Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1169 | You Need to Calm Down (About Tariffs) | Guest: Ron Simmons

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Starting point is 00:00:46 That's fellowship homelones.com slash alley, term supply, see site for details, fellowship home loans, mortgage lending by the book, nationwide mortgage bankers, DBA Fellowship Home Loans, equal housing lender, NMLS, number 819-382. American Girl is celebrating Ramadan. That's right. American Girl. We will look at the progressive shift of American Girl and what it means for us. We will also be talking to my dad who is going to calm us all down about the stock market and tariffs and tell us what is really up.

Starting point is 00:01:20 We've got all of this and more on today's episode of Relatable. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. we've got my dad on at the end of this episode, the last 20 or so minutes, to talk us off the ledge when it comes to tariffs, the stock market, the economy, he'll be answering some practical questions, addressing some concerns that you guys sit me on Instagram. First, we're going to talk about this cultural story that I've been wanting to talk about

Starting point is 00:01:59 for a while about American girl. As a girl mom, this makes me very sad and concerns me. So we'll get into that in a second, but just a few announcements. Number one, we've got some behind the paywall subscriber content coming for you on blazedtv.com. So make sure you subscribe. You can go to blazestiv.com slash alley for our relatable at home stuff. It's parenting. It's homemaking. It's cooking.

Starting point is 00:02:28 It's really good. We've got other kinds of content that's coming down the pipeline too. But also when you subscribe, you will get access to all. Blase TV exclusive content. And it's not just that we want you to pay. It's that we are trying to build a community. We're trying to protect the content that you want to see, the ideas that you want to hear about. And unfortunately, we just can't trust Big Tech, where we get to give you our content for free to keep our content alive and to allow people to see it. We just never know when they could pull the plug because they don't like what we have to say.

Starting point is 00:03:05 So subscribe to bleasTV.com. Also, if you haven't gotten your tickets for Share the Arrows, make sure you do that. Sharethearrows.com. If you are a Christian woman who needs courage, who needs fellowship, who wants to be surrounded of thousands of like-minded Christian women, then you need to be there on October 11th in Dallas, Texas. We've got awesome speakers that you can see up there. We've got Ginger Duggarvolo, Elisa Childers, Shauna Holman. Katie Faust, Taylor Dukes, Francesca Battistelli, and yours truly, it is going to be awesome. I can't wait. Also, if you are in the South Carolina, North Carolina, parts of Georgia area, or maybe even if you want to drive a little bit farther than that, then you should come hear me speak at Clemson University tomorrow night. Doors open at 6 p.m. It's in an auditorium. I put it on Instagram, so you can see the details of that. And it starts at 7 p.m.

Starting point is 00:04:04 it's going to be pretty casual. I'll be giving remarks and then I'll also do a Q&A, but it should be fun. You don't have to be a student. You don't have to purchase a ticket. Don't worry, it will be heavily secured just in case there are any troublemakers there, but I don't have that expectation. I think it's going to be fun. And guess what? My dad's going to be there too. And so if you want to meet my dad and if you want to meet Chief Relaterbrough, then you should come to Clemson University tomorrow night. And thank you to the Turning Point Chapter there for hosting me. All right, let's see. Do I have any more announcements to give? If you love this podcast, leave us a five-star review wherever you listen, subscribe to YouTube. If you haven't done that already, you can watch on Spotify now,

Starting point is 00:04:43 which is really fun. Let's see, I'm just going to get them all out of the way because sometimes I forget to make these announcements or ask these questions. If you haven't bought toxic empathy and you need the facts to feel equipped in having contentious political, cultural, theological conversations with your family and your friends about people you know about the things going on in the world. You need toxic empathy, how progressives exploit Christian compassion. I'm very grateful to the Lord. It was a New York Times bestseller. And hopefully it equipped a lot of you and continues to raise a respectful ruckus for the things that matter. You can go to toxicempathy.com or you can get that book wherever books are sold. All right, I promise that's it. I promise. Let's

Starting point is 00:05:24 get into it now. Let's get into this American girl story. I saw this circulating on acts a couple weeks ago and we've kind of been pushing it off just because there have been so many pressing things that we had to discuss. But as I said, I'm a girl mom. I'm a girl mom who has three little girls who love dolls and would love American girl. I would love them, I would love to take them to the American Girl store. I grew up reading the American Girl books. They were some of my favorite books. I remember their lives. I remember their stories and all of their different personality traits because they just kind of left an indelible mark on my young, impressionable mind. And they were always really sweet. I mean, they always championed basic virtues and also just

Starting point is 00:06:09 showing appropriate confidence as a girl and the value and the uniqueness of being a girl. And so I would say even if maybe you have some contentions with American girl of old, and I'm just not remembering correctly because I was young, I would say certainly their impact has been a net positive. But we've started seeing some sketchy things over the years because as we know as a principle if an institution is not explicitly biblical, not just explicitly conservative, but explicitly biblical, it will end up veering into degeneracy. It will end up veering to the left, questioning basic realities like gender, breaking down the moral value. The moral value. that we have agreed upon at least as culturally Christian Americans for a very long time.

