Trump live: Mike Pence slams tariff plan in major intervention against former ally



Trump’s former VP Mike Pence scorches president’s sweeping tariffs

Donald Trumpโ€™s former Vice President Mike Pence has the commander-in-chiefโ€™s sweeping tariffs in a blistering CNN interview.

Pence sat down with Kaitlin Collins on Monday to deliver one of his most wide-ranging critiques of the presidentโ€™s second administration.

While the former vice president said he supports using tariffs to pressure China into trade talks, he argued Trumpโ€™s broader levies on allies and trade partners will โ€œultimately harm the American economy.โ€

โ€œThe administration is advancing policies that are not targeted at countries that have been abusing our trade relationship, but rather are essentially new industrial policy that will result in inflation, that will harm consumers and ultimately harm the American economy,โ€ he said.

โ€œMy view always is free trade with free nations โ€“ that we ought to be engaging our trading partners across the free world to lower trade barriers, lower nontariff barriers and subsidies.โ€

Pence added that the U.S. โ€œought to get toughโ€ with authoritarian regimes

James Liddell6 May 2025 09:14

Trump announces Alcatraz reopening hours after ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ airing

Good morning and welcome to The Independentโ€™s live blog.

During a Sunday evening blitz of social media posts, Donald Trump demanded that one of the most notorious prisons in American history be reopened.

Incidentally, the presidentโ€™s sudden push for the tourist destination of Alcatraz to once again become a maximum-security prison complex came just hours after a South Florida PBS station aired the 1979 classic film Escape from Alcatraz. The president spent the past weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, which is located in Palm Beach.

During an Oval Office press conference Monday, the president was asked why he decided that he needed to resurrect Alcatraz as a prison after it had been shuttered for decades, prompting Trump to deliver a rambling response that included him touting his own cinematic vision.

โ€œWell, I guess I was supposed to be a moviemaker,โ€ Trump โ€” who recently announced his intention to implement 100 percent tariffs on foreign films โ€” declared

Justin Baragona has more:

James Liddell6 May 2025 09:10

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