Reddit is taking Anthropic to court, alleging that the AI startup helped itself to the platform’s vast library of user-generated content — after saying it wouldn’t.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in a Northern California state court, Reddit accused Anthropic of unlawfully scraping the site more than 100,000 times since July 2024, despite having previously told Reddit that it had blocked its bots from doing so.

“This case is about the two faces of Anthropic,” Reddit’s legal team wrote in the filing. “The public face that attempts to ingratiate itself with claims of righteousness and respect for boundaries and the law and the private face that ignores any rules that interfere with its attempts to further line its pockets.”

“Reddit brings this action to stop Anthropic — who tells the world that it does not intend to train its models with stolen data — from doing just that.”

Anthropic spokesperson Danielle Ghighlieri said in a statement to The Verge that the company disputes Reddit’s claims “and will defend ourselves vigorously.”

The suit signals a broader battle over the material that underpins AI. Reddit — which has signed multimillion-dollar data licensing deals with Google (GOOGL) and OpenAI — has argued that its platform isn’t just another public website but a valuable archive of human conversation that shouldn’t be used without permission or payment.

“Reddit’s humanity is uniquely valuable in a world flattened by AI,” Reddit chief legal officer Ben Lee said in a statement. He told TechCrunch, “We will not tolerate profit-seeking entities like Anthropic commercially exploiting Reddit content for billions of dollars without any return for redditors or respect for their privacy.”

Reddit has said that it tried to negotiate a license with Anthropic and made it clear that the company wasn’t allowed to scrape data — only to discover that Anthropic allegedly kept siphoning data anyway. Reddit is asking for damages, restitution, and a court order barring further use of its data.

In the filing, Reddit calls Anthropic a “late-blooming” AI company “that bills itself as the white knight of the AI industry” — that “is anything but.”

The lawsuit also notes that Anthropic cited Reddit as a key training source in a 2021 research paper — underscoring that the platform’s data (queries and posts by real-life, everyday people) has been key in training AI systems such as Anthropic’s Claude.

The suit makes Reddit the first big tech company — not just a publisher or rights holder — to challenge an AI developer in court over training data. But Reddit is far from alone. Anthropic is already facing lawsuits from music publishers and authors who say their copyrighted works have been used without consent. OpenAI, Meta (META), and others are entangled in similar cases, including a high-profile suit from The New York Times (NYT).

For Reddit, the case is about more than legal boundaries — it’s about economic ones. The company recently went public and is looking to monetize the value of its nearly two decades of archived discussions. Its reported $60 million-per-year deal with Google, inked earlier this year, has helped set a baseline for how much AI companies might pay for access to high-quality training content.

And while Reddit has cut deals with firms such as OpenAI — whose CEO Sam Altman is Reddit’s third-largest shareholder — it says those agreements include user protections and proper compensation.

Meta has another privacy scandal on its hands, but this time with its AI chatbot equivalent to ChatGPT.

Some Meta AI user questions or prompts can be seen publicly, including links to their Instagram or Facebook accounts, phone numbers and email addresses, or even private or embarrassing information. The outlet Tech Crunch found people asking for information on tax evasion, liability in white-collar crimes, scantily clad animated characters, and other examples.

The company promises that “As always, you’re in control: nothing is shared to your feed unless you choose to post it,” and a user must select “share” and “post” before their requests become visible. Judging by some of the things made viewable, it’s perhaps unclear to many users that they’re broadcasting to the world. And if you open Meta AI via your public Instagram account without updating your privacy settings, your searches become visible also.

When Meta AI was launched on April 29, as a competitor to ChatGPT, the corporate blog said the “discover” feed feature would be “a place to share and explore how others are using AI. You can see the best prompts people are sharing, or remix them to make them your own.” 

Within a week, alarm bells were going off. Fast Company wrote a story with the headline, “Meta AI’s social feed is a privacy disaster waiting to happen.” Business Insider called the “discover” function “the saddest place on the Internet,” populated by “people sharing intimate information about themselves — things like thoughts on grief, or child custody, or financial distress.” 

Wired magazine asked the Meta AI chatbot about these concerns. It responded, “Some users might unintentionally share sensitive info due to misunderstandings about platform defaults or changes in settings over time. Meta provides tools and resources to help users manage their privacy, but it’s an ongoing challenge.” 

