The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1711 - Trump Slams China with 104% Tariffs

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00:00:30.000 President Trump's tariffs fully went into effect at midnight last night,

00:00:34.880 including a 104% tariff on China.

00:00:38.700 China has responded with an 84% tariff on the United States.

00:00:43.880 The markets are not loving this exactly.

00:00:47.040 The Dow has fallen.

00:00:48.340 Dow futures are down 400 points, S&P down, NASDAQ down.

00:00:53.300 Meanwhile, speaking of China, Chinese troops have reportedly entered the war in Ukraine.

00:00:57.780 America has executed the largest deployment of B-2 bombers in history to scare off Iran, 1.00

00:01:04.520 a soon-to-be nuclear nation with which we might soon go to war, 0.82

00:01:08.600 all of which is causing some people to stop asking if we are on the brink of World War III

00:01:14.100 and to start asking if we're not already in it.

00:01:17.560 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:01:18.260 This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:01:19.100 Welcome back to the show.

00:01:39.580 On the bright side, an extinct wolf is back.

00:01:43.760 The dire wolf is back.

00:01:45.940 Is that good?

00:01:46.740 I don't know.

00:01:47.280 Isn't there a movie about bringing extinct, dangerous species back to life?

00:01:52.140 I don't know.

00:01:54.000 We don't remember any of the lessons of the past, so who knows?

00:01:56.740 I guess.

00:01:57.940 Best case scenario, we're in World War III. 0.50

00:02:00.340 Worst case scenario, we're in Jurassic Park.

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00:03:18.740 I know that everyone always makes the historical comparison to the 1930s and just before World War II and compares everything to Hitler.

00:03:28.380 However, there do seem to be some uncanny parallels at the moment.

00:03:34.320 You've got this massive tariff regime went in.

00:03:37.420 Actually, Trump's tariffs are more expansive even than the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of 1930.

00:03:43.280 And you've got this rise of global conflict.

00:03:47.540 You've got multiple touch points for a potential global conflict in Ukraine and in Israel and Gaza.

00:03:55.040 You've got, I don't know, you've got like Hitler edits going around social media, especially on X.

00:04:01.800 People just like very pro-Hitler again.

00:04:05.160 I don't know, it's weird, man.

00:04:07.120 It's weird.

00:04:07.820 History does not repeat, but it does rhyme.

00:04:11.060 Especially the tariff.

00:04:12.140 Forget even about the wars breaking out.

00:04:14.080 Forget even about the like pro-Hitler stuff on social media.

00:04:17.940 It's just the tariffs.

00:04:19.180 It is pretty wild.

00:04:21.600 They took effect shortly after midnight.

00:04:23.960 China responded, said that it refuses to bow to blackmail and will fight to the end.

00:04:30.700 The Trump administration has already scheduled talks with South Korea and Japan and Italy

00:04:36.980 to try to reduce these trade barriers and then lower tariffs, even on our side.

00:04:42.940 And then we'll have more trade with all those other countries.

00:04:45.240 The White House was asked if it will prioritize talks with China.

00:04:47.720 Obviously, trade with China, much, much more important than trade with Japan, say, or trade with Italy.

00:04:53.960 And Kevin Hassett, the head of the National Economic Council, says,

00:04:59.360 right now we've received the instruction to prioritize our allies and our trading partners like Japan and Korea and others.

00:05:05.620 So no, we're not going to prioritize China.

00:05:07.340 China can go pound sand. 0.87

00:05:09.960 Now the markets are reacting.

00:05:11.860 They hate it.

00:05:13.320 Everyone's portfolio is down again.

00:05:15.160 Well, maybe not everyone's.

00:05:16.140 Some people who saw this coming, maybe it's not so bad.

00:05:19.920 Some people are going to look at the market turning down and saying this is actually a great opportunity

00:05:24.380 because it means that stocks are on sale, so they're going to start buying.

00:05:28.120 But regardless of how you're reacting, there are a lot of panicans out there. 1.00

00:05:31.500 We talked about the panicans yesterday, the new political party identified by President Trump of weak and stupid people, as he says. 0.99

00:05:37.880 Regardless of what you think, and if you're getting cold feet and you're getting a little shaky this morning because of the market downturn, 0.99

00:05:45.040 because we're now apparently in a trade war with China,

00:05:47.880 just remember, politicians of both parties have been demanding that we do something about China's unfair trade practices for at least 15 years.

00:05:59.120 Probably longer in some cases, because China has been cheating. 0.60

00:06:06.380 China has manipulated its currency.

00:06:09.560 China has illegally subsidized steel and aluminum.

00:06:13.540 China has been guilty of dumping. 0.88

00:06:15.860 China has stolen our intellectual property. 0.99

00:06:19.460 China has, since the moment that we stupidly let China into the World Trade Organization, 1.00

00:06:25.300 thank you, Bill Clinton, since that moment, China has been cheating. 0.95

00:06:29.500 And so Democrats and Republicans, for many, many years at this point,

00:06:32.880 have said we have to do something about China's unfair trade practices.

00:06:35.880 The only difference between all of those politicians, Republicans and Democrats,

00:06:40.060 and Donald Trump is that Donald Trump actually followed through on his promise.

00:06:45.260 Trump actually did what all the other politicians said that they would do.

00:06:50.140 So what does this mean?

00:06:51.180 I mean, this is kind of great.

00:06:52.020 104% tariff on China.

00:06:53.500 Then they respond with an 84% tariff on the United States.

00:06:58.300 Yikes.

00:06:58.880 How are we going to survive this?

00:07:00.400 Well, Scott Besson, Treasury Secretary, makes the point that China probably just made a big mistake.

00:07:08.220 I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation, because they're playing with a pair of twos. 1.00

00:07:14.100 Traditionally, if you look at the history of the trade negotiations, we are the deficit country.

00:07:25.980 So what do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us?

00:07:30.480 We export one-fifth to them of what they export to us.

00:07:37.440 So that is a losing hand for them.

00:07:40.740 We export one-fifth to them what they export to us.

