The Young Turks - Trump Admin PUNISHES Protestor

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

Trump OBLITERATES Free Speech Rights to Placate Israel. Trump Won’t Rule Out BRUTAL Times Ahead. DOGE Attacks Social Security & Private Data of Millions. 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. The word grocery, a simple word, but it sort of means like the stomach is speaking, bacon. Let's go! We're going to be able to be. We're going to be able to be. What's up, everyone? Welcome to TYT. I'm your host, Anna Kasparian, and we've got a show that we're going to do. In fact, we've got a lot of really great topics to discuss, a lot of concerning updates on what's transpiring with the Trump administration, the arrest of a green card holder who apparently has upset Israel and anyone who doesn't like criticism of Israel. So we'll talk about the arrest.

and disappearance of a green card holder who was actually one of the prominent protesters of the Palestinian peace movement over at Columbia University. So we'll give you all the details on that and more. We'll give you an update on the economy. And if you're heavily invested in the stock market, you're probably not loving what you're seeing today. But we'll tell you what's going on with the Trump administration's economic policies and the impact that it might be having on consumers and your retirement account, your stock portfolio. In the second hour,

Wazni Lombray will be joining me to talk about some of the lighter stories in the news, along with some other substantive topics pertaining to what's happening in the White House. Now, without further ado, I want to get into our first story. And it really does have to do with the erosion of a constitutional right that the right wing purported to care deeply about. Ice agents arrested Mahmood Khalil in his university apartment in New York over the weekend. Khalil was one of the leaders during the pro-Palestinian protest on Colombia's campus last spring. He was one of the most visible people involved in those protests, one of the few to publicly share his name. We want a divestment from the Israeli occupation.

In a statement, Columbia University acknowledging reports of ICE around campus. This reported arrest coming on the heels of the Trump administration canceling about $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University. Over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security decided to arrest a graduate student from Columbia University by the name of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian protest leader at Columbia University, and a green card holder. Now, he now faces having his green card revoked, according to what his lawyer heard from authorities. And I believe, this is my opinion, that this is being done in order to placate Donald Trump's donors along with the Israeli government, which tends to come before the American people and their constitutional rights, unfortunately. Now, according to a written statement by Khalil's lawyer, Khalil, who was a Palestinian graduate student, was a leader in negotiations between protesters and Columbia officials last spring, was stopped by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who told him his student visa had been revoked. Okay, so let's just pause for a second. apparently you have members of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE falls under that

government agency, of course, saying that they're going to revoke his visa. He didn't have a visa. He had a green card. A green card is actually very different from a visa. It's one step below U.S. citizenship, but green card holders have rights, and you don't just simply revoke a green card unless there's due process involved, unless there is a judge adjudicating the claims against the individual involved, none of that has happened, and I want to be clear about that. Now, federal agents literally raided Khalil's home, which is a university-owned apartment, and they took him into custody on Saturday night. Now, his lawyer, Amy Greer, also told the Washington Post that Khalil showed his green card to the agents, but they detained him

anyway, knowing full well that there hasn't been a process to ensure that there's due process, number one or a process to adjudicate whether or not Khalil had engaged in any type of criminality or behavior that would justify revoking his green card. Now, his lawyer also says that she has filed a habeas corpus petition to challenge the validity of his arrest, but there's a huge problem. No one knows where he is. Okay, so I'll give you more details on that in just a moment, but here's what his attorney also said. The arrest follows the U.S. government's open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza. You can, by the way, you can protest the United

States government all you want. You can protest anything, literally anything. But don't protest the government of Israel and the current slaughter of innocent civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. Okay, got it. Just want to be clear about that. She continues, the U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech. Also, the Washington Post reports that the arrest came just one day after the Trump administration said it was canceling $400,000, I'm sorry, $400 million in federal contracts and grants to Columbia because university officials had not done enough to prevent anti-Semitism on campus. Colombia has literally done everything that, you know, the Biden administration would have wanted and now the Trump administration has wanted in terms of violating the students' freedom of expression, freedom of speech, on behalf of the Israeli government and on behalf of Donald Trump's donors. They don't want to get their feelings hurt in hearing speech that is against them in any way. And so I like, I don't, I don't really understand what war Colombia was supposed to do. And I want to be clear.

