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President Donald Trump vowed to keep up his campaign of “swift and unrelenting action” in reorienting the nation’s economy, immigration and foreign policy in an unyielding address before Congress that left Democratic legislators to register their dissent with stone faces, placards calling out “lies,” and one legislator’s ejection.Trump’s prime-time speech Tuesday was the latest marker in his takeover of the nation’s capital, where the Republican-led House and Senate have done little to restrain the president as he and his allies work to slash the size of the federal government and remake America’s place in the world.The president’s address, clocking in at a record 99 minutes, added up to a defiant sales pitch for the policies that Trump promised during his campaign and leaned into during his first weeks back in office. Trump pledged to keep delivering sweeping change to rescue the nation from what he described as destruction and mistakes left by his predecessor. He seldom addressed his comments directly to the American people, who are trying to keep up with the recent upheaval, while repeatedly needling the Democratic lawmakers seated before him.Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who delivered the Democratic response following Trump’s speech, allowed that “America wants change, but there’s a responsible way to make change and a reckless way, and we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country and as a democracy.”Emboldened after overcoming impeachments in his first term, outlasting criminal prosecutions in between his two administrations and getting a tight grip on the GOP-led Congress, Trump has embarked on a mission to dismantle parts of the federal government, remake the relationship with America’s allies and slap on tariffs that have sparked a North American trade war.“It has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action,” Trump said of his opening weeks in office. “The people elected me to do the job, and I am doing it.”Trump, who has billionaire adviser Elon Musk orchestrating his efforts to slash the size and scope of the federal government, said he is working to “reclaim democracy from this unaccountable bureaucracy” and threatened federal workers anew with firings if they resist his agenda.Musk, who was seated in the House gallery, received a pair of standing ovations from Republicans in the chamber, as Trump exaggerated and shared false claims about alleged government abuse uncovered by the Tesla and SpaceX founder and his team of disrupters.Trump repeated false claims that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments, prompting some Democrats to shout, “Not true!” and “Those are lies!”Trump spoke at a critical juncture in his presidency, as voters who returned him to the White House on his promise to fix inflation are instead finding economic chaos. All the gains the S&P 500 have made since Election Day are now gone, while consumer sentiment surveys show the public sees inflation as worsening.Trump seemed prepared to double down on his trade policies, which experts have warned will raise prices for consumers.“Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them. Whatever they tax us, we tax them,” Trump said. At the same time, he tried to ease concerns about the resulting price increases, saying, “There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re okay with that. It won’t be much.”Trump said one of his “very highest priorities” was to rescue the economy and offer relief to working families. He promised to organize the federal government to lower costs on eggs and energy, blaming his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden for the situation and offering scant details of his own plans.Trump also called for the extension of his first-term tax cuts and additional federal funding for his border crackdown, including for his promised efforts at “mass deportation” of people in the U.S. illegally.He celebrated his crackdown on migration, saying, “But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.”Speaking about his promised tax cuts, Trump seemed to goad Democrats, saying: “I’m sure you’re going to vote for those tax cuts. Because otherwise I don’t believe the people will ever vote you into office.”The backdrop was the new economic uncertainty unleashed after the president opened the day by placing stiff tariffs on imports from the country’s neighbors and closest trading partners. A 25% tax on goods from Canada and Mexico went into effect early Tuesdayostensibly to secure greater cooperation to tackle fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigrationtriggering immediate retaliation and sparking fears of a wider trade war. Trump also raised tariffs on goods from China to 20%.Republicans were boisterous as Trump stepped to the lectern in the House, chanting “USA! USA!” as the president basked in the cheers. The GOP lawmakers were jubilant, having won a trifecta of the White House, Senate, and House in the elections. However, they face the challenging task of delivering on Trump’s agenda as well as avoiding a government shutdown later this month.Across the aisle, out-of-power Democrats set the tone early, with most remaining seated without applauding or making eye contact with Trump as he was introduced in the chamber.After several interruptions, House Speaker Mike Johnson jumped in and called for decorum to be restored in the chamber as Republicans shouted “USA” to drown out the cries from the other side of the aisle. Johnson then ordered Texas Rep. Al Green removed from the chamber.“It’s worth it to let people know that there are some people who are going to stand up” to Trump, Green told reporters after being thrown out of the chamber.Other Democrats held up signs criticizing like “Save Medicaid” and “Protect Veterans” during Trump’s remarks, seeking to drive public awareness to elements of Trump’s agenda they believed might offer them a pathway back to the majority.Some Democrats chose to highlight the impact of Trump’s actions by inviting fired federal workers as guests, including a disabled veteran from Arizona, a health worker from Maryland, and a forestry employee who worked on wildfire prevention in California.Trump also used his speech to address his proposals for fostering peace in Ukraine and the Middle East, where he has unceremoniously upended the policies of the Biden administration in a matter of just weeks. On Monday, Trump ordered a freeze to U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, ending years of staunch American support for the country in fending off Russia’s invasion.Trump recited a letter he received earlier Tuesday from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying that the wartime president wants to come back to the table after a explosive Oval Office meeting last week broke down negotiations for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. “We’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace,” Trump said. “Wouldn’t thatbe beautiful?”He also announced the arrest of a suspect in the 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed U.S. troops during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.Trump’s 1 hour and 39 minute speech was the longest annual address a president has ever delivered to Congress, breaking