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Kate Linebaugh
Hey, Molly.
Molly Ball
Hey. You're not Ryan.
Kate Linebaugh
I am not Ryan. No. Ryan's off this week, so you've got me.
Molly Ball
Wait, so who are you?
Kate Linebaugh
I'm Kate Linebaugh, co host of the Journal. And I understand this podcast, Trump 2.0, is about Trump's first hundred days.
Molly Ball
You are correct.
Kate Linebaugh
How many days into Trump's presidency are we.
Molly Ball
Let me see, 46 days.
Kate Linebaugh
So we're not even halfway to that 100 day benchmark. But this week, we did hit an important milestone. Trump laid out his vision for the country in his first speech to Congress.
Donald Trump
Members of the United States Congress, thank you very much. And to my fellow citizens, America is back.
Kate Linebaugh
What did you come away with from the speech?
Molly Ball
You know, it was a defiant speech, an unapologetic speech, a long speech, and a speech that I think gave us a real window into how Trump is seeing his very disruptive first several weeks in the White House. In his second term, it has been.
Donald Trump
Nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country.
Kate Linebaugh
What did it tell you about where Trump is taking the country?
Molly Ball
It told me that he is determined to see through these incredibly disruptive changes that he's unleashed, no matter what the cost to his party, to his own political prospects. And he is convinced that we are going to come out better on the other side once we get through it.
Kate Linebaugh
From the Journal, this is Trump 2.0. I'm Kate Linebaugh.
Molly Ball
And I'm Molly Ball.
Kate Linebaugh
It's Friday, March 7th. Coming up, Trump's first first speech to Congress, where he lays out how he wants to reshape the economy and foreign policy.
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Kate Linebaugh
So, Molly, on Tuesday night, you were there in the House chamber for Trump's presidential address to a joint session of Congress. And going into this speech, there was a ton going on. There had been this major fissure between the US and Ukraine. There had been the launch of 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada, and the stock market was tanking. So, with that as background, what do you think was Trump's goal with this speech?
Molly Ball
The goal was really to explain why all of this is good and necessary. Right. Why he is winning, why all of the things he's done add up to a better future, a new golden age, as he likes to put it, why all of this disruption has a purpose and is going to lead to better things and is already putting victories on the board.
Kate Linebaugh
Is that always the goal with this kind of speech?
Molly Ball
Yes and no. I mean, certainly presidents are always trying to justify their actions. I would say that there's a few things that are different about Trump than a, quote, unquote, normal president at this stage. Right. I think a normal president has much more of a bipartisan honeymoon and spends much more time trying to extend olive branches to the other side to explain why the things that he is doing should be broadly acceptable to Republicans and Democrats. Trump actually began the speech by saying, democrats hate me and they're not going to clap for anything I do. So it was almost like a first of all, screw you. So that's one difference, I think. Also just the level of disruption and that being a feature, not a bug. Right. Trump is very proud of how disruptive his agenda is. And as he put it, there's going to be an adjustment period to some of the ways he's trying to reorder the economy with his tariffs, that there will be some short term pain. Sort of a reflection, Refreshing honesty there, honestly, because presidents don't usually like to admit that.
Kate Linebaugh
We wanted to bring in someone with some White House expertise to help unpack Trump's speech. So today we're joined by our White House editor, Andrew Restuccia.
Andrew Restuccia
Hey, thanks for having me.
Molly Ball
Hey, Andrew. So, Andrew, what is the White House's takeaway from this speech? What did they want going into it and how do they think it went?
Andrew Restuccia
I think they wanted to make a splash and they feel like they did. They are thrilled. They feel like Trump delivered on what he promised, which was to sort of explain to the public exactly what he's doing and to make no apologies for it.
Kate Linebaugh
What was the splash?
Andrew Restuccia
So there were a bunch of sort of theatrical moments throughout the speech. And Trump, we're told, going in, really wanted to emphasize those. You know, he sort of sees his presidency as a reality show. And that was sort of what we got. I mean, he announced that at 30, 13 year old boy with brain cancer would be an honorary member of the Secret Service.
