The Daily Signal - Deal Made Between Mexico & US, Doors Close at USAID, Benjamin Netanyahu Arrives in DC | Feb. 3

Starting point is 00:00:00 At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak equipment modernization. We're fluent in data digitization and expansion into foreign markets. And we can talk all day about streamlining manufacturing processes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today.

Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk, business. President Trump and the President of Mexico have reached an agreement for now. There will not be an additional 25% tariffs on goods imported from Mexico. I'm Virginia Allen, and this is the Daily Seville's top news in 10 for Monday, February 3rd. President Donald Trump has reached an agreement with the President of Mexico to pause new tariffs for a month. 25% tariffs on imports that come into the United States from Mexico were set to take effect tonight at midnight, but no longer. Trump and Mexico's president, Claudia Shanebaum confirmed on social media today that they reached an agreement. Mexico is sending 10,000 troops to its border with the U.S. to stop the flow of drugs into United States.

Starting point is 00:01:21 And in exchange, Trump has agreed to push pause on the new tariffs at least for 30 days. The U.S. was also ready to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods coming into the United States, But late Monday afternoon, Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced that he and Trump had reached an agreement to pause the tariffs for also at least 30 days. Trudeau wrote on social media, I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion plan to reinforce the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the border. flow of fentanyl. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border. But Trump will still be using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose an additional 10% tariff on imports from China. Here with us to discuss is Heritage Foundation Director of the

Starting point is 00:02:22 Center for the Federal Budget. Richard Stern. Richard, thanks for being here. Always a pleasure. Well, let's start with your reaction to this agreement between Mexico and the United States. Is this a good deal? Well, it's certainly a good first start. Whether it becomes the full amount that we need from them or not remains to be seen. But, you know, look, let's face it, we've had decades, absolute decades of the Mexican government allowing cartels to run havoc with the border to ship drugs, arms, illegal aliens across the border. We have more than 100 known terrorists across the border while President Biden was present. And that's just the ones we know about. So the fact that Trump, in the span of 48 hours, 72 hours, could already get this kind of progress is frankly progress that no president has done in generations. What about these 10% tariffs on goods coming from China? Richard, what exactly is Trump's end game here? It seems that at least for now, Trump got what he wanted from Mexico? What does he want from China?

Starting point is 00:03:24 So I think what you're looking at with both Mexico and Canada are things that are meant to be more immediate short-term hardball negotiation tactics. Obviously, with Mexico, We've already seen fruit from that, and he's pausing them and we'll see where that down payment continues. I think he wants the same thing from Canada. Canada also allows enormous amount of drugs that come across the border, an enormous amount of fentanyl and fetnal precursors come across the border from Canada, surprisingly enough. And of course, a lot of the other illicit things that come across. The other thing also is, to be fair, Mexico was a little better about holding up their end of the bargain on trade deals with the U.S. Canada is not. In fact, Canada closes off its market to a lot of U.S. products. Trump is talking about

Starting point is 00:04:08 this today. Canada doesn't allow foreign banks to open up in Canada at all. So if you're a U.S. bank, you are barred from being able to operate in Canada. And so he's looking there for the same kind of thing, which is a good partner, a good ally to keep up their end of these agreements and to behave in an appropriate manner to open their markets, not just the deal of border security. I think the 10% tariff. You see on China, though, represents a longer term entrenched real issue with China. It's focusing more on the decoupling with China, and it's focusing more on shoring up America and our economic base to deal with the long run threat from China. Richard, as always, thank you for breaking this down. The Heritage Foundation's Richard Stern. Thank you, as always.

Starting point is 00:04:54 The headquarters for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C. was closed today. were sent an email and told to not come into work. And the website, USAID.gov, was offline. This comes after Trump reportedly gave Elon Musk the green light to close the agency. Elon Musk is, of course, heading the Department of Government Efficiency or Doge, and in a nutshell, Musk does not think that USAID is efficient. Musk called USAID a radical left political sci-op in a post on X today, and on Sunday, Trump said that the agency was run by a bunch of radical lunatics and were getting them out. USAID was established in the 1960s. The agency provides humanitarian aid and sets up aid programs in countries around the world.

