The Young Turks - ""Liberation Day"" Lunacy

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

Trump announces sweeping new tariffs. Susan Crawford wins Wisconsin Supreme Court election despite Elon Musk’s millions. Corporate execs cower as Trump’s trade war destroys them. Israel expands military operation in Gaza to seize ‘large areas’ of land. " HOSTS: Ana Kasparian 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. Welcome to our trash revolution. Everything's computer. How terrific. Bacon, turkey. Baga!

Welcome to TYT, I'm your host Anna Kasparian, and man, do we have a show for you today? If you're wondering what Donald Trump is planning in regard to his tariff policy, I think a lot of journalists are still wondering, even though he gave a lengthy speech, getting into the specifics, we're going to do our best to decode, decipher exactly what will be put into place. But just a little bit of a spoiler, S&P 500, down 2.2% during the speech that Trump gave in regard to his tariff policy. So the markets have already reacted to it to some extent. We're also going to talk about the special elections that took place yesterday. There was some good news for Democrats, although the Republicans and the Trump administration

is to some extent trying to spin it to their advantage. In the second hour, John Idarola will be joining us to talk about lots of other stories. We'll talk about Israel's announcement in regard to the land. They intend to steal in Gaza, they're just brazen about it. Lots to get to, you don't want to miss it. But as always, just want to encourage you to like and share the stream if you're watching us on YouTube. And you can also support us by becoming a member by going to tyt.

com slash join, or you can hit that join button if you're watching us on YouTube. All right, now bear with me because Trump just gave his speech where he's announcing the tariffs that he intends to implement, when he's going to implement them. He's arrived at some fascinating numbers, and I can tell that a lot of reporters are having difficulty figuring out how he arrived at those numbers exactly. We're going to do our best to give you the detail. So without further ado, let's get to it. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day, waiting for a long time.

April 2nd, 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed, and the day that we began to make America wealthy again. Well, we have finally gotten Trump's big Liberation Day announcement, of course, having to do with the tariffs that he intends to implement on various countries and our trade partners. He gave us a comprehensive look at his trade policies, in fact, which he'd been hyping up for some time. Let's just keep it real. In fact, for anyone who is upset about the fact that these tariffs are now being implemented, they're supposed to go into effect this month, he had been. been campaigning on this. And one should wonder why it is that you didn't have a Democratic candidate, whether it was Biden when he was the nominee or Kamala Harris when she was the nominee, you know, campaigning against it because he did talk about these tariffs. Incessantly on the

campaign trail. And now he's saying, look, promises kept. So here's what we know so far. It's not exactly clear how the Trump administration arrived at some of these numbers. But with that in mind. Let's go to the next clip where you're going to get some specificity. For nations that treat us badly, we will calculate the combined rate of all their tariffs, non-monetary barriers and other forms of cheating. And because we are being very kind, we're kind people. But we will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us. If you look at that, China, first row, China, 67%, that's tariffs. charged to the USA, including currency manipulation and trade barriers.

So 67%, I think you can for the most part, see it. So it's 67%, so we're gonna be charging a discounted reciprocal tariff of 34%. I think, in other words, they charge us, we charge them, we charge them less. So how can anybody be upset? Okay, so it was a little subtle, but during his speech, he kind of made clear that there are countries, we like, countries that he feels that we can further negotiate with. And so with our allies, with those trade partners, he has decided to give them a little bit of a discount reciprocal tariff. And so I'll get to those countries in just a moment. But some nations will be hit

with what Trump called discounted reciprocal tariffs and others will be hit with steeper tariffs on any import coming from that country to the United States. So the higher rates are for nations, the White House, again, considers bad actors on trade. Duties will be 34% on China and 24% on Japan. I'm sorry, 24% on China, 24% on Japan and 20% on the EU. In fact, why don't we take a look at the next graphic in case you weren't able to get a good look at that chart that he was holding up during his speech. And so this gives you a sense of what the numbers are likely to look like should these tariffs be implemented. And these would go into effect on April 9th. So Switzerland's at 31%, Indonesia and Taiwan at 32%, China at 34%, Vietnam at 46%, Japan at 20%,

and Cambodia at 49%. Now again, these tariffs would go into effect on April 9th. But there are more tariffs from where that came from. Because what Trump also wants to move forward with, is this baseline tariff on all imports to the United States. So the United States will implement this universal 10% tariff on all products imported to the U.S., which would go into effect on April 5th. So the higher tariffs on the so-called bad actors would go into effect on April 9th. The baseline tariffs on all imports to the United States would go into effect on April 5th. And that would, by the way, come on top of other specific.

And specific tariffs. So remember, there are some tariffs that Trump has already implemented. They've already gone into effect, including the 25% tariffs on all steel that's imported into the United States. So, you know, when we talk about Trump's tariffs, oftentimes we talk about how he uses the threat of tariffs as a tool, as a negotiating tactic. But in fact, there have been some pretty steep tariffs on very specific items that have already gone into effect. And you can tell that Trump has been pretty serious about it. And steel happens to be one of those tariffs, again, at 25%. So let's talk a little bit about what Trump is saying in regard to his intention here. At least what the cover story is. He claims that this is really about fairness, and it's about bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States. Let's take a look. The United States charges other countries only a 2.4 tariff on motorcycles. Meanwhile, Thailand and others are charging much higher prices, like 60%, India charges, 70%, Vietnam charges 75%, and others are even higher than that.

