Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Tariffs: Angels & Demons urging either a Massive-Free-Trade Victory or Perpetual Trade Barriers & Taxes
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict with center, Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
- 0:04Speaker 1: with you as always, and Senator, it's nice to be
- 0:06Speaker 1: back in the studio with you. You've been traveling like crazy.
- 0:09Speaker 1: You guys have been really busy in Washington and adding
- 0:11Speaker 1: some days onto the work week as well. We're finally
- 0:14Speaker 1: back here together. We've got a big show.
- 0:16Speaker 2: So it's something going on in Washington, right exactly. You know,
- 0:20Speaker 2: there's an old Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times.
- 0:23Speaker 2: We certainly live in those. Donald Trump has hit the
- 0:26Speaker 2: White House with speed and fury and velocity. There's never
- 0:32Speaker 2: been anything like it. They've never been a president like
- 0:35Speaker 2: this in the first hundred days. Last week, obviously, the
- 0:38Speaker 2: President announced on April second tariffs on just about every
- 0:42Speaker 2: country on Earth, the highest tariff level since nineteen thirty three.
- 0:46Speaker 2: It is a big, big deal. Every nation across the
- 0:50Speaker 2: globe is reeling. They're all trying to figure out what
- 0:53Speaker 2: do we do about it. The stock market, the stock
- 0:56Speaker 2: market collapsed, It went into free fall. Six trillion dollars
- 1:01Speaker 2: evaporated in forty eight hours. Now Monday, everyone's wondering, how's
- 1:06Speaker 2: the market going to open Monday morning? But there's a
- 1:08Speaker 2: lot of concern that the market isn't done going down,
- 1:11Speaker 2: and the question is where do we go from here?
- 1:14Speaker 2: And I'll tell you the reason President Trump is doing
- 1:18Speaker 2: this is important. The reason President Trump is doing this
- 1:22Speaker 2: is that we've seen of the last fifty years a
- 1:25Speaker 2: hollowing out of manufacturing in America. We've seen what used
- 1:30Speaker 2: to be the heart of the American middle class, the
- 1:34Speaker 2: heart of blue collar jobs going away, being pulled abroad,
- 1:39Speaker 2: going overseas, and the industrial Midwest just just being utterly
- 1:44Speaker 2: decimated by good paying jobs leaving America. And President Trump
- 1:50Speaker 2: was elected for many things, but heart and center to
- 1:53Speaker 2: fight for bringing those jobs back. That's right at the
- 1:56Speaker 2: core of this, bringing those jobs back to America. But
- 2:00Speaker 2: there is now a very active debate within the White
- 2:03Speaker 2: House which direction do we go next. Do we use
- 2:07Speaker 2: this as leverage to lower other countries tariffs and then
- 2:10Speaker 2: lower our own tariffs to reflect that, or do we
- 2:14Speaker 2: leave these tariffs up forever and ever and ever. And
- 2:17Speaker 2: I'll tell you there are different advisors in the White House.
- 2:20Speaker 2: There are angels and demons on each of President Trump's shoulders,
- 2:25Speaker 2: urging him use them as leverage or keep them forever.
- 2:29Speaker 2: We're going to break down that debate and what the
- 2:33Speaker 2: consequences are for you, what it means for you if
- 2:36Speaker 2: these tariffs are used as leverage to lower the tariffs
- 2:40Speaker 2: of our trading partners, and what it means for you
- 2:42Speaker 2: if these tariffs are simply a permanent economic feature of America.
- 2:47Speaker 2: We're also going to talk about nationwide injunctions. Nationwide injunctions
- 2:50Speaker 2: we have seen in the last three months. It is
- 2:53Speaker 2: the new incarnation of lawfare. It is how the left
- 2:56Speaker 2: is attacking Donald Trump. They are filing lawsuits, they are
- 2:59Speaker 2: looking for left wing radical judges who are issuing nationwide
- 3:03Speaker 2: injunctions to stop the president's agenda. We had a hearing
- 3:07Speaker 2: in the Senate Judiciary Committee this week on exactly this topic.
- 3:10Speaker 2: We're going to take you there and talk about what
- 3:13Speaker 2: the problem is and what the solution should be.
- 3:15Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be very interesting. I also want
- 3:17Speaker 1: to talk to you real quick about the International Fellowship
- 3:19Speaker 1: of Christians and Jews. Israel is still under attack. Missile
- 3:23Speaker 1: fire has resumed from the Huthis, from Hesblah and hamas
- 3:27Speaker 1: enemies seeking Israel's destruction. Here in America, we cannot imagine
- 3:31Speaker 1: living under constant threat of terrorism and rocket attacks. This
- 3:36Speaker 1: is the reality in Israel. Parents taking their kids to school,
- 3:39Speaker 1: falling to the ground to lay on top of their
- 3:41Speaker 1: small children, trying to comfort them as sirens blair. The
- 3:45Speaker 1: next attack against Israel is happening now with little time
- 3:48Speaker 1: to repair. And that's why your help is needed right now.
- 3:52Speaker 1: The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is helping provide
- 3:55Speaker 1: life saving aid and security essentials, and your urgently need
- 3:59Speaker 1: a gift today will help provide security essentials like bomb shelters,
- 4:03Speaker 1: flag jackets, and bulletproof vests for first responders. They're also
- 4:07Speaker 1: providing armored security vehicles, armored ambulances, and so much more.
- 4:12Speaker 1: So if you're proud to stand with Israel, you can
- 4:15Speaker 1: make your gift right now by calling eight eight eight
- 4:18Speaker 1: four eight eight IFCJ that's eight eight eight four eight
- 4:23Speaker 1: eight four three two five, or online it's easy to
- 4:27Speaker 1: get by going to support IFCJ dot org. That's one word,
- 4:32Speaker 1: support IFCJ dot org. Now center, I have a very
- 4:36Speaker 1: important question, a big question before we get into all
- 4:39Speaker 1: the politics. There's a game that's happening on Monday, and
- 4:43Speaker 1: your hometown team is in that game. How excited are
- 4:47Speaker 1: you to see Houston make it through the final four
- 4:49Speaker 1: of the championship game.
