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

Summary

Verdict with Ted Cruz: BONUS POD: Make Tariffs Pause Again (Unless You're China) – April 10, 2025

In this compelling bonus episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz, host Ben Ferguson delves deep into the latest developments in U.S. trade policy, focusing on the recent escalation of tariffs against China and the strategic pause implemented on tariffs with other nations. This detailed analysis provides listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the White House's approach to "America First" in trade negotiations, the economic implications of these policies, and the broader geopolitical ramifications.

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1. Introduction to the Tariff Escalation

The episode opens with Ben Ferguson addressing a significant shift in U.S. trade policy. He outlines the White House's decision to raise tariffs on China to 125%, a move aimed at countering what the administration perceives as unfair trade practices by China. Concurrently, a 90-day pause has been introduced on tariffs with other countries that have expressed interest in negotiating better trade deals with the United States.

Notable Quote:

"The White House said, we're going to work with you. Please come join us and be granted a temporary reprieve. However, the White House said, for those like China who want to retaliate after years of ripping America off, we will not bend and we will not break."
— Ben Ferguson [05:00]

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2. White House Strategy and Negotiations

Ben Ferguson elaborates on the White House's strategy, emphasizing that the primary goal is to prioritize American jobs and industries. The administration is actively seeking negotiations with over 75 countries that are keen to establish more equitable trade relationships with the U.S. This outreach is designed to reward nations willing to engage in fair trade practices while firmly addressing those that have historically disadvantaged American interests.

Notable Quote:

"President Trump's goal is to supercharge the onshoring of American manufacturing."
— Ben Ferguson [04:30]

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3. Statements from Key White House Officials

The episode features direct excerpts from communications by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant and Press Secretary Caroline Levitt, providing listeners with unfiltered insights into the administration's stance.

Scott Bessant [05:05]:

"President Trump is going to punch back harder. In that same vein, we have had more than 75 countries from around the world reach out to President Trump and his team here at the White House to negotiate better trade deals for the American worker."

Caroline Levitt [06:10]:

"Every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you. We're going to go down to a 10% baseline tariff for them. And China will be raised to 125 due to their insistence on escalation."

These statements underscore the administration's commitment to leveraging tariffs as a tool to renegotiate trade terms favorably for the U.S., while signaling a hardline stance against China.

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4. Economic Impact and Job Growth

Ferguson highlights the positive economic indicators that the administration attributes to its trade policies. The March jobs report revealed the addition of 228,000 jobs, surpassing economists' predictions. Key sectors such as construction and transportation saw substantial growth, which the administration credits to aggressive onshoring initiatives and favorable trade agreements.

Notable Quote:

"The economy added 228,000 jobs in March, far exceeding the Economist's prediction of just 140,000 jobs added."
— Ben Ferguson [04:00]

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5. Market Reactions and Wall Street Rally

The discussion shifts to the immediate market reactions following the tariff announcements. Ben Ferguson notes a massive rally on Wall Street, attributing it to investor confidence in the administration's ability to secure favorable trade deals and boost American industries. This surge reflects optimism that the tariffs will effectively safeguard American economic interests and stimulate domestic growth.

Notable Quote:

"There was a massive rally on Wall Street. Why? Because the President said those that are willing to work with us, they are going to go first and get great trade deals with America."
— Ben Ferguson [07:00]

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6. Clarifications and Responses from Officials

During the episode, Ferguson poses critical questions to Secretary Levitt regarding the specifics of the tariff pause and its implications for countries like Mexico and Canada. Levitt clarifies that while China remains excluded from the 10% universal tariff, countries such as Mexico and Canada are included, signaling an inclusive approach towards allies willing to engage in fair trade.

Notable Exchange:

Ben Ferguson [07:05]:

"First of all, Mexico and China, are they part of this 10% universal?"

Caroline Levitt [07:15]:

"Well, China, no, China, Mexico and Canada."

Further, Scott Bessant rebuts media interpretations that suggest a shift towards favoring China, reaffirming that global sentiment is increasingly siding with the United States over China in trade matters.

