Ahead of an August 12 deadline for a US-China trade deal, Donald Trump's tactics continue to confuse those trying to assess the country's national security priorities regarding its biggest geopolitical rival.

For months, Trump has kicked the can down the road regarding a TikTok ban, allowing the app to continue operating despite supposedly urgent national security concerns that China may be using the app to spy on Americans. And now, in the latest baffling move, a US official announced Monday that Trump got Nvidia and AMD to agree to "give the US government 15 percent of revenue from sales to China of advanced computer chips," Reuters reported. Those chips, about 20 policymakers and national security experts recently warned Trump, could be used to fuel China's frontier AI, which seemingly poses an even greater national security risk.

Trump’s “wild” deal with US chip firms

Reuters granted two officials anonymity to discuss Trump's deal with US chipmakers, because details have yet to be made public. Requiring US firms to pay for sales in China is an "unusual" move for a president, Reuters noted, and the Trump administration has yet to say what exactly it plans to do with the money.

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• Trump's Bureau of Labor Statistics nominee floated halting the US jobs report in a Fox News Digital interview.
• E.J. Antoni, a Heritage Foundation economist, was nominated after Trump fired the previous commissioner.
• The BLS has faced challenges with data accuracy due to limited resources and response rates.

E.J. Antoni, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the chief economist at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, floated pausing the monthly jobs report amid accuracy concerns. Market pros say that would be a terrible move.

Antoni told Fox News Digital on August 4 in an interview before his nomination that, "until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data."

Economists and market strategists told Business Insider on Tuesday that such a move would be damaging for investors and economic planners. It could lower trust in the timeliest data on unemployment and job growth, which gives insight into how corporate earnings will perform and the broader state of the US economy.

"The markets depend on employment reports and the inflation reports and those types of things for direction," said Lance Roberts, the chief strategist at RIA Advisors, which manages $2 billion. "You try to suspend that data, without really good reason, that's going to cause problems for markets."

Roberts said that it's important to keep the monthly pace for the non-farm payrolls report, and that revisions are part of the data-collection process.

"We revise GDP data every year, and then we revise it every three years, and the markets never freak out," he said, adding: "Markets run real-time, they need real-time data."

Max Stier, the president and CEO of Partnership for Public Service, told Business Insider that BLS data plays a key role in both the overall economy and people's financial decisions.

"It is imperative that the bureau continues to report this information in a timely, unbiased way to preserve its trustworthiness as an institution," Stier said.

Stier added that if Antoni is confirmed by the Senate to take on the commissioner role, he urges "Antoni to partner with the bureau's expert civil service to maintain the nonpartisan collection and presentation of their economic data."

Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, said the monthly jobs data shouldn't be suspended or delayed.

"The biggest revisions to jobs data often happen when the economy hits a turning point — economists and economic policymakers largely understand this," Renter said. "To slow the availability of the data at such a juncture could severely hamper the ability of the Fed to conduct effective monetary policy, among other things."

Not everyone agrees, however. Irene Tunkel, the chief strategist of US equity strategy at BCA Research, told Business Insider on Tuesday that moving to a quarterly pace where the BLS has more time to survey businesses would be a better approach. Theoretically, a quarterly cadence would result in fewer revisions, Tunkel said, adding that the market can rely on private data from sources like ADP for more real-time information.

But private data sources don't have the funding that the BLS does, and are therefore even less reliable, said Preston Caldwell, a US economist at Morningstar.

"If markets believed the CES conveyed no useful information, they would already ignore it — no damage done. So why suspend it? There's not a good substitute for the CES," Caldwell wrote in an email, referencing the Current Employment Statistics survey that produces the monthly job creation numbers from the BLS.

"If there was a cheap way to do it, a third-party data provider might be doing it already. But that's not the case."

Antoni's comments follow a worse-than-expected July jobs report

Antoni was nominated to the BLS role on August 11 after Trump fired former commissioner and Biden appointee Dr. Erika McEntarfer on August 1.

"Our Economy is booming, and E.J. will ensure that the Numbers released are HONEST and ACCURATE," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

A disappointing jobs report showed the US economy added 73,000 jobs in July, missing the consensus 106,000, and revisions to the previous two months showed there were way fewer jobs added than earlier reported. Revisions are a normal part of the BLS data collection, though the agency has struggled in recent years with limited resources and declining survey response rates.

