On Monday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “The Record,” White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran stated that “over time, Walmart will be able to get its Chinese suppliers and other suppliers to eat the tariffs” and “that’ll happen over time. In the short run, can there be some volatility in prices the way there was volatility in financial markets? Yeah. But, over time, we have all the leverage. We have all the cards. And that means, just like last time, China will eat the tariffs.”
Host Greta Van Susteren asked, “How do we reconcile the fact that, while getting manufacturing up, you’ve got like the CEO from Walmart saying that Walmart can’t keep up with the increased costs, which, of course, means the consumer, an everyday American who goes into a big store like Walmart. So, how do we address that?”
Miran answered, “I think it’s pretty obvious from the first term that there was no evidence, at all, of macroeconomic inflation as a result of the president’s policies. In fact, it was pretty clear that China paid for the tariffs in the first term and that inflation stayed low, inflation stayed very moderate in President Trump’s first term and it really took off during President Biden’s administration because of their reckless fiscal policies. But that’s besides the point. Now, in the last three months, we’ve now got three months in a row of below-expectation inflation coming out, core inflation, on an annual basis, in the last month, in April, was the lowest level since March of 2021. So, there’s no evidence so far in the historical record or in the recent data of an acceleration in inflation. Now, over time, Walmart will be able to get its Chinese suppliers and other suppliers to eat the tariffs by threatening to move elsewhere. That happens because United States importers are flexible about where we get stuff. We can either make stuff at home or we can import from other countries that treat us better. That leverage means that we can make others absorb the costs. Now, that’ll happen over time. In the short run, can there be some volatility in prices the way there was volatility in financial markets? Yeah. But, over time, we have all the leverage. We have all the cards. And that means, just like last time, China will eat the tariffs.”
WASHINGTON — Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told Breitbart News exclusively in her office last week President Donald Trump’s entire focus during his “whole career” has been about protecting and advancing working class Americans’ interests and the “fruits of his labor are now paying off.”
“I think his whole life, his whole career he’s put this together,” Chavez-DeRemer told Breitbart News. “The fruits of his labor are now paying off.”
Trump’s Labor Secretary sat with Breitbart News for an exclusive interview in her office at the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday evening, a conversation that focused in large part on the working class coalition that Trump assembled in 2016 and expanded in his 2024 comeback victory. Chavez-DeRemer, a Hispanic businesswoman and former U.S. House member who has deep ties to unions given that her father was a Teamster, is at the cutting edge of this new political realignment in the U.S. given her position in Trump’s Cabinet as the sort of link between business and labor and workers.
“If you really kind of look at his [Trump’s] whole career, it really was about that coalition,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “In the first administration, he moved forward on it. But this one, he’s all in on it because of a couple of things. One, I think everybody’s voice wants to be heard. He really gets that on the American citizen, so if you’re talking about the American workforce, if you want to be heard as an American worker, then you want somebody who understands what maybe everybody’s been going through. Yes, I grew up the daughter of a Teamster. My dad worked for 30 plus years around the clock in order to provide for his three children and the family. My mom was a working parent too—we were kind of latchkey kids. Then building a business with my husband. So understanding the business side of it and how you have to negotiate the business side of it and then now how he’s applied that to the election. He won because of that. He said ‘I hear you. I understand what you’re going through. I’ve been through it. I understand how important it is to grow this economy and keep you having these American jobs, protect the American worker, grow American jobs, and grow the American economy.’ Now, he’s delivering on it. What are we 115 days? I knew in the first 100 days I was kind of the newbie, I’m the one who’s kind of like the new kid on the block, and it went like gangbusters. The next 100 is going to be even more fast-paced because of all the things he’s doing not only for the workforce but you see the tariff talks, you see the trade talks. He’s leveling the playing field so the American worker capitalizes on exactly what he’s doing. That’s key for someone like me to go out and do the job right behind him and say, ‘you see what he’s doing? Now let me grow that workforce.’”
U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer testifies before the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies in the Rayburn House Office Building on May 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Chavez-DeRemer said a huge focus of the president and this administration is on getting wages up for American workers. Directly talking about wages like this is a deviation in a positive way for Republicans, who often previously talked only about the meta-level economic system but never got down to brass tacks on what it means for the actual workers. That’s clearly changing with Trump back in the White House and Chavez-DeRemer leading the Department of Labor.
