Verdict with Ted Cruz - SCOTUS Throws a Tariff Curveball, Did SOTU move the Needle & 2 Olympians-Patriotism vs. Paycheck Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.

00:00:05.420 Welcome.

00:00:06.040 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:07.460 Weekend Review.

00:00:08.380 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.440 And these are the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week.

00:00:12.740 First up, Donald Trump still moving forward with tariffs, even after there was a ruling

00:00:17.640 from the Supreme Court.

00:00:18.920 How was he able to do that?

00:00:20.520 And did he actually get advice from a Supreme Court justice?

00:00:23.700 Yeah, he did.

00:00:24.440 We'll tell you all about it.

00:00:25.960 Also, the State of the Union speech.

00:00:27.780 It moved the needle for Donald Trump with Americans, including some Democrats.

00:00:32.840 What did he say?

00:00:33.500 They connected with so many Americans?

00:00:35.100 We'll have that for you as well.

00:00:36.820 And finally, an interesting story out of the Olympics.

00:00:39.840 Two different Olympians with hearts in different places.

00:00:43.760 One skating their heart out for America.

00:00:46.160 And the other one saying, yeah, I may have grown up here, but I'd rather skate for China.

00:00:51.460 That incredible story in just a second.

00:00:53.960 It's the Weekend Review, and it starts right now.

00:00:56.640 All right, I want to move on to another issue, and we made predictions on this show.

00:01:01.540 This is why I should say you made predictions on this show.

00:01:04.100 Separate myself from them.

00:01:06.260 Oh, look at this.

00:01:07.360 Who's we?

00:01:08.160 Ben throwing me overboard so fast.

00:01:10.940 Senator, you made a prediction about the Supreme Court on tariffs.

00:01:14.180 It was actually really funny this morning.

00:01:15.760 I was doing a Fox News Sunday.

00:01:17.420 Shannon Bremont to me.

00:01:18.120 She goes, I listened to the show when you were making your predictions, because 99% of the time,

00:01:22.380 Ted's right on the Supreme Court, and he made a prediction he thought it was going to go the

00:01:26.160 president's way on these.

00:01:27.420 It didn't, but there was also something interesting in there.

00:01:30.640 Brett Kavanaugh wrote basically in there, and I found this incredibly interesting,

00:01:35.400 that, hey, what we're saying you did, you can't necessarily do it that way.

00:01:39.280 However, here is a way you can do it.

00:01:41.680 It reminded me almost of, like, Obamacare, when they're like, well, if you do it this

00:01:46.020 way, then you can get away with it, but the way you're doing it, don't keep doing it that

00:01:49.480 way.

00:01:50.160 Do it this other way.

00:01:51.100 It was like a roadmap for him to still have tariffs, still have the power that the presidency

00:01:54.960 needs to do this, and you saw the president jump all over that with a 10% saying, this

00:01:59.220 ain't going away.

00:02:00.340 I don't know if this is as big of a defeat as Democrats and media are trying to make it

00:02:04.340 out to be, and the president's instant response, I think, proves he still has a ton of power.

00:02:08.880 Well, listen, I'm going to start by eating crow.

00:02:13.780 I did make a prediction on this podcast, and I make a lot of predictions on this podcast,

00:02:18.320 and we've never tallied the number, but I think we're north of 80%, maybe even north

00:02:23.040 of 90% of being right in predictions.

00:02:24.340 I'm going to give you credit, so it's above 90, because I make sure I give you a hard time

00:02:27.560 when you're wrong, and that's not very often, so this is on that sheet, but, you know.

00:02:31.340 Yeah, no, it's complete.

00:02:32.220 And by the way, we don't make small and mild predictions.

00:02:36.000 I mean, we make bold and aggressive predictions, and in 2024-

00:02:40.560 Can we just remind people of the biggest one?

00:02:41.760 Yeah, Joe Biden.

00:02:42.780 Let's just talk about it.

00:02:43.960 I predicted that Joe Biden would not be the nominee a year before it happened and said they

00:02:49.920 are going to replace him.

00:02:52.180 He is not going to be on the ballot in November, and the corporate media made fun of me like

00:02:58.320 crazy for that prediction.

00:02:59.720 Of course, it was exactly right.

00:03:00.960 We've made a lot of predictions.

00:03:02.280 We broke down in March and April of the beginning of COVID.

00:03:07.040 I laid out the evidence that the COVID virus escaped from a Chinese government lab right 0.98

00:03:12.300 at the beginning, and the predictions that we laid out there, the evidence we laid out

00:03:17.820 there was square on right.

00:03:19.420 So I made a prediction that the Supreme Court 5-4 would uphold the president's use of terrorists.

00:03:25.580 That prediction proved false.

00:03:27.600 What actually happened is 6-3, the court struck it down.

00:03:30.800 I also predicted that John Roberts would write the majority opinion.

00:03:34.620 I guess that did prove technically accurate, but he wrote the majority opinion going the

00:03:39.500 other way.

00:03:40.500 Here's why I thought the court was going to uphold the president's tariffs, and I said

00:03:44.700 there are massive reliance interests.