about another thing. Cancelling $400 million in funding to Columbia is essentially meant to, you know, remove any possibility that the administrators, administration at Columbia would fight back against the Trump administration in regard to what they're doing with free speech rights of their own students. And to be sure, Colombia's only statement about this has been to essentially go along with what Donald Trump wants. It's just disgusting. Now, Khalil's wife is an American citizen, not a visa holder, not a green card holder, an American citizen. And she's also eight months pregnant. Now, she attempted to visit her husband at the detention facility that he was allegedly being held in, which is in Elizabeth, New Jersey. However, even though she and her and his lawyer were told that that's where he would be, they show up and he's nowhere to be found. They were told, no, actually, he's not being detained at this facility. this moment, as I speak about this story, no one knows where Khalil is. And that's insane. Especially considering the fact that there was no due process to adjudicate whether or not he

engaged in any type of criminality. Now, Trump is willing to, again, do this for Netanyahu. He signed an executive order back in January that demanded that all available and appropriate legal tools to target perpetrators behind unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence, much of which is stemming from protests centered on, you know, the Israel-Hamas war. Like he says that he's going to go after them. He's going to deport them. We've done that story a bunch of times, right? So he's, I guess, making good on that promise. But here's the problem. What the hell has Mahmood Khalid, Khalil done, exactly? Because there has yet bit a shred of evidence showing that he has supported terrorism, that he has harassed Jewish

students, that he has supported Hamas. So Homeland Security spokesperson, Trisha McLaughlin, justified the arrest by making Khalil seem like he's some sort of terrorist sympathizer, again, without presenting a shred of evidence. Here's what McLaughlin says. In support of President Trump's executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism and in coordination with the Department of State, U.S. immigration and customs enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student. Kalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, ICE, and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump's executive orders and protecting U.S. national security.

And of course, you have Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, just regurgitating the same, in my opinion, BS. And I say BS because show us the goods, show us that he did something illegal, show us a shred of evidence that he's like some Hamas supporter. And by the way, the other thing I want to just note, if you're here in the country legally, you're engaging in speech that people don't like, even if you say things that are supportive of Hamas, which I vehemently disagree with, that is. is still protected by the First Amendment. So for all of the Trump supporters who are celebrating what's happening here, where exactly

is the line for you? Because if you think that these violations of our freedom of expression just stops here, I think you'd be mistaken. Because if we're just going to deny due process for an individual. who engaged in speech we don't like, if you think that that won't at some point negatively impact you, you've got another thing coming. Once you start allowing a government to engage in this type of behavior, well, they will be emboldened to do more of it. And eventually it will impact you. So fighting for free speech isn't just about fighting for speech you like.

It's about fighting for all speech, including speech you don't like, because if you allow for a censorious government to carry out these types of retaliatory measures, by the way, on behalf of a foreign government, you're essentially playing a role in the erosion of our constitutional rights. So let me give you some more. So as I mentioned, Marco Rubio regurgitating the same lines, he tweeted that we will be revoking the visas and or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported. Now, is there any real evidence? I've already said no a million times, but let's get into what is being cited. Okay. So he was a student negotiator between the student protesters at Columbia and the administrators and

administration at Columbia. Now remember what the demands were of the student protest. You have this university that, of course, invests the money that it has as part of its endowment. And the students did not want the endowment to be invested in weapons manufacturers or anything that can be seen as supporting this effort to slaughter Palestinians in Gaza. That's what they wanted. Now, they didn't get what they wanted, of course. But Khalil was, you know, one of the lead negotiators between the protesters and the school. Now, it seems like what we're seeing is this guilt by association, you know, line or talking point from those who are supportive of what Trump did here.

Columbia University apartheid divest, which Khalil had sometimes spoken for in response to questions from reporters, has in the past praised the leadership of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Ansarala, which are all U.S. designated terrorist organizations. Again, I want to reiterate, I disagree with that take entirely, but at the same time, if you have white nationalists or white supremacists in this country, talk about their love for white supremacist groups, the KKK stuff like that, that is protected speech. It is. It's protected speech. So there's no evidence that Khalil himself said these things about Hamas or has bill or whatever. But even if he had, even if he had, that's still protected speech. But

understand, guys, there's no evidence of him saying these things at all. There's no evidence of him breaking the law at all. If there was evidence, if there was any justification for the Trump administration doing what they did to Khalil, they would have presented it by now. And so far, it's just this guilt by association. There are all sorts of people, by the way, across the political spectrum right now, who disagree with what the government of Israel is doing. And if the government of Israel thinks that by censoring Americans or green card holders in our own country, after they've engaged in criticism of Israel is going to fly, well, they also have another thing coming. Because what this does is it leads to more resentment and more criticism toward the