“Real life wages to the blue collar worker is hourly wages,” Chavez-DeRemer told Breitbart News. “They know we want that to grow and it has grown. Hourly wages have grown. We want the worker to be skilled—whatever skills they desire, we want to be able to provide for that in this country so they can choose where they want to earn their dollars and then they can keep those hard-earned dollars in their pockets. That’s why he’s doubling down on the no tax on tips—those kinds of things, when the American worker says ‘this is what I want to do, here’s how I want to keep my money,’ and he says ‘you know what? You should have the freedom to grow and live the American dream the way you choose.’ The Department of Labor as part of that equation is grow the apprenticeship program, grow the young talented workers we have in this country, and then let’s get them the jobs they want to do and not focus necessarily always on the four-year higher ed—it’s the skilled trades we need to build back the manufacturing losses we’ve seen over the last four years.”
Chavez-DeRemer has a huge picture of Trump hanging in her office, which she told Breitbart News she has up so everyone who comes in to meet with her knows where her priorities are. “I’m honored to work for the president of the United States—I can’t say that enough,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “You can probably tell by the photo I have of him on my wall. When people walk in here, that is who I’m working for and it couldn’t be clearer. I’m honored to do it.”
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer met with Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle for an exclusive interview in her office at the U.S. Department of Labor.
Each month since Trump’s return to the White House, jobs numbers have defied expectations and Chavez-DeRemer said that is because the president’s broad vision for the U.S. economy is working. She said the president’s focus is primarily on workers and families—and pointed to the president’s trip to the Middle East last week as well as the recently-announced United Kingdom trade deal and the talks with China that commenced earlier this month.
“We’ve seen the numbers grow 228,000 the first month, 177,000 the next month—we’re seeing it in the manufacturing sector and construction,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “We’ve even seen healthcare jobs go up. That plays right into the president, and what he’s done in terms of lowering drug prices. Everything he does is for the American worker and family as well. He sees the future. He’s got kids and grandkids. I have my first grandkid being born as well. You start to think about how can we not only level the playing field so that everybody can choose where they want to be in the workforce and grow this economy. He’s a master negotiator. I don’t think I have to tell anybody that anymore because I think we’ll see it on TV. We’ve seen it in the Middle East, we’ve seen it with the U.K., and we’ve seen every country and now I’m going to guess that China is going to be next and they’re going to want to have those talks as well. But leveling the playing field for not only American workers—it matters what he’s doing overseas. Oftentimes when you’re having these tariff talks, does that benefit the blue collar worker? Absolutely it does. It’s going to benefit the businesses who are on-shoring or re-investing $8 trillion. We see company after company coming in saying $50 billion, $100 billion—that means they’re investing here in America and they’re going to need the workforce behind it. So eventually, you’re going to see that everybody is going to be able to grow their own family economy, right there in their home, and a have a mortgage-paying job which is what most people strive for.”
Chavez-DeRemer also told Breitbart News she expects more nations to join the United Kingdom very soon in finalizing and announcing trade deals with the United States.
“It’s historic—what he’s done is historic,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “Everybody also was watching, and they should be watching, as he’s building these relationships with other countries and this capital. He’s had these relationships for a lot of years. The diplomacy he is exercising I think is key for the United States. But we were talking about specific trade deals, and expectations—well, if you’re built on what’s happened in the past and historical data, it worked in Trump 1 and he’s exercising it in Trump 2. We’re realizing it very quickly, so based on what I’m seeing, is my expectation that more deals will come to the table? Of course.”
More from Chavez-DeRemer’s exclusive interview with Breitbart News is forthcoming soon.
The White House is pointing to five key reasons it believes lawmakers should support the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which is headlined by tax cuts.
The Trump adminsitration issued a press release Friday afternoon underscoring the tax overhaul, as well as the measures to boot illegal aliens off of Medicaid, to make permanent President Donald Trump’s border security measures, modernize air traffic control, and to halt tax dollars from going to child sex change procedures.
On the tax front, the White House touts that the bill includes permanent tax cuts, which it estimates will save Americans an additional $5,000 on average. The bill also includes Trump’s key campaign promises of nixing taxes on overtime and tips, while also cutting taxes on social security benefits for seniors.
