Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Trump's Fight to Revive American Jobs plus Mexico's Water Wars
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: It is one fifty in the morning. I have just
- 0:06Speaker 1: left the Capital and there is a one am vote
- 0:11Speaker 1: that is happening right now because of Democrats who forced
- 0:16Speaker 1: one am vote to protest Donald Trump and Elon Musk
- 0:20Speaker 1: and the agenda. This isn't a joke. I put the
- 0:24Speaker 1: video up on social media so you can see it
- 0:28Speaker 1: and welcome. By the way, it is nice to have
- 0:30Speaker 1: you on the Ben Ferguson Podcasts. I can't believe I'm
- 0:32Speaker 1: doing the show right now one fifty one am. I
- 0:36Speaker 1: am going to be joined with Senator Ted Cruz as
- 0:39Speaker 1: we are doing this special pod on an insane night
- 0:42Speaker 1: in Washington. We're also going to talk about the lads
- 0:45Speaker 1: with tariffs as well, and Mexico stealing water from America
- 0:50Speaker 1: that is shutting down farmers, all of that. As again,
- 0:55Speaker 1: it's one fifty one in the morning, and this is
- 0:58Speaker 1: while dysfunctional Washington actually is. Here is Senator Cruise and
- 1:03Speaker 1: I chatting about the big news and he's spent over
- 1:06Speaker 1: two hours in the Oval with the President on tariffs,
- 1:10Speaker 1: all of that for you right now. You spent some
- 1:12Speaker 1: time with the President today in the Oval office. Even
- 1:15Speaker 1: got a nice little challenge coin as well. So I did.
- 1:19Speaker 2: I spent about two hours in the Oval with President
- 1:21Speaker 2: Trump today and today was a very significant day. So
- 1:26Speaker 2: let's start. Yesterday was a phenomenal day. Yesterday, President Trump
- 1:34Speaker 2: paused the tariffs that he announced last week on April second,
- 1:38Speaker 2: and at the same time, he jacked up the tariffs
- 1:41Speaker 2: on China. The combination of those activities produced the greatest
- 1:48Speaker 2: single day increase in the stock market in the history
- 1:52Speaker 2: of the United States of America. Now, this week, I've
- 1:56Speaker 2: spent a lot of time talking to President Trump. We're
- 1:58Speaker 2: gonna break that down. We're gonna talk about the that
- 2:00Speaker 2: We're going to talk about the backstory of why the
- 2:04Speaker 2: President did that and what to expect next. We're also
- 2:07Speaker 2: going to talk about something the President did this evening.
- 2:11Speaker 2: You and I are talking. It is right now twelve
- 2:15Speaker 2: twenty five am, Thursday night.
- 2:18Speaker 1: And we're in the same place. This usually doesn't happen.
- 2:20Speaker 1: We're in the same time zone right now.
- 2:22Speaker 2: We're both in DC. Why are we in DC because
- 2:25Speaker 2: in a half hour I'm going to be on the
- 2:28Speaker 2: Senate floor. We have votes starting at one am. So
- 2:32Speaker 2: the Democrats are so angry, they hate Trump so much
- 2:36Speaker 2: that they are blocking the nomination for the Chairman of
- 2:39Speaker 2: the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And so look, I'm gonna
- 2:42Speaker 2: commend Republicans of the Senate. We're saying, all right, screw you,
- 2:47Speaker 2: because they are objecting they could delay the vote until tomorrow.
- 2:51Speaker 2: Tomorrow's now today because it's past midnight.
- 2:54Speaker 3: Yep.
- 2:54Speaker 2: So we're like, fine, we'll do it. Hang out tomorrow.
- 2:56Speaker 2: So hour, let's go. By the way, if the Democrats agreed,
- 3:00Speaker 2: we could have left at like six pm on Thursday.
- 3:03Speaker 2: But no, they're gonna drag all one hundred senators to
- 3:06Speaker 2: the floor at one in the morning. By the way,
- 3:09Speaker 2: we've got senators in their eighties, we've got senators in
- 3:12Speaker 2: their nineties.
- 3:13Speaker 1: I do not envy the guy who has that job
- 3:15Speaker 1: to wake up the center because you know they're asleep.
- 3:18Speaker 2: Yeah, look that this is where it helps being in
- 3:20Speaker 2: night owl. To be honest, I'm much happier doing a
- 3:23Speaker 2: one am vote than if they did a six am vote.
- 3:25Speaker 2: I'd be really pissed because because I, as you.
- 3:28Speaker 1: Know, believe you, I've seen you in the morning.
- 3:32Speaker 2: But by the way, I will say this, so so
- 3:33Speaker 2: you and I record the pod. We record it often
- 3:38Speaker 2: ten pm or eleven pm.
- 3:42Speaker 1: Let's keep going on. There we go. Now we're getting
- 3:44Speaker 1: into reality.
- 3:45Speaker 2: That's much more so the pod two days ago. We
- 3:47Speaker 2: finished at two thirty in the morning. Yes, and I
- 3:52Speaker 2: will say, I'm glad you used to do a morning
- 3:55Speaker 2: radio show. What time do your morning radio.
- 3:57Speaker 1: Show seven am has? When it started, I had to
- 3:59Speaker 1: be up in like up and adam, Thank the Lord,
- 4:01Speaker 1: I don't.
- 4:02Speaker 2: Do what you had to be awake.
- 4:05Speaker 1: I had to know what was going on, like I
- 4:06Speaker 1: mean it would be educated.
- 4:08Speaker 2: You had to presumably say something like charming and funny
- 4:10Speaker 2: and if someone's going to listen to you for two hours.
- 4:13Speaker 2: And I got to say when I was keeping up
- 4:15Speaker 2: till two and three in the morning and you were
- 4:16Speaker 2: getting up at six six thirty, I actually felt an
- 4:21Speaker 2: enormous degree of guilt. I'm like, I'm killing Ben.
- 4:24Speaker 1: Yes, you were, you were on your way. It was
- 4:26Speaker 1: the easiest way to get rid of me.
- 4:27Speaker 2: I don't want to kill you, Ben, I appreciate it.
- 4:29Speaker 2: I want to give you a grief and abuse you,
- 4:31Speaker 2: but I don't want you dead. I just just just
- 4:34Speaker 2: want you being roudly made fun of.
- 4:37Speaker 1: And there's a reason why they took me off that
- 4:40Speaker 1: show one day.
- 4:41Speaker 2: There's a reason, and and your boss in the Iheartworld, Julie.
- 4:45Speaker 2: She said, all right, Ben, I'm sparing you from the
- 4:48Speaker 2: morning show because we've decided that a dead Ben would
- 4:53Speaker 2: be a bad thing.
- 4:54Speaker 1: That is how I know what my life is valued
- 4:56Speaker 1: on this earth.