00:03:47.420 There have been hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs collected, and the court is reluctant

00:03:52.540 to dramatically upset the status quo.

00:03:55.880 And I did say, if the court were deciding this issue a year ago, right at the beginning of

00:04:01.040 the Trump administration, I said, I think they'd come out the other way.

00:04:04.780 But after a year plus, after this being central to the economic and foreign policy agenda of

00:04:12.160 the president, I thought the court would not struck it down.

00:04:14.960 That proved wrong.

00:04:16.620 But at the end of the day, I don't think it matters a whole lot.

00:04:21.160 Let's cut to the conclusion.

00:04:23.380 I don't think the consequences of this decision are going to be all that much.

00:04:27.900 What the court decided narrowly is that one particular statute, IEPA, does not give the

00:04:34.580 president the authority to impose tariffs.

00:04:38.120 Now, mind you, IEPA gives the president the authority to, quote, regulate importations.

00:04:43.920 And so the majority opinion concluded, the president can ban an import from a country,

00:04:51.880 can say, we will import zero German cars into America.

00:04:56.640 He can do that.

00:04:57.860 But he can't say, we're going to charge a dollar for each one of those German cars.

00:05:02.240 That is a pretty loopy conclusion.

00:05:04.960 And I got to say, the dissents, Justice Kavanaugh wrote the lead dissent.

00:05:09.360 Justice Thomas wrote an excellent dissent.

00:05:11.140 And I think the dissents get the much better of the argument that the words that Congress

00:05:16.940 put in the IEPA statute, regulate importation.

00:05:20.320 And Justice Thomas had an originalist dissent where he goes through, in the foreign policy

00:05:26.320 area in particular, the ability to import goods from other countries was never viewed

00:05:31.920 as a right.

00:05:32.560 It was a privilege the government allowed you to do.

00:05:34.620 And in fact, tariffs were a major tool government used to regulate importation from other countries.

00:05:40.360 So I think the majority decision is wrong.

00:05:44.300 But here's the thing that matters.

00:05:47.180 There are so many other statutes that allow the president to impose tariffs that I think

00:05:53.820 we will see essentially the same regime.

00:05:55.840 It's going to be a little more complicated.

00:05:57.000 He's going to have to do a little bit more work.

00:05:58.540 It's going to require some more legal proceedings.

00:06:00.180 But I think you're going to see him.

00:06:01.860 We saw immediately the president announced a 10 percent tariff on every country.

00:06:06.660 He then upped that to 15 percent.

00:06:09.180 But I think at the end of the day, the president will continue to use tariffs as a critical part

00:06:14.860 of his foreign policy.

00:06:16.340 And I hope and we've talked about this on verdict before.

00:06:19.400 I hope that he uses tariffs as leverage to open up foreign markets.

00:06:24.300 I don't want a world where we have high tariffs for everyone.

00:06:26.600 But I do think tariffs are very powerful leverage.

00:06:30.800 And I think the president has ample authority to continue using them.

00:06:34.260 You know, it's interesting about this.

00:06:35.380 When it happened, there was two people that were really celebrating two groups.

00:06:39.060 I should say, the Democratic Party and China and China was really celebrating this.

00:06:45.740 And then they were talking about buying soybean crops from other countries instead of America.

00:06:49.320 And that was like one of the big things that really blew up in the media and on social media.

00:06:54.520 And then you have the same excitement from the Chinese Communist Party as you did from the Democratic Party.

00:07:00.240 That tells me an awful lot about this tariff war issue.

00:07:04.960 This is just to Democrats, not about what's best for America,

00:07:07.840 not about us having better trade deals,

00:07:10.280 not about saving American jobs or American manufacturing,

00:07:14.020 protecting that or bringing jobs back to this country in manufacturing

00:07:17.540 and bringing back American businesses to our soil.

00:07:20.760 They just want Donald Trump to lose.

00:07:22.620 And they're on the same team with China on this one.

00:07:25.240 Yeah, look, that's where Democrats are. 1.00

00:07:27.160 That's where much of the media is.

00:07:28.880 Let me walk through two things.

00:07:30.440 Number one, there's going to be some chaos.

00:07:32.420 One of the reasons I didn't think the court would do what they did

00:07:34.700 is you've got hundreds of billions of dollars of tariffs that's going to be collected.

00:07:39.360 There's going to be massive litigation.

00:07:41.080 Everyone that's paid the tariffs is going to look at, do I go back?

00:07:43.980 Do I sue?

00:07:44.520 Do I try to collect it?

00:07:46.200 It's going to vary in terms of whether they filed a timely protest to the tariffs.

00:07:51.800 I think some of those tariffs, the litigation result is going to be no.

00:07:56.760 You can't get it back because you didn't timely protest it.

00:07:59.720 Some of the people who paid tariffs will have timely protested it.

00:08:03.620 And so there's a very good chance this is going to cost American taxpayers billions of dollars,

00:08:08.700 maybe even tens of billions of dollars or more.

00:08:10.940 That litigation chaos will unfold for years.

00:08:14.820 I didn't think the court would do that.