Scott Bessant [08:36]:

"The entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets, they need our consumers, and they need this president in the Oval Office to talk to them."

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7. Addressing Media Misconceptions

Ferguson criticizes the media for misinterpreting the administration's actions, arguing that the Trump administration is effectively enhancing America's trade position rather than undermining it. He asserts that the administration's assertive stance has led to increased international interest in negotiating with the U.S., contrary to media narratives suggesting a pivot towards China.

Notable Quote:

"No one creates leverage for himself like President Trump. This is a monumental moment and a great response that was well explained by the treasury secretary and the press secretary."
— Ben Ferguson [11:42]

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8. Conclusion and Future Outlook

The episode wraps up with Ferguson emphasizing the administration's strategic advantage in trade negotiations, highlighting how the tariffs have isolated China economically while attracting other nations to seek favorable trade agreements with the United States. He reinforces the message that the Trump administration remains steadfast in its "America First" agenda, poised to continue advancing American economic interests on the global stage.

Notable Quote:

"As Caroline Levitt said a moment ago, you and the media got it wrong and the President got it right. You said people are going to run to China and now they're talking and running to America."
— Ben Ferguson [11:42]

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Key Takeaways

• Tariff Increase on China: The U.S. has raised tariffs on China to 125% in response to ongoing trade disputes and what the administration views as unfair trade practices.

• 90-Day Tariff Pause: A temporary pause on tariffs with other countries allows for negotiations, aiming to establish fairer trade agreements.

• Economic Growth Indicators: The aggressive onshoring policy has contributed to substantial job growth, exceeding economic forecasts.

• Global Negotiations: Over 75 countries have expressed interest in negotiating trade deals with the U.S., reflecting growing international confidence in America's trade policies.

• Market Confidence: Wall Street's rally post-announcement signals investor optimism in the administration's trade strategies.

• Media Misinterpretation: The administration contends that media narratives are misrepresenting the effectiveness and intent of the new tariff policies.

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This episode of Verdict with Ted Cruz provides an insightful analysis of the Trump administration's latest trade policies, highlighting strategic decisions aimed at bolstering the American economy and reshaping global trade dynamics. Through direct quotes and expert commentary, listeners gain a nuanced understanding of the complexities and anticipated outcomes of these significant policy shifts.

Transcript

[Ben Ferguson]

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[Scott Bessant]

21 + terms and conditions apply.

[Ben Ferguson]

Hey Clay, if there was a summer camp for critical thinking, we'd be the chief counselors. Those jelly heads in June would be intellectual warriors by August. Be a lot of fun too. Some Bill and Ted's excellent adventure references thrown in this podcast like a daily dose of that minus the campfires, archery and pranking the girls. The Bonafide boot camp for critical thinking. You can get in on it for free at the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. Just search our names Clay and Balk. Listen and subscribe President's Decision it was.

[Caroline Levitt]

The President's decision to wait until today. And again, as I've said in the past, no one creates leverage for himself like President Trump.

[Ben Ferguson]

