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President Donald Trump spoke Monday about negotiations with China that resulted in a dramatic step back from a tariff trade war — but in a rambling speech, he revealed the talks had left him confused.

First, he told the press, "Both sides now agreed to reduce the tariffs imposed. After April 2nd, to 10% for 90 days as negotiators continue." The date was more than a month in the past as he was talking May 12.

Trump then claimed that, until they began speaking, China was "being hurt very badly. They were closing up factories. They were having a lot of unrest, and they were very happy to be able to do something with us."

"And I don't know if people realize this, but we made a great deal with China, a great trade deal. But it was a much bigger deal originally, and then they canceled it right in the last day," Trump also claimed. He appeared to be talking about a previous negotiation from his first administration, and not the one that happened over the weekend, as he mentioned former Secretary of Agriculture Donny Perdue.

"Some of your faces I remember were there when that happened. I remember you, and we had a deal where they opened up their country to trade with the United States, and they took that away at the last moment," Trump said.

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It's unclear what he meant, but China has been trading with the U.S. for decades. The Library of Congress page that discusses U.S. trade said that in 1979, the "U.S. and China reestablished diplomatic relations and signed a bilateral trade deal."

Trump claimed that "they took that away at the last moment," but then followed up by saying, "and then I canceled the whole thing. And then six months later, we ended up doing a smaller deal. But it was a big deal. It was $50 billion worth of product that they were going to purchase from our farmers, etc, and we agreed to that."

He then confessed that he was confused about the amount of the tariffs.

"People thought it was 15 because they were doing 15," Trump said. "We made it 50 because I misunderstood the 15. I thought they said — I said, you got to get 50 because when I asked — if you remember the story — when I asked, what are we doing with them? My secretary of agriculture at the time, Sonny Perdue, said, uh, sir, it's about $15 billion and we're asking for 15. And I thought he said 50. So, I said — so they came back with the deal at 15 and I said, no way, I want 50 because you said 50. They said, sir, we didn't say that. Anyway. Bottom line, I said, go back and ask for 50. And they gave us 50, and they were honoring the deal, and we would call them up a lot for the corn and for the wheat and for everything."

Trump said that China was "honoring the detail" until former President Joe Biden "got in, they no longer honored the deal." When Biden came into office, it was amid the COVID-19 crisis, when trade was disrupted.

"The effects of the countries’ different responses are evident in our trade data as Chinese exports are more affected by the shock than Chinese imports. The impact of COVID-19 on trade included delays, shortages, and increased transportation costs. These shocks affected both supply and demand," Science Direct reported in a report about the way the pandemic disrupted trade.

Trump claimed that under Biden, "there was nobody to call. I would call on an average of once every two weeks to say, come on, you have to speed it up a little bit. And our farmers were doing great. I said to him, buy more land and bigger tractors. If you remember, that's what happened. But the deal was a very good deal. But the best part of the deal was that we opened up China. China agreed to open itself up to American business to go in, and it would have been a great thing, I think, for China, they would be able to see things that they haven't seen. They would be able to buy products that they had never been able to buy. Would have been great for American businesses."

Trump then said "they canceled it the last day" and "I got a little bit angry."

See a clip of the comments below or at the link here.

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MAGA “loyalists” are making moves to oust senators who are not in line with President Donald Trump, according to an Axios report.

Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) are all at risk of facing a primary challenge in 2026.

Cornyn is a loud critic of Trump over several issues, including the deficit and border security.

MAGA would prefer to see Texas' Attorney General Ken Paxton fill the seat, Axios wrote. Paxton was impeached by the state House on bribery and corruption charges in 2023.

According to the outlet, Tillis crossed the president — and the MAGA movement — by voting against the nomination of Ed Martin to be U.S. attorney for D.C.

He was also inclined to vote against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s nomination, but eventually folded.

EXCLUSIVE: Breastfeeding mom of US citizen sues Kristi Noem after being grabbed by ICE

The president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, would likely be the primary challenger, but she has not announced if she will run.

Axios says Former Governor Roy Cooper appears increasingly likely to run on the Democratic ticket.

Cassidy voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6. Axios believes “Louisiana is safer for Republicans” because both Cornyn and Tillis are predicted to face strong democratic candidates.

According to the report, several far-right, Trump-endorsed congressional candidates have coasted to the GOP nomination. However, some ended up losing the general election.

MAGA activists, like influencer Jack Posobiec, believe the potential loss in 2026 is worth the challenge. “MAGA is sick of RINOs (Republicans in name only), especially in states Trump won. And in a state like Texas, it's inexcusable," he told Axios.

Trump has not made endorsements in any of these races. The outlet said, “By holding off [an endorsement], he maintains leverage over Cornyn and Tillis, whose support he needs to pass his legislative agenda.”

The White House did not respond to Axios' request for comment.

