A pollution tariff would hold China accountable for environmental abuses, block tariff evasion, protect U.S. interests, and position America as a global trade leader
The “America First” trade agenda has consistently sought to restore fairness to America’s economic relationships, particularly with China, a nation notorious for exploiting uneven playing fields. Last month, President Trump was right to call out China for creating “filthy pollution havens” that encourage cheap and dirty production to undercut the American worker. China’s lack of environmental enforcement acts as a hidden subsidy for their manufacturers—one of the many devastated non-market barriers that the President has rightly cited as crushing working class Americans.
A pollution tariff – a fee on imports from countries with weak environmental standards – would offer the President a potent tool to counter China and hold them accountable. By targeting China’s environmental abuse, this policy thwarts Beijing’s ability to cheat, blocks their tariff evasion tactics, protects U.S. national security, and positions the U.S. as a global trade leader, rallying allies and isolating China.
China’s history of exploiting trade loopholes demands a policy that’s resistant to manipulation. The U.S. possesses a wealth of reliable, high-resolution data on China’s environmental performance, encompassing energy consumption, urban air quality, water contamination, and other critical pollution metrics. Advanced satellite imagery, third party environmental reports, and on-the-ground monitoring provide an unfiltered, real-time view of whether China is genuinely aligning with its promises or merely paying lip service while cutting corners. This transparency makes cheating nearly impossible. Unlike traditional trade agreements, which often rely on ambiguous enforcement mechanisms, a pollution tariff is anchored to verifiable, data-driven outcomes. If China claims to enforce laws on air pollution and industrial waste and require its industry to play by the same rules as U.S. manufacturers, we can rigorously cross-check those assertions against concrete evidence, ensuring tariff relief is granted only for authentic, measurable actions.
The ability to monitor China’s environmental practices has significant national security implications as well. China’s lax environmental standards often go hand-in-hand with its opaque industrial practices, which can mask activities that threaten U.S. interests, such as the production of dual-use technologies. By leveraging cutting-edge surveillance tools, such as satellite data and international monitoring networks, a pollution tariff not only holds China accountable for environmental negligence but also enhances our visibility into their industrial ecosystem. This transparency would reduce the risk of strategic surprises and ensure that our trade policies align with broader geopolitical objectives. The tariffs would fit seamlessly with President Trump’s demand for accountability in trade while safeguarding America’s economic and security interests against a rival known for exploiting every available advantage.
The pollution tariff’s strength lies not only in its enforceability but also in its ability to neutralize China’s go-to evasion tactics. China has long dodged U.S. tariffs by rerouting manufacturing through third countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, or Mexico. A pollution tariff shuts this door. Most nations China uses to circumvent tariffs lag far behind U.S. environmental standards, with weak regulations and minimal enforcement. By applying the tariff to goods from any country failing to meet America’s environmental benchmarks, we render these workarounds ineffective. This ensures China can’t exploit weaker environmental regimes to undercut American businesses, reinforcing Trump’s commitment to closing trade loopholes.
The broader implications of a pollution tariff extend far beyond U.S.-China trade, presenting a golden opportunity to cement American leadership on the global stage. Allies like Canada, Japan, and the European Union, which already champion rigorous environmental standards, will see it as a model for actions of their own. By taking the lead, the U.S. could compel these allies to adopt similar tariffs, creating a coordinated international effort to hold polluters like China accountable. Such a move would amplify the economic and diplomatic costs for China’s persistent environmental negligence, isolating it within the global trade system and exposing its reliance on cheap and dirty manufacturing.
This ripple effect would reshape global trade dynamics in America’s favor. Global demand for clean, American-made products would increase, taking back market share from China. The tariff would also set a new global benchmark for trade, redefining fairness to reward America’s strengths as a leader in cleaner manufacturing and innovation. This strategic alignment enhances U.S. leverage in trade negotiations, allowing the U.S. to dictate terms that prioritize its economic and strategic priorities.
A pollution tariff is a natural extension of President Trump’s trade agenda, perfectly aligned with his mission to protect American economic and national security. It would also force China to clean up its mess on the planet. Adopting a pollution tariff sends an unequivocal message: America will no longer tolerate China’s pollution haven free ride.
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Panic as US vacation rental boom collapses and owners rush to sell at steep discounts
Vacation homes are being dumped at a rapid rate as fresh fears of a housing market crash — and a shrinking pool of renters — rattle sellers.
