← The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show
The ridiculous real story behind the tariff plan that turned Donald Trump into a global disaster
00:43:04
Rachel Maddow looks at ways to understand the scope of the damage Donald Trump has done to the entire world economy, and reminds viewers where the tariff idea came from that has turned Donald Trump into a one-man global disaster.
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- [00:01]
Thumbtack Representative
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- [00:31]
Rachel Maddow
Learning online doesn't mean learning alone. You'll get dedicated support from people who care about your success. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University.
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Thumbtack Representative
Learn more at capella.
- [00:43]
Rachel Maddow
Edu. Thank you at home for joining us this hour. All right, so first, green shoots of spring sun finally pushing its way through the clouds. It was a beautiful, sunny, even warm day in Manhattan, which is part of why the ski masks were so surprising. I'm going to say a word here that I don't usually say, let alone on tv, and that's because it's the name of the group. So do not hold it against me. But this is the Russian punk band and protest group Pussy Riot in New York City this week.
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Masha Al Yokina
We are members of Pussy Riot, Russian protest group. We've been imprisoned in Russia. We've been persecuted. We are in federal wanted list in our country.
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Rachel Maddow
We're members of Pussy Riot, a Russian protest group. We've been imprisoned in Russia. We've been persecuted. We're on the federal wanted list in our country. Pussy Riot are a punk band and a protest group that have been jailed in Russia and beaten up and hounded all over the globe now by Russian President Vladimir Putin. They have been chased out of that country. As such, they remain one of the last remaining visible, uncompromising and alive elements of the Russian resistance to Putin. Putin, of course, has managed to just kill off so many others who dared to oppose him. But this week, members of that Russian group came here, came to America, to New York City to scream at us, to literally scream at us in an encouraging way, trying to tell us to act now before what has happened to them in their country happens to us here in ours. Wake up, America. Wake up, America. Wake up, America. Wake up, America. Wake up, America. You can see the signs they're holding there, including this one on the left here that says nothing special. One member of the group, Masha Al Yokina, explained. I think what they mean by that nothing special sign.
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Masha Al Yokina
I don't think that there is something special with Russia or Russian people. Totalitarian state can appear anywhere if people are silent.
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Rachel Maddow
I don't think there's something special with Russia or Russian people. A totalitarian state can appear anywhere if people are silent. And so that's why they came here. They're persecuted and they've been imprisoned, and they are now hunted by their own country. A dictatorship where it is illegal to use the word war to describe a war, where it is illegal for even one person to hold a protest alone or to hold up a protest sign, even if it has no words on it. But here they are in our country trying to sound an alarm, to tell us to move fast because your country doesn't come back when you lose it to a dictatorship. You see the big sign they were holding there, the one that said freedom of speech. And this other one, which kind of stuck with me. Don't give up. It's kind of an unsettling thing. After everything they have been through, they're trying to encourage us.
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Masha Al Yokina
We are here now because we see the race of authoritarianism here, and we want to call people. Do not be silent. And we want people to remember to not give up, even in the difficult conditions, to have a hope inside, to have belief.
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Rachel Maddow
Don't give up, even in the difficult conditions. Have a hope inside, have belief. It's really jarring, right, to hear that from Russian dissidents, that they're the ones encouraging us. Like I said, it's unsettling to see it, but I also feel like, you know what? The American people right now understand the assignment. I feel like right now we are so far from giving up. We are whatever the opposite is of giving up. I mean, we are expecting a massive day of protest tomorrow in this country. I want to show you this from TikTok. This is the sort of. Sort of hype video for the protests tomorrow that has been circulating online, particularly on TikTok. And it's funny because you'll see here, it's the kind of hook line here is that it's literally about, we're done watching the news. We're stopping watching the news. We're going out tomorrow to protest instead. I recognize it's a little ironic for. For me to be showing you this on the news, but still, I have no ego about these things, and I think you should see it. Watch.
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Ezra Levin
New Orleans with the etiquette la yelling.
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Rachel Maddow
Oh, man.
