Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Lawfare & Tariffs w May Mailman Senior Policy Strategist from the WH

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Lawfare & Tariffs w May Mailman Senior Policy Strategist from the WH · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Good morning, Welcome. It is the Ben Ferguson Podcast. Nice
0:03
Speaker 1: to have you with us. We're live here at the
0:04
Speaker 1: White House, and my guess with me now is May Melman,
0:08
Speaker 1: senior policy strategist at the White House and a unique
0:11
Speaker 1: perspective because she was in forty five in that administration,
0:16
Speaker 1: you're now in forty seven. We were talking before the
0:19
Speaker 1: show and I just let's just start with this because
0:21
Speaker 1: I think it's so cool. This White House is running
0:24
Speaker 1: at a different pace than it did with the first
0:28
Speaker 1: time around. Part of that was learning government. I think
0:30
Speaker 1: part of it's having a team this time that seems
0:32
Speaker 1: to be working as a team and just seems like
0:36
Speaker 1: everyone wants to win and is getting along. The leaks
0:39
Speaker 1: were not seeing like we did last time. It seems
0:42
Speaker 1: like everybody's a team player. This is really fun to
0:45
Speaker 1: watch on the outside. I was in the Bush administration
0:48
Speaker 1: and it was in the second from four to HO eight,
0:50
Speaker 1: and it was just a different type of team than
0:52
Speaker 1: we had in the first part. You got to enjoy
0:55
Speaker 1: watching the past and now the president. How cool is
0:58
Speaker 1: that for you? Yeah?
0:59
Speaker 2: I used to be jealous of what the Bush people
1:02
Speaker 2: had in the sense that they still did reunions, and
1:05
Speaker 2: they all hung out with each other and they you know,
1:09
Speaker 2: we had our criticisms, certainly, but it felt like they
1:13
Speaker 2: were all very unified. And I think during Trump one
1:16
Speaker 2: point zero, people very much got along. It was friendly.
1:19
Speaker 2: But people had come from different places. So you had
1:21
Speaker 2: people who were campaign people, you had people who were
1:24
Speaker 2: RNC people, you had people who were either longtime friends
1:28
Speaker 2: of the family, these sort you know, everyone kind of
1:31
Speaker 2: had their own different background. But now there is such
1:34
Speaker 2: a thing as Trump World, and there are people who
1:36
Speaker 2: have been here and those they've had relationships and they've
1:39
Speaker 2: had ups and downs with each other, and so it
1:42
Speaker 2: is easier to have everybody rowing in the same direction.
1:45
Speaker 2: And I've had strange experiences that I never had during
1:49
Speaker 2: the first time. So during the first time, I was
1:50
Speaker 2: also writing a lot of executive orders, helping push a
1:53
Speaker 2: lot of policies, and I would have to follow up
1:56
Speaker 2: and follow up and follow up, and nothing would happen
1:59
Speaker 2: at the speed and the pace and the level that
2:02
Speaker 2: I wanted it to. Now, if I write something that's
2:05
Speaker 2: very nuanced, I'm careful, Okay, we're not trying to do this.
2:08
Speaker 2: People will just do it at the one hundred out
2:10
Speaker 2: of ten, even though we we just need a ten
2:12
Speaker 2: out of ten. That's okay. So the excitement people have
2:16
Speaker 2: been planning, people are ready to go, and it does
2:20
Speaker 2: feel very different, even though it is actually a lot
2:22
Speaker 2: of the same people. I'm working with a lot of
2:24
Speaker 2: the same people, but it's just different this time.
2:26
Speaker 1: So let's talk about where we are one hundred days in.
2:29
Speaker 1: You're here, your senior pology strategists. I think one of
2:33
Speaker 1: the big things that people are witnessing right now they're
2:35
Speaker 1: concerned about is the law fair. There is very clear
2:39
Speaker 1: a movement by the left, by the Democrats to use
2:43
Speaker 1: the court system and activist judges, their allies that they
2:47
Speaker 1: know are quarly on their team, making sure they're filing
2:50
Speaker 1: things in certain courts where they know it'll give them
2:53
Speaker 1: a favorable opinion, which is against this White House, and
2:56
Speaker 1: trying to stop the president of a law fair. You
2:58
Speaker 1: guys are fighting back. You work with Jason Miller. You
3:00
Speaker 1: guys are out there hardcore going against this. Where are
3:03
Speaker 1: we now and how big of a roadblock is this
3:06
Speaker 1: going to be for Trump's agenda getting actually done well.