00:07:45.180 China needs our market much, much more than we need access to China's market.

00:07:50.300 Now, we do need access to Chinese-made goods because we've outsourced all of our manufacturing to them.

00:07:55.100 But in terms of these tariffs, because we're the country with the trade deficit, we actually have a stronger hand.

00:08:04.160 That's the argument made by Besson.

00:08:05.560 And don't forget, Besson is a very serious guy.

00:08:08.220 I'm not saying that there aren't certain people around President Trump or around other Republicans who are kind of shooting from the hip who don't know what they're talking about.

00:08:16.360 Scott Besson is an extremely successful hedge fund guy.

00:08:21.240 Scott Besson has been an Ivy League economics professor, which, you know, I guess that could go either way.

00:08:27.380 But he's a good one.

00:08:28.180 He's a smart one.

00:08:28.980 He knows what he's talking about.

00:08:30.780 And he is totally backing the administration's policy here.

00:08:35.460 Now, Besson made another really interesting comment in this interview.

00:08:39.260 Beyond saying, look, we're not backing down with China. 0.96

00:08:41.780 China can go pound sand. 0.87

00:08:43.000 We're going to fix this problem right now.

00:08:44.420 He also hinted, gave us a little bit more of a clue of what the goal of these tariffs is.

00:08:51.260 If we put up a tariff wall, the ultimate goal would be to bring jobs back to the U.S.

00:08:59.220 But in the meantime, we will be collecting substantial tariffs.

00:09:02.680 As I said, I believe on this show that if we're successful, tariffs would be a melting ice cube in a way because you're taking in the revenues

00:09:13.500 as the manufacturing facilities are built in the U.S.

00:09:18.020 And there should be some level of symmetry between the taxes we begin taking in with the new industry from the payroll taxes as the tariffs decline.

00:09:30.200 Okay, this is a fascinating point that Besson is making, and I think it's going to go over a lot of people's heads.

00:09:37.020 Not because it's so complicated from the standpoint of economics, but because it's so subtle in its political language.

00:09:43.480 So yesterday, I said on the show, also following a comment by the Treasury Secretary, that it seems to me the goal of the tariffs is more trade.

00:09:54.840 Three possible goals of the tariffs.

00:09:56.620 Reduce trade barriers so you have more free trade.

00:09:59.060 Increase jobs, you know, reshore American manufacturing, or raise revenue from the tariffs because the other countries have to pay to get access to our market.

00:10:05.520 Those are the three goals, and they're in conflict with each other.

00:10:07.860 I said yesterday, when Besson is talking about how we're negotiating with Japan so that we can have a new golden age of trade,

00:10:16.260 it seems like the chief goal of the tariffs is reducing trade barriers and having more free trade.

00:10:21.860 So not so much the jobs, not so much the revenue.

00:10:24.440 But then here, Besson comes out and he says, well, actually, the long-term goal of the tariffs would be increasing jobs.

00:10:31.360 So it's not increasing free trade, and it's not the revenue, as he points out.

00:10:35.280 He says, look, in the meantime, we're going to get revenue, but the long-term goal is jobs, which is going to reduce the revenue.

00:10:41.220 But he says, but it's kind of like a melting ice cube.

00:10:42.840 It's fine.

00:10:43.300 It's all going to even out with the water because as the domestic manufacturing comes back, you're going to get taxes from the manufacturing.

00:10:52.300 So even as you lose the revenue from the tariffs, you're going to get more taxes from the manufacturing.

00:10:55.980 It's going to level out.

00:10:56.680 And where does that leave trade?

00:10:58.120 That's not a top priority.

00:10:59.340 But then if you're paying very close attention to what he's saying, notice the mode of language he used.

00:11:07.700 He said the long-term goal of tariffs would be.

00:11:11.080 He didn't say the long-term goal of tariffs is.

00:11:14.040 He didn't use the present indicative tense.

00:11:16.620 He used the conditional.

00:11:18.880 He said would be.

00:11:21.040 So now, look, maybe I'm really trying to read the tea leaves here.

00:11:24.380 I mean, this administration is basically inscrutable.

00:11:26.760 Every time you think you've got them pinned down on what they're doing with the tariff policy, they pull the rug out from under you, which is why the markets are reacting with such volatility.

00:11:37.120 But even Besant here saying the long-term goal of tariffs would be is leaving himself an open.

00:11:42.900 He's saying, yeah, if we do have tariffs in the long term, the goal would be the reshoring of manufacturing, which means that we would lose the revenue long term, but we'd make it up in the taxes.

00:11:50.860 But maybe, maybe the goal is not tariffs in the long term.

00:11:58.200 You see what I'm saying?

00:12:00.580 Maybe the goal is just reducing the trade barriers and having more trade and having a golden age of trade.

00:12:04.960 But if we stick with these tariffs, the long-term goal would be the reshoring of the jobs.

00:12:10.020 So it's this complete poker face.

00:12:14.500 If you are China right now, you have no idea what Trump is doing.

00:12:19.460 The way I know that's the case is because if you're an American right now, you have no idea what Trump is doing.

00:12:24.300 And the way I know that it's the case is because even top administration officials don't seem willing to put their chips down one way or the other on what Trump is doing.

00:12:35.880 As of now, though, if you're an investor, if you are an adversary, if you're a trading partner, especially if you're China, which is all three of those things, you've got to think, darn, they might not be kidding.

00:12:48.700 He might not be bluffing.

00:12:49.900 They really might not pause the tariffs.

00:12:51.380 They really might not back down.

00:12:52.700 They might really be in this for the long haul.

00:12:55.060 Shoot.

00:12:56.180 I need the American market. 0.94

00:12:58.360 The only reason that China is a rising power is because 25 years ago, it got access to the American market and joined the World Trade Organization.

00:13:05.260 Not that it for the first time ever got access to the American market, but it really entered global trade on a mass scale.

00:13:12.820 So if you're China, your growth as a potential global hegemon is entirely contingent on the trade practices of the last 25 years. 0.86

00:13:23.400 Yikes.