To turn off public settings in the app requires a user to select the “data privacy” tab under a profile photo where another tab encourages the user to “suggest your prompts on other apps”— it should be toggled off. The user must then return to the “data privacy” tab and select “apply all” to “make all your public prompts visible only to you.”

None of that might be that obvious to the average user.

While the Meta AI app has been downloaded only 6.5 million times since its launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in late May that the company’s AI assistant has one billion monthly active users across all of Meta's platforms.

The Trump administration may soon allow more corn in Americans' gas tanks.

The measure from the Environmental Protection Agency would compel refiners to blend biofuels into diesel or gasoline. Those refiners would have to mix about 24.02 million gallons in 2026, a new record. It's a step to discourage foreign imports from reaching the sector.

“We are creating a new system that benefits American farmers,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a release. “We can no longer afford to continue with the same system where Americans pay for foreign competitors.”

Soybean oil prices jumped after the announcement. It leapt 6.3% during Friday's market trading.

Still, other aspects remained unclear, such as whether small refineries would be exempt from the quotas, given the sheer blending capacity that's necessary to meet the Trump-backed standard. The measure falls under the Renewable Fuel Standard program, which was set up by Congress two decades ago to help boost rural communities.

President Donald Trump's megabill that's currently in the Senate includes a four-year extension of a biofuel tax credit, known as 45Z. But it undoes most other green energy tax credits that were unilaterally approved by Democrats in 2022 under their Inflation Reduction Act.

Consumer sentiment is improving for the first time in six months.

The University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers says buyers are feeling somewhat better about the U.S. economy — in the short term, at least. “Consumers still perceive wide-ranging downside risks to the economy,” it reads.

Consumer sentiment in May rose 16% from April’s numbers, although it remains 20% below December 2024, in what was a post-election bump before Donald Trump took office.

In the six months yet, as Trump declared a trade war, consumers were feeling much more hesitant amidst all the uncertainty. “Consumers appear to have settled somewhat from the shock of the extremely high tariffs announced in April and the policy volatility seen in the weeks that followed,” reads the report. “These trends were unanimous across the distributions of age, income, wealth, political party, and geographic region.”

The Survey of Consumers is a national poll conducted for the last 79 years, focusing on three areas: consumers’ own financial situation, and their short-term and long-term views on the economy’s overall prospects.

A June 9 report from Chief Executive revealed that consumer demand is the same or higher than last year, which in turn supports a report from the Conference Board at the end of May. The Chief Executive report rates CEOs’ confidence in the U.S. economy on a scale of 1 to 10: last month it nudged up from 5.0 to 5.3. Rodon Group CEO Michael Araten thinks “business conditions are likely to improve as trade war calms down and interest rates are reduced.” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has held interest rates steady, to the public chagrin of Trump.

Trump declared April 2 to be “Liberation Day” with a series of tariffs on every U.S. trading partner. One week later, he backed down, enacting a 90-day pause and claiming that his team could negotiate 90 trade deals in the next 90 days. They only have one: with the U.K. A “framework” with China was announced on June 12, but details are scarce. The 90-day pause ends on July 1.

Tariffs have yet to fully impact American consumers. That will start to change soon, particularly on home appliances starting June 23.

The Trump administration wants to make it easier for automakers to release self-driving cars that don’t have standard controls like steering wheels or brake pedals.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in a letter to stakeholders Friday said it was simplifying the process for auto companies seeking to be exempt from safety regulations compelling mirrors, brakes, and other traditional controls to be in vehicles. 

The NHTSA has the authority to grant exemptions up to 2,500 vehicles per manufacturer. But the process has proved time-consuming and frustrating for automakers hoping to secure a federal reprieve from safety guidelines. Many requests gather dust for years without the NHTSA taking action on the application.

“We’ve streamlined this process to remove another barrier to transportation innovation in the United States, ensure American AV companies can out-compete international rivals, and maintain safety,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in a statement. He added the current process “ensnares companies with  unnecessary red tape that makes it impossible to keep pace with the latest technology.”

The Biden administration set up an identical, slimmed-down exemption process for auto and tech companies last year with self-driving cars. But they obligated those firms to share data with the government to cultivate more transparency.

Tesla is about to release a highly-anticipated “robotaxi, set for June 22 as more self-driving cars hit the road. Waymo, another autonomous driving firm, already has fully driverless cars operating in Phoenix, San Francisco, and parts of Los Angeles and Austin.