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Ezra Levin
Second bad. But somebody got to do it Got my foot up on the gas but somebody got to do it Turn this TV off. Turn his TV Turn his TV off. Turn his TV off. Turn his TV off. Turn his TV off. Turn his TV off. Turn his TV off.
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Musical Artist
Crazy, scary, spooky, hilarious, crazy, Scary, Spooky. Hilarious. Crazy, Scary, Spooky. Hilarious. Crazy, scary, Spooky. Hilarious. Crazy, Scary, Spooky. Hilarious. Crazy, scary, Spooky. Hilarious. Crazy, scary, Spooky. Hilarious. Crazy, scary, spooky.
- [06:41]
Rachel Maddow
Larry's one movement, every state protesting dictators. That is from the 50:51 movement which started these protests against what Trump was doing very early on in the second Trump term. Remember, 5051 comes from them organizing 50 protests in 50 state capitals all on one day. That's what 5051 stands for. But it's them and the indivisible and basically everybody else jumping in together tomorrow in support of these protests. Tomorrow is expected to largest day of protests that the country has yet seen since Trump has been back in office. And it looks like it's going to be a really big day. If the number of protests planned actually does happen and the number of people who have said they're going to show up, show up, then we are easily looking at hundreds of thousands of Americans who are going to be taking part in nonviolent Trump anti Trump protests tomorrow. More than 1200 separate protests are planned tomorrow in all 50 states. We're expecting a large gathering in Washington, Washington, D.C. but I think maybe every state capitol is also going to have a protest. Different federal buildings in multiple states, congressional offices, post offices, city centers. Again, we won't know exactly the scale of the protests or their exact character until they happen. We know the White House has canceled all the garden tours they had planned for tomorrow at the White House. They've moved them from tomorrow Saturday to Sunday instead because they are expecting large anti Trump crowds in Washington. So the garden tours are moved. You guys. All week long people have been sending us here at the Rachel Maddow show images of their preparations for tomorrow. Like these pictures that we got from a group of ladies. They're just a friend group in New Jersey. They say their average group, the average age in their group is 90. But they've been making their signs getting ready for tomorrow. Hands off Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. Also dump Trump. You see the one on the side on the table there in the back? See his little legs sticking out of the trash can? Any chance anybody here was an art teacher? Even before tomorrow's protests, which again, we're expecting to be widespread and large. We've seen a lot of protests just in the past few days. We had students protesting yesterday at Columbia University protesting against Trump arresting and imprisoning student leader Mahmoud Khalil. We had students protesting yesterday in Tempe, Arizona, after Arizona, Arizona State said it learned that eight students on their campus have also had their student visas mysteriously revoked by Trump. We had students yesterday protesting at the UC Berkeley campus against Trump shutting down the US Department of Education. And I know what you're thinking, hey, hey, Matto. Dog bites, man. Wow, a protest at Berkeley. What a surprise. But you know what? It really is everywhere if you look for it. Let me show you. I mean, there's Berkeley, yes, But Donald Trump Jr. He spoke at an event in Birmingham, Alabama last night, and the protests were there, too, in deep red Alabama. You're not welcome here with your money and your greed and your hypocrisy. And we're here to let you know that you're not welcome here. This is the message protesters want Donald Trump Jr. To hear while he's in Birmingham.
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Senator Mark Kelly
No justice, no peace.