00:13:25.960 Yikes, man.

00:13:27.540 So what does that mean within the administration?

00:13:30.680 Are they serious about the tariffs?

00:13:32.540 Are they only using the tariffs for leverage?

00:13:35.260 Top administration officials are fighting with each other in public over that very question.

00:13:41.120 Notably, Peter Navarro, very pro-tariff, and Elon Musk, only in favor of tariffs for leverage, but very anti-tariff long term.

00:13:47.640 We'll get to that in one moment.

00:13:49.300 First, though, text Knowles to 98, 98, 98.

00:13:52.960 Tariffs have thrown the global economy into chaos.

00:13:55.880 Potential widespread inflation tied to massive supply chain disruptions is weighing heavily on all of us.

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00:15:22.160 Pro-tariff Navarro, anti-tariff Elon Musk are fighting in public.

00:15:27.540 Peter Navarro, a top trade advisor, economic advisor to President Trump, there from the first term, even went to jail for President Trump.

00:15:37.020 You know, he's got real bona fides.

00:15:38.480 And then Elon Musk, who helped to fund Trump's campaign, who campaigned with him, who really helped turn the tide in this election, and who remains a top advisor to him in this term.

00:15:48.160 Navarro kind of started the fight.

00:15:51.640 There have been tensions rising for a while, but he kind of started the fight when he goes on CNBC.

00:15:56.180 And he says, yeah, yeah, the reason Elon Musk is opposed to the tariffs is because he's a car manufacturer and the tariffs are going to hurt him personally.

00:16:05.000 When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White House and the American people understand that Elon's a car manufacturer.

00:16:14.060 But he's not a car manufacturer.

00:16:15.520 He's a car assembler in many cases.

00:16:17.780 If you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets, which in the EV case, is the batteries come from Japan and come from China.

00:16:29.220 The electronics come from Taiwan.

00:16:31.780 The tires come.

00:16:32.740 What we want, and the difference is in our thinking and Elon's on this, is that we want the tires made in Akron.

00:16:41.440 We want the transmissions made in Indianapolis.

00:16:44.520 We want the engines made in Flint and Saginaw.

00:16:48.400 And we want the cars manufactured here.

00:16:52.560 With Elon, it's fine.

00:16:54.060 He's a car man.

00:16:55.340 He's a car person.

00:16:56.920 That's what he does.

00:16:58.000 And he wants the cheap foreign parts, and we understand that. 0.98

00:17:00.900 But we want him home.

00:17:02.220 We want him home for our national security and economic security, and everything's good with Elon.

00:17:07.580 Now, that's pretty brutal.

00:17:09.480 Even though you hear, look, everything's good with Elon.

00:17:11.400 Look, no, we're cool, man.

00:17:12.440 No, Elon, he's a great man.

00:17:13.720 I mean, he's just a greedy, selfish car manufacturer who's prioritizing his own private gain over the common good of the United States.

00:17:19.780 But it's cool, man.

00:17:20.380 You get it.

00:17:21.820 Even though it sounds kind of nice and polite, that was a brutal hit at another top administration official on television.

00:17:29.940 So, that starts the battle.

00:17:33.840 Elon escalates it significantly. 1.00

00:17:36.200 Elon goes on X, the platform that he owns, and says, Navarro is truly a moron. 0.99

00:17:41.720 What he says here is demonstrably false. 0.99

00:17:43.800 Then he just keeps going.

00:17:44.820 He's been going after Navarro for days now.

00:17:47.460 What I find interesting about this is not just the gossip and the, ooh, he said this, and ooh, what a zinger, and oh, man, you know, let's go.

00:17:56.940 Give me the tea, man.

00:17:57.900 I want this fight in public.

00:17:59.020 The thing that is politically interesting about this fight to me is both Elon and Navarro can support tariffs in principle for totally different reasons.

00:18:10.180 Navarro can support tariffs because he wants to reshore American manufacturing, and he doesn't care that much about growth, at least in terms of international trade.

00:18:22.500 He really wants America to make stuff and to have greater self-reliance and to help the American worker and forget about free trade.

00:18:29.640 And Elon can support the tariffs in principle because the tariffs are a good tool for leverage in getting better trade deals because we've had bad trade deals with a lot of our supposed allies for many years.

00:18:41.340 And they can both support Trump's tariff policy to some degree for opposite reasons.

00:18:47.640 This is a particular Trump gift.

00:18:51.520 He did this very, very well in the campaign.

00:18:53.420 I remember I was at the MSG rally right before the election, and I look out, and I see people in yarmulkes.

00:18:59.920 With big Israel flags.

00:19:02.240 And then, I don't know, 50 feet from them, I see a woman in a hijab, if not like a full-on burqa.

00:19:10.620 Okay, and I thought, wait, what?

00:19:12.380 How is, and you saw this play out just in the electorate.

00:19:15.560 Trump did very, very well among Jews, better than usual. 0.98

00:19:18.540 And he did quite well among Muslims, better than usual. 1.00

00:19:22.780 How is, even though one of the biggest issues in the campaign was the Israel-Gaza war, you would think that those two parties would be on opposite sides.

00:19:29.520 They're not, they coalesced around one candidate.

00:19:31.760 Why?

00:19:32.080 Because the pro-Israel side said, all right, Trump, he's more pro-Israel than Kamala is.

00:19:37.240 He's going to have our back.

00:19:38.140 There's a town in Israel named after him.

00:19:39.720 Okay, that's great.

00:19:40.820 And the Muslim side, which is often anti-Israel, looked at it and said, well, you know, under Trump, we didn't have this war in the Middle East.

00:19:48.540 Under Trump, Gazans weren't getting absolutely pummeled by bombs.

00:19:52.180 Under Trump, we had a foreign policy that was more favorable to us.

00:19:56.300 So even if he's pro-Israel, he's also pro-peace.

00:19:59.380 And so that, we're going to vote for him for that reason.

00:20:01.780 Trump can bring in people who are agreeing with him and with his policies for opposite reasons.