—Shannon Carroll contributed to this article.

After almost three years on hiatus, BTS is about to make noise — not just on the charts, but in the global markets. By the time all seven members of the K-pop group complete their mandatory military service this month, they won’t just be lacing up for a comeback — they’ll be rebooting one of South Korea’s most potent economic powerhouses. 

Six members — Jin, j-Hope, RM, V, Jimin, and Jungkook — have finished their time in the army (not to be confused with their fandom, which is called ARMY) with the seventh, Suga, set to rejoin civilian life within days. And as much as fans are thrilled for all seven to be back in the recording studio, there’s another group that's equally hyped for the reunion: investors, economists, and South Korean officials who know exactly what the phrase “BTS comeback” means for the country’s GDP.

Because BTS isn’t just a group. It’s a global emotional support system, a cultural juggernaut, a fashion tour de force, a soft power flex, and — yes — a multibillion-dollar economic ecosystem. Its reunion is expected to ripple far beyond fans and music charts and straight into the Korean economy — and beyond. 

It won't be the first time BTS has had an outsized financial impact.

In 2019, a report from the Hyundai Research Institute estimated that BTS brought in over $4.65 billion annually to South Korea’s economy — on par with the contribution of nearly half a million average Korean workers. That figure doesn’t just include album sales or ticket revenue but also tourism, consumer products, language learning, streaming traffic, and even spinoff exports such as cosmetics and fashion.

When BTS played a one-off, free concert in Busan in 2022, in support of the city’s World Expo bid, the event attracted over 50,000 visitors and was estimated to contribute more than $500 million in economic value. A post-hiatus world tour could easily multiply that impact several times over. 

But beyond the hard numbers, BTS represents a kind of cultural capital that few other entities — not even K-pop as a whole — can replicate. The group is arguably the single most influential driver of the so-called “Korean Wave,” or “hallyu,” which has reshaped global pop culture over the past decade. Its influence has helped make Korean fashion, food, and entertainment (think: K-dramas) aspirational worldwide, fueling growth for everything from Netflix subscriptions to LVMH investments in Korean brands. (The members all have brand deals with top fashion companies.) In recent years, Korean has become one of the fastest-growing languages studied on apps such as Duolingo.

South Korea’s tourism board has repeatedly credited BTS with helping drive inbound travel, and in pre-pandemic years, nearly 8% of tourists cited BTS as one of their reasons for visiting. And now, BTS has reasserted its market power: Shares in HYBE, the group’s agency, surged 7% in a single day in early June, hitting a 38-month high after news that RM, V, Jimin, and Jungkook had officially completed their service. Analysts see the group’s return as a bullish signal for HYBE (which has expanded into the U.S) and for the broader entertainment and media complex built around K-pop’s global reach.

The group’s post-military plans are still under wraps, but expectations are high for new music by the end of 2025, followed by a global tour that could easily become one of the most lucrative in history. BTS’s last full-scale tour, “Love Yourself: Speak Yourself,” grossed over $200 million — without even covering the globe. A four-night run of performances for a “Permission to Dance on Stage” in late 2021 likely injected more than $100 million into the Los Angeles economy via tourism, hospitality, and related spending; and the four-night Las Vegas leg generated over $160 million in tourism and associated economic activity.

A post-pandemic, post-hiatus version could easily knock those numbers out of the park, with knock-on effects in every city the group plays. Flights, hotels, restaurants, and local retail often see major surges in BTS-connected cities, especially given the group’s unusually mobile — and highly dedicated — international fanbase.

That level of fandom has made BTS not just a cultural product but an economic ecosystem. HYBE has built a digital platform — Weverse — that has become a key monetization engine for fandoms: a $100 million revenue stream—high-margin, digitally savvy, and ready to monetize fandoms like never before. Through livestreams, merchandise, and artist-to-fan interactions, HYBE has been able to drive recurring revenue even without new BTS music.

But perhaps the most valuable impact is the hardest to quantify. BTS’s success has reframed how South Korea is seen on the global stage — transforming the country’s image from tech-forward but culturally niche to trend-setting and culturally magnetic. BTS is mentioned alongside Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho, soccer star Son Heung-min (who called BTS “national heroes”) as the country’s biggest exports. BTS has been invited to speak at the UN, partnered with UNICEF, and collaborated with South Korea’s Ministry of Culture to promote tourism. 