3:09
Speaker 2: The Democrats have no political strategy, they have no political leader,
3:14
Speaker 2: They have no North Star, so all they have is no.
3:17
Speaker 2: And the place you go for no is the courts,
3:20
Speaker 2: and so that's where all the money has been, that's
3:22
Speaker 2: where the excitement is, that's where the investment is. Is
3:25
Speaker 2: just no. There's some protests, there's blowing up tesla's, but
3:28
Speaker 2: mostly it's in the courts. And I think the judges
3:31
Speaker 2: are very excited. These are activists, these are longtime Democrat donors, partisans,
3:36
Speaker 2: you know, they're part of the movement. They're excited to
3:39
Speaker 2: actually be the leaders of the left right now. And
3:42
Speaker 2: so yeah, it is a problem. I'm a lawyer. For
3:44
Speaker 2: four years when I was not in the White House,
3:47
Speaker 2: I was bringing lawsuits and the judges that we would get,
3:50
Speaker 2: even if we were in conservative areas of the country
3:53
Speaker 2: with very conservative judges, these were measured approaches. I'll just
3:56
Speaker 2: take Title nine for example, twenty six states brought lawsuits
4:00
Speaker 2: and I think eight different jurisdictions to challenge Biden's rewrite
4:03
Speaker 2: of Title nine. Each one of those judges, every single one,
4:07
Speaker 2: issued an injunction that was just narrowed to the parties
4:10
Speaker 2: that had brought the suit, So there never was a
4:12
Speaker 2: nationwide injunction. Even with twenty six states in eight different lawsuits.
4:17
Speaker 2: Compare that to here, where you just have any sort
4:22
Speaker 2: of group. It's not states bringing these this is just
4:25
Speaker 2: random people, random activists, bringing these lawsuits and getting nationwide
4:30
Speaker 2: injunctions at the TRO stage, the temporary restraining order stage,
4:34
Speaker 2: which is not even assessment of the merits of whether
4:37
Speaker 2: you're right or wrong. It's just, hey, I'm the judge,
4:39
Speaker 2: and I feel like doing this nationwide thing based not
4:42
Speaker 2: even on the merits. I want to freeze the Trump
4:45
Speaker 2: administration from doing anything. So this law fair is a serious,
4:49
Speaker 2: serious problem in my opinion. I think that it violates
4:52
Speaker 2: the job of the judiciary, which is to say what
4:55
Speaker 2: the law is, not to become the policymaker. So I
4:58
Speaker 2: think there's been some calls for impa and things like that.
5:01
Speaker 2: You know, Congress should absolutely impeach judges who are not
5:04
Speaker 2: doing their jobs. However, that's just not going to be
5:07
Speaker 2: the solution. The solution, I think, is going to be
5:09
Speaker 2: a reshaping of what it means to have judicial power,
5:13
Speaker 2: whether that's coming from the Supreme Court, whether that's coming
5:15
Speaker 2: from Congress, or whether that's coming from the administration. Just
5:18
Speaker 2: saying you know what, if you are actually stepping into
5:21
Speaker 2: the executive branch's power. We're not going to abide by it.
5:25
Speaker 2: And so I think these judges are really playing with fire.
5:28
Speaker 2: But they know it, and they want it, and they
5:30
Speaker 2: want to pick this fight because they feel the leadership
5:33
Speaker 2: of the Democratic Party right now.
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7:30
Speaker 1: Let's talk about trade, and that is a big issue
7:33
Speaker 1: that is I think top of mind for virtually every American.
7:36
Speaker 1: I have dear friends that knew I was going to
7:39
Speaker 1: be here today, and I was like they're dealing with
7:41
Speaker 1: this and they've got companies that are American companies, startups
7:45
Speaker 1: from their garage that are now being affected because of
7:48
Speaker 1: this trade war with China. They're very concerned about what
7:52
Speaker 1: they've built. Where are we with this master plan from
7:55
Speaker 1: the President? It seems to me he's saying, Hey, I
7:58
Speaker 1: want to get great deals to with a lot of
8:01
Speaker 1: countries so that we have much less dependence on China.
