WEBVTT - Episode 838: President Trump’s First 100 Days 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:08.479 On this episode of Newtsworld. President Trump marked his first 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.000 hundred days in office this week, and it's been one 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.840 of the most remarkable one hundred days in any modern 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:18.080 American presidency. From securing the border to taking on inflation 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:22.360 to challenging unfair tarishs from countries around the globe, President 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.960 Trump has had a monumental impact in a very short 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:29.600 period of time. Here to discuss the first hundred days, 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.919 I'm really pleased to welcome my guest, doctor Kevin Roberts, 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:48.680 President of the Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America. Kevin, welcome, 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:50.680 and thank you for joining me on Newtsworld. 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.080 Newt Gingrich, I am not just being polite as a 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.640 fellow Southerner when I say it's heartfelt. You are one 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.360 of my political heroes and mentors. It is a leisure 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:01.240 to be with you, sir. 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.280 Well, You've been doing an amazing job at Heritage, and 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.040 I'm just delighted to have this chance to talk to 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.120 you because I know you have a remarkably broad view 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.000 of everything that goes on with government and that Heritage 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:17.240 does an astonishing job as one of the great centers 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.839 of conservative thought in America. Let's start with the border 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.160 where I have to confess. Much as I support Trump 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:30.720 admire him, the achievement on the border crossing is like unbelievable. 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.040 I think the drop last month from one hundred and 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:37.480 eighty nine thousand under Biden for the same period to 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.360 about eleven thousand under Trump, and it's continued to go down. 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.920 They've dropped from about fifteen thousand illegal entries into ander 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.560 Biden to about one hundred and seventy eight. You've seen 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.480 the collapse in the number of people trying to get 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:52.760 in because they figured out that they're not going to 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:58.040 Are you surprised by the scale of change? 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.480 Like you, I had very high expts because you and 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.440 I both know President Trump. When we know that, especially 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:07.960 this time around, he's assembled what I think is the 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:10.880 greatest cabinet in modern political history. It has the potential 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.200 to be the greatest ever. And so with those two dynamics, 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:16.239 our expectations were really high. 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:17.040 As you said, Newt. 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.560 And yet particularly when you look at the number of 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:24.440 border crossings that is the minuscule number, now you realize 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.560 they're ahead of schedule. And then I started thinking about it, Newt. 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:31.320 One last important point on this, Tom Homan who was 0:02:31.400 --> 0:02:34.240 a fellow here at Heritage, a friend to us both 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:38.320 I spoke with recently, and Tom was not surprised at 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:42.040 all because he thought that the combination of the rhetoric 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.600 after the election day by him and by the President, 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.920 and obviously all of the key figures, including Secretary Nome, 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.720 would create this process of deflating the numbers, that is, 0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:54.079 people who would be willing to cross the border would 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.880 start to decline. But what the precise thing that they've 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.280 done a really good job of is at the order 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.760 interdicting these people who are crossing illegally. And then finally 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.720 they're really gaining some momentum on the interior enforcement, which 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.480 of course is where you and I and other normal 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.880 Americans just going about our daily lives encounter these illegal aliens. 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:17.720 So hats off to the administration. In fact, they might 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:21.280 even already be victims of their quick success because Americans 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.000 are starting to get used to having operational control of 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:24.840 the southern border. 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.320 That's right. The reality is when you solve something, it 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.120 drops off their list. Tim Hammer said something on April 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.440 twenty eighth and a White House briefing that I thought 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.160 was astonishing. He said, last year one hundred and eighty 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.720 four thousand illegal aliens were released into the United States 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.120 under Biden. In the same time period this year, the 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.200 number was nine. Now, to go from one hundred and 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.400 eighty four thousand to nine, I would have thought that 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:50.920 was technically impossible. 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.560 You would think it would be impossible to get the 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:56.640 number that low, and yet it just shows you. As 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:58.760 President Trump said on the media, you know, the corporate 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.240 media thought he was just being flipped. You didn't need 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.120 really new policies. You needed a new president to enforce 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:06.040 the law in the books. And obviously, as you know 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:08.840 better than anyone, Congress needs to take some action and 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:14.240 they will. But ultimately President Trump has delivered practically immediately 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:18.120 on the single most important part that drove the outcome 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:20.919 of this election, and that was the lawlessness at the 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:24.960 southern border that Americans all across the political spectrum, from 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:27.440 the left to the right thought was absurd. 