Morning Joe - Morning Joe 3/5/25

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

'We are just getting started': Trump touts his agenda to reshape America

Man, this is, I gotta be honest with you. This is really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really,

really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really,

really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, I would just like to go back. Joe Biden, the worst president in American history. I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud. Nothing I can do. We've ended weaponized government,

where, as an an example a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent like me. How did that work out? As you know we inherited from the last administration an economic, and an inflation nightmare. A woman named Stacey Abrams, have you ever heard of her? SoftBank, one of the most brilliant anywhere in the world, announced a $200 billion investment. OpenAI and Oracle, Larry Ellison, announced $500 billion investment, which they wouldn't have done if Kamala had won.

In recent years, our justice system has been turned upside down by radical left lunatics. The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine's defense, with no security, with no everything. Do you want to keep it going for another five years? Yeah, yeah, you would say Pocahontas says yes. A decidedly partisan address from President Trump last night before a joint session of Congress. Good morning and welcome to Morning Joe. It is Wednesday, March 5th.

With Joe, Willie and me, we have the cohost of our fourth hour and contributing writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire. The host of Way Too Early, Ali Vitale and co-founder of Axius, Mike Allen. Joe, what a night. What did you make of it? Well, you know, I just heard on Ali's show one of the best summaries. It really was almost like it was written by chat GPT.

I mean, Jake said that. I was thinking fifth verse, same as first, second, third, fourth. Willie, you know, there were the insults, there were the taunts, there were the exaggerations, there was a partisanship top to bottom. There was the personal attacks, attacking people by name. And of course, the facts that were just wrong, whether it was the United States spending

more money on Ukraine or calling himself the greatest president with the greatest start. Oh, by the way, did you hear that number two is George Washington? I have not seen the historical treatise on that yet, but that's what President Trump said last night. And of course, the question early on, why can't Democrats just stand up and clap and be nice? This, of course, after he'd already taken to insulting him and calling Joe Biden the worst president in American history, I'm quite confident, quite confident that 10, 20 years from now when they're ranking presidents, show Biden will be fitting, doing very well

along with other presidents that have actually gotten bipartisan things accomplished. But I will say, Willie, for me, there's just so much nonsense. I cannot believe an independent voter wouldn't look at this speech and just turn it off and just go, enough, enough. There was a little bit of news, though, and that was on Ukraine. I think that probably was really the only news that came out of this last night that was really significant, and that is that Donald Trump said the peace talks were back on and they were moving toward a peaceful settlement.

Yeah, President Trump said he got a letter from President Zelensky saying he's ready, despite what happened in the Oval Office last Friday, ready to sit down and have these conversations to work out that minerals deal and also to begin to negotiate an end to the war. So if you're looking for some kernel of news, it wasn't really news, but at least there was something in there. But, yeah, otherwise felt like a campaign speech as we predicted you and I here yesterday. Joe, in fact, in some cases, going back to a 2016 campaign speech with insults to Elizabeth Warren, just catching some strays there in the chamber.

And the fact checkers had a very busy night. We're going to go through a bunch of the stuff that the president said, which simply is untrue or is an exaggeration or needs much, much more context than, of course, he was ever going to provide. But it was what we thought it was going to be. It was Donald Trump saying that he has already started this golden age despite the six weeks of chaos

that we have witnessed, Joe, and Democrats sitting there in some ways kind of futilely holding up their auction paddles or their whiteboards in protest of the president. Yeah Democrats still not exactly sure how to respond. Sometimes not well I'll leave it to Democrats to figure out how they respond, but they certainly still don't seem to have any game plan, though. I will say the response seemed effective. Mika, as we go to issues, I just, again, last night was really like a campaign rally.

It was called by Britt Hume, senior Fox News political analyst. And Brit's been doing this for 40 years, at least. He called it the most partisan speech ever held in that chamber. And I think it also was the longest. But as we talk about the two policies that were hanging over that speech, that didn't really get much of a mention. One, of course, were the tariffs that saw the market go down again significantly yesterday. It keeps going down.

