Trump, Donald J

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    I.R.S. Commissioner to Quit as Trump Takes Office

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    Daniel Werfel, the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, told the agency’s employees that he would end his term early and step down on Monday as President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office.Mr. Trump has said he plans to nominate Billy Long, a former Republican congressman, to the role. Past presidents have treated the tax collector’s leader as a nonpartisan job that continues between administrations of different parties. President Biden chose Mr. Werfel, a former career civil servant and management consultant, to attempt a renaissance of the I.R.S., which Democrats have infused with billions in new funding that Republicans are now eager to cancel.In a message to employees, Mr. Werfel said he had decided to step down after he concluded that it was the best way to support the next administration. Douglas O’Donnell, a career civil servant at the I.R.S. who currently has the No. 2 job, will serve as the acting commissioner, Mr. Werfel said.“While leaving a job you love is never easy, I take comfort in knowing that the civil servant leaders and employees at the I.R.S. are the exact right team to effectively steward this organization forward until a new I.R.S. commissioner is confirmed,” he wrote.With more than 80,000 employees, the I.R.S. is a central part of the federal government, collecting nearly $5 trillion in tax revenue last fiscal year. With $60 billion in additional funding approved by Democrats, the agency has in recent years tried to beef up tax collection for wealthy Americans and update its antiquated technology systems.The I.R.S. has long been a villain to Republicans, who attack it as a political tool for Democrats. Mr. Long, Mr. Trump’s pick to lead the agency, has scant tax experience beyond promoting a pandemic-era tax credit for small businesses that the I.R.S. has tried to shut down because of abuse. Republicans have already canceled $20 billion of the $80 billion Democrats originally envisioned for the I.R.S., and they have frozen $20 billion more. More

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    Defending Michigan’s Auto Industry, Whitmer Warns of Tariff Risks

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    Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addressed the Detroit Auto Show, saying that tariffs should not be used “to punish our closest trading partners,” like Canada.Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a leading Democrat from a critical battleground state, on Wednesday subtly warned against President-elect Donald J. Trump’s tariff threats targeting Canada, even as she stressed her broader willingness to work with him on the cusp of his second inauguration.Her speech, at the Detroit Auto Show, offered among the clearest examples yet of how Democrats from states that Mr. Trump carried are seeking to balance fresh overtures to the incoming president with their staunch opposition to some of his policy proposals.Speaking at a convention center just across the Detroit River from Windsor, Ont., Ms. Whitmer described strong cultural and industrial ties between the two cities.Using tariffs as punishment, she said, risks “damaging supply chains, slowing production lines and cutting jobs on both sides of the border.”Ms. Whitmer did not mention Mr. Trump by name as she broached the subject, but he has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from Canada if the country does not reduce the flow of migrants and fentanyl to the United States. The Ontario Premier Doug Ford has discussed retaliation, including threatening to disrupt the electricity supply from the province to the United States.“I am not opposed to tariffs outright, but we cannot treat them like a one-size-fits-all solution, and we certainly shouldn’t use them to punish our closest trading partners,” Ms. Whitmer said, arguing that such an approach could embolden China.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Can Low Unemployment Last Under Trump?

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    Hiring has slowed, but joblessness remains at levels defying economic norms. Big policy changes under a new administration could test that resilience.For a time, not too long ago, it was the central question animating economic forecasts and bets laid by investors in financial markets: Will the U.S. economy avoid a recession?Now, for many in the business world, that question feels almost passé, part of an earlier, more fretful era of narratives.After a superlative run of hovering below 4 percent for more than two years, the unemployment rate — at 4.2 percent — has ticked up since last spring. But only by a bit so far; the December reading will come on Friday. While hiring has slowed, layoffs remain low by long-term standards.Inflation, having calmed substantially, is still being eyed warily by the Federal Reserve, which began steeply raising interest rates in 2022 to combat price increases. But at three consecutive meetings in the final months of 2024, the Fed slightly lowered the key interest rate it controls — an attempt to surgically take some pressure off commercial activity and support employment.Predictions of a downturn, once omnipresent, were mostly absent from the year-ahead forecasts that major financial firms typically send around to clients over the holidays.Near the start of 2024, Jeremy Barnum, the chief financial officer at JPMorgan Chase, told listeners asking about U.S. economic vitality during a conference call, “Everyone wants to see a problem — but the reality is we aren’t seeing any yet.”

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    Note: Data is seasonally adjustedSource: Bureau of Labor StatisticsKarl RussellWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Banks Are Racking Up Wins Even Before Trump Is Back in White House

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    Banks are on a winning streak, one that’s poised to intensify as President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office.Biden-appointed regulators at the Federal Reserve and other agencies presided over a relatively fruitless era of bank oversight. They tried to enact stricter rules for the nation’s biggest banks, hoping to create a stronger safety net for the financial system even if it cut into bank profits.But the rules were considered so onerous — including by some top Fed officials — that they died of their own ambitions.As proposals stalled, the foundation for existing bank oversight became increasingly shaky thanks to bank-friendly courts. During his first term, Mr. Trump appointed a slate of conservative judges who then slowly but significantly shifted the legal environment against strict federal oversight.The result? Big banks have been notching major victories that could allow them to avoid regulatory checks that were drawn up after the 2008 financial crisis, when weaknesses at the world’s largest lenders nearly toppled the global economy.And with Mr. Trump once again poised to run the White House, analysts predict that the regulations and supervisory practices that are supposed to prevent America’s biggest and most interconnected financial institutions from making risky bets could be further chipped away in the months ahead.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    SEIU Joins Forces With AFL-CIO Ahead of New Trump Era

