Verdict with Ted Cruz - April 10, 2025


BONUS POD： Make Tariffs Pause Again (Unless You're China)


Episode Stats

Length

12 minutes

Words per Minute

160.93457

Word Count

1,970

Sentence Count

149

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.500 Guaranteed human.
00:00:05.940 President's decision.
00:00:07.320 President's decision.
00:00:08.240 It was the president's decision to wait until today.
00:00:11.980 And again, as I've said in the past, no one creates leverage for himself like President Trump.
00:00:18.240 This is a 47 Morning Update special edition with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:22.600 Good Thursday morning.
00:00:23.880 Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.
00:00:26.500 It's Ben Ferguson with you as always.
00:00:28.380 And we've got one big story for you.
00:00:31.840 It's all tariffs.
00:00:33.300 And the big news coming out of the White House, they raised the tariffs on China to 125%.
00:00:40.780 And they issued a 90-day pause on some other tariffs with other countries that had come to the table.
00:00:48.660 Now, I am going to play for you exactly what the White House said on this.
00:00:53.240 You're going to hear from the White House Press Secretary and Secretary Scott Bessent as well.
00:00:59.400 Before I do that, though, let me explain to you exactly what the White House is saying.
00:01:04.500 The message is simple.
00:01:05.880 For many countries who are ready to take a seat at the negotiating table and recognize that they will no longer be able to mistreat America.
00:01:15.940 The White House said, we're going to work with you.
00:01:18.440 Please come join us and be granted a temporary reprieve.
00:01:23.580 However, the White House said, for those like China who want to retaliate after years of ripping America off, we will not bend and we will not break.
00:01:35.500 Now, let's remind you of what the goal was from this White House.
00:01:39.640 Put America first and trading partnerships that are willing to work with America first.
00:01:45.740 Why?
00:01:46.160 The White House said, number one, jobs, jobs and jobs.
00:01:50.980 President Trump's goal is to supercharge the on-shoring of American manufacturing.
00:01:57.220 We also know that the March jobs report shows that the president's economic agenda is already having unintended effect.
00:02:05.180 The economy added 228,000 jobs in March, far exceeding the economist's prediction of just 140,000 jobs added.
00:02:13.920 Why?
00:02:14.360 Because the president has been moving with aggressive on-shoring and it appears to be afoot as the sectors where you would first expect to see a response are growing rapidly.
00:02:26.420 Construction employment expanded by 13,000 jobs, for example.
00:02:31.180 Transportation and warehousing employment expanded by 22,900 jobs, which brings the White House to the third big point, lower prices and bigger paychecks.
00:02:42.580 President Trump's drill baby drill agenda is already unleashing American energy and leading to lower gas prices.
00:02:50.120 President Trump is calling on Congress to extend and expand his working class tax cuts for Americans, which they are doing.
00:02:57.500 And then that brings us to the negotiating table on tariffs.
00:03:02.380 With all of the other things happening, there's no better time and no one better to negotiate than President Trump.
00:03:09.840 And he's made it clear he is not flinching.
00:03:13.360 He understands that America has been mistreated and has had unfair trade.
00:03:18.440 And now he is answering the call by Americans to put American workers and manufacturing first.
00:03:25.580 So that brings us to the big point where there was a massive rally on Wall Street.
00:03:30.900 Why? Because the president said those that are willing to work with us, they are going to go first and get great trade deals with America.
00:03:41.000 And those that went after us and retaliated, a.k.a. China, will get ready for a 125 percent tariff.
00:03:50.040 So I'm going to play for you in its entirety exactly what the White House said so that you can't be lied to by the press.
00:03:58.880 Many in the press did not want to cover this.
00:04:01.720 And that's exactly why I'm letting you hear from Secretary Scott Bessent and Press Secretary Caroline Levitt.
00:04:08.820 Take a listen.
00:04:09.780 Latest statement regarding his America first trade plan.
00:04:13.240 As you all know, the president just put out a statement announcing an additional tariff on China.
00:04:18.060 The tariff on China will now go up to one hundred and twenty five percent because China imprudently decided to retaliate against the United States.
00:04:25.100 And as I said at the podium yesterday, when you punch at the United States of America, President Trump is going to punch back harder.
00:04:31.320 In that same vein, we have had more than 75 countries from around the world reach out to President Trump and his team here at the White House to negotiate better trade deals for the American worker.
00:04:42.900 We have been overwhelmed with the amount of requests for countries around the world.
00:04:46.360 I'll let the secretary speak to that.
00:04:47.780 We will continue with the tailor made negotiations that I spoke about yesterday.
00:04:51.800 In the meantime, there will be a 90 day pause on the reciprocal tariffs as these negotiations are ongoing.
00:04:57.000 And the tariff level will be brought down to a universal 10 percent tariff.
00:05:01.020 The secretary here has been a huge part of the president's trade team, of course, and will continue to lead these negotiations moving forward to look out for the American worker, which is always President Trump's goal.
00:05:10.880 So I'll kick it over to our great Treasury Secretary, Scott Besson.
00:05:15.260 Good. Thank you.
00:05:16.660 And we saw the successful negotiating strategy that President Trump implemented a week ago today.
00:05:23.940 It has brought more than 75 countries forward to negotiate.
00:05:28.740 It took great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment.
00:05:33.300 And what we have ended up with here, as I told everyone a week ago in this very spot, do not retaliate and you will be rewarded.
00:05:46.160 So every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you.
00:05:53.040 We are going to go down to a 10 percent baseline tariff for them.
00:05:59.000 And China will be raised to 125 due to their insistence on escalation.
00:06:07.620 Thank you for doing this.
00:06:10.300 Let me ask you three quick things.
00:06:12.480 I'm going to take clarity because the markets are open and they're wondering.
