Posted originally on CTH on April 6, 2025 | Sundance
White House Senior Advisor for Trade and Manufacturing Peter Navarro discusses the trade reset and tariff impact as it works through the process.
As visible and stated by the Trump team, the broad-based tariff approach was designed to save time and create the environment where foreign countries, including those with bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) would come to President Trump in an effort to retain their interests. From there, new trade agreements would be structured.
Navarro rightly notes that both tariff and non-tariff barriers are designed to create a structural trade imbalance in their favor. The trade reset strategy is designed to confront these issues. Navarro also notes how Vietnam operates as case-study in the use of non-tariff barriers and simultaneously operates as a transnational shipping point for Chinese products. WATCH:
Posted originally on CTH on April 6, 2025 | Sundance
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on NBC to discuss the current MAGAnomic tariff program and global trade reset. Bessent outlines how the history of President Trump’s tariff approach toward China (’17-’19) did not result in higher consumer prices for goods from China.
Secretary Bessent, like the rest of the MAGAnomic team, cuts through the talking points with direct evidence and analysis that destroys the preferred media narrative. Video and Transcript Below:
[Transcript] – KRISTEN WELKER: And joining me now is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Secretary Bessent, welcome back to Meet the Press.
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Kristen, good to see you.
KRISTEN WELKER: It’s great to have you back after a very big week. Let’s start with the market reaction to President Trump’s announcement of his tariffs. As I just laid out at the top of the program, the markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan, Mr. Secretary?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Look, the – Kristen, markets are organic. They’re animals. I mean, you never know what the reaction is going to be. One thing that I can tell you, as the Treasury secretary, what I’ve been very impressed with is the market infrastructure, that we had record volume on Friday and everything is working very smoothly. So, the American people – they can be very – take great comfort in that. And in terms of the market reaction, look, we get these short-term market reactions from time to time. The market consistently, the – underestimates Donald Trump. I remember that in 2016 the night President Trump won, the market crashed. The market crashed, and it turned out he was going to be the most pro-business president – the – in over a century, maybe in the history of the country, and we went on to very high after inflation returns for the next four years.
KRISTEN WELKER: Well, but this was the biggest two-day crash since the pandemic. And the president on Saturday urging people, quote, “to hang tough,” saying, “It won’t be easy.” And I guess the big question on people’s minds, Mr. Secretary, how difficult is it going to be? And how long are Americans going to have to “hang tough?”
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Well, again, I – I reject that – the assumption – there doesn’t have to be a recession, the – who knows how the market is going to react in a day, in a week. What we are looking at is building the long-term economic fundamentals for prosperity that I think the previous administration had put us on the course toward financial calamity.
KRISTEN WELKER: But just in terms of the uncertainty, I think, that people are feeling and seeing, and President Trump saying he wants people to hang tough acknowledging there’s going to be what he has described as a short period of pain. Can you help provide some clarity for folks? How long will this period of uncertainty be here? Are we talking about weeks? Are we talking about months? Are we talking about years?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Again. This is an adjustment process. What we saw with President Reagan, when he brought down the – the great inflation and we got past the Carter malaise that there – there was some choppiness at – at that time, but he held the course, and, you know, we’re going to hold the course. And this has been years in the building, years in the making, you know, this unsustainable system – our trading partners have taken advantage of us. We can see that through the large surpluses. We can see this through the large budget deficits. And also, Kristen, this is a national security problem, which we saw during Covid. We saw during Covid that optimal supply chains are not resilient. And what I could say is the only good outcome from Covid is it was a beta test for what would happen if our supply chains got broken, and President Trump has given – has decided that we cannot be at risk like that, for our crucial medicines, for semiconductors — the — for shipping, and we are going to move forward so the American people can know that they are going to have a more secure future.
KRISTEN WELKER: And yet, President Trump promised that he was going to improve the economy starting on day one. He said prices are going to come down. More than 160 million Americans, Mr. Secretary, as you know, are invested in the market. Many of them have spent their lives saving for their retirement. What is your message to Americans who want to retire right now and who’ve just seen their lifetime savings drop significantly?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Kristen, I think that’s a false narrative. Americans who want to retire right now, Americans who have put away for years in their savings accounts, I – I think they don’t look at the day-to-day fluctuations of what’s happening. And you know, in fact, most Americans don’t have everything in the market. Most Americans in a 401K have what’s called a 60/40 account. 60/40 accounts are down 5 or 6% on the year. People have a long-term view. They have a program that the reason the stock market is considered a good investment is because it’s a long-term investment. If you look day-to-day, week-to-week, it’s very risky. Over the long term, it’s a good investment.
KRISTEN WELKER: President Trump’s tariffs are being described as the biggest tax hike on Americans in decades. They could cost the average household thousands of dollars. Republican Senator Ted Cruz had this to say. I’m going to play it, get your reaction on the other side.
[START TAPE]
SEN. TED CRUZ: Tariffs are attacks on consumers. And I’m not a fan of jacking up taxes on American consumers.