The number of people buying second homes has plunged to its lowest level since records began, and is under a third of what it was during the pandemic boom.
A toxic mix of sky-high mortgage rates, soaring maintenance costs, and a widespread return-to-office push is fueling the trend.
In 2024, just 86,604 mortgages were issued for second homes across the United States.
That’s a 5 percent drop from the year before and down dramatically from the 258,289 in 2021.
At the height of the pandemic, remote workers who could afford it were fleeing big cities in droves and buying up homes in sunny spots like Florida and California.
Those days are over.
Vacation homes (second homes) made up just 2.6 percent of all US mortgages last year, according to a new analysis from Redfin. That’s half what it was in 2020.
Redfin began keeping records in 2018, when there were 175,644 second home mortgages in the US. They rose after that steadily until 2021 and have been falling since.
‘Most people aren’t buying vacation homes at all because mortgage rates and insurance costs — especially for waterfront properties — have skyrocketed,’ said Lindsay Garcia, a Redfin Premier agent in Fort Lauderdale.
It’s even worse for owners who depend on rental incomes to keep the home.
Airbnb demand has crashed and rental rates are priced too high, and landlords who want a quick profit just aren’t getting it.
Even the ultra-wealthy are ditching the vacation home.
They’re too expensive to hold onto while the markets are so risky.
In 2024, the average second home cost $495,000.
Mortgage rates have skyrocketed, driving up the overall monthly cost of maintaining a second home. It’s just not worth it for many.
Some were simply forced to sell as in-office mandates came back and full-time remote work is no longer an option.
In particular, Florida, once a vacation home buyers playland, is seeing the most second home listings hit the market.
In Miami, vacation-home mortgages plunged 32.2 percent in 2024.
Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Tampa also saw huge drops.
Florida has a major problem due to rising insurance premiums, soaring HOA fees, and the constant threat of natural disasters turning many buyers off.
in the Northeast, Maine is also seeing a problem.
Second-home owners there are racing to offload their properties, spooked by fears of a house price crash and their financial future.
Maine once topped the nation for vacation ownership — nearly 1 in 5 homes there were second residences as of 2019.
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CA’s estimated $10B deficit ‘precisely’ matches illegal immigrant health care cost
California legislators have been told to expect a deficit of $10 billion or more even if revenues do not fall due to higher than anticipated spending, reports Politico.
Critics note that the $10 billion figure matches estimated costs of the state’s expansion of eligibility for Medi-Cal, the state’s taxpayer-financed health care system, to all income-qualifying illegal immigrants.
“What a fiscal coincidence: precisely the estimated cost of Gavin Newsom’s plan to extend state Medi-Cal to illegal immigrants,” said Will Swaim, president of the conservative California Policy Center on X.
Earlier this week, the state-funded Legislative Analyst’s Office warned the state’s economy is “stagnant” and “fragile” and that the budget is reliant on an “unsustainable” stock market. Earlier Friday, the LAO urged lawmakers to consider the possible negative downturn that tends to but does not always accompany significant decreases in consumer sentiment.
“If hard economic data fall in-line with worrisome economic indicators, the state’s revenue outlook will turn more negative; however, recent history suggests this outcome is far from certain,” wrote the LAO. “As such, we urge policymakers to weigh the risks of both the possibility of a further downturn and of better than expected growth when making budget decisions.”
Last year, the state narrowly closed a $73 billion deficit through a combination of spending cuts, deferrals, shifts, and reserve withdrawals.
Now, even if state tax revenue remains steady, rising non-discretionary spending, such as from Medi-Cal, combined with possible cuts or funding withholding at the federal level could leave the state billions of dollars short yet again.
Federal spending in California is set to be $171 billion this year.
In February, state officials said California had spent $9.5 billion thus far on Medi-Cal services for illegal immigrants, The Center Square first reported, resulting in California Gov. Gavin Newsom requesting a $6.4 billion emergency bailout to fund the program for the remainder of the fiscal year.
In April, Newsom bragged about the strength of the California economy, sharing it’s now the world’ fourth-largest economy in U.S. dollars — due to the relative decline of the Japanese yen to the dollar. After accounting for the high cost of goods and services, California only barely edges out low-performing Italy, and the state has shed hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs amid lower projected sales and corporate tax revenue.
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