Likewise, until today, the United States has for decades charged a 2.5 tariff. Think of that, 2.5% on foreign-made automobiles. The European Union charges us more than 10% percent. tariffs and they have 20% vats much, much higher. Canada, by the way, imposes a 250 to 300% tariff on many of our dairy products. They do the first the first can of milk. They do the first little carton of milk at a very low price, but after that it gets bad and then it gets up to 275, 300%.

And China charges American rice farmers an over quota. it's called a tariff rate of 65%. South Korea charges 50. Actually, they charge different from 50% to 513%. And Japan, our friend, charges a 700%. Okay, so look, it is true that many companies are, I should say many countries are hitting us with much higher tariffs than we are charging, you know, companies from their countries as they, import products into the United States. But let's also be real. America has some pretty big tariffs on other countries as well, even before this announcement from Donald Trump. So the U.S. has high tariffs on certain products as well, like sugar, footwear, apparel, and peanuts,

a legacy of efforts to protect those industries. The U.S. charges 350% tariffs on tobacco from many countries, 260% tariffs on Irish butter. That's interesting. Substitutes. 1097% tariffs on Chinese stainless steel kitchenware. And look guys, I, I'm actually okay with the reciprocal tariffs because understand what's happening here. Understand the actual unfairness of the situation. So basically, we have a situation where we will import products that are manufactured and made in other countries. In many cases, there had been a free trade situation going on where we would import them

without any tariffs at all or incredibly low tariffs. Whereas the country that we are trading with would implement incredibly high tariffs on U.S. made products or U.S. agriculture that's being imported into their country. Now, why would they do that? Obviously, that is a protectionist policy in order to encourage consumers in their countries to not buy the U.S. products, because obviously the U.S. products are going to be more expensive as a result of the higher tariffs. It's meant to incentivize purchasing products that are either grown or made in their home countries. And so we had a policy lists lopsided policy with some countries with some trade deals where we were just importing,

you know, cheaply made goods into the U.S., decimating American jobs, you know, the American workers that could have been making those products here in the U.S. At the same time, our companies didn't benefit as much because obviously the products that were being imported to those trade partners, those countries, were being hit with those high tariffs, disincentivizing their consumers from buying those American made or American grown products. So I understand the unfairness of it, which is why I'm definitely open-minded to some of the reciprocal tariffs that Trump is talking about here. At the same time, though, what I'm kind of curious about is how he has arrived at some of these numbers, because he's got this

baseline 10% tariff. Then on top of that, he's adding additional tariffs to our trade partners, depending on whether or not he considers them good faith or bad faith. If he considers them good faith trade partners, he does this discount reciprocal tariff, where it's the 10% baseline. And then whatever they're charging us with their tariffs, he'll take that and he'll half it by 50% and tack that number on to the 10% baseline tariff. So that's the way it's being reported right now in regard to how the Trump administration has reached these numbers.

But long story short, this is obviously going to have a negative impact on prices. This is going to lead to inflation, which is why the markets have already responded to Trump's announcement during his speech, the S&P 500 went down 2.2%. And I should also note that, you know, just to give you an example of how lopsided some of the trade policies are, so the United States only charges 2.5% for European cars, but it charges 25% or a 25% tariff on foreign trucks. Now, why do they do that? Well, we charge the 25% tariff on foreign made trucks because we want to incentivize

American consumers to buy American made trucks. And so other countries do the same thing, and Trump is trying to, I guess, renegotiate things to give the United States and American companies a bigger advantage in this world market, this world trade situation. So I should also note that in regard to the auto tariffs, which have, which are going to go into effect midnight, those are 25% tariffs on foreign made vehicles that are being imported to the United States. He is going to go through with that.

However, those tariffs would impact foreign made parts that are used to manufacture cars domestically. And so what Trump is saying is if the parts are coming from either Canada or Mexico, and most of the parts do come from those two countries, I'm going to exempt tariff. on those foreign made parts if it falls under the USMCA bill that he had negotiated. That was the renegotiation of NAFTA. I know this is a lot of information, but I mean, this is what's going on right now with his move on tariffs and it's gonna have a huge impact on the economy.

So per Jeff Stein over at the Washington Post, for a developed country, America is largely in the middle of the pack. So on a trade weighted basis, the average US tariff is 2.2%, Japan is 1.9%, and the European Union is 2.7%, slightly higher than the US average according to the World Trade Organization. So that's kind of a look at what trade policy is globally on average. And last night, perhaps in an effort, this is my, this is my favorite part of the story, Perhaps in an effort to kind of get ahead of Trump's announcement on reciprocal tariffs, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the following.

Let's take a quick look at this. Today we canceled all of the customs duties levied on products from the United States, Israel's largest trading partner. Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. First of all, we weren't charging tariffs on Israeli made products that were being imported to the United States. Let me, let me be clear about that. But Israel was charging American goods or hitting American goods with tariffs. And he's like, oh, am I not merciful? I'm now repealing

them the night before Trump is going to make an announcement about reciprocal tariffs. But think about how much Israel benefits from American taxpayers on a regular basis, whether they're in war or not in war. Okay, we're sending them billion dollars a year when they're not at war. Just on a regular basis, a yearly basis. And then obviously we've been sending them tens of billions of dollars recently as a result of their assault on Gaza and their attempt at essentially ethnically cleansing that area and taking the land. And on top of that, we're paying for their weapons. Like we're paying for their weapons. On top of that, they were hitting American made products with high tariffs. It's amazing. So he says he's canceling the customs duties on

