Trump Imposes Pointlessly Disastrous Tariff on Copper

Donald Trump announced a 50 percent tariff on copper, a move that is sure to slow production and make prices skyrocket.

“Copper is necessary for Semiconductors, Aircraft, Ships, Ammunition, Data Centers, Lithium-ion Batteries, Radar Systems, Missile Defense Systems, and even, Hypersonic Weapons, of which we are building many,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Tuesday night.

Trump said that the decision was the result of a “robust national security assessment” and indicated that the tariffs served to boost domestic manufacturing to make the United States competitive with China. “America will once again build a DOMINANT copper industry,” he wrote.

The U.S. currently produces just over half of the refined copper that it consumes, with two-thirds of that copper coming from Arizona, according to Reuters. The rest is imported, mostly from the Americas. Canada, Chile, and Peru accounted for more than 90 percent of refined copper imports last year.

China also gets the majority of its copper from Chile and Peru, as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Beijing has made significant investments to expand its copper mining operation.

Carlos Miguel Gutierrez, who served as secretary of commerce under President George W. Bush, told CNBC that U.S. reliance on copper imports was a “vulnerability” but that the U.S. doesn’t have “the capacity right now to offset copper imports.” He said it would take the U.S. until at least 2027 or 2028 to build up the capacity to smelt enough copper for all of the country’s needs.

In the meantime, Trump’s tariffs will put a significant strain on domestic manufacturing by raising copper prices. Following Trump’s initial threat of a tariff on copper prices, the price spiked 13 percent, its highest one-day gain since 1989. By August, American consumers may end up paying as much as $15,000 per metric ton for copper, while the rest of the world pays only $10,000, according to an estimate from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

A federal judge on Thursday blocked Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order nationwide.

Trump’s order, which seeks to deny automatic citizenship to children born on U.S. soil to undocumented immigrants or those with temporary status, was set to go into effect in late July, in at least some states, after the Supreme Court last month lifted nationwide injunctions halting the order.

However, the Supreme Court left open the possibility that a judge could freeze Trump’s order by granting nationwide class action status to all children who would be affected by it. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups thus challenged Trump’s order and refiled their case as a class action lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante, a George W. Bush appointee.

On Thursday, Laplante granted their request, certifying the class and issuing an injunction that stops Trump’s order in its tracks—or, at least, is set to do so after a pause of a few days, during which the president will have the opportunity to appeal.

“The preliminary injunction is just not a close call to the court,” LaPlante reportedly ruled from the bench. (He said he will issue a written decision later Thursday.) “The deprivation of U.S. citizenship and an abrupt change of policy that was longstanding” would cause “irreparable harm,” he said, calling citizenship “the greatest privilege that exists in the world.”

Laplante’s decision marks a significant, if temporary, victory against Trump’s anti-constitutional war on birthright citizenship.

This story has been updated.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is refusing to take responsibility after a report found that she personally instituted a rule that created obstacles in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the deadly floods in Texas over the July 4 weekend.

Per a Thursday CNN report citing four FEMA officials, Noem recently enacted a requirement that DHS expenditures exceeding $100,000 be signed off by her office. As a result, the agency was unable to deploy proactive Urban Search and Rescue squads near anticipated areas of flooding, as it usually would. While state rescue teams sprang into action, “FEMA officials realized they needed Noem’s approval before sending those additional assets”—and they didn’t receive it until Monday, at which point floodwaters had been raging for over 72 hours.

Texas’s request for aerial imagery to help with search and rescue efforts was also “delayed as it awaited Noem’s approval for the necessary contract,” and, at a FEMA-manned disaster call center, “callers have faced longer wait times as the agency awaited Noem’s approval for a contract to bring in additional support staff.”

It’s a damning report describing a policy one former Customs and Border Protection official called “absolutely nuts,” according to Federal News Network.

Noem dismissed the report out of hand during a Thursday morning appearance on Fox and Friends, even laughing when co-host Griff Jenkins brought it up, before fixating on the outlet that published it rather than the direct line FEMA officials drew between her policy and delays in the disaster response.

“Well there you go. Fake news,” Noem said. “CNN, again, is absolutely trash, what they are doing by saying that. Because our Coast Guard, our Border Patrol, [Border Patrol Tactical Unit] teams were there immediately. Every single thing … they asked for, we were there.”

Noem continued, “The fact that CNN is continuing to be political and push out fake information and false information and lies is not shocking, but it’s a disservice to the country. It’s a real disservice to the country because people start to mistrust anything that comes out, then, over the news.”