- 4:57Speaker 2: Right now, there you go, So and night. Also, Donald
- 5:01Speaker 2: Trump leaned in and engaged on an issue that may
- 5:05Speaker 2: sound esoteric, but it's actually a big deal, which is
- 5:08Speaker 2: Mexican water. Mexico has been stealing massive amounts of water
- 5:15Speaker 2: from Texas. This is an issue I've been leading the
- 5:17Speaker 2: fight on a very long time, and it's had an
- 5:20Speaker 2: enormously harmful impact on Texas farmers. I've been leading the
- 5:26Speaker 2: fight against it, and tonight the President, at my behest,
- 5:30Speaker 2: leaned in vigorously and said, Mexico, you will provide the
- 5:36Speaker 2: water that you have committed by treaty to provide, or
- 5:39Speaker 2: else they're going to be very serious penalties, tariffs, and sanctions.
- 5:44Speaker 2: It's a big deal. And I will use those two
- 5:46Speaker 2: words he did. As you and I are sitting here
- 5:49Speaker 2: at twelve twenty five am. The Mexican government is freaking out,
- 5:52Speaker 2: and you know what's going to happen. They're going to
- 5:54Speaker 2: provide the farmers of South Texas the water. I'm going
- 5:57Speaker 2: to walk you through the backstory of that. It is
- 5:59Speaker 2: a fascinating in terms of how international diplomacy has played
- 6:04Speaker 2: out and the advantage of a strong president who actually
- 6:07Speaker 2: fights for America versus the incredibly weak and an effective
- 6:12Speaker 2: president we had for the last four years.
- 6:13Speaker 1: Yeah. Good, it's a really cool story. We'll talk about that. Plus,
- 6:16Speaker 1: just like what happens in the Oval, the trinkets, the
- 6:20Speaker 1: trinkets are impressive. We'll tell you about that in the moment.
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- 8:17Speaker 1: All right, so let's just start with a little bit
- 8:20Speaker 1: of color here. I gotta say one of the most
- 8:23Speaker 1: fun things about going to the Oval Office is Donald
- 8:27Speaker 1: Trump loves having guests. Yes, and the swag that you
- 8:31Speaker 1: leave with is just the most incredible level of swag.
- 8:36Speaker 1: And he pays for it out of his own pocket.
- 8:38Speaker 2: He does.
- 8:39Speaker 1: It's not the taxpayers. So when I went in the
- 8:41Speaker 1: first time, it was in the last and forty five
- 8:44Speaker 1: in those years, and they asked if I would come
- 8:46Speaker 1: up for Stay the Union and prep and that, and
- 8:49Speaker 1: I was there the day to Stay the Union. And
- 8:51Speaker 1: at the end he's like Ferguson, He's like, I know,
- 8:53Speaker 1: you got three boys at home, what do you need?
- 8:55Speaker 1: And I'm like, miss President whatever, you know, if you'd sign,
- 8:58Speaker 1: He's in, no, no, come over here, and he walks you
- 8:59Speaker 1: around the corner into the room. He has this like
- 9:01Speaker 1: full swag room and he's like three different hats with
- 9:04Speaker 1: boys signs him. He's like, now one of your son
- 9:06Speaker 1: plays golf. He signs a pro V one ball from
- 9:08Speaker 1: then he gives me another sleeve. Then he gives me
- 9:10Speaker 1: a golf towel, and then he's like, and you're laughing
- 9:13Speaker 1: because you're in the oval office, and you're like, I'm
- 9:15Speaker 1: going to walk out of here with all this stuff.
- 9:17Speaker 2: To be fair, you're not in the oval.
- 9:19Speaker 1: Well, no, you're outside of it, but you walk back in.
- 9:21Speaker 1: You're like holding all this stuff in the olden you're.
- 9:22Speaker 2: In the little office next to.
- 9:24Speaker 1: The open yes, where the swag room is.
- 9:27Speaker 2: And what happened in that little room, which.
- 9:31Speaker 1: Is one of his favorite stories. He's like, you you
- 9:32Speaker 1: know where you are right now? Twenty five years Yeah,
- 9:34Speaker 1: He's like, you know where you are right now? And
- 9:35Speaker 1: I'm like, where am I right?
- 9:37Speaker 2: This is where Monica Lewinsky.
- 9:42Speaker 1: Did not have sex with that man?
- 9:45Speaker 2: But but but shall we say? I don't know, I can't.
- 9:53Speaker 1: Problem is I think I did it perfectly there.
- 9:56Speaker 2: I'm trying to find a way to say this.
- 9:58Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is he did not have sexual or
- 10:01Speaker 1: regulations with that woman quote unquote, but may have.
- 10:05Speaker 2: But it's also where the blue dress got sullied.
- 10:07Speaker 1: There you go, that's a great way of putting it.
- 10:09Speaker 2: And it would be in that room and you kind
- 10:12Speaker 2: of look around and it's sort of little and it's
- 10:14Speaker 2: now filled with if you can imagine the.
- 10:17Speaker 1: Uh make America great again hats, the forty forty five
- 10:21Speaker 1: dash forty seven. I mean it's it's it's legit.
- 10:25Speaker 2: And he has all these shells full of swag and
- 10:27Speaker 2: he like says, hey, what do you want? Take whatever
- 10:29Speaker 2: you want.
- 10:29Speaker 1: And by the way, there's nothing in there that you
- 10:31Speaker 1: can buy, so I it's either from there or you
- 10:33Speaker 1: don't like it's not it.
- 10:35Speaker 2: And he just does that and he pays for it
- 10:37Speaker 2: all like he's out of his like he's paying for
- 10:39Speaker 2: it himself. But he's like, what do you want? You want?
- 10:41Speaker 2: Like they had gigantic maga hats that are like twice
- 10:44Speaker 2: the size of the normal head.
- 10:46Speaker 1: The one that Elon Musk wore that kind of made
- 10:48Speaker 1: it famous. A lot of people remember he put it on.
- 10:50Speaker 2: He was like, so he actually pointed that out, and
- 10:52Speaker 2: so that's the one Elona wears.
- 10:53Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 10:54Speaker 2: So, and it's got all this stuff. He's got it's
- 10:57Speaker 2: cool stuff.
- 10:58Speaker 1: So and by the way, the vip geah is what
- 11:00Speaker 1: I was told, which I think we can confirm is true.
- 11:04Speaker 1: Is the cup links. So he looked at me, He's like, Ferguson,
- 11:07Speaker 1: you need this, can't buy these anywhere, and he hands
- 11:10Speaker 1: them to me. It was it's presidential cuplings. They're amazing.
- 11:13Speaker 1: I still have in this day. You've got a pair now.
- 11:15Speaker 2: As well, so I do. And I've had a couple
- 11:18Speaker 2: of presidential cuflings in the past. Yeah, but these are
- 11:21Speaker 2: the coolest that. These are really damn cool. And I
- 11:24Speaker 2: will say his challenge coins. So in the military and
- 11:28Speaker 2: in law enforcement, people carry challenge coins, and they're typically
- 11:30Speaker 2: about the size of a silver dollar. And so if
- 11:33Speaker 2: you come to my office, you've been to my office.
- 11:34Speaker 2: I have one entire display of military challenge coins and
- 11:38Speaker 2: I probably got I don't know, two hundred of them.
- 11:40Speaker 1: That is, I've.
- 11:41Speaker 2: Traveled the world.
- 11:42Speaker 1: They give them to you, they get awesome.
