The Dan Bongino Show - Why Trump's Tariff War Actually Makes Sense | Episode 16

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

The country has survived a long weekend of tariffs and begins a new one with glimpses of free trade on the horizon. In this episode: President Trump addresses the multiple aspects of the tariffs and Tucker Carlson sits down with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as he breaks down the country's way forward. Thousands of Protesters Gather for ‘Hands Off!’ Rallies Across U.S. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/04/05/thousands-of-protesters-gather-for-hands-off-rallies-across-u-s/ Clean energy exec, ex-federal worker charged with defacing Tesla vehicles https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/04/04/tesla-vandalism-arrests-dc/ Senate GOP Advances Tax Cuts, Border Security Spending After Marathon Session https://dailycaller.com/2025/04/05/senate-gop-advances-tax-cuts-border-security-spending-after-marathon-session/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Monday and it's Vince and you're inside a brand new studio right now. Actually this studio is my home studio. This is the house. Now it didn't always look like this. I should tell you it mostly looked like this but we added some new features to the room. We put Vince up on the wall here which is kind of fun. We've got the big American flag in the background. Let me go this way so you can see it.

The big American flag in the background. Let me go this way so you can see it. The big American flag in the background. We've got a good operation going here and really grateful for your participation as always in Vince. One more thing before, well actually we'll get to it in just a moment. I'm going to tell you some really good news. It involves you and the massive success that this show has been thanks to you. We will get to that in just a moment. Also the big news today, tariff tango continues as President Trump is holding the line. We've got some new messages from the President of the United States. We've got, we've got to get into a little bit of drama going on at the FBI right now. People are wondering, hey, who are they hiring and why?

We'll explore some of that and, and so much more. Oh, and the left, I can't, how can I forget? The left is going crazy. Absolutely lunatic. And of course, it's all AstroTurf nonsense. George Soros financing massive protests all across the country and the left. You should see what they're out there protesting for. It'll instantly tell you how fraudulent the entire exercise is. It's all ahead on this episode of Vince. Before we get into more of those details though, I have to tell you one thing that we conservatives do believe in is self-reliance, taking responsibility

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The... The... Gotta let the intro play before I talk. Thank you to the chat. Everyone's saying that the studio looks nice. I'm telling you right now that this is, this is, this still remains at the moment, kind of a temporary arrangement. I'm doing, this is my home studio.

I'm doing this from the house for, for a little bit longer. And then eventually I'm going to be located inside of the, the same radio station that I'll do the 12 to three from every day, right here in the Washington DC area. We'll have a studio set up there. Paula Bongino and a lighting crew went and they visited and they were working out the details on what it's gonna look like and how to arrange it.

So it's gonna be great. I can't wait to get in there finally. But for now, yes, you're right. There's a lot of the features in the studio I'm in right now. I kind of, I designed very intentionally to look a lot like what the Bongino's set up in Florida. So yeah, you can see a lot of similar elements here. And for those asking, yes, it is a bottle of Eagle Rare

sitting, there's a bourbon bottle of Eagle Rare sitting here from my good friends at, let's see here if I can put this up. It's a store pick from Bourbon Boulevard. My buddies at Bourbon Boulevard in Virginia. That's their full bottle of Eagle Rare. And in case you're wondering, I'm no tater, I have an open bottle of Eagle Rare. This one's just closed and it's used for the set right now.

So there you go. There you go. So that's what we've got going on here. Here's the good news that I wanna share with you that you have been a part of. We just got the podcast ratings in from PodTrack for the month of March, which of course is now concluded. And look at this thing.

Let's take a look at the podcast. Where are we here? Let's see. Number seven, number seven in the whole country? New, new, that means that's the first time we're all on this ratings chart together. Number seven in the entire United States of America. How about that?

Thank you very, very much guys. Look at that. Let's get some, how about some W's for winning in the chat? Some W's because we've got number seven in the country. That puts us right near the top. Now what frustrates me is that I'm looking at a lot of NPR above me, which is psychotic. Thank you.

Some W's appearing in the chat. Thank you very much for that. Uh, I don't, how did NPR end up on those top things? So we got NPR news now at number one up first from NPR at number three. Can we defund them already? If we get rid of NPR, where does that put us? Oh, that'll, that'll put us up nicely. That will be in the top five in the country.

If we get rid of all those, those NPR goons up top. So, uh, just in case you're wondering what impact you've had so far. Hello. Number seven in the whole country. Thank you for that. And the goal is to just keep going up from here. A lot of great people on that list. I'm looking at the list. Sean Ryan is right there with us. Very cool. Very, very cool. So thank you for that. And yes, let's defund NPR. Let's let's let's fix this scoreboard because they already fixed it. What's the deal here? It's rigged. Thank you very much. Lots of W's in the chat. We'll be number one

next month says Kay Osborne. I can't wait for that. I can't wait for that. Hey, let's let's get into these lefties now. These lefty protests all across the country over the weekend. On Saturday, we saw a very goofy day of rage from the left. Have you noticed that the left holds days of rage? These are like jihadis. They hold days of rage that they shake their fist at the sky and they yell and then they put, they have like effigies of Trump for real. There were effigies of Trump being dragged around like, you know, like these guys should be investigated by the Secret Service, let's be honest, as they're

dragging around what looks like a body of the president of the United States. I saw one video, I'm not even going to show it to you, it's disgusting, of a woman doing disgusting sexual acts to a puppet of Trump and acting like that's the proper way of things. It's obviously demented. There's a lot of mental illness running around and the big money players on the left are exploiting a lot of this mental illness. They're taking mentally ill people and then mobilizing them in the streets

to advocate for what? Well, let me think here. They're advocating for more war. They're advocating for open borders. They're advocating for more government. They want more abortions. They want fewer electric vehicles. Is that adding up?

