Donald Trump says he is not backing down on his sweeping tariffs unless countries even up their trade agreements with the United States. His comments come amid growing concern over the stock market, rising interest rates, falling oil prices, and a slowing economy.
00:02:10.040They had a panic attack over COVID because they're so fragile and lack any kind of spiritual dimension.
00:02:15.380Why was it okay to destroy small business because you were so afraid of COVID?
00:02:19.520But now when it comes to tariffs and your precious little portfolios are down, you expect us to view you as good faith actors, right?
00:02:27.120Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome on board to today's edition of Human Events Daily here live in a rainy Washington, D.C.
00:02:35.020Today is April 7th, 2025, Anno Domini.
00:02:40.200We are told that President Trump is now meeting live with Bibi Netanyahu.
00:02:46.280We are going to be going to that momentarily to take it direct from the individuals who are meeting right now in the East Room of the White House.
00:02:57.120Okay, and so this shot that we're actually showing is not live.
00:03:04.080So we are going to hold off on that until it takes place.
00:03:10.500And so we know that the meeting is going to be coming up soon.
00:03:14.020We know certainly tariffs will be discussed.
00:03:16.500We know that this has been the first time.
00:03:20.060And Israel, of course, was the first country that came in and said that they would drop all tariffs on American goods.
00:03:26.740Why did Israel have tariffs on American goods to begin with?
00:13:34.800Maybe we can give you an eight-hour workday, a five-day workweek.
00:13:38.660Like John Patterson at the National Cash Register Company said, how about we actually put some windows on the factory so we can let some light in?
00:13:46.620Then you open the window and maybe even have some airflow from time to time.
00:13:51.900You have to realize that's how bad things were in the late 1800s, early 1900s in this country.
00:13:56.280So when all of those policies came in and after the policy shifts happened, the economics got better, conditions got better for workers.
00:14:05.020And guess what? There was no massive uprising in the United States like that.
00:14:11.380So the question is, which do you want?
00:14:15.320Do you want Main Street to finally get a piece of the pie?
00:14:18.440Do you want the American people to stop being forgotten and hollowed and lost out?
00:14:23.360Or do you want the Luigis and the Carmellos and the Tesla terrorists to be the ones that show a completely different path for the American people to walk down?
00:14:36.020Because I'm telling you, in this bottom 50%, they want an answer and they're tired of waiting.
00:14:42.600We'll be right back. Human Events Daily.
00:14:43.820Today, you know, they talk about influencers.
00:15:17.800And we're talking about how tariffs have historically been used in America to stave off class warfare and to stave off problems of wealth inequality.
00:15:30.280And by the way, no, I'm not talking about President Trump.
00:15:33.100I'm talking about someone over 100 years ago who dealt with the same situation during the Industrial Revolution.
00:15:41.920And his name was President William McKinley.
00:15:47.580There's a reason that President Trump is constantly talking about William McKinley.
00:15:51.580See, when William McKinley was the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, McKinley himself spearheaded something called, listen to this, the Tariff Act of 1890, which raised duties on imports to an average of nearly 50%.
00:16:07.920The goal was to shield U.S. manufacturers from foreign competition, particularly in industries like steel, textiles, and tin.
00:16:16.920By making imported goods more expensive, domestic producers could thrive, which increased jobs and wages.
00:16:22.240This was basic protectionism in order to help deal with the working class, stabilize their employment, which was a group that was squeezed by the rapid industrialization, think automation, AI, and the low-wage foreign labor.
00:16:38.600So the Tariff's intent was to give that breathing room to raise profit margins for American industries, which could then support higher wages.
00:16:46.700For example, industries like steel saw growth and real wages for unskilled workers rose, oh my gosh, by 50% between 1869 and 1899, a period which overlapped with what?
00:17:22.440Now, before the income tax, and by the way, the income tax didn't even exist when tariffs first started to get going.
00:17:29.700This was the original primary revenue source of the United States.
00:17:33.240Now, what the McKinley tariff did was adjust the tariff system by placing items, like, by the way, this is before the creation, before the federal income tax was instituted.
00:17:48.180He placed items like sugar on the free list while increasing tariffs on manufactured goods.
00:17:53.260This shift balanced revenue needs with protectionism, though there was some debate about this, etc., etc.
00:17:59.180Then McKinley, of course, becomes president in 1897.
00:18:03.740In 1897, he passes new tariffs, which raises the rates further to 49% to 52%, continues the push, continues to save jobs, continues to keep everything going,
00:18:16.380fostering domestic production, secures unemployment, secures the wages, and guess what?
00:18:22.520It addressed those disparities by strengthening the economic base.
00:19:23.000We're not talking about the fact that the rich aren't, the rich, of course the rich stayed rich, and of course the working class stayed the working classes.
00:20:02.540Now Secretary Besson's got a new tweet up and he says,
00:20:04.800We just had a very constructive discussion with the government of Japan.
00:20:08.620President Trump has tasked me and the U.S. trade rep to open negotiations to implement the president's vision for a new global age of global trade, golden age of global trade, with Prime Minister Ishiba and the cabinet.