00:08:17.060 But in terms of the president's ability to do this,

00:08:19.660 so let me walk through some of the different statutes that are available.

00:08:23.060 There is, number one, section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930.

00:08:27.100 That's actually the Smoot-Hawley Act, which authorizes the president to impose tariffs of up to 50%

00:08:33.360 on imports from any country that, quote, discriminates against U.S. businesses.

00:08:40.860 The statute is vague, and it is short, and no president has used this authority.

00:08:46.600 So it's uncharted area, but it remains on the statute book.

00:08:49.680 So that's one area.

00:08:50.500 Another area, which is where the president went pretty much immediately,

00:08:57.320 is Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.

00:09:02.860 Section 122 gives the president the power to impose duties of up to 15% for up to 150 days

00:09:09.900 in order to address, quote, large and serious balance of payments deficits.

00:09:15.080 Congress has to vote to extend them past the 150-day limit, or else the duties expire,

00:09:22.220 but the president is able to reissue them on expiration.

00:09:27.800 This is what the president used as a result immediately to impose the 15% tariff.

00:09:34.300 So that's one avenue.

00:09:36.580 And then there are a couple of others.

00:09:38.220 Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 authorizes the U.S. trade representative to investigate

00:09:44.720 and act upon results of an investigation revealing unfair trade practices.

00:09:51.040 Section 301 has been used quite a bit.

00:09:53.640 In 2024, the Biden administration opened three investigations under Section 301

00:09:59.820 and determined that the countries had violated the provisions there.

00:10:08.740 That's also what, in Trump's second administration, U.S. trade representative's office has opened

00:10:14.960 a 301 investigation into Brazil and China, and they're considering one for Korea.

00:10:20.480 So Section 301 takes an investigation.

00:10:23.020 It's a little slower, but it gives more potent tariff authority.

00:10:25.800 There is also Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962,

00:10:32.300 and that allows the president to impose restrictions on goods and imports.

00:10:37.860 And following an investigation, if it's found that the imports, quote,

00:10:43.840 threaten to impair U.S. national security.

00:10:47.600 So Trump has used that for steel imports and aluminum imports.

00:10:51.460 In 2025, he expanded steel and aluminum tariffs, increasing the aluminum rate to 25 percent,

00:10:58.800 eliminating all country exemptions.

00:11:01.340 To date, the Trump administration has launched 12 different Section 232 investigations,

00:11:08.160 concluded five.

00:11:09.900 And then there's finally Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974,

00:11:13.900 which permits temporary safeguard tariffs to protect domestic industries from serious injury

00:11:22.380 caused by import surges.

00:11:24.960 Trump has used Section 201 to put tariffs on solar cells, on modules, and in residential washing machines.

00:11:32.240 Look, the long and short of it, you guys don't need to memorize all those different section numbers.

00:11:36.500 The point is, there are a bunch of different federal laws that give the president a bunch of authority to impose tariffs.

00:11:46.340 The lawyers and the administration will work a little bit harder, as Justice Kavanaugh said in dissent.

00:11:51.700 At the end of the day, the Supreme Court said,

00:11:53.840 well, you check the wrong box and you pick the wrong statute, so these tariffs don't apply.

00:11:58.700 But the bottom line is going to be the president's going to be able to get there using other means.

00:12:03.220 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,

00:12:06.260 you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

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00:12:20.840 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

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00:12:35.940 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:12:41.740 Now on to story number two.

00:12:44.000 The question that I have, as a proper conservative who is always looking for the downside of things,

00:12:50.280 just to temper my jubilation,

00:12:53.920 do you think, I think universally the speech was viewed as quite good, quite effective,

00:12:59.440 does it make a meaningful difference in the midterms?

00:13:03.220 Look, I don't know how many.

00:13:05.840 Do you? All right, lay out why.

00:13:07.220 And I'll tell you why.

00:13:08.460 This speech was the things that irritate

00:13:12.820 Republican-slash-moderate voters about Trump.

00:13:20.460 That it's all about him, and he doesn't know when to, you know, the mean tweets,

00:13:24.520 and when to shut up, and the things that irritate those that can stay home.

00:13:29.720 Watching his demeanor tonight, he came across in such a way of like,

00:13:35.520 these guys don't want this, these guys don't put you first,

00:13:38.980 these guys don't do this.

00:13:40.280 He also was giving incredible accolades and awards,

00:13:44.320 and the U.S. hockey team, there was momentum there.

00:13:46.900 It was one after another.

00:13:48.560 It was a hundred-year-old man, a veteran.

00:13:50.580 It was the guy who was flying the helicopter to the Chinook,

00:13:53.280 and telling a story.

00:13:54.360 He was praising what makes America great,

00:13:57.420 and the people that make America great.

00:13:59.600 I actually think that if you are a moderate voter,

00:14:03.720 someone, maybe a Republican that traditionally stays home during the midterms,

00:14:08.020 I actually think that this speech landed with you more than any other speech of Trump,

00:14:13.160 the way it played on TV.

00:14:14.960 I think it also is going to land on the economic issues,

00:14:19.320 of him reminding the no tax on tips, the no tax on overtime.