The president claimed that the data was "RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad."

'"How on earth are businesses supposed to plan — or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy — when they don't know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy? It's a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately," Antoni told Fox News Digital, adding, "major decision-makers from Wall Street to D.C. rely on these numbers, and a lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences."

Antoni has not yet been confirmed as commissioner. The Heritage Foundation and BLS did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.

"Hiding the numbers just makes it that much harder to use the tools available to avoid further economic pain, prepare for what people need, and guard against a recession," former acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su told Business Insider.

Asked whether the BLS would continue to put out a monthly payrolls report, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press conference on Tuesday that she believes that will be the case.

"I believe that is the plan and that's the hope and that these monthly reports will be data that the American people can trust," Leavitt said.

On Thursday, the Trump administration issued an executive order asserting political control over grant funding, including all federally supported research. The order requires that any announcement of funding opportunities be reviewed by the head of the agency or someone they designate, which means a political appointee will have the ultimate say over what areas of science the US funds. Individual grants will also require clearance from a political appointee and "must, where applicable, demonstrably advance the President’s policy priorities."

The order also instructs agencies to formalize the ability to cancel previously awarded grants at any time if they're considered to "no longer advance agency priorities." Until a system is in place to enforce the new rules, agencies are forbidden from starting new funding programs.

In short, the new rules would mean that all federal science research would need to be approved by a political appointee who may have no expertise in the relevant areas, and the research can be canceled at any time if the political winds change. It would mark the end of a system that has enabled US scientific leadership for roughly 70 years.

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It's now clear that Apple plans to survive Donald Trump's trade war by playing to the president's ego.

On Wednesday, Trump announced that Apple would be exempt from a threatened 100 percent tariff on semiconductors that could have driven up the cost of iPhones globally, Reuters reported. In an apparent effort to secure this exemption, Apple promised to increase its total investment commitment in the US by $100 billion, while also gifting Trump a one-of-a-kind statue that Apple CEO Tim Cook had engraved with Trump's name.

It serves as a bizarre love letter to Trump's push to bring tech manufacturing into the US, despite Apple resisting that push for its most popular product.

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Donald Trump has called for the newly appointed chief executive of Intel, Lip-Bu Tan, to resign, alleging that the semiconductor industry veteran is “highly conflicted.”

“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” Trump said in his post on his Truth Social website on Thursday. “There is no other solution to this problem.”

The US president’s post did not provide details of Tan’s alleged conflicts of interest. Trump’s broadside follows a letter from Republican Senator Tom Cotton to the US chipmaker’s board chair this week expressing “concern about the security and integrity of Intel’s operations” and Tan’s ties to China.

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• Donald Trump has proposed and implemented a slew of tariffs in an effort to achieve his policy aims.
• Some tariffs started right away; others changed or remained on pause to allow for negotiations.
• With a big deadline finally here, we looked at where Trump's trade plans stand and what they mean for you.

The big day is here: More of President Donald Trump's so-called Liberation Day tariffs are going into effect after many of his proposals were paused or rolled back.

All the back-and-forth makes it difficult to keep track of where they all stand and how they might influence prices.

On a broad scale, the price jumps economists and companies have predicted are slowly trickling into US economic data; the year-over-year inflation rate climbed to 2.7% in June, up from 2.4% the month prior, as more companies raised prices in response to tariff threats.

Nike, for example, said it would raise prices to offset an expected $1 billion in additional tariff costs in the coming year, and Shein and Temu said they would start adjusting prices in April due to tariff changes.

Trump has said the long-term benefits of tariffs will be worth some short-term pain. The tariffs' stated goals include raising revenue for the US government, righting trade imbalances, and achieving other policy goals, such as cracking down on drugs and border policy.

Here's where it all stands now that the bulk of Trump's big tariffs are finally in place.

Tariffs already in place

25% tariff on imported steel and aluminum started in March

A 25% tariff on all imported steel and aluminum has been in effect since March. Trump's trade deal with the UK, however, reduced tariff rates on British steel, aluminum, and cars in exchange for the UK buying $10 billion worth of Boeing planes, among other things.