Starting point is 00:07:05 And that's certainly what we've seen with American Girl. And we'll get into some of that background in a second. But I'll tell you about what I saw that I was like, well, that's interesting, that that is the direction that we are going. American Girl posted a picture on their Instagram of a doll wearing a pink hijab to celebrate in Islamic holiday, Eid al-Fitir, I apologize if I'm not saying that correctly. This is Islam's feasting holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, a month of fasting. Here's Sot 2. Eid Mubarak to you and yours.

Starting point is 00:07:41 Today, I'm going to make some baklava to celebrate Eid al-Fitter. Eid al-Fitzer is a feast that's celebrated by Muslims worldwide. It celebrates the end of Ramadan when we fast for a month from dawn to sunset. It's ready. Happy Eid al-Fitzer. That's her. Ooh, too soon. Still hot.

Starting point is 00:08:01 Okay, I simply find that strange. Now, if you are still living under the impression that we live in a neutral, multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-religious society that we simply have to say, okay, if Christianity is represented, then every other religion has to be equally represented, then you probably see no problem with that. this, but if you have awoken to the reality that there is really no neutrality, that the existence of right and wrong and truth and falsehood, that they not only exist, but that they actually matter, if you realize that America, this is American girl, is actually a country

Starting point is 00:08:45 with a Christian or someone say Judeo-Christian Foundation. And what is meant by Judeo-Christian is that there are principles in the Old Testament that both Jewish people and Christians agree upon that helped lay the foundation of America that provided the principles that are in the Declaration of Independence, namely that we are created by a God who gave us inalienable rights and that that power supersedes the power of any government. The Amago Day was the driving force behind the principles and the pillars of Western civilization. and that is something that both Jews and Christians agree upon. And so when we see Islam as now a very formidable part of American society, it is actually okay.

Starting point is 00:09:38 I just want to give you permission in case you needed it. It is actually okay to say, huh, is this good? It is actually okay to say, well, you know, when I look at Muslim majority countries everywhere, most of them are completely wrought with archaic violence and chaos and oppression of the most vulnerable. When we look at all of the major terrorist groups around the world, you can ask GROC, you can ask chat GPT, you might have to dig a little bit deeper, you can even look on Wikipedia. All of these terrorist groups save a couple are Islamic in nature. when we look at the religious affiliation of the groups most violently persecuting both Jews and Christians around the world, it's all Islam.

Starting point is 00:10:31 Okay? That is not to say that every person who is Muslim is violent. That is not to say every person who is Muslim is going to be a terrorist or is going to be a radical extremist. But obviously we see the common denominator there. I mean, the greatest terrorist attack that we've had on our soil. was committed by people who did so in the name of Islam. And yet, ironically, darkly ironically, since 2001, we have only seen greater acceptance and greater mainstreaming of Islam.

Starting point is 00:11:06 We've also seen how this has evolved a lot of communities. We're actually seeing in Texas right now, outside of Dallas, this whole epic city controversy. I don't know if you guys have seen this, but that's an acronym that basically stands for like an Islamic community that is apparently trying to be governed by Islamic law. It will be its own city that is kind of separate from the metroplex, separate from the regulations that rule the metroplex of DFW. And there will be Islamic schools, Islamic mosques. And basically, an entire separate city just for Muslim people. Okay, so that kind of thing was unheard of 10, 20, certainly 30 years ago.

Starting point is 00:11:58 That is going to change our communities and our communities values. And you can't, you have to expect that if a large group of people in a concentrated way come from a country, that is wrought with violence and oppression because of the religion that is driving their laws, that that is going to have possibly a similar impact when they move somewhere else, right? And we've seen those trends throughout Europe. Now hear me when I say, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't love your neighbor, doesn't mean that you shouldn't live in peace with them because, of course, you should. But that's just the reality.

Starting point is 00:12:42 And so yes, I do think it is odd for a company like American girl to be promoting this as if it is the same as promoting Christmas or Easter or even Hanukkah. You can see it on their website. They're selling this, the Eid Al-Faeter outfit, the Muslim holiday meaning festival of breaking fast in Arabic comes at the end of Ramadan. and so they explain even the spiritual significance of this. And on the Instagram post, some people ask questions and express some concerns. They said, that's awesome. Can I have a Christian American girl doll with a cross and Bible? I love that.

Starting point is 00:13:27 Obviously, I think that there is a little tongue in cheek there. That comment received these kinds of responses. Girl, there's a time in place. White Christians try not to make everything about themselves. self challenge. That's not the point girl. You basically have a holiday like every other month, and especially own December, even though there are also Jewish holidays there too. Deal with not having an American girl doll. So you see just the antipathy towards Christians, especially in favor of Islam. Now, most of these people that have that kind of attitude are progressive themselves.

Starting point is 00:14:01 And it is very odd that progressives would support such a regressive belief system. that stands against everything that they say they stand for. But we had Pastor Andrew Sedra on this show who grew up in a Muslim majority country, and he pointed out the truth that the commonality between progressives and Islamic ideologues is a hatred of Christianity. And so, of course, there is going to be a partnership there. So are there other holidays that American girl is promoting? Like, are they promoting them all equally? which I would say they don't have responsibility to do.