- 4:51Speaker 2: Look the Cougars. They played incredibly against Duke. They were
- 4:54Speaker 2: underdogs against Duke. It was a great victory. We're now
- 4:58Speaker 2: in the finals tonight. I got to say, Houston that
- 5:00Speaker 2: is going to win tonight, is gonna beat Florida. Florida
- 5:02Speaker 2: played well. They had a tough game against Auburn and
- 5:05Speaker 2: managed managed to just scrape it out. Florida is a
- 5:08Speaker 2: good team, but they don't have what it takes to
- 5:10Speaker 2: beat Houston. Houston's defense is too stifling. I'm gonna call
- 5:14Speaker 2: it Houston by six.
- 5:17Speaker 1: I like Houston by six. I like the Bowl prediction.
- 5:19Speaker 1: Well done. All right, so let's talk about tariffs. You
- 5:23Speaker 1: and I we did a show on Friday. It was
- 5:25Speaker 1: a show that a lot of people listen to. It
- 5:27Speaker 1: actually kind of went viral over the weekend as well.
- 5:30Speaker 1: People just want to know what is going to happen
- 5:33Speaker 1: this week, next week. There's concern, there's the stress anxiety
- 5:36Speaker 1: watching the market, but there's also something that's happening right
- 5:39Speaker 1: now that's very interesting. Countries are lining up to meet
- 5:43Speaker 1: with the Trump administration. Vietnam is apparently at the front
- 5:45Speaker 1: of the line. They sent emergency delegation in the US.
- 5:49Speaker 1: They want to get a deal done as fast as
- 5:51Speaker 1: they possibly can. And now we're hearing there's dozens and
- 5:54Speaker 1: dozens of other countries are saying, Hey, we want to
- 5:57Speaker 1: talk too.
- 5:57Speaker 2: No, there is an historic upper two to hear. And
- 6:00Speaker 2: if the White House capitalizes on this opportunity, it could
- 6:04Speaker 2: prove to be one of the most significant, one of
- 6:06Speaker 2: the most powerful moments for US economic interest for American
- 6:10Speaker 2: workers this country has ever seen. Right now, every country
- 6:14Speaker 2: that is on the receiving end of these tariffs, they're
- 6:16Speaker 2: freaking out, They're panicking. This is a great opportunity to
- 6:22Speaker 2: engage in. Let's make a deal here. Listen to Kevin Hasset,
- 6:24Speaker 2: who is the head of the National Economic Council, describing
- 6:27Speaker 2: how countries are coming to the White House right now.
- 6:29Speaker 3: I got a report from the USDR last night that
- 6:32Speaker 3: more than fifty countries have reached out to the.
- 6:34Speaker 2: President to begin a negotiation.
- 6:36Speaker 3: But they're doing that because they understand that they bear
- 6:38Speaker 3: a lot of the tariff.
- 6:39Speaker 2: More than fifty countries. And that's just in a few days.
- 6:42Speaker 2: And listen, I've had a lot of countries that are
- 6:44Speaker 2: reaching out talking to my office, and my advice to
- 6:47Speaker 2: them is, go cut a deal. Go cut a deal,
- 6:50Speaker 2: and the front half of your deal needs to be
- 6:52Speaker 2: the tariffs that we've imposed against US goods, against US crops,
- 6:56Speaker 2: against US livestocks, against used cars, against US manufacturing, against
- 7:01Speaker 2: US services. All of those tariffs we are going to
- 7:05Speaker 2: slash if we see Vietnam came in, Israel has come in.
- 7:10Speaker 2: Israel and Vietnam were right at the front. But you know,
- 7:12Speaker 2: it's interesting. Vietnam is a country that is worth talking
- 7:17Speaker 2: about a little bit because we have a very significant
- 7:20Speaker 2: trade deficit with Vietnam. Yeah, do you know why?
- 7:24Speaker 1: Why is that?
- 7:25Speaker 2: Because America is winning? Why do we have a big
- 7:28Speaker 2: trade deficit with Vietnam? Because most of that manufacturing used
- 7:32Speaker 2: to be in China. And what happened is America, starting
- 7:36Speaker 2: under President Trump, leaned on manufacturers and said move your
- 7:40Speaker 2: manufacturing out of China. And so a whole bunch of
- 7:43Speaker 2: them moved them out of China and went to Vietnam.
- 7:45Speaker 2: So Vietnam was doing what we asked them to. We asked, hey,
- 7:49Speaker 2: can you take on this manufacturing instead of China? And
- 7:52Speaker 2: there was a massive move of American companies that pulled
- 7:56Speaker 2: manufacturing out of China and moved it to Vietnam. Look,
- 8:00Speaker 2: everything we do to delink from China is a good thing.
- 8:03Speaker 2: So moving those jobs out of China was a terrific victory,
- 8:06Speaker 2: and it was a victory for President Trump. It was
- 8:09Speaker 2: the Trump administration that urged moved those jobs to Vietnam.
- 8:14Speaker 2: Now Vietnam suddenly has a big trade deficit because all
- 8:18Speaker 2: those jobs came out of China to Vietnam, and now
- 8:21Speaker 2: Vietnam has a massive tariff that was levied on it
- 8:26Speaker 2: by President Trump. The question is are they going to
- 8:29Speaker 2: work a deal where they lower barriers on both sides.
- 8:33Speaker 2: I hope they will, But there's another path. Listen, there
- 8:37Speaker 2: are voices in the White House who simply believe in
- 8:40Speaker 2: tariffs as a permanent feature of the US economy. There
- 8:44Speaker 2: are voices in the White House that want these high
- 8:47Speaker 2: tariffs to be in place in six months, in a year,
- 8:49Speaker 2: in two years, in five years, in ten years, that
- 8:52Speaker 2: they want tariffs to be the main source of economic
- 8:57Speaker 2: revenue for the federal government. That is a very different philosophy.
- 9:00Speaker 2: And this is one of the things I'll tell you
- 9:03Speaker 2: within the Senate with my colleagues. A lot of us
- 9:05Speaker 2: are debating, Okay, how much of this is leverage to
- 9:09Speaker 2: get great deals from other countries.
- 9:11Speaker 1: And how much of this is what you said, economic
- 9:13Speaker 1: revenue for the government.