[END TAPE]
KRISTEN WELKER: Do you acknowledge that President Trump’s tariffs will cause prices to go up on a range of goods?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Well, Kristen, what I like is data. And if we look at the data from President Trump’s first term, and there’s a big study that just came out from a group of economists, mostly at MIT, that showed that a 20% – 20% tariff on China led to a .7% tax or price level increase over four years. I think that’s pretty good if we can take in 20% in tariffs and it’s a .7% increase. And Kristen, the – the little publicized story this week, everyone wants to look at the stock market going down. You know what else went down? Oil prices went down almost 15% in two days which impacts working Americans much more than the stock market does. Interest rates hit their low for the year. So I’m expecting the mortgage applications to pick up.
KRISTEN WELKER: Well, just to be very clear though, I mean, during President Trump’s first term, the cost to Americans was nearly $80 billion in new taxes due to his tariffs. Prices did go up on everything from washing machines to tires.
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Well, no, no, no. But let’s go back. The aggregate number was. 7. So we can discern the individual things. Also households saw real net wages go up. So if wages go up faster than prices, which is not what happened over the past four years, that’s why the bottom 50% got eviscerated.
KRISTEN WELKER: Let – let me ask you about your view. Because last January you wrote that, quote, “Tariffs are inflationary.” The Fed chair said the same thing on Friday that tariffs announced this week caused higher inflation. Have you expressed any concerns to President Trump directly that his tariff policy could be inflationary?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: No. What – what I’ve said is, “Tariffs are a one-time price adjustment.” So there- there’s a big difference between insipid, endemic inflation within the system and consistent price level increases and a one-time adjustment. But the other thing that we’re doing is we are raising wages for working Americans. We’re bringing down regulation. So, you know, there are estimates that regulations have caused the average household about $8,000. That when we get this tax bill through, then we will make the tax levels permanent. And – and again, the drop in the energy prices, the drop in interest costs, now, I – I think real after-tax wages are going to go up for Americans. And that’s what’s important.
KRISTEN WELKER: One of the big questions and points of confusion I think is are these tariffs permanent? Or are they a negotiating tactic? Some administration officials have said they’re permanent. President Trump himself has said he’s open to negotiating. So let me just ask you. Is President Trump willing to negotiate? Or are these tariffs permanent?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Well, I think that’s gonna be a decision for President Trump, but I can tell you that, as only he can do at this moment, he’s created maximum leverage for himself, and more than 50 countries have approached – they have approached the administration about lowering their non-territory barriers, lowering their tariffs, stopping currency manipulation, and Kristen, you know, they’ve been bad actors for a long time, and it’s – it’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks.
KRISTEN WELKER: You yourself have said that he’s using these for negotiating. He has told me directly he’s open to negotiating. So just very clearly for the American people: Can you say definitively, is he planning to negotiate? Has he already started negotiations with countries?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: Well, I – I – I think we’re going to have to see what the – what the countries offer, and whether it’s believable, because again –
KRISTEN WELKER: So, he’s open to it, is what I hear you say.
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: The – no, no, no, it is – I think that we are going to have to see the path forward, because after 20, 30, 40, 50, years of bad behavior, you can’t just wipe the slate clean.
KRISTEN WELKER: All right. Let me ask you about one of the big questions. Recession, as you know, analysts say the chances of a recession are rising in the wake of the tariffs announced this week. Do you believe that President Trump’s tariffs are risking the chances of a recession?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: I – I don’t. And I think we could see from the jobs number on Friday that it was well above expectations that, you know, we are moving forward. So I – I see no reason that we have to price in a recession.
KRISTEN WELKER: Okay. Before I let you go, I know you’ve been one of the officials spearheading the efforts to get President Trump’s budget bill passed on Capitol Hill. It includes the president’s plans for tax cuts, extending the 2017 tax cuts, for example. Are you confident that the president’s budget bill will pass before the August recess?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: We are shooting for even a much earlier date. And Kristen, I – I can tell you the under-reported story in D.C. is, you know, it’s fun from our side of the aisle to watch the Democratic chaos. But the under-reported story is the Republican unity. And Speaker Johnson has done an incredible job with a small minority. He got reconciliation instructions out on the first try. He got a clean continuing resolution. Speaker Thune, the – the Senate issued the reconciliation instructions. So things are moving very quickly.
KRISTEN WELKER: Very quickly, President Trump called on the Fed chair to lower interest rates. Do you think that Fed chair Jerome Powell should lower interest rates?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT: I – I – I think that when we see inflation dropping, that the Fed will do what it always does and lower rates. But in the meantime, what we can control is the longer-term rate, the ten-year rate which hit – hit a new low on Friday. That’s where mortgages are priced. That’s where long-term capital formation is priced. And, you know, back to the tax deal, when we can pass that, we will have economic certainty.
KRISTEN WELKER: Okay, we’ll be watching for that timeline you just laid out very closely. Secretary Scott Bessent, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it.
Posted originally on CTH on April 6, 2025 | Sundance
Margaret Brennan is very worried about the penguins of the Heard and McDonald Island being able fill their orders for EU heavy industrial equipment, against the backdrop of President Trump’s 10% tariffs. Secretary Lutnick points out the issue of transnational shipping, as Brennan sits flummoxed.
That’s just one of the talking points from the ever-insufferable Margaret Brennan in this left-wing narrative engineering under the pretense of an interview. WATCH:
[TRANSCRIPT] – MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, welcome to “Face the Nation.”