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.920 You know, I think that that was one of the 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:35.160 two great things, along with the economy, that drove people 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.560 to decide that they had to replace Biden and led 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.039 them to support President Trump as strongly as they did. 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:43.800 But there are a number of other pieces of this 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:46.720 whole safety issue, which is, in my mind, you have 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:51.000 domestic safety from crime, you have safety from the cartels 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:53.640 and others who want to penetrate our country illegally, and 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:57.680 then you have national relations in the whole national security issue. 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.200 As Heritage looks at all this, what's your sense of 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:03.760 how they are doing and whether or not they're moving 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:04.560 in the right direction. 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:07.960 Well, the bottom line up front is they're one percent 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:10.240 moving in the right direction. And there are a few 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.800 reasons for that. The first is they're not committing the 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:15.320 problem of failing to. 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:16.640 See the forest through the trees. 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.040 That is to say, it would be very common in 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.279 the first days of a presidency, first weeks of a 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:27.039 presidency to home in on one discrete issue and see 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.880 some policy progress, some good outcomes in that one discreet part, 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.200 but sort of like you know, a really complex engine, 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:35.960 if you get one part of it right, maybe it 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.320 affects the running of the rest of it. Instead, I 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:41.880 think because of the experience of the individuals who have 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:45.119 control of the respective parts of the government, as well 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:49.839 as the wisdom experience, and very importantly the gut instincts 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:51.599 of Donald Trump, which may be the best in the 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.560 history of the presidency, they actually have a strategic view 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:58.680 about how all of these discrete parts fit into the 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.400 outcome that they want. And because the outcome that they 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.800 want ultimately is the restoration of the American dream, the 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:10.000 revitalization of self governance, and that requires Washington to get 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.240 the hell out of the way of the everyday, hardworking American. 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:16.240 They're doing really well. In short, what they're doing, I 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:20.159 think in every policy area is connecting the daily tactical 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:24.960 steps that have to be accrued day by day, week 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.599 by week, month by month that lead to this strategic objective. 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:32.279 So at Heritage, where's part of our job, informally on 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.640 the outside to take a sort of holistic view of 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:35.760 how all of this is going. 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:37.160 Even accounting for. 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.920 Our really high expectations, we believe the administration is surpassing them. 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.120 You played a major role in developing a whole range 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:50.400 of opportunities and executive orders, and were you surprised at 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:53.240 the speed of the first hundred days. I think he 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.960 beat Franklin Roosevelt's record for executive orders issued in the 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.560 first hundred days and did it across the board. Clearly 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.640 an men's amount of work. Between Heritage and the America 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.600 First policy Institute. This was the richest period of development 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:10.200 for transition in American history. 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:14.920 I'm so proud of everyone who had anything to do 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:18.680 with the outcomes that we're seeing up to this point. Obviously, 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:21.960 President Trump, Vice President Advance, the Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.200 who's doing a remarkable job, the whole cabinet deserve all 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.480 of the credit. Right those of us who have the 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:30.440 privilege of helping out on the outside and who do 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:35.240 that in between. Conservative presidencies have this privilege of being 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:40.040 able to cultivate these ideas the specific policy proposals. But 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.360 what Heritage and AFPI and one hundred and ten groups 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:47.080 across the conservative movement got right was that the courage 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.880 and instincts of Donald Trump, which are unique in modern 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:54.960 American political history, when paired with a set of policy preparations, 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.000 personnel recommendations, all of us doing that for the sake 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.080 of the country, for any other purpose, would be a 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.640 really special recipe. And therefore, when you ask about the 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:07.600 pace of the first hundred days, you and I are 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.840 both historians, we both immediately think about what FDR did. 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:15.440 I mentioned to a group of these conservative coalition folks 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.440 in the last couple of days that the American people 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:21.360 should be taking a victory lap because, for the first 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.440 time in my lifetime, but really the first time since 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.600 FDR left office, the Conservative movement as a president who 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:30.920 is willing to move with the vigor and pace that 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.720 FDR did for the New Deal, not even Ronald Reagan, 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:35.760 one of our heroes, move with that kind of pace. 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.800 And the reason that this is important Newt is that 0:08:38.880 --> 0:08:42.559 so much of this large strategic objective is about scaling 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.000 back the worst rotten fruit that came out of the 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.080 New Deal, the misnomer the Great Society thirty years later, 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:54.160 and obviously the aggravation of those ridiculous policies under Obama 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.040 and Biden. In short, President Trump has to move this 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.800 quickly if in fact we have a chance at getting 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:01.160 this Republic back on track. 