This is a 47 Morning Update Special Edition with Ben Ferguson. Good Thursday morning. Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update. It's Ben Ferguson with you as always and we've got one big story for you. It's all tariffs and the big news coming out of the White House that they raised raised the tariffs on China to 125% and they issued a 90 day pause on some other tariffs with other countries that had come to the table. Now I am going to play for you exactly what the White House said on this. You're going to hear from the White House Press Secretary and Secretary Scott Bessant as well. Before I do that though, let me explain to you exactly what the White House is saying. The the message is simple for many countries who are ready to take a seat at the negotiating table and recognize that they will no longer be able to mistreat America. The White House said, we're going to work with you. Please come join us and be granted a temporary reprieve. However, the White House said, for those like China who want to retaliate after years of ripping America off, we will not bend and we will not break. Now let's remind you of what the goal was from this White House put America first and trading partnerships that are willing to work with America First. Why? The White House said, number one, jobs, jobs and jobs. President Trump's goal is to supercharge the onshoring of American manufacturing. We also know that the March jobs report shows that the President's economic agenda is already having unintended effect. The economy added 228,000 jobs in March, far exceeding the Economist's prediction of just 140,000 jobs added. Why? Because the President has been moving with aggressive onshoring and it appears to be afoot as the sectors where you would first expect to see a response are growing rapidly. Construction employment expanded by 13,000 jobs, for example. Transportation and warehousing employment expanded by 22,900 jobs, which brings the White House to the third big point, lower prices and bigger paychecks. President Trump's drill baby drill agenda is already unleashing American energy and leading to lower gas prices. President Trump is calling on Congress to extend and expand his working class tax cuts for Americans, which they are doing. And then that brings us to the negotiating table on tariffs. With all of the other things happening, there's no better time and no one better to negotiate than President Trump. And he's made it clear, he is not flinching. He understands that America has been mistreated and has had unfair trade. And now he is answering the call by Americans to put American workers and manufacturing first. So that brings us to the big point where there was a massive rally on Wall Street. Why? Because the President said those that are willing to work with us, they are going to go first and get great trade deals with America. And those that went after US and retaliated, aka China, will get ready for a 125 tariff. So I'm going to play for you in its entirety exactly what the White House said so that you can't be lied to by the press. Many in the press did not want to cover this. And that's exactly why I'm letting you hear from Secretary Scott Besant and Press Secretary Caroline Levitt. Take a listen.

[Scott Bessant]

Latest statement regarding his America first trade plan. As you all know, the President just put out a statement announcing an additional tariff on China. The tariff on China will now go up to 125% because China imprudently decided to retaliate against the United States. And as I said at the podium yesterday, when you punch at the United States of America, President Trump is going to punch back harder. In that same vein, we have had more than 75 countries from around the world reach out to President Trump and his team here at the White House to negotiate better trade deals for the American worker. We have been overwhelmed with the amount of requests from countries around the world. I'll let the Secretary speak to that. We will continue with the tailor made negotiations that I spoke about yesterday. In the meantime, there will be a 90 day pause on the reciprocal tariffs as these negotiations are ongoing and the tariff level will be brought down to a universal 10% tariff. The Secretary here has been a huge part of the President's trade team, of course, and will continue to lead these negotiations moving forward to look out for the American worker, which is always President Trump's goal. So I'll kick it over to our great Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessant.

[Caroline Levitt]

Good. Thank you. And we saw the successful negotiating strategy that President Trump implemented a week ago today. It has brought more than 75 countries forward to negotiate. It took great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment. And what we have ended up with here, as I told everyone a week ago, they're in this very spot. Do not retaliate and you will be rewarded. So every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you. We're going to go down to a 10% baseline tariff for them. And China will be raised to 125 due to their insistence on escalation.

[Ben Ferguson]

Secretary, thank you for doing this.

[Caroline Levitt]

Let me ask you three quick things for the sake of clarity, because the.

[Ben Ferguson]

Markets are open under one, first of all, Mexico and China, are they part of this 10% universal?

[Caroline Levitt]

Well, China, no, China, Mexico and Canada.

[Ben Ferguson]

Mexico and Canada, are they part of the 10%?

[Caroline Levitt]

Yes.

[Scott Bessant]

Okay.

[Ben Ferguson]

Second, given then that you have the rest of the world essentially calling it not China, is this now just all about China?

[Caroline Levitt]

Well, it's about bad actors. And you know, what we will see is some of the very early countries are China's neighbors that we're going to see. I'm seeing Vietnam today. Japan's at the front of the queue, South Korea, India. So we will see. And as I've repeatedly said, and President Trump has been saying it for years, China is the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world. And they are the biggest source of the US Trade problems. And indeed they are problems for the rest of the world. Because what we've seen is that as the US Announced a tariff wall last week, many of those goods have already started flooding into Europe.

[Ben Ferguson]

So as you see it now, this.