Starting point is 00:14:42 They're American girl. And I don't think that they have to represent every belief system around the world in their dolls. But are they even giving a nod to Christianity and Christian holidays? We'll take a look at that in a second. Let me pause and tell you about our first sponsor. It's WeHeart Nutrition. So thankful for WeHeart Nutrition. I have been taking their supplements for a while now over a year.

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Starting point is 00:16:22 Okay, so they post on Instagram about all of these different holidays. They did post about Christmas on December 24th. I don't think they ever talked about the significance of what Christmas actually is, but it does. There is like a Christmas post on December 24th saying Merry Christmas. There's a happy Hanukkah one on December 25th. And then on December 26th, they celebrate Kwanza. You guys, Kwanza is not an American holiday. It has nothing to do with African Americans. It has nothing to do with even African history. It was like something that was completely made up by a weirdo. Bree, do we have that information about what Kwanza is? Yes. So it was created by Molana Karenga. And he was not committed to murder, but he did have a controversial history. He was convicted of felony assault and false imprisonment in connection with a violent incident involving two women from his organization. Okay. So that's Kwanza that American girl is celebrating here.

Starting point is 00:17:27 The fact that anyone is ever pretending to celebrate Kwanza, like Kamala Harris, it's just ridiculous. Okay, then we're celebrating Lunar New Year, January 29th, 2025. Again, like, what country is American Girl actually representing here? We're also celebrating on November 2nd, 2024, Diyadh, Di de los Mueros, the Day of the Dead, this very, like, morbid holiday that is celebrated, if you can even call it a holiday, separated or celebrated in Mexico. We've got Diwali being celebrated November 1st, 2024. Okay.

Starting point is 00:18:01 I only know what DeWali is because of the office. And then, okay, at least we actually have something that is an American holiday. I am totally fine and great with them celebrating Juneteenth. Juneteenth is actually a good thing that happened in the United States. And so I think it's a little bit of, it seems a little bit like obscure. But it's become less obscure over the past few years. And I have no problem with that. We're happy about the ending of slavery and slaves freed.

Starting point is 00:18:31 So this is an American holiday that American girl is representing and celebrating there. And I say that's fine. I just think it's strange that a company that is supposed to be celebrating not only women, but Americanism, is trying so hard to celebrate every single holiday, every single celebrated under every single thing celebrated under the sun. So they have this whole cultural celebration subsection of its website. None of the Christmas outfits are for sale. The very last, the very bottom of the page, there is text saying what Christmas is.

Starting point is 00:19:07 It's a Christian holiday that honors the birth of Jesus, but this is not celebrate or this is not put in any of the collections that are being sold on this cultural celebrations page. The only Christmas specific items they sell currently, it's a Christmas accessory set, which includes small toys and Christmas cookies, a book titled Molly's Christmas Surprise. Same thing with Easter, if you could even consider this Easter. It's like a bunny and some cookies. Now, they do have like St. Lucia Day on their Instagram. It does look like they kind of have an Easter post from 2024. Again, very bunny centric, which I just think is interesting because for the other religions, the religious symbols are actually put there.

Starting point is 00:19:59 You've got the star of David for the Jewish doll. You've got the different Islamic symbols for the holidays that they are celebrating. But at least I have not seen any crosses, any mangers, any nativities for these Christian holidays. And they certainly are doing what they can to try to put this to the bottom of their cultural celebrations. Again, it just doesn't surprise me. that's what institutions do when they are becoming more, when they are becoming more liberal. American Girl was founded by a woman named Pleasant Rowland in 1986. She just wanted to write books and have dolls that represented different points in American history.

Starting point is 00:20:49 And then she sold American Girl to Mattel for $700 million, which is wild. And then obviously, since it has been owned by Mattel, it has become increasingly progressive. They began to abandon the girl part of their name in 2017. They released its first boy doll, Logan Everett, then, too. In 2021, AG's Girl of the Year was a doll named Kira Bailey, who they wrote about her that she had lesbian aunts the same year. And I'm A-U-N-T-S, not A-N-T-S.

Starting point is 00:21:27 The same year, AG released a street chic collection of dolls with blue and purple hair. Okay. Also in 2021, American Girl introduced the World By Us line, which featured three characters who came with their own social justice cause. You had Vet Peters, climate change activist, Horitsa Okoa, soccer and immigration, like a soccer player, but an immigration activist telling about her immigration You had McKenna Williams. She was an anti-racist activist. And then they also had a girl of the year in 2022 that was supposed to be like a figurehead for the stop Asian hate movement. And then of course, they had the huge woke controversy of their 2002 edition of a Smart Girls guide to body image. We'll get to that in just a second. Let me tell you about our next sponsor for the day. It's Good Ranchers. We love Good

Starting point is 00:22:27 The ranchers just had the pork chops a couple nights ago. So good. We only added salt and pepper. They tasted amazing. We love their better than organic chicken. We love their ground beef that we eat all of the time. I love to use it for hamburgers and for tacos and enchiladas and all that good stuff. They've got seafood.