American goods. It's an additional step in the policy that my government has have led for a decade in opening up the market to competition, introducing variety to the economy and lowering the cost of living. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Long story short, they had tariffs on U.S. made products. But according to the Trump administration's tariff chart, all of a sudden, Israel is about to get hit with a 17% tariff anyway. And that 17% tariff would be tacked on to the 10% baseline tariff. So Israeli made products could be hit with the 27% tariff pretty soon. Something tells me that that won't go into effect. We'll wait and see, but that's my prediction. Now, I want to talk a little bit about what corporate executives were up to in February,

because it turns out that they met with Trump administration officials in an attempt to get ahead of the announcement of his tariffs, probably to persuade him against doing it. And I think this story is so fascinating. They didn't want to attack Trump publicly. They're terrified of him. So they're like, maybe we can talk to some, you know, cabinet officials. Maybe they'll look out for us, you know, little conversation. So included were executives like Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, Pfizer CEO, Albert Borla,

NASDAQ CEO, Adina Friedman, and Target CEO, Brian Cornell. So according to the report here, Commerce Secretary, Lutnik rebuked the group telling the executives they should wake up every morning thinking about how they can support the country, two of the people familiar with the conversation said. And he made clear that Trump would forge ahead with plans to transform the global economy. And that he did. I mean, he made his announcement today.

It didn't seem like the Trump administration was at all deterred by anything these corporate executives had to say in regard to the tariffs. And Trump really does seem to want to go through with this. Apple CEO Tim Cook though tried to promise some goodies to Trump in an effort to get Trump to be easy on the company. So he received an exemption from tariffs Trump imposed on China during his first term. And he met with the president in February. Afterward, Apple said it would spend $500 billion in the United States over the next four years,

though much of that investment was already planned. I mean, you see this happening with our trade partners as well, where Trump will threaten them with steep tariffs. And then they'll come to him and say, we promise to do this or we promise to do that. And it turns out that they're promising to do things that they were either already doing or had already committed to doing, you know, at the tail end of the Biden administration. But in this case, Tim Cook didn't get off easy because obviously Apple is going to be hit with that 10% baseline tariff on all products that are manufactured in other countries.

Now, do I think for a second that this is really about bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States? I don't. I'm skeptical about it. I really am. Do I think that this is an effort to renegotiate trade deals? Maybe that's a possibility. But what I think this is really about is two things. Our stock market is inflated, has been inflated for a long time. It's difficult for rich people to know where to park. their money where to invest when the value of shares is already super high. They're looking for a discount. So if you're an investor, right now is the time to buy, isn't it? The stock market is down. It went down 2.2% as Trump was speaking today. So I feel like there's some manipulation going on. We'll see. But the other thing that Trump mentioned during his speech, and it wasn't

lost on me was his tax policy. The next agenda item for the Trump administration is to lower taxes further. It's a $4.5 trillion tax bill. It's going to cost our country $4.5 trillion dollars. So they did all the tricky Pazicki stuff where they're pretending like they're cutting all sorts of waste in the federal government. And obviously that was meant to garner support for his attempt to cut taxes for mostly the rich in corporations, let's keep it real. He will extend the taxes or the tax breaks for ordinary

working class people, but make no mistake about it. Those who stand to benefit the most are the wealthiest among us. And that is the reason why the tax bill that he is proposing is not popular with the American public. But if you're dealing with incredibly high prices, so much of our food is actually imported from other countries, so much of our produce is imported from from other countries. If American workers, ordinary Americans are being crushed with inflation and they need some relief, a tax break or an extension of the tax break that they're currently enjoying, I guess, is gonna become a lot more popular.

There's gonna be a lot more pressure for Americans to support what Trump is trying to do with this tax bill. That could be part of Trump's agenda here as well. I don't know. What I do know for a fact is that there's going to be. a lot of pain, even if he's being serious about wanting to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. That's going to take a long time. It's going to take at least a year. I mean, you have to figure out if these companies are going to want to invest in the United

States. They're going to have to deal with their shareholders. They're going to have to deal with their board. Remember shareholders in the board, they famously don't want to invest more money into the company. What they want more than anything is to get a return on their investment. So there's going to be that process, then there's the process of actually building, you know, the manufacturing plants in order to manufacture vehicles and everything that is getting hit with these high tariffs. And then you've got to hire workers, it's going to take some time. So even if you believe what Trump is saying about wanting fairness in world trade,

wanting to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, you're still going to have some pain in the short term for at least a year before you have. that investment in the U.S. and you have some of these jobs come up. But even then, American workers get paid higher wages than the workers in foreign countries do. I mean, they're exploited for their labor. There's no question about that, but that's part of the game. That's what keeps the prices for these products down. So we'll see what happens. But this announcement was wide-ranging, it was specific, and these tariffs are definitely steep, and it impacts literally everything that's imported into the United States.

I'll leave you with this, though. There was a little bit of wiggle room in what Trump had to say, indicating that he's willing to negotiate some of these tariffs. So do I think that what he announced today will be the end result of what these tariffs will be? Probably not. But we're going to have to wait and see. And honestly, with this administration so far, there's a lot of waiting and there's a lot of seeing. So we got to go.