00:20:10.320 You even see this with serious social conservatives and social libertines and libertarians coming and supporting Trump for the same reason.

00:20:18.720 On the one hand, Trump is the most socially conservative candidate that we've seen run for president since Pat Buchanan, certainly.

00:20:26.460 On the other hand, he's the guy who waves the rainbow flag upside down at one of his rallies.

00:20:30.600 So even the social conservatives would say he doesn't really care about the rainbow flag.

00:20:32.980 He doesn't even know which way it goes.

00:20:33.920 But the pro-socially liberal sexual revolution kind of crowd can say, no, Trump's cool with gay marriage.

00:20:42.060 Trump's cool with some kinds of transgenderism.

00:20:44.260 Trump's cool.

00:20:44.820 And it's just a gift.

00:20:48.000 It's the art of inclusion.

00:20:49.280 It's the art of the possible.

00:20:50.960 Trump can just bring these opposites together.

00:20:54.060 And I think that's what's happening with the tariffs.

00:20:55.900 Now, speaking of tariffs and the state of Israel, for that matter, Trump was sitting with Bibi Netanyahu.

00:21:03.520 The question of tariffs on Israel came up because Israel preemptively, before Trump's tariffs went into effect, they said, we're going to reduce all of the tariffs that we have on American goods.

00:21:15.020 And Trump said, OK, that's nice.

00:21:16.740 Well, I'm still slapping some tariffs on Israeli goods.

00:21:19.140 So Netanyahu flies to the White House to plead with Trump to reduce the tariffs on Israel.

00:21:24.780 And Trump's sitting there right in the room with him, right in the Oval Office.

00:21:27.200 And he says, yeah, no, I don't think so.

00:21:29.940 Do you plan to reduce the tariffs that your government put on Israeli goods, 17%?

00:21:35.280 On Israeli goods, the 17%.

00:21:37.400 Well, we're talking about a whole new trade.

00:21:41.380 Maybe not.

00:21:42.600 Maybe not.

00:21:43.140 Don't forget, we help Israel a lot.

00:21:45.700 You know, we give Israel $4 billion a year.

00:21:48.040 That's a lot.

00:21:49.160 My congratulations, by the way.

00:21:50.980 That's pretty good.

00:21:51.900 But we give Israel billions of dollars a year.

00:21:55.960 Billions.

00:21:56.400 This is precisely my view of the state of Israel.

00:22:02.820 Some people, they just, they love Israel so much.

00:22:05.600 They treat it like it's the 51st state.

00:22:07.340 They think it's the greatest government ever in the history of politics.

00:22:11.580 Some people hate the state of Israel so much, they think it is just this demonic entity that

00:22:17.100 is the cause of every problem in the world.

00:22:19.100 You wake up, you stub your toe in the morning.

00:22:20.620 It was actually Netanyahu somehow, you know.

00:22:22.820 And that's not my view.

00:22:24.100 My view is exactly the view that Trump has just expressed and embodied.

00:22:29.420 Sitting there, recognizing, you know, the state of Israel.

00:22:32.440 We're allies with the state of Israel.

00:22:33.940 We like the state of Israel.

00:22:35.540 We prefer the state of Israel to the alternative that you could see in that region. 0.89

00:22:39.000 No question about it.

00:22:40.180 We get along and we can help each other and that's great.

00:22:43.840 But it ain't the 51st state, okay?

00:22:46.040 And if we're going to slap tariffs on every country in the world, we're slapping some tariffs

00:22:49.140 on Israel.

00:22:49.860 And I don't want to hear a sob story about how we don't help Israel enough.

00:22:53.200 We give Israel a lot of money, okay? 0.85

00:22:55.380 And he's even sitting there, $4 billion, that's a lot, huh?

00:22:58.920 Congratulations.

00:23:00.400 As if to say, I wouldn't have given you that deal.

00:23:04.480 There's a town in Israel named after Trump, okay?

00:23:06.660 You cannot accuse this guy of being anti-Israel, anything like that.

00:23:09.840 But he's saying, look, it's to a point, okay?

00:23:11.660 We are allies when our interests overline, we overlap, rather.

00:23:17.520 We work really, really well together.

00:23:19.640 We're willing to help you out.

00:23:21.080 We've got this kind of longstanding national friendship, but don't push it, okay?

00:23:27.060 $4 billion is enough.

00:23:28.720 We're doing something here with the tariffs.

00:23:30.960 And so, sorry, the 17% tariff or whatever it is that we slapped on Israel.

00:23:35.040 For the time being, that's going to stay.

00:23:37.100 And we can negotiate over time.

00:23:39.000 That is called a moderate position.

00:23:43.160 And moderation, look, moderation between good and evil is no good.

00:23:46.680 That's not the kind of moderation you want.

00:23:48.280 But moderation between two extremes, both of which contend toward vice, that is virtue.

00:23:53.920 That's actually how Aristotle defines virtue.

00:23:57.120 It's great.

00:23:58.380 This is also to the point I was just making about Trump, how he can bring in people for

00:24:01.700 different reasons.

00:24:02.140 Some people will support Trump because they think he is the most extreme, hardcore, right-wing

00:24:07.720 guy that's run for president in a very long time.

00:24:10.800 Some people will support Trump.

00:24:12.960 We're talking moderate Democrats, guys like Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard, the moderate kind of

00:24:19.000 Wall Street types, yuppies, because he seems moderate.

00:24:24.820 That's an amazing political gift.

00:24:27.900 There's so much more to say.

00:24:28.980 First, though, go to netsuite.com slash Knowles.

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00:25:43.820 Folks, some of you want to submit voicemail bags to the show.

00:25:47.180 I know this.

00:25:47.700 You'll even email me through my personal website.

00:25:49.760 You say, I don't know how to do this.

00:25:50.720 I'll tell you how.

00:25:52.120 You go to dailywire.com, click watch, click on The Michael Knowles Show, click the mailbag,

00:25:58.460 it'll open up an email, and then you can write out your message, or you can record with your

00:26:03.600 camera, with your voice memos, with whichever app you use to record voice, you can record

00:26:09.100 your question.

