Trump’s Tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China Could Mean Higher Inflation and Economic Disruption

PALM BEACH, Fla. — New trade penalties against Canada, Mexico and China that President Donald Trump plans to impose Saturday represent an aggressive early move against America’s three largest trading partners, but at the risk of higher inflation and possible disruptions to the global economy.

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In Trump’s view, the 25% tariffs against the two North American allies and a 10% tax on imports from Washington’s chief economic rival are a way for the United States to throw around its financial heft to reshape the world.

“You see the power of the tariff,” Trump told reporters Friday. “Nobody can compete with us because we have by far the biggest piggy bank.”

The Republican president is making a major political bet that his actions will not worsen inflation, cause financial aftershocks that could destabilize the worldwide economy or provoke a voter backlash. AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate in last year’s election, found that the U.S. was split on support for tariffs.

It is possible that the tariffs could be short-lived if Canada and Mexico can reach a deal with Trump to more aggressively address illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling. Trump’s move against China is also tied to fentanyl and comes on top of existing import taxes.

Trump is honoring promises he made in the 2024 White House campaign that are at the core of his economic and national security philosophy, though Trump allies had played down the threat of higher import taxes as mere negotiating tactics.

The president is preparing more import taxes in a sign that tariffs will be an ongoing part of his second term. On Friday, he mentioned imported computer chips, steel, oil and natural gas, as well as against copper, pharmaceutical drugs and imports from the European Union — moves that could essentially pit the U.S. against much of the global economy.

Trump’s intentions drew a swift response from financial markets, with the S&P 500 stock index slumping after his announcement Friday.

It is unclear how the tariffs could affect the business investments that Trump said would happen because of his plans to cut corporate tax rates and remove regulations. Tariffs tend to raise prices for consumers and businesses by making it more expensive to bring in foreign goods.

Many voters turned to Trump in the November election on the belief that he could better handle the inflation that spiked under Democratic President Joe Biden. But inflation expectations are creeping upward in the University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment as respondents expect prices to rise by 3.3%. That would be higher than the actual 2.9% annual inflation rate in December’s consumer price index.

Trump has said that the government should raise more of its revenues from tariffs, as it did before the income tax became part of the Constitution in 1913. He claims, despite economic evidence to the contrary, that the U.S. was at its wealthiest in the 1890s under President William McKinley.

“We were the richest country in the world,” Trump said Friday. “We were a tariff country.”

Trump, who has aspired to remake America by using McKinley’s model, is conducting a real-time experiment that the economists who warn tariffs lead to higher prices are wrong. While the tariffs in his first term did not meaningfully increase overall inflation, he is now looking at tariffs on a much grander scale that could push up prices if they’re enduring policies.

Trump has fondly called McKinley, an Ohioan elected president in 1896 and 1900, the “tariff sheriff.”

Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted on the social media site X that the tariffs “if sustained, would be a massive shock — a much bigger move in one weekend than all the trade action that Trump took in his first term.”

Setser noted that the tariffs on China without exemptions could raise the price of iPhones, which would test just how much power corporate America has with Trump. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook attended Trump’s inauguration last month.

Recent research on Trump’s various tariff options by a team of economists suggested the trade penalties would be drags on growth in Canada, Mexico, China and the U.S. But Wending Zhang, a Cornell University economist who worked on the research, said the fallout would be felt more in Canada and Mexico because of their reliance on the U.S. market.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadians that they could be facing difficult times ahead, but that Ottawa was prepared to respond with retaliatory tariffs if needed and that the U.S. penalties would be self-sabotaging.

Trudeau said Canada is addressing Trump’s calls on border security by implementing a CDN$1.3 billion (US$90 million) border plan that includes helicopters, new canine teams and imaging tools.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum has stressed that her country has acted to reduce illegal border crossings and the illicit trade in fentanyl. While she has emphasized the ongoing dialogue since Trump first floated the tariffs in November, she has said that Mexico is ready to respond, too.

Mexico has a “Plan A, Plan B, Plan C for what the United States government decides,” she said.

Trump still has to get a budget, tax cuts and increase to the government’s legal borrowing authority through Congress. The outcome of his tariff plans could strengthen his hand or weaken it.