Donald Trump
And tonight, dj, we're going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.
Andrew Restuccia
He said that a young man was admitted to West Point.
Donald Trump
That's a hard one to get into. But I am pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted. You will soon be joining the.
Andrew Restuccia
He revealed that they had captured one of the planners of a deadly 2021 suicide attack in Afghanistan.
Donald Trump
Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity. And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.
Andrew Restuccia
So it was about sort of finding moments that he knew would resonate on social media, on cable news, and he sort of peppered those throughout the speech. And it wasn't, you know, notably though, he did talk about policy. There really weren't a whole lot of new policy details in there. It was more about the optics.
Kate Linebaugh
And in the background here, while this is all going on, the Democrats are holding up little black signs and sitting down and looking grouchy.
Andrew Restuccia
Yeah. And the White House, you know, kind of set up a trap for them there. Right. I mean, they and their argument both, you know, in the aftermath of the speech is like, how could you not applaud for a boy with brain cancer or a guy getting into West Point? You know, you are callous and heartless, and you are the ones who are politicizing this whole dynamic.
Kate Linebaugh
So those were like, as you said, the theatrical moments. But what about the kind of more meaty stuff? What did we learn about Trump's approach to the economy?
Andrew Restuccia
I think the biggest thing we learned is that he is not really detailing, you know, a point by point plan to deal with prices, other than saying he wants to drill more. And he believes, you know, once we drill more, then, you know, inflation will solely be dealt with.
Kate Linebaugh
Drill, baby, drill.
Andrew Restuccia
Yeah. He's blaming President Biden for all of the country's problems. He's not taking ownership of the issues that voters are facing. He blamed Biden for the price of eggs, and he really hasn't talked at length about you know, how he's going to deal with prices beyond the issue of energy. And that is worrying Republicans both privately and publicly, who note that prices are one of the things that voters care about most. And it was actually the very thing that in part hurt Joe Bide in the last election. So there's a risk that if this isn't addressed, and of course, there's quite a bit of time before the midterms, but if this isn't addressed in a serious way before then, and prices continue to remain high, which we expect them to, that Republicans could see some political fallout.
Kate Linebaugh
But at the same time, Trump is out there enacting tariffs, which will cause prices for Americans to jump. So how is all of this going to go down?
Molly Ball
The tariffs themselves are not necessarily popular, but it was certainly very clear that this was going to be a part of his economic prescription. And there's a lot of evidence in the polls that the American public is very much in this wait and see moment. They are giving the president the benefit of the doubt to implement his agenda and see where things, land markets render verdicts much more quickly. And we do see the market expressing a lot of doubt about where this is all headed. But you certainly cannot say that Trump is not doing exactly what he said he would do. He, if anything, promised more tariffs than he has done so far. And he promised, I think, on an even more macro level, to bring major change to the way everything works. Right. To change the way the federal government functions, to change the way the American economy functions, to change the entire world order and rearrange our alliances. And he has set all of that in motion. And it is very destabilizing, and a lot of people don't like it. But you cannot say that he didn't promise to do all of those things. And part of what I think he was communicating in the speech was this is all working. Just give it a little bit of time to play out and we're going to get to a better place.
Andrew Restuccia
Exactly. I think Trump has a couple aims. One is, I think, first and foremost, to show that he is a strong man that will do what he's going to say and that he's going to punish countries for standing in his way. So it's a lot about showing strength and showing countries that he's serious when he makes these threats. He showed Canada and Mexico and China that this week, secondarily, it is also about rejiggering the American economy to build manufacturing, more manufacturing in the US and to rely less heavily on, on products from China and other countries. That is a long term project that will take years and decades to accomplish. The question really is, can these tariffs actually achieve that in the short or medium term?
Kate Linebaugh
Well, can they achieve it when they're constantly temporary or being put off 30 days and then rolled back and exemptions being given?
