Speaker 1: Good Monday morning. Welcome.
Speaker 2: It is Verdict with Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you
Speaker 2: and Center. You had one eventful weekend, A little time
Speaker 2: on Air Force One, catching your first UFC fight. Not
Speaker 2: a bad way to hang out on the weekend.
Speaker 3: Well I did.
Speaker 4: I had a fantastic weekend. I spent much of Saturday evening,
Speaker 4: in fact, all of Saturday evening with President Trump. Flew
Speaker 4: down to Miami on Air Force One. Went to the
Speaker 4: UFC fight, which was incredible, was joined by multiple members
Speaker 4: of the cabinet. I'm going to tell you all about that.
Speaker 4: I'm going to take you on Air Force One. I'm
Speaker 4: going to take you to the UFC tell you everything
Speaker 4: that happened. There's also a lot of battles that are
Speaker 4: playing out in Washington. The dominant story continues to be tariffs,
Speaker 4: and tariffs are having massive economic impacts on the United
Speaker 4: States on the world. The particular rules and policies are
Speaker 4: changing every week, sometimes every day. We're going to break
Speaker 4: down those changes, what they mean, and we're going to
Speaker 4: talk about what's likely to happen next. We're also going
Speaker 4: to talk about a a decision from an immigration judge
Speaker 4: this past week that Mahmoud Khalil, who was the anti
Speaker 4: Israel protester at Columbia University, that he can be deported,
Speaker 4: he can be sent home. This is the right decision.
Speaker 4: We're gonna explain what happened all of that in today's podcast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be a really interesting story there, that's
Speaker 2: for sure. I want to talk to you real quick
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Speaker 1: Centat.
Speaker 2: I gotta say the videos that came out to U
Speaker 2: of you with Donald Trump and and some others that
Speaker 2: people will know, like the FBI director Toldsea Gabbard, uh
Speaker 2: at this UFC fight, it looked like you guys were
Speaker 2: just having a blast. Was this your first time at
Speaker 2: a usc fight? And what did you think of it?
Speaker 1: First off?
Speaker 4: So it was I'd never been to a UFC fight. Fight,
Speaker 4: It was a blast. Dana White invited me to come
Speaker 4: and and then the President invited me to to join
Speaker 4: them on Air Force one coming down. So I was
Speaker 4: I was part of the President's UH team that came in.
Speaker 4: And so I came in with with the President, with
Speaker 4: with Elon Musk and Little X. We had also Marco
Speaker 4: Rubio came, Cash Pateel, the director of the FBI came,
Speaker 4: Bobby Kennedy came and his wife and and Telsea Gabbard came,
Speaker 4: and and so.
Speaker 3: We were all UH on Air Force.
Speaker 4: One came came to the the the event and and
Speaker 4: I gotta say, have you ever been to a UFC fight?
Speaker 1: I actually have, and I think they're just unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Holy cow number one.
Speaker 4: It's in Miami that the stadium was rocking the energy.
Speaker 4: I mean it just shook the floor. And and and
Speaker 4: I walked in with with President Trump. When the President
Speaker 4: walked in, there are not words to describe how much
Speaker 4: the people in that stadium love President Trump and and
Speaker 4: and it just erupted it it. You know, if he
Speaker 4: were Mick Jagger riding on Evil Knevels motorcycle through flaming rings,
Speaker 4: I'm not sure they would have cheered louder.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: And it was it was very cool. We were all seated,
Speaker 4: uh right ringside, right by the octagon, and it is
Speaker 4: so close. I mean, it is something else. These guys,
Speaker 4: these fighters, they are big dudes. Actually some of them
Speaker 4: are little dudes. But but the little dudes are ripped
Speaker 4: and they just beat the living crap out of each other.
Speaker 4: I mean they are so fast. You know, the first
Speaker 4: fight we saw, you know, one hard punch literally dropped
Speaker 4: a guy and he was basically just knocked out cold
Speaker 4: because he stepped into a punch. Some of these fights
Speaker 4: that they get pretty bloody, which was like wow, I mean,
Speaker 4: they just beat the living daylights out of each other.
Speaker 4: But the skill, uh that these fighters are are boxers,
Speaker 4: they're wrestlers, they do jiu jitsu, they they do mixed
Speaker 4: martial arts, and so there's there's kicking and punching and
Speaker 4: throws and grappling and and and it was incredible. And
Speaker 4: I got to tell you that the number of fighters
Speaker 4: who came up to the president and just said you're
Speaker 4: my guy, that was powerful as well.
Speaker 1: This place, as you mentioned, was packed.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that as I was watching
Speaker 2: it on TV, and many may have seen some of
Speaker 2: the tweets that were sent out, that the excitement, as
Speaker 2: you mentioned for Donald Trump, the chance of USA and Trump.
