News
25/02/26
Trump upbeat on economy despite tariff setback
Washington, 24 February (Argus) — President Donald Trump, facing curbs on his
tariff authority and concerns about his military threats against Iran, stuck to
his familiar upbeat take on the US economy and the success of his foreign and
trade policy during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. "After just one
year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation
like no one has ever seen before, and a turnaround for the ages," Trump told the
joint session of Congress. "America is respected again like never before." Trump
credited the economic "turnaround" to his tariffs, which he said brought in
"hundreds of billions of dollars" after he forced foreign countries to sign
trade and investment deals. "Everything was working well," he said. "We were
making a lot of money. There was no inflation, tremendous growth." Trump railed
against the "disappointing" decision by the US Supreme Court on 20 February to
strike down his emergency tariffs, which he said made foreign countries "happy".
Trump insisted that the trade deals he negotiated under the threat of the
now-invalidated tariffs will remain in place, because, he said, the foreign
governments know about "the legal power that I, as president, have to make a new
deal that could be far worse for them". At least one of those deals has now
stalled, because the European Parliament has paused the ratification of the
US-EU deal that involved a promise to scale up US crude and LNG supply to
Europe. Trump on Tuesday imposed a new, 10pc tariff on all US imports — with
exemptions for energy and some other products — for a period of 150 days to give
his administration a chance to reverse engineer some of the tariffs struck down
by the Supreme Court. He has threatened to raise those tariffs to 15pc. Trump
used the speech to tout his "energy dominance" agenda, which he credits with
increasing fossil fuel production and lower energy prices. US crude production
increased by 600,000 b/d during his first year in office, Trump said. The actual
increase in the past year is closer to 500,000 b/d, according to data from the
Energy Information Administration (EIA), which also expects production to
decline in 2027. Trump cited gasoline prices as low as $1.99/USG at a handful of
retail stations as proof that his policies were working. But consumers faced
higher prices for electricity and natural gas over the same period, eating into
savings on motor fuel. Natural gas prices at the Henry Hub benchmark rose by
more than 60pc last year, and EIA expects those prices will continue to rise,
driven by higher demand from LNG exports and data center power demand. Democrats
say that Trump's attacks on wind and solar projects, and phase-out of clean
energy tax credits, will result in consumers facing far higher prices in the
coming years as data center power demand surges. To address concerns about data
center-driven price increases, Trump unveiled what he called a "ratepayer
protection pledge", under which technology companies seeking to build new data
centers can build new, dedicated power plants rather than connect to existing
power grids. Data centers developers already have turned to building
"behind-the-meter" power plants, which allows them to bypass the complex
regulatory process for approving new generation and transmission infrastructure.
Iran in Trump's sights Trump during his speech accused Iran of trying to restart
its nuclear weapons program, even though he said the bombing raid he ordered in
June 2025 "obliterated" that program. Despite ongoing negotiations with Tehran,
"we haven't heard those secret words, 'We will never have a nuclear weapon'",
Trump said. "My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy, but one
thing is certain, I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror,
which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon." The US military buildup in the
region near Iran is the largest in decades, but the administration did not brief
lawmakers on the possible military options Trump is considering until shortly
before his speech. Top Democratic lawmakers, after a classified briefing by
secretary of state Marco Rubio on Tuesday, expressed concerns about what Trump
is planning to do and urged him to clearly articulate the potential risks of his
actions. "It is incumbent upon the president to make the case on what our
country's goals are, what our interests are, and how we are going to protect our
interests in the region," senator Mark Warner (Virginia), the senior Democrat on
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said after the briefing. "Wars in
the Middle East don't go well for presidents, for the country, and we have not
heard a single good reason for why now is the moment to launch yet another war
in the Middle East," representative Jim Himes (Connecticut), the top Democrat on
the House intelligence panel, said. By Haik Gugarats and Chris Knight Send
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