The Daily Signal - US/Iran Tensions Increase, Dems Cling to Signal Scandal, Tariff Day Approaches | March 31, 2025

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

On today’s Top News in 10, we cover: The Iranian regime responds to U.S. demands on its nuclear program Democrat leadership attempts to hold nations’ focus on a Signal group chat Trump administration & union leaders talk tariffs as a massive slate of them go into effect on Wednesday. Keep Up With The Daily Signal Sign up for our email newsletters: https://www.dailysignal.com/email     Subscribe to our other shows:  The Tony Kinnett Cast: https://www.dailysignal.com/the-tony-kinnett-cast  Problematic Women: https://www.dailysignal.com/problematic-women  The Signal Sitdown: https://www.dailysignal.com/the-signal-sitdown    Follow The Daily Signal:  X: https://x.com/DailySignal  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedailysignal/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDailySignalNews/  Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@DailySignal  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DailySignal  Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/TheDailySignal    Thanks for making The Daily Signal Podcast your trusted source for the day’s top news. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Iranian regime responds to U.S. demands on its nuclear program. Democrat leadership is still attempting to hold nations focus on a signal group chat scandal, and the Trump administration and union leaders talk tariffs as a massive slate of them go into effect on Wednesday. I'm Tony Kinnett from the Daily Signals Tony Kinnett cast, syndicated nationally at 7 p.m. Eastern. It is Monday, March 31st, 2025. This is the Daily Signal's top news in 10. The situation between Western powers and Iran is growing more tense as Iranian terror proxies are decimated in the region, and the Trump administration's patience is beginning to wear thin.

The Trump administration stated last week that Iran must shut down its nuclear arms program at once, quote, or else. The Iranian president stated early yesterday that Iran has rejected any kind of direct negotiations with the United States regarding its nuclear program, while adding they were open to future indirect negotiations through countries like Oman. Afterward, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran with secondary tariffs and bombings, if they did not come to an agreement, stating during an interview yesterday with NBC News, quote, if they don't make a deal, there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before, end quote. According to N12 news out of Israel,

the Israeli Defense Force has been instructed to finalize all preparations for a strong, strike on Iran by mid-2025. We sat down with Adreza Jafarzade, deputy director of the National Council of the Resistance of Iran, to discuss upcoming meetings this week, potential conflict, and the perspective of those who are Iranian, but are not particularly welcomed by that regime. In the earlier stages, and we expected the outside world to really get on it and do whatever it takes in terms of pressuring the Iranian regime to dismantle. their nuclear weapons program.

But unfortunately, they got into negotiations. They got into giving the Iran regime concessions. At the time, it was the EU 3 that was leading the negotiations. And they gave all kinds of concessions to the Iran regime, allowing the Iran regime to get this far that now they have weaponization program. They have several sites. They have underground facilities enriching uranium. They're working on building nuclear warheads.

We just had another press conference in late January of this year, showing how the organization is in charge of building the bomb, the nuclear bomb, is moving forward very rapidly. So there is only really, honestly, one way left to, in order to end the nuclear weapons program of the Iran regime, which has been our call all these years saying all of these sites need to be closed down. The only remaining solution at this stage is really ending the rule of the clerics. Democrat leadership is struggling to keep the Americans' attention on the signal chat group message scandal from last week in which Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic was added to a particular group chat and then shared details about a strike on the Houthis in Yemen two hours before the attack took place successfully.

This is on the heels of a large amount of turmoil in the Democratic Party after. Senator Chuck Schumer and many establishment Democrats in congressional leadership struggled to align with the more progressive members of their party over the continuing resolution and what a government shutdown might mean after there have been no proposals from legislation, no proposals in future candidates, no proposals in a direction to move the party except as just opposition to President Trump and to Doge Head Elon Musk. Senator Warner of Virginia and one of the key members, of the Intelligence Committee in the Senate,

was the primary guest on ABC's this week and reasserted his claim that serious classified intelligence was leaked when Goldberg was added to this particular group message with senior defense officials. And you were this sloppy and careless with this classified information, you would be fired. No doubt about it. So let's talk about this, though.