Starting point is 00:22:45 They've got all different cuts of steak. It's all high quality. Best of all, it's all from American farms and ranches. You don't know where your beef is coming from. If you are buying it in the store, that made in the USA sticker means. nothing. It just means manufactured in the U.S. You don't know where your meat is coming from unless you're getting your meat from Good Ranchers. This is a Christian family-owned company. They want to help revitalize this industry that has served as the backbone for America for so long. So get your

Starting point is 00:23:13 meat from Good Ranchers. It'll show up on your front door, on dry ice every month. You can look at my custom box. It's the Allie Beth Stucky box. It's got all of the really good basics. Go to Ranchers.com slash Allie. You'll get $40 off. Goodranchers.com slash alley. So in 2022, they released a new edition of the Smart Girls Guide to Body Image. And those of you who are in my age, you're a millennial, you probably read one of these books about our changing bodies when we were preteens and teens. And of course, it was really sweet and wholesome. But now it has changed. And it has introduced gender ideology into books. meant for eight to 12 year old girls. They faced a lot of backlash for this for pushing children really not even just as young as eight, but actually as young as three into changing their gender

Starting point is 00:24:12 through their popular body image book. The book contains lines that give advice to prepubescent girls on how to change their gender without their parents' knowledge. A passage in the book marketed to girls age between three and 12 advice is this. If you haven't gone through puberty yet, the doctor might offer medicine to delay your body's changes, giving you more time to think about your gender identity. Isn't that insane? Like American girl is pushing permanent sterility to children via puberty blockers. It also provides a list of resources for organizations the children can turn to, quote, if you don't have an adult you trust. Okay, so driving a wedge between parents who love their children, who want what is best for their children,

Starting point is 00:25:00 who know their children best, and the children themselves in the name of gender ideology, in the name of telling a young girl you might be born in the wrong body, maybe you should get pumped with testosterone, cut off your breast, take out your uterus so you can pretend to be a man. The author of this book will not have to deal with the distress and deal with the long-term depression and deal with the lifelong physical and emotional repercussions of a child butchering their body because they were introduced to this kind of insanity through her book. It will be the parents that American girl is suggesting you shouldn't trust because they're not affirming you who are dealing with that, who suffer through that, who will find their child in the aftermath

Starting point is 00:25:55 of a suicide attempt. It will be them going through that tragedy, not the author of this book. This is absolutely reckless. I think this far more than any other cultural thing that I've talked about today is the reason that you need to abandon American girl. I mean, this is evil, sick, demonic, life-ruining, body-butchering stuff that American girl, the American girl of our youth, it's a little different, but the same company is pushing on young women. And I don't want my daughters to stumble upon this kind of ideology. And I just can't support it. And so even if I'm not trying to shame you, if you've taken your daughters to the American girl store and you've gotten her an American girl, like I still think that a lot of the dolls and a lot of the stories are really sweet. But we really like Faith Friends doll.

Starting point is 00:26:49 I don't know if you've heard of that company, but it's a Christian alternative. And they actually are unapologetically Christian. And all of the accessories and all of the fun things that come along with the dolls all support a girl's confidence in Christ and biblical values. And I've given these to several people as gifts. It's Faith Friends doll. You can find them on Instagram. But I love the alternatives to this kind of degeneracy and this kind of.

Starting point is 00:27:16 of just compromise that they are popping up and that we have the opportunity to support them. And so I just encourage you to do that. Like American Girl is different. And by the way, like this is Mattel. This is what Mattel is doing now. I just posted the other day on Instagram, my Barbies and how much I loved playing with my Barbies growing up. But I will say like Mattel was obviously kind of sketchy back then. As I was my, I was a lot more interested in my Barbies from the time I was 8th and my daughters were. I was like all these memories were coming back. But some of their clothes, it's crazy. How skimpy these outfits were for Barbies that six-year-olds are meant to play with. Like, no business. And why did I have a Baywatch Barbie? Like, why? A lot of you reminded me that they came with this

Starting point is 00:28:06 little dolphin that made a noise. And now I remember that. Now I remember that. But Mattel is kind of, I don't want to say they've always been sketchy. But they've been sketchy for a while, like a lot of these corporations, they are also bound to these ESG metrics that incentivize them to be more progressive, including when it comes to gender. And somehow, in a very contradictory way, that includes the promotion of Islam. And that is, again, that's not a neutral ideology or a neutral idea that a company like American girl needs to be promoting. I'm interested what you think about all of that. Maybe you disagree on some of it, and I'm willing to hear your feedback, but I'm telling you in general, like, this is not a good direction. And again, the commonality among a lot of these groups that seem to be totally disparate when it comes to their values is just a hatred for Christianity and a hatred for Christians. And we can't expect the secular world to love Jesus and to understand and promote Christianity. But what we can do is we