Is that, do they even know what they're advocating for? We've got guys who were out on the street this week, who were on Saturday, who are waving flags, like insane flags. Look at cut 10. Here's protesters out on the street on Saturday holding up Ukraine flags and transgender flags. Look at this. It's insanity. Look at that, trans flags.

Trans flags. So they go out on the street, they're not protesting or rallying on behalf of the United States of America. They're flying Ukraine flags, there's Mexican flags out there. What is this? Well, it's not for America. I've got the American flag right here. To the extent that you saw American flags at all,

at any of these protests this weekend, they were flying upside down. Oh, it's a nation in distress. That's the international symbol. You're an idiot, actually. That's what you are. So Trump, who's trying to unwind the corruption, Trump is trying to confront it head on.

Who's trying to untangle us from every possible war on the planet. The guy is the pro-peace president. And so they're out on the street saying that they want more war. They're waving Ukraine flags in order to sustain more Ukrainian death. If you can't detect that by now, you're gone, you're lost, or you're a part of the establishment that's profiting off of it. Ukrainians are dying. Ukrainians are dying.

So every time you're waving that Ukrainian flag at a US event, it is to sustain the death of Ukrainian people. Over a million people casualties in this war. It's insanity. And the left, which used to pretend to be against war, is actually exposing itself as completely for the status quo in whatever form it takes. They will defend the elite establishment. So Trump and you and me, we confront it. The left goes out and they advocate for it. So there you have those Ukraine and trans flags. They were also flying. This is cut 14 Antifa flags and Palestinian flags, obviously.

Take a look. There it is, Antifa. That's a domestic terrorism flag. Yeah, so the Antifa flag is out there. Palestinian flags are all over the place. They were also flying pro-Hamas flags. Look at this, Cut 13. Lara Loomer and her organization captured This is in DC. So you know, the left, they act like they're like, oh, we're not for Hamas. How could we be for him? Hello. You're carrying Hamas's flag with you in the streets of the nation's capital. You're explicitly supporting a terror organization. There's no question here. It's not like, oh, we just support the rights of Palestinian Arabs to live. No, actually, you are carrying

Hamas flags because you're advocating for terrorism in the streets of the nation's capital. That's what's happening. So that's a case you're wondering how cohesive all of this is. It's it's mindless. It's completely incoherent. Everything everything you just saw was designed to increase the chaos, not to make it a bait, not to help anybody, not to, you know, help humanity coexist. It's nothing like that. It's sowing division. It's sowing death and destruction. And then of course, because they can't hide it at all, they're also carrying pro-socialism signs this weekend. Cut 16, take a look at this. Socialism. Socialism beats fascism. The irony, of course, is they're both.

Yeah, all right. So they all got on the streets. They advocate for... Let's go back down the list again. We've got Antifa, that's domestic terrorism. We've got the Palestinian flags, they're flying foreign flags on our soil. They're flying Mexican flags on our soil, of course, because again, foreign flags. They're also flying Ukraine flags, again, foreign flags, in order to sustain wars in that region and more death.

They're flying the pro-socialism flags. They're flying the Hamas flag, pretty explicitly a terror organization. And then of course I covered, they weresocialism flags, they're flying the Hamas flag, pretty explicitly a terror organization. And then of course I covered they were flying trans flags, transgender flags, LGBTQ. Those are the misogynistic bigoted flags of a demented political movement that is seeking to hurt women. Did I just? Oh, that's not good. If you're watching the video, did I just do a thumbs up emoji and it just appeared on screen? Yeah, that's stupid.

That's, this is the product of, this is the product of my computer not having that option turned up. That means if I do double thumbs up, this could be a risk. Let's see if I get fireworks. Let's see. Yeah, okay. Let's just hope that that doesn't Yeah. Okay.

Let's just hope that that doesn't break. Okay. Alright. Enough of that. Let me turn that off. Whoops! That's an issue. Let me make sure that turns off entirely. That should not be on. Whatever. I can't do it. I'll deal with it later. If you see emojis, my bad.

Anyway, an emoji, for those of you listening to the podcast, random visual emojis just started appearing on screen. Not what I wanted at all. Anyway, back to the LGBTQ flags. They're flying these LGBTQ flags. And what that means, of course, is that they're for maiming kids. Notice that there was no, there's no pro-children signage this weekend. Nobody was out there saying, hey, we need to protect kids. No, that's the opposite of what the left wants to do. The left's position on children is if they can't scramble their brains inside the womb, they'll scramble their brains after they get out. That's the plan on the left, which is why Planned Parenthood was one of the key sponsors of this weekend's action, protests on Saturday.

It's an absurdity. It's an absurdity. So, on that front, I have to remind you that what's going on here is this is Soros funded. Soros is one of many funders, but he's a major funder of this organization, Indivisible. And in fact, through the years has given this group over nearly $8 million.