00:14:23.240 I'm trying to make life more affordable.

00:14:25.460 The gas prices.

00:14:26.440 Those are things that I actually think will, you know,

00:14:29.560 they've been hammering him on all these approval ratings at 40 this,

00:14:32.620 or 39, or 38, depending on what poll.

00:14:34.640 I think he gets a bump that actually stays,

00:14:37.140 because he landed it so well in the audience,

00:14:40.480 and he looked really calm.

00:14:42.480 He looked really just like,

00:14:44.140 I'm doing this because I want to fix the country.

00:14:46.640 And other speeches haven't come across that way always.

00:14:49.660 Yeah, let me agree with you,

00:14:51.400 in that I think the message tonight was the record of the last year.

00:14:58.140 And the record of the last year, I believe, is objectively phenomenal.

00:15:02.340 And I've been in the Senate now 14 years.

00:15:04.660 We've never had a year where we've accomplished even a fraction

00:15:08.660 of what has been accomplished in the last year.

00:15:11.940 I mean, it is staggering, and he did a good job.

00:15:13.920 You know, we talked about on the last pod how I spent 30, 40 minutes on the phone

00:15:20.340 with Trump last week.

00:15:22.140 And one of the things we talked about was messaging for the midterms.

00:15:25.780 And I said, listen, we need to focus on results,

00:15:29.620 on the very real results,

00:15:32.000 securing the border, 99% drop in illegal crossings.

00:15:37.900 And then I encouraged him a message that's not getting the attention it should

00:15:43.680 is the impact on crime.

00:15:46.320 Yes.

00:15:46.720 Amen.

00:15:47.120 Murder rates have dropped 20%.

00:15:49.240 Drug overdose deaths have dropped 20%.

00:15:52.940 There are literally thousands of Americans who are alive today

00:15:56.360 because Trump was elected and Republicans won Congress.

00:15:58.940 It's a great message.

00:15:59.660 Yeah.

00:16:00.120 And that's been lost.

00:16:02.400 And I was really happy, like, the first 20 minutes of the speech

00:16:07.200 were laying out that message.

00:16:09.500 Yeah.

00:16:09.800 And going through murder rates and crime rates and D.C. rates

00:16:13.380 and, like, how unhappy the Democrats were

00:16:16.400 that crime rates had plummeted in D.C. and New Orleans

00:16:20.760 and your hometown of Memphis.

00:16:22.080 Memphis, yeah.

00:16:22.700 And the Democrats were furious that fewer people are being murdered.

00:16:26.300 They wouldn't stand up en masse for murder declining.

00:16:29.560 You know, this, I was looking at the polls, an aggregate of the polls

00:16:32.540 from just January and February leading into this.

00:16:35.320 And to be fair, the pro-murder community in America is pretty small.

00:16:38.700 It is.

00:16:39.620 Look, it's a constituency, but it's not the one you want.

00:16:42.800 And so I was looking at this aggregate of polls,

00:16:46.100 Marist, PBS, a handful of others.

00:16:49.580 And the hard fact, I spoke to some members of Congress about this today,

00:16:53.600 the hard fact is Republicans are underwater on the economy,

00:16:57.760 on economic perception.

00:16:58.940 I think you could turn it around, but right now we're a little bit underwater.

00:17:03.060 On health care, Democrats always win on health care.

00:17:05.380 And on defensive democracy, it's kind of a contrived category.

00:17:10.500 But anyway, they win on that.

00:17:12.360 So the ones that we're winning on right now, quite decisively,

00:17:15.620 are immigration and border enforcement, even more so.

00:17:20.360 Now the border is shut down.

00:17:21.880 And especially on crime.

00:17:23.460 So the key, it seems to me, is, one, that tells you people are concerned about safety.

00:17:28.820 And two, if you can tie all of that together, the crime relates, obviously, to illegal immigration.

00:17:35.800 That's why it's called illegal.

00:17:36.620 And the housing prices, even.

00:17:39.660 All the way to the fact that you have six months consecutive decline on housing prices coinciding with mass deportation.

00:17:45.580 With two million people being deported, and that's just less demand.

00:17:48.500 That's right.

00:17:49.040 You know, by the way, like a couple of weeks ago, the Houston Chronicle had a front page story

00:17:53.520 that said murder rates in Houston have declined 18%.

00:17:58.420 Yep.

00:17:59.560 And Heidi showed me the article because she knew it pissed me off.

00:18:04.000 You talked about this the other day.

00:18:05.520 Yes.

00:18:05.720 I love this.

00:18:06.220 The article, the Chronicle, says nobody can figure out why.

00:18:10.220 It's completely inexplicable.

00:18:11.980 The experts we talk about have no idea why the murder rate is dropping.

00:18:15.460 And it, like, doesn't occur to them that arresting and deporting murderers and gangbangers will reduce the murder rate.

00:18:23.260 Like, it's not, this is not rocket science.

00:18:27.080 Yeah.

00:18:27.380 Fewer murderers means fewer murders.