Speaker 2: They were very loud. He comes in there, and look
Speaker 2: this guy. I understand the moment. It's one of the
Speaker 2: I think one of the best things about Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: He walks in like he's a prize fighter walking in
Speaker 2: for a mask like and that's how he's treated.
Speaker 4: It is it absolutely is. Now, I will say, one
Speaker 4: of the strange things is is you know President Trump
Speaker 4: wears wears a suit and tie pretty much everywhere other
Speaker 4: than the golf course. He wears a suit and tie constantly.
Speaker 4: So if I were going to a UFC fight, I
Speaker 4: would never wear a suit and tie like that. That
Speaker 4: is not how I would dress. Sure, And so I'll
Speaker 4: confess I kind of debated, all right, what do I wear?
Speaker 4: And you know what, I figured, all right, if you're
Speaker 4: hanging with the president, you owe the respect to the office.
Speaker 4: And so I went ahead and put on a suit
Speaker 4: and tie and and came in and it was and look,
Speaker 4: it was very nice. They they introduced me during the
Speaker 4: course of the fight and there was a big loud cheer.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 4: I was gratified. Look, I'm you know, I'd represent Texas,
Speaker 4: not Florida. But but the Miami folks were feeling sending
Speaker 4: some I love my way, so that made me happy,
Speaker 4: and it was it was an amazing time.
Speaker 3: We were taking lots of pictures.
Speaker 4: Several of the pictures that I tweeted out were actually
Speaker 4: taken by Cash Pateel, the FBI director.
Speaker 3: Who Who's Who's a friend of mine?
Speaker 1: Yeah, good guy, good friend of mine as well. He's awesome.
Speaker 2: And and by the way he gets away with not
Speaker 2: wearing the suit, did you notice that he was.
Speaker 1: Like black on black.
Speaker 4: I did give him some grief for that. Now, Cash
Speaker 4: is a huge UFC fan. He's been to a bunch
Speaker 4: of the fights and he follows them closely, and he
Speaker 4: was he was just like, no, this is what this
Speaker 4: is what I'm gonna wear. But so I had him
Speaker 4: take several of the pictures and then I turned to
Speaker 4: him and I said, Cash, what kind of moron gives
Speaker 4: his cell phone to the director of the FBI. And
Speaker 4: he cracked up laughing, and I said, just to be clear,
Speaker 4: I'm not waving any Fourth Amendment privilege on my phone.
Speaker 4: And he did give it back. He gave it back
Speaker 4: and he did not search the contents.
Speaker 2: That's awesome when you look at this cabinet and I
Speaker 2: you were on Air Force one by the way down there,
Speaker 2: and this is your first time on air Force one
Speaker 2: in forty seven. This term his new term. You've been
Speaker 2: on it obviously before. I've been on Air Force one.
Speaker 2: It's the coolest plane in the world. I don't care
Speaker 2: what anybody says. It's absolutely unbelievable. But what's it like
Speaker 2: in the mood there this cabinet? And the reason why
Speaker 2: I ask is it seems like they are much tighter.
Speaker 2: They have a genuine affinity for one another, and they
Speaker 2: enjoy each other's company. You can see it when they're
Speaker 2: in the cabinet meetings, you can see it when they're
Speaker 2: on the plane, but you're there with them. I mean,
Speaker 2: it just seems like there's a different level of mesh,
Speaker 2: like they're genuine teammates working together every day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's right.
Speaker 4: I think the cabinet the second term is much stronger
Speaker 4: than the cabinet the first term. I think the president
Speaker 4: has been looking for and disappointed change agents, people that
Speaker 4: are going in to really make a serious difference in
Speaker 4: the cabinet agencies they've been appointed to. And he's looking
Speaker 4: for people who are committed to fighting to implement his agenda.
Speaker 4: And I'll tell you in the first term he had
Speaker 4: some people who did that, but he had some of
Speaker 4: his appointments who actively undermined and fought the White House
Speaker 4: and did real damage. And so I think I think
Speaker 4: there's a much greater consistency of the cabinet fighting alongside
Speaker 4: the president rather than fighting against the president in this
Speaker 4: second term. And you asked what the mood was. Look
Speaker 4: on Air Force One. I've been on Air Force one
Speaker 4: a bunch of times. The mood the president was. He
Speaker 4: was in great spirits, he was in great cheer. You know,
Speaker 4: we flew back at two in the morning. I gotta say,
Speaker 4: the president is seventy eight, he's almost seventy nine years old,
Speaker 4: and he had complete and total energy. And I got
Speaker 4: to tell you X, who's four turns five and in
Speaker 4: May as a four year old, he was wide awake
Speaker 4: in running around at two in the morning. And in
Speaker 4: fact I asked the President, I said, okay, mis President,
Speaker 4: who more energy you or X? And he just kind
Speaker 4: of laughed. But it was kind of close. They're both
Speaker 4: at at two o'clock in the morning. In fact, the
Speaker 4: President went to the back of the plane and did
Speaker 4: an impromptu news conference. The reporters fly in the back
Speaker 4: of the plane, and he was joking, you know, before
Speaker 4: he went in, he was talking with all of us,
Speaker 4: said all right, I'm gonna go talk to the reporters now.