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Rachel Maddow
Chanting at and displaying signs for people entering the BJCC to attend the Alabama GOP victory dinner where Donald Trump Jr attended and spoke. Again, these. These aren't part of the big protests that are planned for everywhere tomorrow. This is just what it looks like on a Thursday in Alabama these days. I mean, this. This was. This was Alabama on any given day in America. Now, you might have a very confrontational protest like this one last night in Salinas, California, where someone decided to hold an event celebrating January 6 convicts, including reportedly some who were convicted of assaulting police officers. According to local news, multiple venues in Salinas, California, told this group no, but one neighborhood venue did agree to host the event. Thereafter, all the neighbors came out to show them what they thought of a commemorative January 6th event. It was, to say the least, not a friendly welcome. But, you know, at the same time here also was Buffalo, New York. Americans turning out with Canadian flags and we love Canada signs protesting against Trump's various attacks and threats against Canada and the tariffs against Canada. Basically, the American people trying to tell the Canadian people that, hey, it's not us. It's not us. It's this guy, this president. But we do not agree with him, and we do not want the kind of divide between our country that he insists on. Today, this was the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland. People showing up while a federal court hearing was underway on the case of a Maryland father who the Trump administration admitted this week they admitted they accidentally sent him to a prison in El Salvador, even though they didn't mean to send him there. This man is now being held in El Salvador in that prison indefinitely. And the Trump administration is trying to tell the courts that even though they admit it was a Mistake to send him there. They have no intention of getting him back or even trying to get him out of that prison. In the face of that absurdity, these Maryland residents today turned up at the courthouse to support him and his family while the hearing was underway. You see the signs? Bring Kilmar Garcia home free. Our neighbor, Kilmar Garcia. Kids need their dads. And this one, which is right to the point, all this is sick. At the conclusion of that court hearing today, the judge hearing the case ordered the Trump administration that they must retrieve that man. They must get him out of that prison in El Salvador and bring him back to the United States by 11:59pm on Monday night. Go do it. Today, of course, you saw what happened in the markets. The Dow dropped more than 2,000 points today. Not a typo. Dow plunges 2,200 points. Yesterday and today are the first time ever that the Dow has dropped 1500 points or more on two consecutive days. 1600 points yesterday, 2,200 points today. The S&P 500 dropped 10% in two days. It dropped 6% today alone. Just for context, I mean, whether or not you watch the markets, whether or not you have any money in the markets or retirement account or whatever, just to get a sense of the scale here, I'll give you two metrics here to get a sense of the scale. The first one is the circuit breakers. You know about this. The markets have circuit breakers that kick in when things go off a cliff. That's a mixed metaphor, but I think you know what I mean. They call them trading curbs, and they're these shutoffs that kick in automatically and basically stop the market. They stop people from trading for 15 minutes when things have gone unbelievably wrong. And where those circuit breakers kick in, like the. The threshold of how bad it has to be before the circuit breakers kick in is when the s and P drops 7% from the previous day's close. Today, the S and P dropped 6%. Had we got to 7, we would have hit the circuit breaker. They would have turned the lights out on the market to try to save us from ourselves. That's one way to understand the severity of what's happened here. And here's another. Look at this. This is the VIX index. Vix, unlike the stock market graphs where you can tell things are bad, when they go down. With the vix, it's the volatility index. It goes up when things are terrible. It's like the economic crisis. And you can see there are just a few big Peaks there over time. The first huge peak, that's 2008. That was the global financial disaster of 2008, the worst financial catastrophe since the Great Depression. That's the first big peak. The next big peak is March 2020. That's the equally huge global disaster. Right when the COVID pandemic overran the world, killed millions of people and basically shut off economic activity like there had been a power outage. So those are the first two big peaks. There's. But now look, new peak. That's now, that's now that one not caused by the biggest financial catastrophe since the Great Depression or a global pandemic that's killing millions of people. That one caused simply by Donald Trump being president again with his great ideas and the scale of what he's doing, the scale of the destruction that he has wrought is a little bit hard to get your head around. I mean, like you can see the headline writers scrambling to try to find the right words tonight. I mean, here's the Wall Street Journal front page right now. US stocks plunge deeper capping worst week since 2020, which again was the pandemic. Trump's tariffs set off two day sell off as recessionary fears mount. More than $6 trillion erased from market. This has been the lead analysis piece on CNBC.com all day. Trump's tariffs are biggest policy mistake in. This is the lead editorial today at the Financial Times. America's astonishing act of self harm thought. The picture of Trump there actually kind of puts a nice punctuation mark on that. Look at what we've done to ourselves. Hi. But this is the lead quote. If it endures. Donald Trump's decision on April 2, 2025 to enact sweeping tariffs on US trade partners will go down as one of the greatest acts of self harm in American economic history. His actions will wreak untold dam on households, businesses and financial markets across the world, upending a global economic order that America benefited from and helped to create. Elsewhere in the FT today, they described Trump's actions as, quote, strangely self sabotaging, quote, economic lunacy that might seem better explained by psychologists than economists. Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary, says, quote, this is to economics, what creationism is to biology, what astrology is to astronomy, what RFK thought is to vaccine science. The Wall Street Journal summarizes tonight the Dow Jones Industrial Average became the last of the three major financial indices to enter a correction defined as a decline of 10% or more from a closing peak. After today, the dow is down 14.9% from its most recent high. The Nasdaq is now a bear market, off 22%, 2.7% from its recent high. Anything more than 20% is considered a bear market. The magnificent seven stocks, which include Nvidia, Apple and Amazon, collectively lost $1.55 trillion in market capitalization this week. That is a record. Apple alone saw $443.5 billion in market value evaporate. I mean, it is hard to get your head around how much damage this one man can cause. I think it's even harder to get your head around simultaneously the fact that he can do damage of this magnitude with such a teeny, tiny, teeny, teeny, tiny amount of thought.