COMMERCE SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK: Great to be here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We see about 60% of Americans have money in the stock market, which mean that retirees could be just as concerned as hedge fund managers this morning. Did you expect this level of shock in the financial markets?
SEC. LUTNICK: Well, you’ve got to realize this is a national security issue. I mean, we don’t make medicine in this country anymore. We don’t make ships. We don’t have enough steel and aluminum to fight a battle, right? All our semiconductors are made overseas. So every button we press when we try to start our car or even use our microwave, these are all semiconductors. They’re all made elsewhere. We’ve got to start to protect ourselves, and we’ve got to stop having all the countries of the world ripping us off. We have a $1.2 trillion trade deficit, and the rest of the world has a surplus with us. They’re earning our money. They’re taking our money, and Donald Trump has seen this, and he’s going to stop it. So it is going to be a big change. Of course, it’s going to be a big change, but the rest of the world has been ripping us off for all these many years. Donald Trump has seen it. He’s spoken about it–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –I understand that and–
SEC. LUTNICK: –and he’s just not going to take it anymore. And that’s his model.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And that was abundantly clear during the presidential campaign, how much the president truly believes in tariffs and putting them at the center of his economic policy, but you saw absolute panic in the global markets. Did you expect that or were you surprised?
SEC. LUTNICK: No, I think the point is, you need to reset the power of the United States of America and reset it against all our allies and our enemies alike. The- the idea that all the countries of the world can run trade surpluses with America and buy our things with us– remember, $1.2 trillion. in 1980 we were a net investor- meaning we owned more of the rest of the world than they owned of us–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, it’s a different world now, it’s a different market.
SEC. LUTNICK: And now- and now they own 18- they own $18 trillion of us, net. So that means the rest of the- every year when we run a $1.2 trillion deficit, the rest of the world buys $1.2 trillion of America, and it goes up and up and up. And eventually we’re not going to own America, and we are going to be owned by the rest of the world.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you talking about–
SEC. LUTNICK: Imagine if we had a war and we can’t build a ship, we can’t fly a plane. We can’t build our own planes–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay–
SEC. LUTNICK: –we don’t have our own semiconductors. This is what the President is here to fix for America. It’s- he- in his hands, and he wants to fix America. This is his chance–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. So–
SEC. LUTNICK: –to fix America, and we need him to fix it for our children and our grandchildren.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, but for- for businesses to do what you’re doing, because what I hear you laying out there is a plan to re-industrialize the United States and to bring companies back to America. For a CEO to choose to invest–
SEC. LUTNICK: Well said. Well said.
MARGARET BRENNAN: –but for a CEO to make those decisions- you know this- they need certainty. They need to know if it costs them more to stay overseas, or if it costs them more to move here. So can you give them clarity, so that they don’t just cut jobs because they’re dealing with the cost of these tariff- tariffs. Can you tell them how long they’re staying in place?
SEC. LUTNICK: Absolutely. The United States of America is going to protect the people who invest in America. Trillions and trillions of dollars- you heard the President speak about it- are coming to invest in America. This is the economy of the world. We are the consumer of the world, and companies need to build it here, and we will protect them for building it here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, so–
SEC. LUTNICK: We will help the American workers, yes. American workers are more expensive, but they’re better.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I got it–
SEC. LUTNICK: We’re going to protect all the factories that come to America, and that’s what’s coming here. So, the President is on it–
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, is the 10% tariff permanent?
SEC. LUTNICK: He’s going to protect them- well, remember, this is a national security issue–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –I got it. Is the 10% tariff permanent?
SEC. LUTNICK: –and he needs to address our budget deficit- that- the, you know, the laws of America are the laws of America, he would like it to be that we need to protect the companies that invest here, and we are going to protect the companies that invest here. That is the policy of the United States of America. That’s why trillions of dollars are coming here. The rip off of the- of the United States of America is over. All these companies are going to come and invest here. That’s what they’re doing. That’s why they’ve committed trillions of dollars. They know this is the economy–
MARGARET BRENNAN: – Okay, Mr. Secretary, though–
SEC. LUTNICK: –this is the place to go.
(END CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mr. Secretary, the campaign’s over. You won. So I’m asking what the plan is. So the treasury secretary said on another network, “we’re going to hold the course.” “It’s not the kind of thing you can negotiate away in days or weeks.” That makes it sound like the tariffs are staying in place at least for days or weeks. Is that correct? Or is the President considering postponing implementation to negotiate?
SEC. LUTNICK: There is no postponing. They are definitely going to stay in place for days and weeks. That is sort of obvious. The president needs to reset global trade. Everybody has a trade surplus and we have a trade deficit. We are paying away our future and our lives. Come- the countries of the world are ripping us off, and it’s got to end. The President has made it crystal, crystal clear. This is the policy we’re going to protect. The factories that come build in America, we’re going to protect them. They’re going to be successful. That’s why they’re going to build in America, the greatest economy in the earth. All of these companies are going to come and build here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So when three of the President’s other economic advisers, who are on other networks today, say that 50 different countries have been calling the White House to try to talk about the tariffs, what does that mean? Because that makes it sound like there is a negotiation, which is different from saying the tariffs are permanent.