25%-35% tariff on some goods from Mexico and Canada started in March

Trump's tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada that are not compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement are meant to compel those countries to combat drug trafficking and strengthen border control. Exempted goods include those with complex supply chains, like cars and car parts. In addition, energy imports from Canada have a 10% tariff.

Trump raised the tariff rate on Canadian goods not compliant with USMCA to 35% on August 1, saying that the country has failed to effectively crack down on drug trafficking.

10% baseline tariff on most imports started in April

The 10% baseline tariff Trump announced on April 2 remains in effect for most countries. A slew of major brands have already said they would be raising prices, citing the tariffs in place or anticipation of more to come. One Republican business owner previously told Business Insider that he had started adding a "tariff tax" on his bikes, expecting that producing electric bikes would be 10% more expensive.

The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said at a press conference in early May that Trump was "determined to continue with that 10% baseline tariff" as part of any deal he might strike with other countries.

"Reciprocal" tariffs that vary by country

After months of postponements and negotiations with countries, Trump rolled out a host of new tariffs on August 7, with the highest rates including 50% on Brazil, 40% on Myanmar and Switzerland, and 39% on Iraq.

"IT'S MIDNIGHT!!! BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TARIFFS ARE NOW FLOWING INTO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

While India's tariff rate now stands at 25%, Trump said that it will rise to 50% later this month for "directly or indirectly importing Russian Federation oil," according to his executive order.

Postponed tariffs

Tariffs on China were lowered for 90 days

After a lot of back-and-forth over whether China and the US would engage in trade talks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in Geneva in May that the US and China had reached an agreement to "substantially" lower tariffs. Bessent said Trump's 145% tariff on Chinese goods would decrease to 30% for 90 days. China, in turn, said it would lower its tariffs on American goods to 10% from 125% over the same time period.

US Customs and Border Protection had previously exempted smartphones, computers, and other technology to minimize price increases on those products in the US. The most significant price impact from tariffs will most likely be felt on other goods imported from China, especially toys and vehicle parts.

Other tariffs floated by Trump

Lumber

On March 1, Trump directed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to investigate US lumber imports and determine whether any imports threatened national security. Tariffs were recommended as a possibility to mitigate any threats.

Alcohol

Responding to a plan from the European Union to place tariffs on American whiskey, Trump wrote on a March 13 Truth Social post that the US would place 200% tariffs on wine, Champagne, and other alcoholic products coming out of the EU.

Pharmaceutical products

In April, Trump told reporters that he would impose tariffs on imported pharmaceutical products at levels "you haven't really seen before" and would announce the measures in "the near future."

Semiconductors

Trump said during an event on Wednesday that he is planning a 100% tariff on semiconductors unless businesses commit to investing in and building their products in the US.

"If you have made a commitment to build or are in the process of building, as many are, there is no tariff. If, for some reason, you say you are building and you don't build, we go back and add it up, it accumulates, and we will charge you at a later date. You have to pay," Trump said.

• Major US alcohol producers are urging Donald Trump to cut tariffs ahead of the holidays.
• An alcohol association representing Beam Suntory and Brown-Forman sent a letter to the White House.
• It warned that the tariffs could result in a $2 billion sales loss and 25,000 American jobs lost.

As the holiday season looms, US liquor groups are begging Trump to kill the tariffs they say could ruin their most lucrative stretch of the year.

A group of 57 associations and guilds called the Toasts not Tariffs Coalition, said in a Wednesday letter to the White House that tariffs could result in a $2 billion sales loss in the holidays.

"We reiterate our urgent request that the U.S. and EU come to an agreement to secure fair and reciprocal trade on spirits and wine," the group wrote in the letter.

"As we approach the critical holiday season, a period that is essential to the success of our industries, we implore you to secure this important deal for the U.S. as soon as possible," it added.

The letter comes as Trump's new tariffs went into effect at midnight on Thursday, with the European Union being slammed with a 15% tariff rate on most goods. However, the EU said on Tuesday said it would pause retaliatory tariffs for six months.

Other countries, such as Switzerland and India, were hit much harder, with tariff rates of 39% and 50%, respectively. India's tariffs are set to go into effect later in August.

In March, Trump also threatened to impose a 200% tariff on wine and other alcohol from the EU.

The coalition said it estimated that a 15% tariff on EU wine and spirits could result in more than 25,000 American job losses and nearly $2 billion in lost sales. Per data from the US Distilled Spirits Council, the US exported $2.4 billion worth of spirits in 2024.