- 9:15Speaker 2: And by the way, you know, you get some people
- 9:17Speaker 2: that talk about, well, we'll do tariffs instead of the
- 9:19Speaker 2: income tax, and I got to say that sort of
- 9:23Speaker 2: reminds me of the old cartoon Popeye. Yeah, and you know,
- 9:27Speaker 2: I'll gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger. Today, I'm like, well,
- 9:30Speaker 2: wait a second. The last I checked, we still have
- 9:32Speaker 2: the income tax and we have these tariffs. That's just
- 9:36Speaker 2: a ton more taxes. If you want to get rid
- 9:38Speaker 2: of the income tax, then we can talk. But I
- 9:40Speaker 2: don't see anyone proposing getting rid of the income tax.
- 9:43Speaker 2: And so at the end of the day, in my view,
- 9:47Speaker 2: if the outcome from these tariffs is really high tariffs
- 9:53Speaker 2: from every country on Earth against American goods, and really
- 9:57Speaker 2: high tariffs from America against goods from every every other
- 10:00Speaker 2: country on Earth, that is going to be really bad
- 10:03Speaker 2: for Texas and really bad for America.
- 10:07Speaker 1: Let's talk about momentum. You mentioned the people coming to
- 10:10Speaker 1: the table, and you heard there in that comment fifty
- 10:12Speaker 1: nations are now lining up. You and I both know
- 10:15Speaker 1: that that one of the things Donald Trump does really
- 10:17Speaker 1: well is the art of the deal and loves when
- 10:20Speaker 1: there's something to celebrate celebrating it. Yes, I see in
- 10:24Speaker 1: our near future Vietnam America on stage White House. We
- 10:28Speaker 1: got a historic deal done, and that's where that move goes.
- 10:32Speaker 2: So what I'm urging is for the President to come
- 10:35Speaker 2: and make major deals and make them quickly. Look to
- 10:38Speaker 2: calm the stock market down. A few major deals quickly
- 10:43Speaker 2: would really really help. I would love it if this week,
- 10:47Speaker 2: this week we had an announcement from the president, this
- 10:50Speaker 2: major country came in, they offered huge concessions. They slashed
- 10:54Speaker 2: their tariffs, and we're slashing ours. That would be a great.
- 10:58Speaker 1: Outcome, and that's momentum building as well.
- 11:01Speaker 2: Look, the stock market has a psychology to it. If
- 11:03Speaker 2: people start saying it's a bear markeage, people start saying
- 11:06Speaker 2: we're going into a recession, that feeds upon itself. That
- 11:09Speaker 2: means people are less willing to invest money, they're less
- 11:12Speaker 2: willing to take risks, and so it is important for
- 11:16Speaker 2: people to see the real tangible victories coming from this,
- 11:20Speaker 2: and those victories are not just cash. One of the
- 11:23Speaker 2: things you're hearing the White House say is, well, look
- 11:25Speaker 2: at all the revenue we're getting from tariffs. That's not
- 11:28Speaker 2: actually bringing jobs back to America getting those tariffs, that's
- 11:32Speaker 2: just raising prices. And if the immediate effect for voters
- 11:37Speaker 2: of these tariffs is serious inflation because the cost of
- 11:42Speaker 2: what they're buying is going up. I mentioned on Friday's
- 11:44Speaker 2: podcast how one of the big three American auto manufacturers
- 11:48Speaker 2: told me last week the effect of this tariffs is
- 11:50Speaker 2: they would increase the cost of the cars they sell
- 11:53Speaker 2: by four five hundred dollars a car.
- 11:56Speaker 1: It's a lot of mind average Americans.
- 11:57Speaker 2: That is a lot of money. That is a big hit.
- 12:00Speaker 2: And so we've got to see the upside. We've got
- 12:02Speaker 2: to see the benefit. Look one upside. Right now, Europe
- 12:07Speaker 2: has a ten percent tariffs on American cars, and prior
- 12:13Speaker 2: to April second, America had a two percent tariff on
- 12:16Speaker 2: European cars. Now, I can tell you the Europeans are
- 12:19Speaker 2: already back channeling. They are already putting on the table
- 12:23Speaker 2: zero and zero. They'll take their ten percent to zero,
- 12:26Speaker 2: we take our two percent to zero, and cars go
- 12:29Speaker 2: back and forth from Europe and America without a tariff.
- 12:32Speaker 2: That deal is there. The President could announce it this week.
- 12:37Speaker 2: That's a major victory. Getting rid of those tariffs in
- 12:40Speaker 2: Europe is a major victory. But it is important. So
- 12:44Speaker 2: they're different voices. So, for example, one of the voices
- 12:46Speaker 2: speaking out is Elon Musk. We had Elon on the podcast.
- 12:51Speaker 2: Elon said last week. Here's what he told Reuters. US
- 12:55Speaker 2: tech billionaire Elon Musk said on Saturday he hoped in
- 12:57Speaker 2: the future to see complete freedom of true between the
- 13:00Speaker 2: United States and Europe, speaking days after President Donald Trump
- 13:04Speaker 2: announced tariffs on trading partners Mosca. Trump advisor has been
- 13:08Speaker 2: working to eliminate wasteful US public spending. Spoke via video
- 13:11Speaker 2: link at a congress in Florence of Italy's right wing
- 13:13Speaker 2: Co Ruling Party Co Ruling League party.
- 13:17Speaker 1: Quote this is from US quote.