Democrats are sponsoring legislation that would strip the president of his ability to impose tariffs without congressional approval. But that is unlikely to make headway in a Republican-controlled House and Senate.

“If this weekend’s tariffs go into effect, they’ll do catastrophic damage to our relationships with our allies and raise costs for working families by hundreds of dollars a year,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. “Congress needs to stop this from happening again.”

source https://time.com/7212080/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-china-implications/

Nearly Two Years Since the Disaster in East Palestine, Where Are Trump and Vance?

On the night of February 3, 2023, the lives of the residents of East Palestine, Ohio were forever changed. Thirty-eight cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed, erupting into a massive fire that released toxic chemicals into our air, water, and land, just a mile from my home. The sight of a huge fireball from my driveway felt like a scene from an apocalyptic movie. Little did I know, this was only the beginning.

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Norfolk Southern released and ignited 115,000 gallons of vinyl chloride, a lethal flammable gas used to make PVC plastic, along with a variety of other chemicals and petroleum products. The smoke wafted for miles, and we braved evacuation orders, health scares, a federal investigation, and a cleanup that is still ongoing. Nearly two years later, my community remains profoundly affected.

East Palestine and Norfolk Southern recently reached a $22 million settlement. And next week, Vice President JD Vance is expected to visit our town.

As we continue to navigate the aftermath of this disaster, now is the time for President Donald Trump and Vance to address the challenges we still face. Their presence in East Palestine, especially in the early days after the disaster, comforted many of us who felt abandoned by government and corporate entities. They gave us hope that even in times of partisan division, leaders could come together to support those in need.

While we all felt the immediate effects of this disaster, it is the ongoing recovery that is truly testing our resilience. I am the Chair of the Community Advisory Board for the East Palestine Train Derailment Health Tracking Study spearheaded by Dr. Erin Haynes from the University of Kentucky. One third of study participants show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and these levels have continued to rise through our last reporting period. In addition, around half of the participants indicated they continue to experience upper airway symptoms and non-sinus headaches as well, highlighting the ongoing physical health issues that the community is facing. These findings underscore the severe and lasting impact of the disaster on the residents of East Palestine, emphasizing the urgent need for continued support and intervention.

Both Trump and Vance have criticized the federal response to the East Palestine disaster. “We stand with you. We pray for you. And we will stand with you and your fight to help ensure the accountability that you deserve,” said Trump in 2023. “You have a President going to Ukraine and you have people in Ohio that are in desperate need of help.”

“Biden and FEMA said they would not send federal aid to East Palestine under any circumstance. They’re not going to send aid,” Trump also said. (The situation did not qualify for FEMA disaster relief, although the Environmental Protection Agency, National Transportation Safety Board, and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) all contributed resources in the aftermath of the crash.)

Additionally, Vance also strongly criticized the Biden Administration’s response. “The Biden administration has ignored Ohio’s pleas for help. This is inexcusable: a disaster declaration would guarantee the delivery of resources the community needs to save itself,” Vance wrote in an August 2023 op-ed. “Cleanup efforts overseen by Joe Biden’s environmental protection officials have also been woefully inadequate…Despite the federal government’s vast resources, it appears to be woefully incapable of monitoring the long-term health impacts of a chemical spill.”

Now in their roles as the President and Vice President of the United States, Trump and Vance can address the critiques they lobbed at the previous administration and directly make good on their promises.  

Beyond lip service, there are several concrete steps they must take in order to truly support East Palestine.

Provide long-term healthcare

Impacted residents are still experiencing health effects from chemical exposure and contamination lingering from the 2023 incident, and there is still no organized healthcare guidance nor a funding source for necessary care. It is critical that everyone can access the medical support they need. The President can enact an emergency declaration or urge the HHS to declare a public health emergency to ensure treatment for short- and long-term health impacts for anyone exposed to environmental health hazards from the train derailment and its aftermath.

In 2023, both Vance and his fellow Ohio Senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, supported an emergency declaration to activate provisions under Section 1881A of the Social Security Act which allows for emergency funding to be distributed to communities affected by disasters. These funds would be a lifeline for many families here who are still grappling with health concerns, economic hardship, and ongoing cleanup efforts. Now as Vice President, Vance needs to ensure federal funds are expediently and strategically allocated to ensure the healthcare needs of our impacted community are safeguarded both in the short term and long term.

