The Young Turks - Bros Down Bad

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

Trump Urges Americans Not to Panic Amid Market Plunge. Billionaire Trump Donor Bill Ackman Slams Howard Lutnick Over ‘Conflict of Interest.’ Elon Musk Mocks Peter Navarro’s Defense of Trump Tariffs." HOST: Ana Kasparian (@anakasparian), Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞  https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK  ☞   https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER  ☞       https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM  ☞  https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK  ☞          https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH  ☞      https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Wayne Gretzky. Show Hey, Otani. I played baseball, but it was sort of slow. The guy! We're going to be able to be.

Well, the young church, Jank, you're Anna Kasparin with you guys. So man, it is Fight Monday, it's Orange Monday, it's Black Monday, so markets crashed. People have turned on one another in Republican circles. I don't want to say, don't make me say, told you. Okay, we got Bill Ackman and Elon Musk getting in the ring, not against each other. One's against the bar, the other one's against Lutnik, we'll tell you all about it. We got podcasters fighting, we got a mess here. So the only thing that remains the same as that we have massive turbulence, political and economic, because of the tariffs, is Israel's still number one.

Yeah. Netanyahu has come and made his demands and Donald Trump has bowed down again. Maybe not. Maybe not. Really? Well, it seems overwhelming. But let's find out. We're going to get to that later.

All right, but before we do, I just want to kind of set the tone for the show today. You're ready? Okay, I'm ready. In a world where people who voted for Trump, we're talking about big name public figures, in a world where those individuals are a little scared in going after Trump or jabbing Trump, they're instead going to jab each other. And that's really what the theme of the show is today. It's incredible, let's get started with this.

The last three days coming into today has just been You know, not good. I went super viral when I said I lost $7 million. I'd kill to be back to losing $7 million. I haven't even looked. If I had to guess them down in these last three days, probably close to 20, I don't know, like 10, 15% of my net worth, poof. I hate that I'm losing all this money.

He's come up with this thing. Don't join the panicky party, the panicking party, very funny. Even with the stock market in absolute shambles, it appears that President Donald Trump is undeterred from implementing his tariffs policy. And we're going to get back to Portnoy, Dave Portnoy in just a moment. Of course, an avid Trump supporter who has now maybe reconsidered his decision to be such a vocal proponent of Trump's. And if you're an American who's panicking, well, the president wants you to stop being

weak and stupid. This is what he conveyed on truth social today, Cenk. He writes, the United States has a chance to do something that should have been done decades ago. Don't be weak, don't be stupid. 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. I will give him credit for panicking because oftentimes he takes ownership of words that he hasn't come up with. But in this case, Congratulations, Trump. You did come up with that word. Well done. Well, let's see if it sticks. Okay. So, first of all, I was given to understand that no Trump voter would ever break. No Trump person in media would ever

dissent. I was told they were all 100% occult and there should be no conversations with them only yelling. Interestingly, Portnoy turned on not just Trump, but Will Kane from Fox News and Clay Travis. And let's be honest, between Portnoy and Clay Travis, No one even knew that they were two separate people until now, but it turns out they're opposed to one another, at least in this particular case. And what's most important guys is that some set of independent media folks that supported Trump are now calling BS on the other guys. And so when they were lockstep and it was just Fox News and they had a monopoly on talking points and no one ever broke. But now important noise going, you guys sound like idiots when you tell me that this was all planned. and us shaping off 20% of our net wealth with some sort of genius strategy and is,

and that we should just stick to the talking points about how other people are panikins. No, I'm not going to do that because that's really dumb. So we're gonna get back to more of what he had to say in just a moment. But before we do, just to make sure we're all on the same page, as of this morning, the Dow was down 1,300 points. In fact, today marked the third straight day of declines and on top of that, the S&P 500, officially entered bear territory, so no longer a bull market. The initial 10% baseline tariff, which is of course part of Trump's tariff policy,

took effect at USC ports, airports, and customs warehouses on Thursday of last week. Higher taxes on goods from 57 larger trading partners are set to start later this week. Now, Trump was asked, what's going on bro? Like, are you planning on negotiating for better trade deals and you're using the threat of these tariffs as a negotiating tool? Or are you for real? Are these the tariffs that will remain in place? And he basically told reporters today during a press conference sitting beside Benjamin Netanyahu, a little bit of both. Okay, so basically he is looking to negotiate trade deals with some countries, but some of these tariffs he believes will remain in place and will

be permanent. But look, Trump is a man with a plan. Any more whining from China? And he'll hit him with even steeper tariffs. That's another message we got from Trump today. China issued retaliatory tariffs of 34% on top of their already record setting tariffs, non-monetary tariffs, illegal subsidization of companies, and massive long-term currency manipulation, despite my warning that any country that retaliates against the United States by issuing additional tariffs above and beyond their already existing long term tariff abuse of our nation will be immediately met with new and substantially higher tariffs. And then here's the kicker. He says, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow,

April 8th, the United States will impose additional tariffs on China 50% effective April 9th. And that would be an additional 50% on top of the tariffs that Trump has already implemented against China. And he also threatened to call off his planned meetings with China and said that negotiations with countries that have requested meetings will take place immediately. In fact, the first country, of course, was the country of Israel, which Trump slapped 15% tariffs on their goods being imported to the United States. And so did Netanyahu get his way?

About to get a little sneak peek into what their talks look like in this next clip. Do you plan to reduce the tariffs that your government put on Israeli goods, 17%. On Israeli goods, the 17%. Well, we're talking about a whole new trade. Maybe not, maybe not. Don't forget, we help Israel a lot. You know, we give Israel $4 billion a year. That's a lot.

