The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump Witness Crumbles Under Cross-Exam at Hearings

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the scorching cross-examination of Donald Trump’s top Trade Representative Jamieson Greer by Senators and Members of Congress during two days of hearings. Fast Growing Trees: Fast Growing Trees: Get 15% OFF your first purchase at https://fastgrowingtrees.com/meidas when you use code: MEIDAS at checkout! Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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free of charge bet mgm operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming ontario it did not go well for donald trump's top trade representative jameson greer who testified on capitol hill for two days under oath the first day before the United States Senate, the second day before the House of Representatives. He spent a day and a half justifying and making every excuse in the book for Donald Trump's tariffs against the world, the cockamamie formula, using deficits to calculate reciprocal tariffs, which weren't actually reciprocal tariffs,

testifying under no circumstance ever. And I mean ever will there be a pause on any of these tariffs. We're all in. If there's 10% inflation, no pause. If millions of jobs get lost, no pause. And then on day two of his testimony before the House of Representatives, you literally see him getting a text message or a Google alert on his phone. And he has this, oh, crap moment where he finds out that Donald Trump reversed course on every country other than China. Trump essentially paused all of the tariffs against the world. Precisely what Jameson Greer testified would never happen. And also because Jameson Greer's the top trade representative, this would be like the decision that he makes or should be involved in. And he was finding out that Donald Trump basically made a tweet or a social media post. And on that basis, the entire tariff policy shifted in a moment.

An entire realignment of United States trade policy took place. And Jameson Greer, the trade representative, was finding out in the hearing, this is the chaos of the Trump regime. So then naturally on day two, the Democrats pounced and they were asking Trade Representative Greer, you didn't know about that. You've just spent two days testifying. This would never happen. And now that's happening. Explain that to us. And Jamison Greer is like, oh, well, I'm reading the post and I think that this is actually really smart because there's no depth to the excuses and depravity that they won't justify when it comes to Donald Trump.

So let's talk about what went down. So first, you have Democratic Senator Mark Warner. This is day one when Greer's before the Senate. And Senator Mark Warner just goes off on Jamison Greer saying, why the hell are you tariffing Australia, our ally, when there's a surplus that we have in trade with Australia? That makes no sense under your cockamamie Greek formula. Play this clip. There is a trade. We already have a free trade agreement. We have a trade surplus. So getting the least bad, why did they get whacked in the first place? We're addressing the $1.2 trillion deficit, the largest in human history that President Biden left us with. We should be running up the score in Australia. Answer the question on Australia. We have a trade surplus

with Australia. We have a free trade agreement. Why? They are an incredibly important national security partner. Why were they whacked with a tariff? Senator, despite the agreement, they ban our beef, they ban our pork, they're getting ready to impose measures on our digital companies. With your Greek letter formula, the fact that we have a trade surplus. We have a global tariff on everyone. We're trying to address the $1.2 trillion deficit that Biden left us with. I think that answer, sir, you're a much smarter person than that answer. The idea that we are going to whack friend and foe alike, and particularly friends, with this level is both, I think, insulting the Australians, undermines our national security and frankly, makes us not a good partner going forward.

The lack of trust from friends and allies based upon this ridiculous policy that goes into full effect at midnight tonight is extraordinary. Next, you have Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan, and she says to Jameson Greer, what if inflation was 10%? Would you still keep these tariffs on? Here, play this clip. Sales taxes, increasing prices for families. It's also causing huge losses in Americans' retirement savings. Ambassador Greer, would the administration reverse course if the president's tariffs led to 10% inflation? Senator, the president is fixed in his purpose. This trade deficit and the offshoring and loss of manufacturing jobs

is something that's persisted for too long, and it's dangerous. I understand your justification for the policy, even though there are some very contradictory justifications coming out of the administration. But my question is, what's the inflation rate where you guys would reverse course? 10 percent inflation that I just asked you about, that is higher inflation than we saw at the peak of the COVID economic crisis. But you aren't going to say here today that you would reverse course, even if you created inflation as high as we had at the peak of the COVID economic crisis. I think the most serious inflation we saw was during the Biden administration. When we did tariffs in the first term, inflation went down. It's not going to be a one-to-one. Inflation about

how much money you're putting into the supply. It's not about tariffs and products. Let's just be really clear that the Trump administration is here today to say that even if inflation hits Americans' pocketbooks at 10% because of these tariffs, then the Trump administration is still going to go charging ahead. So, Ambassador, would the administration reverse course if the president's tariffs caused a 50% stock market crash,