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Ezra Levin
Right?
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Rachel Maddow
You think it would take like a grand plan and some big brains to figure out how to destroy the economy of the richest nation on earth. But that's not how it's working out. Turns out it doesn't take a big idea or a lot of big brains working together. I know that this is, this may be something that you remember, but just in case it's not, I'm just going to put this back on the front page here just for a second because do you remember where Trump got the tariff thing from in the first place? Do you remember like when and why and how he started talking about tariffs in the first place? It was in his first campaign for president. Trump didn't really have any formal economic advisers, so he told his son in law, Jared to find him an economic advisor. Trump reportedly gave Jared some vague ideas of what his thoughts were on economic issues. You know, something, something, make me look tough, China bad something, something. Jared then decided to find his father in law, a financial advisor for his presidential campaign by going on the Amazon.com website and starting to browse books. Not like reading the books because you can't do that on the Amazon website. He was just looking at the covers, looking at the titles and he found a book title that he thought was so cool. The title was Death by China. Oh my God, that's so co. That's so awesome. And that apparently was it. Quote from Vanity Fair. Trump gave Jared a summary of his views and then asked him to do some research. Kushner simply went on Amazon where he was struck by the title of one book, Death by China, co authored by a man named Peter Navarro. Jared then cold called Navarro a well known trade deficit hawk who agreed to join the team as an economic advisor. Navarro was a major advocate for an aggressive pro tariff policy. Where did Peter Navarro get his idea that tariffs would be a good policy for America? What was his, like, backup for that conviction? Well, he did have backup from a real expert who he cited in at least a half dozen of his books, including the one that Jared found on Amazon that fateful day. In all of his books, Peter Navarro has cited an economics expert to justify his views. And the economics expert he cites is somebody named Ron Vera. V A R A Ron Vera. When Trump won the presidency and entered the White House, this Ron Vera started circulating a memo around Washington in support of Trump using tariffs and trade policy. According to the New York Times, the memo had been, quote, sent from an email address purportedly belonging to Ron Vera. At one point, Ron Vera wrote in the memo that Trump could, quote, ride the tariffs to victory. The problem is Ron Vera doesn't exist. He never has. The economics expert that Peter Navarro has long cited to explain why he's so gung ho on tariffs, this person, Ron Vera, is a made up person. He is a fictional person. Peter Navarro invented Ron Vera as his expert source so he could quote this expert source over and over and over again in his crackpot books. Who is Ron Vera? Ron Vera is an anagram of Navarro, which is his last name. I mean, my name anagrams to Macho Waddler, but I don't see myself trying to talk you into doing what Macho waddler wants. Right, but that really is how the Trump administration crafted its tariff policy. That's where Trump came up with the tariff idea. Circulating a fake memo from a fake person with a fake email address in order to make it look like this was a serious issue being debated by real experts. That is the intellectual basis on which Donald Trump today wiped $6 trillion of wealth out of existence and crashed America's markets and brought America and the world to the brink of a self inflicted on purpose global Great Depression along the lines of what we had in 2008 and what the pandemic inflicted upon us in 2020. This time the global disaster is Donald Trump's big brain. And Donald Trump may think it's all going to work out. The American people are awake and well aware that this is not going to work out. New Reuters Ipsos polling to which I would like to bring your attention. Do you approve or disapprove of Donald Trump's handling of his job as president? Disapprove by a 10 point margin. Do you approve or disapprove of how Donald Trump is handling the economy? Specifically disapprove by a 15 point margin. Do you approve or disapprove of how Donald Trump is handling the issue of international trade? Disapprove by an 18 point margin. Do you approve or disapprove of how Donald Trump is handling the issue of your cost of living? Disapprove by a 27 point margin. Is the Trump administration competent or incompetent at running the federal government? Incompetent by a 20 point margin. Is the Trump administration competent or incompetent at rolling out new economic policies? Incompetent by a 25 point margin. Is the Trump administration competent or incompetent at downsizing government without affecting vital services? Incompetent by a 25 point margin. That's before the markets did what they've done in the last two days. The American people get it. They get it. They are awake. They are not giving up. And tomorrow a lot of them are going to show it. Senator Mark Kelly is here tonight. Ezra Levin from Indivisible is here tonight. Stay with us.
