Oval Office Visit
- Senator Ted Cruz's Visit: Senator Cruz spent about two hours with President Trump in the Oval Office, discussing various topics and receiving a challenge coin from the President.
Stock Market Surge
- Tariffs and Stock Market Impact: President Trump paused tariffs announced on April 2nd and increased tariffs on China, leading to the greatest single-day increase in the stock market in U.S. history. This move was aimed at leveraging negotiations for lower tariffs globally.
Senate Floor Votes
- Late-Night Senate Votes: The document mentions the frustration of Senate Republicans with Democrats blocking the nomination for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, leading to votes being held at 1 AM.
Mexico Stealing Water
- Water Treaty Violation: Mexico has been violating the 1944 Water Treaty by not providing the agreed amount of water to Texas, severely impacting Texas farmers. President Trump, at Senator Cruz's behest, took a strong stance against Mexico, demanding compliance with the treaty and threatening penalties.
Oval Office Swag
- Presidential Gifts: President Trump is known for giving guests various personalized gifts, including signed hats, golf balls, and presidential cufflinks, all paid for out of his own pocket.
Crypto Legislation
- Bill Signing: Senator Cruz introduced legislation to repeal a regulation from the Biden administration that harmed the crypto industry, which President Trump signed into law.
Tariff Strategy
- Negotiation Tactics: The document discusses President Trump's negotiation strategy, using tariffs as leverage to achieve lower tariffs globally and improve market access for American producers.
Personal Anecdotes
- Failures and Successes: Senator Cruz shares personal anecdotes about his failures and successes, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and learning from setbacks.
Political Strategy
- Turning Texas Red: Efforts to flip the Rio Grande Valley from blue to red, highlighting the impact of standing up for local issues like the water treaty violation.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome. In his verdict was Centater Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you and Senator it was a very exciting day.
You spent some time with the President today in the
Oval office. Even got a nice little challenge coin as well.
So I did.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I spent about two hours in the Oval with President
Trump today and today was a very significant day. So
let's start. Yesterday was a phenomenal day. Yesterday President Trump
paused the tariffs that he announced last week on April second,
and at the same time, he jacked up the tariffs
(00:37):
on China. The combination of those activities produced the greatest
single day increase in the stock market in the history
of the United States of America. Now, this week, I've
spent a lot of time talking to President Trump. We're
gonna break that down. We're gonna talk about the impacts
of that. We're gonna talk about the backstory of why
(00:59):
the press did that and what to expect next. We're
also going to talk about something the President did this evening.
You and I are talking. It is right now, twelve
twenty five am, Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And we're in the same place. This usually doesn't happen.
We're in the same time zone. Right now, we're both
in DC.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Why are we in DC because in a half hour
I'm going to the Senate floor. We have votes starting
at one am. So the Democrats are so angry, they
hate Trump so much that they are blocking the nomination
for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And
so look, I'm going to commend Republicans of the Senate.
(01:40):
We're saying, all right, screw you, because they are objecting
they could delay the vote until tomorrow. Tomorrow's now today
because it's past midnight yep. So we're like, fine, we'll
do this hang out tomorrow. So hour, let's go. By
the way, if the Democrats had agreed, we could have
left at like six pm on Thursday. But no, they're
gonna drag all one hundred senators to the floor at
(02:03):
one in the morning. By the way, we've got senators
in their eighties, we've got senators in their nineties.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I do not envy the guy who has that job
to wake up the center, because you know they're asleep.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, look that this is where it helps being in
night owl. To be honest, I'm much happier doing a
one am vote than if they did a six am vote,
I'd be really pissed because because I, as you.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Know, believe you. I've seen you in the morning.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
But but by the way, I will say this, so
so you and I record the pod. We record it
often ten pm or eleven pm.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Let's keep going on midnight. There we go. Now we're
getting into reality.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That's much more so the pod two days ago we
finished at two thirty in the morning. Yes, and I
will say, I'm glad you used to do a morning
radio show. What time do your morning radio show?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Seven am is when it started. I had to be
up in like up and at them. Thank the Lord,
I don't do what you had to be awake to
be awake coffee. I had to know what was going on,
like I mean it would be educated.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
You had to presumably say something like charming and funny
and if someone's going to listen to you for two hours.
And I got to say when I was keeping up
till two and three in the morning and you were
getting up at six six thirty, I actually felt an
enormous degree of guilt. I'm like, I'm killing Ben.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yes, you were, you were on your way. It was
the easiest way to get rid of me.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I don't want to kill you, Ben, I appreciate it.
I want to give you a grief and abuse you,
but I don't want you dead. I just just just
want you being roudly made fun of.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
And there's a reason why they took me off that
show one day. There's a reason.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
And your boss in the Iheartworld, Julie, she said, all right, Ben,
I'm sparing you from the Morning Show because we've decided
that a dead Ben would be a bad thing.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
That is how I know that my life is valued
on this earth. Right now, there you go.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So tonight, also Donald Trump leaned in and engaged on
an issue that may sound esoteric, but it's actually a
big deal, which is Mexican water. Mexico has been stealing
massive amounts of water from Texas. This is an issue
I've been leading the fight on a very long time,
(04:15):
and it's had an enormously harmful impact on Texas farmers.
I've been leading the fight against it, and tonight the President,
at my behest, leaned in vigorously and said, Mexico, you
will provide the water that you have committed by treaty
to provide, or else They're going to be very serious penalties, tariffs,
(04:38):
and sanctions. It's a big deal, and I will use
those two words he did. As you and I are
sitting here at twelve twenty five am. The Mexican government
is freaking out, and you know what's going to happen.
They're going to provide the farmers of South Texas the water.
I'm going to walk you through the backstory of that.
It is fascinating in terms of how international diplomacy has
(04:59):
played out and the advantage of a strong president who
actually fights for America versus the incredibly weak and effective
president we had for the last four years.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, it's a really cool story. We'll talk about that. Plus,
just like what happens in the Oval, the trinkets, the
trinkets are impressive. We'll tell you about that in the moment.
I want to tell you, though, real quick, about the
International Fellowship of Christians and Jews because of amazing people
just like you. We are standing with the people in
Israel right now who are still under attack. Missile file
(05:29):
fire has resumed from Israel's enemies. Terrorists who seek utter
death and destruction are at it twenty four to seven.
You really can't imagine what it would be like to
live like this under constant fear, but for the people
of Israel, it's very real and it's every single day.
And that's why I'm asking to join me and show
the people of Israel you'll help protect them in this
(05:50):
time of attack and uncertainty. One of the best ways
for you to give is by giving to the International
Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Why because your gift provide
security essentials like bomb shelters, flat jackets, and bulletproof vests.
They also have done something that's been amazing. They have
given armored security vehicles and armored ambulances so that they
(06:12):
can go into areas that are under attack. There's no
better time to give than right now during the Passover holiday,
when we celebrate Israel's historic deliverance and birth as a nation.
So to give a special Passover gift today and help
protect the people of Israel, call right now eight at
eight for eight eight IFCJ. That's eight eight eight four
(06:36):
eight eight IFCJ or online it support IFCJ dot org.
That's one word support, IFCJ dot org. All right, so
let's just start with a little bit of color here.
I gotta say one of the most fun things about
going to the Oval Office is Donald Trump loves having guests, Yes,
(06:59):
and the swag that you leave with is just the
most incredible level of swag. And he pays for it
out of his own pocket.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
He does.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
It's not the taxpayers. So when I went in the
first time, it was in the last and forty five
in those years, and they asked if I would come
up for Stay the Union and prep and that, and
I was there the day to Stay of the Union
and at the end he's like Ferguson, He's like, I know,
you got three boys at home. What do you need?
And I'm like, miss President whatever, you know, if you'd sign,
He's like, no, no, come over here, and he walks you
(07:29):
around the corner into the room. He has this like
full swag room, and he's like three different hats of
boys signs him. He's like, now one of your son
plays golf. He signs a pro V one ball fromhim.
He gives me another sleeve, then he gives me a
golf towel and then he's like and you're laughing because
you're in the Oval Office and you're like, I'm going
to walk out of here.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
With all this stuff to be fair, you're not in
the oval.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Well, no, you're outside of it, but you walk back in.
You're like holding all this stuff in the open.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
You're in the little office next to the open, yes,
where the swagroom is. And what happened in that little room.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Which is one of his favorite stories. He's like, you
you know where you are right now?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Twenty five years Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
He's like, you know where you are right now? And
I'm like, where am I? Right?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
This is where Monica Lewinsky.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Did not have sex with that man?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
But shall we say?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I don't know, I can't probably I think I did
it perfectly there.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I'm trying to find a way.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
To say this, Yeah, and this did not have sexual
relations with that woman quote unquote, but may have.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
But it's also where the blue dress got sullied.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
There you go, that's a great way of putting it.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And it would be in that room and you kind
of look around and it's sort of little, and it's
now filled with if you can imagine the uh.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Make America great again? Hats the forty forty five dash
forty seven. I mean it's it's it's legit.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And he has all these shells full of swag, and
he like says, hey, what do you want?