Increase funding for health research

Families in East Palestine deserve to understand the long-term health implications of the Norfolk Southern train derailment. Trusted and respected research institutions that were awarded six National Institutes of Health grants to study the short- and long-term impacts of what happened in East Palestine need prolonged funding to help us understand and address the potential health risks faced by our community. Without prolonged funding, these research studies will expire at the end of the year.

Safeguard environmental monitoring and testing

The cleanup, monitoring, and testing efforts of our town must continue for decades to ensure that our environment remains safe and habitable. Ongoing support for these efforts is crucial to the health and well-being of our community. This support should include comprehensive environmental testing of our water, land, and air. Additionally, it is essential to regularly test private wells, as they could become contaminated years from now, posing long-term health risks to residents.

Two years ago, Trump promised our community that he would do everything in his power to ensure our safety and well-being, and that he would not rest until the truth was uncovered. And Vance has repeatedly assured us of his unwavering commitment to working with organizations to ensure East Palestine gets the help it desperately needs and that those responsible are held accountable. Their efforts have given us a glimmer of hope that meaningful change can arise from this disaster.

However, we have not yet seen Trump and Vance’s promises turn into action. And we still face a daunting journey ahead in terms of public health, economic recovery, and environmental cleanup. But with the right federal support, I am confident we can implement a comprehensive plan to protect those affected.

Our community demands answers and results, not more excuses. President Trump and Vice President Vance must step up and get East Palestine back on track and set a precedent for how the federal government should support an American community.

source https://time.com/7211943/two-years-disaster-east-palestine/

Arab Nations Reject Trump’s Idea to Relocate Palestinians From Gaza to Egypt and Jordan

CAIRO — Powerful Arab nations on Saturday rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.

Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League released a joint statement rejecting any plans to move Palestinians out of their territories in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

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Trump floated the idea last month, saying he would urge the leaders of Jordan and Egypt to take in Gaza’s now largely homeless population, so that “we just clean out that whole thing.” He added that resettling most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million could be temporary or long term. Some Israel officials had raised the transfer idea early in the war.

“It’s literally a demolition site right now,” Trump said, referring to the vast destruction caused by Israel’s 15-month war with Hamas, now paused by a fragile ceasefire.

The Arab statement warned that such plans “threaten the region’s stability, risk expanding the conflict, and undermine prospects for peace and coexistence among its peoples.”

The statement followed a meeting in Cairo of top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official who serves as the main liaison with Israel, and Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul-Gheit.

They said they were looking forward to working with the Trump administration to “achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, based on the two-state solution,” according to the statement.

They called for the international community to help “plan and implement” a comprehensive reconstruction plan for Gaza to ensure that Palestinians stay on their land.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi rejected Trump’s suggestion in a news conference last week, saying that he transfer of Palestinians “can’t ever be tolerated or allowed.”

“The solution to this issue is the two-state solution. It is the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said. “The solution is not to remove the Palestinian people from their place. No.”

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi also said that his country’s opposition to Trump’s idea was “firm and unwavering.”

Egypt and Jordan, along with the Palestinians, worry that Israel would never allow them to return to Gaza once they have left. Egypt and Jordan also fear the impact any such influx of refugees would have on their struggling economies as well as the stability of their governments.

Jordan already is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. Egypt has warned of security implications of transferring large numbers of Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, bordering Gaza.

Both countries were the first to make peace with Israel but they support the creation of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.

___

source https://time.com/7212071/arab-nations-reject-trump-idea-relocate-palestinians-gaza-egypt-jordan/

The Best New TV Shows of January 2025

January should be a great month for television, as brutal cold makes captive, couch-potato audiences of us all. Sadly, in practice, a long holiday hangover tends to limit new releases; platforms’ reticence to compete for attention with an inevitable regime-change media frenzy could also be a factor this year. Happily, February looks a bit more promising (for the culture sphere, at least). In the meantime, here are a few January standouts you might have missed. 