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MSNBC Announcer
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Rachel Maddow
Now is the time, so we're gonna do it.
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MSNBC Announcer
Providing her unique insight and analysis during this critical time.
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Rachel Maddow
How do we strategically align ourselves to this moment of information, this moment of transition in our country?
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MSNBC Announcer
The Wake Maddow show, weeknights at 9pm Eastern on MSNBC.
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Rachel Maddow
So they are soldiers from Lithuania. There's some others from Germany as well, but look what they have tucked into their pockets. They have little American flags just below the flag of their own countries sewn onto their sleeves. In the capital city of Lithuania yesterday, thousands of soldiers and dignitaries and also just ordinary people lined up in the streets to pay their respects and to honor four American soldiers who died in Lithuania this past week during a training exercise. The ceremony was attended by the president of Lithuania, who gave a speech on the occasion. He said that for Lithuanians, serving your country is not just a duty, but an emotion. And you could really see that among the people who gathered, Lithuanian citizens were moved to tears, move to genuine grief. But again, this was a ceremony for Americans, for American soldiers. Officials arranged for an archbishop to bless the motorcade before it drove to the airport to start the process of returning those remains, returning those soldiers to the US in our country, of course, it is a sacred tradition that when members of the armed services die in the line of duty overseas, their remains come home to the US in what's called a dignified transfer. Their remains are flown home specifically to Dover Air Base with American flags draped over the coffins. It's a very somber, very important, very serious, very specific ceremony. A dignified transfer is often attended by the President of the United States as a sign of respect from the commander in chief. After that very moving send off from Lithuania and from the government and the people of Lithuania, the White House announced here in the United States that when those four young fallen American soldiers landed back home here in the US President Donald Trump would not attend the dignified transfer. He would not be waiting at Dover to pay respects to the service members who died, even as Lithuania's president made sure he was there to see them off. Donald Trump has decided instead that he's going to Florida to watch a golf tournament and to go to a golf dinner tonight. You know, given his previous comments, I guess you could say this is consistent with his apparent level of investment on this issue. I got to tell you, we do not play a lot of tape of Donald Trump talking on this show. We sort of, it's not a hard and fast rule, but kind of a rule of thumb on this show is that we try to cover what the President does rather than just what he says. He gets plenty of coverage for what he says. I prefer to focus on actions rather than his words. In this case, though, I'm going to make a little bit of an exception. I think what he said here is its own kind of action. I just want you to see it. It's very brief. This is how Donald Trump, President of the United States, responded when he was asked about the service members in Lithuania after they were first went missing.
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Guest Speaker
Have you been briefed about the soldiers.
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MSNBC Announcer
In Lithuania who are missing?