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Take wherever you want. And by the way, there's nothing
in there that you can buy, so I it's either
from there or you don't like it's not.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And he just does that and he pays for it
all like he's out of his like it's he's paying
for it himself. But he's like, what do you want?
You want? Like they had gigantic maga hats that are
like twice the size of the normal head.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
The one that Elon Musk wore that kind of made
it famous. A lot of people re memory put it on.
He was like, so he actually pointed that out. So
that's the one Elon wears.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, so, and it's got all this stuff he's got.
It's cool stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
So and by the way, the VIP gift is what
I was told, which I think we can confirm is true,
is a is the cup links. So he looked at me,
he's like, Ferguson, you need this, can't buy these anywhere,
and he hands them to me. It was like, it's
presidential cuplinks. They're amazing. I still have in this day.
You've got a pair now as.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Well, So I do, and I've had a couple of
presidential cufflings in the past. Yeah, but these are the
coolest that. These are really damn cool. And I will
say his challenge coins. So in the military and in
law enforcement, people carry challenge coins, typically about the size
of a silver dollar. And so if you come to
my office, you've been to my office. I have one
entire display of military challenge coins and I probably got
(10:09):
I don't know, two hundred of them. That is, I've
traveled the world.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
They give them to you, they get awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, and then I have another display of law enforcement
challenge coins, so police officers, law enforcement. And so the
two are ones behind my desk, the military is behind
my desk, and the other is on the other end
of my office, like kind of across my desk. So
they're normally about the size of a silver dollar. Trump
(10:33):
this evening gave me two challenge coins. And his challenge
coins are literally three hundred percent the size of it.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
It is like the size of the tariff you put
on Chinese go.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It's the size of a pancake.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, it's a it's a coast.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
It's a coaster, that's exactly. And he is one that's
sort of gold and fancy, and then he's another that
is gun metal, and he said, actually these are more
popular because it's like military gun medal and it President
of the United States and a really cool coin.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I love it. That's the fun part about it. And
you were there, by the way for something that was
not making big headlines, but it deals with crypto and
we're going to talk about this in another pod. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
No, that's exactly right. I was there for a bill signing,
so legislation that I introduced to repeal an incredibly abusive
regulation from the Biden administration that harmed the crypto industry,
and I got it passed through Congress. The President signed
it in the law, and so I've been there for
a number of bill signings of legislation I've passed. But
it's always cool because you're passing legislation, the President signed
(11:31):
it and suddenly becomes law.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Did you get to keep the pen loves giving away
the Sharpie?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yes, And it's not a sharpie. It is much like
the Challenge coin.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
It's huge.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
It is huge. It is probably three hundred percent the
size of a shark.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, it's like oversized. So when he signed my boys hats.
He goes, here's the pin. Take the pen home, and
I still have the pen at my desk. It's like
it's got the and it's got the Trump gold signature
on the side. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
So so I'll end up in my office framing that
signing pen because it's legislation that I passed, the truly
significant And in my office I have a bunch of
different pieces of legislation signed and a number of them
are signed, are framed with the signing pens. So I
was there for that. But look, a couple of things. One,
we talked a lot about tariffs, and let's rewind two
(12:16):
days ago. Yep, so we have talked in this last week.
We've had two podcasts entirely devoted to the Trump tariffs.
We had won our Friday podcast right after the tariffs
came out, one hundred percent of the podcast was on
the tariffs. And then our Monday podcast, we talked about
two competing camps in the Trump administration. We talked about
(12:37):
angels and devils that were on President Trump's soldiers shoulders.
The angels were urging the president use the leverage of
the tariffs you've announced to fight for lower tariffs. Across
the world to expand market access for America. I emphatically
agree with that side the devils, and there are voices
(12:58):
in the administration they want to see massive tariffs in
perpetuity from America and every other country. I think that's
a terrible outcome. So we did Monday's podcast. We did
a deep dive on that. So I will tell you
you and I are sitting here Thursday night. Tuesday night,
I spent an hour on the phone with President Trump
(13:18):
and I had several other senators there and we were
urging him. What I was saying is, listen, the market
is in free fall. That's dangerous. People are freaking out.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And my advice to him, and I said, I did
Hannity Tuesday night, and so I said this on Hannity,
So this is not secret advice. I said it on
Fox News to the whole country. I said, my advice
is cut a deal now. Pick one or two countries.
Cut a deal now. I don't care what countries they are.
Pickure one, pick two, and cut a deal where they
slash their terraffs massively and we slash our terrafts massively.
(13:54):
I said, I think that will calm the market down enormously.
That will assuage people that we are headed to world
which much with much lower tariffs, which, by the way,
as I told him, if thirty days, sixty days, ninety
days from now, we have a world where every country
on Earth has massively lower tariffs and American farmers and
(14:14):
ranchers and small businesses and manufacturers were able to export
all over the world, that will be an historic win,
like an unprecedented win for American workers and American jobs.
So that's what I'm urging him. We spent an hour
on the phone, and I got to say, look, President Trump,
sometimes when you're urging him to do something, he can
(14:34):
push back, and in that call, he was kind of
pushing back and popping back, and he's saying, look, these
tariffs are great. We're raising a ton of money. What's
the problem. Spend an hour. But then on Wednesday, the
President put out an announcement at lunchtime, and his announcement
was twofold. Number one, he said he was pausing all
(14:57):
of the reciprocal tariffs he had announced on April s second.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
For ninety days. For ninety days, which is enough time
to get deals done.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And number two, he said he was jacking up the
tariffs on China even more. He said to one hundred
and twenty five thousand others, it's actually one hundred and
twenty five percent, But it's actually one hundred and forty
five percent because there's an additional twenty percent that he
had announced as a penalty for their role in fentanyl
smuggling into this country. Yep, So the total tariffs against
(15:25):
China are one hundred and forty five percent now he
announced that. I'll tell you. On Wednesday, I was in
the Senate Republican lunch. All the Senate Senate Republican senators,
we have lunch together every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The
middle of the lunch, Rick Scott, who hosts the Wednesday lunch,
Rick got looked at his phone and announced, Hey, the
President's just paused all the teriffs and increased the tariffs
(15:46):
on China. There wasn't exactly a round of applause, but close,
pretty damn close. There was literally there was a relief,
and yes, a palpable sense of relief. And what is
striking is the market within minutes exploded and stocks sored up.
(16:08):
So tonight, when I was in the Oval, I said,
Miss President, as a result of your decision yesterday, you
produced the single largest increase in the stock market in
one day in the history of the United States of America.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
That's a good day.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
That is a massive day. And so I will say
the pause is important. I hope over these next ninety days,
I hope what we see is, as we talked about
on Monday's pod, there are two paths, massively reducing tariffs
for everyone or keeping tariffs in perpetuity. Over the next
ninety days, I hope we see announcement after announcement after
(16:47):
announcement of our trading partners, all of whom would come
running to President Trump saying we want to cut a deal.
And to be clear, none of this would have happened
without the April second announcement, none of it.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Well, he's got beset by the way. He said this
at the White House when they announced this, he walked
out and he said, this is all about leverage, which
is what the President said, Take a listen. President's decision.
There was a president's decision to wait until today.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And again, as I've said in the past, no one
creates a leverage for himself like President Trump.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
And he said that by the way, at the point
when the Dow was up two thousand points, right, So
he just announced it walks out there, and then Caroline
Levitt also was a reminder like, hey, we're letting the
rest of the world off the hook, but when it
comes to China, we're not. She said, this is the
same press conference, And.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
As you all know, the President just put out a
statement announcing an additional tariff on China. The tariff on
China will now go up to one hundred and twenty
five percent because China imprudently decided to retaliate against the
United States. And as I said at the podium yesterday,
when you punch at the United States of America, President
Trump is going to punch back harder. In that same vein,
we have had more than seventy five countries from around
(17:59):
the world to reach out to President Trump and his
team here at the White House to negotiate better trade
deals for the American worker. We have been overwhelmed with
the amount of request for countries around the world. I'll
let the Secretary speak to that. We will continue with
the tailor made negotiations that I spoke about yesterday. In
the meantime, there will be a ninety day pause on
the reciprocal tariffs as these negotiations are ongoing, and the
(18:21):
tariff level will be brought down to a universal ten
percent tariff.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I mean, you listen to them, and I think it's
pretty clear.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
By the way, I will say this, Caroline Levitt, I
know really well. Yeah, she's a good friend. So Caroline
ran for Congress in New Hampshire, and she was running
for Congress, if I remember correctly, she was twenty five
years old.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
And by the way, the constitution the minimum age for
member Congress is twenty five years old.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yep. So she was on the House side. Yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Member Congress is twenty five, a senator is thirty, and
the president must be thirty five. That's what the Constitution
lays out. So Caroline was running in New Hamphire. As
you know, I raised a ton of money for Carolina yep.