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    A marriage between the service employees union and the A.F.L.-C.I.O. could better equip organized labor to deal with a less-friendly administration.Two prominent labor groups are joining forces in an attempt to expand union membership and protect members’ interests as they face the likelihood of a less union-friendly federal government under Donald J. Trump.The Service Employees International Union, which represents nearly two million workers in industries like home health care and janitorial services, said on Wednesday that it would become part of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., an umbrella group of more than 50 unions that represent more than 12.5 million workers.The boards of the two groups formally approved the affiliation arrangement earlier in the day.April Verrett, the service employees’ president, said in an interview that the union had begun discussing the possibility of joining the A.F.L.-C.I.O. almost two years ago, and that discussions with the federation and its president, Liz Shuler, accelerated early last year.In a statement, the two groups said the partnership would help them push for changes to local, state and federal rules that made it easier for workers to join unions, and help them support “multiunion, multisector” campaigns to organize workers.The move suggests how forces largely aligned with the Democratic Party might try to reposition themselves to deal with the coming administration and a Republican-controlled Congress.Ms. Verrett and Ms. Shuler said the alliance was unrelated to the result of November’s presidential election, but they acknowledged that it would help organized labor fend off potential threats from the Trump administration.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Port Workers Could Strike Again if No Deal Is Reached on Automation

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    Cargo could stop flowing at East and Gulf Coast ports, which handle most imports, if a union and an employers’ group can’t agree on the use of machines that can operate without humans.Ports on the East and Gulf Coasts could close next week if dockworkers and employers cannot overcome their big differences over the use of automated machines to move cargo.The International Longshoremen’s Association, the union that represents dockworkers, and the United States Maritime Alliance, the employers’ negotiating group, on Tuesday resumed in-person talks aimed at forging a new labor contract.After a short strike in October, the union and the alliance agreed on a 62 percent raise over six years for the longshoremen — and said they would try to work out other parts of the contract, including provisions governing automated technology, before Jan. 15.If they don’t have a deal by that date, ports that account for three-fifths of U.S. container shipments could shut, harming businesses that rely on imports and exports and providing an early test for the new Trump administration.“If there’s a strike, it will have a significant impact on the U.S. economy and the supply chain,” said Dennis Monts, chief commercial officer of PayCargo, a logistics payments platform.The union is resisting automation because it fears the loss of jobs at the ports. President-elect Donald J. Trump lent his support to the union’s position last month. “I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it,” he said on his website Truth Social. “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    How Trump’s Greenland Plan Could Hit Ozempic, Legos and Hearing Aids

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    President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened tariffs on many countries for many different reasons.On Monday, he found a new purpose for his favorite economic tool. Mr. Trump said he would “tariff Denmark at a very high level” if it refused to allow Greenland — a North American island that is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark — to become part of the United States.“They should give it up, because we need it for national security,” Mr. Trump said of Greenland. Denmark, which has a smaller population than New York City, is not a huge trading partner for the United States. The country — a U.S. ally and a NATO member — sent the United States more than $11 billion worth of goods in 2023, just a tiny slice of more than $3 trillion of imports. The United States, in turn, sends Denmark more than $5 billion in goods, including industrial machinery, computers, aircraft and scientific instruments.But despite its small size, Denmark, which handles Greenland’s foreign and security affairs, is home to some products that are very well-loved in America, goods that could become more expensive if Mr. Trump follows through with heavy tariffs. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, a trade data platform, roughly half of Denmark’s recent exports to the United States are packaged medicines, insulin, vaccines and antibiotics.That’s largely because the country is home to Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, the popular weight-loss drugs. The company is so important to the Danish economy — it has recently accounted for half of Denmark’s private sector job growth and all of the country’s economic growth — that some have branded Denmark a “pharmastate.”Novo Nordisk is increasing its U.S. production to meet the soaring demand for its GLP-1 weight loss products. The company does not specify publicly how much of its products are exported, but it produces drugs in Denmark and the United States for the U.S. market.A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk said in a statement that they were following the situation closely but would not comment on hypotheticals and speculation.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Michael Barr to Leave His Role as Fed Vice Chair for Supervision

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    Michael Barr oversaw an attempt to rewrite financial regulations that came under attack from a wide range of groups, including banks, lawmakers and even some of his colleagues.Michael Barr will step down from his role as the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision by Feb. 28, or sooner if President-elect Donald J. Trump appoints a successor, the Fed said on Monday.Mr. Barr will continue to serve on the central bank’s Board of Governors. But in an interview, Mr. Barr said the decision to leave his role as vice chair of supervision was intended to sidestep a protracted legal battle with Mr. Trump that he believed could damage the central bank.Some individuals attached to the Trump administration wanted to fire Mr. Barr before his term as vice chair expired, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on background because of the sensitivity of the issue.That could have resulted in a lengthy — and costly — legal fight over whether an incoming president has the authority to remove someone from a Senate-confirmed position at an independent agency.Some financial regulatory experts questioned why Mr. Barr — and the Fed itself — would allow a political change to influence who served in a powerful role. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed’s chair, has made a point of saying that the Fed is independent of the White House and that its decisions are not influenced by politics. Mr. Powell has also insisted that Mr. Trump lacks the legal authority to fire him from his role as Fed chair, which is also confirmed by the Senate.“I’m surprised by Barr’s announcement, because I expected him to resist Republican calls for his ouster and make a point of defending the Fed’s independence,” Ian Katz, managing director at Capital Alpha, said in an email.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More