00:18:30.120 But yet, to Democrats, that makes no sense to them.

00:18:34.520 Yeah.

00:18:35.420 And so that message was good.

00:18:37.100 But I also liked on No Tax on Tips that he had the mom, who was the waitress, stand up.

00:18:43.900 And he said, between No Tax on Tips and No Tax on Overtime, she's going to take home $5,000 more this year than last year. 1.00

00:18:52.880 That was real.

00:18:54.340 And it's not abstract.

00:18:55.720 And by the way, the Democrats wouldn't applaud for her.

00:18:57.820 Like, the mom waiting tables, they're not rooting for her.

00:19:01.320 And they want to take that $5,000 from her.

00:19:03.380 And that's real money.

00:19:04.280 You know, $5,000 is real money.

00:19:06.280 Yeah.

00:19:06.380 It's not some abstraction.

00:19:08.120 So, nuts and bolts, you know, if this was a speech, obviously geared at the midterms,

00:19:12.860 do you think it moves the needle?

00:19:16.660 If we can keep message discipline of focusing on it, yes.

00:19:20.460 By the way, yesterday morning, you and I have been talking about this.

00:19:24.140 I had breakfast with Speaker Johnson.

00:19:26.220 And you talk about the reason why I think this one sticks.

00:19:30.140 There is a very real sense that Republican leadership have our act together for once that we haven't had in a long time.

00:19:38.640 I also think that matters.

00:19:40.340 Speaker Johnson understands he basically has a one-person majority.

00:19:45.980 He does not want to have, and President Trump doesn't want to have, the Democrats take over the House.

00:19:51.660 It is insanely slim.

00:19:53.780 And I think they're working so well together the same way, Senator, that you work so well with the president.

00:19:58.880 There does seem to be that we're actually on the same team for once.

00:20:02.520 I've not experienced that many times in my life in the Republican Party.

00:20:05.820 Like, there's always the infighting.

00:20:07.740 We always want to screw it up when we get power.

00:20:09.820 There's different people jockeying for positions.

00:20:12.420 There does seem to be a little bit of momentum now that we're on the same team going to the midterms.

00:20:16.460 That's the other reason I think this speech will continue in the momentum, because you have Johnson and others advocating.

00:20:21.980 Look, I hope so.

00:20:23.580 To play devil's advocate, we're a very divided country.

00:20:27.980 And so, the people who hate Trump, still hate him after this speech.

00:20:32.680 For sure.

00:20:33.220 Because they're not actually listening.

00:20:36.460 And so, I do think, Ben, you focused on the right area, which is the people who voted for him in 24, but may be demoralized by the press narrative that has been driven.

00:20:48.780 And to the extent this focuses them on, wow, we're winning some big, big victories.

00:20:55.260 I also really liked, look, the no tax on tips emphasis, I liked because I wrote that bill.

00:21:01.260 And I really liked his emphasis on the Trump accounts, because as you guys know, I wrote that too.

00:21:07.420 And the Democrats wouldn't applaud for that.

00:21:09.640 Sorry, I actually have to pause here, because I'm sitting in the upper part of the gallery to the right, if you're the president, pointing.

00:21:17.080 And you didn't get, everyone was standing up at certain moments.

00:21:21.240 That was one where I bolted up.

00:21:23.340 And other people were kind of slower.

00:21:24.720 I think they didn't quite process what the Trump accounts meant.

00:21:27.220 I'm really into the Trump accounts.

00:21:29.680 Yes.

00:21:30.000 The Trump accounts, I think, are such a white pill.

00:21:33.960 Yes, yes.

00:21:34.780 Focusing on families, which is an existential issue.

00:21:37.920 It's so practical.

00:21:39.020 And I'm going to confess something.

00:21:40.360 I should follow this.

00:21:41.180 I'm like, professionally, I'm supposed to follow this closely.

00:21:43.180 Honestly, I did not know that you were pushing the Trump accounts.

00:21:47.780 I wrote it.

00:21:49.380 I should have known, but I didn't know.

00:21:51.340 In fact, do you want to hear the story of the origin of the Trump accounts?

00:21:54.580 It's a cool story.

00:21:55.600 I've told it on the pod, but not in a while.

00:21:58.480 So, they originated from a poker game in Vegas.

00:22:03.140 Typically, several poker pros will come.

00:22:05.320 I'm buddies with a number of the poker pros.

00:22:06.860 And so, we're sitting at the Bellagio at 3 in the morning, and Phil Hellmuth, who's one

00:22:13.140 of the greatest poker players to have ever lived, Phil would tell you he is the greatest

00:22:16.840 poker player to ever live, and he's got a real argument to it.

00:22:20.920 He's got, I think, 15 bracelets, so it's crazy.

00:22:24.980 That's a lot.

00:22:26.220 So, we're sitting there playing poker, and he asks me, he says, hey, do you know Brad

00:22:31.220 Gerster? 0.79

00:22:32.560 And at the time, I didn't.

00:22:33.920 I'm like, yeah, who's he?

00:22:34.760 And he's a very successful venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, and he has this idea that

00:22:42.060 was called Invest America.