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Asura (Netflix)

The great Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda is best known in the U.S. for his 2018 feature Shoplifters, a Cannes Palme d’Or winner about a poor family that subsists on equal parts love and theft. He brings the same keen understanding of familial dynamics—and the same delicate balance of warmth, poignance, and grit—to this lovely Netflix series, released with little stateside fanfare. Set in 1979 and based on a novel by Kuniko Mukôda, Asura follows four adult sisters who discover that their elderly father (Jun Kunimura, recently seen in Sunny and Pachinko) has been cheating on their mother. The news coincides with major developments in the women’s own lives around romance and fidelity. Eldest sister Tsunako (Rie Miyazawa) is sleeping with her married employer. A housewife and mother, Makiko (Machiko Ono) suspects her husband (Masahiro Motoki) of straying. Pretty Sakiko (Suzu Hirose), who’s dating a feckless wrestler, shrugs off men’s betrayals. It was her foil, prim, bookish Takiko (Yû Aoi), who hired a detective (Ryûhei Matsuda) to prove their dad had a mistress; now, Takiko may be falling for the sleuth.

Television tends to fixate on the salacious aspects of infidelity, treating it as a juicy twist or an excuse for a steamy sex scene. But Kore-eda takes a refreshingly humanistic approach. Through the sisters’ relationships with one another—which are at least as important to Asura as their romantic ties—we see the far-reaching effects of men deceiving the women they love. Yet Kore-eda would rather observe than vilify. The adulterers aren’t written off as bad people; their sins are legible within the context of their lives. And by sharing their struggles, the sisters learn to do what Asura itself does: show compassion toward others whose decisions might differ from their own. (Also, as in so many Japanese shows, the food scenes are scrumptious.)

Great Migrations: A People on the Move (PBS)

Harvard professor, public intellectual, and PBS stalwart Henry Louis Gates, Jr. returns to the platform with this four-part documentary on Black migration in the U.S. since the 1910s. The first half of the series is, unsurprisingly, devoted to the two waves of the Great Migration proper, in which descendants of the enslaved moved north and west to escape the Jim Crow South in the early and mid-20th century. A final pair of episodes traces immigration from Africa and the Caribbean, as well as many Black Americans’ return to the South post-civil rights. 

While Great Migrations is sure to be a useful teaching tool, it’s no audiovisual textbook. Gates recruited an engaging cast of experts to guide viewers through deep dives into Black enclaves from Harlem to South Central, cultural luminaries like Berry Gordy and Jacob Lawrence, and topics like the rise of the Black press. Nor does the series shy away from the darkest aspects of its subject, noting how fears of lynching drove many families north and acknowledging the more insidious forms of racism they encountered when they gor there. With DEI in crisis, the doc is a crucial reminder of how, in the past, the absence of proactive inclusion has yielded segregation. And as a panic over critical race theory continues to roil our education system, it makes an all-too-timely argument that Black history is both integral to and distinct within American history. 

The Pitt (Max)

For ER fans, the news that Noah Wyle had reunited with two of that show’s writer-producers, R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells, for another series set in an emergency room was all they needed to mark their calendars. I’m a harder sell on medical dramas. There are way too many these days, most of them mediocre, and if I have to look at human guts, I’d rather it be in a cartoonish slasher romp than on a realistic operating table. But The Pitt won me over. In fact, it might’ve been the only decent English-language scripted show to premiere this fallow January.

Set amid the pandemonium of an overcrowded, under-resourced Pittsburgh ER, the series, like 24 and Hijack, plays out in near-real time; the season splits a single shift into 15 hourlong episodes. This may be a gimmick to differentiate the show from its predecessor (it didn’t stop ER creator Michael Crichton’s estate from suing), but it makes narrative sense. Wyle’s capable attending physician treats (and charms) patients, orients new interns, and resists the meddling of admins, all while struggling to conceal his unresolved grief on the anniversary of a mentor’s death. The 1990s network-TV vibe is strong. Yet The Pitt‘s purpose is not primarily to celebrate doctorly heroism. The show is at its best when it illuminates the dire realities of frontline medical work, revealing the ER as a crucible where not just the health-care system, but also criminal justice, policy, the privatization of public goods, and a tattered social safety net ignite—daily—in all manner of emergencies.

source https://time.com/7211890/best-tv-shows-january-2025/

The Troubling Slavery-Era Origins of Inmate Firefighting

Fires continue to rage in Los Angeles, and already they have ranked among the most destructive urban blazes in American history. So far, they have killed at least 29 people, destroyed 17,000 structures, and caused, by one count, in excess of $250 billion in damages and loss. Strong winds and a sustained lack of water intensified by climate change led the fires to spread rapidly beyond hopes of containment.