I congratulations, by the way. That's pretty good. But we give Israel billions of dollars a year, billions. It's one of the highest of, and we give a lot of, we give a lot of countries money. We take good care of our friends and we don't take care of our enemies. We're not taking care of our enemies anymore, but we do take care of our friends. So non-committal in regard to, you know, repealing the tariffs against Israeli products entering the United States. We'll see, we'll see what Trump does, but I think you should triple those tariffs against Israel specifically.

Jank. Yeah. Now, okay, to be fair, Israel brought their tariffs down to zero, so they should be zero. But of course, Israel is the first to get in the door and to get to negotiations. Now Trump didn't give him to him right away on the tariffs, I'll give him credit on that. On the other hand, he later promised to again for the US to control and own Gaza and to clear out all of the Palestinians from Gaza. So of course, still serving Israel through and through.

So now on to the back of the tariffs, when if he does that 50% extra mental tariff on China, then the tariffs on China will be an astounding, absurd, 104%. So guys, the chickens are gonna come home to roost. The stock market ain't it. Stock market is phase one. Phase two is when it hits you in the prices. That hasn't happened yet. But if these prices really, you know, these tariffs stay, the prices go up and then it goes

into the market, then you're gonna see real anger because right now this is affecting the top 10% more than anyone else. Yes, retirement accounts, et cetera, and yes, it could affect whether you lose your job or not, but you haven't yet lost your job and it hasn't yet affected prices. When it does, then it's gonna be political Armageddon. And so people aren't gonna listen to any panikins or pelicans or anything else. And they're not gonna listen to any talking points if all of a sudden all prices on all their goods skyrocket way past where they were under Biden. So that that catastrophe might be on its way. But that gets to the central hypocrisy here of Trump and the decision that they're trying to force them into. I want to get

to that in one second. EU is on the other hand is maybe negotiating trying to get to 0%, which I'm actually surprised by because the rest of the world kind of has us where they want us right now. We can't afford to have the market stumble too much more. We can't afford that to have these tariffs actually hit prices of goods and lose the jobs and lose the businesses. So if they all gang up on us now economically, we're toast. So I mean, cross your fingers that they don't do that, but Trump has opened up us up to disaster if the rest of the world unites against us. I'm gonna, okay, so look, I partially agree with you, but I think part of the reason why they're not ganging up on us is that we have 330 million people in the United States. It's a massive

country with a lot of consumers. And a lot of these smaller countries rely on us to keep their businesses afloat. No, but let me explain. So it's a good question. So look, if we're picking on a one by one, us versus Estonia, they have no chance. They're going to have to give it to whatever demand we have, us versus Mexico, us versus Canada. As long as it's contained, our economic might is massive, not just because of 330 million people, because our GDP per capita is sky high, we spend more than anyone else, anyone else, it's not close, right? On the other hand, if China and the EU and Japan and South Korea were all, let alone India bricks, all those other folks who are not our enemies, who, you know, China, you could have

an economic conversation about whether we're opposed to them. But all these folks, they could easily, there's no war or anything like that, it could easily, night and go, okay, now we're going to do reciprocal back at them. And if they all do reciprocal back at us, which would be a very logical move, we would be devastated. So like any one of them by themselves, we have leverage and we can use that to bring down their tariffs or anything like that. But China has well over 1.2 billion people. There are four times our size. And they used to be poverty stricken several decades ago, but now they have a roaring middle class. So you could easily make deals with them.

Europe is pretty much our size. You can easily make deals with them. We are playing with fire here, but a worldwide fire. But so that gets to the main point, which is, look, I asked this on social media earlier today and now finally reporters have started asking it too, because it's a logical and obvious question, which is, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, are these tariffs meant to stay for a long time and rebuild our manufacturing base? or are they a negotiating ploy to bring tariffs down, and then they're going to go away soon.

So which one is it? And he hasn't answered that question. You're right. And he can't be both. You can't say, oh, I did it as a negotiating ploy, and I got these amazing new deals, including 0% from some countries. And mission accomplished, so I took the tariffs off. And that's why the tariffs will reignite our manufacturing base.

Wait, did you take them off or did you not take them off? Are they short term or are they long term? And he's not clarifying because he wants the best of both worlds. He's just throwing out both talking points. I've said this before, I'm going to say it again, what he's doing right now with slapping tariffs on every single country and, you know, really upping the ante with some of our closest trade partners and allies is ridiculous. However, the thing that frustrates me the most about all of this is that it actually is a good idea to do some targeted tariffs, right? But it is a good idea, both for our national security and for the well-being of our country to produce certain things here in the United States, pharmaceutical drugs being one example.

The problem is with the way that Trump is handling this, I'm worried that that window for targeted tariffs will just be diminished will disappear because of what it's doing to the economy, right? Look, it hasn't hit the real economy yet, of course it's hit the stock market. But we all know what would happen if this continues, right? These companies are gonna stop investing in their own businesses, they're gonna stop hiring people, they're probably gonna lay a lot of people off. It will definitely, I hate to use this phrase, but it's true, trickle down to ordinary American workers. So I'm very concerned about that.