0:09:16.640 --> 0:09:19.480 I was a big fan of Reagan's I worked with Reagan, 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.280 and what he did with the Soviet Empire was astonishing. 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:26.080 I mean, a grand strategic defeat without a war. But 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:28.920 while he moved the country to the right, and he 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.400 relaunched the American economy and he rebuilt a sense of 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.840 American morale, I don't think President Reagan ever saw it 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.440 as plausible that he could take on the entire establishment, 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.640 And of course, in the thirty years since then, the 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.880 system has evolved and gotten much sicker, much more corrupt, 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:49.600 much bigger. And Trump came along, and I think that 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:54.480 the four years that he was out of office allowed 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.480 him to really think about how bad the system had become. 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.440 And ironic from the standpoint of the left having blocked 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:05.400 him in twenty twenty, they gave him the chance to 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:09.520 really develop a level of boldness that I think if 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.600 he can sustain this, and if he can win the 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:17.160 twenty twenty sixth election, this will be the fifth great 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:24.320 change agent presidency after Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and FDR. And frankly, 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.680 I don't think I was fully ready for that scale 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.240 of change. And you see it in the economy where 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:34.400 we shifted from the Biden system, which was creating mostly 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.600 government jobs, were almost no private sector jobs, and all 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.959 of a sudden, with Trump, you have a huge increase 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.080 in private sector jobs. You have jobs in mining and logging, 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.160 you have jobs in construction, you have jobs in manufacturing, 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.560 and there we gained nine thousand manufacturing jobs, while under 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:56.320 Biden we were losing six thousand manufacturing jobs every month 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.200 from January twenty three to twenty four. I mean, don't 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:01.600 you think in this sense, so we are right on 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:04.760 the edge of, potentially, if we can pass the one big, 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:08.160 beautiful bill on top of all of the investments people 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:10.839 are announcing, we could really have a Trump boom by 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:11.439 next summer. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.280 We could, and two things, the first a near term 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.880 comment and then one much longer term to your point 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.800 about Trump being already or on the brink of one 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.959 of our five great change agent presidents. The first near 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:26.480 term comment is, if Congress can get the reconciliation bill passed, 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:28.920 hopefully by the beginning of the summer, not let this 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.640 slide until September. Is you so rightly observed, given your experience, 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.800 then what I think is likely is that you're going 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:38.560 to see not just an economic recovery from a little 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.719 bit of uncertainty choppiness right now, but an economic boom 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.400 just in time for the midterm elections, especially if Trump 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:49.240 is out there, as you have recommended, doing whistle stop 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.240 tours and getting Americans to understand that even if he's 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:54.800 not on the ballot, his agenda is on the ballot. 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.400 And that leads me directly to the second long term comment. 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:01.240 What I think we're in the first month newt is 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.560 a presidency that is going to redirect the trajectory of 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:08.439 the United States future. And by that I mean it 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:10.600 does a compliment because I think what we have been doing, 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.920 even on the right, is managing decline, and we ad 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:17.719 heritage you know as well have said we lament that 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.800 that's reality, but we also don't believe that that decline 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.840 is irreversible. And obviously that's what makes Trump tick, is 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.480 making America great again, to use his motto. 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:28.160 But all of that to lead to this point. 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:33.400 If you think about the four presidents you mentioned, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, FDR. 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:37.160 They didn't just dominate an era, but to underscore the 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:42.000 point that you're making, they dictated the parameters of politics 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.679 for a century and even beyond that. I could make 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.800 a case for each of them that they put an 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:53.679 imprint on what America, the American dream, even the identity 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.679 of Americans would be. And Trump is doing that because 0:12:56.679 --> 0:13:00.120 he's reminding us of the principles of our founding, which 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:06.000 is that centralized power isn't just expensive and inefficient, it 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:11.120 stands in the way of individual, hardworking Americans. Realizing their 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.160 potential in the ways we put it as Americans realizing 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:18.360 the American dream. I think to sum up here that 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:21.920 if we continue on this pace, and reconciliation gets passed 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:24.520 hopefully by the House by Memorial Day and by the 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:28.199 Senate earlier in the summer, and the Trump cabinet continues 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:30.680 to do what they're doing, which is remarkable, that we're 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.439 not only going to see success in twenty twenty six 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:35.880 and twenty twenty eight and in the near term. I 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.240 think that people who are having this conversation when you 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:41.760 and I are both gone in the year twenty one hundred, 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.600 are going to look back and say, the twenty twenties 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.680 was the decade when the United States decided it was 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.600 reversing its decline, it was going to stop hating itself, 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:53.920 it was going to tell allies, suppose it, allies in Europe, 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:56.199 put your money where your mouth is, and then will 0:13:56.240 --> 0:14:00.120 be your best friend. And ultimately a majority of Americans 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.480 decided that they would wake up and say, this is 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:05.200 our country again, and the American dream is alive and 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.880 well for us, for our kids and for our grandkids. 