Your Pulse On America: Live And Unfiltered
It was time for Beau Hanson to lay down his bets. Like other farmers in western Iowa, in early April Mr. Hanson was preparing for spring planting. The decisions he made then could determine whether he would be in the red or the black come fall harvest. In farming, there are always uncertainties, and all…
Under blue skies, where low-rolling hills rise south of the Canadian border in the tiny town of Adams, N.D., a couple braves the stench of old honey, wax, smoke and bee muck. Nancy and Keith Budke, married 43 years, are migratory beekeepers. They produce honey with the taste of canola nectar, sweet clover and other…
After China unveiled steep retaliatory tariffs on American exports on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a sharp and somewhat surprising response: “So what?” The question underscored the Trump administration’s argument that America has the upper hand in a trade war with China given how reliant its economy is on exports to the United States….
Ahead of President Trump’s plan to impose sweeping tariffs across the globe this week, his administration is weighing a new round of emergency aid to farmers, who are likely to be caught in the middle if America’s trading partners retaliate. The early discussions offer a tacit acknowledgment that Mr. Trump’s expansive tariffs could unleash financial…
For the past five years, Molly Culver, owner of Molly Oliver Flowers in Brooklyn, has mounted a quiet battle against the goliath of Valentine’s Day flowers: the rose. Classically red, multilayered, prickly and velvety, millions of roses, most imported from overseas, will be sold for the annual day of love. But Ms. Culver is among…
Skylar Holden, a cattle rancher in Missouri, had signed a $240,000 cost-sharing contract with the Agriculture Department to add fencing and improve the watering system for his property. But after the Trump administration abruptly froze federal funding, Mr. Holden said, he was suddenly out tens of thousands of dollars and on the hook for tens…
Republicans in Congress have responded to President Trump’s unilateral moves to freeze federal spending, dismantle programs and fire civil servants with a collective shrug, staying mostly silent and even praising him as he circumvents the legislative branch. But in recent days, as his slash-and-burn campaign to remake the government has begun to affect their states…
Jamieson Greer, President Trump’s nominee to be the next U.S. trade representative, defended the president’s plan to impose sweeping tariffs on all imported products and told senators he would work to restructure international trading relationships during his confirmation hearing on Thursday. Mr. Greer, a trade lawyer and former Trump administration official, told the Senate Finance…
When Dennis Nixon started working at a regional bank in Laredo, Texas, in 1975, there was just a trickle of trade across the border with Mexico. Now, nearly a billion dollars of commerce and more than 15,000 trucks roll over the line every day just a quarter mile from his office, binding the economies of…
The Trump administration plans to move forward with imposing stiff tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China on Saturday, in an attempt to further pressure America’s largest trading partners to accept deportees and stop the flow of migrants and drugs into the country. In a press briefing Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the…