- 11:44Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I have another display of law enforcement
- 11:48Speaker 2: challenge coins, so police officers, law enforcement. And so the
- 11:53Speaker 2: two are ones behind my desk. The military is behind
- 11:55Speaker 2: my desk, and the other is on the other end
- 11:57Speaker 2: of my office, like kind of across my desk. So
- 12:00Speaker 2: they're normally about the size of a silver dollar. Trump
- 12:04Speaker 2: this evening gave me two challenge coins, and his challenge
- 12:08Speaker 2: coins are literally three hundred percent the size of it.
- 12:10Speaker 1: Oh, it is like the size of the tariff you
- 12:13Speaker 1: put on Chinese gun.
- 12:14Speaker 2: It's the size of a pancy.
- 12:16Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a it's a coast.
- 12:18Speaker 2: It's a coaster that's exactly like And he has one
- 12:21Speaker 2: that's sort of gold and fancy, and then he's another
- 12:23Speaker 2: that is gun medal, and he said, actually, these are
- 12:26Speaker 2: more popular because it's like military gun medal and it
- 12:30Speaker 2: President of the United States and a really cool coin.
- 12:32Speaker 1: I love it. That's the fun part about it. And
- 12:34Speaker 1: you were there, by the way for something that was
- 12:35Speaker 1: not making big headlines, but it deals with crypto and
- 12:37Speaker 1: we're going to talk about this in another pot. Yeah.
- 12:40Speaker 2: No, that's exactly right. I was there for a bill signing,
- 12:42Speaker 2: so legislation that I introduced to repeal an incredibly abusive
- 12:47Speaker 2: regulation from the Biden administration that harmed the crypto industry,
- 12:51Speaker 2: and I got it passed through Congress. The President signed
- 12:54Speaker 2: it into law. And so I've been there for a
- 12:56Speaker 2: number of bill signings of legislation I passed. But it's
- 12:58Speaker 2: always cool because you're pass legislation, the President signed it
- 13:01Speaker 2: and suddenly becomes law.
- 13:03Speaker 1: Did you get to keep the pen he loves giving
- 13:04Speaker 1: away the sharpie.
- 13:05Speaker 2: Yes, And it's not a sharpie. It is much like
- 13:09Speaker 2: the challenge coin.
- 13:10Speaker 1: It's huge.
- 13:10Speaker 2: It is huge. It is probably three hundred percent the
- 13:14Speaker 2: size of a shark.
- 13:15Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like oversized. So when he signed my boys hats,
- 13:18Speaker 1: he goes, here's the pin. Take the pen home, and
- 13:20Speaker 1: I still have the pen at my desk. It's like
- 13:23Speaker 1: it's got the and it's got the Trump gold signature
- 13:25Speaker 1: on the side. Yeah.
- 13:26Speaker 2: So so I'll end up in my office framing that
- 13:29Speaker 2: signing pen because it's legislation that I passed. That's really significant.
- 13:32Speaker 2: And in my office, I have a bunch of different
- 13:34Speaker 2: pieces of legislation signed and a number of them are signed,
- 13:37Speaker 2: are are framed with the signing pin. So I was
- 13:40Speaker 2: there for that. But look a couple of things. One,
- 13:44Speaker 2: we talked a lot about tariffs, and let's rewind two
- 13:46Speaker 2: days ago. Yep, so we have talked in this last week.
- 13:50Speaker 2: We've had two podcasts entirely devoted to the Trump tariffs.
- 13:54Speaker 2: We had one our Friday podcast right after the tariffs
- 13:56Speaker 2: came out, one hundred percent of the podcast was on
- 13:59Speaker 2: the tariffs, and than our Monday podcast, we talked about
- 14:03Speaker 2: two competing camps in the Trump administration. We talked about
- 14:07Speaker 2: angels and devils that were on President Trump's soldiers shoulders.
- 14:12Speaker 2: The angels were urging the President use the leverage of
- 14:17Speaker 2: the tariffs you've announced to fight for lower tariffs across
- 14:21Speaker 2: the world to expand market access for America. I emphatically
- 14:25Speaker 2: agree with that side. The devils and there are voices
- 14:28Speaker 2: in the administration they want to see massive tariffs in
- 14:32Speaker 2: perpetuity from America and every other country. I think that's
- 14:35Speaker 2: a terrible outcome. So we did Monday's podcast. We did
- 14:38Speaker 2: a deep dive on that. So I will tell you
- 14:40Speaker 2: and I are sitting here Thursday night. Tuesday night, I
- 14:45Speaker 2: spent an hour on the phone with President Trump and
- 14:49Speaker 2: I had several other senators there and we were urging him.
- 14:52Speaker 2: What I was saying is, listen, the market is in
- 14:56Speaker 2: free fall. That's dangerous. People are freaking out. Sure, And
- 15:01Speaker 2: my advice to him, and I said, I did Hannity
- 15:03Speaker 2: Tuesday night, and so I said this on Hannity. So
- 15:05Speaker 2: this is not secret advice. I said it on Fox
- 15:08Speaker 2: News to the whole country. I said. My advice is
- 15:10Speaker 2: cut a deal now, pick one or two countries. Cut
- 15:14Speaker 2: a deal now. I don't care what countries they are
- 15:16Speaker 2: pick one, pick two and cut a deal where they
- 15:20Speaker 2: slash their tariffs massively and we slash our terraffs massively.
- 15:24Speaker 2: I said, I think that will calm the market down enormously.
- 15:27Speaker 2: That will assuage people that we are headed to a
- 15:30Speaker 2: world which with much lower tariffs, which, by the way,
- 15:33Speaker 2: as I told him, if thirty days, sixty days, ninety
- 15:37Speaker 2: days from now, we have a world where every country
- 15:40Speaker 2: on Earth has massively lower tariffs and American farmers and
- 15:44Speaker 2: ranchers and small businesses and manufacturers are able to export
- 15:47Speaker 2: all over the world, that will be an historic win,
- 15:51Speaker 2: like an unprecedented win for American workers and American jobs.
- 15:56Speaker 2: So that's what I'm urging him. We spent an hour
- 15:59Speaker 2: on the phone, and I got to say, look, President Trump,
- 16:02Speaker 2: sometimes when you're urging him to do something, he can
- 16:04Speaker 2: push back. And in that call, he was kind of
- 16:07Speaker 2: pushing back and popping back, and he's saying, look, these
- 16:10Speaker 2: tariffs are great, We're raising a ton of money. What's
- 16:13Speaker 2: the problem. Spend an hour. But then on Wednesday, the
- 16:19Speaker 2: President put out an announcement at lunchtime, and his announcement
- 16:23Speaker 2: was twofold number one. He said he was pausing all
- 16:27Speaker 2: of the reciprocal tariffs he had announced on April second,
- 16:30Speaker 2: for ninety days, for ninety.
- 16:32Speaker 1: Days, which is enough time to get deals done.
- 16:35Speaker 2: And number two, he said he was jacking up the
- 16:37Speaker 2: tariffs on China even more. He said to one hundred
- 16:41Speaker 2: and twenty five thousand others, it's actually one hundred and
- 16:43Speaker 2: twenty five percent, But it's actually one hundred and forty
- 16:46Speaker 2: five percent because there's an additional twenty percent that he
- 16:49Speaker 2: had announced as a penalty for their role in fentanyl
- 16:52Speaker 2: smuggling into this country.