As a soft power asset, BTS arguably rivals the likes of the Olympics or a global sporting franchise. The difference is: BTS is still running. And now, the group is entering a new era. And to say its fans are excited is an understatement (just ask this author). Analysts at Hana Financial have called BTS “a strategic national asset,” and government officials have quietly echoed the sentiment. 

Few other music groups could be credited with moving national GDP — but then again, few other music groups could ever be BTS.

You’ve probably never heard of dysprosium or neodymium, but Tesla vehicles, F-35 fighter jets, and your iPhone rely on them heavily. They’re two of the 17 elements known as rare-earth elements (REEs) — a bit of a misnomer because they’re actually not particularly rare. What is rare, however, is the ability to process them. And that’s a big problem.

Today, China controls nearly all global processing of rare earths, while the U.S. is scrambling to catch up. As demand surges for electric vehicles and high-tech defenses, these somewhat obscure elements sit at the heart of the 21st-century economy — and have increasingly become one of the biggest flashpoints in the escalating U.S.-China trade war.

Here’s what you need to know about rare earths — and why the stakes are suddenly so high.

What are rare-earth elements, really?

Despite the futuristic ring of the term “rare earths,” they’re not exotic minerals beamed down from space. Rare earths are found in abundant quantities throughout the Earth’s crust, but they rarely appear in concentrations high enough to be easily extracted and refined — and to make doing so economical. 

Instead, these elements are often mixed with radioactive rock — think of a fruit salad of minerals, where the flavors are the REEs and the rest is, well, literally trash.

Rare-earth elements (REEs) fall into two main camps: light and heavy — terms given based on their atomic weights. Light REEs, such as neodymium and praseodymium, are more common and primarily used in industrial applications such as permanent magnets for electric vehicle (EV) motors, wind turbines, and consumer electronics. Heavy rare earths, such as dysprosium and terbium, are far less common and significantly harder to process — and are more heavily restricted. They’re essential for more specialized uses, including high-performance magnets, military hardware, and advanced clean-energy technologies.

A single F-35 fighter jet, for example, contains around 900 pounds of rare-earth materials — an eye-watering amount for elements most people have never heard of. Your iPhone? It may only contain a few grams, but it wouldn’t work without them.

China’s metallic grip on the supply chain

China doesn’t just mine rare earths — it refines nearly 100% of the global heavy REE output and the majority of light ones (about 90%). That means even if the U.S., Australia, or other countries dig them up, they typically send them to China for separation, refining, and magnet production.

This choke point gives Beijing formidable economic (and strategic) leverage — one that it has increasingly shown a willingness to use. In late 2023, China required companies to apply for export licenses to ship certain heavy REEs, catching global industries off guard. Officials described the move as a routine regulatory update, but industry experts and national security analysts saw it as a thinly veiled threat: China is ready to weaponize its control of critical minerals. ​​“China could use its dominant position in the rare earth market to gain leverage in trade negotiations,” the U.S. Congressional Research Service noted in a 2023 report. 

In 2025, things escalated. This spring, Beijing added seven key rare-earth elements to its dual-use export control list, requiring special licenses for overseas shipments. Soon after, it rolled out a sweeping permit system for high-performance rare-earth magnets. The fallout was immediate. Shipments stalled for weeks, then months, especially for companies with heavy U.S. exposure. While European and Southeast Asian buyers received some preferential treatment, American companies were largely frozen out. Tesla reportedly saw rare-earth–related parts delays that dented production.

Then came the pivot. 

Following high-stakes trade talks in London this month, China agreed to ease some restrictions — but only slightly. Magnet export licenses were granted again, with a catch: They now expire after just six months. It’s a classic geopolitical feint — lift pressure long enough to restart negotiations, but keep the threat close. Beijing hasn’t issued a blanket ban. Instead, it’s playing a longer game, using a rolling-export-permit strategy to maintain leverage while staying (technically) within the rules — showing how China can legally “weaponize” critical materials without outright bans.

Why the auto industry feels rare-earth restrictions first

Of all the industries caught in the crossfire, the automotive sector might be the most vulnerable. Automakers — especially EV-makers — are on the front lines of the rare-earth squeeze. Some are reportedly in a “full panic,” because most electric vehicles use permanent magnet motors made with rare earths (such as neodymium and dysprosium). These magnets are compact, powerful, and crucial for improving EV range and energy efficiency. Even traditional gas-powered cars use rare earths in components such as power steering systems, fuel economy sensors, and braking mechanisms.