- 13:19Speaker 2: At the end of the day, I hope it's agreed
- 13:21Speaker 2: that both Europe and the United States should move ideally
- 13:25Speaker 2: in my view, to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating
- 13:29Speaker 2: a free trade zone between Europe and North America. So
- 13:34Speaker 2: when I talked about angels and demons, Elon is one
- 13:37Speaker 2: of the angels. This is a good good voice that
- 13:40Speaker 2: is focused on US jobs that I hope the President
- 13:43Speaker 2: is listening to. I hope the President is listening to
- 13:45Speaker 2: Elon Musk. President Trump has an historic opportunity. The leverage
- 13:50Speaker 2: right now is massive. The question is will the White
- 13:54Speaker 2: House make the decision to use that leverage to try
- 13:57Speaker 2: to lower foreign tariffs. I mentioned something else. Very good
- 14:02Speaker 2: friend of mine works in finance, very very smart finance
- 14:06Speaker 2: here suggests it an idea for how to use this
- 14:11Speaker 2: leverage and get even more of a win win, which
- 14:14Speaker 2: is he said, Look, here's the problem. Let's say you're
- 14:17Speaker 2: an American company or your foreign company, and you've got
- 14:19Speaker 2: a factory somewhere. You've got a factory abroad, you've got
- 14:23Speaker 2: a factory in Vietnam, you've got a factory anywhere other
- 14:25Speaker 2: than the US, and you're contemplating do I move the
- 14:28Speaker 2: factory to the United States. The problem with that decision
- 14:33Speaker 2: making is that move takes years. You can't do it instantaneously,
- 14:37Speaker 2: even if you decide today, okay, let's build it in America.
- 14:41Speaker 2: In a lot of places, just the permitting takes years
- 14:44Speaker 2: to get a factory permitted, much less built. By the way,
- 14:47Speaker 2: that's why everyone should come to Texas. If you're going
- 14:49Speaker 2: to build a factory, come to Texas. Permit it fast.
- 14:52Speaker 2: We're not if you go to California, you deserve what
- 14:54Speaker 2: you get. Come to Texas.
- 14:57Speaker 1: You should turn that into like a public service announcement,
- 14:59Speaker 1: right like you go there, you go me, you deserve
- 15:01Speaker 1: you want to get into business, Texas place to come.
- 15:03Speaker 1: I will tell you.
- 15:04Speaker 2: As an aside, several years ago, a CEO came and
- 15:08Speaker 2: met with me in DC and he was thinking of
- 15:10Speaker 2: opening a new factory and he was looking at Texas,
- 15:13Speaker 2: he was looking at California. And he said, all right,
- 15:16Speaker 2: well tell me in Texas. What do you give me
- 15:18Speaker 2: to go to Texas? And I said, not a damn thing.
- 15:22Speaker 2: I said, but we won't tax you to death, won't.
- 15:24Speaker 2: We won't regulate you to death, and we won't allow
- 15:27Speaker 2: lawsuits just to tear you apart. And I said, you
- 15:30Speaker 2: know what, if you go to California, you deserve.
- 15:33Speaker 1: What you get.
- 15:34Speaker 2: So that being said, let's say you're you're a big
- 15:38Speaker 2: car company and you're trying to decide where do I
- 15:40Speaker 2: put my next car factory. Just the process of getting
- 15:44Speaker 2: it permitted, getting it built, putting the equipment in that
- 15:47Speaker 2: takes a minimum of two, three, four, five years. That's
- 15:50Speaker 2: just how long it takes.
- 15:51Speaker 1: Wow.
- 15:52Speaker 2: So the problem for your decision making is if you're
- 15:54Speaker 2: looking at this, if you're doing it based on the
- 15:56Speaker 2: Trump tariffs, you don't know how long they'll be place.
- 16:00Speaker 2: Sure you're trying to look at the math, you don't
- 16:04Speaker 2: know a is Trump going to lift them in a
- 16:07Speaker 2: deal where you may make a decision for the tariffs
- 16:09Speaker 2: and then suddenly the tariffs aren't there anymore, and the
- 16:11Speaker 2: math changes pretty substantially or be at a minimum in
- 16:15Speaker 2: three and a half years, Trump is not going to
- 16:17Speaker 2: be president, So you don't know if the next president
- 16:20Speaker 2: is going to keep the tariffs or eliminate the tariffs.
- 16:22Speaker 2: So the problem is by the time you opened.
- 16:25Speaker 1: Your factory, completely different group could be in charge.
- 16:29Speaker 2: So the idea that my buddy from the finance world
- 16:32Speaker 2: came up with is for the president to announce a fund,
- 16:36Speaker 2: an invest USA fund that individual CEOs could make it
- 16:41Speaker 2: a commitment. Let's say you're the CEO of Mercedes Benz,
- 16:46Speaker 2: that you could make a commitment we are going to
- 16:48Speaker 2: open three new factories in America, all in Texas. We're
- 16:52Speaker 2: going to open three new factories in America, and we're
- 16:54Speaker 2: going to invest one hundred billion dollars in building these factories.
- 16:59Speaker 2: Now the piece that is, look that has some teeth
- 17:03Speaker 2: to what my friend suggested. Look, you can make that announcement,
- 17:06Speaker 2: you can put out a press release, and by the
- 17:08Speaker 2: way of circumstances change, you never spend one hundred million dollars.
- 17:11Speaker 2: It doesn't actually arrive. The idea is you're the CEO
- 17:17Speaker 2: Mercedes Bend. You announced three new factories one hundred billion dollars.
- 17:20Speaker 2: You deposit the one hundred billion dollars in the fund,
- 17:26Speaker 2: the Invest America Fund. You actually spend the money on
- 17:30Speaker 2: the front end. Now, two things happen when you invested
- 17:34Speaker 2: in the Invest America Fund. Number One, the United States
- 17:38Speaker 2: earns interest on the money while it's sitting there, So
- 17:40Speaker 2: it's benefiting the US just from the interest. If you
- 17:43Speaker 2: leave it there, we'll get interest while it's there. But
- 17:46Speaker 2: number two, as long as you have that money on
- 17:49Speaker 2: the fund, you get a credit that you can use
- 17:52Speaker 2: against your tariffs. Maybe it's a one to one credit,
- 17:55Speaker 2: maybe it's a two to one credit, but it's economically
- 17:58Speaker 2: you create an incentive to put the money there for
- 18:01Speaker 2: CEOs to invest in America, to create jobs in America,
- 18:05Speaker 2: and to actually deploy the cash, because if you make
- 18:09Speaker 2: the credit on the tariffs only dependent on the dollars
- 18:13Speaker 2: actually being in the fund Let's say you give a
- 18:17Speaker 2: two to one credit, so one hundred dollars deposit in
- 18:19Speaker 2: the funds gets you a two hundred dollars credit on
- 18:21Speaker 2: your tariffs. Yeah, that's pretty economically compelling to lean in
- 18:26Speaker 2: and invest. And what we want to see is what
- 18:29Speaker 2: President Trump talks about a lot, a golden age in
- 18:32Speaker 2: manufacturing where companies are profoundly incentivized to invest in.