- 16:53Speaker 1: Yep.
- 16:54Speaker 2: So the total tariffs against China are one hundred and
- 16:56Speaker 2: forty five percent now he announced it. I'll tell you.
- 16:59Speaker 2: On Wednesday, I was in the Senate Republican lunch. All
- 17:02Speaker 2: the Senate Senate Republican senators we have lunch together every Tuesday,
- 17:05Speaker 2: Wednesday and Thursday. The middle of the lunch, Rick Scott,
- 17:08Speaker 2: who hosts the Wednesday lunch, Rick Scott looked at his
- 17:11Speaker 2: phone and announced, Hey, the President's just paused all the
- 17:15Speaker 2: teriffts and increased the tariffs on China. There wasn't exactly
- 17:21Speaker 2: a round of applause, but close, pretty damn close.
- 17:24Speaker 1: There was literally there was a relief, and yes.
- 17:27Speaker 2: A palpable sense of relief. And what is striking is
- 17:32Speaker 2: the market within minutes exploded and stocks sored up. So
- 17:39Speaker 2: tonight when I was in the Oval, I said, miss President,
- 17:42Speaker 2: as a result of your decision yesterday, you produced the
- 17:47Speaker 2: single largest increase in the stock market in one day
- 17:51Speaker 2: in the history of the United States of America.
- 17:54Speaker 1: That's a good day.
- 17:55Speaker 2: That is a massive day. And so I will say
- 17:58Speaker 2: the pause is import and I hope over these next
- 18:01Speaker 2: niney days, I hope what we see is, as we
- 18:04Speaker 2: talked about on Monday's pod, they're two paths, massively reducing
- 18:08Speaker 2: tariffs for everyone or keeping tariff's in perpetuity. Over the
- 18:13Speaker 2: next ninety days, I hope we see announcement after announcement
- 18:17Speaker 2: after announcement of our trading partners, all of whom would
- 18:20Speaker 2: come running to President Trump saying we want to cut
- 18:22Speaker 2: a deal. And to be clear, none of this would
- 18:25Speaker 2: have happened without the April second announcement.
- 18:28Speaker 1: None of it. Well, and Scott beset, by the way,
- 18:31Speaker 1: he said this at the White House when they announced this,
- 18:34Speaker 1: he walked out and he said, this is all about leverage,
- 18:36Speaker 1: which is what the President said. Take a listen. President's decision.
- 18:40Speaker 2: There was a president's decision to wait until today.
- 18:43Speaker 3: And again I know, as I've said in the past,
- 18:46Speaker 3: no one creates a leverage for himself like President Trump vision.
- 18:50Speaker 1: And he said that, by the way, at the point
- 18:52Speaker 1: when the Dow was up two thousand points, right, So
- 18:55Speaker 1: he just announced it walks out there. And then Caroline
- 18:58Speaker 1: Levitt also was a reminder like, hey, we're letting the
- 19:01Speaker 1: rest of the world off the hook, but when it
- 19:03Speaker 1: comes to China, we're not. She said, this is the
- 19:06Speaker 1: same press conference.
- 19:07Speaker 3: And as you all know, the President just put out
- 19:09Speaker 3: a statement announcing an additional tariff on China. The tariff
- 19:13Speaker 3: on China will now go up to one hundred and
- 19:14Speaker 3: twenty five percent because China imprudently decided to retaliate against
- 19:19Speaker 3: the United States. And as I said at the podium yesterday,
- 19:21Speaker 3: when you punch at the United States of America, President
- 19:24Speaker 3: Trump is going to punch back harder. In that same vein,
- 19:27Speaker 3: we have had more than seventy five countries from around
- 19:30Speaker 3: the world reach out to President Trump and his team
- 19:32Speaker 3: here at the White House to negotiate better trade deals
- 19:35Speaker 3: for the American worker. We have been overwhelmed with the
- 19:39Speaker 3: amount of requests for countries around the world. I'll let
- 19:41Speaker 3: the Secretary speak to that. We will continue with the
- 19:43Speaker 3: tailor made negotiations that I spoke about yesterday. In the meantime,
- 19:47Speaker 3: there will be a ninety day pause on the reciprocal
- 19:49Speaker 3: tariffs as these negotiations are ongoing, and the tariff level
- 19:52Speaker 3: will be brought down to a universal ten percent tariff.
- 19:56Speaker 1: I mean, you listen to them, and I think it's
- 20:00Speaker 1: pretty clear.
- 20:00Speaker 2: By the way, I will say this Caroline Levitt, I
- 20:02Speaker 2: know really well. Yeah, she's a good friend. So Caroline
- 20:06Speaker 2: ran for Congress in New Hampshire. And she was running
- 20:09Speaker 2: for Congress, if I remember correctly, she was twenty five
- 20:12Speaker 2: years old.
- 20:12Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 20:13Speaker 2: And by the way, the Constitution, the minimum age for
- 20:16Speaker 2: member of Congress is twenty five years old.
- 20:18Speaker 1: Yep. So she was on the House side. Yep. Yeah.
- 20:21Speaker 2: Member Congress is twenty five, a senator is thirty, and
- 20:24Speaker 2: the President must be thirty five. That's what the Constitution
- 20:26Speaker 2: lays out. So Caroline was running in New Hampshire. As
- 20:31Speaker 2: you know, I raised a ton of money for Caroline.
- 20:34Speaker 1: Yep.
- 20:35Speaker 2: I believe, if I remember correctly, north of one hundred
- 20:37Speaker 2: thousand dollars to support her campaign, and I flew to
- 20:40Speaker 2: New Hampshire and campaigned with her. She was a great
- 20:42Speaker 2: president candidate. And by the way, I told the President
- 20:45Speaker 2: that tonight, I said, look, she's she's kicking ass as
- 20:47Speaker 2: your press secretary. But she was a fabulous and the
- 20:51Speaker 2: coolest part. We did a huge rally and she rocked
- 20:53Speaker 2: it and it was a lot of energy and excitement.
- 20:55Speaker 2: And then we went afterwards to a bar I think
- 20:58Speaker 2: it was a VFW bar if I remember correctly, and
- 21:01Speaker 2: there were like several hundred, mostly veterans, and we were
- 21:05Speaker 2: having a beer with them and they loved her. It
- 21:07Speaker 2: was really cool. It was like a fun It was
- 21:10Speaker 2: after the event, hanging out having a beer with a
- 21:13Speaker 2: bunch of New Hampshire veterans and it was like a
- 21:15Speaker 2: great moment. Now she ended up she won the primary.
- 21:19Speaker 2: She did not win the general, although I pointed out
- 21:21Speaker 2: to her tonight I said, look, that didn't work out
- 21:24Speaker 2: even though you were a great candidate. But I said,
- 21:26Speaker 2: you know what, you'd rather do the job you have
- 21:29Speaker 2: now than being a.
- 21:31Speaker 1: Biggest blessing in disguise, because yes, she would have done
- 21:35Speaker 1: that job. She would be the press secretary right now.