U.S. permanent resident and reggaeton artist Leamsy Izquierdo has revealed that conditions in “Alligator Alcartraz,” where he is detained, are as inhumane as advertised.

“There’s no water here for people to bathe. I haven’t showered for four days, there’s no water, no toothpaste, they don’t let you out for even a minute to get some air,” said Izquierdo, whose stage name is Leamsy La Figura, in a phone call later shared online by his partner Katia Hernández. “We are in a cage of metal bars with the lights on 24 hours a day, and the mosquitoes seem like elephants.”

Izquierdo has been detained at Alligator Alcatraz since Friday.

“They give us food only once a day, food that has even been infested with worms. The lights are never turned off, they’re on 24 hours a day,” he continued. “And the mosquitoes seem like elephants.”

Izquierdo is a lawful permanent legal resident of the United States, but was scooped up and deported on extremely short notice after he was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and simple assault in Miami-Dade County on July 2.

“He never attacked anyone,” Hernández told Telemundo 51. “The police didn’t give him time to explain.”

The Trump administration has been very defensive of conditions in their shining concentration camp on a hill.

“The reporting on the conditions in the facility is completely false,” Stephanie Hartman, director of communications for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said to CBS News. “The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order.”

Izquierdo’s case, much like that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and countless other immigrants, shows just how indiscriminate and extrajudicial Trump’s immigration crackdown is. Ordinary people will continue to suffer while Trump and his inner circle delight in their pumped-up detainment and deportation numbers.

North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis revealed that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed because one senator decided to believe his lies. 

During an exclusive interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper Wednesday, Tillis responded to the claim that Kennedy had gone back on his promises to Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who serves as the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

“The main reason I supported Kennedy was because Bill Cassidy thought that we should see how it plays out,” Tillis said. 

But Cassidy, who had led the charge on Kennedy’s confirmation, had been duped. 

In February, Cassidy had promised before the Senate that, if confirmed, Kennedy would “maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ recommendations without changes.”

But in early June, Kennedy stripped that committee of all of its members. 

In a post on X Monday, Cassidy explained that “now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.

Cassidy also claimed that Kennedy had “committed that he would work within current vaccine approval and safety monitoring systems and not establish parallel systems,” and that he would not use his position to “wrongfully sow public fear” about vaccines. 

In May, Kennedy announced that he’d made changes to the CDC’s recommended vaccine schedules without ACIP’s input, upending the decades-old consensus-driven method for making recommendations. Kennedy has also repeatedly sown doubts about vaccines, touting conspiracy theories and possible health risks for the measles vaccine amid a massive measles outbreak.  

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official revealed Wednesday that the agency’s efforts to deport foreign students for their purportedly “radical,” pro-Palestinian beliefs relies on Canary Mission—an anonymously run website that seeks to dox and render unemployable students and academics accused (often falsely) of promoting “hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews.”

During a federal trial in which numerous academic groups are challenging Trump’s ideological deportations, ICE official Peter Hatch, who compiles background reports on agency targets, testified that the Department of Homeland Security’s so-called “Tiger Team,” in early 2025, “rapidly compiled over 100 reports based on a list of 5,000 people identified on the Canary Mission website,” the Knight First Amendment Institute reports.

Though there were other sources, Hatch said “most” of the names he was given to investigate came from Canary Mission, CNN reports.

Canary Mission is notorious for frequently conflating pro-Palestinian advocacy or criticisms of Israel with antisemitism. Take, for instance, the case of Tufts University Ph.D. student Rümeysa Öztürk, who in March 2024 wrote a pro-Palestinian op-ed in the school’s newspaper—which was enough to earn her a listing on the website. Then, this March, she was plucked off the street by masked, plainclothes ICE agents, and the agency baselessly accused her of supporting Hamas.

Öztürk’s case and others led many to suspect that Trump’s ICE was taking deportation orders from Canary Mission. Hatch’s testimony confirms as much, and the administration’s reliance on the blacklist, in its modern-day rehash of the first and second Red Scares, only deepens the impression that it is fundamentally hostile to the freedom of speech.

A provision buried deep within Donald Trump’s behemoth budget bill essentially earmarks funds for Anduril, the defense technology company heavily backed by apocalyptic prophet Peter Thiel.

The Intercept reported Wednesday that a provision allocating some of the $6 billion set aside for border tech stipulates that any border surveillance towers must be “tested and accepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to deliver autonomous capabilities.”

CBP confirmed to the Intercept that Anduril’s Sentry Tower line, which use “autonomous” capabilities to scan the horizon for objects of interest, were the only towers that currently fit the bill’s requirements.

