By Alejandro Werner (*) - The author thanks Ignacio Albe, Olivier Blanchard, Martina Copelman, Joseph Gagnon, José de Gregorio, Patrick Honohan, Douglas Irwin, Maurice Obstfeld, and other PIIE colleagues for their comments and suggestions.
Communication between British PM Keir Starmer cabinet and US President Donald Trump team seem very fluid, speaking like lifelong friends and buddies. That was what occurred on Monday when PM Starmer spoke to President Trump and on Sunday with Foreign Secretary David Lamy and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In both cases the leaders agreed to meet soon.
Washington and Bogotá played cat-and-mouse this weekend after the Colombian leftwing Government Gustavo Petro refused to allow US military planes carrying deportees to land in the South American country. In response, President Donald Trump slapped 25% tariffs on all Colombian imports, after which Petro adopted a reciprocal measure.
Brazil's Foreign Ministry expressed its outrage after the US Government placed handcuffs on every member of a batch of 88 irregular migrants who were to be flown back to their country last Friday. Given this “degrading treatment,” it was announced at the Itammaraty Palace, the headquarters of South America's largest country's diplomacy, that the Government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was to remain attentive to the issue.
US President Donald Trump's executive order issuing spree during his first week in office included the declassification in the interest of transparency of all documents pertaining to the murders of then-President John F. Kennedy (JFK) in 1962, as well as those of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. (RFK) and civil rights leader and Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) in 1968.
US President Donald Trump suggested four days into his second term in office that companies should manufacture their products at home or face import tariffs. During a video appearance at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos (Switzerland), the Republican leader insisted his constituency had entrusted him to bring about change and thence his carrot-and-stick approach to private investment.
Argentine President Javier Milei said in an interview with Bloomberg in Davos (Switzerland) that if breaking up with the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) was a requirement to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, he would not hesitate to do it.
US President Donald Trump added Cuba once again to the list of nations sponsoring terrorism and announced tougher measures against Venezuela's Bolivarian regime which stayed in power past Jan. 10 despite half the world not recognizing Nicolás Maduro as the legitimate winner of the July 28, 2024, elections.
After US President announced he was pulling his country once again from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN) agency issued a statement Tuesday wishing such a decision would be reconsidered. Trump had already left the WHO during his first term in office but his decision was reversed by his successor (and now predecessor) Joseph Biden.
Donald Trump announced that January 20, 2025, marked the beginning of the United States' Golden Era because during his new term in office great achievements lay ahead, such as the US flag flying on Mars together with energy independence, immigration reforms to tackle the inflow of illegal aliens, as well as the end of woke ideas whereby -for example- there are other genders beyond male and female.