00:26:10.820 I implore you, keep the question to under a minute so that I can play it on the show.

00:26:15.880 Some of you, you don't believe me when I say that.

00:26:17.680 You send me your life story.

00:26:20.000 You send me the audio book of your memoir.

00:26:21.720 I can't do anything with that.

00:26:23.080 I can't play that.

00:26:24.440 Keep it to under a minute, ideally under 30 seconds.

00:26:26.520 Then I can play it on the show.

00:26:27.760 We can chat.

00:26:28.840 I can hear your mellifluous voice.

00:26:30.040 It will be very, very beautiful.

00:26:33.420 And you can also submit your questions for, or your song suggestions for Music Monday.

00:26:38.580 You can submit your funny reels for Tee Hee Hee Tuesday.

00:26:42.140 You can submit your fake headlines for Fake Headline Friday, all through that mailbag button.

00:26:48.480 Speaking of Trump spending money, the New York Times is reporting that President Trump will

00:26:53.380 spend $45 billion over the next two years expanding illegal alien detention centers.

00:26:58.840 And this has elicited calls of hypocrisy from the left.

00:27:03.780 They say Trump is so concerned about federal spending.

00:27:08.020 He's got Elon in there just gutting all these bureaucrats who are, they're not even pushing

00:27:12.980 paper around.

00:27:13.640 Most of them are not even showing up to the office.

00:27:15.680 He's cutting all these federal workers.

00:27:18.440 Now, meanwhile, he goes and wants to spend $45 billion on illegal alien detention centers.

00:27:24.560 He wants to spend billions and millions more dollars on the U.S. military.

00:27:28.060 So he doesn't really want to cut government spending. 0.99

00:27:30.940 He's a hypocrite about that. 0.99

00:27:33.480 Now, I guess there was a misunderstanding. 0.99

00:27:35.460 Let me clear up the misunderstanding.

00:27:38.400 We want to cut spending from places where we shouldn't be spending money.

00:27:43.680 And we want to increase spending in areas where we should be spending more money.

00:27:50.080 That's what we want to do.

00:27:51.120 It's not about shrinking the government down so small that you can fit it inside your pocket.

00:27:56.440 It's not.

00:27:56.740 We're not anarchists.

00:27:58.160 We don't want to abolish the government far from it.

00:28:00.940 The government is good, can be good.

00:28:04.060 The civil authority is there for our own good.

00:28:05.920 We just want it to actually advance the common good.

00:28:08.740 So we are, you got us, dead to rights.

00:28:11.280 We are going to reduce USAID funding for lesbian ballet performances in Djibouti, for sure. 0.96

00:28:18.740 We are going to increase spending on deporting face-tattooed Satan-worshipping Venezuelan gangsters. 1.00

00:28:27.700 That's all good.

00:28:30.260 Trump did not run for president to just save money.

00:28:35.900 He's not some arch-libertarian.

00:28:38.200 He ran for president to reallocate money.

00:28:41.060 He wants America to be richer, and he wants the government to be the appropriate size.

00:28:47.120 Not nothing, not overextended, to be the appropriate size to do appropriate things.

00:28:52.760 In other words, he wants to reallocate resources.

00:28:56.020 This is an important lesson of the Trump era.

00:28:59.080 Before the Trump era, in the Tea Party era, a lot of people said, we just need to bleed the government.

00:29:03.840 We need to starve the beast, to use the language of Ronald Reagan.

00:29:06.400 So we just want to shrink the government.

00:29:08.740 But the thing is, if you just give away power, if you say, we don't want this power anymore, we're going to give it away, then that power is going to flow to other places.

00:29:18.780 And that power is going to often be used by your enemies.

00:29:23.100 So we say, we don't, we conservatives, we don't want the government involved in regulating the public square, say.

00:29:29.840 We're going to deregulate.

00:29:31.740 Okay, well then, that power is going to flow to a handful of big tech companies who now control the public square.

00:29:37.680 And by the way, before Elon bought Twitter, it was all leftists, and they were going to squeeze conservatives out of the public square.

00:29:43.700 Then they were going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars directly on campaigns to stop Republicans from getting elected.

00:29:48.840 You just gave away your power.

00:29:51.400 That's not what Trump wants to do.

00:29:53.560 Trump wants to use the power in a just way.

00:29:56.520 Some places he's going to dramatically shrink the government.

00:29:59.520 Some places he's going to grow the government because the government had atrophied.

00:30:03.120 The government was not doing its basic jobs like deporting face-tattooed gangsters. 1.00

00:30:07.940 That's what we want.

00:30:09.940 We don't want big government.

00:30:11.600 We don't want small government.

00:30:12.680 We want appropriate government.

00:30:14.500 We want government that exists within its own limits, but that does its job effectively within those limits.

00:30:21.060 Speaking of illegal immigration, in particular, Jasmine Crockett, the new AOC.

00:30:25.040 AOC, without the wisdom, Jasmine Crockett, this Democrat House member who makes a big show of herself just about every day. 1.00

00:30:34.600 She has come out and claimed that we need illegal immigration because we Americans ain't going to pick that cotton no more. 1.00

00:30:45.540 So I had to go around the country and educate people about what immigrants do for this country or the fact that we are a country of immigrants.

00:30:53.720 Right, right.

00:30:55.080 The fact is, ain't none of y'all trying to go and farm right now.

00:31:01.300 Okay, so I'm lying.

00:31:02.580 Raise your hands.

00:31:08.740 You're not.

00:31:10.380 You're not.

00:31:12.180 We done picking cotton.

00:31:15.820 We are.

00:31:16.860 You can't pay us enough to find a plantation. 1.00

00:31:19.080 This woman's pretty talented. 1.00

00:31:21.320 I don't know how she would do on the SAT.

00:31:23.760 You know, I'm not saying that she's the brightest bulb in the pack, but she does have a kind of political gift. 0.99

00:31:28.080 She does have a kind of showmanship.

00:31:30.760 Though she did just step on a political rake, entertaining though it was.