which would hurt Americans' retirement savings even more than they've been hurt in the last 10 days or so. Senator, the fundamentals of the economy are so strong. We had 228,000 jobs last month. We have 9,000 additional manufacturing jobs from the month before. So again, your answer is even if the stock market crashes 50%, which is how much the stock market crashed in the Great Recession, you're not going to say here today that you would reverse course even if you crash the stock market and harm retirement savings as drastically as happened during the Great Recession in 2007. Senator, your hypotheticals are not consistent with the history we have seen with the use of tariffs. My hypotheticals are based on the fact that a lot of Americans are looking at their 401ks today and wondering how much of a lifestyle change they are going to have to have, or whether they're going to be able to retire when they plan to, because of the recklessness

and haphazard nature of the Trump administration's imposition of tariffs. Nothing was thought out about this. This has been a haphazard, incompetent effort, and it's showing. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Next up, you have Democratic Senator Cortez Mastro, and he or she talks about what are you doing to impact the negative impact on international tourism right now? What are you doing to deal with that? Here, play this clip. So what are you doing about the impact of international tourism and now these blanket tariffs having a negative impact? What are you doing to address that?

The whole sentence, Senator, said that we need to get away from government spending as funding our economy and financialization, and we need to move to real goods and services, including the tourism you're talking about. So what are you doing to impact the negative impact of tourism right now? Well, one thing I'll say is we can't have the status quo, right? I keep hearing that we should have, essentially what I'm hearing is we should have the status quo. We should keep the $1.2 trillion trade deficit that Biden left us with. I'm asking you, what are you doing in this administration to address now the impact that you're having with these blanket tariffs, not targeted tariffs, blanket tariffs on international tourism that is a big impact for our economy? What are you doing to address that?

Well, Senator, as we're talking to all of these countries, we are talking about services. We are talking about making sure that we can export services to other countries. A lot of those that we export are digital services. Well, let me say I only have so much time, and apparently you're not. So here's what I would like, because you haven't thought about this, and the administration hasn't really thought about it, because I haven't heard anybody talking about tourism. So why don't you come talk to me in my office, and let's talk about and put a plan together, because these blanket tariffs are having an impact on tourism in this in my state and across the country.

So instead of just defending it, why don't you just come sit down with some of us and try to address the concerns that we are seeing and feeling in our states that this administration has not taken into account? I'm happy to come speak with you. Thank you, Senator. Next up, you have Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren saying, okay, so what you're saying is that if 700,000, a million Americans lose their jobs, you're going to keep these tariffs? You're going to support them? Play this clip. Ambassador Greer, we lost 700,000 jobs each month in the last recession. If 700,000 Americans lose their jobs, will the Trump administration suspend these tariffs? Senator, I think the economists who are making these projections, who often are in favor of fully unfettered free trade, are the same ones who said in the first Trump term that Mr. Greer, let me just stop you there. I'm not asking about projections. I'm asking if the numbers show that 700,000 people have lost their jobs because of these new tariffs that Trump has

slapped on, will the administration reverse course and lift those tariffs? Senator, that's not going to happen. We've lost five million manufacturing jobs over the years, which is the number I'm most worried about. And we have to get those jobs. I take that as a no. Next up, you have Democratic Congress member Lloyd Doggett. And here he really kind of just drives home this point to Jamison Greer about the way our economy functioned for 50 years and why America was benefiting under the trade policy as it always existed. Play this clip. The United States has run trade deficits for 48 straight years, during which time the U.S. economy has grown by 255 percent in real terms. These decades of trade deficits have corresponded with increases

in American wealth and household incomes that far exceed the progress in Canada, China and the European Union. Do you think that this growth in American wealth as a result associated with deficits is something that constitutes a national emergency? The giant and massive persistent trade deficit that Biden left us with is an emergency. It's not like the small deficits from the 60s when we had auto workers here making production. We've offshored all this stuff, Mr. Daga, and we are really in an emergency situation. We seem to have done much better than in the Gilded Age, which the president prefers.

I would just say that on the eve of his inauguration, the president promised to bring prices drastically down. And there's nothing that you've said in your answers or non-answers to me today that will give Americans any assurance to believe anything other than that their prices will continue to soar and their savings will continue to shrink. The president's lies continue to cause the American, cost the American people dearly. I yield back. Going back to Democratic Senator Cortez Mastro, watch this. Be intellectually honest. Now, let me just ask this because this is also true. And I so appreciate my Senator Lankford asking this. Time matters. How long did it take to

negotiate that agreement, the USMCA, that you were part of? We did it at breakneck speed. We did it in about two years. Two years. And now you're telling us you have nearly 50 countries coming to you, approaching you to enter in a negotiation, and you think that you can do that overnight? India. Man, you're pretty superhuman here, if that's the case. So let's be realistic. That's all we're asking. Common sense. Then you have Democratic Senator Cantwell, or she is a Washington state senator, play this clip. Questions for members. But you can see all my colleagues, we are thoughtful people with specific issues about our constituencies. I just met with raspberry growers.