- 21:37Speaker 1: It's amazing how those things happen in your life when
- 21:39Speaker 1: you're like, you want things so bad and then you
- 21:41Speaker 1: don't get it, and then you're like, man, if I
- 21:43Speaker 1: would have gotten that, where would I look at what
- 21:45Speaker 1: I would have missed?
- 21:46Speaker 2: You know the country western songs. Some of God's greatest
- 21:48Speaker 2: gifts are unanswered prayers.
- 21:50Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah.
- 21:51Speaker 2: There have been multiple steps in my life where I
- 21:53Speaker 2: desperately wanted something I didn't get it. I was crestfallen,
- 21:57Speaker 2: I was frustrated. I used to keep all right, this
- 22:00Speaker 2: is going to be sort of a weird admission. When
- 22:03Speaker 2: I was in high school and college, I literally kept
- 22:06Speaker 2: a file folder. And by the way, for all of
- 22:08Speaker 2: you under thirty, you don't know what a file folder is.
- 22:11Speaker 2: But I had like a file cabinet with a folder.
- 22:14Speaker 2: You know what it was called what failures?
- 22:17Speaker 1: How many were in there?
- 22:18Speaker 2: A lot?
- 22:19Speaker 1: Okay?
- 22:20Speaker 2: So look, I was someone I tried for things. I
- 22:23Speaker 2: applied for things. I wanted to be a Rhodes scholar.
- 22:25Speaker 2: I applied for the Rhodes scholarship. I didn't get it.
- 22:27Speaker 2: I was really I was like, damn, I'd really like
- 22:29Speaker 2: to be a Rhodes scholar. I'm pissed I didn't get it. Yeah,
- 22:32Speaker 2: but all right, I think it's tenth grade. Okay, this is.
- 22:38Speaker 1: Okay.
- 22:38Speaker 2: I'm I'm sort of embarrassed. Like you guys know, Ben's
- 22:42Speaker 2: a jock. He was like a cool kid, and like
- 22:44Speaker 2: you know.
- 22:45Speaker 1: Although I tried hard, I tried hard.
- 22:47Speaker 2: How thought it be fair? Is a tennis player really
- 22:49Speaker 2: a job? Well, you know it's a sort of sec
- 22:53Speaker 2: I mean, it's not a sc it like a tennis player.
- 22:56Speaker 2: You're wearing like a white eyes on. But like it's not.
- 23:00Speaker 1: Good swag we had. We had some nice Nike swag
- 23:03Speaker 1: like they we did it right.
- 23:05Speaker 2: I'm just saying you were a ball.
- 23:08Speaker 1: It's not basketball. It's not baseball. I'll give you that.
- 23:11Speaker 1: I will get you dunk. No, I cannot dunk.
- 23:13Speaker 2: I played hoops with you. I knew the answer.
- 23:15Speaker 1: Yeah I cannot. But I wasn't going for Rhodes scholar.
- 23:19Speaker 1: I can promise you that. And I didn't have a briefcase.
- 23:21Speaker 1: You had a briefcase. That's what we're really getting in.
- 23:22Speaker 2: No, I didn't have a briefcase. I'm sorry. I'm not
- 23:26Speaker 2: Alex P. Keaton, which no one knows who that was.
- 23:29Speaker 2: Michael J.
- 23:29Speaker 1: Fox and Family ties amazing show. But but all right.
- 23:33Speaker 2: So in tenth grade, I was sitting there in.
- 23:38Speaker 1: Class with my classmates and they.
- 23:39Speaker 2: Were talking about, like applying to a scholarship, and several
- 23:43Speaker 2: of my classmates said, well, no, no, I'm not going to apply.
- 23:45Speaker 2: And I said, well why not? And they said, well,
- 23:48Speaker 2: if I apply, I might get rejected and I don't
- 23:51Speaker 2: want to fail, so I'm not going to do it.
- 23:53Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're like, screw that. I'm going for all
- 23:56Speaker 1: of it.
- 23:58Speaker 2: And I wrote a poem in tenth grade which I
- 24:02Speaker 2: don't have, but I'm going to try to remember it.
- 24:03Speaker 2: I don't know that I can remember it exactly. But
- 24:08Speaker 2: imagine a dreamer walking off a cliff with hopes and aspirations.
- 24:17Speaker 2: Many would say his steps were foolish, and yet all
- 24:23Speaker 2: the great inventors, discoverers, and achievers would say nothing ventured,
- 24:32Speaker 2: nothing gained. And here's another element to complicate the matter.
- 24:40Speaker 2: What if the walker learned to fly? And this is me,
- 24:46Speaker 2: as a geeky fifteen year old writing a poem. Poe
- 24:49Speaker 2: inspired me, Like that was.
- 24:52Speaker 1: Before chat gbts. You didn't even steal it from anybody.
- 24:55Speaker 2: If you don't have a Cliff, you ain't grown wings.
- 24:57Speaker 1: Okay, fair point.
- 24:58Speaker 2: And so my I literally had a whole folder of failures.
- 25:02Speaker 2: Things I tried to do that that I did not accomplish.
- 25:05Speaker 2: But if you are are to use another great hero
- 25:08Speaker 2: of mine, Teddy Roosevelt, Yeah, you know, t R gave
- 25:11Speaker 2: a great commencement speech about being in the arena, the
- 25:14Speaker 2: man who is marred by blood and sweat and mud
- 25:19Speaker 2: in the arena and not one of those cold and
- 25:22Speaker 2: timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat nor defeat.
- 25:30Speaker 2: And so I forget where I'm going on this.
- 25:34Speaker 1: No, you're you're talking about Carol. I love it, failing it,
- 25:39Speaker 1: the going for con a blessing and now it's the
- 25:42Speaker 1: biggest thing in her life. So you're saying, count your
- 25:44Speaker 1: failures because they can be your blessings later in life.
- 25:46Speaker 2: If you have no failures, you've done nothing.
- 25:49Speaker 1: I just want to prove that right now to my wife.
- 25:51Speaker 1: How good of a listener I am, because I just
- 25:53Speaker 1: saved that whole story right there. I just want credit
- 25:56Speaker 1: for that moment. Anyway, continue is she gonna buy that?
- 26:00Speaker 1: I don't know, Well, see if she listens to the show,
- 26:02Speaker 1: because I just if she if she doesn't listen, we're
- 26:05Speaker 1: both gonna know.
- 26:06Speaker 2: Well. Look, I will say what happened on tariffs Wednesday
- 26:15Speaker 2: was a massive day. Number one for the market and
- 26:18Speaker 2: for a huge searche but number two, the ninety days.
- 26:22Speaker 2: We have an opportunity. This is not hyperbole. President Trump
- 26:27Speaker 2: could achieve the greatest victory for jobs and economic growth,
- 26:34Speaker 2: certainly in our lifetimes and maybe in the history of America.
- 26:38Speaker 1: Now well, and you reap between the tea leaves here
- 26:40Speaker 1: like there does seem to be a strategy here, and
- 26:42Speaker 1: this is some of the genius I do have to
- 26:44Speaker 1: think of that. I give credit for that. A lot
- 26:46Speaker 1: of people miss on President Trump. It seems like he's saying, hey,
- 26:52Speaker 1: rest of the world, I want to get along with you.