I believe, if I remember correctly, north of one hundred
thousand dollars to support her campaign, and I flew to
New Hampshire and campaigned with her. She was a great president.
(19:13):
And by the way, I told the President that tonight,
I said, look, she's she's kicking ass as your press secretary.
But she was a fabulous and the coolest part. We
did a huge rally and she rocked it and it
was a lot of energy and excitement. And then we
went afterwards to a bar I think it was a
VFW bar if I remember correctly, and there were like
several hundred mostly veterans, and we were having a beer
(19:35):
with them and they loved her. It was really cool.
It was like a fun It was after the event,
hanging out having a beer with a bunch of New
Hampshire veterans and it was like a great moment. Now
she ended up she won the primary. She did not
win the general, although I pointed out to her tonight
I said, look, that didn't work out even though you
were a great candidate. But I said, you know what,
(19:57):
you'd rather do the job you have now than being biggest.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Blessing in disguise, because she would have done that job.
She would be the pres secretary right now. It's amazing
how those things happen in your life when you're like,
you want things so bad and then you don't get it,
and then you're like, man, if I would have gotten that,
where would I look at what I would have.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Missed, you know the country western song some of God's
greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
There have been multiple steps in my life where I
desperately wanted something I didn't get it. I was crestfallen.
I was frustrated. I used to keep all right, this
is going to be sort of a weird admission. When
I was in high school and college, I literally kept
a file folder. And by the way, for all of
you under thirty, you don't know what a file folder is.
But I had like a file cabinet with a folder.
(20:43):
You know what it was called what failures?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
How many were in there?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
A lot? Okay, So look, I was someone I tried
for things. I applied for things. I wanted to be
a Rhodes scholar. I applied for the Rhodes scholarship. I
didn't get it. I was really I was like, damn,
I'd really like to be a road schott or I'm
pissed I didn't get it. But all right, I think
it's tenth grade. Okay, this is.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I'm I'm sort of embarrassed. Like you guys know, Ben's
a jock. He was like a cool kid, and like,
you know.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I tried hard. I tried hard, though it be fair.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Is a tennis player really a job?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Well, you know it's it's a sort of sec it's
not CC.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
It is like a tennis player. You're wearing like a
white eyes on.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Like it's not good swag. We had some. We had
some nice Nike swag like they we did it right.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I'm just saying you were ball.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
It's not basketball. It's not baseball. I'll give you that.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I will keep you dunk.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
No, I cannot dunk.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I played hoops with you.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
I knew the dw Yeah, I cannot. But I wasn't
going for Rhodes collar. I can promise you that. And
I didn't have a briefcase. You had a briefcase. That's
what we're really getting in.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
No, I didn't have a briefcase. I'm sorry. I'm not
Alex P. Keaton, which no one knows who that was
Michael J. Fox and Family.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Ties amazing show.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
But all right. So in tenth grade, I was sitting
there in class with my classmates and they were talking
about like applying to a scholarship, and several of my
classmates said, well, no, no, I'm not going to apply, and
I said, well why not? And they said, well, if
I apply, I might get rejected and I don't want
(22:21):
to fail, so I'm not.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Going to do it. And you're like, screw that. I'm
going for all of it.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
And I wrote a poem in tenth grade which I
don't have, but I'm going to try to remember it.
I don't know that I can remember it exactly. But
imagine a dreamer walking off a cliff with hopes and aspirations.
Many would say his steps were foolish, and yet all
(22:53):
the great inventors, discoverers, and achievers would say nothing ventured,
nothing gained. And here's another element to complicate the matter.
What if the walker learned to fly? And this is me,
(23:15):
as a geeky fifteen year old writing a poem.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Writing who inspired me? Like that was before chat GBT,
So you didn't even steal it from anybody.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Like you don't have a cliff, you ain't grown wings,
fair point. And so I literally had a whole folder
of failures things I tried to do that that I
did not accomplish. But if you are are to use
another great hero of mine, Teddy Roosevelt, Yeah, you know,
tr gave a great commencement speech about being in the arena,
the man who is marred by blood and sweat and
(23:48):
mud in the arena and not one of those cold
and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat norfeat
And so I forget where I'm going on this.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
No, you're you're talking about Carol. I love it. Failing
at the going for Congress a blessing, and now it's
the biggest thing in her life. So you're saying, count
your failures because they can't be your blessings later in life.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
If you have no failures, you've done nothing.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I just want to prove that right now. It to
my wife. How good of a listener I am, because
I just saved that whole story right there. I just
want credit for that moment. Anyway, continue, Is she gonna
buy that? I don't know. We'll see if she listens
to the show, because I just if she If she
doesn't listen, we're both gonna know.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Well. Look, I will say what happened on tariffs Wednesday
was a massive day Number one for the market and
and and for a huge surge, but number two the
ninety days, we have an opportunity. This is not hyperbole.
President Trump could achieve the greatest victory for jobs and
(25:02):
economic growth, certainly in our lifetimes and maybe in the
history of America.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Now well, and you reap between the tea leaves here
like there does seem to be a strategy here, and
this is some of the genius I do have to
think of that. I give credit for that. A lot
of people miss on President Trump. It seems like he's saying, hey,
rest of the world, I want to get along with you.
I'm going to bust China. They're taking advantage of us.
They're still in their intellectual property. It's a national security issue.
(25:30):
We witness what we witness during COVID with them as
a nation. I want everybody else to succeed, and we're
going to make sure they don't have all of this
leverage over not just US, but other partners in the world.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yes, but look, the two things I've been urging President
Trump for a long time on trade to focus on
are Number One, focus on China. I am all four
pounding the living daylights out of China. You know, when
I arrived in the Senate thirteen years ago, what I
said then is China poses the single largest geopolitical threat
(26:02):
to the United States over the next one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Now, Ben, when I arrived, that was a lonely voice.
Almost nobody agreed with me. Every Democrat had disagreed with me,
and most of the Republicans disagreed with me. They looked
at China and they saw nothing but dollar signs as
far as the eye could see. Now the world has changed.
I think a lot more people have opened their eyes
to the danger, to the peril. China is fighting a
(26:28):
thousand year war against the United States, and that's.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Not hyperbole, and that's really how they look at it.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
And everything we can do to delink our economy from
China is a good step. So I've urged President Trump,
you can't focus on China too much. The more you
can bring jobs out of China, the more you can
bring our critical infrastructure out of China, the more you
can bring pharmaceuticals out of China, the more you can
bring semiconductors out of China. Everything we depend upon. China
(26:58):
is coming after us.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
This is national security things we depend on.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
It is national security, is economic security. This is a
fundamental battle. So I am all for focusing on China.
But the other principal reciprocity. Look, I don't want to
be overly optimistic. As we mentioned on Monday's podcast, and
you want to go back and listen to it about
angels and devils. There are really vocal and outspoken voices
(27:25):
in the administration who don't want the President to lower
tariffs in other countries. They want tariffs to be high
and there forever, and they want the revenue. Look, tariffs
are producing about two and a half a billion dollars
a day in revenues. Now, the point I made to
the President, where are those revenues coming from tariffs? Are taxes?
(27:48):
They're coming from American consumers. So yes, it's producing a
lot of money. But I would much rather lower the
various to other countries and let our farmers and ranchers
and small businesses and manufacturers' work the hell out of it,
because I think American businesses can beat every company on
Earth if there's a fair playing field. If most of
(28:09):
the countries we trade with there's not a fair playing field,
and so this opportunity and listen, President Trump's negotiation strategy
is in some way simple. He walks up to people,
he smacks him in the head, with a two by four.
I think he backs up and negotiates from that. Yeah,
and it has proven to be an incredibly effective negotiation strategy.
(28:33):
So I will say I'm really, really glad about Wednesday's
pause announcement. It produces I noted, the biggest single day
increase in the stock market in history, and I hope
the next ninety days we will see deal after deal
after deal, slashing tariffs and opening markets to American producer.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying something like that in
the cabinet meeting when he said this about the president.
And also he said which I think was interesting. He said,
and I'm going to quote him, he said, one of
the most important things you'll achieve in your presidency is
reordering the world in a proper way. For more than
thirty one years, multiple administrations have allowed the Chinese to
(29:13):
de industrialize this country, to take away jobs and factories
and pillars of our national strength. Like this is from
a Secretary of State who's saying, this is the ballgame, yes,
and then National Security is saying this is the ballgame.