That's at least according to public records that we are aware of worth of grants to this group, Indivisible. That's since 2018 alone. Now, 2018 you'll remember, that's the thick of the first Trump administration. So they set up this operation during the first Trump administration. They sow showed as much chaos as they could then,

and now they're dusting off the old playbook, bringing everybody back out and putting a bunch of obviously paid operatives, but then simultaneously useful idiots into the streets of the United States to protest against the guy who's actually breaking the status quo. That's what they're doing. And then convincing them that they're a part of some sort of revolution. They're not a part of a real revolution. If anything, they're a part of what we normally refer to as a color revolution. A color revolution is when you have outside forces that synthetically create the appearance

of a revolution in order to create chaos. The United States is accustomed to this in some regards because we have corrupt establishment members who have been doing this in various countries all around the planet, not making things more stable, instead making things more chaotic. And then applying that same playbook here in the United States, Mike Benz, who many of you will know and like, I like Mike Benz, I've had great conversations with him in the past, he says, yeah, they're tapping into the color revolution playbook. This is synthetic. It is artificial. What's going on? These are not, this is not born out of some

sort of actual concern for the well-being of the average American family. They don't give a damn if you can make it paycheck to paycheck. They're not concerned that America is at over a trillion dollars in credit card debt. They're not concerned about the safety of our communities. That's the last thing on their mind. They like the chaos. They want to take things to an even worse level than they were under Biden, and they're applying all of this left-wing cash to do it. It's phony. It is garbage. And the incoherence of all the messages is sort of an indication of that, isn't it? Victor Davis Hansen, who is wonderful,

has been talking about this. Take a look at Cut 11, Victor Davis Hansen in his typically great analysis of what's going on in our country right now. The Democratic Party is a party of the very wealthy professionals, the billionaire class and the subsidized poor, and it abandoned the middle class 10, 15 years ago. All the data show that it's the party of the very wealthy. And what they're doing right now is they're creating hysteria on the left so they can

empower Europe, China, and Japan and send a message. If you guys will just hold out, we're creating such anger and tension here that you can win this trade war, humiliate Trump, and then we can come back to power and we're gonna restore the globalized status quo. That's what they're doing. Look at that, look at that. So what is Victor Davis Hansen tapping into?

BDH. He's tapping into the fact that we've got lefties in the country who are sowing chaos as a not subtle message to foreign powers, to adversaries of the United States, just bide your time with Trump. Don't you worry about Trump's forcefulness here, his muscular tariff policies, his economic policies,

just ride it out because we are going to introduce so much chaos in the United States that we're going to unseat the Trump administration. And when that happens, you can continue to take advantage of this country. That's the message. So when you see what just happened on Saturday, you can't disconnect it from President Trump's fight

in order to right the economy. You can't separate that at all. So it's worth remembering that as you see all of the economic battles that are going on, that you've got the left really, really trying to sow chaos here as a sign to foreign powers that they stand with them. Victor Davis Hansen with that excellent assessment. More in a moment and a lot of people liking Victor Davis Hansen here. People also saying they're glad that I'm back at a desk here. I love being back at a desk here. The chat, as always, wonderful. All right. Hey, let me tell you before I get back into some of the tariff stuff that's going on, you know, the April 15th tax deadline, it is barreling towards us. As we're doing this, it's April 7th.

That means we've got eight days, according to math that I learned many, many years ago. The April 15th tax deadline is coming very fast. Are your tax returns unfiled? Can you not pay the IRS for some reason? The IRS is more aggressive than ever, and the longer that you wait, the worse it gets. Wage garnishments, bank levies, even property seizures, they're all on the table. So you need to get ahead of this. But going up against the IRS alone, that's a mistake. So take my advice, call the experts at Tax Network USA. They know the system, and they've got an edge, a preferred direct line right to the IRS. They know which

agents to deal with and which to avoid. Whether you owe $10,000 or $10 million, their genius strategies are designed to quickly settle your tax problems in your favor. Tax Network USA's attorneys and negotiators have already resolved over a billion dollars in tax debt. Tax Network USA can help you too, but you need to move fast. April 15th, it's almost here, eight days away. Talk with one of their strategists today with no obligation. Stop looking over your shoulder, put this behind you, call Tax Network USA at 1-800-958-1000, that's 1-800-958-1000, or visit tnusa.com slash Vince. All right. We've got a lot of people showing up in the chat.

Bingo, VDH, people are happy about this. Why is Vince not in Dan's studio? asks PageRazor. Thank you, Page, for asking. It's because Dan's studio, as we understand it, is in Florida. Well, Dan doesn't need a studio right now. Dan's because Dan's studio, as we understand it, is in Florida. Well, Dan doesn't need a studio right now. Dan's busy at the FBI, but the studio that the Bonginos built, that Silverlock built, is in Florida. I am in the Washington, D.C. area, and I'm just using this as my home studio. This is where I live. I don't live in this room, but I do come down

here to do the show. And then after this, in fact, just so you know, this is the same microphone, same board, everything that I've previously guest hosted Dan Bongino's radio show on from 12 to 3 Nationwide. So when I would do that, I would do it from right here in this room. And in fact, coming up later today at 12 to 3 Eastern, I will be doing the show from here, the radio show. MyChimp asks, can I live in that room? MyChimp, no, I'm sorry you can't, but thank you for asking. That's really, really nice of you. Delilah3933 saying, it's a beautiful studio Vince.

Thank you for that. And then Joe Daddy encouraging me to come down to Florida. Florida is awesome. Yeah, I've got family that live in Florida. I love Florida and actually this is the perfect time of year to be down to Florida. Florida is awesome. Yeah, I've got family that live in Florida. I love Florida. And actually this is the perfect time of year to be down there in that studio. The truth is, I'm just here.

The reason I've decided to stay here, it's my family. I've got a 10 year old and she's in school and we're keeping her in school with her friends. Don't worry, not in any of the government schools. We're not stupid. But that's the arrangement from now. Can I envision myself down in Florida hanging out with the boys at Silverlock all the time instead of just talking to them remotely through an earpiece?

Yes, I can. And I had a great week when we were down there week one. Hopefully we'll get back to doing that again soon. But again, during the better months, temperature wise. The thick of summer, come on. You're going to track me down there? No, not going to happen. Winter? Yeah, that gonna happen. Winter?