- 26:54Speaker 1: I'm gonna bust China. They're taking advantage of us. They're
- 26:57Speaker 1: still in our anoectual property. It's a national secure issue.
- 27:00Speaker 1: We witnessed what we witness during COVID with them as
- 27:03Speaker 1: a nation. I want everybody else to succeed, and we're
- 27:05Speaker 1: going to make sure they don't have all of this
- 27:07Speaker 1: leverage over not just us, but other partners in the world.
- 27:10Speaker 2: Yes, but look, the two things I've been urging President
- 27:13Speaker 2: Trump for a long time on trade to focus on
- 27:16Speaker 2: are number one, focus on China. I am all four
- 27:20Speaker 2: pounding the living daylights out of China. You know, when
- 27:24Speaker 2: I arrived in the Senate thirteen years ago, what I
- 27:27Speaker 2: said then is China poses the single largest geopolitical threat
- 27:33Speaker 2: to the United States over the next one hundred years.
- 27:35Speaker 1: Amen.
- 27:36Speaker 2: Now, Ben, when I arrived, that was a lonely voice.
- 27:40Speaker 2: Almost nobody agreed with me. Every Democrat had disagreed with me,
- 27:44Speaker 2: and most of the Republicans disagreed with me. They looked
- 27:48Speaker 2: at China and they saw nothing but dollar signs as
- 27:50Speaker 2: far as the eye could see. Now the world has changed.
- 27:53Speaker 2: I think a lot more people have opened their eyes
- 27:55Speaker 2: to the danger, to the peril. China is fighting a
- 27:59Speaker 2: thousand year war against the United States, and that's.
- 28:02Speaker 1: Not hyperbole, and that's really how they look at it.
- 28:05Speaker 2: And everything we can do to delink our economy from
- 28:09Speaker 2: China is a good step. So I've urged President Trump,
- 28:13Speaker 2: you can't focus on China too much. The more you
- 28:17Speaker 2: can bring jobs out of China, the more you can
- 28:19Speaker 2: bring our critical infrastructure out of China, the more you
- 28:21Speaker 2: can bring pharmaceuticals out of China, the more you can
- 28:23Speaker 2: bring semiconductors out of China. Everything we depend upon China
- 28:28Speaker 2: is coming after us.
- 28:30Speaker 1: And this is national security. Things we depend on.
- 28:32Speaker 2: It is national security, is economic security. This is a
- 28:35Speaker 2: fundamental battle. So I am all for focusing on China,
- 28:39Speaker 2: but the other principal reciprocity. Look, I don't want to
- 28:43Speaker 2: be overly optimistic. As we mentioned on Monday's podcast, and
- 28:46Speaker 2: you want to go back and listen to it about
- 28:48Speaker 2: angels and devils, there are really vocal and outspoken voices
- 28:55Speaker 2: in the administration who don't want the President to lower
- 28:59Speaker 2: two tariffs in other countries. They want tariffs to be
- 29:02Speaker 2: high and there forever, and they want the revenue. Look,
- 29:07Speaker 2: tariffs are producing about two and a half a billion
- 29:10Speaker 2: dollars a day in revenues. Now, the point I made
- 29:13Speaker 2: to the President, where are those revenues coming from tariffs?
- 29:17Speaker 2: Are taxes? They're coming from American consumers. So yes, it's
- 29:20Speaker 2: producing a lot of money. But I would much rather
- 29:24Speaker 2: lower the various to other countries and let our farmers
- 29:27Speaker 2: and ranchers and small businesses and manufacturers export the hell
- 29:30Speaker 2: out of it, because I think American businesses can beat
- 29:34Speaker 2: every company on Earth, if there's a fair playing field,
- 29:38Speaker 2: if most of the countries we trade with there's not
- 29:41Speaker 2: a fair playing field, and so this opportunity and listen,
- 29:46Speaker 2: President Trump's negotiation strategy is in some way simple. He
- 29:52Speaker 2: walks up to people, he smacks him in the head
- 29:54Speaker 2: with a two by four. I think he backs up
- 29:57Speaker 2: and negotiates from that, and it has proved to be
- 30:00Speaker 2: an incredibly effective negotiation strategy. So I will say, I'm
- 30:04Speaker 2: really really glad about Wednesday's pause announcement. It produces I noted,
- 30:11Speaker 2: the biggest single day increase in the stock market in history,
- 30:14Speaker 2: and I hope the next ninety days we will see
- 30:18Speaker 2: deal after deal after deal, slashing tariffs and opening markets
- 30:22Speaker 2: to American producers.
- 30:23Speaker 1: Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying something like that in
- 30:26Speaker 1: the cabinet meeting when he said this about the president,
- 30:29Speaker 1: and also he said which I think was interesting. He said,
- 30:33Speaker 1: and I'm going to quote him, he said, one of
- 30:34Speaker 1: the most important things you'll achieve in your presidency is
- 30:37Speaker 1: re ordering the world in a proper way. For more
- 30:39Speaker 1: than thirty one years, multiple administrations have allowed the Chinese
- 30:43Speaker 1: to de industrialize this country, to take away jobs and
- 30:47Speaker 1: factories and pillars of our national strength. Like this is
- 30:51Speaker 1: from a Secretary of State who's saying this is the ballgame. Yes,
- 30:54Speaker 1: and then national security is saying this is the ballgame.
- 30:58Speaker 1: And then producers are saying this is ballgame, and American
- 31:01Speaker 1: workers are saying, this is the ballgame. I've never seen
- 31:05Speaker 1: a moment politically where so many different factions are all
- 31:09Speaker 1: seen to be aligned and understanding this threat, which it's
- 31:13Speaker 1: in fact is China. And so you look at the
- 31:16Speaker 1: next ninety days, it's very important and there's got to
- 31:19Speaker 1: be deals done. When do you think will start to
- 31:22Speaker 1: see deals and momentum because it's all about momentum, right,
- 31:25Speaker 1: you get one with Vietnam, or you get one with Taiwan,
- 31:28Speaker 1: or you get one with Malaysia or India wherever it is, right,
- 31:30Speaker 1: and you start going country by country, when will we
- 31:33Speaker 1: start to see that because that's what the market's now
- 31:35Speaker 1: looking for.
- 31:35Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, so what I urged the president Tuesday night
- 31:38Speaker 2: is negotiate a deal fast. I said, I don't care
- 31:42Speaker 2: what country, just get one on the books, get one
- 31:46Speaker 2: and have it be a massive reduction on both sides
- 31:48Speaker 2: because that will assuage people. Okay, this is the path
- 31:52Speaker 2: we're going down. When you have seventy plus countries that
- 31:55Speaker 2: are seeking negotiate deals, that takes a little bit of time.
- 31:57Speaker 2: That's complicated, Yes, And so I really like the ninety
- 32:02Speaker 2: day pause because it gives you ninety days to the
- 32:05Speaker 2: OSHA deals. And so I hope in the next ninety
- 32:08Speaker 2: days we see deal after deal after deal, and I
- 32:11Speaker 2: think it'll build momentum.