8:06
Speaker 1: This is about reducing China's influence in the world, especially
8:10
Speaker 1: when it comes to trade. Are we moving forward and
8:12
Speaker 1: when are we going to start getting deals announced to
8:15
Speaker 1: calm the markets but also the people that have businesses
8:19
Speaker 1: and how long are they going to have to deal
8:21
Speaker 1: with this? Because we saw yesterday it is a good
8:23
Speaker 1: sign President was meeting with top companies. They're meeting with
8:26
Speaker 1: Lows and Home Depot and Walmarting Target about this trade war.
8:30
Speaker 1: That could be good news, but also could be bad
8:32
Speaker 1: news depending on who you read and what you're being told.
8:35
Speaker 1: We know the media wants us to be miserable. They
8:37
Speaker 1: want to be fear mongering. They want this inflation issues
8:40
Speaker 1: to happen. They want this to be a Trump disaster.
8:42
Speaker 1: I don't see it that way.
8:43
Speaker 2: Though, Yeah, I think the President's heart is where actually
8:46
Speaker 2: a lot of Americans' hearts are, which is that we
8:50
Speaker 2: want to be supply chain independent. We want to be
8:54
Speaker 2: able to make our pharmaceuticals at home. We don't want
8:57
Speaker 2: to be reliant on a country who who is threatening
9:02
Speaker 2: to us. And yet I think the President also is
9:05
Speaker 2: a very practical person. He's a business person, he is
9:08
Speaker 2: a listener, and you can see even from the changes
9:11
Speaker 2: to the original announcement of reciprocal tariffs, that he wants
9:15
Speaker 2: to be in it with allies to shore up our
9:20
Speaker 2: manufacturing against people who do not have our best interests,
9:24
Speaker 2: including China. So while I can't give a timeline for
9:28
Speaker 2: when you would see an exact announcement, I can say
9:32
Speaker 2: that the White House is in listening mode and we
9:35
Speaker 2: have been hearing from people changes and those changes have
9:38
Speaker 2: already been implemented, whether whether it has to do with
9:44
Speaker 2: lower tariffs on certain electronics that we simply can't make
9:48
Speaker 2: we can't on shore quickly. And then I think also
9:52
Speaker 2: part of the tesch.
9:52
Speaker 1: Of security, right, this is when I've asked, and I've
9:55
Speaker 1: had leaders call me and they're like, Ben, what is
9:57
Speaker 1: he doing? Why is he doing this and say, look,
9:59
Speaker 1: you got to look at this from two views. One
10:01
Speaker 1: is national security, and if you bring enough of that
10:04
Speaker 1: back to the US, you don't have to be the
10:05
Speaker 1: leader in the world, but you need to have enough
10:07
Speaker 1: from a national security standpoint that if something happens frowhere
10:09
Speaker 1: else in the world, you're still good. And that's part
10:11
Speaker 1: of what the president I think learned from COVID.
10:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so from a national security standpoint, I think
10:17
Speaker 2: the nation is pretty strong and we feel good there.
10:21
Speaker 2: And so really it is focusing on small businesses and
10:24
Speaker 2: the impact and it is alarming actually how tightly our
10:28
Speaker 2: supply chains and how quickly they are connected to China, which,
10:31
Speaker 2: of course, you know something that we all know, which
10:34
Speaker 2: is why the whole action exists to begin with. But
10:37
Speaker 2: nobody wants to harm American small businesses. What we want
10:41
Speaker 2: is for China and the United States to find a
10:46
Speaker 2: resolution and then of course to eventually work toward a
10:51
Speaker 2: trade policy that is going to be best for our
10:55
Speaker 2: national security, best for our economy. And you know, as
10:58
Speaker 2: President Trump is going to be income tax replacement. And
11:03
Speaker 2: it's a complicated thing, but no president has really taken
11:08
Speaker 2: this on seriously and year by year by year by year,
11:13
Speaker 2: we become more reliant, less safe, less secure, less independent.