They keep saying it was not classified. And what is the confusion there? there. Could Pete Hegseth have since made it unclassified? Do different agencies have different classifications? There is no question regardless of agency that this was classified. And the point, what I wish Hegseth and those folks who are obfuscating as giving them the benefit of the doubt, I think they're lying about, they should know this is classified. You think every person who says this is wrong?

I think there is no question when you put out time and place. Of note, though Senator Warner derides the administration for using Signal, an encrypted messaging app established as standard during the Biden administration, Warner has previously used Signal to privately contact a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch who had been offering Warner access to former British spy Christopher Steele, author of the discredited dossier, compiling false administration against the 2016 Trump campaign. Additionally, though he has asserted so several times, Warner has yet to draw any specific, tangible lines showing how the information in this particular group chat would have led to the deaths of U.S. airmen, sailors, or soldiers. At Desjardin, we speak business.

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This brings us over to the large slate of tariffs which are expected to go into place on April 2nd, which Trump has called Liberation Day. It is unclear the scale of all of the tariffs that are going to go into. to effect. There have been suggestions of a tiered nation system. There have been suggestions of a reciprocal tariff system. There have been specific tariff applications on things like automotive industries, parts manufacturing as well as importing foreign cars, all the way over to medical prescription companies. This large amount of uncertainty has caused quite a roller coaster in the stock market. The Dow Jones, the NASDAQ, the S&P 500 continue to go up and then down,

depending on the kind of language that comes out of the Trump administration, which isn't always the same kind of messaging. The Trump administration has been playing the details of these particular tariffs, the reasons behind them, especially concerning situations like Canada, like Taiwan, like Mexico, like Europe, very close to the chest, as they are currently doing with many of their defense strategies. Part of the uncertainty in the market comes from the different messages that you're seeing from different members of the Trump administration. President Trump says something different than Vice President J.D. Vance, who says something different than the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besant, who says something different than trade advisor Peter Navarro. Speaking of Peter Navarro, he was on

Fox News Sunday, making the claim that these tariffs are tax cuts for the American people. You heard Lucas is reporting there where the president says he doesn't care if the prices go up on U.S. cars. So what's the message to the U.S. consumer? The message is that tariffs are tax cuts, tariffs are jobs, tariffs are national security, tariffs are great. For America, tariffs will make America great again. Union President Sean Fane of the United Auto Workers appeared on Face the Nation yesterday, where he praised Trump's tariff policies in general, especially the automotive tariffs, but had questions and criticisms for where the auto industries might be bringing that business back to

United States, given that some states have right to work laws and make it more difficult for unionization and expensive union contracts to rule the roost in manufacturing centers in certain states. There is plenty of opportunity, and I've had companies tell us point blank that they're going to have to bring product back here if those tariffs are implemented. We've seen over 90,000 manufacturing facilities leave the United States. We've seen, in the big three alone in the last 20-plus years, 65 plants have closed. You know, and so, look, Tariffs aren't the total solution. Tariffs are a tool in the toolbox to get these companies to do the right thing,

and the intent behind it is to bring jobs back here and invest in the American workers. If they're going to bring jobs back here, they need to be life-sustaining jobs where people can make a good wage, a living wage, have adequate health care, and have a retirement security, and not have to work seven days a week or multiple jobs, just a scrape to get by paycheck to paycheck. Do you have assurances from the Trump administration as you dialogue with it about those things you just laid out, not just jobs, but a substantial wage, health care, and the like? Every time we speak, we talk about bringing jobs back, about bringing the manufacturing base back in this country. But, you know, it doesn't do any good if they're going to locate them in places and they're not going to have the opportunity to have a union, you know.

And so, naturally, we have concerns. We have great concerns after what happened last night, you know, with the stroke of a marker. you know, Trump eliminated bargaining or eliminated contracts for 700,000 federal workers. Now, of course, it's a day ending in why, which means that Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas has said some despicable things, particularly this time about Florida Representative Byron Donald's interracial marriage. We're going to dig into that a little bit more this evening, as well as into some of the town halls from around the country, whether they matter and what the impact could be on the midterms, which are still over a year and a half away. So before you go, check the description to make sure you're subscribed to the Tony Kinnett cast and join us at 7 p.m. Eastern.

I'm Tony Kinnett, and this has been The Daily Signals, Top News in 10. Take care.