July 22, 2025 • 14 mins
In this Briefing, Jon Decker discusses upcoming tariffs on US trading partners, the significance of the Philippines President's visit, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
00:00 – Kicking Off: Inside the White House Briefing Room
00:55 – New Tariffs on the Horizon: Trade Relations in Focus
08:04 – Strengthening Ties: Philippines Visit and Economic Deals
09:18 – Ukraine at a Crossroads: Is Peace on the Table
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the White House Briefing Room. I'm John Decker,
and this is your look ahead to Tuesday, July the
twenty second. What you can expect at the White House.
I'll be telling you what's going to be happening, without bias,
without any spin, just the straight news, and as always,
(00:22):
you can make up your own opinion about what you
think about what is taking place at the White House
on a regular basis. As I've mentioned to you before,
I've been covering the White House for a really long time,
going back to nineteen ninety five Bill Clinton's first term.
I have always had good relationships with the White House,
regardless of whether it's a Democrat or a Republican president.
(00:44):
And the reason being is because I establish with each
administration that I'm not out to get them. I'm not
going to pose any gotcha questions. I'm going to pose
questions that if you were in the White House Briefing
Room or if you were in the Oval Office, I'm
asking the questions that you might ask if you had
(01:05):
an opportunity to ask the President some questions. There are
three big issues I want to talk about today. The
first one is tariffs. We are ten days away from
that August first deadline, that deadline that the President has
spoken about in terms of imposing tariffs on every one
of America's trading partners. Come August the first, various countries
(01:27):
that our major trading partners of the US are going
to face as things stand right now, significantly increase tariff
rates Brazil fifty percent, Canada thirty five percent, the European
Union and Mexico thirty percent each twenty five percent tariffs
on goods coming into the United States from South Korea
(01:50):
and Japan. In addition to that, the President says, starting
August the first, there will be a fifty percent tariff
rate on copper. That is pretty significant, And what I
believe is going to happen over the course of the
next ten days, there's going to be a real push
by the European Union to strike a trade deal with
(02:12):
the US because they do not want to see their
baseline tariff rate go from where it is right now
ten percent up to thirty percent. And if no trade
deal is struck, the EU says they are prepared for
retaliatory tariffs on American goods heading over to Europe, So
you could see potentially a trade war between the United
(02:35):
States and the EU. And I mentioned the EU specifically
because that is America's largest trading partner, and it would
have significant impacts on the goods that you and I
pay every day, because when the importers pay those tariffs,
they're not going to eat those costs. They're going to
pass those costs along to consumers. So you could indeed
(02:57):
be seeing some prices rise on products that we use
every day, products, fruit, vegetables, all of that potentially could
go up when we get to that August the first deadline.
Earlier today, I had an opportunity to ask the White
House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt a question in regards to
(03:18):
what we can expect over the course of the next
week plus leading up to the president's deadline. Let's take
a listen to the question that I posed to Caroline
Levitt and the answer that she gave back to me.
There are eleven days until that August first trade tariff's deadline.
What can we expect between now and August first in
(03:38):
terms of potential announcements of trade deals with any countries.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Look, I can tell you the trade team and the
President himself continue to be very engaged with countries around
the world. When it comes to our trade agreements. You
have the President of the Philippines who will be visiting
the White House tomorrow. Perhaps this will be a topic
of discussion. You all see for yourselves in the Oval Office,
as you always do. But the guess first deadline is
just the really the start date for when the United
(04:04):
States of America will begin collecting this revenue from all
of the countries around the world who the President has
sent these letters to. You could see some more letters
before August first, John, you could have some more trade
announcements as well. I can tell you the President, Secretary
of Treasury, Secretary of Commerce, Ambassador Greer all continue to
be in constant communication with our trading partners.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So as we heard from Caroline just in that clip
that you just heard, you get the sense that perhaps
today's visit with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Junior could be
one of those trade deals. She seemed to be hinting
at it. This is an important visit that the President
will be hosting today. I'm actually going to be in
(04:44):
the pool today. What does that mean. It means that
there's a small group of reporters that gets to cover
the President's visit really firsthand with his counterpart from the Philippines.
I'll be in the Oval Office when the President will
be meeting with President Marcos Junior of the Philippines. I'll
have an opportunity to ask the President some questions, and
(05:07):
for me, I'll figure it out sometimes in the moment,
listening to what some other questions that may have imposed,
listening to the President's answers, and following up on those answers.
I typically do not ask questions about things that don't
affect the daily lies of most Americans. Meaning I'm not
going to be the one to ask a question to
the President about Jeffrey Epstein. It's important to some people.