00:31:36.220 She comes out, she goes, you know, we're not farmers anymore.

00:31:38.940 She's just repeating the same Democrat line on illegal immigration we've heard for decades.

00:31:42.800 Namely, we need illegal aliens because they'll do jobs Americans won't do. 1.00

00:31:49.840 Yeah, yeah, well, you're not becoming farmers.

00:31:51.980 But then she takes it one step too far.

00:31:54.440 She says, yeah, yeah, we're done picking cotton.

00:31:57.520 We're done picking cotton means we're done being slaves.

00:32:01.520 She's not talking about people who pick cotton for a fair wage and, you know, an open marketplace.

00:32:05.980 No, she's talking about picking cotton.

00:32:07.560 Picking cotton is a reference to chattel slavery.

00:32:10.100 It says, we are done picking cotton.

00:32:13.780 We're not going to be slaves anymore.

00:32:15.400 We need other people to be our slaves. 0.99

00:32:17.840 Which is the actual Democrat argument for illegal immigration.

00:32:22.720 One Democrat argument is we just need people to come and have their kids vote Democrats.

00:32:27.160 And statistically, illegal aliens are more likely to do that.

00:32:30.120 But the economic argument they make is, these are, there are jobs that Americans won't do.

00:32:34.140 And they won't do them for the wages that the illegal aliens will do them for. 1.00

00:32:36.620 However, implicit in that argument is, we're importing Venezuelan peasants because they'll work as a serf or slave class for us. 0.99

00:32:45.420 And Jasmine Crockett just comes out and says the implicit part explicitly. 0.94

00:32:50.220 He goes, yeah, we need these Venezuelans to be our slaves. 0.93

00:32:53.460 I ain't picking cotton anymore. 0.94

00:32:55.040 I need some Guatemalan to pick cotton for me. 1.00

00:32:57.500 They're going to be our slaves.

00:32:58.780 They're never in the room like, I mean, yeah, but we're not supposed to say that.

00:33:08.300 The explicit endorsement of the Democrats' longstanding implicit argument, we need immigrants because we can't oppress Americans.

00:33:19.060 There are four sins understood traditionally in Christianity.

00:33:22.900 There are four sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance.

00:33:27.140 Does anyone know what they are?

00:33:29.680 Does anyone remember your good catechism?

00:33:32.220 Willful murder, sodomy, oppression of the poor, and defrauding the servants of their wages.

00:33:38.780 Those are the four sins.

00:33:39.920 Hey, you have a problem with that?

00:33:42.760 Don't go after me.

00:33:43.740 That's traditionally understood in Christianity.

00:33:47.040 The Democrats in this clip are openly advocating two of those things.

00:33:51.760 They're actually advocating all four of them because a willful murder, obviously, they've made abortion into a sacrament.

00:33:57.580 Sodomy, you know, can you go into a Democrat office now without the flag?

00:34:02.000 But putting those aside for a second.

00:34:04.180 Oppression of the poor and defrauding workers over their wages.

00:34:06.280 The argument is we don't want to pay a fair wage to the illegal aliens. 0.99

00:34:11.760 If we had to hire Americans to do these jobs, we'd have to pay them a fair wage. 1.00

00:34:15.180 So we're going to import third world peasants and then they'll do it for cheap and we can oppress them. 1.00

00:34:20.400 That's very ugly.

00:34:22.420 And I do think that has led in part to the political shift you've seen.

00:34:27.100 The fact that Democrats now are so openly advocating for mass migration in these kinds of terms.

00:34:33.680 Mass migration, which remains a top campaign issue for many people, not just because of the crime it brings and the social upheaval.

00:34:40.460 But also it's just very ugly to say that.

00:34:43.320 Yeah, yeah, we're going to we're going to oppress these people.

00:34:46.000 We're going to defraud them of their wages.

00:34:47.220 And that way we can be richer and we can buy more stuff.

00:34:50.180 Yeah.

00:34:50.700 And they'll be our slaves and they'll pick our cotton now. 1.00

00:34:53.200 That's very, very ugly.

00:34:54.680 And you can see how moderate Democrats, center-left people would say, yikes, man.

00:34:59.740 OK, that's too far.

00:35:01.240 I guess I'm voting with the Republicans now.

00:35:03.880 The world is changing very fast.

00:35:06.100 The Supreme Court just greenlit deportations of illegal Venezuelan migrants.

00:35:10.380 Doge is ending bloated federal programs and spending.

00:35:13.420 The U.S. is locking horns with China over massive new tariffs.

00:35:17.020 Meanwhile, the legacy media give you headlines with twisted facts and none of the context.

00:35:22.020 The Daily Wire gives you what actually matters.

00:35:25.420 Every angle, every fact, every time.

00:35:28.020 With unfiltered daily shows and the best in investigative journalism.

00:35:31.480 Because you deserve the full story.

00:35:32.720 So don't settle for narrative.

00:35:34.580 Subscribe to facts.

00:35:35.860 Go to dailywire.com slash subscribe.

00:35:38.820 My favorite comment yesterday is from Jeanette's Journey 9147 who says,

00:35:43.400 and now this was picked by our producer.

00:35:45.940 So I want to see if this actually truly is my favorite comment.

00:35:49.720 I could not agree more.

00:35:50.660 Our nation seems to have lost, by and large, the art of living within your means.

00:35:54.920 Hmm, that's true.

00:35:56.180 It's not the spiciest comment, but that's good advice. 1.00

00:35:58.320 Live within your means.

00:35:59.160 That's very good advice.

00:36:02.040 Okay.

00:36:03.500 Moving on to a much more important story than anything we've been talking about today.

00:36:06.880 The dire wolf is back.

00:36:10.640 What is the dire wolf?

00:36:12.880 It's a wolf that supposedly went extinct 13,000 years ago.

00:36:18.740 This is now the cover of Time Magazine.

00:36:21.060 It's this cool looking wolf.

00:36:23.820 His name is Remus.

00:36:25.080 There's another one named Romulus.

