The economic boom promised by President Donald Trump centers on a single number: $17 trillion.
That’s the sum of new investments that Trump claims to have generated with his tariffs, income tax cuts and aggressive salesmanship of CEOs, financiers, tech titans, prime ministers, presidents and other rulers. The $17 trillion is supposed to fund new factories, new technologies, more jobs, higher incomes and faster economic growth.
“Under eight months of Trump, we’ve already secured commitments of $17 trillion coming in,” the president said in a speech last month. “There’s never been any country that’s done anything like that.”
Israeli and Hamas officials are set to hold indirect talks at an Egyptian resort Monday on a U.S.-drafted peace plan to end the ruinous war in Gaza on the eve of its second anniversary.
Many uncertainties remain about the plan presented by U.S. President Donald Trump last week, including the disarmament of the militant group — a key Israeli demand — and the future governance of Gaza. Trump has indicated an agreement on Gaza could pave the way for a Middle East peace process that could reshape the region.
Despite Trump ordering Israel to stop the bombing, Israel continued to pound Gaza with airstrikes, killing at least 19 people in the last 24 hours, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers have provided few public signs of meaningful negotiations to break an impasse on reopening the federal government as the shutdown entered its sixth day.
President Donald Trump says federal workers are already being laid off, and he’s blaming the Democrats. The possibility of layoffs escalates an already tense situation, without common ground or mutual trust among Washington lawmakers. Leaders in both parties are betting that public sentiment has swung their way, putting pressure on the other side to cave.
Meanwhile, a federal judge late Sunday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon, after a legal whirlwind that began hours earlier when the president mobilized California troops for Portland.
The same judge had blocked him from using Oregon’s National Guard the day before. Trump has also moved to deploy 300 National Guard troops to Chicago as federal immigration agents adopt increasingly combative tactics in the city.
Reagan Boschulte can be reached at bosc3829@stthomas.edu.