And then producers are saying this is the ballgame. And
American workers are saying this is the ballgame. I've never
(29:35):
seen a moment politically where so many different factions are
all seen to be aligned and understanding this threat, which
it's in fact is China. And so you look at
the next ninety days, it's very important and there's got
to be deals done. When do you think will start
to see deals and momentum because it's all about momentum, right,
(29:55):
you get one with Vietnam, or you get one with Taiwan,
or you get one with Malaysia or India wherever it is, right,
and you start going country by country, when will we
start see that because that's what the market's now looking for. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Look, so what I urged the president Tuesday night is
negotiate a deal fast. I said, I don't care what country,
just get one on those books, get one and have
it be a massive reduction on both sides because that
will assuage people. Okay, this is the path we're going down.
When you have seventy plus countries that are seeking negotiate deals,
(30:26):
that takes a little bit of time. That's complicated. Yes,
and so I really like the ninety day pause because
it gives you ninety days to negotiate deals. And so
I hope in the next ninety days we see deal
after deal after deal, and I think it'll build momentum.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
So you think in weeks will start see the first ones.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I don't know. I don't know if it'll be weeks
or thirty to sixty days. I don't know how long
it takes.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
The ninety days gives us time to do it right.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Ninety days gives us time to do it right. And
I have a high level of confidence than in the
next ninety days we will see a bunch of them.
How quickly given the ninety day pause, there's not the urgency.
What I was urging, what I said on Hannity is
do it now, don't wait a week like do it tomorrow,
because frankly, the market's freaking out and you don't want
(31:18):
people's for one case.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
To go to crap.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
And so I think think there was real value to
moving quickly. The pause essentially buys you time to then
negotiate the deals, and I hope that's what they're going
to do.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
All right before you go to this vote at one
o'clock in the morning. Not a joke. I want to
ask you about this other I would just say insane
news because I can't believe they've been allowed to do
it for so long. And that is that is Mexico
stealing water, which is suffocating farmers. Yep. Specifically it's happening
(31:56):
in Texas and it's it's making farming industry collapse and
farmers disappearing from areas because there is no water.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So let me give you the background, because this is
a really important issue. It's important in Texas, but it's
important to the country, which is there's a water treaty
that we signed with Mexico in nineteen forty four, the
Mexican Water Treaty of nineteen forty four. It obligates Mexico
to provide three hundred and fifty thousand acre feet of
water a year to South Texas. That's over a five
(32:28):
year period. Okay, for the last five years, Mexico has
been openly and brazenly violating the treaty. They've not been
providing the water. They are right now in this five
year period, one point three million acre feet in arrears
(32:50):
water they have not provided that they've committed by treaty
to provide. Now, what are they doing. They're diverting that
water that should go to South Texas farmers under the
treaty Mexican farmers, and a couple of things are happening.
So in South Texas there is a massive drought going on.
It is doing enormous damage to farmers. And when I
(33:11):
spent a lot of time in South Texas and the
damage to farmers, we're seeing a lot of South Texas
farmers that are taking half of their acreage out of production.
They're shutting down half of their.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Farms just because they don't have the water to do
it right.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
They're laying off thousands of workers. So there was one
sugar mill in all of Texas last year. It shut
down because of water, and it shut down because the
sugar farmers did not have the water to raise the
sugar wow And it's gone.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
And Mexico on the other side of green as can be.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
It is green as can be. The Mexican farmers are prospering.
They're literally stealing our water. And by the way, like
President Trump talks a lot about foreign countries taking advantage
of America.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
It's a great example.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
This is this is literally the Mexican government stealing our water.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
And did Joe Biden do anything to stop this? Zero
And he knew about it.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
So he knew about it. So I've engaged this issue.
I engaged. I started engaging about two years ago. And
I started engaging when I was down in South Texas
and I did a roundtaal with farmers and they raised
this issue to me. And two years ago, I didn't
know what the water Tree of nineteen forty four was,
and they explained it to me. And at the time
they were really worried, we're going to lose our sugar
(34:28):
mill if this doesn't change. And I said, look, I
think I can help. I'm going to lean in. And
I began leaning in aggressively. I forced a vote on
the Senate floor on an amendment to direct the state
Department to use every lever point we have to force
Mexico to comply with a water treaty. I got a
majority of the senator, bipartisan majority. And then there's a
(34:52):
water commissioner for the United States. I like leaned in
with the water commissioner said, look, the senators spoken a
bipartisan majority, and here's the fundamental problem. Joe Biden didn't
give a damn about this. So I desperately tried to
get the Biden administration to exert leverage, and they just
didn't care.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Now, by the way, leverage for Donald Trump at this
point was him saying, hey, I'm coming after you with
with tariffs or sanctions, so do the right thing now
before I have to do that, and they know he
means it, Unlike even if you had that same statement
from Joe Biden, he ain't gonna do anything.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
So in South Texas, cities are also facing massive drought.
You're literally facing the cities not having enough water for
their citizens because Mexico's stealing the water. And so I
leaned in. I could not get the Biden's administration do
a damn thing. In December, as part of the Continuing Resolution,
I authored legislation that got adopted that provided two hundred
(35:45):
and eighty million dollars in emergency relief for Texas farmers
because they're they're going broke. And we're talking about generational farms,
farms that have been three or four generations, who were
being bankrupted because their government is not enforcing the treaty
and their being starved to water. And so several weeks
ago I went down to South Texas with Brook Rawlins.
(36:06):
Brook Rollins is the Secretary of Agriculture. Brook has been
a good friend of mine for twenty five years. She's
a Texan. She's the first Texan in the history of
the country to be the Secretary of Agriculture. She's also
the first Secretary of Agriculture ever to go to the
Rio Grand Valley.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
And she came to the valley at my request. I
asked her come down with me, and we did. We
did a press conference number one where she announced, I've
got two hundred and eighty million dollars I'm giving the
South Texas farmers because your federal government has been screwing
you by not getting the water back and Mexico is
starving you. But we also did a roundtable. We did
a round table with farmers where Brook and I talked
(36:46):
with the farmers. And the Rio Grand Valley has been
bright blue for one hundred years. In twenty twenty four,
the Rio Grand Valley flipped red. I won the valley
and Donald Trump won the valley. That has never happened.
I won Hispanic statewide in Texas by six points. That's
(37:08):
never happened. I have spent an enormous amount of time
and millions of dollars in the valley trying to flip
the valley red because I saw the potential there and
so I think I've invested more than any elected official
in Texas in terms of turning the valley red. Well,
I got to say, sitting there at that roundtable, you
got farmers and ranchers and you're just asking them, look
(37:29):
over the last four years, did Joe Biden do a
damn thing for you?
Speaker 1 (37:34):
No? And that's how that's how you turn this.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
And what I told them as I said, listen, if
there's one thing you know about Donald Trump, he will
stand up to foreign countries and fight for you. And
I made that commitment. And frankly, look, these are voters
who their entire lives have voted Democrats. Their parents voted Democrat,
their grandparents voted Democrat, their great grand parents voted Democrat.
(38:01):
And this last election, for the first time, they pulled
the lever for a Republican going down there and saying, look,
we're fighting for you, We're gonna get you. The damn
water is one of the ways you lock those votes.
And it's a generational shift for Texas.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
By the way, this is the first time for Verdict.
They've just opened the vote. They're only keeping it over
for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
So I'm gonna go momentario.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
You're gonna go momentarily, which means actually it's about twelve
minutes because I'm a couple of minutes behind. This is real.
This is why I love doing Verdict, because this is
how it really works. And in Sandy in the.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Senate, So I will say this. I called President Trump
a week ago and I said, miss President, would make
a huge difference if you leaned in personally with the
President of Mexico and said, provide.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Us the water. Yeah, knock it off.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
And he said, I'll tell you what. I'll send a
truth social post. And so I worked with them on
the wording of it, and tonight when I was in
the Oval, I said, miss President, and you send that
truth post.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
He sent it tonight. I'm going to read it to you.
Here's what President Trump sent this evening. Mexico owes Texas
one point three million acre feet of water under the
nineteen forty four Water Treaty. But Mexico is unfortunately violating
their treaty obligation. This is very unfair and it is
(39:22):
hurting South Texas farmers very badly. Last year, the only
sugar mill in Texas closed because Mexico has been stealing
the water from Texas farmers. Ted Cruz has been leading
the fight to get South Texas the water it is owed,
but Sleepy Joe refused to lift a finger to help
(39:46):
the farmers. This ends now. I will make sure that
Mexico doesn't violate our treaties and doesn't hurt our Texas farmers.
Just last month, I halted water shipments to Tijuana until
Mexico complies with the nineteen forty four water Treaty. My
(40:08):
Agriculture Secretary Brook Rawlins is standing up for Texas farmers,
and we will keep escalating consequences, including teriffs and maybe
even sanctions, until Mexico honors the treaty and gives Texas
the water they are owed and gives Texas the water
(40:30):
they are owed. Is an all caps there you go.