00:20:22.600But of course, China has decided to be recalcitrant and double down on their previous negative behavior.
00:20:35.240And if you understand what President Trump's doing, is he's taking that previous plan, that previous playbook at work, and moving it forward.
00:21:38.320A declaration that you're done with weak beans and weak values.
00:21:42.660This is high-octane American roasted fuel for those who grind harder, stand taller, and never back down.
00:21:49.740Look, look, I love this stuff, but the problem is when my brother's here or K-Poso's around or when my dad's around, they keep snagging it out for me, and I need to find better ways to get it, especially the cold one, the cold brew.
00:22:04.700But, folks, blackout coffee, they're not playing games.
00:22:07.400They're cranking out more bags than ever, shipping faster than ever, and keeping you locked in with coffee that actually fires you up.
00:22:14.660Whether you're chasing big goals, crushing the daily grind, or just refusing to drink coffee made by people who hate you, blackout coffee has your back.
00:22:39.520I want to play a couple of clips now that we have.
00:22:41.520We have Secretary Besant as well as a CNBC clip.
00:22:44.720Guys, let's just play them both back to back.
00:22:47.280I think this is important because we want to get into where we came from and really set the stage for how this stock market bubble was blown up, was just absolutely inflated.
00:23:00.740It goes back to 2008 in some ways with this massive liquidity being injected into the markets and the funny money that I like to call it.
00:23:08.660But then during COVID, the entire situation just got completely insane.
00:23:13.820If people were gorging themselves, people were absolutely gorging themselves on free money from the Fed, free money that was injected into the system.
00:24:50.360Working class Americans, the hourly workers, they're better than supervisory workers.
00:24:55.780The bottom 50% of households, their net worth increased faster than the top 10% of households.
00:25:03.460Okay, folks, this is what we're talking about.
00:25:08.020This is what we're talking about here.
00:25:09.980Understand the conditions that the bottom 50% in this country currently experience on a day-to-day basis that they've been experiencing in some ways since the 1970s, in other ways certainly since 2008.
00:25:26.080That's why you're seeing the growth of rapid populism.
00:25:30.900That's why the initial Tea Party, the economic nationalism and the economic populism, the initial Tea Party occupy Wall Street movement, both within a few years of each other.
00:25:41.520That's why they're raising up so much right now.
00:26:45.580All the troops in Stuttgart, all the troops on the Korean Peninsula, all the troops in Japan, all the troops all throughout the Middle East, all the air bases that we have there.
00:26:58.280Where do you think the money comes for all that?
00:27:00.600The money comes from the American people.
00:27:04.260The money comes on you and your children and everybody else that's putting into the system.
00:27:12.080And we do so because we think that's making America better.
00:27:17.060But meanwhile, while all that's happening, while we're paying for this massive global system, we keep borrowing from overseas to be able to do so, you come back home and you say, what's going on at home?
00:28:00.900Now, Wall Street's addiction to cheap Chinese labor actually has an interesting parallel to the fentanyl addictions of middle America because, in a sense, the fentanyl comes from China, just like the cheap labor.
00:28:15.200However, it's done to weaken the inside of the United States and hollow us out on both angles, and it's happening on both angles.
00:28:23.660It's China that's winning on both ends here, on both ends.
00:28:28.340They got you coming, they got you going.
00:28:30.780They got your upstairs, and they have your downstairs.
00:28:54.740Power does not come through consumerism.
00:28:59.120Liberty doesn't just necessarily mean the right to make 10 choices at Starbucks or which color Nike you're going to wear.
00:29:05.560Liberty comes from knowing where your food comes from, where your medicine comes from, and not having to rely on nations with dictators, totalitarian regimes that want our way of life extinct.
00:29:22.380It was Chinese ownership of America, Chinese ownership and control of the American people, particularly in these areas, particularly in these depressed areas.
00:29:32.340And that's how you get situations like Springfield, Ohio, where the town leaders say, oh, gosh, what are we ever going to do to revitalize the town?
00:30:26.220Because trust me, every working-class American that got their knees broken by the housing crisis or by COVID and got backstabbed by the people that they thought they could trust, well, they haven't had a latte in a minute.
00:30:40.560Those are the people living with debt.
00:30:42.260Those are the people saying, you know what?
00:37:36.400And we understand that Pennsylvania workers are out there.
00:37:38.560We understand that President Trump is out there.
00:37:41.420So we had the Pennsylvania State Treasurer here on the program on Friday in Harrisburg.
00:37:47.040And she told us this will revitalize manufacturing of the working class in this country when it comes to steel, when it comes to Appalachia, when it comes to Western Pennsylvania.
00:38:11.480Maybe it's because the production of this country used to be based on our manufacturing.
00:38:16.640And our manufacturing base was built along the waterways of the Great Lakes, which then were later connected to the outside of the eastern Atlantic seaboard, through the Erie Canal, through the Mississippi River.
00:39:24.020We want to de-escalate these tensions and the forever wars, whether it be the Middle East, whether it be, you know, we do not support a strike on Iran.
00:39:32.740That would blow up the entire peace process, by the way.