Workers making $30,000-$80,000 annually would see about a 15 percent drop in taxes under the bill’s current form.
The administration points to a provision that would remove 1.4 million illegal aliens from Medicaid rolls as a second reason to back the bill.
Thirdly, the release underscores how “The One Big Beautiful Bill” addresses the southern border, including the hundreds of miles of border wall it would greenlight if it becomes law.
“As a result, 701 miles of primary wall, 900 miles of river barriers, 629 miles of secondary barriers, and 141 miles of vehicle and pedestrian barriers will be constructed — along with cutting-edge technology that will secure our homeland for generations to come,” the White House notes.
The White House also touts that the bill would give the necessary resources to Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out “at least one million annual removals.” Additionally, it would direct the hiring of “10,000 new ICE personnel, 5,000 new customs officers, and 3,000 new Border Patrol agents.”
As a fourth reason to back the bill, the White House notes that it includes a major update of air traffic control systems. Finally, it would block Medicaid funding for sex change treatments on children.
WASHINGTON, DC — Senior adviser and assistant to the president Steve Witkoff told Breitbart News that any reports of a rift between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are fake news and “preposterous.”
“I’ll tell you, first of all, it sounds like we have a very similar thought process that half these reports we discount so maybe we should discount more than half,” Witkoff said in an exclusive interview filmed at the White House last week when asked about such reports. “I think this report is going to be deadly accurate here, but Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli people are a staunch ally of the United States and it goes back the other way. I’ve been at multiple meetings with the president and the Prime Minister—they’re friendly. They’re good friends in fact. That doesn’t mean they agree on absolutely everything and I think that’s the tendency, right? You have a newspaper person who hears about a small disagreement about something that normal human beings like me and you would pay no attention to, but that particular newspaper reporter then conflates that into some large article about some massive issues that they have? It’s preposterous. Israel is a great partner for the United States, strategically, economically, we think very much alike, we have very similar objectives. They don’t want to see a weaponized nuclear state in the state of Iran. And so, I don’t think there’s much daylight between how they think and how we think from a foreign policy perspective.”
Witkoff’s comments come ahead of Trump’s visit to the Middle East this week, where the president is set to go to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. They also come as Witkoff on Sunday meets with representatives of the Iranian government for the fourth time this year in Oman as he seeks to hammer out a nuclear agreement between Iran and the U.S.
Last week, Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported in Hebrew citing two anonymous sources close to Trump that the president was “disappointed” in Netanyahu and was deciding to go it alone in the Middle East separate from Israel. That Witkoff is dismissing that report is a very big deal, and likely welcome news in Israel as Israelis have been somewhat uneasy watching Trump’s inner circle push toward deals with Iran and to end the war in Gaza.
Notably, Netanyahu himself has spoken very highly of his interactions with Trump this year. After his summit in February with Trump, Netanyahu told Breitbart News it was the “best meeting ever” between an Israeli Prime Minister and an American president. As such, it’s been hard to believe that the two sides would have gotten so far off the rails after starting this year so strongly.
Witkoff has been instrumental in negotiations in Gaza and with Iran, and asked where things stand in Gaza he said he is disappointed that all the hostages have yet to be released but holds out hope that Hamas will relent and release them soon. But he said that Hamas has not accepted what he views as a reasonable deal for nearly two months now, and he still thinks Hamas should “say yes to it.”
“There are some aspects of it that are disappointing to me,” Witkoff said. “I wish we could have gotten the last group of hostages out. We may still get them out. I think that it’s a tense negotiation. We’re in talks every single day. We’re in talks with the Israelis, we’re talking to the Qataris, the Egyptians, the Emiratis—everybody is focused, particularly as the president’s trip is coming up, to get a better result, a peaceful result. We’re hoping that we can do that without the Israelis having to go in. There’s some talk about that but I hope it doesn’t have to happen. We have a deal on the table that Hamas could have taken six weeks ago. I’ve discussed this with the Israelis at length and the other stakeholders in this process. Hamas should say yes to it. It is a path to a peaceful dialogue and maybe even a peaceful, long-term, durable solution to this. But Hamas is going to have to demilitarize, and they’re going to have to quickly get to the terms we’ve set forth and we hope that they do.”