Groups in the Toasts not Tariffs coalition represent US liquor heavyweights like Beam Suntory, the parent of Jim Beam, and Jack Daniel's owner Brown-Forman. The coalition also includes non-liquor bodies like the National Retail Federation and the National Restaurant Association.

The Wednesday letter was the group's second appeal to the White House. It sent a similar letter in January, urging Trump to exclude wine and spirits from his coming tariffs and convince the US's trading partners not to apply retaliatory tariffs on their products.

Kentucky's bourbon makers also appealed to the White House to ease up on tariffs after Canada's boycott of US alcohol in March.

The Kentucky Distillers' Association said in a March statement on X that retaliatory tariffs would have "far-reaching consequences across Kentucky, home to 95% of the world's bourbon."

Representatives for Trump and the Distilled Spirits Council did not respond to requests for comment from BI.

• Apple is going to spend another $100 billion investing in US facilities.
• That's on top of a $500 billion pledge the company made earlier this year.
• Is that a lot? Sort of. Is it a move to make iPhones in the US? Not at all.

At a White House event on Wednesday afternoon, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced plans to invest $100 billion in US manufacturing.

Is this a real plan, with real money? A bit of stagecraft designed to give Donald Trump a public win for his reshoring push? Or a way for Apple to keep on the right side of Trump tariffs that could cause great harm to the company?

Yes. And yes. And yes.

Some context:

• In February, Apple said it would invest $500 billion and hire 20,000 US employees over the next four years.
• Now Apple is going to add another $100 billion to that commitment.
• Apple spelled out how it is going to spend some of that money at the White House event, including a pledge to spend $2.5 billion expanding its work in a Corning plant in Kentucky, where it makes glass for iPhones and Apple Watches. Apple says that work will eventually ensure that all of its devices sold worldwide will use American glass (though it didn't spell out how much of that work was already being done in America).

But this isn't the first time Apple has announced a pledge like this. In 2021 — when Joe Biden was president — it announced a plan to invest $430 billion in the US over five years and hire 20,000 employees. Some of those plans involved new construction, like a new "engineering hub" in North Carolina. Others involved expansions of existing facilities, or construction that was already underway, like a $1 billion campus in Austin.

As Bloomberg notes, Apple's announcement from February was really an acceleration of its earlier plans — it meant Apple was planning to spend an extra $39 billion a year, and to increase its hiring plans by 1,000 people a year.

Using that same logic, Apple's Wednesday announcement means it is planning on spending another $25 billion a year above its earlier plans. (No word, yet, about any additional hiring, though Apple did say its work with Corning would increase the workforce there by 50%.)

So that's definitely some additional spending.

Will Apple make iPhones in the US?

Does that mean Apple is going to start making iPhones in the US, as Trump has demanded?

No. As we've discussed before, recreating the supply chain Apple would need to make iPhones in the US seems close to impossible. And certainly not something that Apple could pull off in a few years — if it even wanted to.

Cook was asked that question directly at the press conference, and was ready for it. "There's a lot of content in there from the United States," he argued, pointing to the glass deal and other elements made at least in part in America. But as far as actually putting that stuff together — which requires a complicated supply chain Cook spent years and billions overseeing? "That will be elsewhere for a while," he said.

Still, getting to stand next to the CEO of one of the world's most valuable companies, while that CEO says he's going to invest in America, is most definitely valuable to Trump, who was beaming throughout the event.

And it's not as if any particular number means much to Trump, who recently announced he was going to reduce drug prices by "1,500 percent," which is definitely not possible.

Trump is also flexible when it comes to announcements about Trump-directed spending in America. Like when he stood next to Cook during his first term and announced that Apple had opened a new plant in Texas at his behest. Also not true.

What does Apple get in return? It would most obviously like permanent relief from Trump's tariffs. So far, Trump has granted Apple some immunity from some of his tariffs on foreign manufacturing — but not all of them, which is why Apple has said it will have paid some $2 billion in tariffs over its last two quarters.

Apple and other tech companies are also hoping Trump will keep pushing on their behalf to beat down other countries' tech regulations. Apple is particularly vexed by the European Union, which has forced the company to do things like change its iPhone chargers and open up its App Store.

