Trump named Time’s ‘Person of the Year’ and will ring NY Stock Exchange opening bell

Let the ring-kissing commence.

Trump will impose a tariff of less than 10 percent on UK imports next year or none at all, which will have an insignificant effect on the UK economy, according to a strong majority of economists polled by Reuters.

Those expectations stand in contrast to widespread fears that the European Union, which Britain officially left in 2020, will be harder-hit, according to a similar poll last month.

Part of the reason economists are more optimistic about the country is that while one-fifth of total UK trade is with the United States only a third of Britain’s exports are goods – where the proposed tariffs will be focused.

While Trump is focused on correcting US trade deficits with other countries, differing methodologies of their respective statistics agencies mean Britain and the US both report goods trade surpluses with the other.

However, the European Union remains the UK’s biggest trading partner and London has a delicate challenge in both mending frayed relations with Brussels and remaining open to deals with a new government in Washington.

“Without the broader complexities of the EU trading bloc, the UK will be somewhat more flexible in reaching a negotiated settlement with President Trump. It also helps that trade in goods with the US is roughly balanced, meaning the tariffs may end up being lower,” noted James Rossiter at TD Securities.

More than 80 percent of economists, 19 of 23, expect the US to put a tariff of less than 10 percent or zero on UK imports despite talk of a blanket 10-20 percent tariff on all countries and higher tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico.

Four said zero. Only four forecast a 10-20 percent tariff.

A similar proportion of economists, 20 of 25, said the tariff will have an insignificant impact on the British economy, good news for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government which has pledged to boost growth.

Four said significant, while one said no impact.

The retiring Senate leader is warning that Trump’s turn towards “America First”-style isolationism is dangerous for the country and the world and recalls the dark days before the Second World War.

“We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now, reminiscent of before World War Two,” the Kentucky Republican told The Financial Times in an interview this week.

“Even the slogan is the same: ‘America First.’ That was what they said in the ’30s.”

The senator noted that “the cost of deterrence is considerably less than the cost of war” and called on Republicans to return to a more internationalist version of American leadership, like that of Ronald Reagan during the Cold War.

“To most American voters, I think the simple answer is, ‘Let’s stay out of it,’” McConnell said.

“That was the argument made in the ’30s and that just won’t work. Thanks to Reagan, we know what does work — not just saying peace through strength, but demonstrating it.”

Here’s the confirmation of the president-elect’s latest accolade.

And here’s the magazine’s editor Sam Jacobs to explain their thinking.

Here’s a full report from Kelly Rissman.

In a statement posted to Instagram a day before his successor Christopher Wray announced he’d be stepping down, Comey wrote: “I realize there is a great deal of anxiety in the Bureau now — produced by the rhetoric of those who have reason to fear honest investigators.

“But please know you will be ok in the long run.”

The former bureau director’s tenure at the department abruptly ended in 2017 when then-president Donald Trump fired him and Wray appears to be jumping before he is pushed in favor of Kash Patel.

Here’s more on Comey from Michelle Del Rey.

The president-elect yesterday filed a petition with a federal judge seeking the dismissal of the lawsuit brought against him in October by the so-called Central Park Five – Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron Brown and Korey Wise – five Black New Yorkers who were falsely accused of the rape of a jogger in 1989 and who were exonerated in 2002.

Trump, then a New York City real estate kingpin with no particular political pull, took out full-page adverts in Big Apple newspapers calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in the Empire State to execute the men.

He never apologized (see below), even after the real culprit was caught and the Five were vindicated thanks to the emergence of DNA evidence.

Then, at a September presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump stated that the men had killed someone and pleaded guilty to the crime, prompting the lawsuit that alleged Trump’s comments intentionally inflicted emotional distress and painted the men in a false light.

In court filings, Trump’s lawyers argued that his statements were protected under the First Amendment as expressions of opinion on public matters.

“The president-elect’s speech about matters of public concern is safeguarded by the Constitution,” his attorneys wrote.

Days after using this shot of the first lady to shill his new line of “Fight, Fight, Fight” Christmas cologne, the president-elect is now back trying to be a bit more gallant about their meeting in Paris over the weekend for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.

The same picture inspired Fox host and former Trump economist Larry Kudlow to suggest, absurdly, that Dr Biden had been “flirting” with the new president because she “gravitates towards power”, on which Justin Baragona has more.

Joe Biden has issued the single largest act of clemency in modern history, commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people and issuing 39 presidential pardons.

With just 40 days left in the White House, the president announced on Thursday that he is lessening the sentences of thousands of prisoners who were released and placed on home confinement for at least one year during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Biden, who faced backlash after pardoning his own son Hunter from his federal crimes earlier this month, also issued pardons for US citizens convicted of non-violent crimes such as drug offenses, who have shown “successful rehabilitation”.

The president said his administration will continue reviewing clemency petitions to “advance equal justice” and “provide meaningful second chances,” before Donald Trump is inaugurated as his successor on January 20 .

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said.

James Liddell and Colleen Long have the full story.

Linking to a Reuters story about Grenell, his former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence, being named new special envoy to Tehran, the president-elect called him “a fabulous person, A STAR” and promised he would be “someplace, high up!”

All of which suggests the appointment, or one like it, is likely to happen but why not just get on and announce it?

The president-elect announced more nominees to his new administration last night, finally finding work for Kari Lake, the ex-news journalist and serial election-loser who has been haunting Arizona politics for several years.

The following quartet was also announced by the transition team yesterday:

• Leandro Rizzuto, billionaire co-founder and chairman of Conair, as Ambassador to the Organization of American States.
• Dr Peter Lamelas, a physician who practices in Palm Beach, Florida, as United States Ambassador to Argentina.
• Daniel J Newlin, a personal injury attorney who funded much of Trump’s campaign advertising, as Ambassador to Colombia.
• Michael J Rigas, who served as Deputy Director of the Office of Personnel Management and Acting Deputy Director of Management, is to be Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.

Here’s more on Lake from Alex Lang.