SEC. LUTNICK: Well, what it shows is that all these countries know that they’ve been ripping us off, and the day has come for that to end. Now the problem is, it’s not just tariffs- like, I’ll give you an example, like Vietnam said they’d like to be zero-zero. Remember, Vietnam sends us $120 billion worth of goods every year–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes, cheap manufacturing
SEC. LUTNICK: And we send them about $12 billion- wait, we send them $12 billion. So it’s not the tariffs. It has nothing to do with tariffs. If they went to zero-zero, they would go to 200 billion with us. We need to stop the rip off, and zero-zero is- is the way–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –I know but we don’t have zero-zero, sir.
SEC. LUTNICK: –to make it more of a rip off. We need–
MARGARET BRENNAN: We don’t have zero-zero actually, because when we saw the president stand in the Rose Garden holding up that chart that you helped make, that- that wasn’t actually tariffs. That was actually confusing to investors, because it was some kind of other formula, and the countries themselves seemed kind of random. Like, why are the Heard and McDonald Islands, which don’t export to the United States and are quite literally inhabited by penguins,😂 why do they face a 10% tariff? Did you use AI to generate this?
SEC. LUTNICK: No. No, the idea- look, the idea is that there are no countries left off.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Why are they on the list? 😂🤣😂
SEC. LUTNICK: Because the idea- what happens is, if you leave anything off the list, the countries that try to basically arbitrage America go through those countries to us. Any country- like we had tariffs, the President put tariffs on China, right, in 2018, and then what China started doing is they started going through other countries to America. They just built through other countries, through America. And so, the President knows that, he’s tired of it, and he’s going to fix that. So basically he said, look, I can’t let any part of the world be a place where China or other countries can ship through them–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Through the Heard Islands.
SEC. LUTNICK: –so the end of those loopholes- these ridiculous loopholes. And now what he’s trying to say is, I’m going to fix the trade deficit of the United States of America. It’s a national security issue. We need to make medicine. We need to make semiconductors. We need to make ships. We need to have steel and aluminum. Come on, we need the greatness of America to actually be built in America. And he’s tired of getting ripped off by the rest of the world.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, but just to be clear, April 9, the so-called retaliatory tariffs- the reciprocal tariffs, I should say. Are those coming or are they open to negotiation?
SEC. LUTNICK: The tariffs are coming. He announced it, and he wasn’t kidding. The tariffs are coming. Of course they are.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Is the administration considering any kind of offset, any kind of subsidy? You mentioned the first administration, there was some bailout to farmers to help them deal with the pain from Chinese retaliation. Are you looking at that now?
SEC. LUTNICK: I’m- not that I’ve- I have not participated in any meetings with respect to that. The country is focused on- you realize, trillions of dollars of factories are going to be built in America. That’s huge GDP. The factories being built in America are huge GDP–
(BEGIN CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: That takes years–
SEC. LUTNICK: And that is going to matter to us.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And you said that robots are going to fill those jobs. So those aren’t union worker jobs.
SEC. LUTNICK: No, it’s really automated jobs. It’s automated factories- automated factories. But the key is, who’s going to build the factories? Who’s going to operate the factories? Who’s going to make them work? Great American workers. You know, we are going to replace–
MARGARET BRENNAN: You said robots on other networks. You said that to FOX.
SEC. LUTNICK: –the armies of millions of people- well, remember, the army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little- little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America. It’s going to be automated and great Americans- the tradecraft of America, is going to fix them, is going to work on them. They’re going to be mechanics. There’s going to be HVAC specialists. There’s going to be electricians, the tradecraft of America. Our high school educated Americans- the core to our workforce, is going to have the greatest resurgence of jobs in the history of America to work on these high-tech factories, which are all coming to America. That’s what’s going to build our next generation of America.
(END CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you concerned, in the time it will take for a company to move to America, that it will benefit China in the- in the immediate term, that other markets will look to other suppliers instead of dealing with the United States?
SEC. LUTNICK: That is ridiculous. The problem is, everyone in the world sells to us. Our economy is the consumer of the world. We are the only one with a trade deficit. The rest of the world has a trade surplus. Why does Europe have a trade surplus? Is there something about Europe that’s special? Seriously, are they a different world than we are? Why are they selling 200 billion a year–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Oh, Mr. Secretary.
SEC. LUTNICK: –more to us. It’s because it’s not fair. The rules are made not fair, and President Trump is going to fix them, and he’s doing it for America, and he’s doing it for your children and mine and our grandchildren. This is the moment that the United States of America takes hold of itself, and Donald Trump’s been talking about this his whole life. This is Donald Trump’s agenda, and we’re all here to help him execute it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we will take him at his word, quite literally. Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for your time this morning. “Face the Nation” will be back in a minute. Stay with us. [END TRANSCRIPT]
Them friggin' penguins, are trouble I tell ya. Eventually people might why they keep ordering industrial equipment from Europe. Those darn sea pandas wear suits for a reason. 😉 https://t.co/p7k1Tgtmdb
Posted originally on CTH on April 6, 2025 | Sundance
Appearing on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, regime commander for the hard left, White House Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hasset, shared that, “more than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation.”
Despite all the media pontification to the contrary, this notation should not come as a surprise, considering how dependent many emerging nations are on access to the U.S consumer market.