Andrew Restuccia
Certainly if this is just a negotiating tactic, it's a little bit harder to make the case that this is going to be a long term play to reorient the economy. But his goal is to get concessions from Canada and Mexico and China on the border when it comes to Canada and Mexico and on fentanyl, which he views as just a scourge on the country, particularly when it comes to China.
Kate Linebaugh
But using tariffs as a way to encourage businesses to move manufacturing back to the United States feels like it can work. We talk to people who are doing it. Honda is going to make the Civic in the US now, but if the policy keeps going on and off, will it achieve those aims?
Molly Ball
Yeah, I think the unstated sort of tension in the tariff policy that Andrew's talking about is we can't tell if the point of the tariffs is to have the tariffs or to not have the tariffs. Right? Because if what you're trying to do is extract concessions, that means that after threatening the tariffs, you have to not do the tariffs, right? Once they've given you what you want, they don't get tariffed as a reward for that. On the other hand, if what you're trying to do is rebalance the entire world economy and reshore American manufacturing, first of all, you have to actually do the tariffs and keep them on right. In order to create that incentive. And second of all, that does drive prices up. That does make things more expensive. The reason companies have outsourced all this manufacturing is because it is cheaper to make the things in other places. Now, I think the administration would say they are doing various other things to make that more cost effective for these companies, right? That by, say, deregulation, relaxing labor laws, making energy inputs less expensive, for example, they can bring down the cost at the same time as they're incentivizing that reshoring. But it's all very complicated. And as Andrew said, it takes a long time. And especially when you have this unstable business environment, it's hard to convince companies that this is something they can, can make long term investments in. So a lot of turbulence right now and a lot of uncertainty about sort of what the end goal is. And I don't think that Trump's speech really demystified any of that. Would you agree with that, Andrew?
Andrew Restuccia
I would agree with that. And the other thing I would point out is that companies and countries feel really frustrated because they don't know the terms with which they're negotiating with Trump. It seems like it changes all the time.
Kate Linebaugh
I think that Americans who voted for Trump love seeing him stick up for the country and advocate for bringing manufacturing back and American jobs.
Andrew Restuccia
I think that's right, and I think it's right to a point. Certainly at the end of the day, people are going to vote with their pocketbooks. And if prices soar, particularly on core groceries and other household items, I think that will really have an impact. Trump is aware of that, and his advisors, many of whom long been skeptical about tariffs, are even more aware of that. And they also are particularly concerned about the stock market and how it reacts. You saw Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, go on TV multiple times this week and sort of signal that this is all a negotiation and things could change. And every time he did that, the stock market ticked up a little bit more. And so they're really conscious of those dynamics and how they'll play out in the coming days, weeks and months.
Kate Linebaugh
How did the Democrats react to this speech?
Molly Ball
You know, being in the room for the speech, it was fascinating to observe. The Democratic reaction really, I think, epitomized how sort of lost and in disarray the party is at this point, because you could see the different approaches being taken by different members, and they just have not figured out a sort of cohesive, coordinated, much less effective way to express their opposition to Trump.
Andrew Restuccia
And I think it's the sort of Democrats being lost and not knowing how to respond to Trump is a result of a strategy that the White House has put in place very deliberately to throw as much at both Democrats and the media as they possibly can. And that the effect of that is making it really difficult to respond in a unified, clear, direct way when you're getting 100 things a day from the White House, like which one do you choose? And the Democrats are starting to get a little bit better about focusing on musk and the economy, but they're also sort of chasing their tails about every single thing that comes around.
Kate Linebaugh
All right, it's time for a quick break, and when we come back, Molly's going to take one of your questions.
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Kate Linebaugh
Is brought to you by Global X.
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Kate Linebaugh
Committed to empowering investors with unexplored intelligence solutions. Global X specializes in exchange traded funds that offer exposure to the artificial intelligence ecosystem, including themes like data centers, robotics, semiconductors and cloud computing. To learn more about Global X's entire suite of ETFs from covered calls, fixed income, emerging markets and more, visit globalxetf's.com okay, Molly, we got a question from a listener named NOLAN Bauer in St. Paul, Minnesota. Here he is.