00:22:44.000 And I'm like, what's that?

00:22:45.140 And Phil describes it for a minute.

00:22:47.400 And I said, hey, that sounds like something I'd be really interested in.

00:22:51.840 And so, Phil pulls out his phone, and he puts together a text thread and connects me and

00:22:57.380 Brad, and says, you two should talk.

00:23:00.140 You would really like each other.

00:23:01.120 The next week, Brad gets on a plane, flies to D.C., comes to my office and pitches the

00:23:10.360 Invest America accounts.

00:23:12.100 I immediately called my policy team in and said, let's start drafting this.

00:23:16.840 So, we drafted the legislation.

00:23:18.820 Now, Brad has said, for months, he had talked to a bunch of other senators, and none of them 0.92

00:23:24.140 did a damn thing. 0.88

00:23:24.840 Huh. 0.99

00:23:25.480 He talked to them, and they'd all kind of nod and be like, yeah, yeah, that's a great

00:23:29.020 idea, and then no one would do anything.

00:23:30.480 We sat down and wrote the bill.

00:23:33.040 That is the bill that is Trump accounts.

00:23:36.560 It was my bill.

00:23:37.380 That's great.

00:23:38.260 That we wrote.

00:23:39.140 That's great.

00:23:39.580 And it is literally the case that if Phil Hellmuth does not connect me with Brad Gerstner April

00:23:47.900 a year ago, there are no Trump accounts, and the kids of America do not have trillions

00:23:54.340 in investments, which is what they're going to have through Trump accounts.

00:23:57.580 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go

00:24:02.120 back and download the podcast from early this week to hear the entire thing.

00:24:05.860 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their 1.00

00:24:10.860 elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:24:12.920 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:24:16.640 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:24:17.820 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:24:19.040 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:24:22.800 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of

00:24:27.700 their journey.

00:24:28.540 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:24:31.540 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:24:35.860 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.

00:24:42.140 All right, Senator, let's talk about the Olympics.

00:24:44.480 There were so many cool stories out of the Olympics.

00:24:47.700 Obviously, celebrating hockey, that kind of took everything over when that happened.

00:24:52.120 But there were some other really incredible and important stories in these Olympics.

00:24:57.600 And one of them that just is something we got to talk about is involved not only China, but

00:25:04.180 also America's gold medalists who won in figure skating.

00:25:08.680 It's an amazing story.

00:25:10.740 Well, look, we obviously have the incredible victory of winning the gold in both men's hockey

00:25:16.620 and women's hockey.

00:25:18.040 Again, I got to say that moment was extraordinary at the State of the Union.

00:25:21.600 It was wonderful to see the men's gold winning Olympic hockey team there.

00:25:27.960 The pride they had for America was fabulous.

00:25:30.460 But there's also a story that got some coverage.

00:25:32.660 But I think it's worth going back and focusing because it was a powerful contrast.

00:25:36.240 And it was a contrast between two Olympians.

00:25:38.100 It was a contrast between Alyssa Liu and Eileen Gu. 0.91

00:25:42.700 Now, both are women of Chinese heritage.

00:25:46.680 One, Alyssa, competed for the United States.

00:25:50.560 The other, Eileen, competed for China.

00:25:53.800 Let's start with Alyssa, because Alyssa's story is extraordinary.

00:25:57.140 And I want to read from a tweet from a fellow named Afshine Amrani.

00:26:02.300 I don't know who this person is, but I thought the way he wrote it was very effective.

00:26:06.340 Here's what he said.

00:26:06.940 The ultimate American revenge story.

00:26:10.380 The script couldn't have written it better.

00:26:14.380 In 1989, Arthur Liu fled China as a political refugee after the Tiananmen Square massacre.

00:26:22.200 He came to America with nothing but a dream for a free life.

00:26:26.900 Decades later, his daughter Alyssa Liu became the face of Team USA.

00:26:31.140 But the CCP didn't forget.

00:26:33.100 Before the 2020 Beijing Olympics, the FBI uncovered a brazen spying operation.

00:26:39.700 The target?

00:26:41.080 Alyssa and her father.

00:26:43.600 The Chinese government tried to stalk them on U.S. soil.

00:26:48.440 Intimidate her into silence.

00:26:50.700 Pressure her to turn her back on the country that gave her family refuge.

00:26:54.480 The FBI had to give them 24-7 security just so she could compete. 1.00

00:27:02.420 Isn't that amazing?

00:27:03.520 She faced intimidation.

00:27:05.760 She refused to be a pawn.

00:27:08.380 She walked away from the sport for two years to find her soul again.

00:27:13.000 And then she came back with a vengeance. 0.96

00:27:16.980 Today, the story is complete.

00:27:20.420 In a flawless performance to Donna Summer's MacArthur Park, Alyssa Liu just did the impossible. 0.77

00:27:28.020 Olympic gold.

00:27:30.020 The first American woman to win individual gold in 24 years.

00:27:35.740 She didn't just skate for a medal.

00:27:39.580 She skated for the freedom her father risked everything for.

00:27:44.660 She didn't just win for herself.