11:20
Speaker 2: And it almost doesn't matter whether you have a southern
11:22
Speaker 2: border or if the threat is coming in from your
11:26
Speaker 2: nation's dependence. That said, I think, as you noted, the
11:31
Speaker 2: President is in complete listening mode. So there is a
11:34
Speaker 2: need to make sure that our small businesses and our
11:37
Speaker 2: large businesses, and our supply chains and our consumers are
11:40
Speaker 2: all accounted for. And these are conversations that are happening
11:43
Speaker 2: every day in the White House. They're competing every day
11:45
Speaker 2: in the agencies, at the US Trade Representative, at the
11:48
Speaker 2: Department of Commerce, at the Department of Treasury, farmers, at
11:51
Speaker 2: the USDA. This is definitely the number one topic. This
11:55
Speaker 2: is extremely important. Nobody is taking it lightly, No nobody
12:00
Speaker 2: looking for you know, massive sacrifices. This is something that
12:06
Speaker 2: it's a policy that needs to be fixed, it's something
12:09
Speaker 2: that needs to be implemented. And yet I think you're
12:11
Speaker 2: going to see reasonable policies being implemented that in our
12:16
Speaker 2: country toward a more secure posture.
12:20
Speaker 1: So when do we start to see I guess, and
12:23
Speaker 1: you know, momentums everything right, people say, when are we
12:26
Speaker 1: going to start to see big announcements and hey, we've
12:30
Speaker 1: got to deal with this country in that country. Are
12:32
Speaker 1: we days away from that? Are we weeks away from that?
12:35
Speaker 1: Because momentum is everything and it makes people feel better. Okay,
12:39
Speaker 1: now we're having success, and now we're getting another one,
12:41
Speaker 1: and now we're getting another one. We're about one hundred
12:44
Speaker 1: days in here at the White House. What is that
12:46
Speaker 1: rollout going to look like? Yeah?
12:48
Speaker 2: Hard to say a number of days, but I can
12:51
Speaker 2: say that those conversations with foreign countries are happening right now,
12:55
Speaker 2: and so at some level, I think there has been
12:59
Speaker 2: a lot of progress. You've already seen countries make certain
13:03
Speaker 2: types of concessions, make changes, make promises, and so it's
13:07
Speaker 2: locking those in. Sometimes that takes a little bit of
13:10
Speaker 2: time from the other countries perspective in order to get
13:13
Speaker 2: an announcement to reality.
13:15
Speaker 1: But it's so it's all had done deck right.
13:18
Speaker 2: It's presently happening.
13:20
Speaker 1: So I talked to an ambassador yesterday who said to me,
13:22
Speaker 1: he said, look, we just want to know what the
13:23
Speaker 1: new normal is, and that's what we're working on as
13:26
Speaker 1: fast as we can with this White House, so that
13:28
Speaker 1: we can continue to see businesses grow. The spirit from
13:32
Speaker 1: that ambassador was not one of anger. It was almost
13:35
Speaker 1: a spirit of hey, we know we were taking advantage
13:38
Speaker 1: of you guys, so was the rest of the world.
13:40
Speaker 1: We did what the rest of the world did. This
13:42
Speaker 1: is a smaller country and I don't want to name
13:45
Speaker 1: it because it was in confidence, but he was basically admitting, like, hey,
13:48
Speaker 1: we followed the lead of other countries as they would
13:51
Speaker 1: take advantage. We were a little lower than they were.
13:53
Speaker 1: But it was like, why not if this is what
13:55
Speaker 1: the world looks like in the trade, And he was admitting,
13:58
Speaker 1: we're willing to totally read this thing. We want to
14:01
Speaker 1: get it done because we want to keep doing business
14:03
Speaker 1: with America. We love doing business. He wasn't even upset,
14:06
Speaker 1: and that gave me, I think a lot of hope
14:08
Speaker 1: that like, there's a lot of company countries I should
14:10
Speaker 1: say that are coming to the table who are saying,
14:13
Speaker 1: we know this deal is going to get redone. In
14:14
Speaker 1: other words, we know that the price is one described
14:17
Speaker 1: to me the day they go. We know if you
14:19
Speaker 1: live in a house under a lease for a long time,
14:21
Speaker 1: ten years later, there's a very good chance there's going
14:23
Speaker 1: to be a major change in what you're paying. They
14:25
Speaker 1: all know that they're accepting it, and so that to me,
14:28
Speaker 1: sin is a signal of something good coming.
14:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, the new normal. You know, for the present time,
14:35
Speaker 2: there is that ten percent rate, which is sort of
14:40
Speaker 2: a baseline that I think people have accepted and that
14:42
Speaker 2: the market celebrated when when President Trump first announced it.
14:48
Speaker 2: And then you know, as far as there are certain
14:50
Speaker 2: countries who are willing to help us out and do
14:52
Speaker 2: additional things Elsealvador, Let's take, for example, there are countries
14:57
Speaker 2: that I think are trying to either lock in those
15:01
Speaker 2: rates or secure more favorable deals, but you know not
15:07
Speaker 2: there are a lot of countries out there who want
15:09
Speaker 2: to have those conversations. Those conversations are all happening, I
15:12
Speaker 2: would say, starting with like a group of twenty or
15:14
Speaker 2: so right now and then moving on, moving on, moving on,
15:18
Speaker 2: And I think the President has signaled multiple times he's
15:22
Speaker 2: willing to have those conversations with China, and so that's
15:25
Speaker 2: something that if the you know, Chinese are here to
15:31
Speaker 2: make a deal, that that can happen as well. But
15:33
Speaker 2: even for small countries, just because you're small does not
15:37
Speaker 2: mean that you're forgotten. I think these are going to
15:39
Speaker 2: happen just on their own time.
15:42
Speaker 1: Let's move to another issue that I think is really important,
15:45
Speaker 1: and that is the fight for the president. He has
15:47
Speaker 1: done this in sports gender ideology, has been saying. He said,
15:50
Speaker 1: we're going to protect them. We're going to protect women
15:52
Speaker 1: and women's sports. We're not backing down on that issue.
15:55
Speaker 1: You look at the president doing this. Democrats do feel
15:59
Speaker 1: like in some states this is a fight worth fighting
16:02
Speaker 1: for them. They're trying to rally the troops. As you
16:05
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, there is no leader of the Democratic Party
16:07
Speaker 1: right now. That the party of just no because no
16:09
Speaker 1: one's in charge. It's totally anarchy and chaos. But they
16:12
Speaker 1: are trying to find an issue to hone in on.
16:16
Speaker 1: I think they believe that this gender ideology issue is
16:18
Speaker 1: one that can at least rally their core base. And
16:22
Speaker 1: they're saying, we're not going to abide by what you're
16:24
Speaker 1: telling us to do. Mister President, go ahead and sue.
16:27
Speaker 1: We'll see you in court. We heard that, but said
16:29
Speaker 1: from a governor at the White House, like, we'll see
16:30
Speaker 1: you great, can't wait to see you in court. Where
16:33
Speaker 1: are we now with that? Because there are still men
16:35
Speaker 1: acting like women that are still getting to play with
16:37
Speaker 1: women as we speak in some states.
16:39
Speaker 2: Right, so it is about to be high school championship season,
16:43
Speaker 2: and you're already seeing a lot of men at the
16:46
Speaker 2: regional level, and beyond take trophies from women. You're not
16:51
Speaker 2: seeing it from the college level because these colleges know
16:56
Speaker 2: that the NCAA policy requires sex space participation in women's sports.
17:02
Speaker 2: That doesn't mean you can change your birth certificate. That
17:04
Speaker 2: means it's based on sex. And this is something that
17:06
Speaker 2: the NCAA has picked up the phone and enforced when
17:09
Speaker 2: they feel like something has gone on. So we need
17:12
Speaker 2: but there's no similar structure at the state level. So
17:15
Speaker 2: each state is governed by its own state Athletic Association,
17:19
Speaker 2: and the Trump administration has started investigations into several of them,
17:24
Speaker 2: into California, into Minnesota, Maine. We filed a lawsuit. First ever.
17:29
Speaker 2: It has never before happened that a school has lost
17:32
Speaker 2: its money because of a Title nine violation from the
17:35
Speaker 2: federal government.
17:36
Speaker 1: Why never, that's amazing.
17:37
Speaker 2: Never in the history of Title nine since nineteen seventy two.
17:40
Speaker 2: Never there've been private lawsuits where people have had to
17:42
Speaker 2: pay private judgments, but never has the federal government had
17:45
Speaker 2: to come down on a school and take their federal money.