Nolan Bauer
Hi there. My name's Nolan and I'm curious if you could comment on what feels like a significant shift in conservative foreign policy posture. I used to be a bit more active in the Republican Party, but I felt a bit left behind in this political realignment that's been going on. It seems as if there's an isolationist impulse that has emerged and I'm a little concerned that it puts the US In a bad position when it comes to a battle for global influence with China. And so I'm curious if you have any insights or comments as to the strategy here essentially. Thanks.
Molly Ball
Thanks so much, Nolan, for your question. It's a great observation and it's certainly one that I've heard from a lot of what you might call traditional or Reaganite Republicans over the last several years. They look at what Trump is doing as a takeover of the party by the isolationists, and Trump has really articulated that. We see, you know, J.D. vance, when he was in the Senate, sort of led a rising generation of younger conservatives who had a very different view of America's role on the world stage.
Kate Linebaugh
Yeah. And that view was on full display last week in the oval office when J.D. vance and Trump clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Andrew Restuccia
I said thanks.
Donald Trump
You haven't been in this cabinet. We gave you, through this stupid president, $350 billion. We gave you military equipment and your men are brave, but they had to use our military. What about if you didn't have our military equipment?
Andrew Restuccia
You invited me.
Donald Trump
You didn't have our military equipment. Equipment. This war would have been over in two weeks, in three days.
Molly Ball
I heard it from Putin in three days.
Andrew Restuccia
This is something.
Molly Ball
So, you know, I think certainly many people in Europe and other places looked at that Trump meeting with Zelensky a week ago and said, this is it, the transatlantic alliance is over. The America that was a trustworthy partner for European allies and North American allies, and NATO is no more, and it's just never coming back. Now, I would say to the China point, part of the justification that you hear for all of this from some Trump allies is that the point of cozying up to Russia is to rebalance against China, that if America is going to effectively counter China in this new world order, we have to split Russia off from them. And that's part of the point of some of the more pro Putin expressions coming from Trump. But it is absolutely a massive reorganization of the world order as it was previously conceived. Andrew, what do you think about this?
Andrew Restuccia
I agree. I mean, I don't think we can overstate how big of a shift this is. You think back to the George W. Bush administration, where, you know, it really. It was sort of a core tenet to view the US As a sort of agent of helping, you know, other countries and stopping countries from taking or challenging the West. Trump views all of this as a waste of money, essentially. I mean, it regularly comes back to money for him. He feels really frustrated that the US Is spending so much money in Ukraine and elsewhere, and he views this entire sort of thing as a negotiation. And, you know, for every criticism that you hear toward him about cozying up to Putin, he counters that, well, listen, it's a negotiation. I'm not gonna attack the guy while we're negotiating.
Kate Linebaugh
But then it's like Trump's approach, maybe. It also kind of works because after that whole situation in the Oval Office and Zelensky leaving the White House, we see him going to Europe, meeting with leaders there about getting more military support, and then Zelensky tweets out that he's going to sign the mineral rights deal and, like, come back to the table, which is what Trump wants.
Andrew Restuccia
Yeah, I mean, that's certainly what the White House would argue, is that these sort of forceful interactions lead to a deal. And a deal, you know, in whatever form it takes, is ultimately what Trump is after.
Kate Linebaugh
All right, so looking ahead, what's coming up? What's on the docket for next week?
Molly Ball
Oh, my gosh, Kate. I can't even tell you how excited I am about this. We might get a government shutdown. I don't actually. Obviously, I'm not for or against a government shutdown, but it's always exciting times on Capitol Hill when they're trying to keep the government open, which is perpetually difficult. And the deadline for government funding is one week from today on Friday, March 14th. So if they don't pass a new government funding bill. By then, the government will shut down, at least in part. And where we stand right now is nobody has any idea how they're going to do this. There's kind of some negotiations going on with Democrats. There's a potential short term bill, there's a potential long term bill, and there's the potential that they even do this on a party line basis, which would be relatively unusual. But it's all very up in the air.