But that's not to say that some targeted tariffs make sense because some things absolutely should be produced here in the United States for our own well-being and national security. Now, if you're denying that these blanket tariffs that Trump has implemented are disastrous, why don't we hear from Russian state media? Because they are absolutely celebrating what Trump is doing. So on Russian state media, there's a political scientist by the name of Dimitri Kolokov, who said the following, quote, the price of goods will certainly go up in the United States. The old political and economic global system is practically dead. Sounds pretty celebratory. The host of this state-sponsored Russian news

show, Vladimir Soloviev says the following. A monument should be erected to Trump. This was a major blow to the system of capitalism. I think he deserves at least a Sutulov medal. And a Sutilov Medal is basically not a prestigious medal at all. It's a gag gift. The Daily Beast, described it as a worthless award that a master gives his servant. But he went further saying, quote, to deliver this kind of blow, well done, old man. I mean, Ronald Reagan's got to be spinning in his grave. So here's the Russians celebrating that a Republican president is helping to kill off capitalism. And well done, old man. Now look, you could take that anyway. You don't have to get into the Russia, Russia, Russia. It's just interesting that they're so positive in

Russia that this is disastrous for America, that they're openly celebrating on air. And remember, nothing goes on air without Putin approving it, right? So this is the Russian government, rubbing it in our face. Ha, ha, your president is helping to kill off your country, and we love it, okay? Meanwhile, Trump, Putin, are you okay, Putin? Okay, I don't know why he does it, but the fact that he does do it is pretty clear. So now to the, look, let me clarify two numbers before I get back to, yes, but what should we do? Number one, the Dow started off at 1,300 down. Now it's, it ended around 400 down. So it recovered a little bit. But again, people are still super worried about how volatile it is, wobbly it is, and the fact that

it's still headed down. Number two, I want to go back to Portnoy for a second. Wait, 20 million is 10 to 15% of your net worth? Holy cow. So he's got about $200 million. You're going to be I. You got to be I. Okay. Interesting.

And it's amazing that he's willing. I mean, 20 million is a lot of money. Yeah, the back and forth with his purchase of his company and then him getting it back is public. So I don't blame him for sharing it. But it is amazing, right? That they throw around those numbers. All right, now back to important stuff.

So guys, which one should it be? Should it be permanent? And it helps rebuild manufacturing? should it be temporary because negotiating deals, et cetera. Now, if it was targeted, it should be permanent, as Anna said. Yeah. Okay, but they're not targeted, so they're thrown out at all countries and all industries, et cetera. So since that is damaging, I would say our best case scenario is he tries to save face

by negotiating a couple of deals. Oh, I made a deal with Israel that already had tariffs at 0%. Oh, I made a deal with EU, or maybe it is a good deal. I'll take it and I'm happy, right? And then if he takes all of these off and it got us a couple of negotiated deals for a little bit lower tariffs, it was not the right way to do it. And it still will have significant consequences for this significant downturn. And it might lead to a recession. But at least we'll get something positive out of it and be done with these ridiculous nuclear tariffs, right? So that's what I would prefer. But because he's not smart and strategic enough

to do well-placed industry-specific tariffs. He's just not capable of it, right? And so, by the way, if you're pro-tariff, this is terrible news for you, because everyone's going to despise tariffs after this. So good luck doing your strategic tariffs going forward. Yes, that's what I'm trying to communicate, right? There are tariffs that make sense.

Those tariffs are never going to be done now, right? That's the frustration here. Now with that in mind, let's hear more from Portnoye, this hour long video was incredible. You're going to get another snippet of it right here. Even I'm not in the panicking party, all right? I hate this. I hate that I've lost $20 million.

I didn't love seeing him on the golf course playing his course championship and being like I'm a very low handicap. I didn't love that. Like the stock market is being crushed. I've lost 20% of my net worth and year out on the golf course. Like in my mind, Donald Trump just cost me $20 million or whatever. he did, maybe don't be on the golf course because I'm not I'm curled up in a ball and bed sweating. So when I care about this if I wasn't rich, maybe not as much, but I firmly believe

if the stock market is down and crashing, the whole economy's. It's all intertwined. And it is. It is all intertwined. Now right now, you know, the people you hear whining the most are people who are heavily invested in the stock market. A lot of rich people, a lot of billionaires are worried about what's going on right now, including, by the way, Elon Musk, and we're going to get to some of the infighting involving Elon Musk in just a moment. But look, this is going to create some really severe cracks in the Trump administration, but also for the Republican Party.

Because now you have a group of Republican senators who are like, yeah, so you know that whole thing that we did where Congress seated power to the executive branch? It turns out we don't like that so much. I think that we should get back to a day where Congress made the decision about tariffs. So we'll see what happens. Oh, tons of Republicans are now peeling off and there's too many of them for Trump to threaten them one at a time. Just like the trading partners, he took on too much at once.

So now Rand Paul's hitting him, Senator Kennedy from Louisiana's hitting him. The guy who's like, that's my ass, right? And that's exactly what he's worried about now, his own ass. So they're all over TV going, I don't know about these tariffs. Now Elon Musk's not sure about the tariffs, Bill Ackman not sure about the tariffs. So it's falling apart at the scenes. I thought they were never going to break, huh, interesting. So look guys, Wang John, I think one of our members on tyt.com has a good line here that I like.

So this is the part we call finding out. Okay, so and that's exactly right. Trump thought he's above it and there's reports from the side saying that he thinks he's not listening to anybody anymore and he thinks that his advisors were the problem first time around. Brother, they were the reason that you managed to have an interesting balance in the economy. Now without those professionals advice, he's just doing dumb stuff and finding out. And so, but the bottom line on the overall panic is I'm absolutely positive that these tariffs

will not be around, okay? So, you know, that's a strong statement. There's a lot of folks, especially on the right wing, who say no way, they're going to be around forever and ever, and it's going to rebuild manufacturing in 10 years from now. We're going to thank Donald Trump for all these wonderful tariffs that he brought here and then remained. They're not going to remain. So the very, very, very long as they'll last is right after the tax cuts.