They're concerned. They want to know if they're going to get some seat on a council so they can have their issues heard. I'm for trade. I represent trade. I represent a trade economy. I represent the success of what innovation and trade gets you. But you're coming here this morning with this not only tanking of the market and 401s, now you're coming here telling me that tariff is the tool. And I'm telling you innovation is the tool. You're telling us in your testimony, you want a tariff on semiconductors. I'm saying that the last administration and this organization here passed the Chips and Science Act so we could reshore semiconductors here in the United States. So you're not going to win the

innovation economy by tariffing semiconductors and reshoring that. I don't know what you think. Did you know Fast Growing Trees is the biggest online nursery in the US with thousands of different plants and over 2 million happy customers? They have all the plants your yard needs like fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and so much more. Whatever plants you're interested in, Fast Growing Trees has you covered. Find the perfect fit for your climate Thank you. ensures your plants arrive happy and healthy. Plus, get support from trained plant experts on call to help you plan your landscape, choose the right plants, and learn how to care for them. I got a lemon tree from Fast Growing Trees, and it's my favorite thing in my yard. I was worried about ordering plants online, but it arrived fresh, strong, and ready to plant. Plus, now I get to just walk outside and pick my own citrus, not to mention it smells amazing every time I go out. And by the way, big yard, small yard, no yard at all, doesn't matter.

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when using the code MIDAS at checkout. That's an additional 15% off at fastgrowingtrees.com using the code MIDAS, M-E-I-D-A-S at checkout, fastgrowingtrees.com, code MIDAS. Now is the perfect time to plant. Use MIDAS to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Next up on day two, you have Democratic Congress member Tom Swasey right here. Here's what he's got to say. Play this clip. I feel like you're in a very bad position here. This whole idea that

this president made this switcheroo on you while you were in the middle of testifying here today, I actually feel bad for you. But I really feel bad for the American people that are seeing these things. There's no plan. I mean, that's my big concern. I know there's goals. I want to see manufacturing brought back to America, or at least I want to see jobs that pay more money so we can rebuild our middle class in America. I'm I'm for that. I'm for holding China accountable and holding our adversaries accountable. I'm for tariffs in select specific places. But right now, there's no all we know is prices are going up. We're pissing off our allies and the stock market went down dramatically.

It's gone up dramatically today. The market manipulation question by Mr. Horsford is a very real concern that we're going to have to dig into a little bit. Who's benefiting from these wild fluctuations down, wild fluctuation up? We're still way down. We need a plan to accomplish the objectives that I know that you genuinely believe in,

which is to try and recreate the middle class here in the United States of America, that on my side of the aisle, we all believe in that. We have to recreate the middle class in America. And he's so right. Just flipping the policy. Did you even know Jameson Greer anything about this? And Democratic Congress member Stephen Horsford brings the point home as well. Let's play this clip. Mr. Trade Representative, are you aware that the tariffs have been paused? I am, yes. When were you made aware of that? I understood the decision was made a few minutes ago. Sitting here. Under discussion. Sitting here, under discussion. So did you know that this was under discussion and why did you not include that as part of your

opening remarks? So typically what I don't do is divulge the contents of my discussions. What are the details of the pause? Well, my understanding is that because so many countries have decided not to retaliate, we're going to have about 90 days. Excuse me? China increased their tariffs on the United States. Trump blinked. What's the blink, sir?

What do you know about this pause? What are the details of it? Well, the details, as I understand it, is that China continues to retaliate. Other countries didn't retaliate. The president two or three days ago said we wanted to negotiate with those countries that asked for that asked for meetings. That's what we're doing. What are the details? How long is the pause? How many days? How many weeks? I understand it's 90 days. I haven't spoken to the president. So the trade representative hasn't spoken to the president of the United States about a global reordering of trade. Yes, I have. I've just been in a hearing with you. But yet he announced it on a tweet. WTF? Who's in charge?

Going back to day one, here's Senator Bernie Sanders also pointing out to Jameson Greer, you guys lie about everything. You're saying that Canada is causing the fentanyl issues in the united states like why why you have to to assuming you even want to do these tariffs why does everything every freaking word got to be a lie senator bernie sanders with the win right here play this clip president trump said uh mr grier that he had no choice in terms of Canada. And I live 50 miles away from the Canadian border. He had no choice but to bypass Congress and to impose an emergency 25% tariff on Canada to stop, quote, the massive, end quote, amount of fentanyl, end quote, the millions and millions of undocumented immigrants coming from the northern border. Unfortunately, that's a lie.