00:06:15.660 First of all, Mexico and China, are they part of this 10 percent university?
00:06:19.080 Well, China, no, China.
00:06:22.200 Mexico and Canada, Mexico and Canada, are they part of the 10 percent?
00:06:24.720 Yes.
00:06:25.300 Okay. Second, given then that you have the rest of the world essentially calling it, it's not China.
00:06:30.160 Isn't this now just all about China?
00:06:33.200 Well, it's about bad actors.
00:06:36.480 And what we will see is some of the very early countries are China's neighbors.
00:06:42.940 We're going to see, I'm seeing Vietnam today, Japan's at the front of the queue, South Korea, India.
00:06:49.080 So we will see.
00:06:51.120 And as I've repeatedly said, and President Trump has been saying it for years,
00:06:56.620 China is the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world.
00:07:00.720 And they are the biggest source of the U.S. trade problems.
00:07:04.840 And indeed, they are problems for the rest of the world.
00:07:08.000 Because what we've seen is that as the U.S. announced the tariff wall last week, many of those goods have already started flooding into Europe.
00:07:18.820 So as you see it now, this trade war is China versus the rest of the world.
00:07:22.880 Well, I'm not calling it a trade war, but I'm saying that China has escalated.
00:07:28.660 And President Trump responded very courageously to that.
00:07:32.960 And we are going to work on a solution with our trading partners.
00:07:38.040 If I could just, excuse me, excuse me, Raquel, if I could just add to what the secretary said,
00:07:44.460 many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal.
00:07:48.180 You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here.
00:07:51.820 You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China,
00:07:55.820 when in fact we've seen the opposite effect.
00:07:57.820 The entire world is calling the United States of America, not China,
00:08:01.540 because they need our markets, they need our consumers,
00:08:04.180 and they need this president in the Oval Office to talk to them.
00:08:07.540 And that's exactly why more than 75 countries have called,
00:08:10.380 because the United States of America is the best place in the world to do business.
00:08:14.300 And as the president has shown great courage, as the secretary has said,
00:08:17.580 in choosing to retaliate against China even higher.
00:08:20.380 Elena, go ahead.
00:08:21.340 Hi, thank you, Treasury Secretary Bessett.
00:08:23.220 Can you explain more of the decision-making on what feels like a reversal here?
00:08:27.160 I mean, just, these went into effect less than 15 hours ago, these tariffs.
00:08:30.780 Why the pause now, what led to that?
00:08:34.240 No, again, President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself.
00:08:39.240 And which tariffs went into effect 15 hours ago?
00:08:42.380 The ones that we have lowered went into effect a week ago.
00:08:46.760 They were announced a week ago, and we have just been overwhelmed,
00:08:51.040 overwhelmed by the response from mostly our allies who want to come and negotiate in good faith.
00:08:58.720 So we are expecting them to come with their best deal.
00:09:02.540 As I said a week ago today, don't retaliate.
00:09:06.400 Hold your ground.
00:09:07.340 Let's see what happens.
00:09:08.740 And China, they kept escalating and escalating.
00:09:13.020 And now they have 125 percent tariffs that will be effective immediately.
00:09:17.260 Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for doing this.
00:09:21.220 The 90-day pause on the research on tariffs, is that because of the whiplash that we've been seeing across the financial markets?
00:09:27.220 How much was, you know, what we saw in the stock markets, you know, a part of this decision?
00:09:31.060 No, it's because it's going to, because of the large number of inbounds, we've had more than 75 countries contact us.
00:09:39.660 And I imagine after today, there will be more.
00:09:42.260 So it is just a processing problem.
00:09:45.180 Each one of these solutions is going to be bespoke.
00:09:49.500 It is going to take some time.
00:09:51.080 And President Trump wants to be personally involved.
00:09:53.960 So that's why we're getting the 90-day pause.
00:09:57.000 Mr. Secretary, there was a tweet that U.S. Secretary left that door in the Oval Office with the President talking about this.
00:10:03.980 Can you talk about what that conversation was like and what you guys said to one another?
00:10:08.840 Look, it's all the President's decision.
00:10:12.800 And we were, the President had a level in mind to raise the China tariffs.
00:10:20.300 And then he had the three-month, you know, essentially the three-month pause in mind.
00:10:26.400 And we were discussing the exact wording.
00:10:31.700 Sorry?
00:10:33.840 Of course.
00:10:34.720 It's the President's decision.
00:10:35.860 It's the President's decision.
00:10:36.980 It was the President's decision to wait until today.
00:10:40.700 And again, as I've said in the past, no one creates leverage for himself like President Trump.
00:10:46.620 No one creates leverage for himself like President Trump.
00:10:51.540 This is a monumental moment and a great response that was well explained by the Treasury Secretary and the Press Secretary there.
00:10:59.900 Saying President Trump will take proper action.
00:11:03.160 For decades, Democrats, they don't understand how to get America first in our policies.
00:11:10.420 They are constantly allowing other countries to walk all over us.
00:11:14.300 As the Treasury Secretary said there, the President's going to work forward and move forward with these 75-plus countries that have all said they want to meet.
00:11:23.660 They're negotiating right now.
00:11:25.580 And the President created the leverage for himself that he needed.
00:11:28.720 As for China, they are now more isolated than they have ever been, especially on the world trade front.
00:11:36.500 This is the opposite of what they were hoping for.
00:11:39.180 So as Caroline Levitt said a moment ago, you and the media got it wrong and the President got it right.
00:11:46.520 You said people were going to run to China and now they're talking and running to America.
00:11:52.600 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:11:56.760 Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.
00:12:01.660 And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast, and we will see you back here tomorrow.
00:12:10.820 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:12:13.720 Guaranteed Human.