Starting point is 00:29:13 can support companies who do, who get it. That's part of what sharing the arrows is, is believers. All right. Let's get into this conversation with my dad about tariffs in the economy. If you're worried, I understand that. Or if you're like me and you're like, this is a little over my head and I'm just kind of hoping and trusting that things are going to be okay, but I really want to understand it. I don't want to be, we don't want to be ignorant of it. We don't want to just say la-di-da, politics matter, policy matters, people matter. And this policy affects people. And so we should do our best to try to understand what's going on and to make really wise decisions that are controlled by the Holy Spirit and by wisdom and not by headlines and

Starting point is 00:29:55 not by the stock market. And so my dad and his trademark style is going to calm us down and inform us of what's really going on. Before we get into that conversation, let me go ahead and tell you about our next sponsor for the day. It's every life. So thankful for every life as you will hear my dad say, America needs more people. They need more babies. They need American families to be making more babies. And that is what every life, America's pro-life diaper company, is praying for. They have started this initiative to try to get as many of you as possible to be praying for married couples, moms and dads, or husbands and wives to have more children in 2025. CR and I are a part of this initiative. There are a lot of other awesome families who are a part of this.

Starting point is 00:30:39 and we are praying for y'all. We are praying for more adoptions. We are praying for more babies. And we know that God is the giver of life. And he can do it. Like he can answer these prayers. And he has preordained prayer to be a vessel through which he works. And I'm so thankful for every life and everything they do,

Starting point is 00:31:03 not only this initiative, but also the awesome diapers that they sell. We use every life. exclusively in our home for diapers. And I love knowing that they're made from really clean, good materials, and also that they just work. And so they're an awesome company all around. Go to everylife.com slash pray. Join us in praying for more babies in 2025. That's everylife.com slash pray. Dad, thanks so much for joining us again. Okay, people are freaking out about tariffs, this tariff war. Let me give the most recent. updates and then we'll get you to walk us back from the ledge. So after China threatened to impose an

Starting point is 00:31:49 additional 34% tariff on American goods, Trump added an additional 50% to their existing tariffs, bringing the total tariff against China to 104%. That's 10% universal, 34% reciprocal, 50% additional, effective midnight April 9th. China retaliated with an 84% tariff on U.S. U.S. goods up from the earlier 34%. The EU is also expected to vote on countermeasures against U.S. imports today after Trump rejected their zero-for-zero offer earlier this week. People who are against this tariff war are saying this is going to raise prices in the U.S. astronomically, it is going to hurt the economy, and it is going to hurt Trump's agenda, and everything is ruined.

Starting point is 00:32:43 What are your thoughts? Well, first of all, let's talk about what people should be doing now. And really, they shouldn't be doing much. I think I've said this before on the show, Allie, and that is, if you have money that you need to use within the next 12 months, that money should never be in the stock market. Stop market is a long-term play, and you shouldn't do anything related to the stock market, right now. I would not be selling. I haven't been selling. And I don't know that I'd be buying yet because what I like to do, and I'm willing to give up not buying at the absolute bottom,

Starting point is 00:33:23 so you'll give up a little bit of the up kick. I want to see the market kind of start going back up for a few days before I would get back, you know, engaged if I had some cash laying around. But if you're already in the market, if you're already got that within your 401ks, do not change that. Now, in the future, again, remember, If you've got money that you know you're going to need to access within the next 12 months at a minimum, do not put that money in the stock market. Put it in a short-term CD or the money market, something where there's virtually no risk involved. Now, as we go on to the tariff scenario, and I'm glad you brought up China right off the bat, because that's really the big elephant in the room, so to speak, meaning that, you know, I heard it explained the best actually by President Trump. A lot of people think he hasn't done a good job explaining and I understand what people may feel that way.

Starting point is 00:34:15 But remember, if they were charging us 34% tariffs on everything that we sent over there, all right, all the goods that we sent over there, then that means that that revenue went directly to their government. And their government doesn't have anything that would be positive for us, help build up their military. help continue their cyber wars against us. And I think somebody quoted that that was hundreds of millions of dollars a year. And so I think what he's trying to do with the other countries, if he can get good deals with the other countries, which I know that he will, then I think he's trying to box out China a little bit. And that would be okay too.

Starting point is 00:35:05 I think China's different than the rest of the world pretty much. you might include Russia and Iran and North Korea in that same group. But I think it's pretty different than the rest of the world. As far as the rest of the world's concern, these deals are going to come to play. I wouldn't spend a lot of time worrying about them. Over 70 countries have already called and said, hey, let's see what we can do. And I do think, and I agree with Elon Musk, and if we can get a zero-for-zero trade deal with the European Union, that's what we ought to do. Now, there's more to it than tariffs, though, Allie.