We gotta take a break, but when we come back, I want to talk about these special elections that took place yesterday, some good news for Democrats, but are they learning the right lessons from it? We'll get to that story and more when we come back. Welcome back to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian. And look, it's been a rough time for the Democratic Party. There's no question about that. There was a shalacking. I love saying that word. Any excuse to use that word during the 2024 election, of course. But now is that hope I see? Because it looks like they did pretty well in these special elections, at least in Wisconsin. So let's get to the details. U.M. I simply put, is an unpopular guy. He is political poison. It was clearly a vote against what's going on right now in Washington. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, calling the Democratic brand absolutely toxic and really problematic. Are Democrats shown yet that they are giving voters anything to vote for

or is it simply just against Donald Trump? So if there's one big lesson to take away from Wisconsin is Elon Musk does not help Republicans when he shows up. If anything, the data suggests that he hurts him. Well, big news for Democrats, Judge Susan Crawford has won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, despite big spending from Elon Musk. He shelled out $25 million to beat this liberal candidate, and he failed. Now, Musk found other cheesy ways to, you know, try to corrupt the elections outcome. Get a load of this. Musk also showed up in Wisconsin Sunday night, donned a cheese head hat, and offered two allegedly random voters.

One million dollars each just for showing up. Still, Susan Crawford won a 10-year term in Wisconsin over her GOP rival, Brad Schimmel. This win enables the left to maintain a four to three majority in the swing state. Now, despite Elon Musk's antics and despite the fact that, you know, he was feeling real confident before the election took place, now that the election's over, he says I totally expected to lose. I expected to throw away $25 million. He says, I expected to lose, but there is value to losing a piece for a positional gain. I mean, whose gain are we talking about? Because it's not your gain. And we're going to get to that in just a minute. Okay, but before we do, before we talk about the fate of Elon Musk, the Wisconsin Supreme Court election ended up being the most expensive court race in the United States, in U.S. history, costing a whopping $100 million, and I am not talking about this as if it's a good thing. That is awful, okay? That is absolutely awful. It's about double the amount of the

second most expensive court race in the country. Now Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge and former chief counsel to a Democratic governor. One, the open seat ensuring liberals will keep their four to three majority. She defeated Brad Schimel, a Wau County judge and former Republican Attorney General, who of course embraced Trump. That's the reason why you had Elon Musk shelling out big bucks to essentially beat Crawford, but it didn't work. Now Crawford won the race with 55% of the vote, and this was really seen as a

referendum on the Trump administration. And remember we covered a story just yesterday where two congressional Republicans spoke to Politico and they were actually hoping for this outcome because it was their hope that the Trump administration would start to see Elon Musk as a bit of a liability and oust him from the White House. And we're gonna revisit that story in just a moment. But look, this is good news for Democrats, especially in the state of Wisconsin. Now Crawford will be sworn in on August 1st, and between now and then, the court is in fact expected to decide whether abortion remains legal in their state. But did Crawford win because Wisconsinites really

like her? Or is this just about fighting back against the Trump administration? Is this just a referendum? Well, CNN actually asked a Democratic congressman, Mark Pocan, and let's see what he has to say. Were people voting for Susan Crawford? Or were they voting against the influence that Elon Musk was trying to put in this race. But I think she'll even tell you, most people probably couldn't identify her if they were in line with her at a grocery store. That's just kind of the way it happens. But it was clearly a vote against what's going on right now in Washington. And clearly the voters who feel the most galvanized are going to show up to vote. And so it's definitely feasible that are likely that Trump supporters were not as galvanized and just didn't show up to vote.

So I do see this as more of a referendum on the Trump administration. And by the way, Pocan in what he was saying in that last clip, isn't wrong. In fact, if you look at the breakdown of Elon Musk's favorability among voters, you'll get a sense of what he means. Let's take a look. Elon Musk spent big in this race to sway the Supreme Court race there. And he also went to Wisconsin, which may honestly have backfired. Yeah, I think it may have backfired. Look, I think if there's one thing we should be taking away from the results in Wisconsin

and the polling that we have from Wisconsin and national, if you are a Republican candidate running in a swing state, you don't want Elon Musk anywhere near you. Yes, maybe you like the money, but you do not want his presence in your state. why is that. Elon Musk simply put is an unpopular guy. He is political poison. Look in Wisconsin. His net favorable rating minus 12 points, 12 points underwater. That is an even worse number when you look nationally. Look at that. It's minus 17 points. So if there's one big lesson to take away from Wisconsin is Elon Musk does not help Republicans when he shows up. If anything, the data suggests that he hurts him. Republicans, stay clear of Elon Musk if you want to win in a swing state, at least in terms of his physical appearance. in your state.

Yeah, definitely in terms of his physical appearance in your state. No, I loved everything about that segment. Harry Anton has really grown on me, to be honest with you. But the CNN host crack me up because he's like, Yvonne Musk even went to Wisconsin. Can you believe it? It's like, okay, yeah, I can believe it. What's a big deal about him going to Wisconsin? Of course, he's going to Wisconsin if he cares enough about this race.

And clearly he did, and I'm happy to see that he lost. Now, but this does beg an important question in regard to the fate of the Democratic Party. And more importantly, look, I don't care about the parties, to be honest with you. Okay, I care about whether or not there are members of Congress, members of either party who are actually looking out for the American people, looking to do the right thing. And what I want to avoid, what I'm personally getting super blackpilled by, is this super annoying back and forth pendulum swing from one group of loser do nothing politicians to another group of loser do nothing politicians because they feed off each other, right? What they do is they get elected, right? They say that they want to be public servants,

they say they want to help the American people, but they get elected, they're in power. They do the opposite, Americans get mad, and then they vote in subsequent elections as a referendum to those to those who are in charge. And then the pendulum goes back and forth, back and forth, not based on whether the politicians are actually gonna do something for you, but based on wanting to punish the politicians who are screwing you over. That's why we don't get anything done. So we need to break that cycle.

