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NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump was on the verge of backing a 16-week federal abortion ban earlier this year when aides staged an intervention. According to Time magazine's cover story on his selection as its 2024 Person of the Year, Trump's aides first raised concerns in mid-March that the abortion cutoff being pushed by some allies would be stricter than existing law in numerous states. It was seen as a potential political liability amid ongoing fallout over the overturning of Roe v. Wade by a conservative majority on the Supreme Court that includes three justices nominated by Trump in his first term. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys are suddenly feeling upbeat about their circumstances after one modest (but thrilling) win at Washington. They are favored to do it again on Thursday with the lowly New York Giants coming to town. But if Dallas is to win a second straight game to move to 5-7 - and slow the talk of "tanking'' for better position in the 2025 NFL Draft? It will have to be done without All-Pro right guard Zack Martin and without Pro Bowl tight end Jake Ferguson. That tandem has been officially ruled for this game, with Martin dealing with issues having to do with both ankles and his shoulder and with Ferguson remaining in concussion protocol. Neither standout has been able to practice during this short week and neither played in the win at Washington. The Giants are 2-9 and vulnerable in many ways, so Dallas' depth may be enough to register a win. But there are other names to keep an eye on here. Cornerback Trevon Diggs, who was ruled out of the Washington game because of injury, has been on the injury list this week as well with groin and knee injuries and he is questionable. Receiver Brandin Cooks has been trying to fight his way back on the field despite a knee problem. ...and he's been activated. Related: What's Most Important to Cowboys' CeeDee Lamb? A big help: Young standout guard Tyler Smith should be ready to help fortify a patchwork Dallas O-line. Dallas #Cowboys / New York #Giants FINAL Practice and Game Status INJURY Report - FULL STORY https://t.co/AtwSketXB2 pic.twitter.com/lt9LkyQYXy Dallas is of course already playing without starting quarterback Dak Prescott, who is out for the season. His replacement, Cooper Rush, has a dinged-up knee but says he's "good to go.'' Related: QBs Tommy DeVito vs. Cooper Rush: Who's Hurt?
House OKs bill to add judgesWEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has chosen Keith Kellogg, a highly decorated retired three-star general, to serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, who is one of the architects of a staunchly conservative policy book that lays out an “America First” national security agenda for the incoming administration, will come into the role as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third year in February. Trump, making the announcement on his Truth Social account, said, “He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!” Kellogg, an 80-year-old retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence , was chief of staff of the National Security Council and then stepped in as an acting security adviser for Trump after Michael Flynn resigned. As special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Kellogg will have to navigate an increasingly untenable war between the two nations. The Biden administration has begun urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of those as young as 18. The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s February 2022 invasion and expects to send billions more before Biden leaves office in less than two months. The U.S. has recently stepped up weapons shipments and has forgiven billions in loans provided to Kyiv. Trump has criticized the billions the Biden administration has spent in supporting Ukraine and has said he could end the war in 24 hours, comments that appear to suggest he would press Ukraine to surrender territory that Russia now occupies. As a co-chairman of the American First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security, Kellogg wrote several of the chapters in the group’s policy book. The book, like the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” is designed to lay out a Trump national security agenda and avoid the mistakes of 2016 when he entered the White House largely unprepared. Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” Trump's proposed national security adviser , U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, tweeted Wednesday that “Keith has dedicated his life to defending our great country and is committed to bringing the war in Ukraine to a peaceful resolution.” Kellogg featured in multiple Trump investigations dating to his first term. He was among the administration officials who listened in on the July 2019 call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump prodded his Ukrainian counterpart to pursue investigations into the Bidens. The call, which Kellogg would later say did not raise any concerns on his end, was at the center of the first of two House impeachment cases against Trump, who was acquitted by the Senate both times. On Jan. 6, 2021, hours before pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Kellogg, who was then Pence’s national security adviser, listened in on a heated call in which Trump told his vice president to object or delay the certification in Congress of President Joe Biden ’s victory. He later told House investigators that he recalled Trump saying to Pence words to the effect of: “You’re not tough enough to make the call.” Baldor reported from Washington. AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