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The federal, state, and local governments have turned to a diverse pool of manpower to fight the infernos. Some are local volunteer or state-funded professional firefighters, while others have come from all over the U.S. and even from other countries. The governments have also increasingly relied upon two polar opposite groups: well-compensated private fire crews, and prison inmates who are paid between $5.00 and $10.00 per day. California has deployed inmates to fight fires since 1915, and this year over 1,000 firefighters are inmates.

The public has become increasingly aware of inmate fire crews as California wildfires become a regular feature of the news cycle, even spawning the fictional CBS series Fire Country. Critics of the inmate firefighting program have long maintained that it is coercive — a form of servitude that is reminiscent of slavery. The parallel between inmate firefighting and slavery is more connected than critics likely realize. Inmate firefighting can trace its legacy to the practice of enslaved firefighting. The history of enslaved firefighters offers a cautionary tale about the dangers of relying on involuntary labor to fight blazes. 

In the 18th century, cities generally had small populations, and relatively few buildings, which were spread out, and rarely tended to top two stories. This landscape meant that a bucket brigade manned by residents passing water from wells to fires was generally enough to contain and stop most blazes. 

During the 19th century, however, firefighting underwent a major transformation. As urban boosters and capitalists increasingly invested in industrialization, cities expanded and concentrated flammable commodities together in previously unprecedented ways.

Read More: Why Incarcerated Firefighters Are Battling the L.A. Wildfires

This meant more — and more devastating — fires. In one New York fire, for example, whale oil caught fire resulting in 30 deaths and the destruction of over 345 buildings. 

Urban elites responded by starting to personally fund permanent volunteer firefighting corps, which they urged governments to institutionalize in the hopes of gaining government financing. 

Volunteer fire companies reflected many of the ideological impulses of the American Revolution. They largely resembled the sort of democratic institutions that the famous French observer Alexis de Tocqueville remarked upon as being the hallmark of the new U.S. Firefighters were exclusively men, but they came from all classes. Protecting neighbors’ property was one way in which American men demonstrated their fitness for citizenship. The elites paying for these companies saw funding them as one component of their broader responsibility to their communities; they often also helped provide limited social services like libraries and accident and fire insurance as well. 

In the North, under pressure from a burgeoning insurance industry, governments moved to fireproof their cities. In 1818, for example, Boston banned wooden structures. They also professionalized their firefighting corps after incidents like the Ursuline Convent riot of 1834 when Boston firefighters actively participated in the burning of a Catholic nunnery. Finally, they used new technologies like the telegraph and the steam fire engine (colloquially known as “steamers”) to improve firefighting.

The South took a similar but divergent path towards firefighting — one guided by its practice of slavery. 

Southern cities also had white volunteer corps, but Black labor was integral to their fire management strategy. Enslaved children cleaned chimneys, one of the most common sources of fires, under the direction of a white chimney inspector. They also had standing Black volunteer crews composed mostly of free Black firefighters, but also some enslaved members. These crews had white presidents until after the Civil War. 

Additionally, when fires broke out, white fire officers had the power to impress free and enslaved Black men into service (as in the North, women were excluded from firefighting). They forced Black workers to do the most dangerous parts of the job — and the ones that required the most brute force. 

Black workers impressed into service, both free and enslaved, did receive compensation, but how much varied from place-to-place and person-to-person. In 1854, for example, Charleston’s Washington Fire Company recorded paying unfree Black firefighters between $5.00 and $37.75 in a month. Free Black volunteer firefighters could also be exempted from poll taxes.

