Raffensperger Eyes 2026 Georgia Race as Trump’s Tariffs Reshape U.S.-China Trade

Geor­gia Sec­re­tary of State Brad Raf­fensperg­er is sig­nal­ing a poten­tial 2026 run for gov­er­nor or U.S. Sen­ate, with posts on X indi­cat­ing strong hints but no firm com­mit­ment. Mean­while, a false report claimed Ama­zon planned to dis­play tar­iff costs, when only its low-cost Haul unit con­sid­ered it, spark­ing media onslaught. Media, includ­ing CNN, praised China’s defi­ance against Trump’s tar­iffs, high­light­ing patri­ot­ic rhetoric, while ignor­ing China’s prop­er­ty slump and down­grad­ed eco­nom­ic out­look. The U.S. closed a tar­iff loop­hole, end­ing duty-free imports under $800, impact­ing Chi­nese retail­ers like Temu and Shein, prompt­ing Chi­na to con­sid­er trade talks. Air­lines face loss­es from ground­ed car­go planes. Media fren­zy sur­rounds Trump’s Uni­ver­si­ty of Alaba­ma com­mence­ment speech, where he empha­sized job cre­ation, as Scott Bessent and Doug Bur­gum work on eco­nom­ic recov­ery, with a jobs report immi­nent.

• Raf­fensperg­er is get­ting ready to make a move. Is he going to run for gov­er­nor of Geor­gia or sen­ate? 
• Remem­ber we had the false report that Ama­zon, the media didn’t tell you that it was Ama­zon Haul, added a tar­iff line on their receipts. And CNN came to you yes­ter­day to say how patri­ot­ic Chi­na was and how they would eat frozen pota­toes before giv­ing into Trump. All of our net­works praised Chi­na for push­ing back. But we cov­ered the prop­er­ty slump and cities that are emp­ty. The for­eign finan­cial insti­tu­tions have down­grad­ed China’s end of year out­look. Today the US ends the Chi­nese tar­iff loop­hole rais­ing the cost of online goods. Chi­na was using the loop­hole, air­lines have con­tracts with these Chi­nese man­u­fac­tur­ers for con­sumers to pur­chase straight from the man­u­fac­tur­ing and because the pur­chase is under $800 it was duty free, the exemp­tion that Temu and Shein use to get these prod­ucts to US con­sumers so cheap. Today Chi­na says it’s eval­u­at­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of trade talks with the US. The air­lines are cry­ing because they have major car­go planes that have been fly­ing this duty free crap and now it is gone. 
• The media is going nuts over the Uni­ver­si­ty of Alaba­ma Com­mence­ment Speech. Trump is talk­ing to these grad­u­ates, Trump has paved the way for these young peo­ple to cre­ate these jobs. Scott Bessent and Doug Bur­gum are work­ing right now to turn the econ­o­my around.  
• Jobs report due out with­in hours.