17:47
Speaker 2: Why because usually when the Feds come asking, hey, will
17:50
Speaker 2: you stop discriminating against women, the school is like, sure,
17:53
Speaker 2: I'd love to stop discriminating against women. It is wild
17:57
Speaker 2: to me that Maine, this is a very simple ask,
18:01
Speaker 2: can you just not have men in women's sports? Man
18:03
Speaker 2: won't do it, And their governor has doubled, tripled down.
18:07
Speaker 2: And then other states like California, same deal. Colorado is
18:11
Speaker 2: not only allowing men in women's sports, but they're now
18:15
Speaker 2: going to disallow you from calling a parent from calling
18:19
Speaker 2: his or her own child the correct pronouns because that's
18:24
Speaker 2: child abuse. So I think you are going to see
18:27
Speaker 2: a divide and we're not going to actually just sit
18:29
Speaker 2: by and take it. Title nine is a nineteen seventy
18:32
Speaker 2: two law that says that in education programs, you cannot
18:35
Speaker 2: discriminate against women. You have to have equal opportunity. You
18:38
Speaker 2: are not providing women equal opportunity. If you're saying, okay,
18:41
Speaker 2: yeah you can come here, but you have to use
18:43
Speaker 2: the bathroom with men. Yeah you can come to our school,
18:46
Speaker 2: but there will be no women's sports because you are
18:50
Speaker 2: unequally harming them privacy wise. You're unequally harming them safety
18:54
Speaker 2: wise competitive and so these I think are very easy
18:58
Speaker 2: winnable cases. Will take them all the way up to
19:01
Speaker 2: the Supreme Court if they need to be. But we're
19:03
Speaker 2: going to make some examples out of some states that
19:06
Speaker 2: continue to double down on gender ideology, even though the
19:09
Speaker 2: American public eighty twenty is the other way you.
19:12
Speaker 1: Look at what the fight looks like. I have a
19:15
Speaker 1: feeling this is going to be for years because they're
19:17
Speaker 1: just not going to stop. And you're saying that the
19:20
Speaker 1: White House has a commitment that we're not going to
19:22
Speaker 1: let them get away and just isolate and do what
19:24
Speaker 1: they want to do, and that maybe a liberal university
19:26
Speaker 1: or a liberal state exactly.
19:28
Speaker 2: So if they want to not take federal money, so if.
19:32
Speaker 1: You, yeah, fine, do your thing. It's like Harvard, please
19:34
Speaker 1: give us their tax hours back. I'd love for you
19:36
Speaker 1: to operate as a radical left university and just admit it, exactly.
19:40
Speaker 2: And so this is not some sort of federal takeover
19:42
Speaker 2: of anything. This is the taxpayers have given you a deal.
19:46
Speaker 2: And the deal is if you take billions of dollars,
19:49
Speaker 2: then you're not going to discriminate against women. And we're
19:51
Speaker 2: just here to enforce that deal. But for states that
19:54
Speaker 2: spend billions of dollars on illegal immigrant health care, like California,
19:58
Speaker 2: they can afford to fund their se schools. The federal
20:00
Speaker 2: government actually is a pretty small percentage of school funding.
20:04
Speaker 2: Most of it, as you know, is your property taxes
20:06
Speaker 2: that are local. So it is perfectly possible for states
20:10
Speaker 2: to fund their own education system, and they would like
20:12
Speaker 2: to do that and discriminate against women on their own time.
20:16
Speaker 2: Titlenine has nothing to say about that. Their own state
20:19
Speaker 2: statutes probably have something to say about that, but Title
20:22
Speaker 2: nine itself does not. And so that's all we're trying
20:24
Speaker 2: to do is enforce the deal. And I think Democrats
20:28
Speaker 2: had a really big opportunity after the election, after they
20:32
Speaker 2: they took a huge loss because they were too progressive,
20:35
Speaker 2: and you could hear Seth Moulton and some of these
20:37
Speaker 2: people saying, maybe we should be more moderate, and I said, no,
20:41
Speaker 2: they're not going to do that. They can't, and sure
20:43
Speaker 2: enough they can't. They are owned by their left flank
20:45
Speaker 2: because they just don't have any leaderships. So this is
20:48
Speaker 2: going to continue to happen, and we're going to continue
20:50
Speaker 2: to say fine, no federal funding.