Israeli government. Because if you're going to erode the constitutional rights of the American people on behalf of a foreign government, that will build more anger and more resentment toward Israel. So I think Israel is playing with fire. I think American supporters of Israel who are celebrating what happened to Khalil are also playing with fire. When you try to censor speech or censor ideas, that draws more attention to the ideas. And look, some might be wondering, why do I keep mentioning the Israeli government in this story? Well, because I can't help but remember back in July of last year, you had Benjamin Netanyahu come to America and on our own soil denigrate and go after student protesters. Here's a little reminder of that.

Clarity begins by knowing the difference between good and evil. Yet incredibly, many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murders. They stand with people who came into the kibbutzim, into a home. The parents hid the children, the two babies in the attic, in a secret attic. They murder the families, the parents. They find the secret latch to the hidden attic.

And then they murder the babies. These protesters stand with them. They should be ashamed of themselves. Okay, so, yeah, they should be ashamed of themselves if they celebrate those atrocities that were committed by members of Hamas. No question. But what Netanyahu engaged in there was speech. He would have the right to respond to the protesters with that speech. But he does not have the right to pressure U.S. politicians who are bought off by pro-Israelis. donors here in the United States to essentially erode our constitutional rights when they're, you know, when people are engaging in speech he doesn't like. I want to go to one other video

because he also spread this this BS about how the protesters are funded. Let's watch. We recently learned from the national security director, director of US director of national intelligence that Iran is funding and promoting anti-Israel protests in America. They wanted to disrupt America. For all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building, not that many, but they're there and throughout the city. Well, I have a message for these protesters. When the tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran's useful idiots.

Okay, so let's just talk about the fact that in the earlier video we showed, he mentions the atrocities that Hamas committed, including the, you know, the rapes of Israeli civilians. Okay, well, there are stories reported by Israeli media regarding prison guards in Israeli prisons, raping Palestinian detainees who haven't been charged with anything. They've never had a day in court. And when news got out about how brutally some of these detainees had been raped by those prison guards in Israel, there was supposed to be an investigation. That was what was announced by the Israeli government. You want to know what the reaction was?

I mean, absolute rage by far right Israeli settlers who thought, no, it's totally fine. It's totally fine when these Palestinian detainees who haven't been charged with anything, who haven't even been accused of any crime, but are being held, right, by the Israeli government in these detention facilities, totally fine when they're being brutally raped. It's totally okay. Where is the outrage when it comes to stories like that? It's wrong when Hamas does it, which I agree with. That is definitely wrong. But when there is this systemic issue right now with Palestinian civilians being detained,

brutalized, raped, all of that, that's totally okay because our politicians have been bought off by pro-Israeli donors. Okay, understood entirely. Now, can the government do this? And this is where things get super tricky because no, what the Trump administration has done here is wrong. And they're just going to engage in it anyway. And what's scary is the lack of real response from the opposition party. So laws are different for green card holders versus visa holders, right? So if someone has a visa that can be revoked relatively easily compared to a green card holder. So according to the Immigration and Nationality Act, international students can in fact lose their visas if they have.

committed a crime or if they're not taking enough classes or getting enough credits to justify the whole reason why they have a visa in the first place. Now when it comes to green card holders, while the State Department can rescind visas, it was unclear what legal authority the Trump administration would use to revoke green cards, as Rubio said. Green card holders are one step below U.S. citizens and revoking their residency typically requires a hearing before an immigration judge, none of that has happened. And look, I also want to just note there has been some backlash among Trump supporters or those on the right. So specifically, Ann Coulter of all people, put out a tweet commenting on this saying, there's almost no one I don't want to deport,

but unless they've committed a crime, isn't this a violation of the First Amendment? Yes, absolutely, this is a violation of the First Amendment. And the foundation for individual rights expression, also known as fire, is fighting back against this. And I commend them because they're doing this in lieu of the ACLU, which put out some tepid, pathetic response or reaction to what the Trump administration did here. The ACLU just consistently has been embarrassing itself with that kind of garbage. So just keeping it real. But fire has stepped in. And they had posted on X that they had sent a letter to DHS, ICE, and the State Department requesting answers to questions surrounding Mahmoud Khalil's arrest and detention.