The truth is that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported just 43 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the Canadian border last year, representing just two-tenths of 1% of the total. Further, he said among, he talked about millions and millions of undocumented immigrants coming from Canada. In fact, last year, there were 24,000 people, not millions and millions. First question, really, we can argue about tariffs, but why does the president have to lie all of the time in order to make his point? So, Senator, I would just refute that when the president is talking about the nature of the emergency we have. Could you talk a little bit closer to the mic, please?

Certainly. Senator, I would just say, you know, I think you need to look at what the president issued in terms of the order for the legal basis for what we're doing, right? I mean, the president very rightly hit on this issue of fentanyl migration coming from northern and southern borders, and it's a real emergency. Drugs are a real emergency. Two-tenths of one percent you can then argue drugs illegal drugs come from every country in the world if you declare that as an emergency you're giving the president of the united states unbelievable power and let me give some credit here to republican senator tom tillis from north carolina although he knows he's going to be heading into a difficult Senate race. So he's

doing this for a reason. Let's be very clear. And so here is North Carolina Republican Tillis questioning the U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer on Trump's strategy. This was, of course, before Trump changed course within 24 hours. Play this clip. I'm not a trade expert and I'm not going to question it at this point. I do have a question about at the end of the day, the other thing in management consulting we like to focus on is this concept of one throat to choke. In other words, when you're finally taking a look at a strategy, someone has to own it. And you can't say that it's the president or the vice president. So my first question to you, in this scenario, the decision maker who decided the all-aprema approach, who has obviously had to have spent time anticipating what we saw in the markets and some of the pushback, I'm assuming this all got gamed out, because it's a novel approach,

it needed to be thought out. Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong? Well, Senator, you can certainly always talk to me. But are you at the tip of the spear? Well, I'm at the tip of the spear, certainly. Did you propose the all-apremia approach? So, first of all, I would push back, Senator, just a little bit on this. For now, we've excluded pharmaceuticals and semiconductors to take a different kind of approach. And we've excluded pharmaceuticals and semiconductors to take a different kind of approach. Okay, well, that's good. Let me get to another question. And we've excluded USMCA.

Section 232 and 301, we know particularly Section 232 is still in aluminum. Section 301 is Chinese imports where there's no other provider. I overheard you say that maybe, or I thought I heard you say in response to another question, that for the near term there won't be any exclusions. Is that true of China, where they have said the U.S. is unilaterally bullying and completely groundless and they're going to fight to the end? Are the 232 and 301 tariffs exclusions on the shelves until we get to a reasonable agreement with China? I'm just trying to answer a question that I have several people in North Carolina asking. So the president, again, is the final decision maker on all of these things, and he has directed that there not be exclusions. There will not be any

exclusions on steel, aluminum, or any products that are only manufactured in China for the foreseeable future until China determines what the end is, because they said they're going to fight to the end. Again, I'm just trying to communicate questions that I've asked, so there will be no exclusions. I won't waste your time asking for them. That's the main reason I wanted to ask the question. So again, I'm just trying to get my head around the logic of an all-prima approach, and I'm waiting to see it be successful. But it just seems like we've decided to begin a trade war on all fronts. And that's okay. If the person who thought this through has an answer for why you go after partners that we have a very long story relationship with. I've been seeing memes

like this all day, MAGA economics. You see that the economy without tariffs doing much better, the economy with tariffs much lower, but then all the MAGA people like, see, tariffs work. So wait, are tariffs either the greatest thing, but then you say that the fact that tariffs are withdrawn, that's the greatest thing? I mean, didn't you all say that tariffs are going to make everybody super rich and be great? Y'all remove the tariffs. There's no consistency with this at all.

You take a look right here as Dave Whammon posts, Trump gets no concessions, art of the deal. I destroyed the global markets and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. It should be noted too that while all of this is going on, aided and abetted by the Republicans in the Senate, but the MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives, all but three House Republicans voted for the Trump tariffs. The procedural measure, as Aaron Frischner writes, which preemptively surrenders congressional power to stop Trump tariffs passed with all Democrats voting no.

Every Democrat voted no for this. You see the vote count here, these MAGA Republican senators supporting it. So here's how they procedurally engineered and rigged this thing so that there can never even be a vote on tariffs and Congress actually claiming its power. So here's Congress taking away its own power. This is what the MAGA Republicans wrote into the budget. You ready? Each day during the period from April 9th, 2025 through September 30th, 2025 shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the president on April 2nd, 2025. So what that language means is that they're not going to even allow a day to be counted for the issue to be

brought up because they're saying the day doesn't even exist where they can even talk about tariffs. If you want to talk about kissing the ring, think about what the MAGA Republicans did just there. By the way, how embarrassing for Jamison Greer what went down there. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. I just wanted to give you the full context of that hearing. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. New Midas merch drop. Check out the latest pro-democracy sticker packs, t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, and more. All at store.midastouch.com.