Speaker 4: And he said, can you imagine Joe Biden doing this?
Speaker 4: And he said, look, Biden would be asleep by like
Speaker 4: eight pm? How could he possibly But.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't even bet the fight. Let's be honest.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're there now. Look it, if they had a
Speaker 4: game of shuffle board, Biden might have made.
Speaker 2: That that's true, or or you know, he did like
Speaker 2: riding the bikes until he fell over.
Speaker 1: But you know, there's there's that as well.
Speaker 2: I just think it's incredible to see not only the stamina,
Speaker 2: but also the excitement and the love for life. I
Speaker 2: feel like there's a genuine happiness around this Trump. I
Speaker 2: feel like there's a lot of days in sixteen to
Speaker 2: twenty where he was angry and for good reason and
Speaker 2: mad and frustrated and he was going to war with
Speaker 2: the media. I feel like now he's messing with him
Speaker 2: a little bit more, and he's genuinely loving his time
Speaker 2: as being president. This time it's a different perspective. Is
Speaker 2: part of that because the assassination attempt, do you think
Speaker 2: and also saying, hey, I'm getting another chance of redo
Speaker 2: basically from sixteen, I'm better at at this time. I
Speaker 2: know of what I'm up against, I know how bad
Speaker 2: the government is, the deep state, etc.
Speaker 4: Look, I think he's having fun. I also think and
Speaker 4: this is something actually he and I talked about quite
Speaker 4: a bit on Air Force One, which is he's able
Speaker 4: to accomplish a lot more this term than he would
Speaker 4: have been if he had served an immediately successive term.
Speaker 4: If he'd gone back in the White House in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty one in what would have been a close and
Speaker 4: bitter and contested election, we would not be accomplishing a
Speaker 4: fraction of what he's accomplishing now. It really took the
Speaker 4: four years of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the absolute train
Speaker 4: wreck that they made of everything, to make I think
Speaker 4: the American people ready for the Trump administration to implement
Speaker 4: real and souitous change. I also think those four years
Speaker 4: the Trump team spent that time really thinking and thinking
Speaker 4: seriously about what they wanted to accomplish. And so you
Speaker 4: look at these executive orders they're putting in place that
Speaker 4: they're rolling out day after day after day. I think
Speaker 4: if it were an immediately successive term, you would not
Speaker 4: have seen anywhere near as bold and as effective executive
Speaker 4: action as we've seen. And and Trump emphatically agreed that
Speaker 4: that that the fact that he was coming after four
Speaker 4: years of Biden gave him much more ability to implement
Speaker 4: significant change than if he'd just been serving an immediately
Speaker 4: consecutive second term.
Speaker 2: So the question I'm going to ask, which is the
Speaker 2: one I think nine percent of the people listening want
Speaker 2: me to ask you right now, is all right, So
Speaker 2: did you guys talk about tariffs?
Speaker 1: Did you talk about Trey?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 1: What's the conversation? What were you guys chatting about?
Speaker 2: When it comes from a policy standpoint, because if you
Speaker 2: look at the different people you were with, it could
Speaker 2: have gone a lot of different ways. You had Kennedy there,
Speaker 2: that's totally different than cashpertel conversation or or or Tolsted's conversation.
Speaker 2: Maybe what were you guys talking about?
Speaker 4: Yeah, look, a lot of times the conversations are are substantive.
Speaker 4: I got to tell you this one. Everyone was excited
Speaker 4: about going to the USC and so it was kind
Speaker 4: of a happy, jovial mood.
Speaker 3: On the way back.
Speaker 4: He his granddaughter Kai was there and she's a terrific golfer.
Speaker 4: So he was like, you know, show everyone your golf swing,
Speaker 4: and so he pulled it, you know, had her pull
Speaker 4: out a phone and show you know, she's gonna be
Speaker 4: playing at University of Miami golf team, and so he was.