And the second was Ukraine. And I will say the top two opinion pieces in the Wall Street Journal opinion page, the top one talks about the tariffs and how the tariffs are going to pound the very people who voted for Donald Trump. They're going to disproportionately hurt farmers. They're going to disproportionately hurt working Americans that voted for Donald Trump. They're going to disproportionately hurt people in swing states. And he said, Mr. Trump's tariff spree is the triumph of ideology over, well, common

sense. Let's hope the president soon comes to his senses. And then they talk about JD Vance's forgotten wars, and the subhead there is maybe next time don't insult stalwart allies during a TV interview. It would have been nice for that to be cleaned up last night when Britain, and by the way, the entire ideological divide in Britain outraged by the fact that the British stood shoulder to shoulder with Americans through one war after another, died, and JD Vance mocking them.

And the Wall Street Journal editorial page taking issue with that, too. Those are real issues that are going on now. Let's talk, though, about this pep rally that was held last night that, again, was on—well, just very short on news. Yeah. There's been some criticism, the Democrats holding up what have been called bingo cards. I actually, I think that the signs that say false, it's very hard to keep up sometimes with the falsehoods.

And I thought that was the only way to do it at that point, when you have falsehoods being spoken, it's do it at that point. When you have falsehoods being spoken, it's important to point that out. By the way, I'm in Abu Dhabi, where I am chair of the fourth annual 3050 Summit, and we'll have a lot more on that a little later. But back to the speech. President Trump spent much of his speech

criticizing former President Biden's economy and its policies, calling them the worst ever. As you know we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. The reality when President Biden left office America's GDP was set to grow faster than all of its peer countries, according to the International Monetary Fund. America's economy was also described as the, quote, envy of the world by The Economist, which added America, quote, left other rich countries in the dust.

President Trump also made some dubious claims on inflation. Their policies drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs, and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans. They've never had anything like it. We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country. They're not sure. So that claim is partially false. While the inflation rate hit its highest peak since 1981 in June of 2022, it wasn't the worst in history. That was right after World War I when it reached roughly 24%. It should also be noted that by the time Biden left office, inflation had fallen to roughly 3%, Joe.

And again, I guess we have to point all this out. I mean, I think our viewers are smart enough to know it. But again, America's economy was the envy of the world and our inflation rate lower than almost all of our allies. It's bringing right now former Treasury official and Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Ratner. Steve, I get it. It's so elementary. It's kind of boring to me to have to just state something that is quite so obvious,

but it becomes necessary the morning after so many things it said that are just not true, especially about the economy. The economy, by just about every standard, was stronger than every economy in the world, as Mika said, as The Economist has said, as people, leaders across the world have said, the United States economy, the envy of the world before Donald Trump got into office, it's not looking quite that way right now because of the fear of tariffs, the stock market going down, the economy slowing down, consumer confidence slowing down, people on Wall Street afraid to move forward with mergers and acquisitions because of the fear of the unknown.

We could continue to go on. But again, the reality is starkly different than what we heard last night. Yeah, Joe, obviously Trump contorts the facts to fit his narrative, but he did that with Abandon last night. He did inherit an extraordinarily strong economy from Joe Biden. Obviously we had COVID. Obviously that wasn't good. We suffered some inflation.

So did all of our trading partners. Our inflation was no worse than theirs. It has come down sharply. And now Trump is applying a set of kind of incoherent policies to the situation that, in my opinion anyway, are more likely to make things worse. You've got the tariffs, which we can talk some more about. You've got his budget plans, which would explode the deficit, reward rich people, and so forth. And so it's not a set of policies that appears on the surface anyway likely to actually improve the

economy and I think it runs a reasonable chance of making the economy worse inflation is going to be a problem it's going to make it much harder for the Federal Reserve to bring interest rates down the Trump policies are inflationary notwithstanding what he says and so he's starting office I think in a considerably weaker period in a way than he did last time in that he's starting off as I think in a considerably weaker period in a way than he did last time in that he's got to bring his job should have been to bring this economy into a nice landing and get it back fully functioning. But instead he's going off into these rabbit holes of tariffs and this and that that I think will will end badly for

him. Expensive rabbit holes. And we're going to get to your charts in just a few minutes, Steve. Joe is right. Jonathan, 100 minutes, the longest speech ever before Congress by an American president, breaking Bill Clinton's record by 11 minutes, his 2000 State of the Union address, just for the record there. Trump did acknowledge when talking about tariffs, the term he used was a little disturbance to put it mildly. There's going to be a little disturbance to the economy