The ‘taking a knee’ sequencing should be reviewed through two closely intertwined metrics. (1) The wealth of the nation; and (2) the dependency of the nation. Both metrics are closely aligned, and that will be the commonality of the first to line up to join a zero-tariff trade agreement.
More wealthy, parasitic and ideologically opposed nations will fight hard before they acquiesce. However, they will eventually acquiesce and come to terms. The wealthy nations (like EU etc.) will be the most vocal in opposition to the global trade reset; and they will also be the voices we should see strategically ignored by President Trump.
NEC Director Kevin Hassett cuts through the Stephanopoulos talking points like a ninja quokka. WATCH:
You know Stephanopoulos is outwitted when he relies upon Rand Paul to frame his narrative. lol
Regarding the Russia talking point. How is Trump supposed to calculate a tariff regime against a country we have placed under trade sanctions with a full economic embargo? There’s no current U.S. trade with Russia, deficit or otherwise, so there’s nothing to tariff.
Posted originally on CTH on April 6, 2025 | Sundance
According to French media, quoting multiple corporate leaders and company directors throughout France [LINK], the leadership of France’s biggest companies told Macron to ‘get stuffed’ following the French president’s demand to divest their interests from America.
President Macron ordered 50 of the largest companies with positions in the USA to attend an emergency economic meeting at Elysée Palace. As reported by French media, “Some of us fell out of our chairs,” confided one of the 50 or so French business leaders invited.”
“We are not in an administered economy,” thunders the leader of an employers’ movement. And the CEO of a CAC 40 giant bluntly asserts: “I don’t give a damn about what Macron says. We have operations in the United States. There is no question of abandoning them just like that. We must respect our commitments to our employees, our customers and our shareholders. An opinion shared by a manager of a spirits producer: “It is out of the question to stop investing in the United States, especially in the current economic slump.” [link]
This type of reaction should not be surprising at it reflects the transparent disconnect between ideological government officials and generally pragmatic business leaders. Macron can stomp his reactionary feet, but corporate leaders and company owners are focused on the purpose of their enterprise, profit.
The American consumer market is the most valuable consumer market in the world. We do not have the largest population; however, we do have the largest population with the ability to purchase things. It is the ability to buy stuff that makes access to the U.S. market the golden ticket for foreign company sales and profit.
Despite the erosion of disposable income, an outcome of the exfiltration of U.S. wealth, Americans still have the ability to purchase goods and services at a level that is much, much higher than any other nation. Lessening that wealth was/is the goal of modern leftists; Barack Obama stated so openly in his, “share the wealth” worldview. Hence, the ideologues fight any policy, system or enterprise which protects or enlarges the American slice of the economic pie.
President Trump is putting American wealth, middle-class quality of life, at the forefront of policy. Reciprocal and national security tariffs are arrows in his very unique quiver. Multinational corporations, Democrats and professional leftists under multiple party names around the world are reacting to his policies that return the U.S.A to a position of gaining economically.
The EU taxes and subsidizes their population at a level that ultimately restricts and limits disposable income. Meanwhile the population of India, southeast Asia and Africa spend most of their income sustaining basic life needs. Travel the world and you will see how most of these areas welcome the tourism of Americans.
Reciprocity is the term but ultimately President Trump’s goal is a zero-tariff trade relationship with each nation. That targeted reciprocity includes direct duties and elimination of non-tariff barriers.
It’s not just other nations making our exports more expensive, the issue is also other nations putting rules, regulations and barriers against U.S. companies and products in order to make it impossible to sell our products into their countries.
The leaders of the tariff-affected governments well understand the objective; they are thrashing and gnashing their teeth because they want to retain the imbalance. The companies within those nations, like this example of France, understand there is simply no way for them to pull out of America and still maintain their earnings and profits.
As stated, the various foreign governments will surge in opposition, then fail as the reality of the situation is encompassed in the brutally honest approach by President Trump. However, it is important to remember, those foreign governments and foreign corporations also purchase influence in U.S. politics through lobbying.
We are the only government that has a formal and legal process by which another country can purchase influence for their specific interests. No other nation OPENLY permits American companies to pay government officials to change policy in their nation.
When foreign politicians accept money for influence Washington DC publicly calls it bribery and corruption. However, when those same DC politicians accept foreign money for influence, Washington DC calls it “lobbying.”
Posted originally on CTH on April 5, 2025 | Sundance
Rick Santelli has been known to call the baby ugly when needed. During an epic panel discussion around the motives and intentions of President Trump’s trade reset, Santelli gets passionate when describing the valid reasons for Trump’s tariffs.
The CNBC panel, mainly Steve Liesman, tries to downplay decades of the working-class being diminished by economic panel, and Santelli was having none of it. Video prompted, WATCH:
Posted originally on CTH on April 5, 2025 | Sundance
White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller appears on Fox News to discuss the importance of the tariff policy and reestablishing American industry via the global trade reset.
Miller outlines the U.S market reaction to President Donald Trump’s tariffs and China’s 34% countervailing tariff response on U.S. products. As Miller notes, the tariff program is simply one part within the rebalancing of trade to protect American industry. WATCH (prompted):
Posted originally on CTH onApril 5, 2025 | Sundance
On March 27th, CTH shared the following: “Wealthy nations will attempt to maintain exports against President Trump tariffs by subsidizing their industries. Corporations have deeper pockets, and the politicians are used to the bribes, we call it “lobbying.” Therefore, the government responds by subsidizing the corporations [ie. the WEF business model].