- 32:12Speaker 1: So you think in weeks we'll start seeing the first ones.
- 32:18Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know if it'll be weeks
- 32:21Speaker 2: or thirty to sixty days. I don't know how long
- 32:25Speaker 2: it takes.
- 32:25Speaker 1: The ninety days gives us time to do it right.
- 32:27Speaker 2: Ninety days gives us time to do it right. And
- 32:32Speaker 2: I have a high level of confidence than in the
- 32:34Speaker 2: next ninety days we will see a bunch of them.
- 32:37Speaker 2: How quickly given the ninety day pause, there's not the urgency.
- 32:41Speaker 2: What I was urging, what I said on Hannity is
- 32:43Speaker 2: do it now, don't wait a week like do it tomorrow,
- 32:46Speaker 2: because frankly, the market's freaking out and you don't want
- 32:49Speaker 2: people's four one ks to go to crap. And so
- 32:53Speaker 2: I think think there was real value to moving quickly.
- 32:56Speaker 2: The pause essentially buys you time to then negotiate the deals,
- 33:02Speaker 2: and I hope that's what they're gonna do, all.
- 33:05Speaker 1: Right, before you go to this vote at one o'clock
- 33:08Speaker 1: in the morning. Not a joke. I want to ask
- 33:10Speaker 1: you about this other I would just say insane news
- 33:15Speaker 1: because I can't believe they've been allowed to do it
- 33:17Speaker 1: for so long. And that is that is Mexico stealing water,
- 33:22Speaker 1: which is suffocating farmers. YEA. Specifically it's happening in Texas
- 33:28Speaker 1: and it's making farming industry collapse and farmers disappearing from
- 33:34Speaker 1: areas because there is no water.
- 33:36Speaker 2: So let me give you the background because this is
- 33:37Speaker 2: a really important issue. It's important in Texas, but it's
- 33:40Speaker 2: important in the country, which is there's a water treaty
- 33:44Speaker 2: that we signed with Mexico in nineteen forty four, the
- 33:46Speaker 2: Mexican Water Treaty of nineteen forty four. It obligates Mexico
- 33:51Speaker 2: to provide three hundred and fifty thousand acre feet of
- 33:54Speaker 2: water a year to South Texas. That's over a five
- 33:59Speaker 2: year period.
- 34:00Speaker 1: Okay.
- 34:00Speaker 2: For the last five years, Mexico has been openly and
- 34:06Speaker 2: brazenly violating the treaty. They've not been providing the water
- 34:12Speaker 2: they are right now in this five year period, one
- 34:15Speaker 2: point three million acre feet in arrears water they have
- 34:21Speaker 2: not provided that they've committed by treaty to provide. Now
- 34:24Speaker 2: what are they doing. They're diverting that water that should
- 34:27Speaker 2: go to South Texas farmers under the treaty to Mexican farmers.
- 34:31Speaker 2: And a couple of things are happening. So in South
- 34:34Speaker 2: Texas there is a massive drought going on. It is
- 34:37Speaker 2: doing enormous damage to farmers. And I spent a lot
- 34:42Speaker 2: of time in South Texas and the damage to farmers.
- 34:47Speaker 2: We're seeing a lot of South Texas farmers that are
- 34:50Speaker 2: taking half of their acreage out of production. They're shutting
- 34:53Speaker 2: down half of their.
- 34:55Speaker 1: Farms just because they don't have the water to do
- 34:56Speaker 1: it right.
- 34:57Speaker 2: They're laying off thousands of work. So there was one
- 35:03Speaker 2: sugar mill in all of Texas last year. It shut
- 35:08Speaker 2: down because of water, and it shut down because the
- 35:11Speaker 2: sugar farmers did not have the water to raise the sugar.
- 35:14Speaker 2: Wow And it's gone.
- 35:16Speaker 1: And Mexico, on the other side of green as can be.
- 35:19Speaker 2: It is green as can be. The Mexican farmers are prospering.
- 35:22Speaker 2: They're literally stealing our water. And by the way, like
- 35:26Speaker 2: President Trump talks a lot about foreign countries taking advantage
- 35:29Speaker 2: of America, it's a great example. This is this is
- 35:32Speaker 2: literally the Mexican government stealing our water.
- 35:34Speaker 1: And if Joe Biden do anything to stop this, zero
- 35:36Speaker 1: and he knew about it.
- 35:38Speaker 2: So he knew about it. So I've engaged this issue.
- 35:41Speaker 2: I engaged. I started engaging about two years ago. And
- 35:44Speaker 2: I started engaging when I was down in South Texas
- 35:46Speaker 2: and I did a roundtail with farmers and they raised
- 35:48Speaker 2: this issue to me. And two years ago, I didn't
- 35:51Speaker 2: know what the water Tree of nineteen forty four was,
- 35:54Speaker 2: and they explained it to me. And at the time
- 35:57Speaker 2: they were really worried. We're going to lose our sugar
- 35:58Speaker 2: mill if this doesn't change. And I said, look, I
- 36:02Speaker 2: think I can help. I'm going to lean in. And
- 36:04Speaker 2: I began leaning in aggressively. I forced a vote on
- 36:07Speaker 2: the Senate floor on an amendment to direct the state
- 36:11Speaker 2: Department to use every lever point we have to force
- 36:15Speaker 2: Mexico to comply with a water treaty. I got a
- 36:18Speaker 2: majority of the senator, bipartisan majority, and then there's a
- 36:22Speaker 2: water commissioner for the United States. I like leaned in
- 36:24Speaker 2: with the water commissioner, said, look, the Senate has spoken
- 36:27Speaker 2: a bipartisan majority, and here's the fundamental problem. Joe Biden
- 36:31Speaker 2: didn't give a damn about this. So I desperately tried
- 36:36Speaker 2: to get the Biden administration to exert leverage. Yeah, and
- 36:39Speaker 2: they just didn't care.
- 36:41Speaker 1: Now, by the way, leverage for Donald Trump at this
- 36:43Speaker 1: point was him saying, hey, I'm coming after you with
- 36:45Speaker 1: tariffs or sanctions, so do the right thing now before
- 36:48Speaker 1: I have to do that, and they know he means it.
- 36:50Speaker 1: Unlike even if you had that same statement from Joe Biden,
- 36:53Speaker 1: he ain't gonna do anything.
- 36:54Speaker 2: So in South Texas, cities are also facing massive drought.
- 36:57Speaker 2: You're literally facing the cities not having an enough water
- 37:00Speaker 2: for their citizens because Mexico's stealing the water. And so
- 37:03Speaker 2: I leaned in. I could not get the Biden's administration
- 37:07Speaker 2: do a damn thing. In December, as part of the
- 37:09Speaker 2: Continuing Resolution, I authored legislation that got adopted that provided
- 37:15Speaker 2: two hundred and eighty million dollars in emergency relief for
- 37:18Speaker 2: Texas farmers because they're going broke. And we're talking about
- 37:22Speaker 2: generational farms. Farms that have been three or four generations
- 37:25Speaker 2: who were being bankrupted because their government is not enforcing
- 37:29Speaker 2: the treaty and they're being starved of water. And so
- 37:33Speaker 2: several weeks ago I went down to South Texas with
- 37:36Speaker 2: Brook Rawlins. Brook Rollins is the Secretary of Agriculture. Brook
- 37:40Speaker 2: has been a good friend of mine for twenty five years.
