The President's Daily Brief - May 6th, 2025: Tariffs Spark Worker Protests Across China & IDF Hits Back After Tel Aviv Strike

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

In this episode of The President's Daily Brief: Protests erupt across China as workers rage over factory shutdowns, backpay delays, and the mounting impact of the U.S.-China trade war. Later in the show—Pakistan test-launches a ballistic missile amid renewed tensions with India following the deadly April 22 Kashmir attack. Plus, Israel strikes back. IDF warplanes hit Houthi positions in Yemen just one day after a missile landed near Tel Aviv’s main airport. And in today’s Back of the Brief—The Trump administration unveils a new program offering illegal migrants $1,000 to voluntarily self-deport. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Jacked Up Fitness: Go to https://GetJackedUp.com and use code BAKER at checkout to save 10% off your entire purchase DeleteMe: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you text PDB to 64000. Message and data rates apply Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you text PDB to 64000. Message and data rates apply Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's Tuesday, the 6th of May. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll start things off today in China, where street protests have erupted due to the ongoing trade war with the U.S., with angry workers, taking to the streets to demand back pay and to complain about mass factory layoffs. We'll have those details, and here's a hint.

The one thing that Xi Jinping and his Chinese Communist Party fear more than anything else is an unhappy and unruly population. Later in the show, Pakistan makes a show of force, test launching a ballistic missile as tensions with India flare after that deadly terror attack in Kashmir. Plus, Israel strikes back. IDF warplanes hit Houthi targets in Yemen a day after a Houthi missile landed near Tel Aviv's main airport. And in today's back of the brief, The Trump administration has a new offer for illegal migrants. Take $1,000 and leave. But first, today's PDB spotlight.

We'll begin with the ongoing fallout from the U.S.-China trade war as the communist regime's export-dependent economy buckles under the weight of the Trump administration's tariffs, prompting Chinese workers to take to the streets and revolt. As we've been tracking on the PDB, the financial impact of Trump's 145% tariffs and Beijing's 125% retaliatory tariffs have been felt swiftly in China. Numerous Chinese manufacturers have paused production entirely and shut down operations

as they scramble to find new buyers with warehouses filling with unsent goods. China's factory activity, meanwhile, has contracted at its fastest pace in 16 months. Now, discontent is spreading among the millions of Chinese workers suffering the brunt of these harsh economic impacts. Over the past few weeks, thousands of disgruntled workers have poured into the streets from the Hunan province in central China to intermongolia in the north and Sichuan in the south, to demand back pay from unpaid wages and to challenge what they call unfair dismissals caused by the wave of factory closures. That's according to our report from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Last week, outside an LED light manufacturing plant near Shanghai,

thousands of furious workers chanted against company managers over unpaid wages, while in China's Dow County, hundreds of furious workers gathered outside a sporting goods factory after it abruptly closed its doors without paying employees. An example of just how desperate the situation is becoming, in the northeast city of Tong Liao, construction workers recently climbed onto rooftops and threatened to jump unless they were paid. And in the southwest-west-steads, Seshuan province, workers of a company producing flexible circuit boards also say they haven't been paid in months and are having their social security benefits withheld. It's a similar story across the country, a garment exporter in southern China, told the Wall Street Journal that they

had already been forced to furlough 30% of their workforce after losing three major U.S. clients during the trade war. Another textile manufacturer told a journal that in some Chinese factories are now engaged in unsustainable price wars just to keep their heads above water. Analysts for the U.S.-based Investment Bank, Goldman Sachs, recently estimated that some 16 million jobs across Chinese industries are now at risk, as China's export orders hit their lowest levels since the worst days of the COVID lockdowns. They say China's communication equipment sector is set to be hit hardest, followed by apparel and chemical product manufacturers. As we touched on earlier on the PDB, major global banks have now cut China's full-year growth

forecast to around 4 percent. That's well below Beijing's official target. The situation is clearly untenable for the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, prompting them to begin quietly exempting a host of U.S.-made products from their 125 percent retaliatory tariffs. While China has not publicly acknowledged the exemptions, they have reportedly compiled the list of some 131 products that will be granted tariff waivers, amounting to roughly $40 billion in goods or nearly a quarter of all Chinese imports from the U.S. this year. The exemptions cover a range

of goods from pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals to aviation components and critical inputs for electronics manufacturing. Since early April, Beijing has also been privately surveying businesses about other potential sectors where tariff waivers might be approved. Analysts say that this quiet approach by the CCP allows China to maintain its hardline message demanding the U.S. back down while easing the economic damage of the trade war domestically. But with protests spreading, the measures may not be enough to quell the public's outrage. Many human rights observers fear that the CCP could soon violently crack down on the spreading protests, much like they did in 2022, when demonstrations erupted over Chinese President Xi Shishu. Jinping's lockdown orders. An advisor to the Chinese government recently told the Wall Street Journal, quote,