In short: No rare earths, no car.

Some automakers, including Tesla, have reportedly begun exploring rare-earth-free motor designs. But these alternatives often come with tradeoffs: larger size, lower performance, and reduced energy efficiency. Most companies aren’t ready to pivot away from REEs anytime soon, especially as demand for EVs continues to soar.

Can the U.S. catch up?

It’s trying, but the road is long — and uphill.

The only active rare-earths mine in the United States is Mountain Pass in California, owned by Nevada-based MP Materials. While it produced a record 1,300 tons of neodymium-praseodymium oxide in 2024, the U.S. still lacks domestic facilities to process heavy rare earths at a commercial scale.

The Department of Defense has committed more than $439 million under the Defense Production Act to jumpstart a domestic supply chain, funding projects from mining and refining to magnet production. The goal: to create a full “mine-to-magnet” infrastructure in the U.S. But analysts warn that even with significant federal support, domestic production won’t be able to meet demand until at least 2026 — and maybe much later.

The Biden administration prioritized rare-earth independence as part of its broader clean energy and national security agenda. But the issue could escalate under the second Trump administration. President Donald Trump has reportedly floated the idea of expanding the use of the Cold War-era Defense Production Act and at hinted at building a “rare earth reserve” modeled after the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to hedge against future shortages.

MP Materials would be a big beneficiary. Bloomberg reported that Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg is working to line up funding for the company, which has already received millions from the department. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a recent congressional hearing that MP Materials “is a great example of a place where we can partner with industry,” adding that Feinberg is focused on sourcing REEs.

China, for its part, seems to be continuing to tighten controls. But as the U.S. and its allies ramp up their efforts to diversify sourcing and build parallel supply chains, experts warn that the next few years could see serious disruptions — not just for EV-makers, but for defense contractors, clean-tech companies, and advanced manufacturing more broadly.

Strategic minerals, strategic era

In the short term, the U.S. and Europe will likely lean more on stockpiles, subsidies, and partnerships with friendly mining countries such as Australia and Vietnam. But many of those countries still send their ore to China for processing, at least for now.

In the long term, control over rare earths may determine who leads the global economy. Much like oil in the 20th century and semiconductors in the 21st, rare earths are becoming a strategic asset — one that could shape industrial policy, trade negotiations, and military power for decades to come.

They may not be household names yet. But in the shadow war over the future of energy and tech, rare earths are the most essential elements you’ve maybe never heard of.

Retail giants like Walmart, Amazon, and Expedia hope that you will one day make your purchases using stablecoins, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

If the Genius Act passes the Senate, then a new regulatory framework for stablecoins would make it easier for merchants to save billions of dollars in fees that they now pay to credit-card companies and other middlemen, by issuing their own stablecoins.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies backed by cash reserves, intended to be at parity with government fiats, i.e. the U.S. dollar. They are generally used by crypto traders who want to keep their money invested on a crypto exchange and easily go in and out of different crypto investments without paying high fees to cash out. They are also used for cash transactions between crypto businesses, and as a way to hold on to cryptocurrencies without the same risk of volatility.

In the hands of retailers issuing their own stablecoins, such tokens would effectively be in-house currencies, which would also allow for quicker transactions, especially across borders. If retailers’ stablecoins take hold, and see a bigger uptick than their experiments with in-house credit cards, the result could be catastrophic for the banking industry.

Unregulated, the coins carry an inherent risk. Almost all are backed by companies or other organizations that claim to have every invested dollar backed by fiat currency or assets with the equivalent value, yet there is no way to know for sure what the companies are actually holding.

Tether, the leading stablecoin operator, was fined $41 million in October 2021 for misstating its reserves; the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found that Tether only held 27.6% of what it claimed in fiat currency reserves.

In February, Consumer Reports and other groups asked lawmakers to vote against the Genius Act and a related bill, saying they “represent a crypto industry wish list, not an adequate regulatory regime that provides necessary oversight, customer protection, and stability.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, major retailers have also considered how to use others’ stablecoins, perhaps through a consortium. Megabanks like Bank of America are also considering such a move. Current Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was a big proponent of stablecoins when he was CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. 

—Scott Nover and Harri Weber contributed to this article.

Nvidia may still dominate the artificial intelligence chip market, but Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) is barreling ahead, and CEO Lisa Su believes the $500 billion tipping point is now closer than ever.