And I feel that this last presidential election was a little bit of that breaking the cycle, right? Because voters were like, yeah, yeah, we don't like Trump. But we're not happy with the Democrats, so we're gonna stay home. That was one of the main reasons why Donald Trump won the last presidential election. So I think it's really important for Democrats to stop coasting, you know, sitting back, playing dead, as James Carville said they should do, and allowing the Trump administration to, you know, basically destroy themselves or destroy their favorability among the American people.

So by default, Democrats will easily win again. I want them to do something, I want them to offer something, I want to hear what their ideas are. But if you listen to Pocan, it doesn't seem like they're thinking about new ideas. He acknowledges that this was a referendum on the Trump administration, but he acknowledges something else in this next clip that worries me. Take a look. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California calling the Democratic brand absolutely toxic and a really problematic. Are Democrats shown yet that they are giving voters anything to vote for or is it simply just against Donald Trump? Well, we're going to make sure that Social Security doesn't get cut.

We're going to protect Medicare and Medicaid. We're going to make sure that education is still funded and we're not cutting things like food assistance or veterans hospital assistance. I mean, we're already having problems with people getting veterans of hospital appointments because of the cuts by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. First of all, we want we're normal, right? We want to go back to normal and I think that means something these days. Normal is what got Trump elected. Normal is what led to Trump sweeping the swing states. No, I'm tired of normal. I don't know about you guys. Maybe you guys have had enough of, you know, Trump's second term where you're just like, okay, please, we'll go back to how awful things were prior. to Trump getting elected. I don't want that. I'm sick of that. Okay, there are too many people suffering in this country for us to keep doing this pendulum swing with these self-interested

narcissistic politicians who don't want to do a damn thing for you, but for whatever reason, want this position of power to benefit themselves, you know, give themselves an ego boost. I don't know what it is. But Mark, don't ever repeat that phrase again. Ever, okay? Normal is not good enough. And Democrats right now need to be thinking about their long term game plan. Who are we? What do we represent? What are we gonna offer to the American people that will make us appealing to voters? If they're planning on running a 2020 message of vote for us for normalcy, I just, I can't, I can't stomach it. I can't stomach it. We are falling behind as a nation. Things are falling apart. And they really need to be

to be asking themselves, how the hell did the guy who literally ran his whole campaign on tariffs beat us in the last election? So look, I don't mean to reign on the Democrats parade. What happened in Wisconsin is great. But what happened in Wisconsin happened not for the right reasons. It happened as a referendum to Trump. It didn't happen because people are loving the Democrats. So Democrats need to get their act together.

That's the point that I want to make about that. Now, let's talk a little bit about the money in the race, because I think that's super important here, because it's worth pointing out the insane amount of money and influence billionaires have over these elections, even court-related elections. So Crawford benefited from large donations to the state Democratic Party from liberal billionaires, 1.5 million from Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, 1 million from financier George Soros, and a quarter million dollars from LinkedIn co-founder Reed Hoffman. So look, there are billionaire donors on both sides of the political aisle, right?

So we talked a little bit about Elon Musk. So Musk engaged in some antics that were concerning, to say the least, outside of the original, you know, bribing politicians. So Musk posted on X that he would give $1 million prizes in appreciation for you taking the time to vote. After legal scholars questioned the plan, he deleted the message and posted another one saying His event was open to Wisconsin registered voters who signed a petition opposing activist judges.

On Sunday, Musk said the pack would pay people $20 for each picture they took with a voter holding a photo of Crawford's opponent, Schimel, and giving a thumbs up, basically indicating that they're gonna vote for him and over Crawford. Now, there was some good news kind of in Florida, at least that's how Democrats are spinning it because there were two house races. These were the special elections in Florida, and the Republicans won in each seat, okay, in each race. So for instance, Republican Randy Fine beat Josh Weil in Mike Waltz's former seat in the sixth district. And he did so by about 14 points. However, it's worth noting that Trump won it by 30 points. So Democrats are arguing,

Republicans are losing some favorability in these districts. Another example was Jimmy Pateronis who won the seat, he's the Republican. He won the seat vacated by Matt Gates in Florida's first district. And in that race, he won over the Democrat by 15 points. However, Trump won by 37 points in that district. So there is a little bit of, I guess, positive movement in favor of Democrats when it comes to certain areas of the country. But I don't really know if it's about a referendum on Trump or if it's just that this was

a special election or these were special elections and people who would typically vote for a Trump-backed candidate didn't show up to vote. Now again, overall, this is good news, but it's not good news for Elon Musk because apparently the results of the special election might mean that Musk has overstayed his welcome over at the White House. Now, there were two congressional Republicans who spoke to Politico and basically said they were hoping that there would be big wins for Democrats in these special elections. So there would be an attempt to oust Elon Musk from the White House. And it looks like that might be happening, although there are denials about it.