- 18:37Speaker 1: America, not only to grow, but to stay here so
- 18:40Speaker 1: we don't have to worry about them leaving in the future.
- 18:42Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and if that that has some real potency
- 18:48Speaker 2: and idea like that. But if the solution is simply
- 18:53Speaker 2: let's go back to the world in nineteen hundred, when
- 18:57Speaker 2: you had really high tariffs, when you had you know,
- 19:00Speaker 2: nineteen thirty three, you had smoot Holly that played a
- 19:04Speaker 2: major role in the Great Depression. When you put up walls,
- 19:08Speaker 2: it hurts America. We compete very well on the global level.
- 19:12Speaker 2: We just need to make sure we're competing fairly. And
- 19:15Speaker 2: I think the president has real leverage to do that
- 19:17Speaker 2: right now if he's listening to the angels and not
- 19:21Speaker 2: the voices in his administration that are saying more tariffs,
- 19:24Speaker 2: more tariffs, higher tariffs forever.
- 19:27Speaker 1: Let me ask you a final question on this, and
- 19:28Speaker 1: you talk about the two different viewpoints here. There is
- 19:31Speaker 1: a real debate. I'm having it with friends, I'm having
- 19:35Speaker 1: it with colleagues. I mean, I've witnessed this on TV.
- 19:38Speaker 1: There is, like you said, this core idea, there should
- 19:41Speaker 1: always be tariffs. I've heard people talking about Greg Zama
- 19:43Speaker 1: was China, we should always be at twenty percent or
- 19:45Speaker 1: thirty percent or forty percent, whatever that number is. And
- 19:47Speaker 1: there's others saying, no, you use this as leverage. You
- 19:49Speaker 1: get the better deal now, and then you have the
- 19:51Speaker 1: market stabilize and people understand what the new norm is.
- 19:54Speaker 1: That seems to be what you're advocating for, which is,
- 19:57Speaker 1: let the market know, the CEOs, know the people that
- 19:59Speaker 1: are pouring their dollars to decide what they're gonna do next,
- 20:04Speaker 1: give them whatever the new normal is going to be
- 20:07Speaker 1: so that we can move forward. Is that fair?
- 20:09Speaker 2: You've got to have some modicum of certainty, because if
- 20:11Speaker 2: there's uncertainty. Business doesn't invest. No one invests if they
- 20:15Speaker 2: don't know what the rules are going to be. If
- 20:16Speaker 2: it's chaos, they sit on their cash and you don't
- 20:20Speaker 2: have jobs. We want people to feel confident. And by
- 20:24Speaker 2: the way, chaos under Biden came from regulatory chaos of
- 20:27Speaker 2: new and job killing regulations, one after the other after
- 20:30Speaker 2: the other. But if there is uncertainty, uncertainty is an
- 20:34Speaker 2: enemy of investment, and that means it's an enemy of jobs.
- 20:37Speaker 2: So some limited uncertainty can be helpful to incentivize a deal,
- 20:42Speaker 2: but we need to get to a deal a predictable outcome.
- 20:46Speaker 2: And I will say listen, China is different. I am
- 20:50Speaker 2: actually quite fine with tariffs against China because I think
- 20:54Speaker 2: dlinking from China their economy, they have us in a
- 20:57Speaker 2: position where they are single greatest geopolitical threat. They are
- 21:01Speaker 2: utilizing that economic interconnection as leverage against America, and so
- 21:07Speaker 2: I think everything we can do to move Moving those
- 21:10Speaker 2: jobs from China to Vietnam is a good move, is
- 21:12Speaker 2: an important move, and moving them from China to Mexico
- 21:16Speaker 2: that's a good move. Moving them from China to America
- 21:18Speaker 2: is a good move. But everything we can do to
- 21:20Speaker 2: d link from China's.
- 21:23Speaker 1: Not just trade, it's also national security variations, right, And
- 21:27Speaker 1: I want to bonus question. I think a lot of
- 21:29Speaker 1: people when you mentioned this is a different mentality with
- 21:32Speaker 1: China and tarists are good there. I agree with you.
- 21:35Speaker 1: My reason for it is a lot of national security reasons.
- 21:39Speaker 1: I think that's something that's not been talked about as much.
- 21:41Speaker 1: Give me your thoughts on that, quickly said, people understand
- 21:43Speaker 1: the national security aspect of this.
- 21:44Speaker 2: So look, we saw in the middle of COVID how
- 21:47Speaker 2: much our critical supply chains were dominated by China. China
- 21:51Speaker 2: is fighting a thousand year war against the United States.
- 21:55Speaker 2: When I arrived in the Senate thirteen years ago, I
- 21:57Speaker 2: said China is the single greatest geopolitical threat at America's
- 22:01Speaker 2: facing for the next one hundred years. When I started
- 22:04Speaker 2: saying that, almost nobody in the Senate agreed with me.
- 22:08Speaker 2: All the Democrats disagreed, and most of the Republicans disagree.
- 22:11Speaker 2: Most of the Republicans looked at China and they just
- 22:13Speaker 2: saw dollar signs as far as the eye can see.
- 22:18Speaker 2: A lot more people's eyes have opened up to the
- 22:20Speaker 2: threat China poses today. And I think COVID did an
- 22:23Speaker 2: awful lot of that. You know, in the middle of
- 22:25Speaker 2: the COVID pandemic, there was one major Chinese state owned
- 22:29Speaker 2: newspaper that advocated cutting off life saving pharmaceutical drugs manufactured
- 22:36Speaker 2: in China from going to America, because we've allowed much
- 22:39Speaker 2: of our pharmaceutical drug industry to be manufactured in China,
- 22:42Speaker 2: and they were literally threatening to take away heart medicine
- 22:45Speaker 2: and cancer medicine and diabetes medicine from Americans who needed
- 22:49Speaker 2: to live. That underscored this is stupid to let a
- 22:54Speaker 2: communist government who is our enemy.