when these tariffs are really felt by consumers and people who make cars and everything else. But clearly standing by them, 25 percent on our biggest trading partners to the north and the south, we did hear from some Republicans, John Thune yesterday saying these these tariffs are going to be temporary. Don't worry they're going to go away. We're just trying to extract something on fentanyl, for example, and containing that at the border. I'm hearing from Howard Lutnick as well. You know, people trying to mitigate what what Trump is doing. Are they concerned when you talk to them about the impact of these tariffs? Yeah, one of the defining images of the day yesterday

was that most cable companies were showing the stock market ticket in the corner, in real time, seeing it go down as the day went on. And you mentioned the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, gave an interview with Fox late in the day, suggesting that the tariffs on Canon in Mexico might even be reduced slightly today, already suggesting that they might alleviate some of this.

And that's what I was hearing all day yesterday talking to people in the White House in the Trump orbit that they they are a little rattled by how this is being received. They're not going to back off entirely. Obviously, we heard from the president last night. This is part of his economic program, a big part of it. It's something he's believed in for a long time, but it's not being well received by the markets or by, as you mentioned, several Republicans who were there. And Ali, you know, this was there was actually shockingly little news in this speech last

night. Yes, a little bit on Ukraine, just the talks would restart again. But that's because Zelensky, earlier in the day, had said he wants them and said, and aides said they would revisit this minerals deal. It's not done yet, though, and certainly nothing really concrete towards any sort of ceasefire. It was, though, a speech marked in the 100-odd minutes or so that Trump was up there with dozens upon dozens of falsehoods, including

a long recitation of false claims about Social Security. And we know that there was cries from the Democrats in the audience, including that got one lawmaker kicked out, saying don't touch Medicaid. You don't have a mandate to do that. So let's talk about that right now, because that seems to hover over all of this Yes, Elon Musk got cheered in that room yesterday

But there's seemingly some growing discontent and worry at least among some Republicans that I've talked to that this administration might be going too far Too fast well too far too fast and specifically when it comes to potential Medicaid cuts That's actually in the hands of Congress right now, because there's 800 some odd billion in cuts that are detailed right now, specifically to the Energy and Commerce Committee, through the reconciliation process. We watched the House jump the first hurdle on getting into the real building blocks of that bill that's going to be the vehicle for many of Trump's campaign promises to be turned into legislation.

And so there is some consternation when it comes to Medicaid cuts. And part of the reason that Speaker Johnson had such a hurdle in getting through the initial procedural vote on this is because some more moderate members within his conference were coming to him saying that they were concerned about the on the ground impact to their constituents

who rely on programs like Medicaid. So we're watching to see how they actually end up building that legislation in real time. But I also thought with Democrats last night, and I'm sure Mike Allen, you saw this too, there was really a striking dissonance, I think, the debate that we often hear from Democrats of how best to respond, what should it look like, should it be an all out resistance, should it be something that's more tepid, should we be swinging, not at every punch? We saw that on display last night,

as even Congressman Al Green got kicked out at the very beginning of the speech, but then you have Alyssa Slotkin giving a more muted response in a state that Trump won, but also that elected her. No, Ali, that's exactly right, because these members know that a lot of what Trump is talking about is popular,

and the idea of what he is talking about is popular in many cases. We have a column up on Axios right now by Jim Van De Hei and me. Trump on steroids and what we saw was 99 hundred words a hundred minutes of Trump being Trump. Trump powering past those literal headlines that we just saw and sketching what he sees as his golden age. No tax on tips. No tax on overtime. No tax on Social Security. I think this was a new one. No tax on car interest payments on cars that are made in America. And he's saying more chips, the best chips, more cars. And the caveat to that, the reality check of that is that these are contradicted by

so much of the data that we're seeing, and he is saying that he's going to set this high bar and stick with it. Yeah. All right. Still ahead on Morning Joe, we're going to go live to CNBC for a closer look at how President Trump's tariffs continue to impact Wall Street and the U.S. economy. Plus, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell joins us with her thoughts on the president's speech last night. Also, I'm here in Abu Dhabi for the Know Your Value and Forbes fourth annual 30 50 summit just ahead of International Women's Day,

which is on Saturday. It's gonna be an action packed week. We're gonna hear from trailblazers, including actress Frida Pinto, Olympic swimmer and Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini, investor Alexis Ohanian, and many more. Our summit comes at a time when there are immense challenges for women around the world, rollback of healthcare,

persistent inequality, wars around the world. And our summit kicked off this morning with a service day where 30, 50 attendees mentored young students here to local school. And one of those mentors included Emmy award-winning actress and activist Cheryl Lee Ralph, who met with drama students and shared many pearls of wisdom. Forbes ran the lane, and I also spoke to the students about advocating for themselves with confidence in the importance of recognizing their worth, male allyship, and much more.