Speaker 4: It was it was a relaxed, joking around fun environment. Look,
Speaker 4: there was some discussion of tariffs, but the main discussion
Speaker 4: of tariffs, and we're going to get into tariffs right now,
Speaker 4: was he was talking about all of the law firms
Speaker 4: that that that have cut deals with the administration and
Speaker 4: have signed commitments to give typically one hundred million dollars
Speaker 4: or in some instance is one hundred and twenty five
Speaker 4: million dollars of pro bono legal services, free low legal
Speaker 4: services for for issues that that that that matter to
Speaker 4: the Trump administration. And he was saying, collectively, it's over
Speaker 4: a billion dollars in legal services. And so he was saying,
Speaker 4: you know, what should we use that for? And I'll
Speaker 4: tell you what I suggested, and what he was agreeing
Speaker 4: is you've got some of the best lawyers in the world,
Speaker 4: and I was saying, look, we ought to use these
Speaker 4: guys to help negotiate trade deals. We've got We've got
Speaker 4: companies all over the work, or countries rather all over
Speaker 4: the world that are coming and wanting trade deals, wanting
Speaker 4: to lower their tariffs against US goods and services, wanting
Speaker 4: to get President Trump's tariffs lowered against them, and just
Speaker 4: papering one hundred plus deals is incredibly complicated. It takes
Speaker 4: a lot of serious lawyering, and so having over a
Speaker 4: billion dollars of free legal services, and I think I
Speaker 4: think the President was quite interested and was pretty emphatically
Speaker 4: agreeing that that is a very good thing to devote
Speaker 4: a lot of that energy is to negotiate negotiating trade
Speaker 4: deals that benefit America and that lower tariffs on American
Speaker 4: goods going abroad.
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned that there's a lot of paperwork. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's going to be an awful lot of paperwork, because
Speaker 2: we're now hearing from the White House that they have
Speaker 2: negotiations that are in essence underway with what was forty
Speaker 2: countries early, then it jumped to seventy. Now they're saying
Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty countries are sitting there ready to
Speaker 2: have the conversation on tariffs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 4: Kevin Hasset, who's the head of the National Economic Council,
Speaker 4: he was on TV this weekend. Give a listen to
Speaker 4: what Kevin said.
Speaker 6: Well, what do you say to small business owners or
Speaker 6: even big business owners who say they're having difficulty making
Speaker 6: long term business decisions because the country seems right now
Speaker 6: to be run by capricious whim.
Speaker 7: Oh, i'd think at all, it's run by capricius whim.
Speaker 7: The way that I would think about it is that
Speaker 7: in the previous administration, you can sort of say, if
Speaker 7: you're thinking about it in the foot all analogy is
Speaker 7: that they were running out the clock. And what's going
Speaker 7: on now and the Trump administration is across a wide
Speaker 7: array of policy areas. We're in a two minute offense,
Speaker 7: and the two minute offense is pushing, as you've seen
Speaker 7: the reconciliation build through, so that we get tax relief
Speaker 7: for America people, deregulation, and of course trade policy. Now
Speaker 7: on the trade policy, the whole point of the trade
Speaker 7: policy is to address the national emergency that we're too
Speaker 7: dependent on foreign products in the US, especially if we
Speaker 7: were at a time of conflict, and we're doing something
Speaker 7: about that. And the Reciprocal Act was basically, guys, if
Speaker 7: you come to the table and negotiate us with us
Speaker 7: and treat us the same way we treat you, then
Speaker 7: we'll get your rate really low. And so right now
Speaker 7: one hundred and thirty countries, one hundred thirty countries have responded
Speaker 7: and we're negotiating with them, and they've got their rate
Speaker 7: down to ten percent. And so really it's kind of
Speaker 7: almost a two world system. There's a process about China
Speaker 7: and that's very very nascent, if at all, and then
Speaker 7: the process for everybody else. So the process for everybody
Speaker 7: else is orderly. It's clear people are coming to town
Speaker 7: with great offers. We've got japanned Korea, India. I was
Speaker 7: just talking to the Foreign Minister of Idea and everything
Speaker 7: is moving forward very quickly. And so I guess the
Speaker 7: bottom light is that the small business owner has experienced
Speaker 7: over the last few weeks the start of a process
Speaker 7: that's settling down really quite quickly. Gave one hundred thirty
Speaker 7: contries are at ten percent now.
Speaker 2: One hundred and thirty countries and at ten percent now,
Speaker 2: and they're saying they're coming in and they want a
Speaker 2: deal done, and they want to get done quick.
Speaker 4: Well, look, and I think that's notable that the number
Speaker 4: of countries are coming in asking for a deal, negotiating,
Speaker 4: eager to come to the table. It's up to one
Speaker 4: hundred and thirty, is what the White House is saying.