How does the politics of opposition surface? …”Canada will subsidize their export industries, Germany will subsidize their auto industry, the EU will provide subsidies to their manufacturing powerhouses, and China will once again start subsidizing their manufacturing industry. Each of these nations will in turn, eventually, devalue their currency.
However, poorer nations will be faster to lower import tariffs on USA goods because they have lower lobbying (bribe) income from corporations to govt. That’s what we should expect to see.” [LINK]
With the tariffs now triggered, it begins exactly as anticipated:
The economics of the thing is now colliding with the politics and the ideology, of the thing. Globalists are being confronted. The proverbial West will cleave according to their financial self-interest.
The World Economic Forum (Build Back Better) model no longer views the USA as an ally. The MAGAnomic “Big Ugly” is underway. Countries will thrash and gnash their teeth; then surge in opposition, fail, then attempt to refoot and realign, then surge again and fail again.
And so it will go…
In 2019 Asia (ASEAN) was aligned as China was being confronted. The EU was the intended target for President Trump’s trade reset in term two as scheduled (2021-2025). However, COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting 2020 election threw a wrench in the plan.
In 2025 the EU focus is now a priority. ASEAN nations quickly reassemble on the original terms of Trump T-1. For Trump T-2, China is quickly moved back into adversarial position and focus returns to the previously scheduled look at Europe.
Yes, the EU understand the agenda; they know what was planned then and put aside. In Trump T-2 there is no avoidance mechanism that can be deployed. The only play the EU has is defense.
Europe is currently trying to arrange and coordinate a group of ideological allies to assist them. Those allies include Canada and to a lesser extent, Mexico. President Trump has shown a keen awareness of their best defense.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will not battle Donald J Trump. Factually, they all aligned their economic investment policy to gain from Trump confronting China. ASEAN countries will not battle President Trump; they will comply.
Africa will try to walk a fine line between China and the USA. However, Africa will not confront President Trump directly and, if push comes to shove, they will likely not support China using their belt-and-road leverage to attempt transnational shipping as a tool for U.S tariff avoidance. [Insert a Trump-favorable Russia into this regional dynamic.]
It is the EU and the workaround relationships they created within Mexico and Canada who will fight the global trade reset with ferocity. Everything in the geopolitical world of economic opposition to President Trump will center around Europe.
PARIS, April 3 (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron called on Thursday for European companies to suspend planned investment in the United States after U.S. President Donald Trump announced sweeping global tariffs on American imports.
“Investments to come or investments announced in recent weeks should be suspended until things are clarified with the United States,” Macron said during a meeting with French industry representatives.
The comments come weeks after French shipping firm CMA CGM announced plans to invest $20 billion in the U.S. to build shipping logistics and terminals, a plan that was hailed by President Trump at the time and mentioned again in his Wednesday speech unveiling the tariffs.
French electrical equipment supplier Schneider Electric (SCHN.PA) said late last month it would invest $700 million in the country to support U.S. energy infrastructure to power AI growth. (more)
The EU judicial and intelligence services hit Marine Le Pen for a reason.
Canada – Mark Carney, France – Macron, Ukraine – Zelenskyy, the EU Commission and Ursula Von der Leyen, all the way through NATO and into the German/Romanian elections and beyond, it’s all connected to the geopolitical dynamics of money, power and globalist economics.
Stay elevated. Keep watching. President Donald Trump is a master at the big picture stuff.
[ps. President Trump assigned every single one of those country specific tariff rates personally. Few understand why.]
Posted originally on CTH on April 5, 2025 | Sundance
Tucker Carlson interviews the fulcrum between Wall Street and Main Street in the MAGAnomic policy world, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Secretary Bessent notes the goal of the tariff plan, and the accompanying economic policy is to give the working middle-class a boost in wealth and simultaneous relief from bad policy that has exclusively benefited the investment class. WATCH:
Chapters:
0:00 Trump’s Tariff Plan 5:42 The Current State of the Stock Market 8:22 Will Americans See Substantial Tax Cuts Because of Tariffs? 13:16 How Much Money Will America Make Through Tariffs? 14:33 Bringing Manufacturing Back to the US 20:14 Tariff Pushback From Foreign Countries
22:16 Will China Retaliate? 25:42 How Will Europe Be Impacted? 33:12 Is the Upper Class Out of Touch With the Lower and Middle Class? 35:47 Bessent’s Biggest Worries 42:35 The Long Term Benefits of DOGE 46:17 The Corruption of the Federal Reserve 49:22 Why Gold Is So Critical Right Now 52:13 Zelensky’s Self-Sabotaging Negotiation Tactics 1:00:19 The Trump Administration’s Messaging About the Economy
Posted originally on CTH on April 4, 2025 | Sundance
During one of the 2016 Republican debates, the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Stassel challenged Donald Trump on the projected revenue from his proposed tax plan. In essence Stassel claimed some economists doubted the growth factor Mr. Trump projects in his tax proposal.