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Rachel Maddow
No, I haven't. Nope. What was it again that the Lithuanian president said about service? He said, for us, it is more than a duty, it is an emotion. For Donald Trump, it was, huh. No, haven't heard anything about it. Next question. This, of course, all happens as Donald Trump has inexplicably fired the top two officials at the National Security Agency. The nsa, including the leader of the nsa, is also the leader of Cyber Command. So that means he's also fired the head of Cyber Command. He also has fired six different people from the National Security Council, all reportedly on the basis of allegations made by a far right conspiracy theorist. She is a 911 conspiracy theorist and also claims that multiple school shootings in our country were staged and weren't real. On her recommendation, he has fired a half dozen people from the National Security Council and the head of the nsa. Joining us now is Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat from Arizona, member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senate is in the middle of marathon votes right now. He has kindly made time to join us from the Capitol Rotunda. Senator Kelly, I really appreciate you being here tonight. Thank you.
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Senator Mark Kelly
Well, thank you for having me on.
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Rachel Maddow
Rachel, wanted to ask your reaction to President Trump's decision to skip the dignified transfer. I mean, presidents don't always go to these ceremonies. Let's be clear. Presidents in every administration have missed some of these. Donald Trump went to very few of these in his first term. Tonight he's at a golf dinner in Florida.
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Senator Mark Kelly
Yeah, I think you do not want to get between Donald Trump and a golf tournament or the first tee. He puts that at a very high premium on his schedule. I think. You know, what he said in the Oval Office about these missing soldiers just showed a total lack of empathy. And you're right, he's consistent. And this is a guy who during his first term called Lost dead Marines who died at Belleau Woods. Suckers and losers. So we shouldn't be surprised.
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Rachel Maddow
The President reportedly fired six people off the National Security Council and the Director of the NSA and Director of Cyber Command, as well as the Deputy Director of nsa, or she at least has been moved to another position. He was reportedly advised by a right wing conspiracy theorist to do this. She seems to have come in alone with her own theories about why all these people should go. And the President acted on those theories and fired them. What do you think we should know about the impact of those firings and what you think about the means by which they were carried out?
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Senator Mark Kelly
Well, first of all, we shouldn't have an Internet troll be in the White House's HR department, right? I mean, here's a person that clearly does not have the background and the knowledge and the information to make hiring and firing decisions in the White House, especially these kind of decisions. I knew General Hawk, the head of the NSA and Cyber Command, really, really well. He was doing an excellent job. He did not deserve to be fired. I Mean, he's the kind of guy you want to keep in a position like this. And when you, when you consider what just has, what has happened with the sharing of classified and sensitive information from the Secretary of Defense, the person the President should have fired was Pete Hegseth, who is totally unqualified for this job. So here's another example of where he keeps somebody in a position they shouldn't have and that's putting us at risk. And then he fires the guy we really need in the job. And when you consider the role of the NSA and Cyber Command, it is, I almost can't think of a position that's more important. And on the function of, of those two organizations, I've noticed that it doesn't seem the White House places a lot of value in this. There. The President has said previously that he wants to take away some authorities that the NSA has to collect information on our foreign adversaries. So on this topic of nsa, Cyber Command and personnel within our intelligence and defense communities, the President has it right wrong.
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Rachel Maddow
Senator, we've had two remarkable days in the, in the stock markets since President Trump announced his new tariff policy a couple of days ago. And it's historic simply in terms of the sort of size of the cataclysm in the markets. There is fear and trepidation and something approaching panic in business. Business communities of all sizes coast to coast as American businesses try to figure out how they're going to contend with the new reality or whatever this new horizon is in terms of these tariffs? What do you think the impact will be in Washington to the disaster in the markets and the freakout in every state in the union as the American people contend with what this means for businesses and what it means for the price of living in this country?
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Senator Mark Kelly
Well, the price of living and the price of things is clearly going to go up. What I hope happens is my Republican colleagues in the Senate, but also in the House get off the sidelines and call this for what it is. This is a really bad idea. But Rachel, I mean, as you pointed out, I mean, this is not surprising, right? Here's a guy who told Americans to inject bleach into their bodies, who sent a mob to Capitol Hill. And now I think it's fair to say that he stands out as single handedly destroying more wealth with his bad decisions than anybody else that has ever lived on this planet. I can't think of another person. In a couple days, he has eliminated trillions of dollars. These are in fact people's 401ks and this results in folks will lose their jobs because of this. Companies will have to restructure, People will be out of work, they're not going to be able to put food on the table, they're going to lose their homes. All because Donald Trump, as you pointed out, is listening to an economist that doesn't even exist, that Peter Navarro actually made up. I mean, you can't make this stuff up, up. I've been looking for a real economist that says this is a good idea. I can't find one. The only people that say this is a good idea work directly for Donald Trump.