(05:30):
I get that, it's just not I don't think important
to most Americans right now. Most Americans care about jobs
and the economy, and those are the types of questions
that I typically ask of the President. So let's talk
just a little bit about the Philippines and why this
is an important visit. The President has said, as it
relates to tariffs, that he will raise tariffs on goods
(05:52):
coming into the United States from the Philippines to twenty percent,
and what President Marcos Junior has said, is that coming
to the US, he wants to strike a trade deal
with the United States. That's an important thing that he
wants to get accomplished, and I'll have ample opportunity to
do so. He arrived in the United States on Sunday.
(06:12):
I see the Philippine flag hanging outside of Blairhouse, so
he's getting acclimated to East Coast time after that long
travel from the Philippines. And the other big issue besides
talking about trade and trade is important. In fact, this
is one of those countries in which the US actually
has a trade surplus. We have a trade surplus of
(06:32):
ten point four billion dollars with the Philippines, and yet
at the same time, the President wants to impose this
twenty percent tariff rate on Philipino goods coming into the US.
The other big issue that will be discussed besides trade
during this visit by mister Marcos his security and defense.
The Philippines is an important ally for the United States
(06:56):
of America. In fact, it's America's oldest Asian out and
the US has bases in the Philippines. And the reason
being is because of the threat the China poses to
the Philippines. To other countries in the South China Sea,
countries that are allies of the United States. And if
there ever was an attack by China on Taiwan, the
(07:21):
Philippines and the bases that America has there would figure
prominently in terms of providing military assistance to Taiwan. So
when I'm in the Oval Office tomorrow, I certainly expect
to see, obviously the President and President Marcos, but I
also expect to see sitting on that couch the Defense Secretary,
(07:42):
Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the Treasury Secretary.
Because of the role the trade will play in tomorrow's talks.
I say tomorrow, I'm obviously doing this as I look
forward to tomorrow, but to today's talks that will happen
in the Oval Office. All of those important officials will
be there in the Oval Office, and the President sometimes
(08:05):
looks to them to answer questions that are posed during
those opportunities when we have to pose questions to both
the President as well as his foreign counterpart in this case,
mister Marcos. So look, mister Marcos is a very pro
American leader. He was elected on a pro American platform
back in twenty twenty two. So I would imagine that
(08:27):
when the President meets with mister Marcos in the Oval Office,
still get along very well. It'll be a good vibe,
so to speak, in the Oval office. And we've all
seen instances where there's not a good vibe in the
Oval office, think South Africa, think Ukraine. That will not
be one of those instances that I expect to see.
But when the President meets with mister Marcos in the
(08:49):
Oval Office just in a few hours and so to me,
this is an important visit. Perhaps we will see a
trade deal that comes out of this visit that the
President has as with his Filipino counterpart. The final issue
that I want to talk about today is Ukraine. Over
the weekend, you may have seen Ukrainian President Voladimir Zelenski
(09:11):
pitched the idea of peace talks happening this week with
his Russian counterpart, Russian President Vladimir Putin, And this is
something I certainly do not expect to see happen. Putin
does not see Zelenski as an equal. I think it's
unfortunate that you can't have these types of face to
face conversations, but I think it was important that Zelenski
(09:33):
put that offer out there to show the rest of
the world, to show President Trump as well, that there's
one party that wants to have peace, and there's another
party that wants to continue the conflict, and that's Russia.
Russia continues attacking Ukraine on a daily basis with missile strikes,
with drone strikes on civilian areas, and the President is
(09:55):
well aware of that. And the President says he's angered
by that. And I believe the when he says that,
because he has, as he's talked about, conversations with President Putin.
He describes those conversations as good, as nice, as pleasant.
He hangs up the phone, and then hours later, President
Putin launches those missile and drone strikes on civilian areas
(10:18):
in Ukraine. And that has got to frustrate President Trump
because he thought that, you know, he had reasoned with
mister Putin, maybe they were close to getting some sort
of deal. A reminder, President Trump put on the table
four months ago a thirty day ceasefire proposal. It was
agreed to immediately by Ukraine. It has not been agreed
(10:39):
to by Russia. Now, a little over a week ago,
when the President met with NATO's Secretary General Mark Ruda.
He essentially issued an ultimatum to Russia come to a
peace agreement within fifty days or the US will impose
these very stiff tariffs on Russia. And also there's secondary
(11:00):
tariffs as well, meaning that any country that purchases oil
from Russia will be hit with one hundred percent tariffs.
So let's fast forward. What does fifty days mean. It
means September the second. That's the deadline that we're talking about.
Just last week, I asked the President, why are you
giving Vladimir Putin fifty additional days to prosecute his war
(11:23):
against Ukraine? And the President said to me he didn't
think that fifty days is a particularly long period of time.
He then turned the question on me and said, why
don't you ask that question to Biden? And I told
the President I did ask tough questions to Joe Biden
President Biden about Ukraine, and he asked me, well, what
were his answers? And I told the President they weren't
(11:44):
good answers, mister President. So obviously this is an issue
that's not going away, because the fighting continues, and that
deadline is approaching, and it'll be here before you know it.
And then the President has to make a decision about
whether or not to extend that deadline we've seen him
do that before, or whether to impose those tariffs, including
(12:04):
those secondary tariffs. That's the important part of the equation
on Russia's allies, the ones that continue to purchase oil
from Russia, countries like Brazil and South Africa and India,
those are the countries that would be hit hard. The
tariffs on Russia aren't going to make much of a difference.
So we only do about three billion dollars in trade
(12:26):
with Russia, minimal That was twenty twenty four. That number
will be significantly less in twenty twenty five. So that's
not what's going to squeeze Russia. What's going to squeeze
Russia are the secondary tariffs, and we'll see whether the
President ultimately pulls the trigger on those secondary tariffs. So
as I prepare for going in the Oval office, I
(12:48):
think to myself, what am I going to ask the
President that's relevant, that will make news, that will provide
more information to the public. And I think that the
issues that I'm talking about certainly come to issues related
to tariffs, issues related to the relationship between the US
and the Philippines, and finally issues related to this ongoing
(13:09):
conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Certainly, maybe I'll ask a
question if I have the opportunity as well, about the
ongoing war between Israel and Hamas and the effort to
end that war, which is also frustrated the President. But
in any case, those opportunities are ones that I really value.
I think long and hard about what types of questions
(13:31):
to ask the President, and so in a few hours
I'll ask the President, hopefully some questions that will provide
some information that's useful for you out there as you
plan your life and as you plan your day. So
that's what we can look forward to in the day ahead.
July the twenty second, twenty twenty five. I'm John Decker.
(13:52):
I hope that you get something out of this. And
as you noticed in this entire podcast, it's fair, it's
not biased, it's not going after anybody. It's providing useful
information to you that you can use every day, and
there's no spin involved. And that's what you'll get every
day here on the White House Briefing Room with John Decker.
(14:14):
Thanks a lot, have a good one
Welcome to the White House Briefing Room. I'm John Decker,
and this is your look ahead to Tuesday, July the
twenty second. What you can expect at the White House.
I'll be telling you what's going to be happening, without bias,
without any spin, just the straight news, and as always,
(00:22):
you can make up your own opinion about what you
think about what is taking place at the White House
on a regular basis. As I've mentioned to you before,
I've been covering the White House for a really long time,
going back to nineteen ninety five Bill Clinton's first term.
I have always had good relationships with the White House,
regardless of whether it's a Democrat or a Republican president.
(00:44):
And the reason being is because I establish with each
administration that I'm not out to get them. I'm not
going to pose any gotcha questions. I'm going to pose
questions that if you were in the White House Briefing
Room or if you were in the Oval Office, I'm
asking the questions that you might ask if you had
(01:05):
an opportunity to ask the President some questions. There are
three big issues I want to talk about today. The
first one is tariffs. We are ten days away from
that August first deadline, that deadline that the President has
spoken about in terms of imposing tariffs on every one
of America's trading partners. Come August the first, various countries
(01:27):
that our major trading partners of the US are going
to face as things stand right now, significantly increase tariff
rates Brazil fifty percent, Canada thirty five percent, the European
Union and Mexico thirty percent each twenty five percent tariffs
on goods coming into the United States from South Korea
(01:50):
and Japan. In addition to that, the President says, starting
August the first, there will be a fifty percent tariff
rate on copper. That is pretty significant, And what I
believe is going to happen over the course of the
next ten days, there's going to be a real push
by the European Union to strike a trade deal with
(02:12):
the US because they do not want to see their
baseline tariff rate go from where it is right now
ten percent up to thirty percent. And if no trade
deal is struck, the EU says they are prepared for
retaliatory tariffs on American goods heading over to Europe, So
you could see potentially a trade war between the United
(02:35):
States and the EU. And I mentioned the EU specifically
because that is America's largest trading partner, and it would
have significant impacts on the goods that you and I
pay every day, because when the importers pay those tariffs,
they're not going to eat those costs. They're going to
pass those costs along to consumers. So you could indeed
(02:57):
be seeing some prices rise on products that we use
every day, products, fruit, vegetables, all of that potentially could
go up when we get to that August the first deadline.
Earlier today, I had an opportunity to ask the White
House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt a question in regards to
(03:18):
what we can expect over the course of the next
week plus leading up to the president's deadline. Let's take
a listen to the question that I posed to Caroline
Levitt and the answer that she gave back to me.
There are eleven days until that August first trade tariff's deadline.
What can we expect between now and August first in
(03:38):
terms of potential announcements of trade deals with any countries.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Look, I can tell you the trade team and the
President himself continue to be very engaged with countries around
the world. When it comes to our trade agreements. You
have the President of the Philippines who will be visiting
the White House tomorrow. Perhaps this will be a topic
of discussion. You all see for yourselves in the Oval Office,
as you always do. But the guess first deadline is
just the really the start date for when the United
(04:04):
States of America will begin collecting this revenue from all
of the countries around the world who the President has
sent these letters to. You could see some more letters
before August first, John, you could have some more trade
announcements as well. I can tell you the President, Secretary
of Treasury, Secretary of Commerce, Ambassador Greer all continue to
be in constant communication with our trading partners.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So as we heard from Caroline just in that clip
that you just heard, you get the sense that perhaps
today's visit with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Junior could be
one of those trade deals. She seemed to be hinting
at it. This is an important visit that the President
will be hosting today. I'm actually going to be in
(04:44):
the pool today. What does that mean. It means that
there's a small group of reporters that gets to cover
the President's visit really firsthand with his counterpart from the Philippines.
I'll be in the Oval Office when the President will
be meeting with President Marcos Junior of the Philippines. I'll
have an opportunity to ask the President some questions, and
(05:07):
for me, I'll figure it out sometimes in the moment,
listening to what some other questions that may have imposed,
listening to the President's answers, and following up on those answers.
I typically do not ask questions about things that don't
affect the daily lies of most Americans. Meaning I'm not
going to be the one to ask a question to
the President about Jeffrey Epstein. It's important to some people.
(05:30):
I get that, it's just not I don't think important
to most Americans right now. Most Americans care about jobs
and the economy, and those are the types of questions
that I typically ask of the President. So let's talk
just a little bit about the Philippines and why this
is an important visit. The President has said, as it
relates to tariffs, that he will raise tariffs on goods
(05:52):
coming into the United States from the Philippines to twenty percent,
and what President Marcos Junior has said, is that coming
to the US, he wants to strike a trade deal
with the United States. That's an important thing that he
wants to get accomplished, and I'll have ample opportunity to
do so. He arrived in the United States on Sunday.
(06:12):
I see the Philippine flag hanging outside of Blairhouse, so
he's getting acclimated to East Coast time after that long
travel from the Philippines. And the other big issue besides
talking about trade and trade is important. In fact, this
is one of those countries in which the US actually
has a trade surplus. We have a trade surplus of
(06:32):
ten point four billion dollars with the Philippines, and yet
at the same time, the President wants to impose this
twenty percent tariff rate on Philipino goods coming into the US.
The other big issue that will be discussed besides trade
during this visit by mister Marcos his security and defense.
The Philippines is an important ally for the United States
(06:56):
of America. In fact, it's America's oldest Asian out and
the US has bases in the Philippines. And the reason
being is because of the threat the China poses to
the Philippines. To other countries in the South China Sea,
countries that are allies of the United States. And if
there ever was an attack by China on Taiwan, the
(07:21):
Philippines and the bases that America has there would figure
prominently in terms of providing military assistance to Taiwan. So
when I'm in the Oval Office tomorrow, I certainly expect
to see, obviously the President and President Marcos, but I
also expect to see sitting on that couch the Defense Secretary,
(07:42):
Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the Treasury Secretary.
Because of the role the trade will play in tomorrow's talks.
I say tomorrow, I'm obviously doing this as I look
forward to tomorrow, but to today's talks that will happen
in the Oval Office. All of those important officials will
be there in the Oval Office, and the President sometimes
(08:05):
looks to them to answer questions that are posed during
those opportunities when we have to pose questions to both
the President as well as his foreign counterpart in this case,
mister Marcos. So look, mister Marcos is a very pro
American leader. He was elected on a pro American platform
back in twenty twenty two. So I would imagine that
(08:27):
when the President meets with mister Marcos in the Oval Office,
still get along very well. It'll be a good vibe,
so to speak, in the Oval office. And we've all
seen instances where there's not a good vibe in the
Oval office, think South Africa, think Ukraine. That will not
be one of those instances that I expect to see.
But when the President meets with mister Marcos in the
(08:49):
Oval Office just in a few hours and so to me,
this is an important visit. Perhaps we will see a
trade deal that comes out of this visit that the
President has as with his Filipino counterpart. The final issue
that I want to talk about today is Ukraine. Over
the weekend, you may have seen Ukrainian President Voladimir Zelenski
(09:11):
pitched the idea of peace talks happening this week with
his Russian counterpart, Russian President Vladimir Putin, And this is
something I certainly do not expect to see happen. Putin
does not see Zelenski as an equal. I think it's
unfortunate that you can't have these types of face to
face conversations, but I think it was important that Zelenski
(09:33):
put that offer out there to show the rest of
the world, to show President Trump as well, that there's
one party that wants to have peace, and there's another
party that wants to continue the conflict, and that's Russia.
Russia continues attacking Ukraine on a daily basis with missile strikes,
with drone strikes on civilian areas, and the President is
(09:55):
well aware of that. And the President says he's angered
by that. And I believe the when he says that,
because he has, as he's talked about, conversations with President Putin.
He describes those conversations as good, as nice, as pleasant.
He hangs up the phone, and then hours later, President
Putin launches those missile and drone strikes on civilian areas
(10:18):
in Ukraine. And that has got to frustrate President Trump
because he thought that, you know, he had reasoned with
mister Putin, maybe they were close to getting some sort
of deal. A reminder, President Trump put on the table
four months ago a thirty day ceasefire proposal. It was
agreed to immediately by Ukraine. It has not been agreed
(10:39):
to by Russia. Now, a little over a week ago,
when the President met with NATO's Secretary General Mark Ruda.
He essentially issued an ultimatum to Russia come to a
peace agreement within fifty days or the US will impose
these very stiff tariffs on Russia. And also there's secondary
(11:00):
tariffs as well, meaning that any country that purchases oil
from Russia will be hit with one hundred percent tariffs.
So let's fast forward. What does fifty days mean. It
means September the second. That's the deadline that we're talking about.
Just last week, I asked the President, why are you
giving Vladimir Putin fifty additional days to prosecute his war
(11:23):
against Ukraine? And the President said to me he didn't
think that fifty days is a particularly long period of time.
He then turned the question on me and said, why
don't you ask that question to Biden? And I told
the President I did ask tough questions to Joe Biden
President Biden about Ukraine, and he asked me, well, what
were his answers? And I told the President they weren't
(11:44):
good answers, mister President. So obviously this is an issue
that's not going away, because the fighting continues, and that
deadline is approaching, and it'll be here before you know it.
And then the President has to make a decision about
whether or not to extend that deadline we've seen him
do that before, or whether to impose those tariffs, including
(12:04):
those secondary tariffs. That's the important part of the equation
on Russia's allies, the ones that continue to purchase oil
from Russia, countries like Brazil and South Africa and India,
those are the countries that would be hit hard. The
tariffs on Russia aren't going to make much of a difference.
So we only do about three billion dollars in trade
(12:26):
with Russia, minimal That was twenty twenty four. That number
will be significantly less in twenty twenty five. So that's
not what's going to squeeze Russia. What's going to squeeze
Russia are the secondary tariffs, and we'll see whether the
President ultimately pulls the trigger on those secondary tariffs. So
as I prepare for going in the Oval office, I
(12:48):
think to myself, what am I going to ask the
President that's relevant, that will make news, that will provide
more information to the public. And I think that the
issues that I'm talking about certainly come to issues related
to tariffs, issues related to the relationship between the US
and the Philippines, and finally issues related to this ongoing
(13:09):
conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Certainly, maybe I'll ask a
question if I have the opportunity as well, about the
ongoing war between Israel and Hamas and the effort to
end that war, which is also frustrated the President. But
in any case, those opportunities are ones that I really value.
I think long and hard about what types of questions
(13:31):
to ask the President, and so in a few hours
I'll ask the President, hopefully some questions that will provide
some information that's useful for you out there as you
plan your life and as you plan your day. So
that's what we can look forward to in the day ahead.
July the twenty second, twenty twenty five. I'm John Decker.
(13:52):
I hope that you get something out of this. And
as you noticed in this entire podcast, it's fair, it's
not biased, it's not going after anybody. It's providing useful
information to you that you can use every day, and
there's no spin involved. And that's what you'll get every
day here on the White House Briefing Room with John Decker.
(14:14):
Thanks a lot, have a good one
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