Speaker 4: That is unprecedented. That is remarkable, and that is a
Speaker 4: significant victory. That is reason to celebrate. Now, you and
Speaker 4: I have talked before about how this administration's approach has
Speaker 4: been an approach kind of borrowed from Silicon Valley, move
Speaker 4: fast and break things, and and so things are moving fast. Uh,
Speaker 4: there's a lot of uncertainty, and I do think it's
Speaker 4: right that that the business world is is disconcerted by
Speaker 4: the uncertainty that that that when it comes to investment,
Speaker 4: if you're going to invest money, and this is true
Speaker 4: whether you're you're, uh, you know, a small business or
Speaker 4: a giant corporation, you need some modicum of certainty to
Speaker 4: know whether to deploy capital.
Speaker 3: And and and so every time.
Speaker 4: The rules change, that that that that makes business is
Speaker 4: less likely to deploy capital.
Speaker 3: And so my.
Speaker 4: Hope is that that we will see a greater degree
Speaker 4: of predictability and certainty. Now, you and I have talked
Speaker 4: in this podcast about how there is a battle waging
Speaker 4: within the Trump administration that's still very much going on,
Speaker 4: and it is waging.
Speaker 3: On the one hand, you.
Speaker 4: Have people like Kevin Hassett, You have people like Elon Musk,
Speaker 4: You have people like Scott Bessant who are arguing aggressively
Speaker 4: lower tariffs from other countries, use these tariffs's leverage to
Speaker 4: negotiate extraordinary free trade agreements, and those voices right now,
Speaker 4: I think there's some momentum behind those voices. Those voices
Speaker 4: prevailed when last week President Trump paused the tariffs across
Speaker 4: the board, as we talked about in this podcast. I
Speaker 4: spent an hour the night before along with several other senators,
Speaker 4: urging the President to do exactly that, and he listened
Speaker 4: to us and others that we're.
Speaker 3: Arguing to do that.
Speaker 4: But there are other voices in the administration that are saying, no,
Speaker 4: don't lower the tariffs. It doesn't matter if other countries
Speaker 4: lower their tariffs. Let's keep tariffs in place in perpetuity.
Speaker 4: And I very much hope that that second group of
Speaker 4: voices does not prevail, because I think that would be
Speaker 4: a really harmful economic policy for the country. If we
Speaker 4: end up having massively high terriffs of every country on
Speaker 4: Earth against America, and massively high tariffs in America against
Speaker 4: every country on Earth. I think that'd be really bad
Speaker 4: for Texas farmers and ranchers and businesses, and for American
Speaker 4: farmers and ranchers and businesses. And so I'm encouraged right
Speaker 4: now that I think the free market side of that
Speaker 4: argument is prevailing. But I would say don't get complacent.
Speaker 4: This battle is very much going back and forth, and
Speaker 4: it is a live argument.
Speaker 2: There's also a big separation now that we're seeing in
Speaker 2: this conversation, and it deals with He's saying, hey, we're
Speaker 2: dealing with a lot of these countries one way, We're
Speaker 2: gonna deal with China a little bit differently. Then we
Speaker 2: also had this announcement come out that there were going
Speaker 2: to be some exemptions on tech items like phones, computers,
Speaker 2: and chips from these tariffs. The Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnik,
Speaker 2: he went on ABC this week to try to explain
Speaker 2: all of this, saying, hey, this is in essence also
Speaker 2: short term, and we will set tariffs come in there,
Speaker 2: but we're trying to make this work now so that
Speaker 2: there's not a major disruption or a massive hike in
Speaker 2: some of these important items. Take a listen to what
Speaker 2: he had to say on ABC this week.
Speaker 8: I'm joined now by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Secretary
Speaker 8: of Lutnik, Thank you for being with us this morning.
Speaker 8: I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: So let's start with that news like pleasure.
Speaker 8: Let let's start with that news Lefari that this exemption
Speaker 8: on electronics smartphones, laptop, computers and the like. What's the
Speaker 8: thinking why the exemption.
Speaker 5: Well, if you remember, over the past couple of months,
Speaker 5: President Trump has called out pharmaceuticals and semiconductors and autos.
Speaker 5: He called them sector tariffs, and those are not available
Speaker 5: for negotiation. They are just going to be part of
Speaker 5: making sure we resure the core national security items that
Speaker 5: need to be made in this country. We need to
Speaker 5: make medicine in this country. We learned it during COVID.
Speaker 5: We need to make and in this country. We need
Speaker 5: to make semiconductors because if we don't own semiconductors here.
Speaker 5: Remember all virtually all semiconductors are made now in Taiwan
Speaker 5: and they're finished in China. It's important that we reassure them.
