Interview: Tariffs, Trade, War - President Trump's Week w/White House Correspondent Jon Decker

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Your new day starts with the Brian Mudshow, the news
you need to start your morning in the Palm Beaches
and the Treasure Coast. So much taking place involving the
President of the United States day by day. A man
who was in the Oval Office once again yesterday with
the President and the Prime Minister of Norway, our White
House correspondent John Deckard, Morning, John, Hey.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
There, Brian, Happy Friday. To do you. Hope you're doing
well today.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I am so catch us up to speed, it's hard
to keep track well.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yesterday, I think the topic of the day clearly was
the war in Ukraine. That was pretty clear from all
of the events that happened yesterday, the President's meeting with
the Prime Minister of Norway, the former NATO Secretary General
who's now Norway's Finance Minister, Jen Stoltenberg, and also the
current Secretary General of NATO as well. And so the focus,

(00:58):
I think, you know, based upon all the questions that
were asked to the President yesterday, was what comes next
as it relates to trying to end that war in Ukraine.
Does the President put more pressure on Vladimir Putin, who
clearly does not want to end the war based upon
the continued attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine. I think
that the president is really getting frustrated at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Brian, Yeah, it certainly seems that way. One of the
other things that's a difficult dynamic in this So you know,
the president critical as well of Zelensky and not being
willing to give on Crimea you know, which of course,
you know, goes back whatever a decade ago now that
Russia seized territory there, and you can see the president's

(01:39):
frustration like, look, you know, you can't have everything the
way that you want it here, you're not in a
winning position. How difficult is it to try to navigate
that particular lane when you're talking about also trying to
somehow or another create peace and stability with an actor
that's as bad as Putin is to begin.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
With, Well, it's difficult. Well, but you know, from Zelenski's
point of view, I think that, you know, everything's a
negotiating tactic. You know, why, say you're going to give
up something without getting some concession from the other side.
So you can understand why he's you know, digging in
his heels as it relates to that. At the end
of the day, he may not get what he wants,
but maybe he gets a little bit of movement from

(02:20):
the Russian side, so that may be a play. But
there have been a number of conversations Brian, that has
happened with Steve Wikoff, the President's envoy for dealing with
this situation. He's met with Putin at least three separate
times face to face in Russia. But it really hasn't
led to any discernible movement from Russia. As it relates

(02:42):
to just getting to the point of a thirty day seasfire.
Forget about just a permanent peace, just a thirty day seasfire.
We haven't seen that yet yet.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Again, trade coming up, and you know the President's alk,
you know we'll be able to get a trade deal
done with when Norway of course one of the big
stories this week, you know, the belief that there could
be some movement with China, even though it looks like
that potential trade deal is far out at this point.
Doesn't seem like there's communication going on between Presidents Trump
and she.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
What are you hearing?

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Is there real movement beyond just these conversations at this point,
really with any of our trading partners.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well, I think that there is. You know, I really
do believe that the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessant,
is having these conversations. Trade deals don't happen overnight. You know,
the USMCA trade deal from start to finish took one
full year. I'm not saying that each and every one
of these trade deals is going to take a year's time,
but they do take time. And I think that what

(03:41):
the administration would like to convey to just the public
let alone, you know, the people that are lawmakers on
Capitol Hills, that they're making progress. So perhaps over the
course of the next few weeks, Brian, we'll see these
trade deals slowly but surely being announced, and that I
think think would put some momentum on the administration side

(04:03):
and give them more some more time to get those
trade deals completed. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
President Trump has never been one to necessarily be hung
up on what polls are saying at one particular moment
in time. Unless he likes it, then he wants to
draw some attention to it. But you know, in his
first term, the economy is where he got his highest marks.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Right now he's struggling.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
There are they is the administration sensitive to that in
terms of the speed of try and wrap some of
this up.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Well, they are sensitive. You mentioned that I was in
the Oval Office yesterday. I asked a number of questions
to the President, but one of them had to do
with economic news that came out yesterday. It was March
home sales. The pace of March home sales the slowest
pace since two thousand and nine. I asked the President
about that, about whether that economic indicator is a sign

(04:49):
for the broader US economy. And the President really doesn't
like to get bad news. He was talking about the
good housing numbers, and there were not good housing numbers yesterday.
Now it may be a bl Brian, it may be
just one month, but it is the spring that's typically
when we do see an uptick in home sales. But
of course we know that one of the factors as

(05:10):
it relates to home sales is interest rates, and with
interest rates so high, it does have an impact in
terms of demand. Right now, we're seeing that with excess inventory.
You're seeing that in Florida with the inventory problems as well.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Sure enough, great report, We appreciate it as always. Our
White House correspondent John Decker