Here's what it said or part of what it said. The administration must not use immigration enforcement to punish and filter out ideas disfavored by the government or denied due process to anyone facing arrest and detention. The government must also be transparent about the basis for its actions to avoid chilling, protected speech. And they also say, to be clear, demonstrations on Columbia's campus since October 7, 2023, have included both constitutionally protected speech and unlawful conduct, but the government has not clarified the factual or legal basis for Mr. Khalil's arrest. And that is a perfect statement, because there has been a very intentional conflation of those who are

engaged in constitutionally protected speech. They're not engaging in any criminality whatsoever. And then there are others, the wreckers, I like to call them, who get involved, who harass students, who cause all sorts of problems. And by the way, harassing others, you know, making other students feel uncomfortable, harassing Jewish students. That is not protected. That is illegal behavior and there should be consequences for that.

But there is no indication and no evidence as we stand right now. indicating that Khalil engaged in that behavior. So we'll see how this story develops, but it is not good for those who actually give a damn about our constitutional rights, who want to protect freedom of expression and freedom of speech. And I'm sorry, okay, our government should be working for us and should be protecting our constitutional rights, not working on behalf of a foreign government because their feelings get hurt when the American people or green card holders within our borders put a mirror up to the Israeli government and tell them what they're doing. We can all see it. Contrary to what Netanyahu said in those videos we showed you,

this is not some astro-turfed thing that's going on. The American people have eyes, they have ears, and they see what's happening on the ground in Gaza, and they're disgusted by it. We don't need Iran to fund protesters to take to the streets or take to their university campuses to protest what's happening. We can see it for ourselves and it's disgusting. We'll be right back. What's up, everyone? Welcome back to the show. Before we give you an economic update, I just want to read some super chats in regard to the segment I just did. Cthulhu writes in and says, so I guess for Trump, there are only good people on both sides that is if they are

white nationalists. Look, I think Trump is very easy to understand, okay? He's transactional. you give him $300 million in campaign donations. Obviously, I'm talking about the Edelson's who care about Israel above anything else. He's going to give you something back in return. So the, honestly, the toxic, nefarious influence of campaign finance in this country is just, it's awful. Because I don't know who Trump is. I don't know what Trump actually represents. All I know about Trump is he's very transactional.

And that's what's happening here. Biffantastic says Trump was always going to attack free speech and arrest outspoken opposition. He's just using anti-Semitism as a first stepping stone so that they can pin this censorship on Jewish people. I don't think that's the case. I don't think that this is like a Trump conspiracy because he's planning on, you know, attacking, you know, other forms of speech. I just think if the Israeli government wants something to happen, they're going to get with. they want because they've bought our politicians, you know, through Americans who support their government. By the way, obviously there's issues with dark money in this country, dark money

funding our politicians. I just think it's not that conspiratorial. It's right out in the open. If you had incredibly wealthy Palestinian interests buying off our politicians in this country, I'm sure that there would be some mitigation to what we're experiencing right now. That's how it works. Every single politician in Congress is for sale, except for a few who have decided, no, I'm going to reject, you know, super PAC money or money from big donors. And by the way, the big lesson that the Democrats learned from this past election, based on a story we covered last week, yeah, maybe we need to move away from the small dollar donors because they tend to be fanatics.

They seem to be overzealous with what they want. They seem to be more fringe. Let's stick to the big money donors. Yeah, great lesson. And Ryan Wade says, thunderous applause from Israel's useful idiots in response to Netanyahu's speech. Yeah, that's exactly right. They know who's funding their, you know, their campaigns. All right, let's get to the next story.

Are you expecting a recession this year? I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big. We're bringing wealth back to America. Well, there you have it. President Donald Trump does not rule out the possibility of a recession, which is a little bit of a different message from what we heard from Trump on the campaign trail, where he alleged that he was going to relieve the economic concerns of Americans on day one.

He was going to combat, tackle, conquer inflation on day one. Now, obviously, that was a ridiculous promise to make. I don't think anyone actually thought he was going to fix inflation on day one. But I don't think most of his supporters were under the impression that Trump might engage in economic decisions that could lead to a full-blown recession. Now, let's hear more of what he had to say in fuller context. On the economy for a moment, because there are rising worries about a slowdown. You've got the Atlanta Federal Reserve saying we're going to have a contraction in the first quarter. Look, I know that you inherited a mess.

And you said that the other night. I've only been here. But are you expecting a recession this year? I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big. We're bringing wealth back to America. That's a big thing. And there are always periods of, it takes a little time.

It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us. I mean, I think it should be great. It's going to be great ultimately for the farmer. Is it going to be great for the farmer? Because that's not necessarily the case. And I'll get into that in just a minute. But look, I think the biggest issue right now, and you're seeing it play out in the stock market, is that there doesn't really seem to be like a coherent economic policy with the Trump.

administration. Because look, he loves tariffs. And depending on who he's talking to or depending on any given moment, he'll say that he loves tariffs because he uses it as a leveraging tool to renegotiate trade deals that are more beneficial for America. But then other times, he says that he's implementing these steep tariffs because he wants to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. But then you hear from Howard Lutnik from his administration, and you get a completely different story. So we're going to get to Lutnik in a minute. So hold on to that. Hold on before we get to that. Let me give you some more details about what's going on. Let's talk about the farmers. Because he says, Trump says, that it's going to be great for American farmers,

these tariffs that he's implementing or imposing on countries like China. Now, in retaliation of Trump's tariffs against China. Remember, he just slapped China with a total of 20% tariffs on all Chinese goods being imported to the United States. The Chinese government has responded by imposing a 15% tariff specifically on American agriculture. That includes corn, soybeans, beef. Now obviously, this is going to hurt American farmers. And if you guys are old enough to remember what transpired in in Trump's first administration, you know, his tariffs on China did lead to some pain for American farmers. And so the Trump administration, knowing that, you know, he's dealing with his supporters, like a lot of those farmers were his supporters, were his voters. He decides, all right,

I'm going to take the money that the federal government has collected as a result of these tariffs. And I'm going to use that to subsidize these farmers who are feeling real economic pain right now. Now, there is no indication that the Trump administration is willing to do the same thing for farmers this time around. So that is leading to an incredibly unstable situation for America's farmers who, again, really do rely on exporting product, their agriculture to China. And look, the truth is China is actually itching to make a deal with the United States. So if the argument is, well, Trump is using these tariffs as leverage to negotiate better China. trade deals, here's his chance because China's like, yo, we don't want to do this. We don't want

to trade war. So let's take a seat at the negotiating table and figure out a better deal. The thing is, they haven't really heard from the Trump administration in regard to a better trade deal, what they can negotiate. And on top of that, they don't really understand what Trump wants. So as Patricia Kim, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, which leans left, I want to be clear about that, but has also met with some Chinese academics looking to understand Trump's new tariffs and the reason behind them. Well, she says this. There's just overall confusion about the Trump administration's real intentions, whether it's genuinely seeking a deal or simply going to escalate tensions. They want to know what kind of deal Trump is looking

for and what his endgame is. And again, depending on when you hear from Trump, on any given day, He's either saying, oh, it's because I want to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States. The source material, I guess, for fentanyl originates from China, which is why China's involved in, you know, these statements from Trump. Then he'll say, well, I want to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, or he'll say that he's using the tariffs as a negotiating tool for leverage. So China's confused. The American people are confused. The farmers are worried. And apparently, while all this uncertainty is rattling the stock market, let's take a look at this. All right. So this is a graph from the Wall Street Journal. They say that tech shares lead stock slide as recession talk royals markets. So they also report that the S&P 500 fell 3%, while tech-heavy

NASDAQ composite lost more than 4.5%. Bank stock slid along with shares of smaller companies perceived to be sensitive to the economy, but bonds rallied. Now, Shelby McFadden, who's an investment analyst at Motley Fool, asset management says, quote, this is the first time we've had an administration pretty much say, with a straight face, the objectives are going to cause pain. And I guess it's great that you have a president who's candid about that, But of course, when you say that you're not going to deny the possibility of a recession potentially taking place, that is going to royal the markets. And Trump has advice for anyone who's concerned about the stock market.

He talks about that advice with Maria Bart Romo. Let's take a look. Now we've got tariffs and the market has been going down. Well, not much. I mean, in all fair, it's not much. You said, look, we're going to have a disruption, but we're okay with that. Is that what you meant? the stock market going down is the disruption? What other disruption were you alluding to?

Look, what I have to do is build a strong country. You can't really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a hundred year perspective. We have a quarter. We go by quarters. That's true. And you can't go by that. You have to do what's right. Look, in a vacuum, I actually have no problem with that statement from Trump. because fact of the matter is, the stock market typically is not a good metric to figure out whether most Americans are thriving under our current economy. However, we can't just take what he said in a vacuum. Now, he argues, all right, you know, there's going to be a little pain, but it makes sense I'm building a stronger country. We're bringing manufacturing jobs back.

But then you hear from Howard Lutnik. Okay, so based on what Howard Lutnik is saying, yeah, I guess we're going to start manufacturing. If things come to fruition the way Donald Trump envisions, we would be manufacturing products here instead of other countries. Okay, but does that mean an increase of jobs for the American people? not according to Howard Lutnik. Take a listen. Apple, who builds it all in China.

Why are they building it all in China and giving us our iPhone? Why don't they make it here? You know, they used to say we don't have. It's cheaper. One answer, Mr. Secretary, is that wages are lower over there. And now there are robots who can do it. You're going to see robotic production of iPhones and the jobs that are going to be created. People who build those factories, the mechanics who work on those robots.

These jobs are going to be millions and millions of those jobs. These are great, high-paying jobs, and you don't need a college education to do it. Citation, please. Citation, please. So they're hell-bent on replacing human workers that manufacture products here in the United States with robots. And in his mind, new jobs will be created for individuals who will build said robots. He also talked about building manufacturing plants. So he's talking about construction jobs.

Yeah, I mean, once those plants are built, it's a one and done thing. Like what kind of jobs do these workers do after that? And besides which, will the number of robot manufacturing jobs replace all manufacturing jobs for American workers? Like, it doesn't make sense. Like, none of this makes sense and none of it is coherent. That's the problem. I don't know exactly what the Trump administration is up to in terms of their economic policy.

And depending on which administration official you're hearing from, you're going to hear different things. And so all of that is to say what you're seeing reflected in the stock market is the uncertainty, the instability that has been brought forth by the Trump administration in regard to their economic decisions. Lutnik also seems to think that these global tariffs are actually going to come down because Trump is just using them as leverage to negotiate better trade deals. So which one is it?

Are we going to impose these super steep tariffs to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, which will then be, you know, employed by robots? Is Trump just doing this to negotiate better trade deals? Like, they can't even, like the same person can't even stick to the same message. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant says that he wants to bring interest rates down. And I think that that actually has a lot to do with, like the decisions that the Trump administration is making. So he says inflation expectations jumped to 4.3% in February from 3.3% in January, the highest reading since 2023. I read you that because it means that for the second month in a row, American consumers have a negative outlook on the economy and are kind of pulling back from spending.

And so when that happens, well, you see that, you know, buying power by consumers isn't as strong. Maybe that'll convince the Federal Reserve to lower interest rate, something that Jerome Powell has kind of decided to put a pause on. because of sticky inflation. He doesn't want inflation to continue increasing. So he's like, yeah, we're not going to lower interest rates. But man, America, and especially the business community, they are so addicted to that cheap money. And so is Trump.

Trump loves that cheap money, lower interest rates, is what he wants the Federal Reserve to do immediately. And maybe they're creating a situation where these tariffs are causing so much inflation, so much uncertainty that American consumers are pulling back. It's also hard to see how these policies are going to benefit working class Americans because you have Doge gutting, you know, our social safety net programs. We're not even doing it through legislation. Doge just comes in, fires 7,000 social security administration workers. That's going to cause problems. They've dismantled, you know, the cop on the beat, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which would protect Americans from getting ripped off by the big banks. but Doge has dismantled that.

How is that beneficial for ordinary Americans? It's not. You also have this chaotic tariff policy that will lead to inflation. And for working class people who have a retirement account, that's going to hurt. If you're getting ready to retire, you're looking at the stock market right now. You're pulling your hair out. I totally understand why. And also the idea of bringing jobs back to the United States is really about employing free robotic labor.

Okay. And again, remains to be seen how any of this is good. So that's your economic update. There's no clarity. There's a lot of uncertainty. And Trump himself even admits that there's some pain ahead. Not good. Very bad.

And a complete flip-flop for what we heard from Trump on the campaign trail. The Trump administration's Department of Justice is investigating price gouging, specifically related to the price of eggs. Now, you probably don't know about this story. You probably haven't heard Trump talk about what the DOJ is doing, which is a curious thing to avoid talking about. this is good. If there is price gouging taking place, predatory behavior taking place, I think Americans would celebrate the fact that the DOJ is looking into it. But I think the reason why we're not hearing Trump talk about it is because investigating price gougers was something that Kamala Harris had said she wanted to do early on in her three month campaign. And she got

so much backlash for that. They amounted those types of investigations to price fixing, which Of course it's not. There are instances where corporations will take advantage of like the inflation narrative to hike up their prices even when they don't need to. So let's get to the details on what we're learning based on some reporting from the Wall Street Journal on this. So one thing that the Trump administration has decided to do is essentially look into the possibility that there's an intentional effort to withhold supply of eggs to drive prices up. So according to the journal, the DOJ sent a letter to some egg companies that instructed them to preserve documents about their pricing conversations with customers and even with competitors. And so the letter signaled that the department was interested in company communications about egg production and the avian flu, which make no mistake about it.

The bird flu is the main reason why we're seeing an increase in egg prices. But the Trump administration suspects that there's a little more than that going on here. So Avian flu, by the way, has resulted in the death of more than 150 million U.S. chickens, turkeys, and egg laying hens since 2022. And so you have limited supply. That's going to lead to inflation because the demand stays the same. Farmer advocacy organization Farm Action, though, sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission They did this last month, alleging that companies were actually intentionally being slow in rebuilding their egg laying hen flocks because they want to restrict supply and inflate prices.

A federal jury in Chicago found in late 2023 that Cal Maine, Rose Acre Farms, United Egg producers, and U.S. egg marketers were liable for restricting supply between 2004 and 2000. through measures such as early slaughter and henhouse density restrictions. The presiding judge awarded damages totaling $53 million to the four big food companies, including Kraft and Kellogg, that filed the lawsuit. So it's not unheard of for this to happen. And that's the reason why the DOJ is looking into this. But I also should note that according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, on average, Shoppers are paying about $5 for a dozen eggs.

And that's, by the way, according to the labor department's data, but grocers and food distributors are paying $8 for every dozen, you know, package of eggs. So they're actually taking a loss according to the reporting here from the Wall Street Journal. That's a really interesting stat. And I don't know why, you know, whole, like why would stores or, For food distributors, pay wholesalers like $3 more on average for a dozen eggs, which stores then sell for $5 a dozen.

I don't know. But that's what the Wall Street Journal is alleging here. Maybe it's because they want to make some money. I don't know, we'll see. But the agriculture department said last month that it plans to invest as much as $1 billion to address egg costs, including $500 million for expanded biosecurity measures at egg producing farms. So avian flu is real. That is the core of this issue. But there is some concern that there's predatory activity happening in regard to some of these companies price gouging.

And that's what they're investigating. It might not come to fruition at all. It might not be true. Maybe there's no predatory activity happening. But my point is they're investigating this under the Trump administration. I think that's a good thing. I commend them for that. But let's all also just address the fact that this is not price fixing. This is doing what's right on behalf of the American people to ensure that companies and corporations aren't price gouging us. That's a good thing, whether a Democrat does it or whether a Republican does it. So credit where credit is due, but also I'm going to wag my finger at anybody who accused

Kamala Harris of proposing something that amounted to price fixing. It was not price fixing. And I wish you had stayed on that economic populist messaging rather than flipping to what her, you know, Uber executive brother-in-law was advising her to say. That's what her numbers went down in the polling. So there you have it. We got to take a break. When we come back, we've got a lot more to get to, including what's the latest with Social Security, the Social Security Administration, and how Doge has played a role. We'll be right back.

What's up, everyone, welcome back to TYT, Anna Casparian with you. Let's give you a little update on what's happening with Social Security, Doge, and the like. Let's get into it. Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. Right, explain that. Earlier this month, Elon Musk called Social Security a Ponzi scheme. And that was a foreshadowing moment because it essentially communicated to the American people that Social Security was in the crosshairs of Doge, the Department of Government efficiency.

And guess what? As I had shared with you earlier, they have already set that notices to 7,000 Social Security Administration workers letting them know, we're done with you. We're just going to let you go. And if you think that gutting the Social Security Administration is about doing away with waste, fraud, and abuse, I think you're mistaken. I think it's really about dismantling a social safety net program, a universal social safety net program that we've paid into, that we are entitled to, but might not be there for us, because even in lieu of legislation, you can have a made up government agency essentially dismantle it,

you know, before our very eyes, but very little attention is being paid to it, which is frustrating to say the least. So now you have the former chief of staff at the Social Security Administration, a woman by the name of Tiffany Flick, who is alleging that Doge smash and grabbed their way through the agency, upending security procedures to get their hands on extremely sensitive data. So after working with the Social Security Administration for 30 years, Tiffany Flick became chief of staff at the agency. This happened on January 20th, which of course is inauguration day. So her time at the agency didn't even last a month because or in that position didn't even last a month because she attempted to stop Doge from infiltrating the industry,

I'm sorry, the agency and then, you know, that attempt failed. They wanted to access the private information. Apparently, according to her, they did. She alleges that the Doge takeover began in late January. When a man working at an anti-fraud office by the name of Leland Dudik informed her that Doge representatives would be coming to work at the agency's headquarters. Flick told him to cut ties with any members of Doge and refer them to the commissioner's office. Dutnik will be important later.