Speaker 5: And so the President is going to come out with
Speaker 5: his policies on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. They're going to be
Speaker 5: outside the reciprocal tariffs. And he was just making sure
Speaker 5: everyone understood that all of these products are outside the
Speaker 5: reciprocal tariffs and they are going to have their own
Speaker 5: separate way of being considered.
Speaker 8: But wait a minute, I'm asking you about the exemption,
Speaker 8: not about I mean the notice that went out Friday
Speaker 8: night saying that electronics, a wide range of electronics, including smartphones,
Speaker 8: including components used to make microchips, that these are now
Speaker 8: exempt from the reciprocal tariffs. Why that move.
Speaker 5: Well, remember those products are going to be part of
Speaker 5: the semiconductor sectoral tariffs which are coming. So you're going
Speaker 5: to see this week there'll be a register in the
Speaker 5: Federal Registry. There'll be a notice put out that is
Speaker 5: different types of work. So we're going to do that.
Speaker 5: We did that in autos. The President's going to do
Speaker 5: it for pharmaceuticals and he is going to do it
Speaker 5: for semiconductors. So all those products are going to come
Speaker 5: under semiconductors and they're going to have a special focused
Speaker 5: type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshort.
Speaker 5: We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips,
Speaker 5: and we need to have flat panels. We need to have
Speaker 5: these things made in America. We can't be reliant on
Speaker 5: Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for US.
Speaker 5: So what he's doing is he's saying they're exempt from
Speaker 5: the reciprocal tariffs, but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs
Speaker 5: which are coming in probably a month or two. So
Speaker 5: these are coming soon. You shouldn't think this is really
Speaker 5: outside of it. Really think of it as being included
Speaker 5: in the semiconductors base, much like pharmaceuticals. Okay, sir, special attention,
Speaker 5: and the President is on it.
Speaker 8: So you're saying that the big tariffs on things like
Speaker 8: smartphones and laptops, iPhones, all those iPhones built in China,
Speaker 8: that those tariffs are temporarily off, but they're going to
Speaker 8: be coming right back on in another form in a
Speaker 8: month or so or what are you saying?
Speaker 5: Correct?
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 5: Semiconductors and pharmaceuticals will have a tariff model in order
Speaker 5: to encourage them to re sure to be built in America.
Speaker 5: We need our medicines, and we need semiconductors and our
Speaker 5: electronics to be built in America. We can't be the
Speaker 5: hold in and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things
Speaker 5: that we need. We can't be relying on China for
Speaker 5: fundamental things that we need. Our medicines and our semiconductors
Speaker 5: need to be built in America. Donald Trump is on it.
Speaker 5: He's calling that out. So you should understand these are
Speaker 5: in included in the semiconductor tariffs that are coming, and
Speaker 5: the pharmaceuticals are coming. Those two areas are coming in
Speaker 5: the next month or two. So this is not like
Speaker 5: a permanent sort of exemption. He's just clarifying that these
Speaker 5: are not available to be negotiated away by countries. These
Speaker 5: are things that are national security that we need to
Speaker 5: be made in America.
Speaker 2: You listen to Howard there, you know him obviously, and
Speaker 2: you hear what he's saying. He's trying to say, hey,
Speaker 2: we're still moving forward, but we're also having to make
Speaker 2: sure we don't do too much at one time that
Speaker 2: can hurt people. And so there's a tough line here.
Speaker 2: I understand how frustrating this can be as an American
Speaker 2: because you may say, well, hold on, it sounds like
Speaker 2: maybe they're getting a better deal. The little guy is
Speaker 2: here break that down for us.
Speaker 3: Well, it sounds like that because they are listen. I
Speaker 3: like Howard.
Speaker 4: He's just a smart, very effective business leader, and he's
Speaker 4: joined a team that is that is drinking from a
Speaker 4: fire hose. So they're trying to do an awful lot
Speaker 4: all at once. But but I have to say the
Speaker 4: result is the rules are changing, and they're changing very rapidly,
Speaker 4: which makes it incredibly hard for anyone to know and
Speaker 4: predict what they're going to be tomorrow and for them
Speaker 4: to deploy capital knowing what the rules are going to be.
Speaker 4: That's a problem. You need consistency that there's a bigger problem,
Speaker 4: which is the question that was being asked is is
Speaker 4: the administration announced this week that that that for smartphones
Speaker 4: and laptops and electronics that they were exempt from from
Speaker 4: the tariffs announced, including the tariffs in China one hundred
Speaker 4: and forty five percent tariffs. I got to say that
Speaker 4: that's a policy. A lot of folks are quite rightly
Speaker 4: pointing out, uh that that that that benefits gigantic tech
Speaker 4: companies that have armies of lobbyists in Washington whose CEOs
Speaker 4: were arrayed on the stage at inauguration Day. But but
Speaker 4: it doesn't do a whole lot of good for the
Speaker 4: little guy.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: I'm hearing from Texas small businesses that are manufacturing goods
Speaker 4: and and some of the components that go into the
Speaker 4: goods they're making or coming from China, coming from other countries,
Speaker 4: and they're facing very significant tariffs, and the small business
Speaker 4: is not getting an exemption. And I got to say
Speaker 4: the argument that, well, yeah, we gave a gigantic gift
Speaker 4: to tim Cook and Apple, but don't worry. In the future,
Speaker 4: we'll put some different tariffs on semiconductors, but we're not
Speaker 4: going to tell you what they are.