That tweet got sent out tonight. I'll tell you in
just within an hour of that tweet going out, the
President of Mexico is sent out of tweet saying we're
gonna fix this. We're gonna fix this, and the Mexican
government is freaking out. That's what it looks like. The
later President who is fighting for America. Joe Biden could
(40:51):
have done that for four years, but he didn't give
a flip about farmers in South Texas going out of business.
The President's tweet, and I can tell you Mexico is
in the process now negotiating with the state department to
provide for the water. We're gonna get the water. And
that's a great that's a greatreat victory for Texas in America.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Go vote. You're on the clock now. I love it.
Don't forget me to show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Sometimes it's
like one in the morning. You're gonna run and vote
right now. We'll see you back here on what is today? Thursday, Wednesday?
What is today? It's just they're all running together. Now.
Today's Thursday, Thursday. So this is Friday, so the beat
that the weekend review will be on Saturday. So there
you go, which isn't like a day. If you're looking
when we're recording this, we'll see you. Then share this
(41:31):
wherever you are on social media, and we'll see you
back here on Saturday.
Welcome. In his verdict was Centater Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
with you and Senator it was a very exciting day.
You spent some time with the President today in the
Oval office. Even got a nice little challenge coin as well.
So I did.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I spent about two hours in the Oval with President
Trump today and today was a very significant day. So
let's start. Yesterday was a phenomenal day. Yesterday President Trump
paused the tariffs that he announced last week on April second,
and at the same time, he jacked up the tariffs
(00:37):
on China. The combination of those activities produced the greatest
single day increase in the stock market in the history
of the United States of America. Now, this week, I've
spent a lot of time talking to President Trump. We're
gonna break that down. We're gonna talk about the impacts
of that. We're gonna talk about the backstory of why
(00:59):
the press did that and what to expect next. We're
also going to talk about something the President did this evening.
You and I are talking. It is right now, twelve
twenty five am, Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
And we're in the same place. This usually doesn't happen.
We're in the same time zone. Right now, we're both
in DC.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Why are we in DC because in a half hour
I'm going to the Senate floor. We have votes starting
at one am. So the Democrats are so angry, they
hate Trump so much that they are blocking the nomination
for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And
so look, I'm going to commend Republicans of the Senate.
(01:40):
We're saying, all right, screw you, because they are objecting
they could delay the vote until tomorrow. Tomorrow's now today
because it's past midnight yep. So we're like, fine, we'll
do this hang out tomorrow. So hour, let's go. By
the way, if the Democrats had agreed, we could have
left at like six pm on Thursday. But no, they're
gonna drag all one hundred senators to the floor at
(02:03):
one in the morning. By the way, we've got senators
in their eighties, we've got senators in their nineties.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
I do not envy the guy who has that job
to wake up the center, because you know they're asleep.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, look that this is where it helps being in
night owl. To be honest, I'm much happier doing a
one am vote than if they did a six am vote,
I'd be really pissed because because I, as you.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Know, believe you. I've seen you in the morning.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
But but by the way, I will say this, so
so you and I record the pod. We record it
often ten pm or eleven pm.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Let's keep going on midnight. There we go. Now we're
getting into reality.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
That's much more so the pod two days ago we
finished at two thirty in the morning. Yes, and I
will say, I'm glad you used to do a morning
radio show. What time do your morning radio show?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Seven am is when it started. I had to be
up in like up and at them. Thank the Lord,
I don't do what you had to be awake to
be awake coffee. I had to know what was going on,
like I mean it would be educated.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
You had to presumably say something like charming and funny
and if someone's going to listen to you for two hours.
And I got to say when I was keeping up
till two and three in the morning and you were
getting up at six six thirty, I actually felt an
enormous degree of guilt. I'm like, I'm killing Ben.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yes, you were, you were on your way. It was
the easiest way to get rid of me.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I don't want to kill you, Ben, I appreciate it.
I want to give you a grief and abuse you,
but I don't want you dead. I just just just
want you being roudly made fun of.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
And there's a reason why they took me off that
show one day. There's a reason.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
And your boss in the Iheartworld, Julie, she said, all right, Ben,
I'm sparing you from the Morning Show because we've decided
that a dead Ben would be a bad thing.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
That is how I know that my life is valued
on this earth. Right now, there you go.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
So tonight, also Donald Trump leaned in and engaged on
an issue that may sound esoteric, but it's actually a
big deal, which is Mexican water. Mexico has been stealing
massive amounts of water from Texas. This is an issue
I've been leading the fight on a very long time,
(04:15):
and it's had an enormously harmful impact on Texas farmers.
I've been leading the fight against it, and tonight the President,
at my behest, leaned in vigorously and said, Mexico, you
will provide the water that you have committed by treaty
to provide, or else They're going to be very serious penalties, tariffs,
(04:38):
and sanctions. It's a big deal, and I will use
those two words he did. As you and I are
sitting here at twelve twenty five am. The Mexican government
is freaking out, and you know what's going to happen.
They're going to provide the farmers of South Texas the water.
I'm going to walk you through the backstory of that.
It is fascinating in terms of how international diplomacy has
(04:59):
played out and the advantage of a strong president who
actually fights for America versus the incredibly weak and effective
president we had for the last four years.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Yeah, it's a really cool story. We'll talk about that. Plus,
just like what happens in the Oval, the trinkets, the
trinkets are impressive. We'll tell you about that in the moment.
I want to tell you, though, real quick, about the
International Fellowship of Christians and Jews because of amazing people
just like you. We are standing with the people in
Israel right now who are still under attack. Missile file
(05:29):
fire has resumed from Israel's enemies. Terrorists who seek utter
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You really can't imagine what it would be like to
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And that's why I'm asking to join me and show
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(05:50):
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(06:12):
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eight for eight eight IFCJ. That's eight eight eight four
(06:36):
eight eight IFCJ or online it support IFCJ dot org.
That's one word support, IFCJ dot org. All right, so
let's just start with a little bit of color here.
I gotta say one of the most fun things about
going to the Oval Office is Donald Trump loves having guests, Yes,
(06:59):
and the swag that you leave with is just the
most incredible level of swag. And he pays for it
out of his own pocket.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
He does.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
It's not the taxpayers. So when I went in the
first time, it was in the last and forty five
in those years, and they asked if I would come
up for Stay the Union and prep and that, and
I was there the day to Stay of the Union
and at the end he's like Ferguson, He's like, I know,
you got three boys at home. What do you need?
And I'm like, miss President whatever, you know, if you'd sign,
He's like, no, no, come over here, and he walks you
(07:29):
around the corner into the room. He has this like
full swag room, and he's like three different hats of
boys signs him. He's like, now one of your son
plays golf. He signs a pro V one ball fromhim.
He gives me another sleeve, then he gives me a
golf towel and then he's like and you're laughing because
you're in the Oval Office and you're like, I'm going
to walk out of here.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
With all this stuff to be fair, you're not in
the oval.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Well, no, you're outside of it, but you walk back in.
You're like holding all this stuff in the open.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
You're in the little office next to the open, yes,
where the swagroom is. And what happened in that little room.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Which is one of his favorite stories. He's like, you
you know where you are right now?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Twenty five years Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
He's like, you know where you are right now? And
I'm like, where am I? Right?
Speaker 2 (08:07):
This is where Monica Lewinsky.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Did not have sex with that man?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
But shall we say?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I don't know, I can't probably I think I did
it perfectly there.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I'm trying to find a way.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
To say this, Yeah, and this did not have sexual
relations with that woman quote unquote, but may have.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
But it's also where the blue dress got sullied.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
There you go, that's a great way of putting it.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
And it would be in that room and you kind
of look around and it's sort of little, and it's
now filled with if you can imagine the uh.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Make America great again? Hats the forty forty five dash
forty seven. I mean it's it's it's legit.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
And he has all these shells full of swag, and
he like says, hey, what do you want?
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Take wherever you want. And by the way, there's nothing
in there that you can buy, so I it's either
from there or you don't like it's not.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
And he just does that and he pays for it
all like he's out of his like it's he's paying
for it himself. But he's like, what do you want?
You want? Like they had gigantic maga hats that are
like twice the size of the normal head.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
The one that Elon Musk wore that kind of made
it famous. A lot of people re memory put it on.
He was like, so he actually pointed that out. So
that's the one Elon wears.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, so, and it's got all this stuff he's got.
It's cool stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
So and by the way, the VIP gift is what
I was told, which I think we can confirm is true,
is a is the cup links. So he looked at me,
he's like, Ferguson, you need this, can't buy these anywhere,
and he hands them to me. It was like, it's
presidential cuplinks. They're amazing. I still have in this day.