In some cases, fighting fires could provide a pathway to freedom for enslaved people. In the 1810s and 1820s, Richmond repeatedly celebrated the enslaved Gilbert Hunt for heroically saving people and buildings from fires. Even so, it took 18 years after Hunt first received plaudits until he could use his wages to purchase his freedom. Further, his firefighting wages were so paltry that he had to pool wages from other odd jobs together to afford his freedom. 

Because of their supply of unfree labor to fight fires, Southern leaders felt little need to fireproof their cities, or adopt the innovations in firefighting made possible by new technologies. While cities like Augusta, Ga., did ban wooden structures, officials in Charleston defeated a proposed 1838 ban — even after fire destroyed the city that year. As late as 1861, the city’s fire chief advocated against adoption of a steam pump because it was cheaper to continue using enslaved firefighters to pump the water.

Rejecting such cutting-edge technology, however, meant that Northern insurance companies wouldn’t write policies in the South. This refusal forced Southern newspapers to advertise charity drives for fire victims and Southerners to attempt to found their own fire insurance companies. Southerners took Northern refusal to extend them insurance as proof of anti-Southern discrimination, helping to bolster a sectional identity.

Read More: How Authorities Define Fire ‘Containment’ and ‘Control’

The Civil War and the end of slavery brought about the end to this Southern approach to fighting fires. Yet, crucially, the years of using enslaved men to fight fires had set the precedent for putting those thought to be inferior on the front lines in this fight. It cemented an association between Black and other non-white male bodies and forced firefighting that would later inform decisions to use inmates for this task.

This was legal because the 13th Amendment, which banned slavery, continued to allow involuntary servitude when it was “punishment for a crime…” Southerners quickly adopted the practice of forced prisoner labor as a way of restoring coerced labor in a supposedly free labor market. Southern whites imprisoned a disproportionately Black convict population, often for minor and outright fictional crimes, and put them to work, especially in building the highways that brought the South into the modern age.

But prison labor wasn’t exclusive to the South: California had used it since 1850, and in 1915, the state began using inmates to fight fires. The program greatly expanded after World War II. Advocates championed the rehabilitative potential for inmates exposed to the outdoors. Inmates have remained a staple of California firefighting ever since.

These roots help connect inmate firefighting in 2025 with enslaved firefighting in the antebellum South. Enslaved fire crews did some of the most grueling work like hand-pumping water, while today inmate crews likewise dig fire breaks by hand. Today, inmate fire crews are likewise four times as likely to be injured fighting fires as non-inmate crews, speaking to the increased danger of their jobs — like those of enslaved firefighters. Elites justify giving them the most dangerous work in part because there are potential benefits accruing to those doing the jobs: inmate firefighters generally get time off of their sentences, just as some enslaved firefighters could buy their own freedom.

While there are differences between the two, the history of enslaved firefighters offers a cautionary tale for California and other states that use inmate firefighters. Antebellum Charleston long felt that it did not need to change the way that it fought fires because its leaders could call on their perceived greatest asset: enslaved labor. Yet, their failure to modernize their firefighting techniques proved devastating in 1861 when a fire destroyed a third of the city. California threatens to make the same mistake if the access to inmate firefighters prevents policymakers from focusing on the structural challenges caused by environmental factors and climate change that are producing more — and more destructive — fires. 

Justin Hawkins is a Ph.D. Candidate in history at Indiana University and assistant editor of the Indiana Magazine of History. His research focuses on arson as part of enslaved resistance and labor struggles in 19th century America.

Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.

source https://time.com/7210800/inmate-firefighters-history/

What Historians Hope to Learn From Trump Releasing JFK, RFK, and MLK’s Assassination Files

One of Donald Trump’s first actions after taking office as President on Jan. 20 was signing an executive order to declassify any remaining files related to the assassinations of the most prominent American leaders of the 1960s: the 35th President John F. Kennedy in 1963, his brother, the presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, in 1968, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. in that same year.

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The Jan. 23 executive order gives intelligence officials two weeks to come up with a plan to make the remaining JFK assassination files available to the public, and 45 days for the RFK and MLK assassination files.

“That’s a big one. A lot of people have been waiting for this for years,” Trump said as he signed the executive order. “Everything will be revealed.”