And we'll get to the denials in just a second. So the president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency Initiative. But both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return. turn to his businesses and take on a supporting role, according to three Trump insiders who were granted anonymity to describe the evolving relationship. Now, Trump administration insiders and many outside allies have become frustrated with his unpredictability and increasingly view the billionaire Elon Musk as a political liability. Now, although one senior Trump advisor did tell Politico that Musk is likely to retain, you know, like an informal role, like an

advisor role with the administration and will likely still be seen to some extent on the White House grounds. It does seem that the time is up for Musk in regard to like the more prominent role he's been playing with the Trump administration. And it's also important to mention that his leaving the White House in like a more, you know, outward facing position, I guess, is likely to correspond with the end of Musk's time as a special government employee. So you can be a special government employee for 130 days. Those 130 days are almost up. So it kind of corresponds with the timing of these special elections. And that could just be a coincidence. But Trump had already stated or started, I should say, transitioning Elon Musk out

of the White House. That was announced last week. He held a meeting on March 24th with his cabinet members and essentially told them that Musk would be leaving soon. But Musk is in denial about this and so is Caroline Levitt, or at least she's pretending to not know anything about this and say that it's all false. So White House press secretary Levitt writes that this scoop is garbage. Elon Musk and President Trump have both publicly stated that Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at Doge is complete. And Elon Musk quote tweets it with, yeah, fake news. it's probably just about saving face and giving Elon Musk an exit that isn't embarrassing.

But he had fallen out of favor with quite a few Republicans, many of whom were too cowardly to come out publicly and instead would speak to Politico or other news outlets on an anonymous basis. But I do think that the Trump administration is finally waking up to the fact that Elon Musk is a political liability. So hopefully we'll see a little less of him. But we're going have to wait and see. We got to take a break for now. When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about Americans valuing American values and constitutional rights. Love it. We'll be right back. What's up, everyone? Just want to read a quick super chat. It's a generous super chat.

Thank you so much. Eric found here who writes, Anna, thank you for all your reporting and analysis. I started watching you a few years ago as a dyed in the wool conservative. But over time, I've been persuaded that I was wrong on many topics. Please keep up the brilliant analysis. Eric, you're a man of my own heart because, I mean, I do the self-reflections and I realize, that I'm wrong about things as well. And in this current political climate, it's really difficult to kind of go against the grain of your own political group or where you feel you belong. But I think it takes a lot of courage to reevaluate where you stand on certain issues, or at least see the policies you wanted go into effect and see it's not really working out so

well and take ownership of that and readjust. I think that that's an admirable characteristic and trait. So thank you for watching the show. I really, really appreciate it. Okay, so I wanted to talk a little bit about some good news because, listen, as innocent people are getting sent to a facility, a detention facility for hardened criminals and terrorists in El Salvador, it kind of kills you a little bit inside to talk about this and to see some of the people online who seem to still want it to happen, even though innocent people are getting caught up. But no, You always have to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. And you know what?

I'm proud of our Americans because they don't like it. And this poll gives you the details, gives you the evidence. Let's get to it. You can't take away people's due process like that. And I, again, I don't trust the El Salvadorian government to be making sure that they are not torturing people, that they're vetting them properly. They need to be vetted on this side. Why do the Democrats always say this couldn't happen? It did happen.

It's not, it didn't cut happen. Did you watch the video? I don't think she did because Jessica Tarloff is absolutely right. It did happen. Unfortunately, we're seeing more and more stories involving individuals who were actually in the United States legally were not part of any type of Venezuelan gang. But unfortunately, we're rounded up by ICE and sent to a terrorist detention facility that also, by the way, imprisons hardened criminals and gang members in El

Salvador. It's known as Seacott. We've been talking about it. But there's actually a little bit of good news today. Because I always want to know where do the majority of Americans stand on this issue. Now, Trump is still polling well on immigration. It's actually the one area where he is not underwater. 53% of Americans, according to a recent CBS poll, are still liking what Trump is doing in regard to immigration. But those numbers could really take a hit. And this should be a warning to Trump. This poll result should be a warning to Trump. Because according to a new poll that was just put out by UGov, it seems that most Americans actually agree with Fox News host Jessica Darlov and believe that deporting migrants without due

process should not be allowed. And by the way, according to our Supreme Court on multiple occasions, it isn't allowed, okay? Even people who are in the country illegally are protected by our constitutional rights, including the right to due process. But the people were talking about aren't even in the country illegally, but they got rounded up by ICE anyway. Anyway, so the poll was conducted between March 28th and April 1st, and here's what they found. Deporting immigrants without criminal convictions to El Salvador to be imprisoned without letting them challenge the deportation in court. That was what the basis of the survey was about, right? And here are the results.

Only 15% of these respondents said that they strongly support and 11% say they somewhat support for a total of 26% supporting the move by the Trump administration to some degree. 26% is still a little too high in my eyes, but it's minuscule, you know, it's minuscule when you think about how things seem online versus how most Americans are feeling. Most Americans want due process because I'm going to assume they're smart enough to understand, A, it is the moral thing to do, it's the ethical thing to do, the constitutional thing to do, but more importantly, when you start cheerleading for the erosion of rights, for others, you would be mistaken to think that it's not going to come back to haunt you or someone you love, someone you know. You have to protect due process. These types of rights

help set countries like the United States apart from other countries that we do not, in any way, favor wouldn't want to live in because there's too much government power and people don't have the right to defend themselves when they're accused of something, they maybe didn't do, right? So, you know, in the case of these migrants, we're talking about one guy who was here legally, he had protected status in the United States, but he got rounded up anyway. Now, how would you prove that you have protected status? Well, you would do it through the courts. A judge would weigh in, a judge would adjudicate based on the evidence that's presented. But when you rip due process away, that individual doesn't even have the

ability to provide evidence to say, no, no, no, I'm not here legally. I am here legally. Here's my protected status. There's no evidence of me being in a gang. So let's get to some more of the results here. On the flip side, 46% said they strongly oppose and 15% say they somewhat oppose, meaning 61% of respondents are against the deportations and indefinite imprisonments. 13% of respondents say that they're unsure of how they feel. So look, we can break things down even further by party affiliation. 32% of Republicans strongly support along with 1% of Democrats and 13% of independents who strongly support the idea of deporting these migrants or these individuals without due process. I can't believe there's even 1% of.

of Democrats who would want this. But 78% of Democrats say, no, you need due process. 45% of independents say the same. And 18, I'm sorry, 78% of Democrats strongly oppose of what Trump is doing in ripping due process away from this entire situation. 45% of independents feel the same way. And so do 18% of Republicans.

Now, basically, Americans overall oppose the idea of deporting people without due process. to El Salvador specifically, and they oppose it by a more than two to one margin. So look, there's a lot of humanity left in the country. I mean, you wouldn't think it based on what you see online or the doom and gloom that you see in the news day in and day out. But let's go to Jesse Waters now, because I guess we're going to follow up this good news with Jesse Waters. Let's watch.

Time magazine was there when the gay barber from Venezuela, who has, a crown tattoo that said mom was being processed coming into the El Salvador. Oh, am I boring you again? I'm sorry. No, but you've been talking about this gay barber from El Salvador with some stupid tattoo for weeks. Yeah, Jessica. Yeah, Jessica. Come on. It's just a gay barber.

He's not into you. He's an innocent guy who got swept up in a deportation and hopefully we get it figured out and straightened out. But a lot of people in this country, Jessica, get arrested for things that they didn't do. get falsely accused, falsely convicted. That doesn't mean, that doesn't mean you just stop arresting people. That doesn't mean you stop arresting criminals because one guy was arrested who was innocent. It just means you just try to do it better the next time. And I have nothing against the gay barbers. Gay barbers usually give the best haircuts. Okay. All right, Jesse. So look,

This isn't about, oh, we're gonna stop deporting people. That's what he's, look, let's keep it real. He just doesn't want any mention of anything that makes the Trump administration look bad on the one thing Trump is still pulling well on. That's what's really at the heart of Jesse Waters being super annoyed with Tarloff bringing this issue up. But this isn't about whether or not you deport individuals who are here illegally or individuals who are here illegally and are committing other crimes. this is about due process, sending an innocent guy, especially a gay barber or a gay makeup artist, to El Salvador, specifically to that facility is one of the worst things you could possibly do. That guy can get really hurt. I mean, he's acting like he's being, you know, put in some

like vacation, like a resort community or something for the time being. And like, yeah, we'll fix it. We'll get him back. No, no, he's being sent or has been sent to an awful place where it's difficult for his lawyers to get in touch with him. And there was no due process, which is, by the way, a process put in place to prevent these types of mistakes from happening. You know, I remember the day when Republicans at least pretended, they cared about constitutional rights. And by the way, clearly when it comes to American voters, Republican voters, you know, a huge portion of them still do care about those constitutional rights. But you wouldn't think it based on the comments you hear from conservative media figures

or even from members of Trump's administration. If you've made a mistake, fess up to it, apologize for it, and talk about how it's not going to happen again and what you're going to do to prevent it from happening again. I would, I would venture to say that you would point to the importance of due process. But that's the thing. God forbid, you have any politicians in the U.S. that ever take any responsibility for the mistakes they made. All they do is they gaslight, hoping the American people are too dumb to realize what's going on. Democrats did it in the lead up to the 2024 presidential election.

You saw how that worked out for them. Now the Trump administration is doing it. So we'll see how it plays out regarding the poll numbers in just a few months. But he's wasting a lot of goodwill by refusing to give people what they are entitled to. And that is due process. Sorry to end the first hour with this story, but I do need to do it. Let's talk about what we're hearing from officials over in Israel. The night in the result of Azaa, we've overn't aloof.

Tzah, Tsohn of Tafel, in ozma, in otherings in Aza, and you'd need to rush to be upon aganethram from the area of lechima. The tchonioch were mucaned and maushered. The Hamas is scare to give them to abet at your batheem and

other and other shetak, which is soaraf the ma'arach the Afghani Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu have officially announced what we've all expected honestly for months now. Israel's intention to ethnically cleanse parts of the Gaza Strip, likely the entirety of the Gaza Strip, in order to take control of the land for security purposes. You know, they haven't been eyeing that land for literally decades, right? Okay. So in his statement on Wednesday, Katz said that Israel was renewing and expanding military operations

in the Gaza Strip to crush and cleanse, to crush and cleanse the area of terrorists. and terrorist infrastructure and sees large areas that will be annexed to the security zones of the state of Israel. The minister said that a large scale evacuation of the Ghazan population from the fighting areas is accompanying the expanded military campaign in the strip. Now Katz also continued the Israeli governments, in my opinion, faux concern over the hostages that remain in the Gaza Strip, and I say foe concerned because how are you going to argue you're concerned about the well-being of the hostages when you've been bombing the crap out of the Gaza Strip, when your own forces killed hostages themselves, barely even apologized for it.

Do we even know the fate of those IDF soldiers who killed the Israeli hostages who actually managed to escape? We're shirtless and were asking for help. Anyway, yeah, but they're worried about the hostages. I'm sure Katz is up all night worried about them. Anyway, he says, you know, I'm worried, like, faux concern. I call on the residents of Gaza to act now to eliminate Hamas and return all the kidnapped. This is the only way to end the war. By the way, I mean, we're talking about Hamas, which is awful.

And what they did on October 7th was awful. But let's also just acknowledge once more that we're talking about Israel that is backed by the largest and most powerful military power in the world, the United States. Hamas ain't got no military. They don't have the weapon capability that Israel has. They don't have the defense capacity that Israel has. But the way that the Israeli forces and the Israeli government talk about Hamas, you would think, Oh my God, that is, I'm a formidable opponent.

