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