she today has the same mentality as Mao. His bottom line is that no major crisis will be allowed to endanger his hold on power, end quote. Meanwhile, last Thursday, the Chinese Communist Ministry publicly expressed a willingness to engage in direct trade negotiations with the U.S. They qualified that statement, however, by saying that the U.S. must first drop all unilateral tariffs sets a demand that isn't likely to be received warmly by the White House. For now, it does not appear that a quick resolution with China is in the cards, even as their

domestic economy slumps. All right, coming up after the break, Pakistan Tess launches a missile as tensions with India rise, and IDF warplanes strike Yemen after a Houthi missile lands near Tel Aviv's airport. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. I want to take just a few seconds to talk about fitness. Look, more and more Americans are making their health and fitness a priority again, and that is great news. Studies prove that strength training does more to burn fat than cardio alone. Plus, as we age and we're all aging, it's critical to maintain muscle mass and bone density. You want to be consistent also and make it easy to find time to work out regularly. And frankly, I think the best way to do that

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Welcome back to the PDB. Tensions between India and Pakistan continue to escalate with Islamabad test firing a surface-to-surface ballistic missile on Saturday. Two weeks after the deadly massacre in the disputed Kashmir region, reignited hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbors. The missile, part of the Abduly weapon system, has a range of roughly 280 miles and was fired into a designated zone over the Arabian Sea or the deserts in the southwest in keeping with standard military protocol. According to the Pakistani military, the test was intended to validate operational readiness of, quote,

key technical parameters, including the Missiles Advanced Navigation System and maneuverability. Pakistan President Zardari and Prime Minister Sharif both issued public congratulations following the launch. The timing of the test was unmistakable, frankly. The launch comes after the 22 April attack on Indian tourists in the Kashmir region. That left 26 dead and triggered one of the sharpest escalations between the nuclear arrivals in recent years. New Delhi blames Pakistan-based Islamist terrorists for the attack. That's a claim that Islamabad continues to eject as baseless. But the symbolism of the Abdelie missile was not lost on regional observers.

An Islamabad-based security analyst told the Associated Press that the weapon was named after a famed Muslim conqueror of India. Adding that it was, quote, critical in the current geopolitical context. Well, not exactly subtle, is it? The analysts suggested it was no coincidence. The launch followed India's suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, an act that many in Pakistan view as economic warfare, given that about a quarter of Pakistan's economy is agriculture-based. New Delhi, for its part, is signaling it's ready to strike back with force. Last week, India's Navy carried out anti-ship missile drills to, quote, revalidate and demonstrate readiness for long-range precision strikes. And according to a former advisor to India's Ministry of External Affairs, public fury over the Kashmir massacre has created space for a, quote, sharp, targeted, and limited response. The message from Delhi is clear, patients with Pakistan is wearing thin.

As we've been tracking here on the PDB, signs of a military buildup are already visible. Scirmishes along the line of control, which is the de facto boy. in Kashmir have flared nightly for over a week. On Saturday, India's military accused Pakistani troops of once again opening fire, prompting what they described as a, quote, proportionate response. Islamabad has yet to confirm the exchange. Meanwhile, the standoff continues to spill into the economic and diplomatic arenas. Over the weekend, India banned all imports from Pakistan, blocked Pakistani-flagged vessels from entering its ports and prohibited Indian ships from docking in Pakistani harbors. Postal services between the two countries have also been halted, further fraying already

brittle lines of communication. With both sides digging in, the prospect of de-escalation is rapidly slipping from view. Okay, moving to the Middle East, the Israeli Air Force launched retaliatory strikes Monday evening on Houthi positions in the Yemeni port city of Haudida. That's just a day after ballistic missile, fired by the Iran-backed terror group, slammed into the grounds of Tel Aviv's International Airport. According to the IDF, approximately 20 fighter jets pounded targets along Yemen's western coastline, including infrastructure at Haudita Port and a concrete factory in the nearby city of Bajol. Officials called the strikes, quote, a direct response to the Houthis' escalating campaign of missile and drone attacks on Israel, most notably Sunday's rare and, frankly,

alarming breach of Israeli airspace that sent a missile crashing within the perimeter of Ben-Gurian airport. As we noted in Monday's PDB, six people were wounded in that attack. The missile tore into the airport complex just a few hundred yards from Terminal 3's control tower, carving out a crater and grounding international flights for hours. It was the first Houthi-fired projectile to reach Israeli soil since the terror group began targeting the country in March, marking a serious failure of Israel's advanced air defense systems. The attack has added pressure on Israeli leadership to reassert deterrence not only against the Houthis, but against their chief backer in Tehran. Monday's air campaign marked Israel's sixth strike inside Yemen since the start of the war,

and the first since January, when the IDF paused operations after the U.S. assumed a lead role in countering Houthi threats to Red Sea shipping lanes. Israeli officials said this latest mission was coordinated with Washington but was not conducted as a joint strike. The Israeli military said its aircraft dropped 50 precision guided munitions on pre-selected targets aided by aerial refueling tankers and intelligence gathering planes. Photos released by the Israeli military showed Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, and IDF chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ayles,