It was a very special day of giving back to the next generation here at the crossroads of the world. We'll have more here from the 3050 Summit in the days to come, including my interviews with Cheryl Lee, Ralph Deepika Patakone, one of Bollywood's highest paid actresses and economist. Linda Rama, human rights advocate and wife of the prime minister of Albania. You're watching Morning Joe. We're back in 90 seconds. Just to see this is confused, no one knows. I mean, the automakers don't know what this is going to mean. The packaged goods companies don't know what it's going to mean when it comes from another

country. There's no clarity whatsoever. Anyone who thinks there's clarity is just completely wrong. It isn't like they've said, okay, look, here's the schedule, here's the tariff. When you were in Europe and they did Brexit, you got the schedule, you got the tariff. You said, OK, look, here's the schedule. Here's the tariff. Like, when you were in Europe and they did Brexit, you got the schedule. You got the tariff. You said, OK, I owe this.

They haven't given us anything. We don't know what we owe and what we don't owe. We don't know where it's paid. We don't know if it isn't paid. Do we owe them? Who owes it? Does the buyer owe it? I mean, the lack of any thought about this, David, is stunning.

CNBC anchor Jim Cramer reacting yesterday to those tariffs put in place by President Trump, describing the situation as vast confusion. President Trump briefly touched on those tariffs during his address to Congress last night. Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again, and it's happening, and it will happen rather quickly.

There'll be a little disturbance, but we're okay with that. It won't be much. No you're not. Earlier in the day, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blasted the tariffs, announcing Canada is striking back with its own 25% tariff on $155 billion worth of U.S. goods. Thank you. Canadians are reasonable and we are polite, but we will not back down from a fight. Now, it's not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal,

but Donald, they point out that even though you're a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do. Back on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader John Thune was asked about the impact of President Trump's tariffs on American consumers. I think these tariffs are oriented around a specific objective. In this case, to reduce the amount of fentanyl coming into this country across our northern and southern borders. And so these tariffs, I think, are hopefully temporary.

Let's bring in the anchor of CNBC's worldwide exchange, Frank Holland. Frank, good morning. So we saw what happened in the market yesterday. How is this playing around the world, this unpredictable set of tariffs? Hey, good morning. First off, if you don't mind, I want to go back to what Kramer had to say. Kramer, always a leading voice on Wall Street, is really echoing the sentiment of a lot of traders I'm talking to as well.

To paraphrase a very famous Kramer quote, a lot of traders feel like they know nothing. A lot of uncertainty out there. But with that in mind, we are seeing a bounce back in futures this morning. Look at the S&P up over a half a percent in the futures. Some believe this bounce is largely due to comments from the Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who said that he believed that the president would work something out when it came to tariffs and that there could be a compromise. Not a lot of details, but Lutnick saying he believes that something could be worked out, but it's a bit of a double-edged sword. It comes as the S&P yesterday lost all of its post-election gains, now negative since the

election and overall since the election and overall since the election. According to JP Morgan, about $3 trillion in market value just wiped out. Tariffs continue to be a dominant theme in the market today. Perhaps off of those lightning comments, we're seeing a bounce back in a lot of stocks, including automakers. Automakers trading a lot higher this morning. But yesterday, we heard from the Target CEO saying that tariffs, they could increase the

cost of produce as soon as this week. Some interesting data from Wells Fargo just a few days ago, households making more than 150,000, they're cutting back on spending. According to Wells Fargo data, more than half of them are cutting back on spending due to inflation and rising costs. And that could be especially concerning for the U.S. economy and for the markets globally. Those higher end spenders here in the U.S., they've really been powering the economy in recent years, according to Moody's.

The top 10% of earners in the U.S., they account for about half of all spending. So a lot of questions about how tariffs are going to continue to impact not only the economy but the markets. This morning, a bit of a bounce back, perhaps on hope that some type of compromise could be reached, but again, not a lot of details. And you guys just played some of the president's comments from last night. One word that stuck out to me, unrelenting.