Speaker 3: But they are going to come, and at.
Speaker 4: Some point in the future they'll come, but presumably they're
Speaker 4: going to be a lot less than one hundred and
Speaker 4: forty five percent on China that everyone else has to
Speaker 4: pay if they're not in big tech. I mentioned that
Speaker 4: there is an ongoing battle within the administration. I think
Speaker 4: this policy is a consequence of that ongoing battle.
Speaker 3: I'll be clear, I am not.
Speaker 4: A fan at all of sectoral exemptions that essentially benefit
Speaker 4: that pick winners and losers. I think you know when
Speaker 4: you talk about the swamp. When Washington decides to say, Okay,
Speaker 4: you're the winner, you're the loser. You're the winner, you're
Speaker 4: the loser. That is a really dangerous and slippery slope.
Speaker 4: And if you're going to do it at all, if
Speaker 4: you want to make an exemption, make an exemption for
Speaker 4: small businesses, make an exemption for the little guy. If
Speaker 4: you want to say a small business with revenues below
Speaker 4: fifty million dollars or one hundred million dollars, a small
Speaker 4: manufacturing business is exempt from paying the tariff. That might
Speaker 4: make sense because we're going to see some of those
Speaker 4: small businesses that are really important dependent potentially go out
Speaker 4: of business. And if you wanted to make an exemption,
Speaker 4: rather than do it for gigantic companies, I do it
Speaker 4: exactly on the other side and look out for the
Speaker 4: little guy that is more vulnerable to the immediate vicissitudes
Speaker 4: of the changes in policies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like you said, they're drinking from a fire hose.
Speaker 2: This is when it gets complicated. When you're trying to
Speaker 2: break big things and change things. There are x factors
Speaker 2: in here in caveats where you say, hold on a second,
Speaker 2: is this really what the aus you put it? The
Speaker 2: small business owners need, which is the reason why we
Speaker 2: have this conversation every day. I want to move to
Speaker 2: this other big issue also that we mentioned earlier, and
Speaker 2: it was a massive victory for the Trump administration when
Speaker 2: it came to an immigration judge doing a major ruling
Speaker 2: on deporting students that are advocating for the death and
Speaker 2: destruction of students on campus that, by the way, a
Speaker 2: Jewish are advocating their support for terrorists organizations. And this
Speaker 2: all comes out of Columbia University, where it has become
Speaker 2: a major point of all, right, who's going to win
Speaker 2: this is the Trump administration going to win this or
Speaker 2: the radicals on the left going to win? And it
Speaker 2: was a big win for Donald Trump this week.
Speaker 4: Well, it was a win. I don't know that it
Speaker 4: was a massive victory because it's clearly right under the law.
Speaker 4: So it was a win that was going to happen,
Speaker 4: but I'm glad it did. And so listen, one of
Speaker 4: the things that President Trump is doing that is exactly
Speaker 4: right is the Trump administration is deporting those who engage
Speaker 4: in anti Israel, anti American protests, who are foreign students,
Speaker 4: who are on student visas, who are non American citizens.
Speaker 4: You don't have an entitlement to be here. And look,
Speaker 4: we talked about during the Bide administration when these viciously
Speaker 4: anti Israel, anti Semitic protests were going on, that the
Speaker 4: Biden administration could do something about it, but they didn't
Speaker 4: want to because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and Chuck Schumer,
Speaker 4: they agree with the pro Haamas protesters, they agree with
Speaker 4: the radicals, and so you didn't see the Department of
Speaker 4: Justice investigating them. You didn't see them following the money.