At the “Advancing AI” event in San Jose, California, on Thursday, Su made a bold announcement: AMD’s MI350 series — led by the MI355X — has began shipping earlier this month and delivers “35 times faster” inference performance than its predecessor, she said, which would dramatically accelerate AMD’s competitiveness in the global market.

What stood out in particular, though, was Su’s recalibrated market outlook. Previously, she predicted that the global AI processor would reach $500 billion in market revenue by 2028. Now, she’s projecting that the threshold will be surpassed in under three years.

“People used to think that $500 billion was a very large number,” she said after her presentation. “Now, it seems well within grasp.”

That projection is backed by AMD’s expanding portfolio. At the event, Su showcased the company’s coming MI400 series — the product, she said, which will position AMD as clear leaders over Nvidia’s available tech when AMD’s series debuts next year. Su said AMD is adding memory and components to access information more quickly, offering an important advantage. She also gave a glimpse of the 2026 “Helios” rack-scale server, which packs up to 72 of these chips and is built on open networking standards — an intentional pivot away from Nvidia’s closed NVLink architecture.

“The future of AI is not going to be built by any one company or in a closed ecosystem. It's going to be shaped by open collaboration across the industry,” Su said.

AMD has seen strategic partnerships follow. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined Su on stage at the event, remarking that initial specs for the MI400 were so ambitious he thought, “No way.” He confirmed OpenAI is working with AMD on the company’s MI450 chips. And major names such as Meta, Oracle, and xAI are already testing or deploying MI300X successors and supporting AMD’s modular approach. AI cloud provider Crusoe told Reuters that it’s planning to buy $400 million of AMD’s new chips.

Still, AMD’s challenges remain steep. 

Despite gains, the company still commands just a sliver of the market, while Nvidia continues to dominate with a 90–98% share. And AMD’s stock dipped 2.2% after the San Jose event — as investors are seemingly waiting for proof that momentum can translate into significant market share shifts. The company’s stock is down 3.26% year-to-date, while Nvidia’s is up 2.74%.

Nvidia’s software ecosystem remains the gold standard for developers, and its NVL72 rack-scale systems are deeply embedded across major data centers. The company’s integration of hardware and software makes it difficult for competitors to chip away at its lead — even with better pricing or open standards.

Additional headwinds linger for both companies, however. U.S. export restrictions — particularly on China-bound chips — could affect AMD’s revenue to the tune of around $1.5 billion this year. AMD is advocating for eased curbs, citing a Saudi deal as a step toward ensuring its technology remains globally accessible.

But as AI inference becomes the dominant workload, price‑performance and open architectures will become more and more significant. On Thursday, Su’s message was clear: AMD isn’t just ready to chip away at Nvidia, it wants to challenge it head-on — with silicon and systems that span the full stack.

If the global market for AI products and services truly surges past a trillion dollars in the next few years, as Bain & Company predicted earlier this year, AMD is positioning itself to claim a larger portion of the market.

The Trump administration said Thursday that it is extending tariffs to household appliances that contain steel and steel parts.

The Commerce Department posted a notice that “steel-derivative products” will be subject to new import taxes starting June 23. It's the first time President Donald Trump's tariffs will directly fall on these common household items.

The roster of affected appliances include:

• Refrigerator-freezers
• Washer-dryers
• Washing machines
• Dishwashers 
• Cooking stoves

The move comes after the Trump administration doubled tariffs on steel and aluminum to 50% last week, part of an ongoing effort to shield American products from foreign competition. Trump said on Thursday he might increase auto tariffs as well from their current 25% level.

“I might go up with that tariff in the not-too-distant future,” Trump said at the White House. “The higher you go, the more likely it is they build a plant here.”

Economists across the ideological spectrum have long held tariffs are a tax that eventually translate into price increases for consumers. Two months into Trump’s trade wars, there’s been a muffled effect on inflation. On Thursday, a new release of the Consumer Price Index showed inflation rose 2.4% in May compared to a year earlier. Experts still expect higher prices to hit American consumers later in the summer as stockpiles dwindle.

Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum align with a similar campaign he waged in his first term. He imposed tariffs on foreign-produced washing machines in 2018 to rev up domestic production, but it came at a sizable cost. Subsequent research indicated that 1,800 new jobs were created at a cost of $817,000 per job that was borne by U.S. consumers.