Yeah, that sounds really great. I love Florida for the winter. Okay. Let me see. I've got the stuff that's going on right now with the markets. So just to give you, let me see if I can pull up CNBC for you.

Just to show you the ticker right now at this moment. It says, yeah, the Dow is down. Well, it's actually down 1.38%. So it's actually bounced up a bit since this morning. Take a look at that. The Dow is down 1.3%, 1.6 right now at the time that we're talking. And so, yeah, the markets are going through some upheaval right now. And the reason for that, there's a bunch of reasons for it, but one of them is President Trump, they think he's serious about the tariff stuff.

And he is serious. If you've watched any of the president's remarks over the weekend, or any of the people who are representing the president of the United States, they keep saying, hey, he's not playing around. He really, really means this. He's very, very serious. So let me start with cut one here.

This is the president of the United States. He's talking to some report, I don't know, I think she's with Bloomberg actually, because he ends up asking her, where are you from? And she's like, I'm with Bloomberg. And then he's just super annoyed by her. And she asks whether or not he's intentionally tanking the markets.

And he says, this is a very stupid question. Take a look. Already in place. Now what's gonna happen with the market? I can't tell you, but I can tell you, our country has gotten a lot stronger. And eventually, it'll be a country like no other. It'll be the most dominant country

economically in the world. Mr. President. Which is what it should be. Is there a Trump put though? Are you, is there a mark, is there pain in the market at some point you're unwilling to tolerate this idea of a Trump put? Is there a Trump put though? Is there a mark? Is there pain in the market at some point? You're unwilling to tolerate this idea of a Trump put? Is there a threshold?

I think your question is so stupid. I mean, I think it's a, I don't want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something. And we have such a horrible, we have been treated so badly by other countries because we had stupid leadership that allowed this to happen. They took our businesses, they took our money, they took our jobs, they moved it to Mexico, they moved it to Canada, they moved a lot of it to China, and it's not sustainable.

We're not going to do it. Now we have hundreds of millions of dollars is pouring into our country. On a monthly basis, it's pouring, it's already started, because they put tariffs on it. And eventually it's going to straighten out and our country will be solid and strong again. Elon. Yeah, okay. So the reporter's like, you know, is there some point where you feel like you've done enough damage to the economy? This is the stupid question coming from the Bloomberg reporter. And Trump's like, this, that is such a stupid question. Stupid. Imagine being in her, the president of the United

States looks you square in the face and says, you're an idiot. What a stupid question you just asked. Does that make you feel good that you ask dumb questions like this? You're wasting, and they pay a lot of money to be on those flights. You know that? I think I've mentioned this before, but just to say, you know, in order for these reporters to go on an Air Force One flight, every single one of them, every body that a media outlet puts on the plane, they've got to pay rather first class plus a dollar for a flight like that, for the typical first class ticket. So they're paying a lot of money to be on these flights, flying around with the president. Now you might say, well, Bloomberg can afford it.

Yeah, sure. But they just dumped a lot of cash into that flight. And she gets on there and she's like, Hey, when are you going to stop hurting the economy? And Trump's like, you're an idiot. How about that? All right, next question. So that's my president. That's the guy. Love that guy. Really funny. All right. So he says, look, we're in this for the long haul, because we've been taken advantage of. So we're going to do this the right way. Here is what I want you to see. I've got an update here. This is a true social post this morning from the president of the United States.

The crude oil prices are down. Take a look at this. Crude oil prices are down this morning. And the president said right away, oil prices are down, interest rates are down, the slow moving Fed should cut rates, food prices are down, as you know, egg prices have gone way down.

There's no inflation. The long time abused USA is bringing in billions of dollars a week from the abusing countries on tariffs that are already in place. This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its tariffs by 34% on top of its long-term ridiculously high tariffs.

Plus, not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate. They've made enough for decades, taking advantage of the good old USA. Our past leaders are to blame for allowing this and so much else to happen to our country. Make America great again. So President Trump is pointing to,

you see right up top, oil prices are down, interest rates are down, and that the Fed should cut rates, that'll be good for all of your loans for a mortgage to put people in a place where they can refinance their mortgage, get a mortgage to afford a home, have the lower monthly payments. Food prices are down. That means you can afford food in the United States, feed your family, not go into debt to do that. And he says, of course, that there's also no inflation. So he's looking at the positive indicators in the midst

of all of this right now. You're seeing, as he points out, that the interest rates are coming down. That's on the 10-year Treasury rates. They are coming down very quickly, very dramatically, and the president would like to see a Fed rate cut ensue to bring the mortgage rates and all of the loan rates down all across the board so the president saying look. We're fixing things very very rapidly here and these tariffs are going to be revenue producing people want access to the US market and he's asking for patients he wants people not to be. The party of panic that's what he's asking for today. Literally, this morning, another truth social post, President Trump says, don't become a panic in a panic.

And he says, it's virtually a political party here. The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done decades ago. He said, don't be weak, don't be stupid. You know, like that Bloomberg reporter, don't be a panicking. A new party based on weak and stupid people be strong, courageous and patient and greatness will be the result. So the president's saying, Hey, don't get into the panic mode here. Don't be one.

Don't be a chicken little. Don't be they, the sky is falling. This is gonna take a lot of discipline and some sense of long-term appreciation for what we can achieve as an economy. And the president asking for your patience here. And also really that's a message for the lefties who are going absolutely bonkers right now.