Speaker 4: You didn't see them trying to do anything really to
Speaker 4: protect the Jewish students on campus who were being targeted
Speaker 4: for harassment and threats of violence. Well, you and I,
Speaker 4: in fact, one of the very first pods we did
Speaker 4: in the new administration, as we interviewed Pam Bondy at
Speaker 4: SEAPAC and in that podcast with with with then Attorney
Speaker 4: General Bondi right after she got confirmed, she made clear
Speaker 4: then they're gonna go after these radicals. And I will
Speaker 4: say immigration law gives considerable considerable flexibility to the administration
Speaker 4: to decide who that is here on a permissive visa
Speaker 4: can be sent home. And so in this case, you
Speaker 4: had my Mood Khalil, who was a Columbia anti Israel protester,
Speaker 4: who who the administration is in the process of deporting,
Speaker 4: and he is challenging that in court. And an immigration
Speaker 4: judge ruled that he can be deported due to his
Speaker 4: involvement in last year's Rohamas protests at Columbia. And this
Speaker 4: is a judge, Judge Jamie Corman's coman's rather uh and
Speaker 4: and he said said the government had met its its
Speaker 4: burden of proof.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: I think that's that's clearly right. And and the Department
Speaker 4: of Homeland Security laid out how Khalil misrepresented himself on
Speaker 4: his green card application, and in particular, he was not
Speaker 4: upfront about his involvement with organizations he's involved with. He
Speaker 4: he willfully failed to disclose his employment with the Syrian
Speaker 4: office in the British Embassy in Beirut when he applied
Speaker 4: for permanent US residency.
Speaker 3: Uh. And what what.
Speaker 4: What the federal government argued is that made him inadmissible
Speaker 4: at the time he was given his green card because
Speaker 4: of quote fraud or wilful misrepresentation.
Speaker 3: Of material.
Speaker 4: Fact, he also failed to disclose his work for UNRA.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And and you know Une.
Speaker 4: We've talked about before, is is the UN agency that
Speaker 4: that has literally been in bed with a maas you
Speaker 4: had multiple A Moss terrorists working at on rah. UNRA
Speaker 4: has given significant material aid hamas terrorists. And and the
Speaker 4: court ruled that that look that that is is ample
Speaker 4: grounds to deport uh, to deport him. I think that
Speaker 4: ruling is is clearly right. And if you looked at
Speaker 4: at at Khalil, you looked at his writings. This is
Speaker 4: someone who is viciously anti Israel and anti American and
Speaker 4: in fact he's using the the deportation to just rail
Speaker 4: against America and.
Speaker 3: What a what a hostile UH environment it is.
Speaker 4: And and in fact Khalil's argument, here's something he wrote, Uh,
Speaker 4: he wrote an op ed in Columbia, you know, attacking
Speaker 4: how dare you deport me? And and he he he
Speaker 4: says something. He accuses the Columbia administrators of manufacturing quote
Speaker 4: public hysteria about anti Semitism without once mentioning the tens
Speaker 4: of thousands of Palestinians murdered under bombs made of your dollars.
Speaker 3: So understand.
Speaker 4: This guy's complaint is that the Columbia administrators stood too
Speaker 4: strongly against anti Semitism. They let their entire campus get
Speaker 4: taken over, that they let Jewish students be terrorized, they
Speaker 4: let campus buildings be taken over. They were weak and
Speaker 4: and effective, which is why the president of Columbia had
Speaker 4: to step down. And yet this guy's claim is no, No,
Speaker 4: they were too strong against anti Semitism. They should have
Speaker 4: been effectively marching alongside me in favor of Hamas. This
Speaker 4: ruling is clearly right. I'm glad it came down. There're
Speaker 4: gonna be more rulings like this.
Speaker 3: If you are here.
Speaker 1: This will have precedent, right like this is.
Speaker 3: Gonna be No.
Speaker 4: This is a ruling of an immigration judge in this case,
Speaker 4: so it doesn't resolve the issue across the country. But
Speaker 4: the immigration law is quite clear that. Look, Khalil's case
Speaker 4: was harder because he was a legal permanent resident. He
Speaker 4: has a green card, and legal permanent residents have greater
Speaker 4: legal protections than just somebody under student visa. Somebody under
Speaker 4: a student visa, they can have their visa revoked and
Speaker 4: sent back. It is not a high threshold to do that.
Speaker 4: To revoke a green card is a higher threshold. And
Speaker 4: so the ruling here as well that the Department Homeland
Speaker 4: Security gave evidence that he had lied when getting his
Speaker 4: green card and that was basis for deportation, and so
Speaker 4: that I think that's the right ruling here. It's a
Speaker 4: good ruling, and I think you're going to see. Listen,
Speaker 4: let me say to any anti American radicals who've come
Speaker 4: in on student visas, you are not welcome in America.
Speaker 4: And if you are going to use our hospit hospitality
Speaker 4: to attack and threaten and harass fellow students. If you're
Speaker 4: going to use our hospitality to attack America, get the
Speaker 4: hell out, and we're going to help you get the
Speaker 4: hell out. And that is one of the best things
Speaker 4: that Trump administration is doing right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, aim into that. Don't forget. We do this show
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