- 22:57Speaker 1: Be in charge of her health in that way.
- 22:59Speaker 2: Likewise, critical minerals, critical minerals, China has a stranglehold on
- 23:03Speaker 2: the production of critical minerals, which are essential for semiconductors
- 23:07Speaker 2: and electronics and for defense and for all sorts of
- 23:10Speaker 2: We need to move all of that out of China.
- 23:12Speaker 2: We need to be able to stand on our own
- 23:14Speaker 2: And I got to say President Trump has been really
- 23:16Speaker 2: effective focusing on that threat. We need to accelerate the
- 23:20Speaker 2: delinking from China.
- 23:22Speaker 1: Another threat, and it's not been covered in the news
- 23:25Speaker 1: the way that it should have because we've been dealing
- 23:26Speaker 1: with this. Obviously, we led with this issue because it's
- 23:29Speaker 1: very important, But it's judicial activism that's having a major
- 23:33Speaker 1: impact on this administration, and in a shocking way, I
- 23:37Speaker 1: would even say historic way when you look at the numbers.
- 23:40Speaker 1: You're dealing with this now in the Senate, with these
- 23:42Speaker 1: judges that are basically get to be activists, but their
- 23:45Speaker 1: injunctions are having a whole nationwide. A lot of people
- 23:49Speaker 1: didn't even know that was a possibility. Is an abusive power?
- 23:53Speaker 1: Is there a check and balance that we need to
- 23:54Speaker 1: have on that. Lit's dive into that as well.
- 23:56Speaker 2: So it's an absolute abuse of power. It is worse
- 23:58Speaker 2: than it has ever been seen against Donald Trump. In
- 24:01Speaker 2: the first two months of administration, more nationwide injunctions issued
- 24:06Speaker 2: against President Trump than in the entirety of the George W.
- 24:11Speaker 2: Bush administration all eight years, the entirety of the Barack
- 24:14Speaker 2: Obama administration all eight years, the entirety of the Joe
- 24:17Speaker 2: Biden administration all four years. More in two months than
- 24:23Speaker 2: in those twenty years.
- 24:24Speaker 1: We have two months and twenty years. You say it,
- 24:27Speaker 1: You said it quickly. I want people to just pause
- 24:29Speaker 1: and think about how much of abuse of power there
- 24:31Speaker 1: has to be if they're doing it that much like
- 24:32Speaker 1: this is deliberate.
- 24:34Speaker 2: Well, and listen to Attorney General Pambondi talk about this.
- 24:37Speaker 4: The president is going to comply with the law. He
- 24:40Speaker 4: was overwhelmingly elected by an overwhelming majority of the United
- 24:45Speaker 4: States citizens to be our commander in chief, and that's
- 24:48Speaker 4: what he's been doing, Shannon. Just since January twentieth, we've
- 24:52Speaker 4: had over one hundred and seventy lawsuits filed against us.
- 24:56Speaker 4: That should be the constitutional crisis right there. Fifty in junctions.
- 25:00Speaker 4: They're popping up every single day, trying to control his
- 25:04Speaker 4: executive power, trying to control where he believes our tax
- 25:08Speaker 4: dollars should be allocated. And saying he won by an
- 25:12Speaker 4: overwhelming majority is so important because that's what the American
- 25:15Speaker 4: people want, what President Trump campaigned on and what he
- 25:19Speaker 4: won on, and he's implementing that agenda at a rapid speed.
- 25:23Speaker 4: None of us can keep up with them every single day.
- 25:26Speaker 4: And so it's just we're going after all of these lawsuits,
- 25:29Speaker 4: we're defending them all. We just got a great win,
- 25:32Speaker 4: and we'll continue to fight.
- 25:34Speaker 1: I talked to a judge this week and he described
- 25:36Speaker 1: it this way, because I was wanting to understand this subject. Obviously,
- 25:39Speaker 1: we were going to talk about it. It's important and we
- 25:40Speaker 1: haven't dealt with this a lot. He said. In essence,
- 25:43Speaker 1: what the court's doing, Ben is they are doing a
- 25:46Speaker 1: coup against Donald Trump by neutering him with his agenda.
- 25:50Speaker 1: And he said that is not how the constitution was
- 25:52Speaker 1: set up, Like you should not be able to neuter
- 25:54Speaker 1: a president in this way, saying we know you won,
- 25:56Speaker 1: we know the American people support you, they voted for you,
- 25:59Speaker 1: but we're not going to let you do what you're
- 26:00Speaker 1: supposed to do as president anyway.
- 26:01Speaker 2: Well, and Barack Obama and Joe Biden put left wing
- 26:04Speaker 2: radicals on the courts, and then this is Democrat state
- 26:08Speaker 2: attorneys general and left wing radical groups going and seeking
- 26:11Speaker 2: out these radical judges, many of whom, by the way,
- 26:13Speaker 2: used to work for the groups that are suing. I mean,
- 26:15Speaker 2: I mean it is. It is fundamentally corrupt, and it
- 26:18Speaker 2: is one judge. Normally a judge has the authority over
- 26:21Speaker 2: the parties before him or her, but these judges are
- 26:24Speaker 2: issuing nationwide orders trying to stop everything President Trump is
- 26:29Speaker 2: trying to do. We had a hearing of the Judiciary
- 26:31Speaker 2: Committee last week on this that was focusing on the
- 26:35Speaker 2: threat to democracy and the rule of law from these
- 26:38Speaker 2: nationwide injunctions. Here's what I had to say at the hearing.