You've got a pair now as.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Well, So I do, and I've had a couple of
presidential cufflings in the past. Yeah, but these are the
coolest that. These are really damn cool. And I will
say his challenge coins. So in the military and in
law enforcement, people carry challenge coins, typically about the size
of a silver dollar. And so if you come to
my office, you've been to my office. I have one
entire display of military challenge coins and I probably got
(10:09):
I don't know, two hundred of them. That is, I've
traveled the world.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
They give them to you, they get awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, and then I have another display of law enforcement
challenge coins, so police officers, law enforcement. And so the
two are ones behind my desk, the military is behind
my desk, and the other is on the other end
of my office, like kind of across my desk. So
they're normally about the size of a silver dollar. Trump
(10:33):
this evening gave me two challenge coins. And his challenge
coins are literally three hundred percent the size of it.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
It is like the size of the tariff you put
on Chinese go.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
It's the size of a pancake.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, it's a it's a coast.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
It's a coaster, that's exactly. And he is one that's
sort of gold and fancy, and then he's another that
is gun metal, and he said, actually these are more
popular because it's like military gun medal and it President
of the United States and a really cool coin.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I love it. That's the fun part about it. And
you were there, by the way for something that was
not making big headlines, but it deals with crypto and
we're going to talk about this in another pod. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
No, that's exactly right. I was there for a bill signing,
so legislation that I introduced to repeal an incredibly abusive
regulation from the Biden administration that harmed the crypto industry,
and I got it passed through Congress. The President signed
it in the law, and so I've been there for
a number of bill signings of legislation I've passed. But
it's always cool because you're passing legislation, the President signed
(11:31):
it and suddenly becomes law.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Did you get to keep the pen loves giving away
the Sharpie?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yes, And it's not a sharpie. It is much like
the Challenge coin.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
It's huge.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
It is huge. It is probably three hundred percent the
size of a shark.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Yeah, it's like oversized. So when he signed my boys hats.
He goes, here's the pin. Take the pen home, and
I still have the pen at my desk. It's like
it's got the and it's got the Trump gold signature
on the side. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
So so I'll end up in my office framing that
signing pen because it's legislation that I passed, the truly
significant And in my office I have a bunch of
different pieces of legislation signed and a number of them
are signed, are framed with the signing pens. So I
was there for that. But look, a couple of things. One,
we talked a lot about tariffs, and let's rewind two
(12:16):
days ago. Yep, so we have talked in this last week.
We've had two podcasts entirely devoted to the Trump tariffs.
We had won our Friday podcast right after the tariffs
came out, one hundred percent of the podcast was on
the tariffs. And then our Monday podcast, we talked about
two competing camps in the Trump administration. We talked about
(12:37):
angels and devils that were on President Trump's soldiers shoulders.
The angels were urging the president use the leverage of
the tariffs you've announced to fight for lower tariffs. Across
the world to expand market access for America. I emphatically
agree with that side the devils, and there are voices
(12:58):
in the administration they want to see massive tariffs in
perpetuity from America and every other country. I think that's
a terrible outcome. So we did Monday's podcast. We did
a deep dive on that. So I will tell you
you and I are sitting here Thursday night. Tuesday night,
I spent an hour on the phone with President Trump
(13:18):
and I had several other senators there and we were
urging him. What I was saying is, listen, the market
is in free fall. That's dangerous. People are freaking out.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And my advice to him, and I said, I did
Hannity Tuesday night, and so I said this on Hannity,
So this is not secret advice. I said it on
Fox News to the whole country. I said, my advice
is cut a deal now. Pick one or two countries.
Cut a deal now. I don't care what countries they are.
Pickure one, pick two, and cut a deal where they
slash their terraffs massively and we slash our terrafts massively.
(13:54):
I said, I think that will calm the market down enormously.
That will assuage people that we are headed to world
which much with much lower tariffs, which, by the way,
as I told him, if thirty days, sixty days, ninety
days from now, we have a world where every country
on Earth has massively lower tariffs and American farmers and
(14:14):
ranchers and small businesses and manufacturers were able to export
all over the world, that will be an historic win,
like an unprecedented win for American workers and American jobs.
So that's what I'm urging him. We spent an hour
on the phone, and I got to say, look, President Trump,
sometimes when you're urging him to do something, he can
(14:34):
push back, and in that call, he was kind of
pushing back and popping back, and he's saying, look, these
tariffs are great. We're raising a ton of money. What's
the problem. Spend an hour. But then on Wednesday, the
President put out an announcement at lunchtime, and his announcement
was twofold. Number one, he said he was pausing all
(14:57):
of the reciprocal tariffs he had announced on April s second.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
For ninety days. For ninety days, which is enough time
to get deals done.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And number two, he said he was jacking up the
tariffs on China even more. He said to one hundred
and twenty five thousand others, it's actually one hundred and
twenty five percent, But it's actually one hundred and forty
five percent because there's an additional twenty percent that he
had announced as a penalty for their role in fentanyl
smuggling into this country. Yep, So the total tariffs against
(15:25):
China are one hundred and forty five percent now he
announced that. I'll tell you. On Wednesday, I was in
the Senate Republican lunch. All the Senate Senate Republican senators,
we have lunch together every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The
middle of the lunch, Rick Scott, who hosts the Wednesday lunch,
Rick got looked at his phone and announced, Hey, the
President's just paused all the teriffs and increased the tariffs
(15:46):
on China. There wasn't exactly a round of applause, but close,
pretty damn close. There was literally there was a relief,
and yes, a palpable sense of relief. And what is
striking is the market within minutes exploded and stocks sored up.
(16:08):
So tonight, when I was in the Oval, I said,
Miss President, as a result of your decision yesterday, you
produced the single largest increase in the stock market in
one day in the history of the United States of America.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
That's a good day.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
That is a massive day. And so I will say
the pause is important. I hope over these next ninety days,
I hope what we see is, as we talked about
on Monday's pod, there are two paths, massively reducing tariffs
for everyone or keeping tariffs in perpetuity. Over the next
ninety days, I hope we see announcement after announcement after
(16:47):
announcement of our trading partners, all of whom would come
running to President Trump saying we want to cut a deal.
And to be clear, none of this would have happened
without the April second announcement, none of it.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Well, he's got beset by the way. He said this
at the White House when they announced this, he walked
out and he said, this is all about leverage, which
is what the President said, Take a listen. President's decision.
There was a president's decision to wait until today.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And again, as I've said in the past, no one
creates a leverage for himself like President Trump.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
And he said that by the way, at the point
when the Dow was up two thousand points, right, So
he just announced it walks out there, and then Caroline
Levitt also was a reminder like, hey, we're letting the
rest of the world off the hook, but when it
comes to China, we're not. She said, this is the
same press conference, And.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
As you all know, the President just put out a
statement announcing an additional tariff on China. The tariff on
China will now go up to one hundred and twenty
five percent because China imprudently decided to retaliate against the
United States. And as I said at the podium yesterday,
when you punch at the United States of America, President
Trump is going to punch back harder. In that same vein,
we have had more than seventy five countries from around
(17:59):
the world to reach out to President Trump and his
team here at the White House to negotiate better trade
deals for the American worker. We have been overwhelmed with
the amount of request for countries around the world. I'll
let the Secretary speak to that. We will continue with
the tailor made negotiations that I spoke about yesterday. In
the meantime, there will be a ninety day pause on
the reciprocal tariffs as these negotiations are ongoing, and the
(18:21):
tariff level will be brought down to a universal ten
percent tariff.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I mean, you listen to them, and I think it's
pretty clear.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
By the way, I will say this, Caroline Levitt, I
know really well. Yeah, she's a good friend. So Caroline
ran for Congress in New Hampshire, and she was running
for Congress, if I remember correctly, she was twenty five
years old.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
And by the way, the constitution the minimum age for
member Congress is twenty five years old.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Yep. So she was on the House side. Yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Member Congress is twenty five, a senator is thirty, and
the president must be thirty five. That's what the Constitution
lays out. So Caroline was running in New Hamphire. As
you know, I raised a ton of money for Carolina yep.
I believe, if I remember correctly, north of one hundred
thousand dollars to support her campaign, and I flew to
New Hampshire and campaigned with her. She was a great president.
(19:13):
And by the way, I told the President that tonight,
I said, look, she's she's kicking ass as your press secretary.
But she was a fabulous and the coolest part. We
did a huge rally and she rocked it and it
was a lot of energy and excitement. And then we
went afterwards to a bar I think it was a
VFW bar if I remember correctly, and there were like
several hundred mostly veterans, and we were having a beer
(19:35):
with them and they loved her. It was really cool.
It was like a fun It was after the event,
hanging out having a beer with a bunch of New
Hampshire veterans and it was like a great moment. Now
she ended up she won the primary. She did not
win the general, although I pointed out to her tonight
I said, look, that didn't work out even though you
were a great candidate. But I said, you know what,
(19:57):
you'd rather do the job you have now than being biggest.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Blessing in disguise, because she would have done that job.