20:52
Speaker 1: My guess to me is may Melman. She is a
20:54
Speaker 1: senior policy strateger just here at the White House. So
20:56
Speaker 1: let's talk about the first hundred days and what are
20:59
Speaker 1: your top takeaways if you're checking boxes. I think for me,
21:02
Speaker 1: number one is the border and I think that has
21:05
Speaker 1: just been an amazing success to watch border crossings drop
21:08
Speaker 1: by ninety seven, ninety eight, nine nine percent, whatever the
21:10
Speaker 1: number is now, it keeps changing, So I want to
21:12
Speaker 1: you know, it's why I'm giving a little leeway there.
21:14
Speaker 1: Some fact checker out there will freak out, no, you
21:16
Speaker 1: got it wrong by decimal point. It's the reality that
21:20
Speaker 1: this is something he promised and paid off on. But
21:23
Speaker 1: there's a lot of other wins right now that have
21:25
Speaker 1: not been talked about in the media specifically.
21:28
Speaker 2: So I will just say one of the biggest wins
21:31
Speaker 2: is our energy agenda, the drill, Baby drill. I think
21:34
Speaker 2: it's harder to see wins here because some permits take
21:37
Speaker 2: a long time to actually turn in to a project.
21:40
Speaker 2: But when you see what's actually happening, So Biden said,
21:44
Speaker 2: for LNG exports, we're not going to issue any new permits.
21:49
Speaker 2: We have already issued four new permits. Biden said, We're
21:53
Speaker 2: not going to do any coal leasing. We've opened up
21:56
Speaker 2: federal lands for coal leasing, and we've rescinded regulations that
22:01
Speaker 2: are preventing coal's minds from moving forward, and several have
22:04
Speaker 2: already either announced or already opened up. I think you're
22:09
Speaker 2: going to see a lot of news coming very soon
22:11
Speaker 2: on this crazy thing called the Social cost of Carbon,
22:15
Speaker 2: which basically said that if you want a new project,
22:18
Speaker 2: you have to present to the government as a cost
22:21
Speaker 2: of your project, the carbon that you would use to
22:25
Speaker 2: build the project, and then the carbon that would be
22:27
Speaker 2: created from your project. Meaning no projects could ever move
22:30
Speaker 2: forward because it would seem like it was just going
22:32
Speaker 2: to be so costly, so terrible. These are, of course
22:35
Speaker 2: invented things about what's going to happen in three hundred years.
22:38
Speaker 2: I don't even know what the weather's going to be tomorrow,
22:40
Speaker 2: and so I think that you're going to see a
22:43
Speaker 2: lot of positive movement there. The Endangered Species Act, I'll
22:46
Speaker 2: do one more. For years, you can't build anything because
22:49
Speaker 2: if you hurt the butterfly's habitat, you can't have a project.
22:53
Speaker 2: And so Biden spent all this money on the Inflation
22:56
Speaker 2: Reduction Act, and we're going to build this and this
22:58
Speaker 2: and this billions of dollars nothing was build. Why, well,
23:01
Speaker 2: you have to do all of these neaper rules, and
23:03
Speaker 2: you have to do the Environment Metal Species Act, and
23:06
Speaker 2: what about the caterpillar? So we proposed a rule that said,
23:09
Speaker 2: it's not about whether you're harming the habitat in some
23:12
Speaker 2: emotional sense. You actually have to physically harm the animals
23:17
Speaker 2: in order to trigger this law. So we're making a
23:20
Speaker 2: lot of these regulatory changes that are going to expand building,
23:24
Speaker 2: expand energy. We've already hosted all the major energy companies here.
23:28
Speaker 2: They're very excited building pipeline in Alaska, finishing pipeline on
23:32
Speaker 2: the East Coast, talking to governors there who are from
23:35
Speaker 2: not friendly states, but who understand the national security needs.
23:38
Speaker 2: So energy, I think is something that's under talked about
23:41
Speaker 2: but has huge wins and actually will have huge implications.
23:45
Speaker 1: It's amazing how it's not talked about. When the price
23:47
Speaker 1: of gas comes down, it's like, okay, it's better, But
23:50
Speaker 1: when it's up, everybody wants to know who to blame. Well,
23:53
Speaker 1: it's come down, and then the media is like, great,
23:55
Speaker 1: we don't have to talk about it anymore.