Then you'll never hear of them again. Oh, I did a deal with Iceland and the place with the penguins. And I'm such a great negotiator, we don't need them anymore. And then you'll never hear it. But how many months is that going to take? And by then, there's going to be a lot of damage in the real economy, not just the stock market. So that's a great question. Because you're right, phase two is about the head where the prices are actually going to go up.

Then there's going to be massive panic, right? So then that's the real question. Can they sneak in the tax cuts before they take away the tariffs? Because remember they're saying, oh, five and a half trillion dollars in tax cuts, don't worry about it. the tariffs are going to raise six trillion dollars. So now if they get rid of the tariffs, they can't say the tariffs are going to raise six trillion dollars. So they need to keep the tariffs.

That's why today, the unspoken story, and by the way, guys, eyes on the prize. And we need to do this, we do it every day, but we need to double down, et cetera. They're trying to pass the budget right now. Nobody's talking about the budget. I know, yep. Everybody's talking about this, and everybody's, and you know what's all the Republicans are saying, exactly what we told you here on the, on the young Turks. They're all saying, well, especially with the budget,

The markets being volatile like this, we really need to give American companies another round of tax cuts and deregulation to make sure that they're going to be stable and okay. So that's the plan all along. The minute they get those, the tariffs are gone. The tariffs aren't the problem that in the long run, the tax cuts are. Well, we're not quite done with the topic of Trump's tariffs. So when we come back, we're going to dive right into Bill Ackman, making some pretty strong accusations against Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik. Is there any truth behind them?

We'll see. And we'll be right back. All right. Well, we've got a lot more to get to when it comes to Donald Trump's and how it's ripping his group of supporters apart. Let's get into it. More than 160 million Americans, Mr. Secretary, as you know, are invested in the market. Many of them have spent their lives saving for their retirement. What is your message to Americans who want to retire right now and who've just seen their lifetime savings drop significantly? A very tough question, and we're going to get back to what Treasury Secretary's

percent had to say in response to that question in just a bit. So hold on tight for that. But first, we absolutely need to dive into this fire hot feud between billionaire Trump donor Bill Ackman and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik, who is now being accused by Ackman of not being an honest player. So as Ackman spent his weekend pleading with Trump to essentially do a 90-day pause on his tariffs in order to, you know, create some space. for trade negotiations. He also jumped into this interesting accusation against Howard Ludnik who's been making his rounds on cable television in defense of Donald Trump's tariffs policy. He says I just figured out why Howard Lutnik is

indifferent to the stock market and the economy crashing. He and canter are long bonds. He profits when our economy implodes. It's a bad idea to pick a Secretary of Commerce whose firm is levered long-fixing income, it's an irreconcilable conflict of interest. Now, Ackman is, of course, talking about Cantor Fitzgerald, which is the financial firm that Howard Lutnik led for 35 years prior to joining the Trump administration. And he's basically just accusing him of being so heavily invested in bonds that the stock market blowing up as a result of Trump's tariff policies is actually a good thing for

for those who are heavily invested in bonds. But like, I don't know how much truth there is behind that. There is a lot of truth behind that. Oh, is there? Okay, go ahead. So look, first of all, I got no love for anybody on either side here. Lutnik's been running Cantor Fitzgerald, a big Wall Street firm for 35 years. Bill Ackman's a really despicable billionaire who bullies people on the issue of Israel and on and on, right? And they both support Trump.

So, okay, but we don't really much care about the personalities to begin with. On this show, we actually focus on facts on what's right and not right. So who's right between these two? In terms of the tariffs, I mean, it physically bothers me to say it, but Bill Ackman is right, right? On the facts of what tariffs do, at least these particular tariffs, okay? And so on the issue of Will Howard Lucknick's firm profit from these tariffs? Yes.

Are they among the few that will? Yes, because long in Wall Street speak means that you're betting in that direction. short means you're betting against it, right? So if you're long on what Cantor Fitzgerald's long on bonds, when the markets go down, bonds go up. Because people take their money out of the markets, which is a little bit riskier, and they put it into something safer bonds. So the value of bonds go up. So if his firm was heavy into bonds, long on bonds, then they're gonna make out like bandits. Now this is a little bit of speculation on my part, but I didn't know that until Ackman pointed it out.

And I did wonder, Lutnik, I swear to you, you take it at face, you know, for whatever it's worth, because I didn't even say it on air before. But I was like, like, huh, a lot of them look uncomfortable. Besson looks uncomfortable. He does. Tons of their, like, when they go on air and they're like, the tariffs are really good for the economy,

because they know it's not, they know they're lying, it's super embarrassing, et cetera. But the one guy who always seems so happy, and maybe it's for other reasons, but was Lutnik. Lutnik's like, every picture is like, ha ha, and you can see it for yourself. Every video, every picture is like, we're doing the tariffs, it's great. And we're like, I'm like, really?

You're that excited as the market is crashing, et cetera? And this would explain why he's excited. Again, I can't say for sure that that's what Scott Lutnik jazzed up, but it is true that that is where his financial incentive. So, Jake, you beat me to it because I was gonna ask, well, I mean, Lutnik's not the only Trump administration official who's making his rounds, defending what Trump is doing with the tariffs, like what about Scott Besant? But you make an excellent point about how uncomfortable other administration officials

appear to be as they're defending Trump's tariffs. So by the way, prior to join the Trump administration, there's evidence he's on the record. Scott Besant said that tariffs are bad, they cause inflation. Now it's an entirely different, you know, storyline that we're hearing from percent. But what you just said, Jank, reminded me of the interview that Besant recently had with Tucker Carlson. Now, Besant, of course, is the Treasury Secretary, and just pay close attention to this video and how he looks like he's in physical pain as he's talking about something that he typically would not want to talk about. Let's watch. If I were to say, was there any good outcome from COVID, it woke the world up to these supply chain problems.