Starting point is 00:35:39 also barriers. Sometimes it's not just them putting a tariff on our goods. It's just not letting us sell any particular, a particular good in their country no matter what, right? Whether that be, you know, whether it's timber or something like that, they have an absolute ban on even, not even, not worried about the tariff. They just don't even let us sell it. Some countries don't. But I think all this is going to get worked out. I think you'll see some significant, improvement by the summertime, and by the end of the year, I think it will have all been something that we certainly were concerned about. It's okay to be concerned, but taking rash action is exactly the wrong thing to do. Our economy is still very, very strong, all right? People that

Starting point is 00:36:28 want to work can work. People that want a good wage can get a good wage. Things are a little bit more expensive. We're still unwinding from the Biden four years of hyperinflation. And it's just going to take a while to get that done. Yes. And just to bring it back to the basics and you've explained what a tariff is, but for people who are like, okay, I'm overwhelmed by all of this vocabulary. As a reminder, a tariff is a tax that we pay when we import a good abroad. So if we are trying to, or export, rather, if we are trying to export, say, it's maple syrup to Canada, Canada would say, okay, we're going to put a 50% tariff on that so that we have to pay that tax in our product being sold in Canada is more expensive than the local maple syrup

Starting point is 00:37:18 that they are selling. And that is a way to protect their local economy and protect the products that are being made domestically. And so, So all of these countries have tariffs on our products. We have tariffs. Tariffs have always existed. But the problem that President Trump has zeroed in on is that we are paying a lot more, that it's not proportionate and that it is not reciprocal, right? Especially with China.

Starting point is 00:37:47 Our average tariffs are like 2.5%. Right. So with China, as you said, it's not fair because they are competing. to be the world superpower. They are nefarious. They're stealing our technology. And Kevin Leary from Shark. Is it Leary? Oh, Leary from Shark Tank. He said on CNN, oh, I don't think it should be just 100%. I think it should be 400% with how bad China is. Here that is. It's up 13. 104% tariffs in China are not enough. I'm advocating 400%. I do business in China. They don't play by the rules. They've been in the WTO for decades. They have never abided by

Starting point is 00:38:29 any of the rules they agreed to when they came in for decades. They cheat, they steal, they steal IP. I can't litigate in their courts. They take product, technology. They steal it. They manufacture it and sell it back here. Never has an administer. I want she on an airplane to Washington to level the playing field. Okay, what are your thoughts on that? I think he's exactly right. Now, I think 400 is just hyperbole. Yeah. So I'm not really that concerned about that. But I think the point is, is that, you know, this is a, in a sense, this is a war. And we have to realize that if the enemy is fighting with those types of weapons, we're going to have to do the same thing or something similar to get them to the table to quit the fighting. And China never pays attention to any of the rules, just like Kevin said. And we're going to have, you know, so therefore we have to be. kind of a bully and I think that President Trump is doing that. The other thing to consider out

Starting point is 00:39:33 is that I was listening to, I was on the phone yesterday with Heritage Foundation people that have an economist in this area and he was saying that there's $600 billion of revenue that U.S. businesses don't get because of the tariffs and trade barriers and other countries put on us. So just to think about that, 600. billion dollars of revenue that could be in the U.S. economy, not from taxes, but just because we can't export all that we would like to export to other countries. And then the other thing is, Ali, and this is a little bit maybe complicated, and we may have to come back on another time and go over it again, but we have an income tax. We have a federal income tax. We do not have a

Starting point is 00:40:25 federal sales tax. Almost all the other countries in the world have what's called a VAT tax, a volume added tax, which you and I would think about that as a sales tax, okay? And those are federal taxes so that when somebody buys a U.S. product abroad, their government gets revenue. The federal government of the U.K. gets revenue from that. So like it used to be 17 percent. I don't know if it's the same. All right? When somebody, when we in the U.S. buy a product from, say, the U.K., our federal government doesn't get any revenue from that. So it's a little, and that's not anybody's fault, that's just the way the system works. So it's a little bit of a paradoxal, in a sense, playing field there. And when you try to calculate what's fair in this, you have to consider that

Starting point is 00:41:23 as well as we're definitely funding the federal governments of many countries to a large extent, and including the countries that don't want to increase their defense spending up to what levels it should be, while there's nothing that we purchase as citizens of the U.S. from other countries that aid in reducing our deficit or increasing our federal coffers. Quick pause to tell you about our next sponsor, and it is Lumi. Y'all, Lumen is really cool. If you listen to my episode with Casey Means, and I've talked about this a couple times with different health experts now, you know that metabolic health is the missing

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Starting point is 00:42:54 your metabolism is uploaded. It sinks very quickly with your Lumen app and you can see what's going on. And that can help you determine your next steps for the day, how much protein you need, what kind of workouts you should do. Go to Lumen.me.me.combe slash relatable, you'll get 15% off your L-U-M-E-N dot me slash relatable. You got a lot of people saying that this is simply not conservative, that it's not going to work. Obviously, it's going to, or, companies are saying it's going to raise the prices on some products because if these companies have to pay more to export their stuff in order to compensate for that, they are going to raise the price, right, of their goods and their services that they're offering. So people say tariffs are actually

Starting point is 00:43:45 a tax that we pay and spending more money on these products. So some people are saying, that's a bad thing. It's also not conservative and this should go through Congress. And then other people are saying it's short-term paying for the ultimate good. Trump is telling those companies, hey, if you don't want to pay those tariffs, then you should bring your manufacturing to the United States rather than to China or to Vietnam or to Thailand where they are now. So what is your take on that debate? Well, first of all, tariffs are legal.