President Donald Trump took time out of an announcement on medication prices to praise former television personalities Mehmet Oz and Jeanine Pirro.

On Monday, Trump made the remarks before signing an executive order on drug prices. Oz heads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services while Pirro is expected to serve as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

"When you're in show business, it hurts your reputation a little bit," Trump noted. "It's good for you, but in terms of professionalism and being a doctor, it sort of hurts your reputation."

The president compared Oz to Pirro, whom he called "a special woman."

EXCLUSIVE: Breastfeeding mom of US citizen sues Kristi Noem after being grabbed by ICE

"She was really tough, really sharp," he explained. "Then she did a show, and people didn't think of it quite the same way. She became more of an entertainment person, like Oz. Oz is not an entertainment — he's not really an entertainer."

"And she isn't either. She is unbelievable," Trump added. "She was one of the strongest, district attorneys in the history of New York, highly respected, very tough, went after the drug dealers at a level that you don't see today anymore, and hopefully she's going to be, she's given up a tremendous, she's leaving the number one show on cable television, one of the number one shows on television, period, 'The Five.'"

"Janine Pirro is unbelievable."

Watch the video below from Newsmax

Every kid has heard “No means no!” when they want something their parents don’t think they should have. This week that phrase got a couple high profile uses when Canada’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, told Donald Trump right to his face that Canada was not and never would be for sale and Montana’s Congressman Ryan Zinke forcefully said “no” to the sale of public lands in the West.

In this day and age seeing U.S. politicians keep their campaign promises — or honor their oaths of office — is becoming increasingly rare. But on “keeping public lands in public hands,” Rep. Zinke did just that.

The measure in question was part of the “big, beautiful bill” touted by Trump to give yet more tax breaks to the already wealthy. The new twist was to sell hundreds of thousands of acres of federal lands in Nevada and Utah for mining, logging, drilling and development to finance those tax breaks.

Doug Burgum, the Secretary of the Interior, has publicly declared public lands and resources as “natural assets” that can be used to pay down the national debt. Consequently, GOP Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah inserted the public land sale as an amendment since it was not contained in the original draft of the bill due to bipartisan opposition.

Montana’s Congressman and former Secretary of the Interior called the move to sell public lands “a red line” and was adamant: “It’s a no now. It will be a no later. It will be a no forever.’’ As Zinke explained his firm opposition: “I prefer the management scheme and I give as an example a hotel. If you don’t like the management of a hotel, don’t sell the hotel; change the management.”

At almost the same time, Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney was using almost the same words in his White House meeting. After listening to Trump’s blather about how Canada should be our 51st state, how much he “loved Canada” and how erasing the “artificial” border line would make one beautiful piece of real estate, Carney used Trump’s own real estate line to fire back: “As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale. We’re sitting in one right now. Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign the last several months, it’s not for sale, won’t be for sale,” adding: “Canada’s not for sale. It never will be for sale.”

Carney won office largely on his opposition to Trump’s intentions to take over Canada, saying during the election that: “America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country. But these are not idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us. That will never ever happen.”

Both Zinke and Carney are dead right. Polls show 74% of Americans oppose the sale of our public lands — and Carney’s election speaks for itself. He won by fighting Trump’s nasty threat to take over our northern neighbor that 77% of Canadians oppose.

For a guy who’s always been told he can have everything he wants, the double-barrel blast should be a wake up call. The world is not one big real estate sale to be marketed solely to make greedy billionaires even more money. Kudos to Zinke and Carney — and hopefully a sign to the rest of Congress and the world that it’s time to tell our spoiled child of a president “No means no!”

The new head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency greeted his staff Friday with an aggressive promise to "run right over" anyone who doesn't get with his program, according to a new report by Reuters.

"Obfuscation, delay, undermining. If...you think those tactics and techniques are going to help you, they will not, because I will run right over you," David Richardson said during an all-hands call. "Don't get in my way... I know all the tricks."

Richardson, a combat veteran who previously served with DHS's office for countering weapons of mass destruction, was appointed to replace acting FEMA chief Cameron Hamilton.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem canned Hamilton this week after he told a congressional hearing "he did not support eliminating the agency," according to the report.

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Noem and President Donald Trump "have called for the agency to be shrunk or even abolished, arguing that many of its functions can be carried out by the states, a stance that is already leading to decreased federal aid for disasters."

According to Reuters, Richardson said he would "look to narrow the agency's operations to only actions that 'are within the law' and 'within our mission,'" but gave no details.

Richardson sent memos to staff Friday directing them to "begin collating lists of FEMA tasks and authorities" so he could identify redundancies and achieve "Trump's vision for the agency," Reuters reported.

"We're going to find out how to do things better," Richardson said during the staff call. "We're going to find out how to push things down to the states that should be done at state level. Also we're going to find out how we can do more cost sharing with the states."