00:36:26.360 They named another one after Game of Thrones.

00:36:28.480 The other, the sister is Khaleesi.

00:36:30.980 The first dire wolf to exist in over 10,000 years.

00:36:35.440 How was the wolf brought back?

00:36:37.560 By a team of researchers at Colossal Biosciences.

00:36:42.960 The Colossal CEO, Ben Lamb, told the New York Post, quote,

00:36:45.260 Our team took DNA from a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull

00:36:50.720 and made the healthy dire wolf puppies.

00:36:53.620 It was once said any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

00:36:57.400 Today, our team gets to unveil some of the magic they're working on

00:37:01.160 and its broader impact on conservation.

00:37:04.640 This is pretty amazing stuff.

00:37:06.940 I'm often not all that impressed by technological advances.

00:37:11.040 Doesn't do a ton for me.

00:37:12.760 I'm not that easily dazzled.

00:37:14.000 This is pretty impressive.

00:37:16.040 Colossal also got some headlines last month when they engineered a woolly mouse.

00:37:21.640 That's a mouse crossed with a woolly mammoth. 0.93

00:37:24.040 Didn't have the silly tusks, but did have the fur.

00:37:26.460 They want to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction by 2028. 0.93

00:37:32.180 We've heard this for years.

00:37:33.740 Since I was a kid, people have been talking about bringing back the woolly mammoth

00:37:37.280 with all the breakthroughs in genetics that we could maybe take some of the DNA

00:37:41.180 of the woolly mammoth and put it in an elephant or something and make a woolly mammoth.

00:37:46.840 All good.

00:37:48.520 However, there is one question for the poor dire wolves

00:37:51.100 and for maybe the woolly mammoth and all the rest.

00:37:53.600 How is it going to learn to be a dire wolf?

00:37:59.320 How is the woolly mammoth going to learn to be a woolly mammoth?

00:38:02.200 I'm not the first or only person to raise this question.

00:38:05.220 There's a very good essay on this a year or so ago.

00:38:07.020 I forget who wrote it.

00:38:08.080 So apologies.

00:38:08.620 To be a creature involves not just our DNA, but also our education, also learning things

00:38:23.640 from our parents.

00:38:24.420 That's certainly true for rational creatures like us, human beings who can think abstractly

00:38:29.360 about mathematics and justice and all the rest of it.

00:38:31.640 But it's also true for certain animals, not even every animal.

00:38:36.140 Some animals are abandoned by their parents the moment that they're born, and they have

00:38:39.840 instinct, and they have appetite, and that's all they need.

00:38:43.440 It's not like they have abstract reason and a rational will.

00:38:46.520 But for these wolves, it's got to be kind of weird because even a lot of brute animals

00:38:51.420 learn things from their parents.

00:38:53.480 And these wolves don't have parents.

00:38:57.740 They are orphans.

00:38:59.380 And sometimes animals start to act a little bit weird when they're orphans.

00:39:02.940 And there's an important political lesson here, which is the confidence that colossal sciences

00:39:09.620 has, that these real techno-futurist types have.

00:39:14.860 They say, we can bring back the woolly mammoth.

00:39:16.960 Who knows?

00:39:17.500 Maybe we'll bring back dinosaurs.

00:39:18.460 The confidence they have that they can just plug something into their computers and pop

00:39:24.320 out this creature and have the creature work just perfectly well is the confidence of a

00:39:30.940 computer scientist, people who are confident in coding and predetermined outcomes and their

00:39:37.880 own ability to control unforeseen consequences.

00:39:41.300 But it's not the view of a conservative because a conservative recognizes that life is about more

00:39:47.900 than just the design, that life is not really just totally predetermined, that actually there

00:39:53.000 is such a thing as free will, that actually our own human reason is relatively limited,

00:39:58.600 that we can't account for all of the potential outcomes of something, and really not even most

00:40:03.720 of them, that we need to proceed with a little bit of caution and a little bit of humility,

00:40:09.200 and crucially, that tradition matters.

00:40:12.880 Passing down the wisdom of the ages sometimes in inarticulable ways is important, and it's

00:40:20.320 how we grow.

00:40:20.860 And it's not just true for us, it's true actually even of elephants to a certain degree, maybe

00:40:25.120 even of wolves.

00:40:26.600 Who's going to teach the dire wolf how to be a wolf?

00:40:28.800 And even if you have the most amazing technology and infinite financial resources, is it really

00:40:37.920 possible to bring something back from extinction and have it be the same thing that went extinct?

00:40:45.400 I'm skeptical.

00:40:47.400 I don't think that that's true in biology.

00:40:50.400 I don't think that's true in culture and civilization.

00:40:52.460 A lot of us, and this is where it really rings home for me, a lot of us, we treat our civilization

00:40:59.380 carelessly.

00:41:00.540 We say, oh, you know, whatever, we're going to get rid of the religion that animated our 1.00

00:41:03.360 civilization, we're going to knock down some statues, we're going to forget the historical

00:41:06.640 figures, we're going to spit on the, we're going to throw tomato sauce on the art, you 0.85

00:41:11.800 know, to protest climate change or whatever, and we're going to, we're just going to trash

00:41:15.300 the civilization.

00:41:16.700 And don't worry about it, if we ever really want it again, we can just bring it back from

00:41:20.040 the dead.

00:41:20.960 I don't think that's how it works.

00:41:23.280 I think you actually can definitively lose things.

00:41:27.380 And even if you can bring back some kind of version of it or some approximation, it's

00:41:31.240 not the same thing that you lost.

00:41:32.380 And we ought to be more conservative, care more about conserving, that is, that which

00:41:40.000 we have.

00:41:40.760 We should cherish our homes, our civilizations, our families, our various creatures more

00:41:48.420 than we do.

00:41:49.340 Don't be so flippant.

00:41:50.320 Don't be so confident that you can bring it back from the dead, even if you can bring

00:41:54.380 something back from the dead, or an approximation of it.

00:41:58.000 It's probably not going to be the exact same thing you lost.