What exactly Trump hopes to find out from the files is unclear. RFK’s son Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, has expressed skepticism about whether Sirhan Sirhan was his father’s killer and whether there was some larger conspiracy going on.

The “truth” in these files, however, will likely be anticlimactic, scholars tell TIME. The basic facts of these assassinations are unlikely to change: Lee Harvey Oswald fatally shot JFK; Sirhan Sirhan fatally shot Robert F. Kennedy; and James Earl Ray fatally shot MLK. Most of these documents have been released; for example, 99% of the JFK assassination files have been made public, after nine investigations and the definitive account of what happened the day of the assassination produced by the Warren Commission in 1964.

But the quicker files are made available, the quicker conspiracy theories could be quelled. There are conspiracy theorists who think that because the files haven’t been released yet, the government is hiding some evidence of larger conspiracies to kill these figures. “I actually think Trump did the right thing in opening these files,” says Burt Griffin, assistant counsel on the Warren Commission, arguing that it will hopefully dispel any notions that “something is being concealed.”

TIME talked to people who have researched these assassinations about what they hope to learn from the remaining files. 

Sensitive personal details

Griffin, who is also the author of JFK, Oswald and Ruby: Politics, Prejudice and Truth, believes that much of the information that’s been withheld about the JFK assassination are the names of investigators and details of the investigative process. “Some of the people were doing illegal things,” Griffin says, like wiretapping Mafia leaders. “We knew they were doing things that were illegal. We didn’t know the details of how they were doing it.” 

At this point, the names of the people involved won’t do much good because they have since died, but that doesn’t mean Americans should think there was a missed opportunity to interview them. The Warren Commission took the testimony of more than 550 people. 

Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Asassination of JFK, questions if Americans will finally learn more of First Lady Jackie Kennedy’s account of the fateful day, as she ordered the notes from her interview with historian William Manchester be sealed.

Posner, who also wrote Killing the Dream James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., is expecting the remaining MLK assassination files to provide more proof of “how much the FBI tried to not protect King, but spy on him.” It’s well-known that the activist was under illegal FBI surveillance for years, as the agency’s infamous director J. Edgar Hoover was convinced that the preacher was part of some broader communist conspiracy while the U.S. was in the middle of a Cold War with the communist Soviet Union.

But Posner is more worried that incriminating information about King might be revealed. There have long been rumors about King’s infidelity, and there are even reports that he saw a mistress the night before he was killed.

“Those files would be just personally embarrassing, and there’s no reason to release them,” says Posner. King’s family issued a statement after Trump’s executive order, requesting to see any MLK files before they are released to the general public.

Debunking broader conspiracies

The Warren Commission already concluded six decades ago that there is “no evidence” Oswald was part of a domestic conspiracy or that a foreign government was behind JFK’s assassination. But to put conspiracy theories to rest, Griffin wonders if the tax returns of an acquaintance of Oswald’s, Ruth Paine, are in the remaining files because they have never been revealed. The question is whether they show that she was getting money from the federal government, and if they don’t, then that could put to rest a conspiracy theory that the federal government was behind the assassination of JFK in some way. Likewise, if the tax returns did not show that she was getting money from people with ties to communists or foreign governments, then it could further prove that a foreign government did not orchestrate the plot to kill JFK.

However, it’s possible the files could provide more insight into what was going on in Cuba at the time of JFK’s assassination. Posner wonders if there are files showing what the CIA really knew about Oswald’s erratic behavior during visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City six weeks before the assassination: “I’m hoping [the remaining files] will answer the question of whether the CIA could have potentially prevented the assassination by letting the FBI know how unhinged and unstable he was during this visit.” 

Larry Sabato, founder and director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and author of The Kennedy Half Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy, is on the lookout for more information on U.S. policymakers’ deliberations about overthrowing the Castro regime: “There’s one document that is very intriguing, in which they’re discussing ways of embarrassing or dethroning Castro through damaging events that will be linked to him. There’s just one problem. We know they’re in there. We know that they discuss specifics, but every one of them is redacted…I think it’s interesting historically to show the extent to which the U.S. government was willing to go to rid itself of a communist government.”