She would be the pres secretary right now. It's amazing
how those things happen in your life when you're like,
you want things so bad and then you don't get it,
and then you're like, man, if I would have gotten that,
where would I look at what I would have.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Missed, you know the country western song some of God's
greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
There have been multiple steps in my life where I
desperately wanted something I didn't get it. I was crestfallen.
I was frustrated. I used to keep all right, this
is going to be sort of a weird admission. When
I was in high school and college, I literally kept
a file folder. And by the way, for all of
you under thirty, you don't know what a file folder is.
But I had like a file cabinet with a folder.
(20:43):
You know what it was called what failures?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
How many were in there?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
A lot? Okay, So look, I was someone I tried
for things. I applied for things. I wanted to be
a Rhodes scholar. I applied for the Rhodes scholarship. I
didn't get it. I was really I was like, damn,
I'd really like to be a road schott or I'm
pissed I didn't get it. But all right, I think
it's tenth grade. Okay, this is.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I'm I'm sort of embarrassed. Like you guys know, Ben's
a jock. He was like a cool kid, and like,
you know.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I tried hard. I tried hard, though it be fair.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Is a tennis player really a job?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Well, you know it's it's a sort of sec it's
not CC.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
It is like a tennis player. You're wearing like a
white eyes on.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Like it's not good swag. We had some. We had
some nice Nike swag like they we did it right.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I'm just saying you were ball.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
It's not basketball. It's not baseball. I'll give you that.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
I will keep you dunk.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
No, I cannot dunk.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I played hoops with you.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
I knew the dw Yeah, I cannot. But I wasn't
going for Rhodes collar. I can promise you that. And
I didn't have a briefcase. You had a briefcase. That's
what we're really getting in.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
No, I didn't have a briefcase. I'm sorry. I'm not
Alex P. Keaton, which no one knows who that was
Michael J. Fox and Family.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Ties amazing show.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
But all right. So in tenth grade, I was sitting
there in class with my classmates and they were talking
about like applying to a scholarship, and several of my
classmates said, well, no, no, I'm not going to apply, and
I said, well why not? And they said, well, if
I apply, I might get rejected and I don't want
(22:21):
to fail, so I'm not.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Going to do it. And you're like, screw that. I'm
going for all of it.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
And I wrote a poem in tenth grade which I
don't have, but I'm going to try to remember it.
I don't know that I can remember it exactly. But
imagine a dreamer walking off a cliff with hopes and aspirations.
Many would say his steps were foolish, and yet all
(22:53):
the great inventors, discoverers, and achievers would say nothing ventured,
nothing gained. And here's another element to complicate the matter.
What if the walker learned to fly? And this is me,
(23:15):
as a geeky fifteen year old writing a poem.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Writing who inspired me? Like that was before chat GBT,
So you didn't even steal it from anybody.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Like you don't have a cliff, you ain't grown wings,
fair point. And so I literally had a whole folder
of failures things I tried to do that that I
did not accomplish. But if you are are to use
another great hero of mine, Teddy Roosevelt, Yeah, you know,
tr gave a great commencement speech about being in the arena,
the man who is marred by blood and sweat and
(23:48):
mud in the arena and not one of those cold
and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat norfeat
And so I forget where I'm going on this.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
No, you're you're talking about Carol. I love it. Failing
at the going for Congress a blessing, and now it's
the biggest thing in her life. So you're saying, count
your failures because they can't be your blessings later in life.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
If you have no failures, you've done nothing.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
I just want to prove that right now. It to
my wife. How good of a listener I am, because
I just saved that whole story right there. I just
want credit for that moment. Anyway, continue, Is she gonna
buy that? I don't know. We'll see if she listens
to the show, because I just if she If she
doesn't listen, we're both gonna know.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Well. Look, I will say what happened on tariffs Wednesday
was a massive day Number one for the market and
and and for a huge surge, but number two the
ninety days, we have an opportunity. This is not hyperbole.
President Trump could achieve the greatest victory for jobs and
(25:02):
economic growth, certainly in our lifetimes and maybe in the
history of America.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Now well, and you reap between the tea leaves here
like there does seem to be a strategy here, and
this is some of the genius I do have to
think of that. I give credit for that. A lot
of people miss on President Trump. It seems like he's saying, hey,
rest of the world, I want to get along with you.
I'm going to bust China. They're taking advantage of us.
They're still in their intellectual property. It's a national security issue.
(25:30):
We witness what we witness during COVID with them as
a nation. I want everybody else to succeed, and we're
going to make sure they don't have all of this
leverage over not just US, but other partners in the world.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yes, but look, the two things I've been urging President
Trump for a long time on trade to focus on
are Number One, focus on China. I am all four
pounding the living daylights out of China. You know, when
I arrived in the Senate thirteen years ago, what I
said then is China poses the single largest geopolitical threat
(26:02):
to the United States over the next one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Now, Ben, when I arrived, that was a lonely voice.
Almost nobody agreed with me. Every Democrat had disagreed with me,
and most of the Republicans disagreed with me. They looked
at China and they saw nothing but dollar signs as
far as the eye could see. Now the world has changed.
I think a lot more people have opened their eyes
to the danger, to the peril. China is fighting a
(26:28):
thousand year war against the United States, and that's.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Not hyperbole, and that's really how they look at it.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
And everything we can do to delink our economy from
China is a good step. So I've urged President Trump,
you can't focus on China too much. The more you
can bring jobs out of China, the more you can
bring our critical infrastructure out of China, the more you
can bring pharmaceuticals out of China, the more you can
bring semiconductors out of China. Everything we depend upon. China
(26:58):
is coming after us.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
This is national security things we depend on.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
It is national security, is economic security. This is a
fundamental battle. So I am all for focusing on China.
But the other principal reciprocity. Look, I don't want to
be overly optimistic. As we mentioned on Monday's podcast, and
you want to go back and listen to it about
angels and devils. There are really vocal and outspoken voices
(27:25):
in the administration who don't want the President to lower
tariffs in other countries. They want tariffs to be high
and there forever, and they want the revenue. Look, tariffs
are producing about two and a half a billion dollars
a day in revenues. Now, the point I made to
the President, where are those revenues coming from tariffs? Are taxes?
(27:48):
They're coming from American consumers. So yes, it's producing a
lot of money. But I would much rather lower the
various to other countries and let our farmers and ranchers
and small businesses and manufacturers' work the hell out of it,
because I think American businesses can beat every company on
Earth if there's a fair playing field. If most of
(28:09):
the countries we trade with there's not a fair playing field,
and so this opportunity and listen, President Trump's negotiation strategy
is in some way simple. He walks up to people,
he smacks him in the head, with a two by four.
I think he backs up and negotiates from that. Yeah,
and it has proven to be an incredibly effective negotiation strategy.
(28:33):
So I will say I'm really, really glad about Wednesday's
pause announcement. It produces I noted, the biggest single day
increase in the stock market in history, and I hope
the next ninety days we will see deal after deal
after deal, slashing tariffs and opening markets to American producer.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying something like that in
the cabinet meeting when he said this about the president.
And also he said which I think was interesting. He said,
and I'm going to quote him, he said, one of
the most important things you'll achieve in your presidency is
reordering the world in a proper way. For more than
thirty one years, multiple administrations have allowed the Chinese to
(29:13):
de industrialize this country, to take away jobs and factories
and pillars of our national strength. Like this is from
a Secretary of State who's saying, this is the ballgame, yes,
and then National Security is saying this is the ballgame.
And then producers are saying this is the ballgame. And
American workers are saying this is the ballgame. I've never
(29:35):
seen a moment politically where so many different factions are
all seen to be aligned and understanding this threat, which
it's in fact is China. And so you look at
the next ninety days, it's very important and there's got
to be deals done. When do you think will start
to see deals and momentum because it's all about momentum, right,
(29:55):
you get one with Vietnam, or you get one with Taiwan,
or you get one with Malaysia or India wherever it is, right,
and you start going country by country, when will we
start see that because that's what the market's now looking for. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Look, so what I urged the president Tuesday night is
negotiate a deal fast. I said, I don't care what country,
just get one on those books, get one and have
it be a massive reduction on both sides because that
will assuage people. Okay, this is the path we're going down.
When you have seventy plus countries that are seeking negotiate deals,
(30:26):
that takes a little bit of time. That's complicated. Yes,
and so I really like the ninety day pause because
it gives you ninety days to negotiate deals. And so
I hope in the next ninety days we see deal
after deal after deal, and I think it'll build momentum.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
So you think in weeks will start see the first ones.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
I don't know. I don't know if it'll be weeks
or thirty to sixty days. I don't know how long
it takes.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
The ninety days gives us time to do it right.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Ninety days gives us time to do it right. And
I have a high level of confidence than in the
next ninety days we will see a bunch of them.