So more in a moment, I do wanna get through some of the other guys who are out there talking about what's happening in the economy right now to give you more confidence that this is a well-considered strategy on the part of the president of the United States who has been over the last 40 years talking about doing this very thing. Again, not a surprise. But as you know, we are in a turbulent time right now. You see some policy changes and they do have massive impacts on a turbulent time right now. You see some policy changes and they do have massive impacts on the global and national economy. And for some people, as I mentioned, it can be scary, but it is possible to do something to help protect your savings right now. Diversify. You can diversify a portion of your savings into gold with the

help of Birch Gold Group. I just had a call with them the other day and Birch Gold specializes in helping you convert an existing IRA or a 401k into a tax sheltered IRA in physical gold or silver for no money out of pocket. Just listen to this great five-star review. Knowledgeable, helpful, non-pressure. This is what you get with Birch Gold and this is why I'm proud to endorse them. In fact, Secretary Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, was talking just the other day about what a valuable store of value gold is. You can start by getting your free info kit on gold. Just text my name, Vince, to the number 989898 and Birch Gold will send you your free info kit. There's no obligation, just useful

information with an A plus rating from the Better Business Bureau and countless five-star reviews. You can text Vince to 989898 and let the experts at Birch Gold help you protect your future today with gold message and data rate supply. Yes, indeed. And then also, I am very proud of my fast growing tree. I have a fast growing, let me show you if you haven't, if you didn't see it the other day, I've got a picture of my fast growing tree. I just got an Eastern Redbud and I put it in the yard. Take a look here if you can. Right there. There it is. There's my, there's my Redbud,

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Now's the perfect time to plant. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Go to fastgrowingtrees.com for details. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Yeah, people like the tree. I like the tree.

The tree is great. The tree's been awesome. And I like just getting back to my house and seeing my red bud. I was like, finally, I've been wanting one of these for a long time. So thank you to Fast Growing Trees for sponsoring this program.

Which by the way, if you're watching the Rumble live stream right now, I just wanna remind those of you who got here late that this show, thanks to you, is number seven in the country. Number seven right now, let me do that so my face is covered, ready? Boom, number seven in the country number seven right now. Let me do that. So my face is covered pretty boom number seven in the country Across all podcasts look at that and we really should be number five because NPR is heavily subsidized by your tax dollars and both

Of those top shows those two shows up there. I should be eliminated completely. So we're effectively number five should be eliminated completely. So we're effectively number five, certainly number one in the eyes, ears and hearts of patriots everywhere. Thank you for that. This is going great. Hey, let me see. I do have more from these Trump officials who are basically one of the big items this weekend is that all of these countries want a deal now. Over 50 countries have come forward and say, we'd like a deal, please. Can you please drop the tariffs? And at the moment, no tariffs are being dropped. Here's President Trump talking about it. Cut to President Trump talking about a lot of countries have come to me so far. Five or six. I've spoken to many countries. They all want to do it just so you understand the power of what I'm doing.

Every country is calling and being very solicitous of us. Very, very nice and being very nice. And we have to be able to justify. This is not sustainable. The United States can't lose $1.9 trillion on trade. We can't do that and also spend a lot of money on NATO in order to protect European nations. We cover them with military, then we lose money on trade. The whole thing is crazy.

And I got elected on that basis. We explained it. You know, the American people understand it a lot better than the media, but the media understands it. And much of the media writes correctly about it, I must say. Well, a compliment at the air, a rare compliment for the press from President Trump. Yeah, there's a lot of the media, they are writing about this, correct? You know, and I'm not sure what he's referencing, by the way, I haven't seen much of that coverage.

Maybe he's just being nice in order to try and win some of these guys over to get some more good coverage. But here, you know, that detail that he raised, which is that, hey, the military, we protect everybody. Have you noticed? Like our job is to protect the whole damn planet. And so when the president says, I'm applying tariffs to your country, it's just that the debt is coming due. It's as simple as that. And so for those places where you're like, well, wait a second, why is he applying tariffs to places that have 0% tariffs on us? This is not reciprocal tariffs, is it? Well, think about what the president just said. The president just said, we are protecting these places. The United States gives them everything. And what do we get back?

Definitely not enough. Definitely not enough. And so what we need is our get back. We need our get back. We need the debt is coming due and President Trump is tired of being taken advantage of. So yeah, we're gonna right this ship. So we're gonna do it either in the form of tariffs

over the short term, or we're gonna to do it either in the form of tariffs over the short term, or we're going to do it by attracting businesses into the United States of America over the longer term. And so, as the tariffs go down, the tax revenues that come along with those business being in the United States, the thriving economy that comes with those businesses being in the United States, that's what's going to help the country. So, the president is looking for a long-term corrective. He's trying to correct the health of the country. He's been describing it a lot lately.

The analogy he's been using is that of a sick patient. We have a very sick country. And right now he's in the midst of doing pretty major surgery. That's again, this is his analogy, a major intervention. And now from here, the patient recovers. And yes, it'll be even fits and starts. Yes, there will be some slowness to the process,

but this is something that has to happen for the long-term health of our country. And it's not just for me and you. Now that's like lefty short-term thinking. How is this good for me? What do I get from me? No, conservatives, we have the long view in a bunch of ways.