Starting point is 00:44:17 So Congress has already said tariffs are okay. Now, if they want to change it, they can do that. But where it rests with the executive. you know, with the executive department. The idea about it not being conservative, I disagree with that. And what the reason I do is because fairness is always conservative. And President Trump is not saying, hey, you charge us 2%, so we're going to charge you 20%. That's not what he's saying.

Starting point is 00:44:45 Now, he might put that out there initially to get people to the bargaining table. But what we're looking for is kind of tip for tat, that 2% versus 2%, 10% versus 10%. And I think that's where we'll get to, hopefully we'll get to zero in a lot of them. And I would tend to agree with him. And some of this is, you know, what happened when we put together NAFTA. And a lot of the jobs went to Mexico and to Canada. And we have to, you know, rein that back in so that some of those jobs can come home.

Starting point is 00:45:18 It won't be all of them. But some of those jobs need to come back home. And companies, I believe, will realize that. Yeah. President Trump, like you said, he is exercising his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. He's declaring this national emergency or economic situation. And he's imposing these tariffs under the IEPA in order to address the quote, national emergency posed by the large and persistent trade deficit that is driven by the absence of reciprocity in our trade relationships. The explanation for that is what you've already given, that we are funding. federal governments that not only don't have our interest in mind, but are actually trying to compete against us in very nefarious ways, especially China, which is why they are taking some of the worst tariffs. You've got Prime Minister of Israel, Netanyahu. He met with Trump on Monday pledged to eliminate Israel's trade deficit with the United States after the administration imposed

Starting point is 00:46:18 17 percent tariffs on Israeli goods last week. The European Commission President Ursula von Leyen said the European Union is ready to negotiate with President Donald Trump over tariffs offering the zero for zero tariffs on industrial goods. He, I guess, rejected that deal. He didn't think it was a good deal. But it does seem to be at least right now, it looks like it's kind of working that these leaders are saying, yeah, okay, we'll do what you want. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:46:47 And I agree. And the stock market overreacts, right? Yeah. I mean, there's nothing that's happened to an individual company in the last week. Okay, relating to what, you know, they haven't lost a bunch of revenue or business or anything like that. The stock market overreacts on the good and the bad. And that's what's happened. It's overreacted.

Starting point is 00:47:10 You have people in the market that, what they call short sellers, they want to bet the market's going down. And so they essentially, in ways, which I don't agree with, don't think it should even be legal, but it is, essentially can force. the market down, some of these big traders, especially in this high-frequency trading, which is where they're trading literally making thousands and thousands of trades every second. And that's what ends up making these big swings in the market. And that's why you have to, if you're going to be in the market, you have to be in it for the long term. And it will almost always perform well for you over a long-term period. So I would just tell your people, don't panic. I don't see it increasing.

Starting point is 00:47:55 is at home on the things that you and I buy every day very much. Because that's something that we're hearing a lot. But not in the long term. I believe it's just going to be fine. There will be some more bumpy roads. I think they can communicate a little bit better than what they have, you know. Maybe get somebody else other than the president communicating about it in a little bit better way. But I'm confident.

Starting point is 00:48:18 Listen, what people need to understand too, Allie, and I know we're probably running out of time. but people need to understand that we are witnessing a potential transformational change in our federal government. And I think change is for the most part for the good. And it's not easy to overcome what essentially has been since the Civil War a pretty center-left ruling as far as it goes on taxes and spending and our dealings with other countries. And so I believe that this is something that we're witnessing that I think in the long term will benefit your kids, my grandkids, and their kids and kids of theirs for generations to come. So when we hear short-term pain, that's a phrase that I keep hearing. It's short-term pain. I've even seen some commentators say, oh, if you feel like you can't buy that new device, it's fine.

Starting point is 00:49:18 Don't look at your 401Ks right now. It'll all be okay. Like how short term are we talking? When do you think people are going to start to see, okay, that worked and I'm feeling the benefits of this trade war? Well, I think the benefits will be that the market stops going down, obviously, from a stock market standpoint, which I think that'll be very soon. And then as far as the benefits that they'll see individually, like when they go the grocery store or go shopping, shopping, which is like, I guess what we're talking about, is I think that'll be gradual over time.

Starting point is 00:49:57 I don't think it will, but here's what I don't think. I don't think you're going to see a radical increase in prices, right? I just do not see that happening. It hasn't happened yet. Maybe if there's a big ticket item or something that you're looking at, you know, if you're looking to buy a new Rolex until they get it worked out with Switzerland or whomever it is at selling those these days, you know, where they have a 25% tariff now, maybe you should wait on that. But as far as grocery store items and things like that, I don't see there being a big change in those. I mean, I could be wrong on that, but I just don't see it. Interest rates.