That's what he talked about when he talked about his policy. Yeah, and the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, which we've been talking about a lot the last few days and you heard Prime Minister Trudeau talk about yesterday, this morning, Trump's tariffs whack Trump voters, explaining directly how the tariffs, if they are left in place,

will hurt the very people who elected Donald Trump. CNBC's Frank Holland. Frank, thank you as always. All right, Steve, you're over at the Southwest Wall with your charts. Your first one just puts in very starkly how big these tariffs really are in the context of history. Yeah, well, Trump did some tariffs during Trump 1.0, as you know, and I wanted to show how those compare to what he's doing now, as well as to history.

So if you come over here, you can see that for a long period of time, we had not a lot of movement on tariffs. And then Trump came in, tariffs are a beautiful thing, we got the whole speech back then, but he actually did limit a lot what he did to a few products, a few countries. And of course, remember that he negotiated the USMCA, the new so-called free trade agreement between Canada and Mexico, which is now in effect ripped up. But in any event, and then Biden actually brought them down a bit. And these new tariffs on China, on Mexico, and on Canada have brought our average tariff rate to over 10 percent.

And just to put that in perspective, this is the highest tariff rate we have had since World War II. The whole history of post-World War II was bringing tariffs down, bringing countries together, making them economically more integrated as a means also of having more peace and less likelihood that one of them would attack another and Now Trump has gone the other way He's doing this against the backdrop. That is not ideal Inflation we can debate whose fault inflation is. He certainly took a shot at Biden last night But inflation has come down, but it's kind of stuck around 3%. And the Fed's target is 4%.

And this has implications for interest rates. It will be very hard for the Fed to cut interest rates further, with inflation stuck around 3% and even going up a little bit. Meanwhile, and more significantly, inflation expectations play a big role in what actually happens. What people project is going to happen, and they behave on the basis of what they think is going to happen can actually become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Right now, consumers are expecting 4.3% inflation.

And with a couple of exceptions, that's the highest it's been since in the post-COVID period. And tariffs have played a big role in this. People do. It has penetrated the public consciousness that tariffs are inflationary and they are now looking at more inflation, which simply makes the Fed's job harder. And that's probably, Steve, because they are inflationary. So as we move to your second chart, as you and others have said ad nauseam, almost every economist will tell you if you put these kind of tariffs in place, things are just going to be more expensive.

So what are you looking at there? Yeah. And I'll say just one more time at the risk of being too ad nauseam that tariffs are like a national sales tax. They increase the price of what Americans pay for goods that come from overseas. And so here's a study from the budget lab that looks at some of the categories where the price increases are likely to be the biggest. Not surprisingly, there are categories where we import large, if not the bulk, of what Americans buy.

Computers and electronics, we know, are not really made here very much. And so those imports are going to potentially drive the prices of those up 10.6%. Leather products, you could almost look at this list as a proxy for what we don't make anywhere else and therefore we have to import it. Leather products, electrical equipment, wearing apparel especially. Motor vehicles are very complicated in terms of what's made here, what's made in China, what's made in Japan and what's imported from elsewhere, and textiles we don't make much of here, and so on and so forth.

And so what is the effect on the average American consumer? As I've said repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly, and you've said it, it is a form of national sales tax. According to the Budget Lab, again, nonpartisan group, they think that the average cost to an American will be about $1,800 a year from these tariffs. And of course, if he imposes more tariffs, the cost will go up. And not surprisingly, again, these tariffs hit poor people the most. People down at the bottom, in the lowest 10%, we don't even have data, but the second 10%

of people who are people well down the food chain, they're going to lose 2.4% of their income. But as you get up toward the top, where people are buying all kinds of different things and they're not as dependent on imports from these countries, down 0.9%. And I would just add, maybe I should have had a bar on it here, that for all you guacamole lovers out there, virtually every avocado is imported from Mexico. And the price of avocados are likely to go up 25%. So I would suggest buying your catos very, very quickly.

Steve, bringing it home. Also, let's not forget beer and tequila. I mean, we can add that as long as we're talking about guacamole. All right, let's move to your third chart, Steve. The economy softening a bit. You touched on consumer expectations, consumer confidence, and stubborn inflation. What are you seeing? Yeah. Consumers are not stupid.