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Rachel Maddow
Yeah, I just keep thinking about $6 trillion and how much of an NIH that could fund, you know, what that could do for Social Security, what that could do, how many park rangers we'd be talking about. It's just.
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Senator Mark Kelly
Or you could actually cure childhood cancer, which is a thing he said he wanted to do, but instead he cut money to nih, the organization that would do that.
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Rachel Maddow
Senator Mark Kelly, I know tonight is a work night for you and all your fellow senators in the Capitol. Thank you so much for squeezing in some time for us to talk. Thank you.
- [36:46]
Senator Mark Kelly
Thank you, Rachel.
- [36:48]
Rachel Maddow
All right, much more to come here tonight. Stay with us.
- [36:53]
MSNBC Announcer
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- [37:00]
Rachel Maddow
Let's get up to speed. We've got some breaking news right now.
- [37:02]
MSNBC Announcer
Watch your favorite shows live.
- [37:04]
Rachel Maddow
There's a lot happening here in Washington as Donald Trump's second term starts to take shape.
- [37:09]
MSNBC Announcer
Read live blogs and in depth essays and listen to coverage as it unfolds. Go beyond the what to understand the why. Download the app now@msnbc.com app MSNBC presents a new original podcast hosted by Jen Sachs. Each week she and her guests explore how the Democratic Party is facing this political moment and where it's headed next.
- [37:34]
Rachel Maddow
There's probably both messaging and policy issues, but as you look to kind of where the Democratic Party is, do you think it's more a messaging issue, more a policy issue?
- [37:44]
MSNBC Announcer
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- [38:03]
Rachel Maddow
I do think it's worth being very clear eyed, very realistic about what's going on here.
- [38:08]
MSNBC Announcer
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- [38:25]
Rachel Maddow
It's Friday night. Feels like it, right? That said, may I suggest that you go to bed kind of early, hydrate, eat your Wheaties in the morning, maybe put off the Friday night cocktail to make it a Saturday night cocktail this week, if at all. I'm only saying that because tomorrow is going to be very busy. Saturday is going to be very busy. I said at the top of the show. There are more than 1200 protests planned for tomorrow in all 50 states. I stand corrected. It is more than 1300 protests planned in more than in all 50 states. It's expected to be the largest single day of protest since Donald Trump took office. Joining us now is Ezra Levin. He's co founder of Indivisible, which is one of the groups that is promoting these events tomorrow. Ezra, thanks very much for joining us tonight. You were here just a couple of three weeks ago talking about the earliest idea for April 5th being sort of a hub for events all over the country and in Washington. How has the organizing gone? What has the response been compared to what you expected?
- [39:33]
Guest Speaker
Gosh, Rachel, it's been incredible. Can I just say, it has been incredible. We knew when we announced three weeks ago on the show that this was going to be the week where we saw an election in Wisconsin. We were cautiously optimistic about that election in Wisconsin for the Supreme Court. We didn't know we were going to kick Elon Musk's butt all across the state, but we were cautiously optimistic. We also didn't know that Cory Booker was going to give this incredible speech, inspiring all of us and telling us that he was taking a stand in response to pushes from his own constituents. We also didn't know that Donald Trump was going to launch a global attack on the economies of not just not our economy, but the global economy. This confluence of events, this sense that they are overreaching so much and they there is a possibility to fight back and win is leading to this just incredible response. As you said, more than 1300 events every single state. Yes. You know, There are over 100 events in California. There are more than 60 in the state of New York, more than 50 in Washington. But it's not just blue states, Rachel. We see 17 events across the state of Montana, 14 across Alaska. This is everywhere. We're not just talking about one event in every state, state. We're talking about multiple, sometimes dozens of events. And these are normal everyday people who are saying, hey, I've had enough. I'VE seen institutions fall. I've seen the universities, I've seen businesses, I've seen law firms not stand up, not support our liberal democracy. So what am I going to do as an individual? Well, I'm going to do my part. I'm going to show up. That's what tomorrow is about. And it's, gosh, Rachel, it is inspiring to see so many people hop on board this trip.