Starting point is 00:50:31 A lot of people are thinking about, you know, they've asked me, what is a good time to buy a house? And I don't know the answer to that. But I want to know if you do. Well, the interest rate, if people, what happened, Allie, it's not y'all's fault. your generation and the generations behind you is that you were exposed to historically low interest rates where you could buy a house with a 3% mortgage, right, the interest rate, which is crazy. The average mortgage over the last century or so has been about 6% interest rate. So we're not far from it.

Starting point is 00:51:10 I would like to see it get down to 5%. I do not see it getting back down to 2% and 3%. I actually think that was not great. for the economy. It allowed people to buy houses that they really couldn't afford. And some of those were on these adjustable rate mortgages that now are getting ready to bump up to five, six percent, and they're going to be in a world of trouble. I would never buy an adjustable rate mortgage. I would only buy a fixed mortgage and I would try to do it on 15 years if you can. And anywhere, I think anywhere in the 5 percent range, whether it's 475 or 5 and a half, I think you're fine,

Starting point is 00:51:46 you're fine on that. Now the challenge we have in the U.S., in most parts of the U.S., we still have a housing shortage. So that makes prices higher just because we have a housing shortage. We have, we just, we're having a hard time keeping up with, especially single family homes. And, you know, in the fast-growing places, that's going to make prices be a little bit higher. But I don't think, you know, that you're going to see a big fall off the cliff of interest rates right now. I do think they'll come down some, and I don't think housing prices are going to, you know, just fall out of the bottom. So if you're looking at buying a house and you can afford it and you've got a, you know, a reasonable interest rate, what I've mentioned before, then, you know, again, houses should be

Starting point is 00:52:32 long-term purchases, if possible. Here's what I would love the government to crack down on, too, because all of this also intersects with the immigration debate and H-1Bs and all of that. And we both agree there's a level of immigration, good immigrants that can be good, but there's a lot of reform that's needed, especially with overstaining visas and illegal immigration. But something that happens is that many of these immigrants who are coming in on H-1Bs or they're coming in from poor countries, they will infiltrate a neighborhood and they will have multiple generations living in one house who are all income earners and the typical American family who is trying to live on one income, the mom and the dad with the two kids, cannot compete against the offers that

Starting point is 00:53:24 are being made on these houses. And typically what happens is that it actually ends up being this kind of chain effect, this domino effect. I mean, people know they'll go into a neighborhood and it's people from all one country or all one ethnicity who are living in these multination, generational homes, and that changes the market. And that makes it very hard for the normal young couple to be able to afford a house. And these are supposed to be single family homes. So I would like to see a crackdown on that kind of thing. I think, I mean, I'm not an economist. It seems to me common sense that that would help the housing market. So immigration, the economy, the price changes of these houses, it seems to all kind of intersect. And I just hope that

Starting point is 00:54:08 the Trump administration is looking at all of it. well you know i don't you and i may not be totally in sync on this i mean if if someone's here legally and they want to have their parents live with them or whatever the scenario is i mean that's just i mean that that that's their freedom to do that and i agree it does change the dynamics especially have you know multiple earners in the household it can make they'd be willing to pay more because you've got more than one family living in there. I'm not so sure what you can do about that, though. I'm not, you know, I think we'd have a hard press saying,

Starting point is 00:54:48 okay, there's a maximum number of five people that can live in this home. Now, maybe there is a top number there that you could crack down on, but that's an interesting dynamic, Allie. I don't really know the solution to that one, but I do understand the concern. And the effects are real. You're not missing that at all. it's just that that's a little bit more complicated when you are talking about people's liberty and their freedom on their own property.

Starting point is 00:55:15 Well, if we have less immigration overall, then that will solve at least one part of the problem. Absolutely. No question. Maybe we don't agree. And that's one reason, our society, I will agree with Chuck Schumer on one thing. We just don't tell anybody, okay? Everybody let's keep this a secret. And that is, our population is not growing fast enough.

Starting point is 00:55:35 We need more babies. I mean, that's part of the problem that we have is we need, we need families to, you know, have more than, you know, one or two children. They need to have, you know, at least three children so that you've replaced yourself and added to it. And, you know, I think we're seeing some of that, but it's still, it's still our average birth rate is certainly down. Yeah. And that's a whole big cultural, spiritual problem that we got. We got issues.

Starting point is 00:56:03 We got issues. But you're here to tell us that it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. It's going to be good. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Dad. I really appreciate it. You always calm us down and tell us what's really going on.

Starting point is 00:56:16 Next time, we'll have you back in the studio. And we'll have a longer conversation about everything. But thanks so much. Okay. All right. Take care. Bye. All right.

Starting point is 00:56:31 I hope you enjoyed that conversation with my dad. I hope that made you feel better. Just a reminder, please subscribe to Frontier Magazine by Blaze Media. It is back with issue number two. If you miss the first one, you miss something huge, but that is okay because now you can be a part of history. I mean, this is just like just such a beautiful piece of art. You will actually like looking at it and having it in your home. But the journalism, the commentary in it is truly unique and original.

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Starting point is 00:57:25 That's all we've got time for today. I will see you back here tomorrow.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1169 | You Need to Calm Down (About Tariffs) | Guest: Ron Simmons

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