00:27:47.420 She won for the flag that protected her family when the world felt small.

00:27:53.680 That's what a patriot looks like.

00:27:55.580 Now, I got to say, I want to give listeners some background into this show.

00:28:00.260 Now, the way you and I record this pod is we sit down right before recording it, and we go through all the stories that are in the news.

00:28:07.860 We say, all right, what do we want to talk about?

00:28:09.160 And by the way, the pod is not scripted.

00:28:10.940 Like, you and I don't know what we're going to say.

00:28:12.340 We just sort of talk about topics.

00:28:14.160 We pick a couple of topics and riff on it.

00:28:16.860 And I want everyone to know Ben is like, no, no, no.

00:28:20.740 I don't want to cover this story. 0.73

00:28:22.440 Ben said, I hate Americans. 0.98

00:28:23.840 I hate Olympians. 0.99

00:28:25.100 I can't skate. 0.96

00:28:27.700 That's not true.

00:28:28.600 I'm a very good skater.

00:28:29.640 And I'm secretly a communist.

00:28:31.860 Okay, there we are.

00:28:32.680 Okay, I got it.

00:28:33.660 Okay, I see where we're going here now.

00:28:35.080 Are you a good skater? 0.99

00:28:35.980 I suck at skating. 0.96

00:28:37.320 I am. 0.98

00:28:37.720 I'm a horrible skater.

00:28:38.900 So my dad's, you know, from up north, and that was like one thing.

00:28:42.060 They would take us skating his kids, and then we would skate on the ponds.

00:28:45.820 We went to North Dakota.

00:28:46.820 So, yeah, I've been skating a long time.

00:28:48.480 I'm an unbelievably bad skater.

00:28:50.760 I basically wobble around the skate rink and hold onto the walls the whole time.

00:28:54.760 It's terrible.

00:28:55.340 Like, four-year-olds come skating past me and are like, get out of the way.

00:28:59.900 Like, you terrible thing.

00:29:02.280 I can picture this, and I believe you completely that you're not overselling that point at all. 1.00

00:29:07.200 I'm not, but let's just say for the record, I can kick your ass at basketball. 0.99

00:29:12.440 And to be clear, I've broken your finger playing basketball. 0.99

00:29:15.220 That is true.

00:29:16.680 The kicking the A part, at some point we might need a one-on-one game just so the audience knows the score here.

00:29:21.160 I'm just saying, give me six weeks to train.

00:29:23.280 Look, you've got mass and strength, but I'm just saying you can't shoot to save your life.

00:29:29.760 All right.

00:29:30.980 Why did I want to cover this story?

00:29:32.820 Look, some of it is as the child of a refugee from Cuba.

00:29:37.440 I find Alyssa Liu's story inspirational.

00:29:40.900 I find it incredible.

00:29:41.560 Yeah, you identify with it.

00:29:42.240 It's incredible.

00:29:43.120 And listen, there's a contrast with her and Eileen Gu.

00:29:46.980 Now, I want to say something.

00:29:48.940 So Eileen Gu is also of Chinese heritage.

00:29:51.580 She's a student at Stanford.

00:29:53.720 Alyssa's a figure skater.

00:29:55.060 She won the gold.

00:29:55.880 Eileen Gu is a downhill skier. 0.99

00:29:58.140 She won two silvers.

00:30:01.220 Both were offered the opportunity from China.

00:30:04.120 The Chinese communist government said, we will give you millions of dollars to compete for China.

00:30:10.680 Literally millions.

00:30:11.660 You're not joking.

00:30:12.340 Like some reports have been upwards of six million plus.

00:30:14.660 Yeah, like massive amounts of money.

00:30:18.080 And Eileen said yes, and Alyssa said no.

00:30:21.500 Now, I got to say, in the conservative media, there's been a world of hate pounded and dumped on Eileen. 1.00

00:30:28.760 I'm not in that camp.

00:30:30.160 Look, she's a, like, 20-year-old college kid. 0.97

00:30:33.500 I don't have any hate or animosity to her.

00:30:36.480 I understand.

00:30:37.540 I mean, look, if I were in college, no one – there have been reports she received, like, $14 million.

00:30:42.480 No one ever offered me $14 million in college.

00:30:46.160 I understand that.

00:30:47.480 And there is something of a tradition in the Olympics.

00:30:51.720 You think about the NBA, where you have all these stars.

00:30:55.480 You know, Victor Wembenyamu in the NBA competes for France.

00:30:58.980 Yeah.

00:31:00.780 Alperen, Schengen, competes for Turkey.

00:31:04.080 They have lots of people who are from other countries.

00:31:06.160 They compete for other countries.

00:31:07.340 And no one is horrified. 0.91

00:31:08.880 They're not like you're a horrible human being. 0.98

00:31:11.400 No.

00:31:12.180 But let me say, here's the difference.

00:31:14.200 It's different.

00:31:14.880 It is different, but go ahead.

00:31:15.960 The reason why this one's different is when you grow up in America and you do everything in America and you're a part of this country and this country supports you, and then because someone throws money at you, you defect to communist China.