How quickly given the ninety day pause, there's not the urgency.
What I was urging, what I said on Hannity is
do it now, don't wait a week like do it tomorrow,
because frankly, the market's freaking out and you don't want
(31:18):
people's for one case.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
To go to crap.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
And so I think think there was real value to
moving quickly. The pause essentially buys you time to then
negotiate the deals, and I hope that's what they're going
to do.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
All right before you go to this vote at one
o'clock in the morning. Not a joke. I want to
ask you about this other I would just say insane
news because I can't believe they've been allowed to do
it for so long. And that is that is Mexico
stealing water, which is suffocating farmers. Yep. Specifically it's happening
(31:56):
in Texas and it's it's making farming industry collapse and
farmers disappearing from areas because there is no water.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So let me give you the background, because this is
a really important issue. It's important in Texas, but it's
important to the country, which is there's a water treaty
that we signed with Mexico in nineteen forty four, the
Mexican Water Treaty of nineteen forty four. It obligates Mexico
to provide three hundred and fifty thousand acre feet of
water a year to South Texas. That's over a five
(32:28):
year period. Okay, for the last five years, Mexico has
been openly and brazenly violating the treaty. They've not been
providing the water. They are right now in this five
year period, one point three million acre feet in arrears
(32:50):
water they have not provided that they've committed by treaty
to provide. Now, what are they doing. They're diverting that
water that should go to South Texas farmers under the
treaty Mexican farmers, and a couple of things are happening.
So in South Texas there is a massive drought going on.
It is doing enormous damage to farmers. And when I
(33:11):
spent a lot of time in South Texas and the
damage to farmers, we're seeing a lot of South Texas
farmers that are taking half of their acreage out of production.
They're shutting down half of their.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Farms just because they don't have the water to do
it right.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
They're laying off thousands of workers. So there was one
sugar mill in all of Texas last year. It shut
down because of water, and it shut down because the
sugar farmers did not have the water to raise the
sugar wow And it's gone.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
And Mexico on the other side of green as can be.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
It is green as can be. The Mexican farmers are prospering.
They're literally stealing our water. And by the way, like
President Trump talks a lot about foreign countries taking advantage
of America.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
It's a great example.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
This is this is literally the Mexican government stealing our water.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
And did Joe Biden do anything to stop this? Zero
And he knew about it.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
So he knew about it. So I've engaged this issue.
I engaged. I started engaging about two years ago. And
I started engaging when I was down in South Texas
and I did a roundtaal with farmers and they raised
this issue to me. And two years ago, I didn't
know what the water Tree of nineteen forty four was,
and they explained it to me. And at the time
they were really worried, we're going to lose our sugar
(34:28):
mill if this doesn't change. And I said, look, I
think I can help. I'm going to lean in. And
I began leaning in aggressively. I forced a vote on
the Senate floor on an amendment to direct the state
Department to use every lever point we have to force
Mexico to comply with a water treaty. I got a
majority of the senator, bipartisan majority. And then there's a
(34:52):
water commissioner for the United States. I like leaned in
with the water commissioner said, look, the senators spoken a
bipartisan majority, and here's the fundamental problem. Joe Biden didn't
give a damn about this. So I desperately tried to
get the Biden administration to exert leverage, and they just
didn't care.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Now, by the way, leverage for Donald Trump at this
point was him saying, hey, I'm coming after you with
with tariffs or sanctions, so do the right thing now
before I have to do that, and they know he
means it, Unlike even if you had that same statement
from Joe Biden, he ain't gonna do anything.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
So in South Texas, cities are also facing massive drought.
You're literally facing the cities not having enough water for
their citizens because Mexico's stealing the water. And so I
leaned in. I could not get the Biden's administration do
a damn thing. In December, as part of the Continuing Resolution,
I authored legislation that got adopted that provided two hundred
(35:45):
and eighty million dollars in emergency relief for Texas farmers
because they're they're going broke. And we're talking about generational farms,
farms that have been three or four generations, who were
being bankrupted because their government is not enforcing the treaty
and their being starved to water. And so several weeks
ago I went down to South Texas with Brook Rawlins.
(36:06):
Brook Rollins is the Secretary of Agriculture. Brook has been
a good friend of mine for twenty five years. She's
a Texan. She's the first Texan in the history of
the country to be the Secretary of Agriculture. She's also
the first Secretary of Agriculture ever to go to the
Rio Grand Valley.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
And she came to the valley at my request. I
asked her come down with me, and we did. We
did a press conference number one where she announced, I've
got two hundred and eighty million dollars I'm giving the
South Texas farmers because your federal government has been screwing
you by not getting the water back and Mexico is
starving you. But we also did a roundtable. We did
a round table with farmers where Brook and I talked
(36:46):
with the farmers. And the Rio Grand Valley has been
bright blue for one hundred years. In twenty twenty four,
the Rio Grand Valley flipped red. I won the valley
and Donald Trump won the valley. That has never happened.
I won Hispanic statewide in Texas by six points. That's
(37:08):
never happened. I have spent an enormous amount of time
and millions of dollars in the valley trying to flip
the valley red because I saw the potential there and
so I think I've invested more than any elected official
in Texas in terms of turning the valley red. Well,
I got to say, sitting there at that roundtable, you
got farmers and ranchers and you're just asking them, look
(37:29):
over the last four years, did Joe Biden do a
damn thing for you?
Speaker 1 (37:34):
No? And that's how that's how you turn this.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
And what I told them as I said, listen, if
there's one thing you know about Donald Trump, he will
stand up to foreign countries and fight for you. And
I made that commitment. And frankly, look, these are voters
who their entire lives have voted Democrats. Their parents voted Democrat,
their grandparents voted Democrat, their great grand parents voted Democrat.
(38:01):
And this last election, for the first time, they pulled
the lever for a Republican going down there and saying, look,
we're fighting for you, We're gonna get you. The damn
water is one of the ways you lock those votes.
And it's a generational shift for Texas.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
By the way, this is the first time for Verdict.
They've just opened the vote. They're only keeping it over
for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
So I'm gonna go momentario.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
You're gonna go momentarily, which means actually it's about twelve
minutes because I'm a couple of minutes behind. This is real.
This is why I love doing Verdict, because this is
how it really works. And in Sandy in the.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Senate, So I will say this. I called President Trump
a week ago and I said, miss President, would make
a huge difference if you leaned in personally with the
President of Mexico and said, provide.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Us the water. Yeah, knock it off.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
And he said, I'll tell you what. I'll send a
truth social post. And so I worked with them on
the wording of it, and tonight when I was in
the Oval, I said, miss President, and you send that
truth post.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
He sent it tonight. I'm going to read it to you.
Here's what President Trump sent this evening. Mexico owes Texas
one point three million acre feet of water under the
nineteen forty four Water Treaty. But Mexico is unfortunately violating
their treaty obligation. This is very unfair and it is
(39:22):
hurting South Texas farmers very badly. Last year, the only
sugar mill in Texas closed because Mexico has been stealing
the water from Texas farmers. Ted Cruz has been leading
the fight to get South Texas the water it is owed,
but Sleepy Joe refused to lift a finger to help
(39:46):
the farmers. This ends now. I will make sure that
Mexico doesn't violate our treaties and doesn't hurt our Texas farmers.
Just last month, I halted water shipments to Tijuana until
Mexico complies with the nineteen forty four water Treaty. My
(40:08):
Agriculture Secretary Brook Rawlins is standing up for Texas farmers,
and we will keep escalating consequences, including teriffs and maybe
even sanctions, until Mexico honors the treaty and gives Texas
the water they are owed and gives Texas the water
(40:30):
they are owed. Is an all caps there you go.
That tweet got sent out tonight. I'll tell you in
just within an hour of that tweet going out, the
President of Mexico is sent out of tweet saying we're
gonna fix this. We're gonna fix this, and the Mexican
government is freaking out. That's what it looks like. The
later President who is fighting for America. Joe Biden could
(40:51):
have done that for four years, but he didn't give
a flip about farmers in South Texas going out of business.
The President's tweet, and I can tell you Mexico is
in the process now negotiating with the state department to
provide for the water. We're gonna get the water. And
that's a great that's a greatreat victory for Texas in America.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Go vote. You're on the clock now. I love it.
Don't forget me to show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Sometimes it's
like one in the morning. You're gonna run and vote
right now. We'll see you back here on what is today? Thursday, Wednesday?
What is today? It's just they're all running together. Now.
Today's Thursday, Thursday. So this is Friday, so the beat
that the weekend review will be on Saturday. So there
you go, which isn't like a day. If you're looking
when we're recording this, we'll see you. Then share this
(41:31):
wherever you are on social media, and we'll see you
back here on Saturday.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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