This provision is a massive blow to competitors with similar products, such as Israeli company Elbit or General Dynamics. It also undermines exactly the kind of competition that the Trump administration has said it hopes to foster in the search for the best AI technology to power the American machine for deportation and death.

Thiel’s Founders Fund contributed $1 billion to Anduril during its most recent fundraising round. Anduril was founded by Palmer Luckey, former Representative Matt Gaetz’s brother-in-law. In April, Anduril took over Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar contract to develop an augmented reality headset program with the U.S. Army, and partnered with Meta to make a range of products for the military.

Trump’s budget, which was signed into law last week, provided a whopping $165 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, including $46.5 billion for new border wall construction, $3.2 billion for new technology, and $2.7 billion for new border surveillance.

The Trump administration is conducting a spiteful investigation against former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan as retaliation for their roles in the 2016 Russian election interference scandal.

The FBI reportedly launched its criminal investigation into the two men shortly after it released a review that criticized the 2017 intelligence assessment that found Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to influence the outcome of the 2016 election in Trump’s favor. Trump has despised them since that initial report, calling Brennan a “total lowlife” and threatening to revoke his security clearance in 2018, and outright firing Comey the year before.

Trump took the time to personally lambaste the men again on Wednesday when asked about why his FBI is investigating them.

“Well, I know nothing about it, other than what I read today, but I will tell you, I think they’re very dishonest people. I think they’re crooked as hell, and maybe they have to pay a price for that,” he said. “I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people. So whatever happens, happens.”

At the beginning of Trump’s Wednesday “multilateral lunch” event to discuss commercial opportunities with five West African leaders, Trump asked his guests to say “a few words to the press.” But as the first spoke, Trump changed his mind, interrupting him to ask the heads of state to just state their name and country.

“Perhaps we can start with you, please,” Trump said at the beginning of the meeting, motioning to Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani. “Great gentleman, by the way.”

Ghazouani introduced himself, thanking Trump for hosting the leaders and applauding his supposed peace efforts. As he described Mauritania’s strategic location and investment opportunities, such as rare earth minerals, Trump—himself not known for brevity—began to grow impatient as Ghazouani’s remarks had gone on for about seven minutes.

An irked Trump gave the Mauritanian leader the wrap-it-up gesture, shook his head, and threw up his hands. Catching this, Ghazouani said, “I don’t want to spend too much time on this,” before Trump cut him off.

“But I appreciate it very much, I appreciate it,” Trump went on. “Maybe we’re going to have to go a little bit quicker than this, because we have a whole schedule.”

Trump then proposed that the African heads of state just state “your name and your country.”

It was not the only awkward exchange of the event, as Trump would go on to compliment the president of Liberia, a country whose official language is English, on his English speaking, and welcome an offer from the president of Senegal to build a golf course where Trump could “show off [his] skills.”

The president is not concerned that his underlings are independently intervening in American foreign policy without any authorization to do so.

Speaking with reporters in the State Dining Room Wednesday, Donald Trump said that he hadn’t given much attention to a CNN report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had independently halted a weapons shipment to Ukraine last week.

“Sir, yesterday you said you were not sure who ordered the munitions halted to Ukraine—have you since been able to figure that out?” asked a reporter.

“Well I haven’t thought about it,” Trump said. “Because we’re looking at Ukraine right now and munitions. But no, I have not gone into it.”

“What does it say that such a big decision could be made inside your government without you knowing?” the reporter pressed.

“I would know. If a decision is made, I will know. I would be the first to know,” Trump responded. The president, per his own confession on Tuesday, did not know who had made the decision.

Practically everyone was blindsided by news of the halted shipment, including officials in the White House, the State Department, Congress, Kyiv, and America’s European allies, setting off a mad dash within the administration to explain the unexpected directive.

Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday that he was “not responsible” for the canceled shipment, telling the war-battered leader that he had directed a review of U.S. stockpiles but did not order the freeze, according to sources that spoke with The Guardian. The president reiterated that point during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, telling reporters that he didn’t know who authorized the move.

The White House has refused to confirm that Hegseth was behind the stalled delivery. But even if Hegseth has become the convenient fall guy for the serious foreign policy flub, Trump still doesn’t look good. The White House is stuck in a P.R. nightmare: Either paint its Pentagon chief as a rogue agent, or expose the president’s obliviousness to the inner machinations of his own team and its foreign policy agenda.

Regardless, it’s not the first time that Hegseth has intervened in U.S. foreign policy without Trump’s express approval: In February, the Pentagon chief executed the same flub, pausing a weapons shipment to Ukraine despite the fact that Trump had announced the flow would continue.