So economic security is national security. President Trump and I have talked about that a lot. So this is a national security issue that we're seeing here. But it's also an economic security issue. And it's to, I don't want to say redistribute, but it is to give working Americans real wage gains and enhance their lives. I don't want to say redistribute. I like that was so good. Let's just distill that moment.

Let's go to the last video here, B5. It's too, I don't want to say redistribute. That's so good. Yeah, so Besson's got a couple problems. One, he's a giant Wall Street banker, so he doesn't want to redistribute to the average working guy. So he's like, oh, like it makes him physically ill to think of that. Okay. But in this case, the bigger problem is, that's not going to do that anyway.

If it was going to do that, then I'd be happy, right? But so he knows that these tariffs are going to work in any way, shape, or form. He's too smart not to know that, right? So look, he's deeply uncomfortable. Here, we'll throw this on the record. Scott Bessent, not long for this administration. It's April 7th today. Let's see how long he lasts.

Okay? Interesting. Yeah. So he's too rational for this. And it's obvious that it's making him deeply uncomfortable. So, you know, we could disagree with him on other policies, but it's obvious that he didn't sign up for this. And you know, that's the problem with people that go into the Trump administration or that support him like Bill Lachman, right? Or maybe even Elon Musk, as we're going to get to a little bit later in the show.

So they never realize how he irrational is. So they always assume like, yeah, but he's got to have some strategy behind the scenes. I mean, he won the presidency twice. He's got to be a genius. It's got to be, I mean, not even not a genius, strategic in a way that I can't see from the outside. They get inside and they're like, whoa, it's way worse than from the outside. I thought it was going to be better. The guy has never does any homework and has no rational strategy, has no idea what he's talking about.

So professionals like Bessent are going to be the first to go. Okay, so now one seemingly random thing that gets to two of the themes here, though, Tucker Carlson today randomly, or it seemed random to me, but I get why he's doing it, said, hey, we better not attack Iran right now. We're in this tariff mess, and this would be the very worst time to attack them, which made me go, wait, does he know something? I don't know. Did Netanyahu go to the White House, not on tariffs mainly, but to get America to attack Iran?

Because Tucker has way more inside information than we do on this. So, whoa, watch out, okay? But notice, here's Ackman breaking against Trump for the tariffs. There's Tucker Carlson warning Trump, you better not attack Iran. There is a ton of disagreement here in right wing circles. Now, I want to get to what I promised. How exactly did, you know, that question about retirement get answered. So let's get to that video.

Let's look at video three. What is your message to Americans who want to retire right now and who've just seen their lifetime savings drop significantly. Well, Chris, I think that's a false narrative. Americans who want to retire right now, that Americans who have put away for years in their savings accounts, I think they don't look at the day-to-day

fluctuations of what's happening. And, you know, in fact, most Americans don't have everything in the market. Most Americans in a 401K have what's called a 60-40 account. That is 60-40 accounts that are down 5 or 6% on the year, people have a long-term view. They have a program that the reason the stock market is

considered a good investment is because it's a long-term investment. If you look day-to-day, week-to-week, it's very risky over the long-term. It's a good investment. I'm going to leave Jank to directly respond to what Bessent said in that video, but I'm going to use this as an opportunity to say, this is why Social Security is lit. because it is not tied to the risk of the stock market. Okay, it is money that you can look forward to getting in your retirement years. You've paid into the system, and it's just a fixed amount that you are entitled to, and it has nothing to do with the stock market.

We must protect Social Security at any and all costs. Jake, take it away. Yeah, Dave Portnoy actually made a good point about this particular comment by Besson. He's like, yeah, you're saying that people who are about to retire aren't going to panic over this huge drop in the stock market and hence their holdings. He's like, brother, if you're as wealthy as Bessent is, you might not panic. And by the way, or pornoid, right? And he says it, and he's very frank about it. He said, I lost 20 million, that's 10 to 15% of my wealth. I'm okay overall.

Right, I hate it, but I'm okay overall. He's like, the real problem is people who are about to retire, and they're not going to be okay overall. And so if you think in your La La Land, that they're going to look at that, oh, I have a long-term view on it because I'm a professional investor, And I know that that's going to stay there for a year or two years. And how are we doing over the market, you know, the market indexes over the five-year period? They're not, no, any rational person is going to see their 401k or their pensions or whatever it might be plummeting and justifiably worry. Right.

No normal human being wouldn't do that. So their lives are becoming absurd. Yeah, absolutely. And so I can see the pressure really starting to accumulate against the Trump. on these tariffs. We'll see how it goes. But for now, we got to take a break. And when we come back, we'll talk about more turmoil among those closest to Trump, including Elon Musk and Peter Navarro. Ooh, some jabs. Epic jabs over the weekend. We'll tell you who's throwing the jabs and who is right in this scenario. We'll be right back.

We got to talk about this feud between Elon Musk and Peter Navarro. Elon Musk, who the president has described as a genius repeatedly, basically came out over the weekend and said that he at least implied two things, one that he's not in favor of these tariff program, the way it's structured currently, suggesting he wants it, you know, he wants zero zero across the board, but he also took a shot at you and took a shot at you personally. Have you spoken to him? Elon Musk and Trump advisor Peter Navarro are at war over Trump's tariffs. Let's see what Navarro has to say about it in this interview on CNBC.