Let me continue. So Katz's statement did not make clear how much land Israel intends to seize or exactly how they intend to seize it. I'm going to predict that ultimately they intend to seize all of it through brutal military force, ethnic cleansing, and the slaughtering of a ton of people. I mean, tens of thousands of civilians, women, children, elderly people, you know, civilian men of fighting age who are not part of Hamas, they've been slaughtered, medics have been tossed into shallow mass graves, children have been targeted by Israeli snipers, showing up to hospitals

with gunshot wounds in their heads. According to American doctors, by the way, who have risked their lives to provide some humanitarian relief on the ground in Gaza. And evacuation orders have already been issued, demanding Gazans living around Rafa, which by the way, we all know where Rafa is, right? Rafa is close to the Gaza border with Egypt. So why are they evacuating Rafa? That's interesting. Interesting security zone, okay.

So they're going to now evacuate Rafa, which is again near the border with Egypt. and Khan Yunus to move to areas closer to the shore. We're gonna push them out into the ocean. But let's keep it real, Israel does intend to take control over all of that land. I think they've been pretty obvious about it. Katz last month announced the creation of a new directorate within the Israeli Ministry of Defense to facilitate the voluntary immigration out of strip. The directorate's work aligns with US President Donald Trump's suggestion that Palestinians be resettled

outside of Gaza, Katz said in February. Now, where do they go? I mean, no country is willing to absorb Palestinian refugees, partly because they just don't want refugees, but also partly because they don't want to aid and abet the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the Israeli government. So far, according to the Israeli rights group, Gisha, Israel has already taken control of some 62 square kilometers or around 17% of the total area of Gaza as part of a buffer zone around the edges of the enclave. But there is critical infrastructure that Gazans live in and rely on in the so called buffer zone. And that includes wells, sewage pumping stations, wastewater treatment facilities, and also a significant chunk of Gaza's agricultural land.

So losing access to those resources will make it even more difficult for Palestinians who are having a difficult time surviving to continue surviving if this war comes to an end and they manage to make it out alive. So here's one Gaza resident's reaction to Israel announcing their plan to take control of yet more land in the strip. Toysia, what would he do you do more than that? I don't know if you're going to go to the Navaoviya to re-rehe the people. No, there's food, or there's shorub. And it would have been a war on the Qatahua, not he hajurna. But we're,

the abadal that's going to see in us, and as much ashton nassah, by-in-law, if we're, we'll be, we'll still, sadden, and stand-in'in for our land. We'll have. It's a hager, nuzzooh, I'm going to go to the other, dothal of the one that's less,

dachal wotan, be sure of his, but inshallah, nizuhaarj, let's not nanzah, and we'll be samudyin on this earth. Yeah, it's just, you see the images on the ground. It's just absolutely brutal, and intentionally so,

it's meant to be unlivable. The aerial bombardments, the destruction of infrastructure, the destruction of hospitals, universities, refugee camps, every, residential buildings, that's all intentional. So when Trump talks about, no one wants to live there, like Azans don't want to live there. I mean, it's unlivable. Yeah, yeah, it is unlivable. On purpose. It was made unlivable with the bombs that we American taxpayers are funding

on behalf of the Israeli government so they can drop them, you know, on the heads of these Palestinian people, destroy everything they have. It's just hilarious, right? To point to, to the awful situation on the ground that we aided and abetted, and then use that as the justification for the ethnic cleansing that is to come. So the hostage families, God bless them, I feel so terrible for them, because their own government doesn't care about the hostages, clearly. They've been protesting, they've been demanding that the war come to an end to no avail. So the families of the remaining Israeli hostages are furious about Katz's plan,

saying the government is prioritizing territorial gains over getting the 24 living hostages home safe? So I'm not the only one saying it. The family members of the hostages are saying that this is all about territorial gains. Take a look. Families of hostages here released a statement saying they were horrified by what he had said and asking whether a decision had been made to sacrifice the Israeli hostages on the altar of gaining land. So he has since, Since issued a new statement saying no, that the purpose of the taking these lands is to press Hamas into releasing the hostages, we have to mention that this tactic has never functioned. Not a single Israeli hostage of the 251 hostages taken on October 7th, 2023 were ever released

as a result of this sort of military pressure. And Hamas is making clear military pressure isn't going to work. The only way you're going to get these living hostages back is if we negotiate a peace deal. But Israel doesn't want a peace deal. They don't care about the hostages, they want the land. Let's call a spade a spade. I'm not here to caress the BS of any side here. The Israeli government's been lying from the very beginning, and what they've actually

wanted to do has been very clear. They've been very brazen about it from the very beginning. They don't care about the hostages. I can't imagine engaging in the kind of warfare the IDF has engaged in, knowing that the hostages are there and they are suffering the same way the Palestinian people are suffering. They never cared about the hostages from the very beginning. Let's stop pretending, please, it's insulting. It's insulting to the intelligence of everyone paying attention to this story.

And it's insulting to the family members who have had to bear the absolute torture of knowing their own government doesn't give a damn about their family members. That's the reality of the situation. Netanyahu is a really bad guy. It's hard for me to think of anyone on the international stage that I despise more than Netanyahu. He's an evil person who has fostered a lot of bad will against the Israeli people because he's a selfish prick. He's a corrupt, disgusting, authoritarian prick. And we fund him. We got to take a break. John will be back with me in just a moment.

I don't know.