And so they do read the news, process it however they process it, and have become more pessimistic. Now, not surprisingly, in the partisan world we live in, after the election, consumer confidence among Republicans shot up. It is now plateaued. Consumer confidence by Democrats shot down. But if you want to take the neutral party in the middle, which is independence and an average of all this, on balance, Americans have become much more nervous about the economy. Consumer sentiment has dropped below the 70 line, which is a kind of good line, good versus

bad line, and so we're now kind of in the bad territory of consumer sentiment. And you can say, OK, well, that's just what consumers think, and consumers are always pessimistic, and we know the numbers are now more people still believe we're on the wrong track and so on and so forth. But money talks, and so let's see what consumers are doing with their money. And what they're doing with their money is they're not spending it right now. That in January, they cut their monthly change in spending by the most amount they've cut it by in a long time.

We've only had one other quarter in which it went down like that. And so it is a worrisome time. The stock market has jitters. There are other worrying signs in the economy. Trump is taking office at a rather precarious time in the economy. And so when you combine that with a lot of his policies that are frankly economically incoherent, it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. All right.

Morning, Joe, economic analyst. Steve Ratner bringing the charts and the truth, as always. Steve, thanks so much. We appreciate it. You know, John, it's interesting to hear publicly in John Thune's case right there, but even privately talking to Republicans, they're not really making an economic case for these tariffs. They're saying, well, it's a negotiating tool to stop the

flow of fentanyl at the border. It's a negotiating tool to get them to put more troops at the border and stop the flow of migrants coming into the United States. They seem to be scrambling to defend a 25% tariff. And that's because expert after expert says it doesn't make any economic sense. But this is something that, yes, I think the White House suggests that as well, that this will be something that is not going to be in place in perpetuity, but rather something that Trump is using now.

How long does now last? We're already seeing the impact on the markets. And we're seeing polling, early on, snapshot polls, but suggest that Americans are already really souring on his handling of the economy. Certainly this early into his term, it's rare to see a president with an approval rating this low on economic issues just two months, not even two

months in. And there's more. And then this could grow. Because I think you combine that with the rising prices, tariffs. Joe, the fact that, like, let's say we know talk about eggs a lot. And last night, Trump tried to blame Biden,

but we know for the cost of eggs that we know so much. That increase has happened since he took office. You twin the idea of these rising prices with the massive government cuts and the fact that so much of what Republicans are doing right now is to create a roadway for a huge tax cut that will disproportionately help the rich. And I think there's a real sense here of the sourness that Americans feel about the economy continuing. Right. And Republicans, Mike Allen, have to be concerned themselves.

You look again with consumer confidence being down, of course, data coming out of the Fed showing the economy may be slowing down. And we have John Thune saying on the Hill, obviously, he hopes these tariffs are short-lived. Other Republicans are thinking that. I explain, if you will, to our viewers how tariffs are the antithesis of what Republicans have championed for decades. The Republican Party has always been the party of free markets, open markets, that's been an article of faith for the GOP, just like pushing back against Russian aggression has been an article of faith for Republicans

for decades now. Talk about how Republicans on the Hill are balancing both of those problems and their own views. I heard certainly some speak out yesterday pretty toughly against Putin and against Russia. I'm wondering if they're feeling the same about tariffs. Well, yeah, because it's starting to hit them at home. Jim, Joe, you put your finger on the many ways that President Trump has overnight in a few short years changed where the Republican

Party is. You mentioned trade, entitlements, foreign policy, all massive changes from the Republican Party that you grew up in, that we came up covering. And a point that Jim Van de Huy and I make in our column, Trump on steroids that just went up on Axios, is that Republicans behind the scenes are very concerned about President Trump talking more about issues that are concerning to him, playing the hits, as you would say, Joe, than what's most important to Americans, personal security, personal prosperity. We've seen poll after poll in the last three days showing Americans starting to worry, is President Trump paying less attention to the issues that they care about, their pocketbook

personal issues, and more to other issues. Now, we saw again and again throughout the speech talking about how over time he's going to make your pocketbook better. We talked about making more cars, more ships, the best chips, as he put it, and all the different tax cuts that he's talking about. But for many Americans, that gets lost in what's happening with the border, what's happening with Doge, what's happening with Elon Musk. And that's what those elected Republicans are concerned about. Reading your column this morning, you and Jim Wright.