When it comes to tariffs and trade, we all understand in the White House and the American people understand that Elon's a car manufacturer, but he's not a car manufacturer, he's a car assembler. He's a car assembler. Jank, those are fighting words. Shots fired. Okay, here we are, yet another right wing on right wing crime. And I love it. And part of the reason I love it, guys, this applies more of the media hosts like Portnoy and Rogan, et cetera, that are rebelling against Trump on a number of different issues. It's not so much like, oh, internal fighting, and that means that it'll naturally be a good thing. Sometimes a good thing, sometimes it's not for us or for the country.

But what is important is people are beginning to say, I'm not just going to say whatever Trump says, because if it hurts my interest, I don't work for Fox News. I don't work for Trump. I'm just not going to say it. And that has gone all the way to Elon Musk, who's firing shots of Trump through Navarro. He's not trying to hit Navarro. He's trying to hit Trump through Navarro. That's exactly right.

Everyone is afraid to attack Trump directly. So instead they're kind of attacking each other, but it's just a proxie war. There's a proxy war going on right now, okay, within the Trump administration, with Trump allies. So look, you can see why Elon Musk would be against the tariffs that Donald Trump is pursuing here. Tesla stock fell 10% by Friday, erasing billions in Elon Musk's wealth. Mark is closed on Friday with the week marking the worst trading week. in five years. And stocks didn't really rebound today. You know, the Dow opened at a 1,300 point drop, but closed at 400 points down. Now, clearly Elon is upset, make no mistake about it.

And he took jabs against Peter Navarro over the weekend. I want to give you a few examples. So in response to a clip featuring Navarro's passionate defense of Donald Trump's tariffs on CNN, Elon Musk wrote, a PhD in econ from Harvard is a bad thing. Peter Navarro has a PhD from Harvard in economics. He says it's not a good thing. Results in the ego slash brains being bigger than one problem. I don't know what he meant in that last line. But nonetheless, he's basically taking jabs at Peter Navarro.

Harvard education, okay? He also wrote in response to someone arguing that Peter Navarro is correct in his analysis. He ain't built crap, I'll use the word that I'm allowed to use on the show. And during an interview with Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, this is on Saturday, Musk made clear what he would like to happen in regard to tariffs between the United States and Europe. Take a look. I'm hopeful that there can be a very close relationship with America and Europe. And I'm hopeful, for example, with the tariffs that at the end of the day, I hope it has agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America.

And that would be my, that's what I hope occurs. And also more freedom of people to move between Europe and North America. So that has certainly been my advice to the president. Now, look, in regard to Europe, we're not talking about exploited labor, right? Europe is not China or Vietnam or these other countries where you can take advantage of super, super, cheap labor. So I'm definitely way more open to lifting these tariffs against our European allies as opposed to some of the other countries where our corporations take advantage of and exploit cheap labor to the detriment of American workers. I think in those areas,

some targeted tariffs might make sense. But clearly what you just heard from Elon Musk is very different from what you will hear from Peter Navarro, who make no mistake about it. Peter Navarro isn't just talking to talk. He is a tariff's evangelist and has been for a long time. He really does believe in tariffs. Yeah, this whole attack in each other's elite schools is hilarious. Okay, oh, you went to Hob, isn't it good? I went to one, no, what, no, if I went to one, it must be right.

Yeah, it's insufferable, all of this. Okay, yeah, can't stand it. Okay, anyways, so now, first of all, we're gonna put you in a tough situation. We got you in a live chat poll, okay, where you, got to ask, where we're asking you, who's right? Peter Navarro or Elon Musk. Peter Navar, by the way, before you vote, just buys you a little bit more, is one of the guys who came up with the fake elector scheme to rob us of our democracy last time around. So lots of loathing in all directions here. Okay, first let me start with what Navarra is right about. Elon is a car

assembler, it's true. He didn't invent Tesla. Let me see what we got. I hate to do that to you. Elon winning in a poll 71.29, okay, watch the show live Monday through Friday be part of it. Starts at 6 o'clock Eastern every day. All right, so he mainly assembles cars, and yes, they get the parts from lots of other places in the world, Mexico, Canada for some of the essentials and also Japan and China. So we, so is it true that Elon has a financial incentive here to be against these tariffs? Yes. Has he lost about $30 billion in value in his companies since the tariffs hit? Yes. Will that create a bias or perspective for him? Yes. So Navarro is right about all those things. Now, turn to Elon. Yes, but on the substance, who's right?

Elon is, in my opinion, clearly right. So if we can get a 0% rate with European Union and we don't charge each other tariffs. I can't see the harm in that at all. That sounds like a great outcome. Like if that's all Trump had done, I would actually give him a lot of credit for it. And remember, he hasn't landed that bird. It hasn't happened yet. We don't even know if the EU is actually going to go for it. If I'm being honest, they would be better off joining China and creating enormous pressure on us right now and get a better deal for themselves. But hey, if they do the 0% I'll take it. These tariffs are never going to last anyway. It just causes way too much damage. So Elon is right, you might as well get some deals out of it and then get the hell out of Dodge.

But Navarro is a, to be fair to Navarro, he's a true believer. He is. He really believes these maniacal things that are not going to happen at all, like that the tariffs are going to stay over. We're both going to get a great deal from European Union, but we're not going to take away the tariffs and they're going to be permanent and rebuild our manufacturing base. No, they're not. So in regard to zero tariffs between the United States and the EU, Navarro is. Navarro did weigh in on that. So why don't we hear what he had to say? And I'm curious what your response is, Jake. Do you expect deals to be announced this week with the president?