We understand delayed gratification because typically we were raised to appreciate that. But also we care about the well-being of our children. And then of course, by extension, our grandchildren, what kind of country are we leaving to them? So really is the plan that we're just going to run this country up into massive debt and then screw our grandchildren over, leave them nothing? Well, no, that's insane. To anybody who has, who has descendants, you take the

longer view. You take the longer view. Every so often, I wonder what it would be like if only parents or grandparents were allowed to vote in elections. I just wonder what would the what would the effect be on the country? Because then you at least can guarantee the high probability that people aren't merely thinking about what what can I get for me? How can I get something for me? No, this is really about taking care of our families and raising them in a country

and leaving them a better country than you found it. That's the goal. That's the goal for all of us. The president, obviously talking about this, also Kevin Hassett was talking about all the countries who are rushing to the White House now, cut 10. Listen to this, the president's advisor indicating, yeah, over 50 countries have come up

and they're trying to get a better deal. I got a report from USTR last night that more than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation. But they're doing that because they understand that they bear a lot of the tariff. And so I don't think that you're gonna see a big effect on the consumer in the US because I do think that the reason why we have a persistent long run trade deficit is these people

have very inelastic supply. They've been dumping goods into the country in order to create jobs, say in China. Inelastic supply, meaning they don't have anywhere else to go. They're selling in the United States. Their portfolio is heavily weighted to US consumers. Meanwhile, US consumers have a lot of elasticity, economically. We don't have to buy everything from China. We could go to other places, Vietnam, Singapore, the United States of America.

We have options in other words. So if you decide that we don't buy a product from one place, there are many other places to buy it. Now, not every supply chain is like that, obviously. Taiwan's a good example where we're heavily dependent on microchips that come from Taiwan. We have to bring that to the United States, and that's what the president's focused on. The president and his team are trying to attract Taiwanese investment into chip development

here in the United States of America. We get too many of our pharmaceuticals from China and India right now. That's an insane arrangement. And if you learned anything from COVID, as we all learn together, being that dependent on, especially China, our adversary, for critical supplies in a moment of complete national security chaos, that can't happen again. So a part of this, a huge part of this is national security, not just economic wellbeing, but the long-term longevity of our country depends entirely on where do we get medicine from?

Where do we get our computers from? Where do we get microchips from? Really, we have to be dependent on either China or the country that they're about to invade, Taiwan? No bueno, no bueno. Unsustainable. And so, unserious people pretend like that's a totally fine arrangement. We can just do that forever. Serious people, like the guy you just elected, says that needs to be fixed pronto. We need to fix very quickly. Now, economic stuff. secretary, Scott Besson did a great

interview with Tucker Carlson this past week, it's about an hour long. The whole thing is worth watching, but I I've pulled out a selection for you to really take a closer look at, um, kind of the, the, the psychology behind all of this, the way it's operating. Um, let's start with cut six here. Here's Scott Besson, the treasury secretary saying, the goal is to bring production here to the United States of America, watch.

Goal of the tariffs and the president says all the time, bring your factory here. That's the best solution toward getting away from a tariff wall. So move your factory from China, from Mexico, from Vietnam, bring it here. So what will happen over time, we'll have substantial tariff income in the beginning. Manufacturers will build their factory here, the tariffs will drop, but the revenue from the factories, the have from income taxes,

from all the new jobs will go up. So we'll be taking it in domestically as the tariffs drop. And why are the tariffs dropping? Because we're making it here and our trade deficits dropping. So you've obviously. Okay, so let me address some of the kind of the counter arguments I saw over the weekend. I was getting a lot of messages on Instagram. One of my videos from last week,

I want to say Thursday or Friday, went viral on Instagram where I was talking about like, hey, you want to avoid tariffs? Come here. Come here to the United States of America. And I was getting a lot of feedback from people all across Instagram, a lot of lefties who were weighing in here, and just people generally who were concerned about what the impact would be on the economy. And as they were talking about, well, okay, but the reason that the factories left was because labor is so much cheaper elsewhere. And then if it comes here, labor is more expensive, and therefore the products will be more expensive. And then Americans won't be able to afford it. They're kind of making worst-case scenario projections out of all of this. So President Trump fights to bring the factories back, fights to bring the jobs back, and people are are crapping all over it saying

it's going to be awful. Now a lot of that is just natural anti-Trump instinct that kind of spills out in faux analysis where people are pretending they're analyzing this on a good faith basis. They're not. they just hate Trump. Anything he's for, they're against, then they'll rationalize it. But one of the things I wanna point you to that Scott Besson says in this interview, I'm not sure if I pulled a specific clip on it,

but I just want you to think about. When factories come back to the United States, it's not just human labor that's gonna work there. Human labor is gonna be an essential ingredient, a huge component. But the advancement in AI and robotics and automation and all of the other things that go along with modern production means what we're gonna do

is we're gonna shorten the supply chain dramatically. We're not bringing goods across the Pacific. We're gonna have them right here in the continental United States being produced. And that's going to be good for all of the industries that feed into those manufacturing centers. And it'll be good for the employees who actually work there and all of the people who live in the surrounding community that will benefit financially from that factory being in their community. The other piece is that given modern optimization, there are massive ways to try and

keep the costs down on the production while creating very high quality goods. There is a substantive difference, by the way, between things that are made in the United States and typically made in China. Have you noticed if you've ever purchased a Chinese product, most of it is flimsy, cheap, collapsing Chinese crap. In the United States, at least we have some standards to construction, quality construction here in America. And so in the midst of all of this, they're thinking really sincerely about how do we attract all of this here and how do we keep prices down? How do we keep prices down? And if we get American energy flowing, well, that really changes so much of the equation because energy is required not only to get materials to those

factories, and then not only to develop those items in the factories to build the widgets, you need energy to do that, but also to ship it from the factories to get it to you. And if you decrease energy prices at every step of the supply chain, you decrease the cost of the goods that you're purchasing in that supply chain. So, so here we, yeah, there you go. There you go. Another thumbs up appearing on my screen accidentally, a little emoji.