- [41:14]
Rachel Maddow
The theme under which this is sort of loosely organized is hands off. I've seen people use all sorts of different types of phrasing around the different types of protests that they're going to be part of. And it seems like it's lots of different groups who are organizing. And in some cases, it's no groups, it's just individual people who are coming out with their friends and neighbors. But it seems like the hands off messaging is the most overarching phrase that we're going to hear tomorrow and the most overarching idea.
- [41:39]
Guest Speaker
Right. One of the beautiful things about this is it's meeting people where they are. We're all coming to this for a different reason. We can say hands off the Department of Education, hands off our Social Security, hands off our Medicaid, hands off trans kids, hands off our communities, hands off our civil rights, hands off our democracy. Different things are bringing different people to this fight. That's good. That's okay. We can all come together and say no. And that's what we're going to see tomorrow.
- [42:10]
Rachel Maddow
Yeah. Popular Front. Very, very, very, very, very big tent. If for some reason you don't like what Donald Trump is doing to the country, there's a very large tent that is open to you. And people are going to be showing it in a very vivid way tomorrow. Ezra Levin, co founder of Indivisible thank you very much, sir. Appreciate it.
- [42:27]
Guest Speaker
Thank you, Rachel.
- [42:28]
Rachel Maddow
We'll be right back. Stay with us. This young woman is named Zakiya McClellan McClellany. Zakiya McClenney is a high school student from Pennsylvania. She's a clarinetist. She's a very, very good clarinetist. And last year, Ms. McClenney entered a contest that offered as it a chance to play with the famous US Marine Band, which of course is a huge opportunity and a huge honor.
- [43:12]
Senator Mark Kelly
Did you think you were going to be chosen?
- [43:14]
Rachel Maddow
Yes.
- [43:16]
Senator Mark Kelly
You have a lot of confidence. Why did you think you were going to be chosen?
- [43:20]
Rachel Maddow
I live my life with a lot of confidence. Zakiya McClenney and 29 other young teenage musicians from around the country, they won that contest. They won the chance to play with the band they call the President's own, the United States Marine Band. At least that was the plan. But then President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning diversity programs in the government and in the US Military. The contest that Zakaya had won is sponsored by a nonprofit called Equity arc, and it provides instruments to students of color. It offers them mentoring and training to try to increase their representation in American classical music. But after Trump's order banning the government and the military from anything that relates to diversity, the Marine Band was forced to cancel the concert that they had been due to play with these kids. After these kids had practiced and developed the repertoire and were ready to go, Marine Band was not allowed to play with the students anymore because of the president's executive order. But then look what happened. You may have spotted Zakaya on clarinet there and some of her other fellow contest winners. After the US Marine Band was spread forced to cancel their invitation to these young students, Equity ARC called up retired members of US Military bands to see if they'd do it, to see if they would like to play the concert with these talented young musicians. Instead, 60 Minutes did a big feature on this a few weeks ago. Retired musicians from the armed services from all over the country. They all agreed to fly to D.C. to play the concert with these kids. The concert that they had had practiced for and developed the repertoire for, that they had earned. That was canceled because of Trump. That was last month. Those retired musicians turning up just outside the nation's capital and then playing the concert featured on 60 Minutes. Very moving, very cool. Turns out that was just the warm up because the governor of Illinois announced this week that the student musicians of Equity ARC have now been invited to play with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It's happening this Sunday. Tickets are free. They apparently are still available. If you are going to be in the Chicago area this weekend, consider me jealous. All right, more ahead tonight. Stay with us. All right, that's going to do it for me tonight. I will see you again Monday and every night next week at 9pm Eastern. In the meantime, you can find me on Blue Sky. I don't know if you have Blue sky yet, but I enjoy it. I have no connection to them other than the fact that I like it, but I do. And I don't like any other social media platform at all at this point. But you can find me on blueskyatt.msnbc.com.
- [46:26]
MSNBC Announcer
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