I expect the market to quickly find a bottom. I expect. Without any deals from the president or without any? Is it possible he says, let's do a 30 day hiatus on some of this? I've told you, Joe. over with all of our trading partners to see if we can get get somewhere before we do it. Is that possible? All right, hang on. Again, let me finish these thoughts here. I mean, first of all, it's a president's decision. Second of all, I've told you that the most important thing is for countries to come to us not

offering zero tariffs, which is disingenuous because it won't get us anything, particularly with countries like Vietnam. What they have to do is tell us they're going to drop all their non-tariff cheating. And as you said, that takes a little time here. Okay, we got a $1.2 trillion deficit. In some cases, the deficit kind of makes sense, right? Yeah. So anyway, but.

Yeah, so let me jump in on a couple of things. First of all, now we're asking them not only to drop their tariffs, but all their non-tariff policies as well. What kind of moving the goalpost is this, right? So look, again, if you wanted to say, hey, there's a particular trading policy that Vietnam and China have, And you see how it affects us through taxes or whatever else and or devaluing of their currency. Let's have a strategic strike against that.

I'm all in because I think they do too much of that playing around stuff. But if you impose these massive tariffs on them and then hope that they're just going to wipe away everything else, when they can easily just get together and band against us as basically China's led the way on right now, they can crush our markets. They can crush and our prices skyrocket and we'll be in bigger pain than the rest of the world. So that's, it's all fantasy land stuff from Navarro. That's not gonna happen. What I'm hoping is what honestly what Elon's hoping for too,

which is some sort of face saving maneuver where Trump comes out and goes, well yeah, we got Vietnam to move on bubble gum. And we got China to move on your baseball caps. The MAGA hats were buying and so I win, I win, right? And then all the tariffs are gone. And we didn't get rid of their tariffs and all the other non. tariffs and stuff, that's the best possible scenario at this point because we're not going to win this war. This is a maniacal war where we nuked everyone else in

the world at the same time. They're gonna nuke us back and we're gonna be in a lot. This is just the beginning. If they all nuke us back with the same amount of tariffs we put on them, we're gonna be hurt bad dog. And now one a clarification from last week. I intimated that Elon's companies would be better off than GM, Stalantis, and some other manufacturers here in America. So he might not hate these tariffs as much as they do, because it might give him a slight competitive advantage. Wrong again, Bob. Yeah, on that one, it looks like, although those facts are true, that is not what's happened. What's happened is that Tesla has been hurt very badly, and Elon is

not happy about these tariffs. He's very, very unhappy, and I wanted to make sure to clarify that for you guys so you know. Tonight car companies are responding to the president's tariffs, Stalantis, which makes Jeep and Chrysler laid off 900 people at five different plants in Michigan and Indiana. As the company says, those layoffs are temporary but necessary because, it's pausing production at two of its assembly plants in Canada and Mexico. Mr. Fane, you have praised the auto tariffs here, 25% that went into effect last night. What's your response to what Stalantis did today?

Now look, we've been covering so many billionaires who are absolutely infuriated against Donald Trump due to his tariffs policy, but on the flip side, United Auto Workers President Sean Fane has actually defended Trump to some extent. Which is surprising. Now we're gonna hear the rest of his, you know, his answer to Caitlin Collins right now. Let's take a look at what he had to say. The administration has been very clear that these things, these tariffs are coming. They backed off twice now and now that it's time to be implemented.

You know, Ford, you know, obviously has been proactive. They drop the price of vehicles. They're extending discounts to consumers. GM announced they're gonna bring some work back. And meanwhile, Stalanus, who's had several months to prepare, announces that they're going to use employees as collateral damage. It's more of the same. You know, there is excess capacity all over this country right now.

And Stalanis has excess capacity right in Warren, Michigan, where they're laying people off again. They could move ram truck production there, in very short order, be producing ram trucks. I'm here in Chattanooga, Tennessee right now at Volkswagen. Volkswagen produces 75% of their vehicles in Mexico. And, you know, there's excess capacity right here at this plant. So Lordstown, Ohio, Lordstown Assembly Plant, I mean, there's plenty of capacity in this country. And to be fair, I've heard that argument made by a lot of different people who are defending Donald Trump's auto tariffs policies, right? So specifically the tariffs he wants to implement on vehicles that are being imported to the United States, they argue, look, we still have factories that have practically been abandoned as a result of offshoring these auto manufacturing jobs.

We can take those factories, you know, obviously update them, bring them back online and have these vehicles manufactured here in the United States. And also understand the interests at play here. Obviously, Sean Fain is representing the best interests of workers in the auto industry. And so some of these tariffs he sees as potentially good for the auto industry for workers within the auto industry. So if you don't follow politics closely, you might be thinking, Sean Fane, was he the guy who spoke about? the Republican convention. It's the other Sean that did that. Right, so that's Sean O'Brien, who was head of the teams, just gave a fire breathing

progressive speech at the RNC, which is really interesting, and helped to get a more progressive labor secretary. So well-plained and he took a lot of heat for it, and Sean Paine was not in that camp. Sean Fane representing UAW was in the camp of rah-rah Democrats and Trump is terrible. Now I agree with him that Trump is terrible, I didn't agree with him as much on rah-rah Democrats, But that's the position he's been taking. That's why this is more surprising that he's coming out and saying rah-rah Trump on this. Now, at the same time, I totally get it for the same reasons I understand the Sean O'Brien reached out,

which is you gotta do a right for what's your, for your workers. And that's your only priority. They're not Democrats, they don't represent the country, they don't represent a state, they represent their unions, and those unions have specific interests. Now, as it turns out, my honest assessment is that Sean O'Brien played it better than Sean Fain, because he got in, he helped to influence decisions, and Sean Fane is agreeing with Trump at his nadir at it when he's on fire, right? And so I don't think that it's made much of an impact, and I still get it. He thinks it's better for his union overall, but this is like the worst time to agree with Donald Trump, and these tariffs aren't going to last,