So just remember his name because we're going to return to him and I want you to just be familiar with who he is. So just one day after Flick instructed Dutick to end communications with Doge, a man by the name of Mike Rousseau joined the Social Security Administration as both its chief information officer and a Doge representative. Now, according to the Washington Post, the commissioner's office offered to brief Rousseau on areas related to potential fraud and what meant. measures the agency takes to combat it. However, Russo seemed completely focused on questions from Doge officials based on the general myth of supposed widespread social security fraud rather than facts, Flick wrote. So Russo informed the Social Security Administration that he had trained as a software engineer or by, yeah, he had trade a software engineer by the name of Akash Boba to launch a special project

requested by Doge. Now, Boba was allegedly a delicious drink. No, I'm just kidding. Boba was allegedly ham-fisted into the agency by Trump or the Trump administration despite issues with his credentials. So Flick determined that he could have access to a single database containing information to assign and maintain social security numbers, where Russo and other Doge members requested even more data than that. So according to the Post, they wanted full access to the massive database containing not just those files, but to others containing extensive information about anyone with the social security number, including work history, spouses, and dependents, financial and banking information, marital status, and immigration and citizenship

status, and detailed information about anyone who applies for or receives retirement or disability benefits. Now, full access, what does that mean? Does that just mean you have full access to viewing the data? No, it goes a little further than that. Okay, so Rousseau was. evasive when Flick repeatedly asked him why Doge wanted social security data. He repeatedly stated that Boba needed access to everything, including source code, Flick wrote. So social security would normally not provide this access, even to our most skilled and highly trained experts. And again, full access isn't just viewing the data. Full access gives you the ability to also change the data.

So by President's Day weekend, this conflict would reach its end. So Dutik, remember him, I mentioned him earlier in the story. So he was placed on paid leave due to allegations of multiple inappropriate actions. But according to the Washington Post, he secretly gave Doge the data that it wanted. and in return, the Trump administration elevated Doudic to acting commissioner. And at that point, Tiffany Flick, the woman who's speaking to the Washington Post, a bit of a whistleblower here, she was forced out of the agency entirely. Last week, in a meeting with his senior staff, about 50 legal aid attorneys and others,

Dutick admitted that Doge is, in fact, running the show at the Social Security Administration. And that's according to notes that were obtained by the Washington Post so they can report this story. As for the moment being, they're free to report stories like this, wait until Jeff Bezos gets a load of this. I'm sure he'll put an end to this type of reporting. But nonetheless, Doge people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at the Social Security Administration, said Dudik, I am relying on long-time career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions. So there's a, like there are deeper cracks forming at the moment between some of Donald Trump's cabinet

officials and Doge. And so we're going to talk about that later in the show today. If you're watching, you know, this video on demand, we air live Monday through Friday, 3 p.m. Pacific, 6 p.m. Eastern. And you should check out the show. You should check out the live show because we're going to talk about those cracks forming between the cabinet officials and, you know, the Doge team. But I really hope the cabinet officials, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm saying this, went out in the end. Because what I see happening right now is this effort to do away with the Social Safety Net programs that we paid into that we're entitled to that are deeply, deeply popular without even having to pass any legislation. You have the Department of Government Efficiency going into the Social Security Administration, firing 7,000 people, planning on firing more, and also accessing all of this private data for what?

Like, look, am I worried that you're going to have Doge officials show up to your house and do terrible things? No, that's not what I'm worried about. They are collecting that data because in the tech world, that data is pure gold. That data is everything the tech industry wants. So they're robbing us of data dismantling without any legislation, without any consent from Congress, dismantling the Social Security Administration and potentially robbing Americans of the benefits that they're entitled to. How is this okay? And so we'll see what happens, but it's not looking good over at the Social Security Administration.

And if you've paid into Social Security, you're entitled to getting those benefits when you're in retirement age. Don't let anyone convince you that this is okay because it's not. We've got to take a break. We'll be right back.