But that's what, that's what's happening here as the president is decreasing costs and refocusing on how do we make this good for, for America. More from Scott Besson. Besson says, look, the old system isn't working at all and you need some bravery to fix it. Take a look, cut seven. Here's treasury secretary Besson says, look, the old system isn't working at all, and you need some bravery to fix it. Take a look, cut seven, here's Treasury Secretary Besson. The old system wasn't working. I think that's right. And if you look at a system that's not working,

you gotta be brave to change it. So what wasn't working? Would have been really fun for me to come in and just keep issuing a lot of debt. And it's almost like a bodybuilder is taking steroids outside looks great. Your muscular inside, you're killing your vital organs. That's what was going on here. But it would have been easy to keep pumping up the economy, borrowing a lot of money,

creating a lot of government jobs. The status quo. There was no controversy when we're doing all that. But you were going to end up in a calamity if you go back and look. You look at the financial crisis in 07, 08. Economy looked great right up until then. You go back and you look at the end of the dot com bubble and then the whole credit problem, the fraud at WorldCom and Ron and some other companies. Economy looked great until it didn't.

The party has to stop at some point. One of the things that we won't get credit for, but that this administration will have done is avoiding a financial calamity. Think about it, that they've done an analysis that one of the reasons 9-11 happened because the airlines didn't want to pay for reinforced doors. They kept pushing back. FAA didn't push hard enough. And now we've got the reinforced

doors. So I look at it, we're putting on the reinforced doors before the crash. Yeah, we have to secure the doors. We have to secure the cabin. By the way, that particular analogy for, you know, stopping all of this, doing something big right now. Have you noticed that pops up from time to time? One of Dan's favorite people, one of my favorite thinkers, Michael Anton, wrote a famous essay called the Flight 93 election. That was, you may have read it, you may be aware of it. Back when President Trump ran in the first place, that the American people said, we've got to retake the cockpit. Flight 93, we have to retake the cockpit. Whatever we do we have to retake the cockpit.

Whatever we do, we have to rush the cockpit, retake it and stop the hijackers because they're going to run this country in they're going to they're going to run, make this even worse. And so we've got to retake it. So that was the Michael Anton analogy, Scott Besson using that analogy really well too, going, we got to reinforce the doors. We've got to, we've got to protect it. What is going on with emojis on screen? There it really are. I don't know what, I think there's a heart one too. There you go.

Look at that. Little love for the audience today. You like that? Yeah, yeah. You like that? It's insane. I can't even believe that's on. Boys, we're going to have to fix that before the next show.

Okay. So there's a Scott Besson saying that. And the other piece here is, let me just go right to cut nine and then I wanna get into some FBI stuff with you and Deputy Director Dan Bongino has a new message for us. Cut nine, here's Treasury Secretary Besson saying that this isn't about the top 10% of the country, top 5%.

This is not about rich people. This is about the bottom 50% of the country, top 5%. This is not about rich people. This is about the bottom 50% of the country. This is about average Americans who are taking it in the shorts and have been for decades and something dramatically needs to change. This is why Trump was elected. So he's got a job to do. Take a look. And this is really aimed at the people who support President Trump and who agree with you wholeheartedly that the current system was really bad and like drive across the country you'll see how bad it has been. Horrible. It lowered life expectancy but the people who are hoping that yesterday's move will

lead to a demonstrably brighter future within four years. Is it your sincere prediction that within four years we'll say actually that kind of worked? Within four years, we'll say actually that kind of worked. I believe that it's going to work. And I know that what we were doing wasn't working. Yes. So I think we have to try this and I have a high confidence ratio. It's going to work. And I have a very high confidence ratio.

The good news is we have President Trump's previous term when everyone said none of this was going to work. Oh, the China terrorists are going to do this, they're going to cause inflation. They didn't. This is going to happen to working class. It's going to be bad for working class Americans. Well, guess what? Working class Americans, the hourly workers did better than supervisory workers.

The bottom 50% of households, their net worth increased faster than the top 10% of households. It's proof of concept. I'm not happy with what's going on in the market today, but the distribution of equities across households, the top 10% of Americans own 88% of equities. Right. 88% of the stock market.

The next 40% owns 12% of the stock market. The bottom 50 has debt. Debt. They have credit card bills, they rent their homes, they have auto loans, and we've got to give them some relief. That I was struck by the statistic from last year. That's the message right there. Just as a bystander, I'm like, wow, okay.

All right, or that. Yeah, you shouldn't have to live paycheck to paycheck. You shouldn't be in a trillion dollars of credit card debt. Our country's in over a trillion dollars of credit card debt right now. Never before seen, never before seen. And you can thank the Biden administration for that. They created so much inflation.

They destroyed your ability to afford your life so that people did. They don't have an emergency fund. They have no money to turn to their paycheck doesn't last two weeks. So they go into debt. They accrued a lot of credit card debt in the process. And now there's all sorts of defaults going on. It's, it's a bad situation. Uh, and president Trump said, wait a second. I was elected to help those people.

That's who I was elected by. It's not to help wall street out, which, um, you know, the mistake that can often be made is that we say, well, wall street is the economy. No, it's not. The economy is you and me. The economy is the American people. Uh, and you know, the Biden administration spent four years lying about the state of it, pretending like things were going great.

They weren't. And you didn't, you didn't need a government report to tell you that. Okay. Let's get into what's going on with the FBI right now, because I want to, I want to bring up some of the, the, the drama at the FBI that's going on at the moment. There are reports that a new assistant director in charge at the Washington field office is a fellow called Steve Jensen.

Steve Jensen, according to all of the people who watched January 6th stuff really closely, all of the legal experts on the subject, said that he was a very bad actor, that he was the kind said that he was a very bad actor, that he was the kind of guy who was a part of the persecutions of January sixers and a whole lot of other things too. Steve Baker is a reporter for the blaze.