23:56
Speaker 2: Right. Even the cost of eggs is I think down
24:00
Speaker 2: three dollars from the time.
24:02
Speaker 1: Man, it was a big deal though at the beginning.
24:04
Speaker 1: Remember go back one hundred days ago. Everything's Trump's fault. Now,
24:06
Speaker 1: no one's talking about the cost of.
24:08
Speaker 2: Eggs, right, and there are no shortages. And what Biden
24:11
Speaker 2: did is he implemented a kill all the chickens strategy.
24:15
Speaker 2: And so, of course, when Biden kills all the chickens,
24:18
Speaker 2: there are no chickens left to lay eggs. Not asking
24:21
Speaker 2: whether you could do pasteurization, other types of things you
24:24
Speaker 2: could protect the you know, protect the flocks. Whatever kills
24:27
Speaker 2: all the birds, and so then tries to blame President Trump.
24:30
Speaker 2: But of course these are things that we are working
24:33
Speaker 2: through in order to lower costs, our deregulation costs. We
24:37
Speaker 2: have twelve rules that have either been already rescinded or
24:41
Speaker 2: being proposed to rescind that have a savings of fifty
24:44
Speaker 2: billion dollars. So that's just easy deregulatory wins already in
24:49
Speaker 2: the first one hundred days. So these types of things,
24:52
Speaker 2: you know, maybe a deregulatory effort that says you no
24:56
Speaker 2: longer have to purchase an EV won't affect you immediately,
24:59
Speaker 2: but it will affect you the next time you buy
25:00
Speaker 2: a car and that car doesn't have an inflated price
25:03
Speaker 2: of another ten to fifteen one thousand dollars, I think
25:06
Speaker 2: people can remember how expensive things got, or the California
25:09
Speaker 2: Evy mandate, where California basically gets to make the car
25:13
Speaker 2: rules for half the country and we're saying no, California
25:16
Speaker 2: doesn't get to do that anymore. So these are the
25:18
Speaker 2: types of things that Americans are going to feel when
25:19
Speaker 2: they may have those big purchases. You know, standards for showerheads,
25:24
Speaker 2: washing machines, gas stoves, these types of things, expanding options, furnaces,
25:28
Speaker 2: water furnaces, these types of things that are deregulatory, giving
25:33
Speaker 2: options for consumers and lowering prices.
25:35
Speaker 1: Final question for you, looking for the next hundred days,
25:38
Speaker 1: what do you think the biggest win is going to
25:40
Speaker 1: be for the American people? Is that going to be
25:41
Speaker 1: victories with trade.
25:43
Speaker 2: I think we can look forward to victories with trade.
25:46
Speaker 2: I think deregulation is going to really kick in. We
25:49
Speaker 2: have a ten to one deregulation mandate. It's not a goal,
25:53
Speaker 2: it's a mandate in order for to see this. But
25:57
Speaker 2: then I think also we're going to see some action
25:58
Speaker 2: from Congress. So Congress is going to push forward its
26:01
Speaker 2: Reconciliation bill, which is going to have a solidify a
26:05
Speaker 2: lot of our priorities, but some things that we couldn't
26:07
Speaker 2: do administratively, things about you know, benefits that go to
26:12
Speaker 2: illegal aliens that shouldn't these types of things fixes that
26:15
Speaker 2: we absolutely need. You're going to see that come through Congress.
26:18
Speaker 2: So a lot of our focus right now is shifting
26:20
Speaker 2: away from some of these must have administrative wins to
26:24
Speaker 2: how can we lock those wins in with Congress. It's
26:27
Speaker 2: a little bit difficult working with you know that many people,
26:30
Speaker 2: but that's at least where my attention is going right now.
26:34
Speaker 1: It's awesome. I appreciate your time. May Melman, Senior Policy Strate,
26:37
Speaker 1: just here at the White House. Firste hundred days of
26:39
Speaker 1: successes are big for the American people. You guys are
26:42
Speaker 1: working hard, and there's a lot more to come in
26:44
Speaker 1: and we'll obviously be chatting with you again real soon.
26:46
Speaker 2: All right, Thanks for having me
26:47
Speaker 1: Don't forget share this podcast with your family and friends,
26:50
Speaker 1: share it on social media please, and I'll see you
26:53
Speaker 1: back here tomorrow.