So far Trump's White House shrugs at concerns and complaints. If anything, AIDS collective confidence is on steroids too. They admit few mistakes, express zero regrets, and believe wholeheartedly their right and critics are wrong. Coming up, we'll continue to fact-check some of the claims President Trump made during his joint address to Congress last night, including his comments about the war in Ukraine. Former Homeland Security Secretary Jay Johnson will join us to weigh in on that and more. Plus, we'll play for you some of Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin's rebuttal to the

president's address. Morning Joe is coming right back. 42 hour time now for a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning. Fighting continues in the northeast parts of Syria today. Even as the country's capital projects a sense of calm, it's a significant challenge for that country's new leader who is calling for unity and foreign investment. Despite the rebel victory over the Assad regime in December, two militias remain locked in combat with each other, one backed by the U.S. and another supported by Turkey.

Florida's attorney general has opened a criminal investigation into Andrew and Tristan Tait, two brothers charged with human trafficking in Romania. They have denied the charges. The two men arrived back in Fort Lauderdale last week despite facing a criminal trial overseas. They're known for their misogynistic views on social media. And last week, Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters that the Tates were not welcome in Florida. And there is an effort underway to recall the mayor of Los Angeles, funded in part by Nicole Shanahan,

the Silicon Valley mega donor who served as Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s running mate. Shanahan was previously married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has faced significant criticism over her handling of the devastating wildfires back in January. Back to President Trump's joint address to Congress last night. First term, Democratic Senator Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan delivered the party's response. She spoke for about 10 minutes from just outside Detroit, warning of the consequences of the president's agenda and urging Americans to stay engaged.

President Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends. He's on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America. And to do that, he's going to make you pay in every part of your life. Your premiums and prescriptions will cost more because the math on his proposals doesn't work without going after your health care. Meanwhile, for those keeping score, the national debt is going up, not down. And if he's not careful, he could walk us right into a recession. And one more thing, in order to pay for his plan, he could very well come after your retirement.

The social security, Medicare and VA benefits you worked your whole life to earn. The president claims he won't, but Elon Musk just called social security the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. We need a more efficient government. You want to cut waste, I'll help you do it. But change doesn't need to be chaotic or make us less safe. The mindless firing of people who work to protect our nuclear weapons, keep our planes from crashing,

and conduct the research that finds the cure for cancer, only to rehire them two days later, no CEO in America could do that without being summarily fired. We all know that our country is going through something right now. We're not sure what the next day is going to hold, let alone the next decade. But this isn't the first time we've experienced significant and tumultuous change as a country. I'm a student of history, and we've gone through periods of political instability before. And ultimately, we've chosen to keep changing this country for the better. But every single time, we've only gotten through those moments because of two things.

Engage citizens and principled leaders. Engage citizens who do a little bit more than they're used to doing to fight for the things that they care about and principled leaders who are ready to receive the ball and do something about it. Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Debbie Dingell of Michigan. She was in attendance for President Trump's address to the joint session of Congress last night. Also with us MSNBC political analyst Elise Jordan with us still. She's former aide to the George W. Bush White House and State Department. Congresswoman, your reaction to the president's speech last night, your senator's democratic response, and how do Democrats drive this message moving forward? Well, it was 100 minutes, as we've all discussed, of a lot of drama and theater, and two minutes

of economics. But also, I'm going to be very honest with you, it was one of the tensest nights. I can't count how many State of the Unions I've attended over the years, both as a member and a spouse. And it was like nothing that I had ever seen. I will say this. I think Alissa Slotkin did an excellent job. She, by the way, wind up Michigan's the down rivers.

You all hear me talk about the area that made me say to you in 2016 Hillary Clinton wasn't going to win. I think she delivered a very direct message about the issues that are facing us and are the issues that we've got to work on. And Democrats have got to do a better job of listening to working people, talking to them in ways that they see and understand and lifting up the human stories of what the consequences are of the actions that the president has undertaken so far. So Congresswoman, I want to follow up with what you said. You, like me, have been to a few of these.

I would guess you've been to quite a few more. What made this the most tense presidential address you've been at before in Congress? So first of all, it was a political speech. And it was the most partisan moment I've ever been in. I'm just, you know me, I'm always honest. I think the state, it's not the state of the union, it was the, I forget what we called it, but address, but it's a time to try to bring the country together. That chamber

has never been more divided. And I felt it in a way, you know I have a ton of friends on the Republican side, I want to work with them when I can. I'm not going to work with them if it's going to hurt the people of my state, my country, or my district. But the tension in that room was palpable last night. And I do believe that the president fanned some of those claims. He really did not talk about anything or try to unify us in any way. And I do believe that that's the role of a leader.