Andrew Restuccia
And this will expose fissures within the Republican Party about how to approach spending, how to approach the president's agenda, and those will continue in the coming months. As you know, Trump tries to extend tax cuts and put in place funding for the border. So it'll be an interesting moment.
Kate Linebaugh
So we're going from theatrical big speeches in Congress to the brass tacks of getting a budget passed.
Andrew Restuccia
Yeah. Things are about to get real.
Kate Linebaugh
Hey, this was like tons of fun. Andrew, thanks for joining us.
Andrew Restuccia
Thanks for having me.
Kate Linebaugh
Thank you, Andrew and Molly, thanks for letting me moonlight on your show.
Molly Ball
Thank you so much, Kate. It was really fun.
Kate Linebaugh
Before we go, do you have any questions about what the Trump administration is doing? Please send us a voice recording to thejournalsj.com that's thejournalsj.com Trump 2.0 is part of the Journal, which is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. This episode was produced by Enrique Perez de la Rosa and edited by Katherine Whelan with help from Tatiana Zamis. Mollyball is the Wall Street Journal's senior political correspondent. And I'm Kate Limelaw. The episode was engineered by Nathan Singapak. Our theme music is by so Wiley and remixed by Peter Leonard. Additional music in this episode by Peter Leonard and Blue Dot Sessions, fact checking by Kate Gallagher, artwork by James Walton. Trump 2.0 will be back with a new episode next Friday. See you then.
Podcast Information:
In this episode of The Journal, co-host Kate Linebaugh steps in for Ryan Knutson as they delve into former President Donald Trump's initial days back in power, aptly titled "Trump 2.0: ‘Just Getting Started’." The conversation primarily centers around Trump's first significant milestone—a speech to Congress outlining his vision for reshaping the economy and foreign policy during his renewed tenure.
Key Highlights:
Notable Quotes:
Analyst Insights: Molly Ball notes that Trump's speech provides a "real window" into his perception of his administration's disruptive impact and his unwavering commitment to his agenda, regardless of potential political repercussions.
Strategic Objectives:
Notable Quotes:
Expert Commentary: Andrew Restuccia highlights that the White House intended to "make a splash" with theatrical moments to resonate on social media and news platforms, emphasizing strength without delving deeply into new policy specifics.
Tariff Implementation:
Challenges Discussed:
Notable Quotes:
Analysis: Molly Ball points out the inherent tension in Trump's tariff strategy—whether the tariffs are genuine efforts to rebalance the economy or merely negotiation tactics. The inconsistency undermines long-term confidence among businesses aiming to invest domestically.
Republican Dynamics:
Democratic Reactions:
Notable Quotes:
Implications: The economic strain from tariffs could lead to political fallout for Republicans, especially if consumer prices continue to rise, affecting voter sentiment ahead of midterm elections.
Listener Question by Nolan Bauer: Nolan expresses concern over a perceived shift towards isolationism within the Republican Party, fearing it may weaken the U.S. stance against global adversaries like China.
Hosts' Response:
Notable Quotes:
Contextual Events:
Upcoming Challenge:
Implications:
Notable Quotes:
Expert Insight: Restuccia warns that the impending negotiations could highlight deeper divisions within the Republican Party, particularly concerning budget allocations and policy commitments.
The episode underscores a pivotal moment in Trump's administration, transitioning from high-profile speeches to the tangible challenges of governance, such as managing the federal budget and navigating intra-party dynamics. The potential government shutdown serves as a litmus test for Trump's ability to maintain party unity and implement his ambitious, albeit controversial, policy agenda.
Final Remarks:
This comprehensive analysis provides listeners and readers alike with an in-depth understanding of the critical developments surrounding Donald Trump's early days in his latest term, offering insights into the strategic, economic, and political maneuvers shaping the current U.S. political arena.