Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 61. Sunrise is 5:28 and sunset is 8:14, for 14 hours, 45 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 70 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1863, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant begin the Siege of Vicksburg during the Vicksburg campaign in order to take full control of the Mississippi River.
We have heard from this federal administration, falsely, that foreign countries pay the cost of Trump’s tariffs. By Trump’s account, April 2nd was supposed to be a ‘Liberation Day’ (“one of the most important days in American history”).
On May 17th, only forty-five days later, Trump warns Walmart: Don’t raise prices due to my tariffs but do eat the costs from those taxes:
As Trump has jacked up import taxes, he has tried to assure a skeptical public that foreign producers would pay for those taxes and that retailers and automakers would absorb the additional expenses. Most economic analyses are deeply skeptical of those claims and have warned that the trade penalties would worsen inflation. Walmart warned on Thursday that everything from bananas to children’s car seats could increase in price.
Trump, in his Truth Social post, lashed out at the retailer, which employs 1.6 million people in the United States. He said the company, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, should sacrifice its profits for the sake of his economic agenda that he says will eventually lead to more domestic jobs in manufacturing.
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In April, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon was among the retail executives who met with Trump at the White House to discuss tariffs. But the Trump administration went forward despite warnings and has attacked other companies such as Amazon and Apple that are struggling with the disruptions to their supply chains.
Walmart chief financial officer John David Rainey said he thinks $350 car seats made in China will soon cost an additional $100, a 29% price increase.
“We’re wired to keep prices low, but there’s a limit to what we can bear, or any retailer for that matter,” he told The Associated Press on Thursday after the company reported strong first-quarter sales.
See Josh Boak, Trump warns Walmart: Don’t raise prices due to my tariffs but do eat the costs from those taxes, Associated Press, May 17, 2025.
If foreign countries truly paid the cost of tariffs, there wouldn’t be costs Americans needed to eat.
Turns out “one of the most important days in American history” was a blunder of historic magnitude.
Spider monkey rescued after bizarre drug bust: