The Young Turks - Trump Backs Down

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

Trump pauses tariffs for 90 days. Trump Slaps New Tariffs on Pharmaceuticals. Trump Says Coal Miners Would Be ‘Unhappy’ With Lavish Lifestyles. Group Urges Bondi to Investigate Ms. Rachel Over Gaza-Israel Content." HOST: 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 TYT. I'm your host, Anna Casparian. And as you can imagine, today has been a roller coaster ride when it comes to the news. We've got some pretty big updates on Donald Trump's tariff policies, including a big announcement that he made today, just to deal with all the yipping that's been going on, all the critics who have been panicking about the stock market and what his Liberation Day announcements basically did to the stock market. So we're

going to get to that. That's at the top of the show. Happening right now as we speak, the House of Representatives is set to vote on their budget blueprint. It's going to be a House floor vote. And we'll see what the outcome of that will be. We're keeping an eye on it. I promise We will cover it as we get updates on that story, but you do have some of the fiscal hawks in the Republican Party, members of the House Freedom Caucus, essentially threatening to torpedo that bill because, believe it or not, there actually are some Republicans who are serious and principled about their fiscal conservatism. So we'll talk a little bit about that later in the show as that story develops. We're also going to talk about Trump's proposals to implement or impose tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs, which absolutely would. will be disastrous if you don't have a plan in place to mitigate the negative effects of those tariffs on the American people. And then in the second hour, John Iderola will join us to talk about the latest updates on the measles outbreak. And also just how expensive it is for couples to break up these days. It's in the thousands of dollars. So we'll give you the details on that.

Without further ado, just want to encourage you all to like and share the stream. If you're watching us on YouTube, if you're watching us live, you can also support the show by going to to t-y-t.com slash join to become a member. All right, let's get to our first story. Do you walk us through, but you're thinking about why you decided to put a 90-day pause? Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know, they were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid, unlike these champions, because we have a big job to do. No other president would have done what I did. No other president. I know the president's. They wouldn't have done it.

Yippie. You're talking about yippie. I mean, that's Donald Trump. Maybe the yippiest, most complaining president of all time. But nonetheless, the yippers have gotten their way because the president announced today that he is implementing a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs that he had implemented against countries. And he says the only country that is an exception to this 90-day pause, of course, is China. So the astronomical tariffs on Chinese goods being imported to the United States remain. And so far, the leadership in China has given us no indication that they plan to cave to the pressures coming from the Trump administration. But nonetheless, all of those other astronomical reciprocal tariffs that

Trump had announced during Liberation Day will be paused for 90 days. Instead, he is going to go forward with the baseline 10% tariffs on our trade partners. And he's, encouraging these negotiations or renegotiations on trade deals to continue. Now, I want to be clear, anyone who thinks they know what's going to happen in the future as it pertains to these tariffs is lying to you because no one really knows what is ultimately going to happen. For me, I feel that it's pretty clear at this point that what Trump is trying to do is just renegotiate trade deals. And I think in some cases, that makes a lot of sense. I actually don't think those astronomical tariffs on other trade partners are really going

to be the end result of his tariff policies. However, I do think he means business when it comes to China. And if you notice, there was a dip in the bond market. And there's some suspicion that what led to that dip is China essentially selling off American bonds in order to bolster their economy as this trade war continues. But again, when it comes to the other countries, they will now be facing a baseline 10% tariff as opposed to that baseline 10% tariff in addition to those other astronomical tariffs that he had slapped on. Now, we don't know what the end result will be, but White House press secretary Caroline Levitt thinks that everyone who panicked, you know, just doesn't get it. Many of you in the media clearly missed the art of the deal. You clearly failed to see

what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China when in fact we've seen the opposite effect. The entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets, they need our consumers, and they need this president in the Oval Office to talk to them. You know what, Caroline Leavitt is correct, okay? All you media folks who have been criticizing the Trump administration, you just don't get it. Yeah, sure, sure. It is true that you had various Trump administration officials saying, conflicting things at any given moment, simultaneously, by the way. You know, you've got Howard Lutnik saying, oh, this is all about bringing jobs back to the United States, which will then be

employed by robots. Then you have, you know, Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary, who clearly does not like these tariffs at all telling the American people, this is just an effort to renegotiate trade deals. You have Donald Trump saying anything at any given time, right? So the conflicting messages may have confused you, but let's just keep it real. It's not about being confused. It's about just failing to understand the art of the deal. Okay, when you get conflicting messages from the same administration, obviously that is going to lead to some panic because people are uncertain about what the future holds when it comes to these tariffs, whether Trump is actually going to go through with the astronomical percentages that he had slapped on to various

trade partners. So again, we'll see what happens. But I do find it interesting how so far the administration's messaging after Trump reversed course on those tariffs, or at least implemented a pause of 90 days on those tariffs is, it's your fault. Media and the American people, stop your yipping. Now, the markets, by the way, did react to the news the way you would expect. Dave Portnoy in a very celebratory mood today. I want to show you a screenshot of something he posted on X. I'm up $8.2 million today. Where are all the people in my mentions now? It was like dancing around. Okay, but Dave, don't you feel a little bit uncomfortable that the market, or the stock market, I should say, react so easily to any little piece of

information that you might be up $8.2 million today, but depending on what Trump says tomorrow, you could be down another $20 million. That's the thing that I think people should kind of learn from this whole experience, right? For me, this bolsters why I love Social Security so much, even though I'm paying into it and I haven't received a dime of Social Security yet, because this is a universal government program meant to provide fixed income to our country's elderly people and disabled people, by the way, and it's not tied to the stock market. It isn't tied to these like insane risks. And I just can't stand how the market goes up or goes down depending on the smallest update

to what the Trump administration claims they're going to do. And we don't know if they're actually going to go through with these processes or with these policies. But anyway, the market is up for now. And others are celebrating too. So Trump, in fact, is bragging about how he has led a record stock market recovery today as he's speaking to some of his buddies, some of his allies. Take a look at this. You got the market seeing your brilliance. Yeah, it's up almost every case. Yeah, yeah. You make an announcement for next thing.

Yes, sir, Mr. Martin. You just got to laugh. Markets up 2,500 points. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. And then, of course, everyone's surrounding him is probably so relieved that he has decided to do this 90-day pause. Like, oh, yes, Mr. President, you're a genius. Yes, Mr. President.

You broke the stock market for some time, but then you fixed it. So you're a genius. Okay. Anyway, I want to emphasize something, though, because the story. stock market obviously is easily impacted by news, right? Anything that's happening in the news. It could be a simple announcement from the Trump administration. It could be suspicion that the Trump administration isn't actually going to go through with some of his policies. Any little thing could either lead to panic or it could lead to confidence in the stock market

where people start to buy shares again, invest in the stock market again. Again, it's super flimsy, okay? But it's not the real economy. Now, Trump's tariff policies eventually will have an impact on the real economy. And when I say real economy, what am I talking about? Well, if tariffs are going to cut into the profit margins for U.S.-based companies, they're going to look to other areas for cost saving. And one of the things they might do is lay workers off. They might stop investing in their companies, just kind of hold off on spending money. And of course, that will have a ripple effect in the real economy. And obviously that's going to impact American workers, at least in the short term. Right. So the argument that you'll hear from Trump supporters and the Trump

administration is, look, there might be some short term pain, but the long term idea is to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. So theoretically, that could happen. But But there's already been some indication that companies have been resistant to that. And the fact that Trump keeps going back and forth, back and forth is not inspiring much confidence to bring manufacturing back to the United States. Because no one really believes him. So look, we'll see how this all plays out. We don't know what happens after those 90 days. What I can say is, remember, we've got a midterm election coming up. And if he keeps doing this, pushing these tariffs back, Well, then there's going to be additional pressure toward Donald Trump from Republican members of Congress to stop doing this because it's going to hurt their chances of getting reelected.

To which I say, I mean, I guess have at it, Trump. If this is what you want to do, have at it. But in 90 days, will he actually go through with making these insanely high tariffs on our trade partners or goods produced by our trade partners that are then important to the United States? Is he going to go through with the tariffs that will impact those products? Who knows? But the threat of those tariffs, he believed, would bring various trade partners to the table to renegotiate deals. He claims that 70 different countries are currently renegotiating trade deals with the United States. I want to see a little more evidence before I believe that. I'm not going to take it at face value.

I do believe some countries have reached out to the Trump administration countries like Japan, for instance, looking to renegotiate deals. Europe would like to renegotiate trade before actually implementing retaliatory tariffs against the United States, which I'm very happy to hear about. So again, we'll see what happens. But do I actually think that he is going to do. to go through with those high tariffs in 90 days. Probably not. I think he's serious about tariffs against China. And I think there's good reason to be skeptical of some of our, you know, past trade deals with China and whether or not the US is getting a fair deal there. So with China, I think the trade war is on. I think it'll remain. But with other countries, it remains to be seen.

But I do want to move on and talk about something entirely different, but there's an angle to this ongoing trade war that really concerns me because there was one area where Trump was willing to exempt certain imports to the U.S. Yesterday, he kind of torpedoed that. Let's watch. But we're going to tariff our pharmaceuticals, and once we do that, they're going to come rushing back into our country because we're the big market. The advantage we have over everybody is that we're the big market. So we're going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals, and when they hear that, they will leave China, they will leave other places because they have to sell most of their product. You're sold here. President Donald Trump made that announcement in regard to pending tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs the night before he announced that he would implement a 90-day pause on some of the

reciprocal tariffs that he implemented against our trade partners. So for the moment being, we're uncertain as to whether Trump is actually going to go through with tariffs on pharmaceutical imports. However, while I agree with individuals who believe that it's critical for the U.S. to manufacture medicine domestically, I would like to see, you know, some strategy in place to make sure that we have manufacturing capacity set and ready to go before implementing steep tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs that are imported to the U.S. because Big Pharma already has a sweet little situation where they can price gouge Americans on pharmaceutical drugs. Imagine how much worse that's going to be.

if the Trump administration implements or imposes tariffs on pharmaceutical imports without having a plan in place ahead of time to mitigate some of the high cost that would result from those tariffs. Now initially, Trump had exempted pharmaceutical imports from his reciprocal tariffs policy, but now he thinks that his tariffs will incentivize drug makers or drug companies to make drugs here domestically, though he hasn't revealed what amount he plans to tax drug imports. So he just kind of made that statement off the cuff during a speech. Didn't give us any specifics. We don't have a lot to go off of. But in 2024, the U.S. imported $213 billion worth of medicines more than two and a half times the total a decade earlier. So look, we have become

increasingly dependent on drug manufacturers abroad. And I think that is a problem. I think it's important for us to produce drugs domestically. I am not against high tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs in order to ramp up production domestically. But we need to have a plan in place to make sure we're ramping up production domestically. Of course, this has led to pharmaceutical companies panicking as the value of their shares declined amid the news that Trump announced yesterday. So, BMO capital markets analyst, even Evan, I should say, Evan Siegerman, rejects the notion that pharmaceutical companies will move production here to the United States to avoid tariffs because he believes that Congress is actually going to step in, which is interesting. I don't know if

Evan lives in the United States and is at all aware of how useless Congress is. But here's what he has to say. Given the complexity of the pharma supply chain, we do not expect the industry to make any major changes. These current tariffs are being pursued under emergency powers, which at worse will last until the end of the current administration and could end sooner with an act of Congress. Now, look, should Trump actually go through with pharmaceutical tariffs? The argument that, well, Trump's only in office for four years and after that it will be fine is not a good argument. Obviously, a lot of damage can be done between now and then. And we're not talking about items that people don't really need.

We're not talking about cheap junk that's manufactured abroad and consumed by Americans because they've been conditioned to believe that consumerism is the only way to be happy. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about medicines that people need to survive, that people need to treat various conditions. So we're not playing around here. This isn't something that patients in America can just abstain. from if they need these drugs to remain alive and healthy. Now, despite Trump citing China in his justification for implementing tariffs on medicine or possibly

doing so in the future, it turns out that the US is actually pretty dependent on Europe. So the EU medical and pharmaceutical product exports to the United States totaled about 90 billion euros or 97 billion dollars in 2023. And that's according to the latest Eurostat data. Barclays, or analysts over at Barclays, said in a note last week that Europe accounted for about 80% of the U.S. trade deficit in biofarmah. Now, in addition to that, yes, we do rely on China to some extent when it comes to producing pharmaceutical drugs. However, India is also another player. India's pharma exports to the U.S. mostly comprise generics or cheaper versions of popular drugs. The U.S. accounts for a third of India's overall pharma exports.

So, guys, that's huge because the profit margins on pharmaceutical drugs obviously are going to be much lower. Pharmaceutical drugs or generic versions of pharmaceutical drugs are cheaper. And so the company's producing them stand to profit a lot less. if moving production to the United States is costly and will further eat into the profits of these drug producers, they're not going to do it when it comes to generic drugs. So my point is, since we rely so heavily on a foreign country, India, to produce generic versions of pharmaceutical drugs that we need, implementing these tariffs does not necessarily mean that those drugs will now be produced here in the United States.

United States. And the only outcome as it pertains to generic drugs is that we will end up paying higher prices for said medicines, which is a disaster. So generic drug prices will likely go up. And the companies that produce those generic drugs in India include IPCA labs, Glenmark Pharma, and you also have Biocon. And the makers of some of those Indian-made generic drugs say that the profit margin, again, so low, they're not at all considering moving production to the United States. What's even more insane, though, is that Americans pay little or no tax on imports of Indian medicines compared with the duty of nearly 11% paid by Indians importing American medicines. Now, look, I give you that information because that is exactly the type of trade

deficit that Trump will point to as justification for implementing these insane tariffs. But this setup, do you guys understand this setup actually, it benefits Americans who are not paying tariffs on generic drugs that are being imported from India? And I get it, right? U.S. drug manufacturers don't make as much profit because the 11% tariff on U.S. imports to India are tariffed at 11%. Okay? So that is a disincentive for Indians to buy US-produced pharmaceutical drugs. I get it. It's not so great for the drug manufacturers in the states. But this setup is not at all harming American citizens. American citizens are able to get their generic drugs that are produced in India for cheaper because there is no tariff associated with that. They're not taxed on it. So, drugs that are likely to be hit hardest by President Trump's tariffs, if he does go through with pharmaceutical tariffs, are made by Argen X, UCB, or Novo Nordisk, which, I don't know if you know this, they're the makers of the popular diabetes and now weight loss drug Ozempic. And in contrast, the drug companies that are more immune due to their like diverse global manufacturing network and capabilities to produce here in the United States include AstraZeneca, Roche, and Sanofi. But it doesn't matter because, look, guys, once tariffs are cited as the factor behind the inflationary pressures, the inflation that you see

in the market, other companies that aren't even impacted by those tariffs, companies that produce the drugs domestically here in the United States are just going to use the excuse of this inflationary period to up their prices as well. And if that doesn't make much sense to you, if maybe the way I'm articulating it is too confusing, I think Senator Elizabeth Warren did a really good job explaining it while speaking to CNBC. Take a look. So I know you don't want to listen to me on this, but listen to Jerome Powell on this. The example he gave on Friday was from the last time that Trump's tariffs went into effect. And he said there was a tariff on washing machines. No surprise, of washing machines went up. But the shocking part is the price of dryers went up as well,

even though there was no imposition of tariffs on those. You tell me what that is except for price gouging. Trying to figure that out. Unless you have a clothes line, unless you have a clothes line out back, you need the dryer, though, Senator. Well, you need the dryer, but the price doesn't go up on dryers. The cost of dryers didn't go up. Growing up. Yeah. Did you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love the smell. I love the way you're, I love the way you're changing the subject here. That is an example of price gouging. They told me we had less for you to eat that. Yeah, that's exactly right. And I mean, we experienced that post-COVID pandemic when the supply chain disruptions did lead to inflation in certain sectors of the economy. But that gave an excuse

to other companies that were not at all impacted by supply chain issues. to just raise their prices because the consumers will bear it. And they said as much during their shareholder meetings. So Senator Warren is absolutely right about that. Now, again, I want to revisit the argument I made earlier about how I do think it's important to produce pharmaceutical drugs domestically. I think it's important for the security of this country because COVID also did show us that supply chain disruptions are going to impact

the stock of pharmaceutical drugs in the United States. There were all sorts of drug shortages during COVID because of those supply chain disruptions. So I'm not against tariffs. In fact, I've gotten some heat from some portion of the audience because of my willingness or openness to implementing strategic targeted tariffs. I think in some cases, guys, it does make sense. I just don't agree with the way that Trump is doing this because there aren't any plans in place to mitigate the pain that Americans are going to feel, especially as it pertains to things that are non-negotiable for Americans' lives, like pharmaceutical drugs.

And, you know, look, the one other thing I'll say is, wouldn't it be far better for the Trump administration to do what Democrats fail to do, which was ensure that our Medicare system can negotiate the prices of all pharmaceutical drugs? I mean, he'd be a hero if he did that. But it is interesting that he's not doing that. Now, Democrats made it so we can negotiate the prices of 10 pharmaceutical drugs, many of which, by the way, were about to run out of their copyright or their, yeah, so basically the generic versions were going to come out anyway and it was going to be cheap. It would have been far better if, you know, you have a situation where Medicare wasn't being price gouged by pharmaceutical companies who get to charge whatever the hell they want with

absolutely no negotiation. He's not doing that. He's not focusing on that. I don't know if he's going to go through with the pharmaceutical tariffs. I don't know if he's going to go through with any of these tariffs, to be quite frank, because he goes back and forth all the time. Today he announced a 90-day pause on some of the reciprocal tariffs he implemented against our trade partners. So we're just going to have to wait and see, which I hate ending any video or story with, but that's really the most honest thing I can say about what's happening right now. No one really knows what's in that man's head and what he's actually going to go through with. So we're going to have to wait and see. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to the show, everyone, Anna Casparian with you. big, innovative plan to bring coal mining back. One thing I learned about the coal miners, is this what they want to do? You could give them a penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a different kind of a job and they'd be unhappy. They want a mine call. That's what they love to do. I'm going to predict that they would take the penthouse over the coal mining. Just a guess. But apparently, coal miners would rather pass up a comfortable lifestyle for the thrill.

of doing a job that is in fact incredibly dangerous and oftentimes leads to pretty severe respiratory illnesses that could be deadly. But look, I'm not at all trying to criticize coal miners. They're trying to make a living. So I totally understand individuals employed in that area not wanting to move away from coal mining. Like, it's important to understand where they're coming from. But Donald Trump speaking on their behalf and making it appear as though like, these guys don't want a nice life. They just want to, they want to mine coal. No, I think they want a stable income.

And the way that they've been able to get that is through coal mining. But nonetheless, President Trump made those comments during the signing of multiple executive orders that aim to revive the coal mining industry in the United States. Which makes me think of Germany, to be honest with you, because Germany decided. to decommission their nuclear power plants because nuclear bad, even though it's like the cleanest form of energy, and replace it with coal mining, which is really, really bad for the environment. I think that's dumb, but okay. So we'll get to more on the signing ceremony in just a second. But first, let me give you some more details about the executive orders that he signed. The first directs all departments and agencies to end all. discriminatory policies against the coal industry, including by ending the leasing moratorium on coal on federal land and accelerate all permitted funding for coal projects.

The second imposes a moratorium on the unscientific and unrealistic policies enacted by the Biden administration to protect coal power plants currently operating. The third promotes grid security and reliability. We need nuclear power by ensuring that grid policies are. are focused on secure and effective energy production, nuclear power, as opposed to woke policies that discriminate against secure sources of power like nuclear power. He believes like coal and other fossil fuels. For those watching, you know that I added the nuclear power parts to that statement. But for those listening to the audio version, I'm the one who mentioned

the nuclear power parts, not Trump. Now, we should be focusing on nuclear, in my opinion. Again, If you are serious in your concerns about the climate disaster, the climate emergency, our renewable energies are not enough to carry us. We need another reliable, clean source of energy. And at least in the short term, I personally think, instead of going to coal, we should maybe go to our nuclear reactors that are offline and bring them back online. until we develop, you know, other forms of energy that are clean, reliable, stable. We don't have that yet, unfortunately. Now, the fourth executive order instructs the Department of Justice to vigorously pursue and investigate

the unconstitutional policies of radical leftist states that discriminate against coal. So let's take a look at this video. This is a very important day to me because we're, bringing back an industry that was abandoned despite the fact that it was just about the best, certainly the best in terms of power, real power. Today we're taking historic action to help American workers, miners, families, and consumers. We're ending Joe Biden's war on beautiful clean call once and for all, and it wasn't just Biden, it was Obama, and it were others, but we're doing the exact opposite.

Obama. Now look, Biden did, in fact, tighten regulations, which are, in fact, expected to shut down many U.S. coal plants. But the coal industry has been struggling. And they were struggling well before the Biden administration or well before the Biden administration implemented new regulations. Why? Well, because of the various sources of energy, coal happens to be the dirtiest. It's the worst for, the environment. And look, environmental regulations make it difficult to mine for coal for sure. And then there's also competition. I mean, you believe in capitalism, right? Trump, competition from less expensive sources of energy like natural gas and renewable sources is what has basically taken coal companies out of business. So rising mining costs, environmental regulation and competition from natural gas and renewables, all contributed to coal production in 2023, declining to less than half of its 2008 production peak, the Energy Information Administration reported on Tuesday. But according to Trump, it's all Democrats' fault. Okay. So look,

let's hear more from Trump because it wasn't just Biden he took shots at. In the first campaign where Hillary Clinton was about four states too early, and she was talking about how bad call was and how they were going to teach call miners how to make widgets and gadgets and technology, which they didn't want to do. They want to mine. One thing I learned about the call miners is that's what they want to do. You could give them a penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a different kind of a job, and they'd be unhappy. They want a mine call. That's what they love to do. And she was going to put them in a high-tech. industry where you make little cell phones and things. I don't know. Do you think he'd be good at that? I don't know. Okay. First off, Hillary Clinton did step in it during the 2016 election when she essentially said that we're going to teach coal miners how to code. She didn't specifically say they're going to be making or manufacturing little cell phones. And when I say she stepped in it, I mean it because it was such a, as someone who's trying to win a presidential election, in my opinion, it was a callous way of responding to a very, very real concern that coal miners

have in regard to losing their livelihoods, right? You have to have a better plan than we're going to teach them how to code. It's like a completely different industry, a completely different sector of the economy. So I don't blame Trump for picking at Hillary Clinton. However, I do find it fascinating that he's looking down his nose at phone manufacturing because his own commerce secretary, Howard Lutnik, said this over the weekend. The factories being built in America are huge. That takes years. And you've said that robots are going to fill those jobs.

So those aren't union worker jobs. It's automated factories, automated factories. But the key is who's going to build the factories, who's going to operate the factories, who's going to operate the factories, who's going to make them work, great American workers. You know, we are going to replace the armies of millions of people. Well, remember, the army of millions and millions of human beings, screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones. That kind of thing is going to come to America.

It's going to be automated. And great Americans, the trade craft of America is going to fix them, is going to work on them. Screwing in tiny little screws for iPhones, it's a dream job. It is a dream job, but not according to Donald Trump. Maybe he needs to reach out to Howard Lutnik so they get their messaging, you know, messaging together. So they're saying the same things. No, but look, in all seriousness, I think Howard Lutnik, this is my conspiracy theory. I think Howard Lutnik is trying to sabotage the Trump administration.

Because he says ridiculous things that tend to conflict with the Trump administration to be quite honest with you. I think Scott Besant, who's the Commerce Secretary, I'm sorry, the Treasury Secretary does a better job in communicating, even though he's kind of in a rough spot. You can tell he doesn't like Trump's tariffs, but is tasked with defending them during press interviews. But with Howard Ludnik, I think he's super salty that he didn't get picked for Besant's role. He really, really wanted to be the Treasury Secretary. He did not want to be the Commerce Secretary. And he's going around talking about how, yeah, yeah, we're going to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States so they can be employed by robots.

That he's talking about, you know, screwing in tiny little screws on iPhones and how that's like the great great trade craft of the American people. Anyway, but nonetheless, let's get back to the whole notion of bringing coal mining back to the United States. Will Trump's executive orders actually lead to a revival of coal mining in the U.S.? Well, according to Politico, these orders will likely keep the few existing coal plants open. But utility companies have indicated not just now, but for years that they have no plans to build new coal mines or essentially mine for coal in different areas or new areas. So according to the president of power grid consulting firm, grid strategies and former economic advisor at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, I don't think this order changes the facts that coal fired power plants are old, expensive to run. and unlikely to operate very often or for many more years, the plants will likely be kept online

longer than believed a few years ago due to an uptick in power demand. But that is unrelated to this order. So here you have the president, you know, dipping back into 2016's greatest hits. It's not really going to do much. But I do want to know if those coal miners appreciate Trump's speaking on their behalf in regard to how they want to live, what kind of comforts they're willing to give up. Nonetheless, I can understand why they would want to keep their job, so I understand that interest. But I think most people want to live a comfortable life. Most people want to have a stable income. It's just that working in the coal industry is not the best path forward for that.

So we got to take a break. When we come back, let's talk a little bit about how CEOs of some of these big banks are a little unnerved over the fact that they have less influence over Trump, we'll talk about what they're saying and what they're experiencing when we come back. subscriber to TYT. You can also ring that bell on YouTube so you get notified every time we post new content on our YouTube channel. All right, we're going to kind of move off domestic policy to some extent. Well, I guess it does have a little bit to do with what's happening domestically because yet another pro-Israel group has targeted a YouTube content creator who creates

content for kids and hasn't done anything wrong. So let's get into it. I saw a picture of two babies in Gaza and their thighs are like this small. Can't let children starve. That is not who we are. It doesn't say love every neighbor except. There are so many reasons I stand strong in love. Stand with everyone. That's who I am. that you just heard from, unfortunately, has become the latest target of a pro-Palestinian group that has encouraged the Trump administration to investigate her for possibly being a foreign agent. Now, why would they do that? Well, apparently, she is drawing attention to the atrocities committed by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people, namely the children of Gaza.

and this organization wants to intimidate her and prevent her from doing so. So let's get into the details on what's going on here. So this pro-Israel group is known as stop-antysemitism.org. And they sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi to urge her to investigate this YouTuber. She creates YouTube videos for children. None of her YouTube videos delve into the current war on Gaza at all. However, she's got her own social media accounts as well. And on Instagram, she draws attention to what is happening to the children of Gaza.

Clearly, I mean, as someone who creates content for kids, she's someone who cares about the well-being of children and what's happening on the ground in Gaza is absolutely breaking her heart. So this story was first reported by the New York Post. And I encourage you all to read the New York Post's piece on this because they shared their examples of her saying things that stop antisemitism.org. takes issue with, and let's actually fast forward to those graphics, because here are some examples shared by the New York Post. I don't know if they're sharing this as justification for what

stop anti-Semitism is doing, but here's one example. Let's go to this photo where she says, this is a prayer for children in Gaza. That was shared by the New York Post. Okay, so is there something wrong with her saying that? Okay, let's go to the other photo. Please stop hurting them. Wow. Offensive. Super offensive. Now let's get back to stop antisemitism.org. They claim, look, we value freedom of speech. Don't get us wrong. We totally value freedom of speech.

It's just that she's sharing misinformation about what's happening to children in Gaza. I don't believe that it's misinformation. I'll explain why in just a minute. But they believe maybe there's some likelihood that she's getting funded by foreign actors to propagate this misinformation. So Pam Bondi, we want you to investigate it. So we have some excerpts from their letter to the DOJ, and I want to get into it. So the content creator is known as Miss Rachel. Her real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso.

And apparently she has frequently posted about the living conditions in Gaza for children to her 2.5 million Instagram followers. unlike her YouTube content, her Instagram posts are more geared toward adults. She has highlighted the destruction in Gaza since Hamas's war with Israel, began in 2023, and has called for better conditions and humanitarian aid for the children. Now, that's an excerpt from a hill piece. Believe me, I didn't miss that ridiculous framing about how this is Hamas's war on Israel. Really?

What Hamas did on October 7th was absolutely disgusting. I've got no love for Hamas. I have no interest in defending Hamas at all. But really, you're going to frame it as, oh, this is a war on Israel when Hamas ain't got no military. They have no defense capabilities. Israel is backed by the top military superpower, the United States. They have the Iron Dome.

Their defense capacity capabilities are incredible. Like, really, we're going to, okay. So I got that framing. I think it's ridiculous. Now, fast forward to Loira Rez, who's the judge. director of stop antisemitism.org. She feels aggrieved, aggrieved that this incredibly popular content creator would dare to draw attention to the plight of Palestinian children. So she writes this letter to Pam Bondi and the DOJ saying, given the vast sums of foreign funds that have been

directed toward propagandizing our young people on college campuses, we suspect there is a similar dynamic in the online influencer space. Right. Okay. So the highly popular children's content creator who has been viewed 10 billion times is really hard up on cash and needs to reach out to foreign actors for money and is prop, you know, propagating false narratives about what's happening in Gaza as a result. Okay. Okay. In other words,

She thinks that this highly popular person is taking money from what, Iran, Hamas? Or could it be that she has two eyes, two ears, and is able to see what's happening based on the videos coming from Gaza? They further write, we urge you and your office, meaning the DOJ, to investigate whether or not Ms. Rachel is being remunerated to disseminate Hamas-aligned propaganda to her millions of followers. as this may violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. I actually think stop antisemitism.org should be investigated to see if there's any foreign money flowing into their coffers. I just suspect it. That's it. I just suspect.

I just suspect that this organization is getting funded by Israel or other foreign countries who are sympathetic to Israel. That's all it takes, right? Just suspicion. Now, do they have any evidence, any real evidence? Any real indication that this content creator has taken money from a foreign government or foreign players in order to spread misinformation about Gaza and what Israel's doing? No, they don't. Make no mistake about what they're doing here. They're just trying to shut her up. They're just trying to intimidate her. I looked through her content. I didn't see a single example of her spreading anti-Semitism. I've seen examples of her feeling absolutely heartbroken.

over what's happening to children on the ground in Gaza. But that's the thing. There's this notion, there's this notion by Israel and by pro-Israel groups that very well might be funded by Israel. I have no idea, but that if you just censor any type of criticism over what the Israeli government's doing right now, people are not going to know about it, right? We're just not going to find out.

We all know, we all see it. What they're doing right now in trying to intimidate people who are speaking out against what the IDF is doing, how Israel is prosecuting this war, they are actually expanding anti-Semitism, not just in this country, but around the world. When you're trying to silence Americans, because you don't like their speech about how a foreign country is behaving, that unfortunately leads to more anti-Semitism.

But they're hell-bent on that because they can't handle even a little bit of criticism against precious Israel, even as they are openly talking about starving people today, as they're openly discussing ethnic cleansing on land that belongs to the Palestinian people. I mean, maybe stop antisemitism.org needs to have a talk with members of the far-right Israeli government because they're the ones propagating anti-Semitism all across the world as we speak. Talking about dropping nukes on Gaza? Come on. We urge you and your office to investigate whether or not Ms. Rachel is

being basically paid, okay, to spread this content. Her posts have largely ignored the suffering of Israeli victims, hostages, and Jewish children, while she consistently amplifies misinformation from Hamas and other anti-Israel sources. Well, it's interesting because the Hill actually, you know, looked into the allegation that Ms. Rachel didn't show a shred of sympathy for the children who were victimized by the atrocities, carried out by Hamas. And oh, wow, would you look at that? Apparently, she has previously posted about that. She cares for all children, Palestinian and Israeli. She defended her actions and fundraising efforts for kids in Gaza. So again, the hill looked at it. They're like, no,

she has previously posted about, you know, what happened to those Israeli kids. Now, in the letter to Bondi, the group said that Ms. Rachel has been incorporating Hamas-like propaganda. or Hamas-like propagated images and stories into her content. And by Hamas-like content, this is what they're talking about. Okay? So they're talking about a video or a photo that she shared of a child that was suffering from starvation. And so the group argues that it's misinformation. They claim that the child wasn't suffering from starvation, even though Israel has openly said multiple times.

that they're doing blockades of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The group claims, no, she's suffering from, or he is suffering from cystic fibrosis, not from starvation. The child's mother, by the way, has said that her child is suffering from both, which again is totally feasible, considering the fact that Israel has said publicly on the record that they're blocking humanitarian aid. From the beginning of this war. They've bombed every hospital. They've bombed every refugee camp.

They have bombed residential buildings. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, just this week, talked about how unlivable the Gaza Strip is. By the way, partly thanks to the United States supplying Israel with the bombs that they're dropping on said children. But really, they're going to try to pretend like there haven't been atrocities committed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip. the IDF killed three hostages themselves that we know of. There's likely more considering the aerial bombardments that aren't just going to victimize the people in Gaza, the Palestinian people in Gaza, but also of the hostages who are, you know,

being held captive in the Gaza Strip. This is just insane. Now, and if the organization is worried about the spread of misinformation, they do have a very funny way of putting it or showing it, I should say, because in a tweet that they recently posted, they accused Ms. Rachel of promoting a starving child from Gaza photo, which was actually a cystic fibrosis case. That's what I had already talked about. But Hamas's false stat of 14,000 plus kids killed. They claim that 72% of deaths are combat aged men. That's just not true. It's just not true. And if they want to hide the fact that Israel has slaughtered all those innocent children in the Gaza Strip,

and by the way, they just killed a 14-year-old boy in the West Bank, who was also an American citizen, by the way. If they want to hide that reality from the public, understand what that means. That is an admission that the IDF is carrying out atrocities. Okay, they don't want anyone to know about these things because it makes Israel look really bad. And guess what? The current Israeli government, which I separate, I see as distinct from the people, the civilians of Israel, is evil. What they are doing is ethnic cleansing in Gaza at best and a genocide at worst, at worst. So that is the reality. We all see what's happening on the ground. And while they're doing everything they can to intimidate anyone who dares to speak the truth about what's happening on the ground,

they're not going to win this PR nightmare for, you know, pro-Israel interest groups. Because when you see video after video after video of a mother wailing on top of their child who is dead as a result of these aerial bombardments, when you see a father holding his decapitated baby as a result of what the IDF is doing in the Gaza Strip, there's no level of intimidation from a disgusting group like this that's going to shut people like me up, that's for sure. We all see what's happening. I am the child, okay? I am the product of ancestors who suffered a genocide.

And I'll be damned if a group like this is going to shut someone like me up about what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people, not just in the Gaza Strip, but also the West Bank. I hope Ms. Rachel stays strong. I hope she understands this is just an attempt to intimidate her and nothing more. And shame on the Trump administration for, in various examples that we've talked about on this show, going along with these intimidation tactics on behalf of a foreign country. Is it America and Americans first or is it Israel first? Because so far what we've seen from the Trump administration is Israel comes first,

America might come second. Are you going to be a puppet for a foreign government, or are you going to serve your people and protect them from these intimidation tactics? I think we all know what the answer is, and it grosses me out beyond words. Let's take a break. John joins us when we come back.

You know.