Well, you know, it's interesting that you had the speaker caught in a hot mic moment saying that Joe Biden delivered stupid campaign rally speeches. It's fascinating that at this point in Joe Biden's presidency, he was being mocked and ridiculed by the people on the far left in the Democratic Party because he was reaching out, trying to pass bipartisan legislation. Of course, as you know better than anybody, Joe Biden passed more bipartisan legislation in his term than any president this century. So, quite a contrast. You know, you you and I have both heard Republicans saying this race was about the price of eggs

oh, this race was about the price of beef oh, this was about the price of groceries Democrats were interested in all of these left-wing, crazy ideas like giving sex change operations to convicts in prisons, etc. etc. We heard all of that, but then the hand ringing, they should have talked about the price of eggs. I'm curious in Michigan, because you always have.

You've always been a straight shooter. You warned about Joe Biden in 2024. You worried about Hillary Clinton in 2016. Not worried. You warned that her campaign was in trouble. Curious. What are you hearing now among your constituents about whether Donald Trump is focused on those bread and butter issues, those kitchen counter, it goes kitchen table issues compared to tariffs

and fighting our allies. What are they saying to you now? So, you know, I have a very, I love my district because it reflects America. If you're in Washtenaw County, Ann Arbor, people are angry. They want to see people fight back. They want to do something. Research is being cut terribly at the University of Michigan. He talked about cancer last night. That little boy, Matt, cried when he hugged the head of the Secret Service. But we need to make sure that we're investing in that research. But you go downriver where Alyssa was from last night, I talked to those union workers. I talked to those union workers about the tariffs. The auto

industry is trying to be very careful. Everybody's walking around on tiptoes. But those tariffs, look, I think tariffs are a tool in the toolbox. We need to use them in the right way. We need stronger trade policy. We need to bring manufacturing home. But you don't take Canada on, who's one of the best allies you have, put a 25% blanket tariff, increased consumer costs,

give the companies no time to plan. But there are union workers that are saying, we need to be talking about this. Our jobs have gone overseas for too long. He is doing something about it. Now, the UAW leadership understands that the way it's being done isn't the best way. They want to see USMCA be renegotiated. They want to see

them address those issues. Supplier issues are complicated. People have no idea how many times a part goes back and forth across the border. So I want to work with this administration on trade. I told you Donald Trump won on trade in 216, but you got to do it in a strategic way. And Canada is mad. They are coming back at us. I have talked to many of the Canadians, going to talk to Governor Ford today. They are striking back not only at the national level, but at a state level going back and forth. These are serious right now.

Congresswoman, you make the point about the impact of tariffs, and certainly Michigan is going to be an epicenter for that. Your colleague Haley Stevens was on with me this morning talking about that too. I think for people at home who might be hearing you saying it's the most tense you've ever seen it in the chamber, they may wonder, okay, who cares? We don't need these members to be friends. But you kind of do, especially when a shutdown is looming. And so when you look at the vibe in that room, and then you try to parlay it into something tangible. Are Democrats prepared,

the conversations that they're having for a government shutdown, are Republicans that you've talked to prepared for that? Because it feels like that's where we might be heading. I think a lot of people are just watching this. I want to make it really clear that the leadership of the Democratic Party is there and will talk to Republican leadership whenever they want.

They have not been including them in the discussions. I think a lot of people feel like they're just watching it all in slow motion and what's going to happen. But I want to say this to you. Relationships matter. If you trust somebody, if you know them, if you know that their word is good, then you can make a deal. You can compromise is not a dirty word.

You need to be talking about these issues. And Democrats, we do need to eliminate waste and fraud, but not the way we're doing it. And right now, all we see is Republicans trying to find dollars to give the billionaires a tax cut and a meat axe being just taken across the board in programs that help people every single day in the communities being cut. We need to work together. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, Congresswoman, thanks as always for joining us.

We appreciate it. Thank you. And the co-founder of Axios, Mike Allen, will be reading you as always. Thanks Mike. The new piece about last night's address titled Trump on Steroids is up now at Axios.