What was highlighted within the question was one of the larger hurdles Trump faced as he needs to re-educate an entire generation on a fundamentally new vision of the U.S. economy. A return to a goods-based manufacturing and industry driven economic model.
President Trump’s MAGAnomic trade and foreign policy agenda is jaw-dropping in scale, scope and consequence. There are multiple simultaneous aspects to each policy objective; they have been outlined for a long time.
Interestingly, many people have forgotten a 1991 (35 years old) video of Donald Trump testifying before congress – as evidence of him being tuned in to the economic consequences of political activity.
The entire video is well worth watching, because it gives us insight into a very specific moment in time as they discuss the ‘Reagan era’ 1986 tax reform act.
However, for the sake of this discussion post, I would like to draw your attention to a very specific exchange between Donald Trump and Representative Helen Delich Bently (R-MD).
Representative Bently takes the discussion a little off subject from real-estate and engages Mr. Trump on U.S. manufacturing. Remember, this is 1991. (The video is prompted to @39:24) Watch – it’s only about two minutes:
[Related Note – During Donald Trump’s testimony before congress in this video, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were approximately 20 years old. This understanding sets the backdrop for a generation who were disconnected from the previous economic model being discussed within the congressional committee itself.]
In this 1991 hearing, Representative Helen Bently is pointing out an ongoing erosion of U.S. manufacturing. Notice how she references current trade deals and “fair trade” versus “free trade”, sound familiar? It should.
What you will find in all of Donald Trump’s positions, is a paradigm shift he necessarily understands must take place in order to accomplish the long-term goals for the U.S. citizen/worker as it relates to “entitlements” or “structural benefits”.
All other politicians, and even Presidents, begin their policy proposals with a fundamentally divergent perception of the U.S. economy. They are working with, and retaining the outlook of, a U.S. economy based on “services”; a service-based economic model. Consequently, their forecasted economic growth projections are based on ever-increasing foreign manufacturing dependency, and a self-fulfilling prophecy of service-based economics.
While this economic path has been created by decades old U.S. policy and is ultimately the only historical economic path now taught in school, Trump intends to change the course entirely.
Because so many shifts -policy nudges- have taken place in the past several decades, few academics and even fewer MSM observers, are able to understand how to get off this path and chart a better course.
President Trump continually proposed less dependence on foreign companies for cheap goods (the cornerstone of a service economy) and a return to a more balanced U.S. larger economic model, where the manufacturing and production base can be re-established and competitive based on American entrepreneurship and innovation.
No other economy in the world innovates like the U.S.A. President Trump sees this as a key advantage across all industry – including manufacturing.
The benefit of cheap overseas labor, which is considered a global market disadvantage for the U.S, is offset by utilizing innovation and energy independence.
The third highest variable cost of goods beyond raw materials first, labor second, is energy. If the U.S. energy sector is unleashed -and fully developed- the manufacturing price of any given product will allow for global trade competition even with higher U.S. wage prices.
In addition, the U.S. has a key strategic advantage with raw manufacturing materials such as: iron ore, coal, steel, precious metals and vast mineral assets which are needed in most new modern era manufacturing. Trump proposes we stop selling these valuable national assets to countries we compete against – they belong to the American people; they should be used for the benefit of American citizens. Period.
EXAMPLE: China was buying and recycling our heavy (steel) and light (aluminum) metal products (for pennies on the original manufacturing dollar) and then using those metals to reproduce manufactured goods for sale back to the U.S. – Donald Trump proposed we do the manufacturing ourselves with the utilization of our own resources; and we use the leverage from any sales of these raw materials in our international trade agreements.
When you combine FULL resource development (in a modern era) with the removal of over-burdensome regulatory and compliance systems, necessarily filled with enormous bureaucratic costs, President Donald Trump feels we can lower the cost of production and be globally competitive.
In essence, Trump changes the economic paradigm, and we no longer become a dependent nation relying on a service driven economy.
In addition, an unquantifiable benefit comes from investment, where the smart money play -to get increased return on investment- becomes putting capital INTO the U.S. economy, instead of purchasing foreign stocks.
With all of the above opportunities in mind, this is how we get on the pathway to rebuilding our national infrastructure. The demand for labor increases, and as a consequence so too does the U.S. wage rate which has been stagnant (or non-existent) for the past three decades.
As the wage rate increases, and as the economy expands, the governmental dependency model is reshaped and simultaneously receipts to the U.S. treasury improve. More money into the U.S Treasury and less dependence on welfare programs have a combined exponential impact. You gain a dollar and have no need to spend a dollar. That is how the SSI and safety net programs are saved under President Trump.
When you elevate your economic thinking, you begin to see that all of the “entitlements” or expenditures become more affordable with an economy that is fully functional.
As the GDP of the U.S. expands, so too does our ability to meet the growing need of the retiring U.S. worker. We stop thinking about how to best divide a limited economic pie and begin thinking about how many more economic pies we can create.
Simply put, we begin to….
…..Make America Great Again !
If you understand the basic elements behind the new dimension in American economics, you already understand how three decades of DC legislative and regulatory policy was structured to benefit Wall Street and not Main Street. The intentional shift in fiscal policy is what created the distance between two entirely divergent economic engines.
REMEMBER […] there had to be a point where the value of the second economy (Wall Street) surpassed the value of the first economy (Main Street).
