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šµ Trump Scores Budget Victory
Citizen Frank
April 10, 2025
Good morning. Itās Thursday, April 10.
In a massive victory for President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., the House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that will set the stage for a massive conservative policy overhaul.
The legislation passed mostly along party lines on Thursday morning after a long night of negotiations between House GOP leaders and fiscal hawks who were critical of its spending cut levels.
Just two Republicans voted against the legislation ā Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Victoria Spartz, R-Ind. ā which passed 216 to 214. No Democrats supported it, as expected. Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., held a press conference on Thursday morning in a bid to allay conservativesā concerns.
Stocks fell Thursday, giving back half of the gains from the historic rally seen in the previous session after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day reprieve on some of his āreciprocalā tariffs. Investors worried that even with the short reprieve on some of the duties, economic activity will be slowed by Trumpās singling out of China with a much higher rate.
The S&P 500 sold off 5.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 6.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,877 points, or 4.6%.
Leading the declines were Apple and Tesla, which pulled back more than 6% and 10%, respectively. Nvidia lost more than 7%, while Meta Platforms slipped around 7%.
President Donald Trumpās tariffs on Chinese imports are now at least 145%, far above the level many economists said could decimate US-China trade.
Trump is imposing a 125% charge designed to both counter Americaās trade deficit with China and punish Beijing for retaliating against US import taxes.
The number, published in a White House memo Thursday, comes in addition to a 20% levy put into place earlier this year over Chinaās role in fentanyl trafficking.
Consumer prices declined month-over-month in March for the first time in nearly five years, a welcome development for inflation-weary families but one that economists said is likely to be short-lived due to new trade tariffs.
The consumer-price index fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in March, the Labor Department said Thursday, the first time it recorded a month-over-month decline since May 2020. The drop was unexpected: Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 0.1% rise.
Year-over-year inflation cooled sharply to a 2.4% increase in the CPI, below the 2.6% rise that economists expected. A steep decline in gasoline prices last month helped pull that number lower.
Elon Muskās Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) revealed in a bombshell finding that millions of dollars in unemployment claims have been going to āfake peopleā who havenāt even been born yet ā some not even in this century.
DOGE claimed it reviewed an initial survey of unemployment claims since 2020 that found that 9,700 people whose birth dates arenāt for another 15 years have claimed $69 million in benefits.
In one absurd case, a person whose birthday was listed in the year 2154 claimed $41,000, according to an X post by the department.
The European Union has announced it is putting retaliatory measures against the United States on hold for 90 days.
āWe want to give negotiations a chance,ā EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.
The EU on Wednesday backed its first countermeasures against steel and aluminum tariffs announced by Trump in March. Just after the EU agreed on its response, the US president announced the 90-day pause on the āreciprocalā tariffs he had placed on dozens of countries.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is getting a seat back at the House GOP leadership table and her spots back on House committees as she returns to the lower chamber after President Trump withdrew her nomination to be U.N. ambassador over concerns about the slim GOP majority.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is appointing Stefanik to be chairwoman of House Republican Leadership, according to a release from her office ā a Speaker-appointed position that is outlined in the conferenceās rules, but is often vacant.
A release from her office described it as āa senior leadership appointed position focused on strategy, communications, and executing on the mandate from the American people to pass President Trumpās agenda.ā
Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina was released from Kremlin custody in a prisoner swap with the United States on Thursday morning.
Karelina was freed in exchange for German-Russian Arthur Petrov at a swap in Abu Dhabi, the Wall Street Journal reported.
āAmerican Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States,ā Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
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