But the big unsolved mystery—why Oswald shot JFK—is not likely to be answered by any of these remaining files. As Griffin puts it, “We saw all of the substantive things that were in the files.”

William Klaber, a researcher who has read through many files related to the RFK assassination for his book Shadow Play, says “I don’t think there are any bombshells” in the remaining files related to that tragedy because the FBI played a much smaller role in that investigation. Many of the most relevant records are in California. He explains: “RFK files were really released in 1988, and they were the police files because the police ran that investigation. The FBI helped a little, and those files have also been opened.”

He is also not convinced every file will be released because of Trump’s executive order. As he puts it, “My fear is that when we get closer to the date that these things are going to be released, national security concerns will be raised, and we’ll be back where we were. Those very files that we want won’t be the ones that are released.” 

source https://time.com/7210786/trump-jfk-files-declassified/

Everything Trump Has Said About the Fatal Passenger Jet and Army Helicopter Crash

In the deadliest U.S. major commercial aviation incident in 16 years, no one is believed to have survived a collision between a commercial aircraft and an Army helicopter by Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Jan. 29.

There were 64 people on board the jet, and three military personnel on the helicopter. Recovery operations are underway at the Potomac River, over which the crash occurred.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

This is President Trump’s first major incident to lead the country through in his second term at the White House. Late Wednesday night, Trump’s Press Secretary posted a statement from him on X (formerly Twitter), in which he thanked first responders and said he had been “fully briefed on the terrible accident.” He later posted this same statement on his Truth Social account.

“I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise,” Trump said.

Read More: What to Know About the Passenger Jet, Army Helicopter Collision Near Washington, D.C.

Trump posted another remark about the incident just after midnight on Thursday, seemingly suspicious of the incident, and saying the situation “looks like it should have been prevented.”

“The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time,” he wrote on Truth Social. “It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were blazing, why didn’t the helicopter go up or down, or turn. Why didn’t the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane.”

On Thursday morning, Trump posted: “I have been fully briefed on the terrible accident which just took place at Reagan National Airport. May God Bless their souls. Thank you for the incredible work being done by our first responders. I am monitoring the situation and will provide more details as they arise.”

Later on, just before 11:30 a.m., the President  delivered remarks about the crash to press in the White House briefing room. He was joined by Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

After beginning with a moment of silence for the victims, Trump spoke about the timeline of the crash, and confirmed, once more, that there are no survivors. 

Trump emphasized putting aside differences and grieving this “tragedy” as a nation, also stating he would contact the countries of origin of the non-Americans on board, including the Russian figure skaters.

Read More: Passenger Jet That Crashed Near Washington D.C. Carried Champion Figure Skaters

“On behalf of the First Lady, myself, and 340 million Americans, our hearts are shattered alongside yours, and our prayers are with you now and in the days to come, we’ll be working very, very diligently in the days to come,” he said. “In moments like this, the differences between Americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all, both as Americans and even as nations, we are one family, and today we are all heartbroken.”

Soon after, Trump went on to call out former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s air traffic policies. He then started to focus on “diversity” within the Federal Aviation Administration.

Last week, on his second day in office, Trump signed an Executive Order to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI) in the Federal Aviation Administration, proclaiming that DEI “penalizes hard-working Americans who want to serve in the FAA but are unable to do so, as they lack a requisite disability or skin color.”

When asked by a reporter if he had any evidence to show that DEI policies were to blame for the crash, Trump said “it just could have been.” When asked if he was getting ahead of the investigation, he said he did not think so. 

“Because I have common sense,” Trump said when asked how he could already come to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with the crash. “We want brilliant people doing this. This is a major chess game at the highest level when you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time and they’re all coming in different directions.”

Trump also fleshed out his suspicions about how this tragedy occurred, again emphasizing the visibility during the clear night, and the potential maneuvers the pilots could have made to prevent the crash.

“We don’t know that necessarily it’s even the controller’s fault, but one thing we do know: there was a lot of vision, and people should have been able to see that,” Trump said. “At what point do you stop at what point you say ‘wow that plane’s getting a little bit close,’ so this is a tragedy that should not have happened.”

source https://time.com/7211616/passenger-jet-army-helicopter-crash-washington-dc-president-trump-response/