Investments, and the bets therein, needed to expand outside of the USA. hence, globalist investing.
However, a second more consequential aspect happened simultaneously. The politicians became more valuable to the Wall Street team than the Main Street team; and Wall Street had deeper pockets because their economy was now larger.
As a consequence Wall Street started funding political candidates and asking for legislation that benefited their interests.
When Main Street was purchasing the legislative influence the outcomes were -generally speaking- beneficial to Main Street, and by direct attachment those outcomes also benefited the average American inside the real economy.
When Wall Street began purchasing the legislative influence, the outcomes therein became beneficial to Wall Street. Those benefits are detached from improving the livelihoods of main street Americans because the benefits are “global”. Global financial interests, multinational investment interests -and corporations therein- became the primary filter through which the DC legislative outcomes were considered.
As an outcome of national financial policy blending commercial banking with institutional investment banking something happened on Wall Street that few understand.
♦ When U.S. banks were allowed to merge their investment divisions with their commercial banking operations (the removal of Glass Stegal) something changed on Wall Street.
Companies who are evaluated based on their financial results, profits and losses, remained in their traditional role as traded stocks on the U.S. Stock Market and were evaluated accordingly. However, over time investment instruments -which are secondary to actual company results- created a sub-set within Wall Street that detached from actual bottom line company results.
The resulting secondary financial market system was essentially ‘investment markets’. Both ordinary company stocks and the investment market stocks operate on the same stock exchanges. But the underlying valuation is tied to entirely different metrics.
Financial products were developed (as investment instruments) that are essentially wagers or bets on the outcomes of actual companies traded on Wall Street. Those bets/wagers form the hedge markets and are [essentially] people trading on expectations of performance. The “derivatives market” is the ‘betting system’.
♦Ford Motor Company (only chosen as a commonly known entity) has a stock valuation based on their actual company performance in the market of manufacturing and consumer purchasing of their product. However, there can be thousands of financial instruments wagering on the actual outcome of their performance.
There are two initial bets on these outcomes that form the basis for Hedge-fund activity. Bet ‘A’ that Ford hits a profit number, or bet ‘B’ that they don’t. There are financial instruments created to place each wager. [The wagers form the derivatives.] But it doesn’t stop there.
Additionally, more financial products are created that bet on the outcomes of the A/B bets. A secondary financial product might find two sides betting on both A outcome and B outcome.
Party C bets the “A” bet is accurate, and party D bets against the A bet. Party E bets the “B” bet is accurate, and party F bets against the B. If it stopped there, we would only have six total participants. But it doesn’t stop there, it goes on and on and on…
The outcome of the bets forms the basis for the tenuous investment markets. The important part to understand is that the investment funds are not necessarily attached to the original company stock, they are now attached to the outcome of bet(s). Hence an inherent disconnect is created.
Subsequently, if the actual stock doesn’t meet it’s expected P-n-L outcome (if the company actually doesn’t do well), and if the financial investment was betting against the outcome, the value of the investment actually goes up. The company performance and the investment bets on the outcome of that performance are two entirely different aspects of the stock market. [Hence two metrics.]
♦Understanding the disconnect between an actual company on the stock market, and the bets for and against that company stock, helps to understand what can happen when fiscal policy is geared toward the underlying company (Main Street MAGAnomics), and not toward the bets therein (Investment Class).
The U.S. stock markets’ overall value can increase with Main Street policy, and yet the investment class can simultaneously decrease in value even though the company(ies) in the stock market is/are doing better.
This detachment is critical to understand because the ‘real economy’ is based on the company, the ‘paper economy’ is based on the financial investment instruments betting on the company.
Trillions can be lost in investment instruments, and yet the overall profit valuation – as measured by company operations/profits – can increase.
Conversely, there are now classes of companies on the U.S. stock exchange that never make a dime in profit, yet the value of the company increases. This dynamic is possible because the financial investment bets are not connected to the bottom-line profit. (Prior examples included tech stocks, social media companies, Amazon and a host of internet stocks.) It is this investment group of companies that stands to lose the most if/when the underlying system of betting on them stops or slows.
Specifically due to most recent U.S. monetary policy, modern multinational banks, including all of the investment products therein, are more closely attached to this investment system on Wall Street. It stands to reason they are at greater risk of financial losses overall with a shift in economic and monetary policy.
That financial and economic risk was the basic reason behind President Trump and then Treasury Secretary Mnuchin putting a protective, secondary and parallel, banking system in place for Main Street. They deregulated smaller banks and credit unions with under $10 billion in assets.
Big multinational banks can suffer big losses from their investment instruments, yet the Main Street economy can continue growing and have access to capital, uninterrupted.
Bottom Line: U.S. companies who have actual connection to a growing U.S. economy can succeed; based on the advantages of the new economic environment and MAGA policy, specifically in the areas of manufacturing and domestic production (and the ancillary supply benefactors).
Meanwhile U.S. investment assets (multinational investment portfolios) that are disconnected from the actual results of those benefiting U.S. companies, and as a consequence also disconnected from the U.S. economic expansion, can simultaneously drop in value even though the U.S. economy is thriving.
Trump’s Policy and Economic Solutions in Three Easy To Understand Parts:
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