00:31:31.600 That's the difference between if you come into the league from another country and you play in the NBA and then you go back to, like, when I played tennis, a lot of the guys from smaller countries would go back and play Davis Cup or the Olympics for their team.

00:31:44.060 It was awesome.

00:31:44.600 Like, there was teammates of mine that made their Olympic team.

00:31:46.660 They were from, you know, Kazakhstan or smaller nations, and they were the best in their country.

00:31:50.940 That's not defecting from America, right?

00:31:53.260 But when you're in America and you're an American citizen, then you're like, all right, I'm literally defecting and going to go do this for China, and it's solely for a big payday.

00:32:03.200 From an athlete's standpoint, I get the money, but it is different than if you're in the NBA and you're from France like Marc Gasol and Pau Gasol, and they go and play against the USA in that game.

00:32:12.480 Like, I have no qualms about that.

00:32:14.100 That's where you were raised.

00:32:15.460 To be clear, the Gasols are from Spain, not France.

00:32:18.020 Spain, wherever it is.

00:32:19.680 But you get my point.

00:32:20.600 Look, we Latins don't like when you call us French, like that it's getting it wrong.

00:32:25.440 I apologize to Pau and Marc.

00:32:27.520 There you go.

00:32:28.260 Okay.

00:32:28.540 You are right that it's different.

00:32:30.140 You know, Victor Wemanyama is French.

00:32:31.620 He grew up in France.

00:32:32.680 Like, his whole background is that.

00:32:34.380 So it is different when you go and play for the country you were born and grew up in.

00:32:39.620 Both Alyssa and Eileen were born in and grew up in America, so that is different.

00:32:44.800 That being said, there was some real vitriol directed at Eileen, and listen, she's a 20-year-old

00:32:53.900 Olympic athlete.

00:32:54.860 I don't have anger towards her, but my view is simple.

00:32:58.960 If you decide, I want to compete for China.

00:33:03.640 I want to win the gold medal for China.

00:33:05.940 You can do that, but you know what you're saying?

00:33:10.140 I want 1.3 billion people in China to root for me, and I want to beat the United States

00:33:16.500 of America.

00:33:17.080 Well, you know what?

00:33:17.840 I'm not going to root for you.

00:33:19.900 I'm going to root for the athletes that say I'm competing for America.

00:33:23.780 I thought people were a little bit overwrought in condemning Eileen Gu.

00:33:30.440 I don't know her at all, and she's a talented athlete, and she's, you know, a 20-year-old 0.83

00:33:34.080 kid.

00:33:36.480 But she made the decision she wants the Chinese to root for, and she does not want America 0.99

00:33:41.340 to root for.

00:33:41.800 And to be clear, when she made that decision, she's saying, I want the United States of

00:33:46.220 America to lose.

00:33:47.660 Yeah.

00:33:48.100 That's a decision I disagree with.

00:33:50.020 And the contrast with Alyssa Liu, she was offered millions of dollars.

00:33:56.800 Senator, I also think just a really cool part of the story is Alyssa Liu's father.

00:34:01.140 We mentioned that earlier.

00:34:02.440 Yeah.

00:34:02.560 But like, this is a guy that sacrificed everything, had to flee the country, comes to America.

00:34:11.040 He is literally being attacked and still being hunted by the Chinese government to the point

00:34:16.260 where the FBI is coming after him.

00:34:17.880 And on top of that, stays focused to make his daughter an Olympic gold medalist while

00:34:24.260 having to look over his shoulder to the point where the FBI had to give them protection.

00:34:27.620 That's the best part of the story as well.

00:34:29.340 Like, they love this country.

00:34:30.460 They didn't take the money.

00:34:31.620 By the way, if they took the money, I'm assuming they wouldn't need protection anymore, right?

00:34:35.740 Look, he was incredibly driven.

00:34:37.580 He raised his daughter.

00:34:38.580 She was extraordinary.

00:34:39.400 And I will say one aspect of this story that I really like.

00:34:43.420 According to the Internet, according to Twitter, apparently Alyssa Liu is politically liberal. 1.00

00:34:49.000 And so leftists are like, you conservatives can't cheer her on because she is allegedly woke.

00:34:54.500 I don't know if she's politically liberal or not, but you know what? 1.00

00:34:56.820 I don't care.

00:34:57.780 Care.

00:34:58.080 She competed for America when she was standing there. 1.00

00:35:00.840 She had the American flag around her shoulder.

00:35:02.880 She's tearing up as the star-spangled banner.

00:35:05.940 She's cheering for America, and I'm cheering for her.

00:35:08.640 And I don't give a damn if she votes for Barack Obama or Joe Biden.

00:35:12.880 She's an American, and I'm proud to cheer her on.

00:35:15.240 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:35:21.140 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day

00:35:24.720 if you're not listening to Verdict or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:35:28.160 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast.

00:35:31.900 And we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:35:35.700 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:35:38.380 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 28, 2026

SCOTUS Throws a Tariff Curveball, Did SOTU move the Needle & 2 Olympians-Patriotism vs. Paycheck Week In Review

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