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.880 I know that's what motivates President Trump. 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.520 I had the feeling. In his speech to the Congress, 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.880 he had a section where he talked about merit and 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:21.200 the importance of performance, and I thought that was in 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.280 some ways the most important part of the speech because 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:29.640 it was a direct repudiation of the sort of diversity, inclusiveness, 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.640 and equity model of the left, which said, you don't 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.360 have to work for it, you don't have to earn it, 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:36.760 you don't have to desire it. We somehow owe it 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.560 to you, no matter how lazy you are, how incompetent 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.920 you are. The cultural part of trump Ism may in 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:46.720 the long run be even more important than the changes 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:50.480 in tax law or the changes in regulation, because it's 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.400 getting America back to being Americans again. I mean, a 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:57.360 good example is the country's overwhelmingly in favor of the 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.720 work ethic, and the country overwhelmingly favors requiring people who 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:04.280 get money from the government to work for it. This, 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.880 of course, is totally antagonistic to the hard left. I 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.160 think that the country is going to rally to President 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:13.840 Trump on these issues, and as a side effect of that, 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:19.360 because he's offering a very pro free enterprise, very optimistic vision. 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:23.560 I mean, they've been over five trillion dollars in investments 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.840 announced in the US economy since you took office, think 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.440 about the first hundred days, there's already been announced over 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.720 five trillion dollars in various investments. I find that to 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:35.560 be astonishing. 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:38.680 It is astonishing, and there's some good evidence just as 0:15:38.680 --> 0:15:42.000 we sit here that that number has become even larger 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.360 than the amount of investments. And it leads me to 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.000 make this observation on top of all of the good 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.360 points that you've made newt and it's this, if we 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:54.080 continue on this path of all of these good policies 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:59.200 by the administration and by Congress, and we initiate and 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.360 win what is in essence a trade war with China, 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.120 we will have prevented, in the same way that Reagan 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:07.920 prevented a hot war with the Soviet Union, a hot 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:12.440 war with China. Because most really smart foreign policy people 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:15.600 before Trump won the election in November of twenty twenty four, 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.840 believed that Shi Jinping was probably telling the truth when 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.560 he was signaling that by twenty twenty seven China was 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.600 going to invade Taiwan. That obviously has some serious consequences 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.200 on the United States, but China's ambitions You and I 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:33.440 know full well are beyond Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.280 under She wants to dominate the world. As I travel 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.120 waiving the Heritage flag internationally, the most common thing that 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.960 I hear as a worry by international friends is the 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.600 success politically and economically of the Belton Road initiative of 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:54.360 China's great infrastructure program Internationally, Now, the infrastructure, the technology 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.760 has up to this point been terrible, and you don't 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:58.760 want to be doing business with She and the CCP. 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:04.440 But ultimately, what Trump is doing, using really sophisticated policy 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:08.320 and great leaders like Scott Bessant, is initiating a conflict 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.400 that the Chinese thought the United States no longer had 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.080 the spine to initiate. But they discounted even Donald Trump, 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.520 even though they knew how he operated from his first term. 0:17:17.560 --> 0:17:21.040 And so what I'm saying in a certain extended way, 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.600 even though it's early, is that even beyond the very 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:28.200 obvious early fruits of this Trump agenda, I think We're 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:32.360 going to reap some long term benefits from him completely 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:35.639 upending the status quo, particularly as it relates to what 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:38.200 has been a real cowardice towards China by both the 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:40.080 right and left over the last several years. 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.840 When you look at the Chinese challenge, it clearly makes 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:45.919 us come back and look at ourselves. I mean, we 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.840 have to fix our education system if we're going to 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:50.959 compete in the long run with China. We have to 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.280 fix our regulatory system. You know, the Chinese have twenty 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.520 nine thousand miles of high speed rail. We basically have none. 