- 37:43Speaker 2: She's a Texan. She's the first Texan in the history
- 37:46Speaker 2: of the country to be the Secretary of Agriculture. She's
- 37:49Speaker 2: also the first Secretary of Agriculture ever to go to
- 37:52Speaker 2: the Rio Grande Valley wow. And she came to the
- 37:55Speaker 2: valley at my request. I asked her come down with me,
- 37:58Speaker 2: and we did. We did a press conference number one
- 38:02Speaker 2: where she announced I've got two hundred eighty million dollars
- 38:04Speaker 2: I'm giving the South Texas farmers because your federal government
- 38:07Speaker 2: has been screwing you by not getting the water back
- 38:09Speaker 2: and Mexico is starving you. But we also did a roundtable.
- 38:13Speaker 2: We did a roundtable with farmers where Brooke and I
- 38:15Speaker 2: talked with the farmers and the Rio Grand Valley has
- 38:21Speaker 2: been bright blue for one hundred years. In twenty twenty four,
- 38:27Speaker 2: the Rio Grand Valley flipped red. I won the valley,
- 38:32Speaker 2: and Donald Trump won the valley. That has never happened.
- 38:35Speaker 2: I won Hispanic statewide in Texas by six points. That's
- 38:38Speaker 2: never happened. I have spent an enormous amount of time
- 38:42Speaker 2: and millions of dollars in the valley trying to flip
- 38:45Speaker 2: the valley red because I saw the potential there. And
- 38:47Speaker 2: so I think I've invested more than any elected official
- 38:50Speaker 2: in Texas in terms of turning the valley red. Well,
- 38:54Speaker 2: I got to say, sitting there at that roundtable, you
- 38:56Speaker 2: got farmers and ranchers and you're just asking them. Look
- 38:59Speaker 2: over the last four years, did Joe Biden do a
- 39:03Speaker 2: damn thing for you?
- 39:04Speaker 1: No? And that's how you turn this.
- 39:07Speaker 2: And what I told them as I said, listen, if
- 39:09Speaker 2: there's one thing you know about Donald Trump, he will
- 39:12Speaker 2: stand up to foreign countries and fight for you. And
- 39:16Speaker 2: I made that commitment. And frankly, look, these are voters
- 39:21Speaker 2: who their entire lives have voted Democrats. Their parents voted Democrat,
- 39:26Speaker 2: their grandparents voted Democrat, their great grandparents voted Democrat. And
- 39:32Speaker 2: this last election, for the first time, they pulled the
- 39:34Speaker 2: lever for Republican going down there and saying, look, we're
- 39:38Speaker 2: fighting for you. We're gonna get you. The damn water
- 39:41Speaker 2: is one of the ways you lock those votes. And
- 39:43Speaker 2: it's a generational shift for Texas.
- 39:46Speaker 1: By the way, this is the first time for Verdict.
- 39:48Speaker 1: They've just opened the vote. They're only keeping it open
- 39:51Speaker 1: for fifteen minutes.
- 39:52Speaker 2: So I'm gonna go momentary.
- 39:53Speaker 1: You're gonna go momentarily, which means actually it's about twelve
- 39:56Speaker 1: minutes because I'm a couple minutes behind. Just this is
- 39:58Speaker 1: this is why I love doing Verdict, because this is
- 40:00Speaker 1: that's how it really works, and it's sending the Senate.
- 40:02Speaker 2: So I will say this. I called President Trump a
- 40:06Speaker 2: week ago and I said, miss President, would make a
- 40:10Speaker 2: huge difference if you leaned in personally with the president
- 40:13Speaker 2: of Mexico and said, provide.
- 40:17Speaker 1: Us the water. Yeah, knock it off.
- 40:18Speaker 2: And he said, I'll tell you what. I'll send a
- 40:21Speaker 2: truth social post. And so I worked with him on
- 40:24Speaker 2: the wording of it, and tonight when I was in
- 40:27Speaker 2: the Oval, I said, miss President, can you send that
- 40:30Speaker 2: truth post?
- 40:32Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 40:32Speaker 2: He sent it tonight. I'm going to read it to you.
- 40:35Speaker 2: Here's what President Trump sent this evening. Mexico Owes, Texas
- 40:40Speaker 2: one point three million acre feet of water under the
- 40:43Speaker 2: nineteen forty four Water Treaty, but Mexico is unfortunately violating
- 40:48Speaker 2: their treaty obligation. This is very unfair and it is
- 40:52Speaker 2: hurting South Texas farmers very badly. Last year, the only
- 40:58Speaker 2: sugar mill in Texas clothes because Mexico has been stealing
- 41:03Speaker 2: the water from Texas farmers. Ted Cruz has been leading
- 41:07Speaker 2: the fight to get South Texas the water it is owed,
- 41:12Speaker 2: but Sleepy Joe refused to lift a finger to help
- 41:17Speaker 2: the farmers. This ends now. I will make sure that
- 41:23Speaker 2: Mexico doesn't violate our treaties and doesn't hurt our Texas farmers.
- 41:29Speaker 2: Just last month, I halted water shipments to Tijuana until
- 41:34Speaker 2: Mexico complies with the nineteen forty four Water Treaty. My
- 41:38Speaker 2: Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins is standing up for Texas farmers
- 41:44Speaker 2: and we will keep escalating consequences, including teriffs and maybe
- 41:51Speaker 2: even sanctions, until Mexico honors the treaty and gives Texas
- 41:58Speaker 2: the water they are owed and gives Techi the water
- 42:00Speaker 2: they are owed. Is in all caps.
- 42:02Speaker 1: There you go.
- 42:03Speaker 2: That tweet got sent out tonight. I'll tell you in.
- 42:06Speaker 2: Just within an hour of that tweet going out, the
- 42:09Speaker 2: President of Mexico is sent out a tweet saying we're
- 42:11Speaker 2: gonna fix this. We're gonna fix this, and the Mexican
- 42:13Speaker 2: government is freaking out. That's what it looks like. Later,
- 42:18Speaker 2: President who is fighting for America. Joe Biden could have
- 42:21Speaker 2: done that for four years, but he didn't give a
- 42:24Speaker 2: flip about farmers in South Texas going out of business.
- 42:27Speaker 2: The President's tweet, and I can tell you Mexico is
- 42:31Speaker 2: in the process now negotiating with the state Department to
- 42:34Speaker 2: provide for the water. We're gonna get the water. And
- 42:37Speaker 2: that's a.
- 42:38Speaker 1: Great that's a greatreat victory for Texas in America. Go vote.
- 42:41Speaker 1: You're on the clock now. I love it. We're going
- 42:43Speaker 1: to cover it all every day for you. Make sure
- 42:45Speaker 1: you hit that subscribe auto download button and I will
- 42:48Speaker 1: see you back here tomorrow on the program.