By JOSH BOAK WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump loved to use tariffs on foreign goods during his first presidency. But their impact was barely noticeable in the overall economy, even if their aftershocks were clear in specific industries. The data show they never fully delivered on his promised factory jobs. Nor did they provoke the avalanche of inflation that critics feared. This time, though, his tariff threats might be different . The president-elect is talking about going much bigger — on a potential scale that creates more uncertainty about whether he’ll do what he says and what the consequences could be. “There’s going to be a lot more tariffs, I mean, he’s pretty clear,” said Michael Stumo, the CEO of Coalition for a Prosperous America, a group that has supported import taxes to help domestic manufacturing. The president-elect posted on social media Monday that on his first day in office he would impose 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada until those countries satisfactorily stop illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs such as fentanyl into the United States. Those tariffs could essentially blow up the North American trade pact that Trump’s team negotiated during his initial term. Chinese imports would face additional tariffs of 10% until Beijing cracks down on the production of materials used in making fentanyl, Trump posted. Business groups were quick to warn about rapidly escalating inflation , while Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she would counter the move with tariffs on U.S. products. House Democrats put together legislation to strip a president’s ability to unilaterally apply tariffs this drastic, warning that they would likely lead to higher prices for autos, shoes, housing and groceries. Sheinbaum said Wednesday that her administration is already working up a list of possible retaliatory tariffs “if the situation comes to that.” “The economy department is preparing it,” Sheinbaum said. “If there are tariffs, Mexico would increase tariffs, it is a technical task about what would also benefit Mexico,” she said, suggesting her country would impose targeted import duties on U.S. goods in sensitive areas. House Democrats on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require congressional approval for a president to impose tariffs due to claims of a national emergency, a largely symbolic action given Republicans’ coming control of both the House and Senate. “This legislation would enable Congress to limit this sweeping emergency authority and put in place the necessary Congressional oversight before any president – Democrat or Republican – could indiscriminately raise costs on the American people through tariffs,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash. But for Trump, tariffs are now a tested tool that seems less politically controversial even if the mandate he received in November’s election largely involved restraining inflation. The tariffs he imposed on China in his first term were continued by President Joe Biden, a Democrat who even expanded tariffs and restrictions on the world’s second largest economy. Biden administration officials looked at removing Trump’s tariffs in order to bring down inflationary pressures, only to find they were unlikely to help significantly. Tariffs were “so new and unique that it freaked everybody out in 2017,” said Stumo, but they were ultimately somewhat modest. Trump imposed tariffs on solar panels and washing machines at the start of 2018, moves that might have pushed up prices in those sectors even though they also overlapped with plans to open washing machine plants in Tennessee and South Carolina. His administration also levied tariffs on steel and aluminum, including against allies. He then increased tariffs on China, leading to a trade conflict and a limited 2020 agreement that failed to produce the promised Chinese purchases of U.S. goods. Still, the dispute changed relations with China as more U.S. companies looked for alternative suppliers in other countries. Economic research also found the United States may have sacrificed some of its “soft power” as the Chinese population began to watch fewer American movies. The Federal Reserve kept inflation roughly on target, but factory construction spending never jumped in a way that suggested a lasting gain in manufacturing jobs. Separate economic research found the tariff war with China did nothing economically for the communities hurt by offshoring, but it did help Trump and Republicans in those communities politically. When Trump first became president in 2017, the federal government collected $34.6 billion in customs, duties and fees. That sum more than doubled under Trump to $70.8 billion in 2019, according to Office of Management and Budget records. While that sum might seem meaningful, it was relatively small compared to the overall economy. America’s gross domestic product is now $29.3 trillion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The total tariffs collected in the United States would equal less than 0.3% of GDP. The new tariffs being floated by Trump now are dramatically larger and there could be far more significant impacts. If Mexico, Canada, and China faced the additional tariffs proposed by Trump on all goods imported to the United States, that could be roughly equal to $266 billion in tax collections, a number that does not assume any disruptions in trade or retaliatory moves by other countries. The cost of those taxes would likely be borne by U.S. families, importers and domestic and foreign companies in the form of higher prices or lower profits. Former Biden administration officials said they worried that companies could piggyback on Trump’s tariffs — if they’re imposed — as a rationale to raise their prices, just as many companies after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 boosted food and energy costs and gave several major companies the space to raise prices, according to their own earnings calls with investors. But what Trump didn’t really spell out is what might cause him to back down on tariffs and declare a victory. What he is creating instead with his tariff threats is a sense of uncertainty as companies and countries await the details to figure out what all of this could mean. “We know the key economic policy priorities of the incoming Trump administration, but we don’t know how or when they will be addressed,” said Greg Daco, chief U.S. economist at EY-Parthenon. AP writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report from Mexico City.