Asked why Hamas is not accepting the terms of the negotiation, Witkoff said he cannot logically explain “their intransigence” but also suggested some of their conditions might be getting lost in translation as he and the U.S. are not directly communicating with Hamas but talking to them through intermediaries. He said he would possibly be willing to talk to Hamas directly if the president ordered him to, but really cast doubt on whether it is a good idea for the U.S. to be communicating with a terrorist organization.
“I wish as a sensible person that I could explain their intransigence,” Witkoff said. “I wish I could. But I can’t. Remember, I’m not talking to them directly so there’s some dilution because we’re talking to them indirectly through people and indirectly is not necessarily the best way to negotiate but in this particular circumstance talking to a terrorist group? I might do it if the president allowed me to do it, but it doesn’t feel to me like something that we belong doing right now. They need—I have stated this publicly—they need to show us a sign they are prepared to act in a positive and proactive way that is better for the people of Gaza and that leads to a long-term durable peace. If they do that, I think they’ll get a good positive response from this country and if they don’t they won’t.”
More from Witkoff’s exclusive interview with Breitbart News at the White House is forthcoming.
Harry Potter and Monty Python and the Holy Grail actor John Cleese suggested in a now-deleted post on social media, that White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller be suspended by his neck over comments made regarding habeas corpus.
“I see Stephen Miller says he is actively thinking about suspending ‘habeas corpus,’” Cleese wrote in a now-deleted post on X. “As this has been the keystone of the Rule of Law for centuries, I’d like to suggest that we actively think about suspending Stephen Miller… Preferably by the neck.”
Cleese’s post comes as reports have surfaced that the Trump administration is thinking of suspending habeas corpus.
Per, ABC27 News, “habeas corpus is Latin for ‘that you have the body.’”
According to the Cornell University School of Law, habeas corpus is Latin for “that you have the body.” Cornell says in the United States, federal courts can use habeas corpus to determine if a state’s prisoner detention is valid. The writ, or order, of habeas corpus is used to “bring a prisoner or other detainee (such as an institutionalized mental patient or illegal immigrant) before the court to determine if the person’s imprisonment or detention is lawful.”
When asked by a reporter about how President Donald Trump had talked “about potentially suspending habeas corpus to take care of the illegal immigration problem,” Miller explained that “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion,” according to ABC News.
“The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the law, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion,” Miller said.
Miller also added that suspending habeas corpus was “an option” the Trump administration is “actively looking at.”
The vice chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, who was appointed to the post by President Joe Biden late last year, has been fired, a senior White House official confirmed to CBS News.
Alvin Brown’s ouster happened Tuesday. Brown, a Democrat who was the first African American elected mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, was appointed by Biden as the NTSB’s vice chair in December. Brown joined the five-person board earlier in 2024, being sworn in on the same day as Todd Inman, a Republican who was also appointed by Biden.
The NTSB is an independent agency with board members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve five-year terms. The president designates the chair and vice chair for three-year terms in those roles. The chair requires a separate Senate confirmation.
Alvin Brown attends an investigative hearing into the blowout of an exit door plug on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in Washington, Aug. 6, 2024.
Bryan Olin Dozier/Anadolu via Getty Images
The move leaves the NTSB with four board members — Inman along with Chair Jennifer Homendy, Michael Graham and Thomas Chapman — who were all appointed by President Trump during his first term in office. Homendy was appointed as the board’s chair by Biden.
The NTSB investigates all fatal general aviation accidents, including commercial accidents and incidents, as well as significant accidents across the various modes of transportation as well as pipeline accidents. The board does not have regulatory authority. Instead, it determines the probable cause of those accidents and makes safety recommendations to avoid similar ones in the future.
The board is currently investigating a host of aviation accidents, including January’s deadly midair collision over Washington, D.C., multiple fatal small planecrashes and last year’s blowout of an Alaska Airlines door panel midflight.
The NTSB declined to comment, directing inquiries to the White House.
Emmy Award-winning journalist Kris Van Cleave is the senior transportation correspondent for CBS News based in Phoenix, Arizona, where he also serves as a national correspondent reporting for all CBS News broadcasts and platforms.