He was arrested and prosecuted by the Biden administration for covering the events of January 6th. And he's very concerned about this this about anybody still as of yesterday, he's referring to this as an alleged hiring of a rabid anti J six or called Steve Jensen to be at the Washington field office. And so again, alleged, and he says, I know it kind of pisses people off when the bad guys get it right, and the assumed good guys get it wrong. But our sources inside the FBI and in Congress have absolutely confirmed the hiring of Jensen as the FBI Washington field office assistant director in charge. He says it's absolutely true according to his sources. Jensen's sins don't stop with January 6. He was also the

section chief of the domestic terrorism for the FBI. He would have been the final to approve things like, one, white supremacy equals the number one threat to the homeland, two, that parents are terrorists at school board meetings, and three, that he considered January Sixers to be terrorists, quote, "'who almost took down democracy.'" Well, that's absurd. It's buffoonish that the guy in the Viking horns

standing on the Senate dais didn't take control of the country didn't take down democracy, as you know. So Steve Baker's position right now is I would admonish all Trump supporters to voice their opposition to the appointment of Steve Jensen, as the FBI Washington field office assistant director in charge. That's the, that's the core element here for Steve Baker's assessment. Now, having said that, I want you to hear from the assistant director, excuse me, the deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino now. Fellas, I'm going to, how about this,

should I pull up his, I'll pull up his tweet. Oh, you've got it. Okay, good. Let's start with as I dive back into work. That's his first tweet this weekend. Can you pull that up for me? So FBI deputy director Dan Bongino said heading back to DC today, there you go. After spending the weekend, spending a day, just a day with his wife and daughter, the lovely Paula Bongungino and his daughter.

And he says, as I dive back into work, I want to reassure you that nothing that is happening here that would be at the FBI is happening by accident because of the sensitivity of what the FBI deals with. Both the director and I have to be circumspect and what we can make public. Bad guys read this stuff too. Neither one of us came here to play games. Measure us by results. That's critical here. Regardless of who got hired where or for whatever reason, that is the most important line I think that Dan expresses in this series of tweets. Measure

us by results, he says. He's asking you to measure the results. You will see them. But just because you don't see something happening right this second doesn't mean it isn't happening. I'll conclude by stating that not every result is going to please everyone. That's just pandering. It's not leadership. Complex problems require diligence and reform oriented process to create lasting changes. Or else you're simply putting a bandage on a gushing wound. Let's do it right. God bless America and all those who defend her says Dan. And then he follows up, just to give a clear picture here, Dan is coming back,

I would presume he tweeted this from whatever plane he was on. He's coming back from his visit to his family, and he's obsessing over what you're concerned about right now, he's obsessing over it. And he's not directly referring to this Washington field office hire, but it does feel like he's speaking to us about this.

He says, quote, I'd like to add this. Your comments and your criticisms are not only welcome, they're helpful. We work for you, the American people. Your feedback is invaluable. All I ask is that you consider the following feedback to the feedback. When you see something happen and the entire story is not public and the underlying facts aren't all public, it may appear counterintuitive to our reform agenda. By the way, that seems like the critical line from this ex post.

It may appear counterintuitive to our reform agenda. If you're sitting there going, why did they hire this guy? I thought this guy was one of the bad actors. It may appear counterintuitive to our reform agenda, says Dan. I promise you it's not an accident. Ask yourself, why would I sign on to something like this otherwise? Is it a desire to be wealthy, famous, connected? By the way, he had all that.

He didn't need to do this for that. Or to be a future lobbyist? If that sounds ridiculous, it's because it is, says Dan. I realized when I signed up, I'd never be able to fully explain some decisions that we make due to legal and ethical constraints. But that's a pill I agreed to swallow when I swore in. In conclusion, I realize asking you to trust me is a waste of time, he says. I don't think it's a waste of time for everybody.

Chat, is it a waste of time for Dan to ask you to trust? Give me a reaction here. Do you want him, I think it's a perfectly good use of this time to ask you for some trust here because you already do trust him. Watch what happens. Yeah, people are good.

Yeah, hell no, it's not a waste of time. Good, good, good. Watch what happens says Dan, continue to demand results. Be cautious of narrative traps. Let time put the puzzle pieces together and what we are doing will make sense. I see and I hear you and your feedback. Thank you for your time, Dan.

Yeah, people saying I trust Dan. Me too, me too. I said it the second I found out he was doing this and from our very first show we've talked about this, that the decision that Dan made to walk away from this show, to walk away from the Dan Bongino show, to walk away from that and to go into the FBI and to put his private life, which is very successful, on hold in order to go into the FBI and to put his private life, which is very successful, on hold in order to jump into the FBI and focus on that job, that says a lot about that man's character. And I have to tell you, having gotten to know Dan on a personal level and knowing everybody around

him and knows him even more sincerely on a personal level, everybody trusts him innately, which is why when I hear from him, I'm go with it. I'm go with it. And there you go, Dan Bongino, the FBI Deputy Director sending out a message to you crystal clear. He's speaking to you. And he wants you to hear him. Who's asking me if I watch the chat?

If I watch the chat personally, okay, okay, good. Yeah, no, I do watch the chat. I keep an eye on the chat. I've got the chat. It's right here. Chats right here. Oh, oh, we're live, baby. Well, when you, when you finally listen to this, if it's prerecorded, it's good.

I'll be lying to you. So yeah, then, then it'll be prerecorded. But right now we're live on rumble. And if, and if you're listening to this prerecorded, join us again on Rumble tomorrow. That would be Tuesday in this fine country. We start at 10 a.m. every day Eastern time. Join us, rumble.com slash Vince. Great to have you with us today on Rumble.

Things are heading over to Steven Crowder right now. God bless you. I'll be back tomorrow.