Gen John Lubas, commander of the third infantry division and Fort Stewart-Hunter army airfield, said soldiers in the area who witnessed the shooting “immediately and without hesitation tackled the soldier, subdued him. That allowed law enforcement to then take him into custody.”
The base said in a Facebook post that the shooting occurred in the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team area. “All soldiers were treated on-site and moved to Winn Army Community Hospital for further treatment,” the base said.
Lubas confirmed the shooter did not use a military weapon. “We believe it was a personal handgun,” he said.
According to reporting from The New York Times, Radford sent a text message to his aunt on Wednesday morning which said that he “loved everybody, and that he’ll be in a better place because he was about to go and do something”.
The Times also spoke with Radford’s father, who said he hasn’t noticed anything unusual about his son’s behavior recently, and didn’t know what might have led him to attack his fellow soldiers.
Donald Trump is at the White House today. His day is looking quiet until noon EDT, when he’ll sign executive orders. Then at 4pm EDT he’s deliver remarks in the East Room.
We’ll be watching and bringing you the latest.
President Donald Trump on Thursday called for the Intel new CEO Lip-Bu Tan to immediately resign, saying he is “highly conflicted” after questions arose about his ties to Chinese firms.
“There is no other solution to this problem,” he said in a Truth Social post.
It comes as Republican senator Tom Cotton sent a letter to Intel’s board chair on Wednesday with questions about Tan’s ties to Chinese firms and a recent criminal case involving his former company Cadence Design.
Writing to “express concern about the security and integrity of Intel’s operations and its potential impact on US national security”, Cotton asked in the letter to Intel chairperson Frank Yeary whether the company’s board was aware of the subpoenas sent to Cadence during Tan’s time there as CEO before Intel hired him.
Cotton asked what measures were taken to address those concerns.
Sam Levin
US border patrol agents carried out a raid outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles on Wednesday, with officers jumping out of an unmarked rental truck and chasing and arresting more than a dozen people.
Videos of the operation, and federal officials’ statements boasting about the detentions, have raised questions about whether the US government was complying with a federal court order halting indiscriminate raids in the region due to evidence of racial profiling. That ruling, upheld last week by an appeals court, followed reports of Latino US citizens getting swept up in LA raids and accounts of undocumented people being targeted based on their appearance and whether they spoke Spanish.
Clips of the early morning raid by Home Depot in the Westlake neighborhood, near MacArthur Park, showed masked, heavily armed officers jumping out of a yellow truck from Penske, a private rental company, and people fleeing. Day laborers often gather outside Home Depot stores looking for work and have been subject to aggressive immigration raids in southern California.
One day-laborer present for the Wednesday raid told the Los Angeles Times that the Penske truck pulled up to the parking lot around 6.45am, with the driver telling people gathered in Spanish that he had work to offer. Someone then rolled up the back of the truck, and masked agents, including one in a cowboy hat, jumped out as people scattered, the witness said.
Dara Kerr
Donald Trump said he would impose a 100% tariff on foreign computer chips, likely raising the cost of electronics, autos, household appliances and other goods deemed essential for the digital age.
“We’ll be putting a tariff on of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors,” Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook. “But if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge.”
The Republican president said companies that make computer chips in the US would be spared the import tax. During the Covid-19 pandemic, a shortage of computer chips increased the price of autos and contributed to an overall uptick in inflation.
Trump and Cook were meeting on Wednesday to discuss an agreement for Apple to invest $100bn in manufacturing in the US over the next four years. That comes after the iPhone maker already pledged to invest $500bn domestically earlier this year. With Apple’s new investment, the total figure is now at $600bn.
Trump directs Commerce Department to create new US Census
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he has instructed the Department of Commerce to begin creating a new Census “based on modern day facts and figures” and that uses the results and information from the 2024 presidential election.
“People who are in our Country illegally will not be counted in the census,” he said in a Truth Social post.
He added:
I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024.