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:02.040 And our buaqocricy in our union work rules are such 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.040 that it's virtually impossible to imagine how you're going to 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.399 get there without very dramatic change. And so in that sense, 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.399 I think the very act of thinking through what is 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:13.680 it going to take not just to compete with China, 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.439 but to succeed in making sure that the United States 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.119 remains the leading country in the world, which is very 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.520 important for the projection of freedom. A world in which 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.600 China is dominant is a world in which to tolitarianism 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.480 will spread pretty darn rapidly. One of the projects you've 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.040 been involved in, which I thought was very daring and 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:38.560 fits this whole cultural change heritage, actually got IBM to 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.800 commit publicly that they were going to uphold viewpoint neutrality 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.159 and move away from race and gender based hiring. I 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.040 mean that is an extraordinary achievement. Can you share with 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:49.000 us how you did this? 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:51.280 Sure, it's a team effort. 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:53.320 When you work at Heritage, you are able to work 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.280 with a lot of smart people. And so our motivation 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:00.240 for doing this is that we believe, at Heritage, having 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.119 been a leading public policy organization in the country. I 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.120 think we're the largest conservative think tank in the world, 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:09.000 that we have to update how we do business to 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.760 reflect changing politics, to reflect a changing country, which is 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:17.000 to say, we'll always do the academic quality research with 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:21.199 the primary audience being policymakers in Congress and now thirty 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.680 state legislatures. We've added state based work to our suite 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.960 of arenas, obviously also the presidential administration. But the point 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.600 is that we've spent a lot more time thinking about 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:35.280 other arenas where we could use the credibility we've earned 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:39.000 over our fifty two years of existence and frankly wield 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.320 the influence that we have. And I say that without hubris, 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:43.760 but just to say people understand that Heritage has got 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:47.760 some influence and so corporate boardrooms, we believed was one 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:52.119 of those frontiers that we needed to enter using not 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.560 just the capital we have to invest, but being able 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.000 to assemble the capital of like minded investors, whether they 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.200 be individuals or organszations, and put some pressure on those 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:06.359 corporations to remember their primary objective, which is to earn 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.760 a profit, not to implement wokeness, which of course costs 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:12.560 money for the shareholders. 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:13.399 And we are. 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.520 Really really happy that the early first fruit of this 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:20.639 partnership with Robbie Starbuck, who's been such a wonderfully effective 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:24.480 activist along these lines, has borne this fruit with sort 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:28.119 of the quintessentially American company IBM. And so we're not 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.239 going anywhere either from the policy arena or now from 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:33.879 corporate boardrooms. You can tell I'm really proud of my 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:37.800 colleagues for affecting this change. But I should say that 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.080 a lot of people have tilled the soil, both at 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.119 Heritage and outside Heritage over the last several years, and it. 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:45.840 Leads me to this conclusion. I talk often. 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:48.160 I wrote about it in a book that I published 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.000 last year about the new Conservative movement. And the claim 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:54.240 that I make is one that you've actually made your 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.040 entire career, and that is just because you decide as 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:01.880 a conservative to use different tactics to meet the changing 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.719 landscape of the day doesn't mean that you're leaving your 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:07.680 principles aside. In fact, as I think Ronald Reagan would 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:09.560 remind us if he were sitting here and having this 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:13.879 conversation with us, you're actually being smart if you're applying 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.680 those principles using some different tactics, and so getting involved 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:21.000 selectively in some of these corporate boardrooms on behalf of 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:23.439 common sense is something that Heritage will continue to do 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:26.200 and we see now as a central part of how 0:21:26.240 --> 0:21:41.359 we go about affecting public policy. 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:46.200 Tell us about your book, Dawn's Early Light, Taking Back 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:47.640 Washington to Save America. 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:52.760 Ultimately, I was trying to articulate how the conservative movement 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:57.960 could move out of what had been an unintended decade 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:02.320 or so maybe longer, of complacency and complacency, if I 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.040 may say, with some good reason, a lot of policy success, 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:08.480 frankly because of a role that you played as speaker 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:11.680 in the nineteen nineties, success because of Ronald Reagan's success, 0:22:11.800 --> 0:22:14.879 because of Heritage and other conservative groups. But when we 0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:18.120 won the Cold War, the really hard earned peace dividend 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:22.679 actually just became an opportunity for well intentioned conservatives to 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:25.560 sort of celebrate successes of the past. And when I 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:27.840 became President of Heritage three and a half years ago, 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:30.800 I was given the charge by the wonderful board here 0:22:30.960 --> 0:22:34.320 in my colleagues to chart a path not just for 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.920 this institution, but for the entire Conservative movement, a path 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:41.160