- 26:41Speaker 2: It's long been said that hypocrisy is the tribute that
- 26:45Speaker 2: vice pays to virtue. I have to admit I'm enjoying
- 26:49Speaker 2: listening to my Democrat colleagues suddenly discover the virtues of
- 26:52Speaker 2: the rule of law after four years where they brazenly
- 26:55Speaker 2: supported the most lawless Department of Justice and the most
- 26:58Speaker 2: politically weaponized department justice our nation has ever seen. We
- 27:02Speaker 2: just heard the Senator from Rhye Island talk about the
- 27:05Speaker 2: imperative of protecting judges, and yet not a single Democrat
- 27:10Speaker 2: senator cared about the violent protesters that showed up outside
- 27:13Speaker 2: Supreme Court justices homes, including I might note female justices
- 27:17Speaker 2: like Justice Amy Coney Barrett threatening their family. And Joe
- 27:21Speaker 2: Biden's Attorney General didn't do a damn thing and refused
- 27:23Speaker 2: to enforce the law to protect those judges. Why because
- 27:27Speaker 2: he agreed with the violent protesters and he wanted to
- 27:30Speaker 2: intimidate and threaten those judges, Professor Bray, Under our constitution,
- 27:36Speaker 2: who should decide elections the voters or on elected judges.
- 27:40Speaker 3: The voters are the ones who should vote in the
- 27:42Speaker 3: election according to the laws, and the laws sometimes have
- 27:45Speaker 3: to be applied by the judges if they're anse.
- 27:47Speaker 2: And under our constitution, who is charged with making policy decisions?
- 27:53Speaker 2: Elected representatives elected by the people or unelected federal judges.
- 27:58Speaker 3: I think the question of policy, Senator is a little
- 28:01Speaker 3: broader than the particular case. So the basic laws should
- 28:06Speaker 3: be enacted by Congress. That's where the fountain of.
- 28:08Speaker 2: La policy decisions are the elected branch. Right, law is
- 28:11Speaker 2: the province of the court. Policy is the province of
- 28:13Speaker 2: the elected branches. These are not complicated, Professor Bry, Let
- 28:16Speaker 2: me ask you this. Do the federal courts have power
- 28:20Speaker 2: to issue remedies for people who are not parties to
- 28:22Speaker 2: a case?
- 28:24Speaker 3: That's the question, I agree is not complicated. They do
- 28:26Speaker 3: not have that power.
- 28:28Speaker 2: Is the phrase nationwide injunction or universal injunction found anywhere
- 28:31Speaker 2: in the Constitution?
- 28:33Speaker 3: It is not first chart the.
- 28:35Speaker 2: First one hundred and fifty years of our republic. How
- 28:37Speaker 2: many nationwide injunctions were issued?
- 28:40Speaker 3: My view is that there were not any until nineteen
- 28:42Speaker 3: sixty three zero.
- 28:44Speaker 2: Now fast forward, how many nationwide injunctions were issued in
- 28:47Speaker 2: the entire twentieth century?
- 28:51Speaker 3: It's a small number. I would I would think it
- 28:54Speaker 3: would be a dozen. Giver take it's not large.
- 28:57Speaker 2: Twenty seven actually, excluding Trump's first term. How many nationwide
- 29:04Speaker 2: injunctions were issued in the last twenty years far more
- 29:08Speaker 2: than that thirty two from twenty one to twenty twenty
- 29:13Speaker 2: four against Biden, Obama and Bush thirty two. And how
- 29:16Speaker 2: many nationwide injunctions have been issued in the last two
- 29:19Speaker 2: months alone, there have been quite a few thirty seven.
- 29:25Speaker 2: Let that sink in. There have been more nationwide injunctions
- 29:29Speaker 2: in the past two months against President Trump than in
- 29:33Speaker 2: the entire twentieth century. There have been more nationwide injunction
- 29:38Speaker 2: against President Trump in the last two months than both
- 29:42Speaker 2: terms of George W. Bush, both terms of Barack Obama,
- 29:46Speaker 2: and Joe Biden's term. We saw during the Biden presidency
- 29:50Speaker 2: law Fair indicting President Trump four times, using the machinery
- 29:56Speaker 2: of justice to attack him, and that was an attack
- 29:58Speaker 2: on democracy because democrats today hate democracy. Democrats today are
- 30:06Speaker 2: angry at the voters for re electing Donald Trump and
- 30:09Speaker 2: electing a Republican Senate in a Republican House, and they
- 30:12Speaker 2: engaged in Lawfair to stop democracy from operating. Understand, this
- 30:20Speaker 2: is the second phase of lawfair. Second chart. This is
- 30:24Speaker 2: the second phase of lawfair. Now that their efforts to
- 30:28Speaker 2: indict President Trump and stop the voters from re electing
- 30:31Speaker 2: him have failed, they're going and seeking out individual radical
- 30:34Speaker 2: judges to try to shut down policies. And they are
- 30:38Speaker 2: forum shopping like crazy. Give me any loon judge put
- 30:42Speaker 2: on the bench by Obama or Biden who disagrees with
- 30:45Speaker 2: the policy. We just saw a judge flagrantly ignore US
- 30:49Speaker 2: immigration law concerning TPS being revoked. US law explicitly said
- 30:56Speaker 2: there's no judicial review for that. But hey, they found
- 30:58Speaker 2: a judge who says, you know what, what we the
- 31:01Speaker 2: Democrat Party, we are the party of illegal aliens. We
- 31:03Speaker 2: are the party of murderers and rapists and gang members.
- 31:07Speaker 2: And the Democrat Party exists here to fight to keep
- 31:12Speaker 2: murderers and rapists and gang members in your communities. There's
- 31:16Speaker 2: a reason the Democrat Party is at twenty six percent
- 31:19Speaker 2: approval nationwide because they put radical policies ahead of rule
- 31:25Speaker 2: of law nationwide. Injunctions are an abuse of power. It
- 31:30Speaker 2: is the judiciary acting as policy deciders, and it is
- 31:35Speaker 2: incumbent on this committee and this body to rein in
- 31:38Speaker 2: the abuse of power from these unelected radical judges who
- 31:42Speaker 2: are trying to overturn the election because they disagree with
- 31:47Speaker 2: what the voters decided.
- 31:49Speaker 1: So here's my question you just teased at the end,
- 31:52Speaker 1: and that is it's our job to look at raining
- 31:54Speaker 1: them in. How long does that take? Can it be
- 31:57Speaker 1: done through legislation? What are the options here? And how
- 32:01Speaker 1: quick can we get this under control?
- 32:03Speaker 2: Well, it could be done quickly. There's legislation. In fact,
- 32:05Speaker 2: there's legislation we were talking about at that hearing that
- 32:08Speaker 2: Chuck Grassley's introduced that I'm a co sponsor of that
- 32:11Speaker 2: would remove the power of a district judge to issue
- 32:13Speaker 2: nationwide injunctions. I think that makes an awful lot of sense.