So yes: Apple is spending money in the US. And no: It's not exactly the story Donald Trump would like to tell.

• Tim Cook joined Donald Trump for a celebratory announcement in the Oval Office.
• Apple announced that it is increasing its existing $500 billion investment in the US by $100 billion.
• Trump said companies like Apple "will be treated really well."

Tim Cook gifted President Donald Trump an American-made glass engraving at the White House today — but it was the Apple CEO who walked away with the real prize.

On Wednesday, Cook presented Trump with an inscribed piece of Apple-produced glass made in Kentucky that sits upon a 24k gold base made in Utah to celebrate the tech giant's "American Manufacturing Program."

"This glass comes off the Corning line, engraved for President Trump," Cook told reporters during a ceremony in the Oval Office. "It is a unique unit of one."

Cook and Apple aren't walking away empty-handed. Companies that "are building in the United States," like Apple, won't be subject to a forthcoming 100% tariff on imports of semiconductors and chips, Trump said.

"The good news for companies like Apple is if you're building in the United States or have committed to build, without question, in the United States, there will be no charge," Trump said.

Cook said the gift was designed by a former US Marine Corps. Corporal who now works for Apple. Cook's signature is also etched into the gift.

Apple announced that it is adding an additional $100 billion to its existing pledge to spend $500 billion in the US over the next four years. As part of its investment, Cook said that soon, 100% of all cover glass for all iPhones and Apple Watches will be manufactured in the US.

It is still a far cry from Trump's hope of a made-in-the-USA iPhone. When a reporter pressed Cook on the possibility of an American-made iPhone, Trump echoed Cook's view that Apple already makes many of the popular smartphone's components in the US.

"We've been talking about it, and the whole thing is set up in other places, and it's been there for a long time, so in terms of the cost and all," Trump said. "But I think we may incentivize him enough that one day he'll be bringing that."

While it's a win for Cook, Apple isn't fully in the clear from the impact of Trump's tariffs. It remains uncertain if the tech giant will be subject to the president's stiffer tariffs on India, which are aimed at punishing the nation for continuing to buy Russian oil.

Cook said during Apple's recent earnings call that the company's financial hit from tariffs last quarter was $800 million. Apple said those costs are likely to balloon to $1.1 billion in the September quarter.

The Apple CEO has come bearing gifts before. In Trump's final financial disclosure before leaving the White House in 2021, the president reported receiving a $5,999 MacBook Pro computer.

It's also not the first time Cook's savvy relationship-building skills have earned the president's praise. In 2019, Trump said Cook was the only tech executive who calls him directly, and the Apple CEO successfully landed carve-outs for some of Apple's products during the tariffs implemented during Trump's first term.

• An AI search engine powered by Perplexity is now available on Truth Social.
• Trump Media began public beta testing of the search engine on Wednesday.
• Social media sites like X and Meta have already integrated AI into their platforms.

Truth Social has entered its AI era.

Trump Media announced on Wednesday that it began beta testing a new AI-powered search engine on its Truth Social platform. The new feature — called Truth Search AI — is made possible by a partnership with Perplexity.

"Powered by Perplexity, a software and AI company dedicated to providing direct, contextually accurate answers with transparent citations, Truth Search AI is intended to enhance the Truth Social platform and exponentially increase the amount of information available to its users," Trump Media said in a press release.

A Perplexity spokesperson told Business Insider that Truth Social uses the Perplexity Sonar API. They declined to discuss the details or financial terms of the partnership.

Truth Social is the latest social media platform to integrate AI. Elon Musk's xAI debuted an AI chatbot, Grok, to X users in 2023. Mark Zuckerberg's Meta introduced its AI chatbot — Meta AI — across its social media and messaging platforms in 2024. Reddit has also introduced an AI-powered search tool last year.

AI emerged as a key focus for President Donald Trump during his first administration, but has grown in importance in his second term. In January, Trump issued an executive order to "remove barriers to American leadership in artificial intelligence." Last month, the White House unveiled its action plan to win the global AI race.

Devin Nunes, CEO of Trump Media, said the company will review user feedback on Truth Social to determine next steps.

"We plan to robustly refine and expand our search function based on user feedback as we implement a wide range of additional enhancements to the platform," Nunes, a former California congressman, said in the press release.

Representatives from Trump Media did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.