00:42:00.260 Speaking of wacky science, RFK Jr., baby.

00:42:07.220 I got a lot of chatter about RFK Jr. because RFK has, for his entire life, his entire adult

00:42:13.800 life, campaigned against vaccines.

00:42:16.060 I first became aware of RFK Jr. 20 years ago or more, when I was watching The Daily Show

00:42:21.900 as a kid.

00:42:22.760 And he went on there, and he was talking about how thimerosal in vaccines causes autism.

00:42:27.420 And back then, the libs agreed with that, and the conservatives disagreed with that.

00:42:30.420 Now it's just kind of flipped.

00:42:31.660 And the libs disagree with that, and the libs do whatever Big Pharma tells them to do.

00:42:35.160 And the conservatives are skeptical of vaccines.

00:42:37.280 In any case, now that Bobby Kennedy is the HHS secretary, he seems to have changed his tune.

00:42:42.880 I have the tweet right here.

00:42:45.000 He says, I came to Gaines County, Texas today to comfort the Hildebrand family after the

00:42:50.360 loss of their eight-year-old daughter, Daisy.

00:42:52.400 This is an eight-year-old girl who died from the measles.

00:42:56.660 I am here to support health officials and to learn how our HHS agencies can better partner

00:43:02.400 with them to control the measles outbreak.

00:43:05.020 The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.

00:43:10.120 I've spoken to Governor Abbott, and I've offered HHS's continued support at his request.

00:43:15.060 We will redeploy.

00:43:16.320 We have redeployed CDC teams to Texas.

00:43:19.080 Goes on.

00:43:20.240 Hold on.

00:43:20.860 Bobby Kennedy, the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.

00:43:24.480 What's going on?

00:43:25.640 Is this man compromised?

00:43:27.060 Some have suggested, including friends of mine, have suggested that Kennedy's being blackmailed

00:43:31.320 or something by Big Pharma or by, you know, the hidden, shadowy, deep state or something

00:43:35.800 like that.

00:43:36.140 I don't think that that is the easiest explanation.

00:43:40.920 First of all, what Bobby Kennedy said about MMR vaccines is indisputably true, and it doesn't

00:43:49.000 compromise the arguments that he's been making for decades.

00:43:52.480 When he says the most effective way to control the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine, that's

00:43:57.100 just obviously true.

00:43:58.240 That doesn't mean that measles is particularly deadly.

00:44:04.920 That doesn't mean that the measles vaccine is safe.

00:44:08.420 That doesn't mean that there's no link between vaccines and autism.

00:44:11.000 RFK didn't say any of that.

00:44:11.900 He chose his words very, very carefully.

00:44:13.880 He said the vaccine is the most effective way to stop the spread of measles, which, and

00:44:17.740 no one disagrees with that.

00:44:18.920 Not one person disagrees.

00:44:19.700 Even the most ardent anti-vaccine person doesn't disagree with that.

00:44:23.180 So he said a thing that is true.

00:44:24.660 To what end?

00:44:26.540 Is it because Big Pharma has dirt on him?

00:44:30.860 I don't think so.

00:44:32.060 He's a Kennedy.

00:44:34.320 He's had a lot of public dirt for decades.

00:44:38.880 What is going to come, especially RFK Jr., respectfully, what is going to come out about Bobby Kennedy

00:44:44.820 that is so shocking?

00:44:47.280 The Kennedys have a colorful personal life, okay?

00:44:50.600 And everyone knows about it.

00:44:52.500 So I don't, even if there were, there's a sex scandal involving, oh, really?

00:44:56.500 Which one?

00:44:57.220 Number 552?

00:44:59.600 There was a sex scandal about Bobby Kennedy that came out during his presidential campaign

00:45:03.240 this past year.

00:45:04.980 Okay, that's not going to move the needle.

00:45:07.300 I think what's going on is a little bit deeper here, which is that when Bobby Kennedy was a

00:45:13.560 private lawyer and he was kind of a pundit on these issues, he could mouth off and it was no big deal.

00:45:20.200 Now that he's in office, he maybe wants to hedge his bets a little bit.

00:45:24.720 This is what happened to Trump during COVID.

00:45:25.960 And I didn't beat up on Trump during COVID for going along with the lockdowns for a little bit,

00:45:32.600 for pushing the vaccine, not mandatorily, but still encouraging it, even though for most people,

00:45:38.960 they didn't really need the COVID vaccine.

00:45:40.700 I didn't beat up on him for it because put yourself in Trump's position.

00:45:45.060 You've got all these top advisors coming to you, including people you've picked,

00:45:49.200 saying if you don't do this, millions of people will die.

00:45:52.260 I don't care how tough you think you are because you're a really good tweeter or you're a really

00:45:57.940 good pundit or you're a really good activist.

00:46:01.300 If you have that responsibility, if you're going to bear the deaths of millions of people,

00:46:05.700 potentially, you're at the very least going to hedge your bets.

00:46:08.160 And I think that's what Kennedy's doing now because he's in a position of real responsibility.

00:46:11.400 I think this is always what happens to people when they actually get responsibility in politics.

00:46:15.720 They always have to moderate their rhetoric.

00:46:17.780 They always have to hedge their bets and they have to speak in this kind of way.

00:46:20.920 If they're good at it, they can do so as Kennedy is doing without actually contradicting anything

00:46:27.860 he's said or advocated over the years, but just giving himself an out.

00:46:32.840 Just like I didn't blame Trump really during COVID, I'm not even blaming Bobby Kennedy for it.

00:46:37.320 I'm more marveling at the fact that political realities are undefeated.

00:46:43.140 And so you get whether you love the vaccine, you hate the vaccine, whatever you think.

00:46:46.600 You can be really angry at Kennedy for what he's doing.

00:46:51.100 That's just political reality, baby.

00:46:52.740 That's just how it works, you know.

00:46:54.020 Today's Walk Wednesday.

00:46:55.020 The rest of the show continues now.

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The Michael Knowles Show - April 09, 2025

Ep. 1711 - Trump Slams China with 104% Tariffs

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