- 32:17Speaker 2: Is that going to pass? Probably not, because for it
- 32:20Speaker 2: to pass in the Senate would take sixty votes, which
- 32:23Speaker 2: would mean we would need seven Democrats to support it.
- 32:26Speaker 2: Every Democrat they're enthusiastic about this lawfare. They want to
- 32:30Speaker 2: see more of it, so they are dug in. That
- 32:33Speaker 2: remedy is not there. The other remedy that you and
- 32:36Speaker 2: I have talked about before is impeachment. Impeachment, you can
- 32:39Speaker 2: impeach a judge in the House with a majority vote
- 32:43Speaker 2: to utter and eighteen votes. It may well make sense
- 32:47Speaker 2: that that one or more of the most egregious district
- 32:51Speaker 2: judges who are who are defying their oath of office,
- 32:55Speaker 2: should and perhaps will be impeached by the House. However,
- 32:59Speaker 2: if and when that happens, it'll come over to the
- 33:01Speaker 2: Senate for the trial. And under the Constitution it takes
- 33:04Speaker 2: two thirds to convict. That means we'd need Democrats, and
- 33:07Speaker 2: the Democrats are not going to convict. There may be
- 33:10Speaker 2: value in impeaching one or more of these judges anyway
- 33:12Speaker 2: to highlight the utter, brazen lawlessness of it, and doing
- 33:19Speaker 2: so would mean we could have a trial on the
- 33:21Speaker 2: floor of the Senate to lay out just how lawless
- 33:24Speaker 2: their conduct was. But the judge is not going to
- 33:26Speaker 2: be removed because the Democrats are all in in support
- 33:30Speaker 2: of illegal aliens and against the rule of law. That
- 33:33Speaker 2: means the remedy are number one, the court of public
- 33:37Speaker 2: opinion making people understand sure just what an abuse of
- 33:40Speaker 2: power this is, and number two the appellate process, the
- 33:43Speaker 2: courts of appeals and ultimately the Supreme Court. Now, I
- 33:46Speaker 2: will say, immediately after I finished my questioning Amy Klobuchar
- 33:51Speaker 2: spoke next, and I think my comments rattled her because
- 33:55Speaker 2: she tried to respond, and I got to say what
- 33:59Speaker 2: she was saying made so little sense. I couldn't resist
- 34:02Speaker 2: jumping in and and and we had some real fireworks.
- 34:06Speaker 2: So here, give a listen.
- 34:07Speaker 5: And the only reason there's all these injunction, center Cruise,
- 34:10Speaker 5: is because he's violating the constitution. Why would Trump appointed judges?
- 34:15Speaker 2: Why don't you file him in red red districts?
- 34:17Speaker 5: Senator cru Why what did you just say?
- 34:20Speaker 2: Why don't you file him in red districts? Why are
- 34:22Speaker 2: the Democratic tonator generals seeking out Senator Cruz left wing.
- 34:28Speaker 5: Senor Cruse's activity in this I'm just gonna ask for
- 34:33Speaker 5: a point of order. Clob center center, Moody.
- 34:37Speaker 2: We have debates on this committee that that.
- 34:40Speaker 5: Let's let her have her time and then we'll get
- 34:42Speaker 5: back to that. If you want to wait, we'll get
- 34:43Speaker 5: back to senator.
- 34:45Speaker 2: Question ahead, choice, go ahead.
- 34:47Speaker 5: So I was following Senator Cruise once again, but I
- 34:51Speaker 5: will excuse me, I didn't hear you. What did you
- 34:53Speaker 5: say to be following him? He and I have a
- 34:58Speaker 5: permitting you your time to continue. You would be following
- 35:01Speaker 5: him in order excuse me, go ahead, Senator klob during hearing,
- 35:04Speaker 5: Go ahead, Satric what I'm rehiring to go ahead? And
- 35:07Speaker 5: I will take more than my time since he's taken
- 35:10Speaker 5: more than his time to yell at me.
- 35:12Speaker 2: Good, I'm not yelling. I asked a question, Senator.
- 35:16Speaker 5: Crmes, Please, I'll give you time.
- 35:18Speaker 2: I do have to say, I've seen you yell. That
- 35:20Speaker 2: was not yelling. I didn't raise my voice at all.
- 35:22Speaker 2: And by the way, Amy Klobachar had no answer none.
- 35:26Speaker 2: She's like, well, oh, these injunctions are issuing because everything
- 35:29Speaker 2: he's doing is illegal. It's like, great, why don't they
- 35:31Speaker 2: file him in red districts? Why are you seeking out
- 35:34Speaker 2: the most left wing judges in the country who used
- 35:37Speaker 2: to be radical activists, who were nominated because they're radical
- 35:40Speaker 2: activists who used to work for the left wing groups
- 35:43Speaker 2: that are now bringing the lawsuits. Why are you only
- 35:45Speaker 2: filing them in their in their courts. If it was
- 35:47Speaker 2: so clear, if it was such a slam dunk, you
- 35:50Speaker 2: ought to be able to file them in in red
- 35:53Speaker 2: districts and Nope, Nope, they ain't gonna do that. She
- 35:55Speaker 2: had no answer whatsoever. Because this is about power and
- 35:59Speaker 2: abuse power. This is not about the rule of law.
- 36:02Speaker 1: Don't forget. We do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
- 36:05Speaker 1: Hit that subscriber auto download button if you're watching us
- 36:07Speaker 1: in the video on YouTube. Make sure that you subscribe.
- 36:11Speaker 1: You don't miss a single episode on YouTube. We put
- 36:14Speaker 1: out a lot of stuff on YouTube, so we want
- 36:15Speaker 1: to make you get all of that as well, and
- 36:17Speaker 1: grab my show, the Ben Ferguson Podcast on those in
- 36:20Speaker 1: between days. I'll keep you up today in the latest
- 36:23Speaker 1: breaking news because there's a lot happening in Washington the Senate,
- 36:25Speaker 1: and I will see you back here on Wednesday morning.