Not snow, not rain, not gloom of night ... not really. Frustrated by persistent delivery delays, shuttered post offices, and other service issues, and with the holidays closing in, a group of Bay State politicians have called on the U.S. Postal Service to get its act together in Massachusetts. "For more than a year, we have observed a pattern of facility closures, consolidations, and slowed service resulting in delayed or lost mail for our constituents," U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wrote to U.S. Postal Service Inspector General Tammy Hull and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in a pair of letters on Wednesday. Markey was joined on the letter by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and seven of the nine Democratic members of the state’s U.S. House delegation. “Our efforts to address these concerns with USPS have been shrugged off by management. We write to ask that you conduct a review of the cause of these problems,” the lawmakers wrote. The letters came even as Markey and postal union workers held a news conference in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood calling on DeJoy to step down . “I am constantly hearing reports from residents of egregiously delayed mail delivery, closed post office locations, weeks of lost mail, and so much more,” Markey said, according to The Boston Herald . “Specifically, I’m hearing from residents across the city of Boston who are getting mail once a week, if not once a month. They are experiencing months of mail delays, and important mail pieces like medications and checks are delayed on a consistent basis,” he continued, according to the newspaper. MassLive reached out to the Postal Service for comment about the call for DeJoy to resign, and for details on its efforts to address the service issues raised by Markey and union leaders. The timing of the letters and the press conference may be different, but the issues are familiar ones. That’s particularly true in Boston, where elected officials reached out to the Postal Service in September to voice concerns about delivery issues as Election Day loomed. “Many of the citizens I’ve talked to have told me that mail service is terrible, that they’re not getting mail on a regular basis,” Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin told WBZ-TV in Boston at the time. “Obviously, we expect that ballot vote to be delivered to them and returned from them.” On Wednesday, the Bay State pols dinged the Postal Service for what they said was the agency’s “refusal” to testify before Boston City Council on Nov. 13. In the letters, the lawmakers asked for "ZIP-code level data to better address the disparate impact that mail delivery delays are causing, particularly in communities of historical underinvestment in Boston." DeJoy visited Boston earlier this month, meeting with local officials to jump-start negotiations on an effort to add more tracks to South Station. The space being eyed for the expansion is currently home to a giant mail-sorting facility, The Boston Globe reported . In an appearance before city business leaders earlier this month, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-8th District, who’s spearheading the effort, said he was optimistic about the prospects of an agreement. Moving the postal facility also would reopen a shuttered section of Dorchester Avenue, he noted. “There’s tremendous opportunity if we manage it well,” Lynch said during his appearance before the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce . In the letter to the Postal Service leaders, Markey and his Capitol Hill colleagues also raised concerns about closed post offices in Medway, Watertown, and Boston’s Allston neighborhood; lost mail across the Greater Boston region; the proposed consolidation of a processing center in Brockton, and an agency proposal for a slowdown in rural mail delivery. "Proper postal service takes differing lived experiences into account when ensuring that mail delivery is regular and frequent. We understand that proper mail delivery is a justice issue; we question whether you do,” the lawmakers wrote to DeJoy. Also joining Markey and Warren on the letter were U.S. Reps. Richard Neal, D-1st District; James P. McGovern, D-2nd District; Lori Trahan, D-3rd District; Jake Auchincloss, D-4th District; Katherine Clark, D-5th District; Seth Moulton, D-6th District, and Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District. In October 2023, Markey, Warren, and McGovern sent DeJoy a letter calling on the Postal Service to "to restore adequate postal service" to Medway, which “experienced a sudden suspension of service” in August of that same year. They followed up with another letter in November 2023 calling on the Postal Service “to abide by their required timeline for announcing plans to re-open the Medway Post Office and engage in community input processes.” In March, lawmakers fired off still another letter to DeJoy “urging him to stop any changes to USPS service standards that would result in job losses and further degrade mail delivery performance, which would have resulted in the consolidation of the Brockton Processing and Delivery Center.” In June, as a result, the Postal Service pressed pause on those efforts, according to Markey’s office. In August, Bay State lawmakers asked DeJoy for a meeting to talk about widespread service issues across the state. More political newsWEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has chosen Keith Kellogg, a highly decorated retired three-star general, to serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, who is one of the architects of a staunchly conservative policy book that lays out an “America First” national security agenda for the incoming administration, will come into the role as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third year in February. Trump, making the announcement on his Truth Social account, said, “He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!” Kellogg, an 80-year-old retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence , was chief of staff of the National Security Council and then stepped in as an acting security adviser for Trump after Michael Flynn resigned. As special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Kellogg will have to navigate an increasingly untenable war between the two nations. The Biden administration has begun urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of those as young as 18. The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s February 2022 invasion and expects to send billions more before Biden leaves office in less than two months. The U.S. has recently stepped up weapons shipments and has forgiven billions in loans provided to Kyiv. Trump has criticized the billions the Biden administration has spent in supporting Ukraine and has said he could end the war in 24 hours, comments that appear to suggest he would press Ukraine to surrender territory that Russia now occupies. As a co-chairman of the American First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security, Kellogg wrote several of the chapters in the group’s policy book. The book, like the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” is designed to lay out a Trump national security agenda and avoid the mistakes of 2016 when he entered the White House largely unprepared. Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” Trump's proposed national security adviser , U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, tweeted Wednesday that “Keith has dedicated his life to defending our great country and is committed to bringing the war in Ukraine to a peaceful resolution.” Kellogg featured in multiple Trump investigations dating to his first term. He was among the administration officials who listened in on the July 2019 call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump prodded his Ukrainian counterpart to pursue investigations into the Bidens. The call, which Kellogg would later say did not raise any concerns on his end, was at the center of the first of two House impeachment cases against Trump, who was acquitted by the Senate both times. On Jan. 6, 2021, hours before pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Kellogg, who was then Pence’s national security adviser, listened in on a heated call in which Trump told his vice president to object or delay the certification in Congress of President Joe Biden ’s victory. He later told House investigators that he recalled Trump saying to Pence words to the effect of: “You’re not tough enough to make the call.” Baldor reported from Washington. AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.