Samir in an underground command center overseeing the operation in real time. IDF spokesmen accused the Houthis of using the Haudida port, the second largest on Yemen's Red Sea coast, as a gateway for Iranian weapons shipments and military equipment. The Bajil concrete facility, they added, has been repurposed by the Islamic regime-backed group to support tunnel construction and other components of the Houthi War machine. Verified footage posted online showed plumes of smoke and, sustained fires at the site in the aftermath of the strike. Separately, U.S. forces reportedly carried out air strikes near the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, just hours before the Israeli jets launched.

The Houthi-run Sabah News Agency claimed at least two American missiles struck a road near Sana's airport. The Iranian regime denied playing a direct role on Sunday's missile strike, insisting the decision was made independently by the Houthis in solidarity with Hamas. But Iran's foreign ministry issued a thinly veiled threat, warning that it would retaliate if Israel dared strike Iranian territory. That's after Netanyahu vowed a forceful response, not just against the Khutis, but against those arming and enabling them. And that would be, of course, the Iranian regime. All right, coming up next in the back of the brief, skip the raid, take the cash. The Trump administration is offering $1,000 to migrants who vows.

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That's PDB to 64000000. Message and data rates may apply. Hey, Mike Baker here. Well, by now, you know all about the tariffs, right, in the trade wars, and you also know that all that activity is thrown the global economy into some form of chaos. Look, potential widespread inflation tied to massive supply chain disruptions, it's weighing heavily on all of us. But I'm here to tell you that there is a silver and a gold lining that I think a lot of people

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and you can't go wrong with a ready-to-heathe Kish Lorraine, deviled eggs, and fresh-cut fruits to go. celebrate mom with Whole Foods Market. In today's back of the brief, the Trump administration is reportedly turning to cash incentives in a bid to accelerate the removal of illegal migrants from the U.S. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security, DHS, announced Monday that they will shoulder the cost of commercial flights and offer a $1,000 stipend to any illegal migrants willing to voluntarily self-deport from the U.S. and return to their country of origin.

While it may sound like a costly endeavor, officials said it will actually save taxpayers up to $1 million per family. That's according to a report from the New York Post. The department says the current average cost of arresting, detaining, and deporting an illegal migrant is roughly $17,000. So a $1,000 stipend instead is a small price to pay in the administration's view. Stephen Millett, President Trump's top policy and Homeland Security Advisor, said the additional savings are associated with the long-term costs of free welfare and public support that have been given to illegal migrants. Migrants can avail themselves of the new option by using the DHS's CBP Home app, which contains a self-deportation reporting feature that lets migrants submit their intent to depart the U.S. to the DHS.

Officials with the Trump administration have said that migrants, who choose to self-deport have the opportunity to return legally in the future, unlike those who opt to remain illegally. Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam said Monday, quote, if you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest, and most cost-effective way to leave the U.S. to avoid arrest. This is the safest option for law enforcement and aliens and is a 70% savings for U.S. taxpayers, end quote. The department added that migrants, the CBP Home App will be deprioritized for detention and removal, provided they take meaningful steps towards preparing for their future departure. As we've previously discussed, the CBP Home App is a

rebranded version of the Biden-era CBP-1 app that allowed at least 936,000 illegal immigrants to apply for asylum from within their home countries before flying to the U.S. That program was shut down through an executive order within minutes of President Trump being sworn into office, along with virtually every single other Biden-era program that facilitated the influx of some 8 million migrants into the U.S. over the last four years. In a recent update on their progress regarding illegal immigration, DHS officials said roughly 152,000 migrants have been deported since Trump's second term began in January. borders are Tom Holman also recently touted the administration's success at turning the tide at the southern border, pointing to an historic 95% drop in illegal crossings. Under the Trump administration, illegal migrant encounters and apprehensions of the border are now reportedly at their lowest levels in recorded history. And that, my friends, is the president's daily brief for Tuesday, the 6th of May.

If you have any questions or comments or perhaps some pithy insight, just reach out. to me at PDB at thefirstTV.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, well, you know what to do. Just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile, with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can't. and get premium wireless for just $15 a month.

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