[Caroline Levitt]

Trade war is China versus the rest of the world. Well, I'm not calling it a trade war. But I am saying that China has escalated and President Trump responded very courageously to that. And we are going to work on a sol with our trading partners.

[Scott Bessant]

Excuse me, Raquel, if I could just add to what the Secretary said. Many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal. You clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact we've seen the opposite effect. The entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets, they need our consumers, and they need this president in the Oval Office to talk to them. And that's exactly why more than 75 countries have called. Because the United States of America is the best place in the world to do business. And as the President has shown great courage, as the Secretary has said, in choosing to retaliate against China even higher. Elena, go ahead.

[Caroline Levitt]

Thank you.

[Scott Bessant]

Treasury Secretary Besson, can you explain more of the decision making on what feels like a reversal here? I mean, just these went into effect less than 15 hours ago, these tariffs.

[Caroline Levitt]

Why the pause now?

[Scott Bessant]

What led to that?

[Caroline Levitt]

No, again, President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself. And the witch terrorists went into effect 15 hours ago. The ones that we have lowered went into effect a week ago or they were announced a week ago. And we've just been overwhelmed, overwhelmed by the response from mostly our allies who want to come and negotiate in good faith. So we are expecting them to come with their best deal. As I said a week ago today, don't retaliate, hold your ground. Let's see what happens. And China, they kept escalating and escalating and now they have 125% tariffs that will be effective immediately.

[Scott Bessant]

Mr. Secretary, go ahead. Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for doing this. The 90 day pause when there were some tariffs, is that because of the whiplash that we've been seeing across the financial market? How much was what we saw in the stock markets a part of this decision?

[Caroline Levitt]

No, it's because it's going to because of the large number of inbounds. We've had more than 75 countries contact us and I imagine after today there will be more. So it is just a processing problem. Each one of these solutions is going to be bespoke. It is going to take some time and President Trump wants to be personally involved. So that's why we're getting the 90 day pause.

[Ben Ferguson]

Mr. Secretary.

[Scott Bessant]

Secretary. Mr. Secretary, there was a tweet that US Secretary Lutnickler in the Oval Office with the President talking about this. Can you talk about what that conversation looked like and what you guys said to one another?

[Caroline Levitt]

That was, look, it's all the President's decision. And we, the president had a level in mind to raise the China tariffs and then he had the three month, essentially the three month pause in mind. And we were discussing the exact wording.

[Scott Bessant]

Sorry, of course, the President's decision.

[Caroline Levitt]

It was the President's decision to wait until today. And again, as I've said in the past, no one creates leverage for himself like me, President Trump.

[Ben Ferguson]

No one creates leverage for himself like President Trump. This is a monumental moment and a great response that was well explained by the treasury secretary and the press secretary there saying President Trump will take proper action. For decades, Democrats, they, they don't understand how to get America first in our policies. They are constantly allowing other countries to walk all over us. As the Treasury Secretary said there, the President's going to work forward and move forward. These 75 plus countries that have all said they want to meet, they're negotiating right now. And the President created the leverage for himself that he needed. As for China, they are now more isolated than they have ever been, especially on the world trade front. This is the opposite of what they were hoping for. So as Caroline Levitt said a moment ago, you and the media got it wrong and the President got it right. You said people are going to run to China and now they're talking and running to America. Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast and we will see you back here tomorrow.

[Caroline Levitt]

Ch Ch.

[Ben Ferguson]

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[Ben Ferguson]

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[Scott Bessant]

21 plus terms and conditions apply.

[Ben Ferguson]

Hey, Clay, if there was a summer camp for critical thinking, we'd be the chief counselors. Those jelly heads in June would be intellectual warriors by August. Be a lot of fun, too. Some Bill and Ted's excellent adventure references thrown in this podcast like a daily dose of that minus the campfires, archery and pranking the girls. The bonafide boot camp for critical thinking. You can get in on it for free at the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. Just search our names Clay and Bach. Listen and subscribe.