Trump orders Treasury to stop minting “wasteful” pennies- National & International News – MON 10Feb2025
Treasury ordered to stop minting “wasteful” pennies, Trump says.
Trump announces 25% tariffs on aluminum and steel imports.
Hamas suspends hostage releases citing Israeli ceasefire violations.
NATIONAL NEWS
Treasury ordered to stop minting “wasteful” pennies, Trump says
In a new Truth Social post, President Donald Trump announced that he has instructed the new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant. In the post, Trump asserts that minting pennies costs “more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!”.
According to the US Mint’s 2024 annual report, distributing a 1 cent coin actually costs 3.69 cents. Other countries, including Canada, have stopped minting similarly denominated coins for similar reasons. Also worth noting, the nickel costs almost 14 cents to mint. Pennies have negligible purchasing power and are mostly used for making change due to sales taxes.
Various groups and officials have long called to do away with the penny, but previous Congressional efforts to do so have not been successful. This is one area where Trump has the authority to halt production through executive directives, though an act of Congress would be required to make the change permanent.
Some advocates for keeping the penny say that it boosts charity revenue and keeps prices lower. Other voices for keeping penny production going include the zinc lobby, since pennies are mostly made of zinc.
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Trump announces 25% tariffs on aluminum and steel imports
President Trump also announced that he would be imposing a 25% tariff on all aluminum and steel imports into the United States, “without exceptions or exemptions”. The White House says these new tariffs will go into effect on March 4. This will substantially increase the existing 10% tariff on aluminum and eliminate hundreds of thousands of tariff exemptions on both steel and aluminum. These tariffs will also apply to products that use foreign-made steel and aluminum.
Canada, China, and Mexico are the nation’s three biggest suppliers of imported aluminum and steel. The European Union will also be heavily affected. During his first term, Trump also imposed 25% tariffs on steel and 10% on aluminum. However, those tariffs were more limited and targeted than the blanket tariff being proposed now. Previously, Canada, Mexico, and Australia were exempted from steel and aluminum tariffs.
Trump also warned that he would impose retaliatory tariffs on countries that have imposed tariffs on goods from the United States. The EU has vowed to respond in kind.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Hamas suspends hostage releases citing Israeli ceasefire violations
Today, Hamas announced that it would be suspending further releases of Israeli hostages until further notice. The next release of hostages was due to take place this coming Saturday. Israel has accused Hamas of breaking the ceasefire agreement signed last month and responded by putting their military on alert for “any scenario in Gaza”.
However, Israel has committed several notable violations of the ceasefire agreement since it was signed. Since the ceasefire began, Israeli forces have killed Palestinians in Gaza on numerous occasions. Humanitarian groups within Gaza also say that Israel is still blocking certain types of aid they are required to deliver in the agreement (including water, tents, temporary housing and debris-removal equipment). In addition, Israeli attacks in the West Bank have displaced some 40,000 people and killed hundreds just in the last month.
These violations have been going on for weeks, but Hamas has not previously pushed back significantly for these violations alone. In the background, there are other factors, including widespread condemnation of Hamas for the “gaunt” appearance of the three most recently released hostages. For 16 months, Israel blocked most shipments of aid into the Gaza Strip, and particularly into the North, causing widespread famine. Despite this, most of the hostages released up to this point have been healthy and had not lost a significant amount of weight. Nevertheless, this criticism did not serve Hamas from a propaganda standpoint, even though rights croups have criticized the uniformly poor condition of Israel’s Palestinian prisoners.
Israel tries to poke holes in the ceasefire deal
Possibly more urgently, Israeli negotiators recently returned from Doha are reportedly trying to renegotiate parts of the deal in their favor. Specifically, they seem intent on delaying the progression towards phase two of the ceasefire, which requires the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. Israel withdrew troops yesterday from the Netzarim Corridor, which divides Northern from Southern Gaza. However, they still have a significant presence at the Philadelphi Corridor, which borders Egypt, and around the perimeter of Gaza.
Israel has been emboldened to push for these changes by President Trump’s recent rhetoric about the US taking over the Gaza Strip and expelling the Palestinian population. In response to today’s announcement from Hamas, Trump demanded that they release all the living hostages by Saturday, repeating his threat that “all hell is going to break out” if they do not. This demand contradicts the agreement, for which the US is one of the guarantors. The agreement calls for a gradual release of hostages from Gaza in exchange for a certain number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel each week.
Following its initial announcement, Hamas declared that they had announced the suspension more than 5 days in advance of the next scheduled exchange in order to allow time for more dialogue with all the partners to the agreement. Nevertheless, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made no secret of the fact that he is eager for a pretext to end the ceasefire and resume hostilities in Gaza.