Starting point is 00:05:47 And it employs about 10,000 people, many of whom work outside of the United States. So what's going to happen to the agency now? Well, at least for right now, it's being rolled into the State Department. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today that he is, now the acting director of USAID. Rubio told reporters that many of the functions of USAID will continue under the State Department, but only efforts that are aligned with U.S. foreign policy. It's a completely unresponsive agency. It's supposed to respond to policy directives of the State Department, and it refuses to do so. Because Congress created USAID, some argue that Congress is the only body that has legal right to shut it down. So you can expect some lawmakers, particularly lawmakers on

Starting point is 00:06:35 the political left, to make this case this week and in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Washington, D.C. today. First on his schedule today was a meeting with U.S. Middle East envoy, Steve Whitkoff. Netanyahu will then meet with President Donald Trump tomorrow. This will be the first time the two world leaders, have met since Trump was sworn in for his second term, and also Trump's first meeting with a foreign leader since he was sworn in on January 20th. Trump was asked about the meeting today while he was speaking with press in the Oval Office, and specifically Trump was asked if he supports annexation of parts of the West Bank to become a part of Israel. Trump said that he would not talk about that,

Starting point is 00:07:21 but he made his support for Israel clear. It's a small country in terms of land. I take Cedas penned as wonderful pen. My desk is the Middle East and this pen, the top of the pen, that's Israel. That's not good, right? You know, that's a pretty big difference. I use that as an analogy. It's pretty accurate, actually. It's a pretty small piece of land. And it's amazing that they've been able to do what they've been able to do when you think about. There's a lot of good, smart brain power. But it is a very small piece of land, no question about it. Israel is just over two weeks into ceasefire deal with Hamas that U.S. officials helped to negotiate. The first phase is set to last for at least about another four weeks. The details of phase two of that ceasefire deal have not been

Starting point is 00:08:10 finalized, but phase two is expected to include the release of additional hostages and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza. Even if negotiations of phase two extend past the six weeks, the ceasefire is supposed to remain in place for as long as negotiations can take. expect the meeting between Trump and Netanyahu tomorrow to include a conversation about the second phase and extending the ceasefire with the aim of ending the war completely between Israel and Hamas. And in a bit of happy news out of the Middle East, three hostages were released on Saturday, including Israeli-American Keith Seagall. Sagall is 65 and originally from North Carolina. His wife, Aviva Sagal, actually joined us here on the Daily The Signal podcast you may remember back in December. And she told me that if her husband, or rather when her husband, was released, she would dance and scream. And you can hear the joy in her voice

Starting point is 00:09:10 in this clip about to play for you, where Aviva is watching on video. This is on Saturday. As her husband, Keith is handed over to the Israeli defense forces. Let's take a listen. Well, nice to have a little bit of good news out of the Middle East. Sagan was well enough to walk when he was released. He says that he was held both in Hamas tunnels and in civilian apartments during the more than 480 days that he was held captive in Gaza. He says that he was given very little to eat during that time. Two other Israeli Americans remain hostage in Gaza, Idan Alexander, who's 21 years old, and Sigi del Chen, who's 36. The State Department says that they will continue to work for the freedom of all the hostages.

Starting point is 00:10:06 Up next, we hit our news flash. Defense Secretary Pete Hengsath took his first trip as defense secretary today. Hegsafe traveled down to the U.S. border with Mexico in Texas. Hegseth visited with troops and surveyed the border security operations. His visit comes just one day after Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem was down at the border. Videos of Noem on horseback riding along with Border Patrol agents were shared across social media on Sunday. The message from the Trump administration remains clear. Securing the border is a number one priority.

Starting point is 00:10:43 And speaking of the border, a new poll has found that voters in New York state largely support the deportation of criminal illegal aliens. Fox News reports that the poll found that 79% of voters in New York support deporting illegal aliens who have been charged with a crime. Only 11% of voters oppose removing them. The poll also found that there was bipartisan agreement on this issue, though more Republicans than Democrats support the deportations. 69% of Democrats support deporting criminal legal aliens, while 91% of Republicans say that they support the action. The heads of NPR and PBS have been asked to take the hot seat.

Starting point is 00:11:28 Fox News broke the story today that the House subcommittee, known as the Delivering on Government Efficiency, has invited NPR CEO, Catherine, Marr and PBS CEO, Paula Kerger, to testify before Congress. Subcommittee chair Marjorie Taylor Green extended the invite and wants the two news agencies to appear before the subcommittee to defend the federal funding that they receive despite their blatantly ideological and partisan coverage of the news. Will they accept this offer to testify before Congress? Stay tuned. With that, that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks for joining us for the Daily Signal's top news in 10. Today's show was produced by John Pop. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on brand new shows from the Daily Sicle podcast. And if you would,

Starting point is 00:12:15 please take a minute to leave us a review. We love hearing your feedback. And every time that you give us your feedback and helps us make the show even better, have a great rest of your day. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

The Daily Signal - Deal Made Between Mexico & US, Doors Close at USAID, Benjamin Netanyahu Arrives in DC | Feb. 3

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.