and he's going to be disappointed. So at the end of the day, he'll probably get left holding the bag, it'll seem like he supported Trump on tariffs that didn't work. And not only will that set him back a little bit, it's not that important his particular political leverage to the rest of us. But also, if you care about doing tariffs right, as Anna and I have been talking about over the last couple of weeks, this will hurt that cause. So that's why, unfortunately, this is not a great time to back a Trump play. So look, in regard to the obvious chaos that we're seeing right now in the stock market and the very inevitable issue of inflation that will follow. You know, Fane basically says that, you know, the tariffs could be at least partially

absorbed by corporations. We'll see. I mean, look, they're going to want to sell products. So they might eat some portion of the costs associated with these higher tariffs. So we have to wait and see if these tariffs remain in place. I think in regard to the auto tariffs, that's probably the area where Trump is the most serious. I could be wrong, but that's my read of it. We'll see. Yeah, I mean, it's not impossible that he would get rid of most of the tariffs, but keep a couple. So that again is, you know, goes towards Sean Finn's strategy being right if, you know, if it goes in that direction. But guys, just real quick clarity on prices and how things work. So if you have 30% tariff on something, but the margin of that product is

only 15%. The company cannot eat the whole 30% tariff, because then they'll be losing 15% instead of making 15%. Just giving you that as one example. Oftentimes their margins are higher than that. But so, and is a corporation going to want to move most of the costs onto you? Yes. In fact, they'll move as much as the cost onto you as you could possibly afford. Exactly. And when you get to a breaking point and they think you're going to go to another company or not buy at all, that's when they'll ease up a little bit. But that means you'll eat most of the tariffs, and they'll eat a little bit of them. But they're never going to get to a point where it completely erases their profit margin because then they wouldn't do it.

Of course, of course. Now, what does Sean Fain have to say about that? Let's take a look. Tariffs aren't a solution to everything. Tariffs are a tool in the toolbox. But ultimately, we've got to fix the broken trade system. And that's the part, unfortunately. When we hear all these talking heads talk about the crisis with the stock market dropping,

where was the cry out of the crisis when millions of jobs were leaving this country the last 20 or 30 years? The real problem isn't these tariffs. The real problem here is corporate greed. I mean, let's talk about the auto industry from 2020 to 2023 when they jacked up the price of vehicles, 35%. It wasn't because wages went up. It wasn't because of tariffs. People were manipulating and price gouging consumer because of a pandemic that was in place. So, you know, it's a choice for this crying all day about the stock market. You know, a majority of Americans don't own stock. Working class people, you know, 60% don't have any retirement savings. That's the crisis in this country. That's what we need to be talking

about. How do we how do we make the trade laws and make these things fair and bring work back to puts people to work where they can, where they can have a decent quality of life? See, look, this is the reason why I really value the fact that Sean Fain was willing to go out there and say the things that he's saying because that clip that we just showed you, he's absolutely right. And it's amazing how right now there's like a 24 hour news cycle, I'm like, oh my God, the stock market, the stock market. But as Americans, we're losing everything as a result of corporations moving jobs over to other countries in order to exploit cheap labor. No, I mean, yes, there were some people on the left specifically who were complaining

about that. But now those folks are so wrapped up in their hatred of Donald Trump that they forgot about how, you know, outsourcing American jobs has been absolutely disastrous for American workers, for American labor. And that's why I'm not as black and white on this issue of tariffs. And the way it's being covered right now in the media, it's very much black or white. It's either good or bad. It depends. The nuance matters, right?

So the main reason why I'm frustrated with Trump is this like blanket tariffs policy and this like weird ham handed way that he's implementing or imposing these tariffs is It's doing away with whatever goodwill exists among Americans in regard to targeted tariffs that actually do look out for American workers. Yeah, so look, there's tons of nuance here in that, like, I think some targeted tariffs could work mainly in fighting back against tariffs that were laid against us that were not reciprocal. Do I think most of our jobs, the manufacturing jobs are going to be outsourced, inevitably?

I do. Does that mean that we should be okay with all the rules that are in these trade agreements set by corporations? No, because corporations write these agreements and they write it for their benefit, not your benefit. But the number one point that I would make is that we live under corporate rule. That's our number one problem. These corporations have bought off almost all of our politicians. They rig not just one rule or two rules, they rig all of the rules to their advantage.

And now they're about to lower their taxes from, they went from 35 to 21%. Last time around, the less they pay, the more we pay. And now Trump is saying he wants to bring it down all the way to 15%, deregulate more, take away fraud charges, et cetera, which all strengthens corporate rule and is the opposite of populism. And last point on this overall is, look, while we do all these nuances that's important about tariffs, the way Trump did it, had no nuance. Right.

And since he nuked everyone, it tariffs wind up looking terrible overall. And it's set back everyone. And for Sean Fain and Sean O'Brien, I love that there's a new, more aggressive union leadership out there. And that is not just listening to the parties, and that it's making their independent decisions, right or wrong, in any given circumstance, to fight for their workers and getting the word out, both of them are, about how corporations, Corporations have rigged all the rules and set this economy to their advantage and against us. That's the core of the issue, and that's the thing we all should be united around. All right, we got to take a break when we come back for the second hour of the show.

We're going to jump right into Donald Trump's press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu. There was a lot discussed there. Not only did they discuss tariffs, but they also talked a little bit about potential war with Iran. We'll be right back. Buhn't know. B. B. B.

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