Bill Clinton’s record of 1 hour and 28 minutes.Watching from the gallery with first lady Melania Trump were guests including 15-year-old Elliston Berry, of Aledo, Texas, who was the victim of an explicit deepfake image sent to classmates.Other White House guests included relatives of Corey Comperatore, the former Pennsylvania fire chief who was killed as he protected his family during an assassination attempt on Trump last summer.Republican lawmakers cheered the conclusion of Trump’s address with chants that echoed his words after he was struck in the ear by a bullet: “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Stephen Groves and Kevin Freking in Washington, Darlene Superville in Kissimmee, Fla., and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report. Zeke Miller and Michelle L. Price, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Last summer, The Brandtech Group CEO David Jones and creative director James Dow went to Cannes Lions to convince the industry of the power in their companys GenAI tools. To show off what the tools could do, Jones and Dow declared they could create a brand in 59 minutes. The Brandtech Group made a spree of AI acquisitions over the past few years. The company’s crown jewel is Pencil, which it acquired in 2023. Pencil uses AI to create static and video ad creative, and as of December, it had generated more than 2.35 million ads for more than 5,000 brands, and processed $2.65 billion in media spend since 2018. Soon after the acquisition, the company launched a premium platform, called Pencil Pro, with Unilever and Bayer as launch partners. Midway through last year, Brandtech claimed it had already produced an average 48% drop in an ads cost-per-action and a 78% boost in return on ad spend compared to a brands baseline. In episode two of Brand New World, I decided to interrogate the claims of Jones and Dow with my own idea for a toothpaste brand as a way to get a peek under the hood of how these tools are significantly changing the advertising we see. What should the toothpaste brand look like? What should it be called? What’s the market analysis and growth strategy? Their answers were . . . impressive. I also spoke to Omnicom Advertising Groups chief operating officer Deepthi Prakash about TBWAs CollectiveAI platform. The Omnicom-owned agency launched the platform last summer. Its a collection of tools trained on the company’s past work to do everything from create social content and brand materials for clients, run ideas by synthetic audiences of any and every desired demographic, and use the company’s DE&I values to create more diverse casting, programs, and partnerships. This episode is about how ad agencies and other brand partners are retooling their services and business using AI, and how that is already impacting brand culture. And, of course, toothpaste. David Jones on the fears of GenAIs impact on creativity: One of the big fears people have is like, everything’s going to look the same. And my first answer to that is just go look at a reel of banking ads and car ads. And they all look the same. This isn’t an AI problem. This is a human problem. But actually you’re going to be able to do so much more to ensure that you can push your brands into different spaces. Omnicoms Deepthi Prakash on the value of ideas in the AI era: As creative becomes more automated, the volume of it is going to grow to an extent where it will be really hard to stand out. And brands are going to have to work a lot harder. And that means you can’t get away with just making campaigns anymore. You actually have to figure out what you stand for, and have a strong and differentiated position if you’re going to survive and not be diminished in your margins, your costs, and even the quality of your product. The content is not going to break through as easily when everybody else can also make it really fast and really cheaply. Feeding the model what the model has created will no longer be useful. Listen to the full episode for more. And if you missed Episode One last week, check it out here.
Category:
E-Commerce
For cryptocurrency investors, Donald Trump represents a great hope. In the libertarian paradise where tokens on blockchains pave the future of the financial system instead of banks, lenders, and brokerages, Trump could even be a prophet. Trump has cleared the way for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and coins with names youve never heard of to go to the metaphorical moon. He has promised to kneecap the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is tasked with reining in fraud on the traditional markets and was getting more comfortable with calling a spade a spade when cryptos acted like equities or trading platforms mimicked the highly regulated function of brokers. Earlier this week, Trump announced a Crypto Strategic Reserve in which the government would presumably use taxpayer money to buy and hold various cryptocurrencies. And on Friday, the White House will hold a crypto summit hosted by Trumps AI and crypto czar, the venture capitalist David Sacks. But one thing is holding him back from being a savior of decentralized finance: tariffs. (Well, really its his entire economic plan.) On Tuesday, tariffs went into effect on goods from China as well as neighbors Canada and Mexico. Not only did the traditional markets falter with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 1.3% and the S&P 500 dropping 1% as of midday, but the crypto markets took a hit too. The price of Bitcoin fell 1% and Ethereum dropped 1.2%. The Dow and Bitcoin have each erased all of their respective gains since Trump was elected in November. If youre wondering if thats a coincidence that the crypto market is moving in tandem with the stock market, its not. Cryptocurrency was long hailed as a hedge against inflation. So the theory goes: If the economy suffers, the price of goods will go up and the buying power of the U.S. dollar, the worlds reserve currency, will go down. In that scenario, itd be nice to have some alternative asset like precious metals or a digital currency that can bear the brunt ofor even thrive duringthe hard times. But Bitcoin and its peers became so popular in the mid-2010s that investors bought up a lot of it. Treasuries at companies like Microstrategy and Tesla hold billions of dollars in Bitcoin, crypto hedge funds abound, and there are even ways for retail investors to buy crypto on traditional markets such as through Bitcoin ETFs and even in their retirement plans. This intermingling often means that when traditional assets suffer, investors sell crypto and when crypto assets suffer, investors sell traditional assets. Their fates are intertwined. So, when Donald Trump announced his tariffs, both the stock market and the crypto market suffered. In other words, Trump cannot inflict pain on the stock market without sending those shockwaves through the crypto world too. Thats why his laissez-faire approach to digital assets wont workuntil he gets out of his own way, stops picking fights with neighbors and key trading partners, and does something that will actually improve the economy. Unless he does that, Kamala Harris will have been the better pick for the industry, even if she placed a cop on the beat.
Category:
E-Commerce
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