Reuters noted that the leadership change comes just before hurricane season gets underway June 1.

Read the Reuters article here.

I am seeing a lot of nonsense being reported about the America-attacking Donald Trump alleging last weekend he will not seek a third term in office ... as if anything that comes out of his dirty mouth is at all credible.

Have we learned nothing yet?

Listen to me, good people: Unless he has the decency to die first, America’s First Felon has no intention of leaving the White House in 2028.

What we do between now and then in revolt of this revolting man will tell the tale.

After 10 years of carpet-bombing the truth, can everybody at least understand that we can never trust a single word that comes out of the dirty mouth of the woman-abusing narcissist, who according to one count told an astonishing 30,573 lies and mistruths during his first chaotic presidency when hundreds of thousands of Americans needlessly died because of his RFK Jr.-like response to a once-in-a-century killer pandemic?

We need only rely on his past despicable actions to get at his true future intent, because whatever this racist lowlife — who is actively trying to disappear people of color and their history from our government websites — is saying and what he has actually done is far, far worse.

We know by his actions that after losing the 2020 election by more than seven million votes to Joe Biden, Trump began making it crystal clear to everyone that he had no intention of stepping down and honoring the vote of the people.

Thus, the Big Lie was hatched.

Rather than gracefully concede his loss, as Hillary Clinton had done four years earlier after winning close to three million votes MORE than him, Trump decided to go to war against America.

We know by his revolting actions, that after losing scores of legal challenges, and publicly threatening and shaking down poll workers and election officials, Trump finally summoned the worst people in America, his lawless base, to Washington in an attempt to violently overthrow the government.

We watched for hours as overmatched law enforcement officers were beaten with American and rebel flags, and stomped into curbs. We watched as Trump’s thugs breached our Capitol inflicting millions of dollars worth of damage, and then hunted down politicians threatening them with death and hanging.

And while all this was happening Trump took no action, except for hoping the insurrection would succeed.

Finally, when it was clear the attack had been put down, he grudgingly harrumphed in front of a camera on the White House lawn, and through gritted, yellow teeth told the people who had attacked us that he loved them.

He told them that he loved them …

I just want to stop here for a second and ask again, because it can never be asked enough: What would have happened on this terrible day if Black people had inflicted the worst attack on our Capitol since 1812? Would they have have been told they were loved by the outgoing President of the United States?

Fact is, there would have been thousands of dead and wounded littering the Capitol grounds, and most white people would have been falling all over themselves to say they got what they deserved.

Because that is how America operates today and always. We are a racist country governed by white people, who predominate our elected offices, our military and law enforcement barracks, but mostly our banks.

I’ll never forget any of what happened that terrible day, but mostly I’ll never forget that chilling moment when the racist Trump told those disgusting people that he loved them, because that’s when I knew for sure he was coming back.

It was yet another call to the far-right, racist extremists who cement his morally bankrupt base to “stand back and standby.”

By telling the people who violently attacked us that he loved them, Trump was making it plain as day that unless he was jailed and/or prevented by Congress from ever running again, he was going to be back to finish us off in 2024.

He was telling us he understood America and the degenerates in the Republican Party better than the elected officials who were supposed to keep us safe, and honor our Constitution.

He was telling us he knew this country better than Mitch McConnell, or Biden, or anybody who he appointed to be his Attorney General. He was making a bet on injustice and cruelty, and against the country he had attacked.

First, McConnell and 42 other gutless Republican senators failed to vote to convict at Trump's second impeachment trial, which would have prevented the America-attacker from ever running for office again. Then there was the three-dimensional chess-playing legal scholar, Merrick Garland, who spent four years successfully putting himself in check.

So catastrophically did Biden's attorney general fail us, that even the foot soldiers in the Jan. 6 attack who he was able to successfully jail are now back on the streets because he refused to lay a glove on their lawless leader, the most dangerous man in the world.

Finally, there was Biden, a good man who spent four years too often talking about an America that never existed, and ended his term perched in front of a crackling fire at the White House just days after Trump had carried out his threat to return, and enthusiastically offering him his hand, a warm smile and a, “Welcome back!”

Welcome back. My God …

When will people start taking this violent, democratic arsonist seriously? When will we start looking at his repulsive actions, instead of taking him at his empty word?

I bring all this up today because in addition to making sure we never forget what has really happened to America, we keep a close eye on what is really happening in America.

The American-attacking Trump is telling us in words what he has been telling us with his actions the past 10 years: The Constitution of the United States simply does not apply to him.

When asked during the same interview last Sunday in which he said he wouldn’t run again, NBC’s Kristen Welker pressed him on if he will uphold that Constitution.

Trump answered this way: “I don’t know.”

Now ask yourself what would have happened if Barack Obama had given that answer.

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.

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