April 11, 2025 • 36 mins
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):
Somebody had to do it. Roger actually said that Josh
Schwab was here a little while ago, one of the
great financial people, and he said he's been waiting for
forty years for somebody to do what I did, and
if you didn't do it, you wouldn't have a country,
it wouldn't be sustainable. So I'm honor to have done it.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
This is a forty seven Morning Update special edition with
Ben Ferguson.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
It is one fifty one in the morning. Welcome.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
It has been Ferguson with you on the forty seven
Morning Update, and I've got a special extended show for
you right now as I am going to be joined
with Senator Ted Cruz as we are going to give
you the latest from the Oval Office where he has
spent more than two hours of the present talking about tariffs.
We're also going to talk about this insane late night
(00:43):
vote as well that is happening as I speak at
one fifty one in the morning, as Democrats are doing
it to quote protest Donald Trump and his agenda and
Elon Musk as well. Throw that in there, because you
know why not. And also something else that's shocking. We
have Mexico stealing water from America and American farmers. The
(01:06):
President is now going to stop that, threatening tariffs and
also sanctions. It's the forty seven Morning Update at one
fifty one am on Capitol Hill and it starts right now,
all right, So let's just start.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
With a little bit of color here.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I gotta say one of the most fun things about
going to the Oval Office is Donald Trump loves having guests. Yes,
and the swag that you leave with is just the
most incredible level of swag.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
And he pays for it out of his own pocket.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
He does.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's not the taxpayers.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
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 State of
the Union and prep and that, and I was there
the day the State 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 say hey, no,
come over here, and he walks you around the corner
into the room. He has this like full swag room
(02:05):
and he's like three different hats of the boys signs him.
He's like, now one of your son plays golf. He
signs a pro V one ball from then 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 3 (02:18):
With all this stuff.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
To be fair, you're not in the oval.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Well, no, you're outside of it, but you walk back in.
You're like holding all this stuff in the.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Olden you're in the little office next to.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
The open yes, where the swag room is.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
And what happened in that little room.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Which is one of his favorite stories. He's like, you
you know where you are right now? Twenty five years Yeah,
He's like, you know where you are right now? And
I'm like, where am I right?
Speaker 5 (02:39):
This is where Monica Lewinsky.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Did not have sex with that man.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
But but but shall we say I don't know?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Okay, problem, I think I did it perfectly there.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
I'm trying to find a way to say this. Yeah,
and this is.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Button did not have sexual organizations with that woman quote unquote,
but may have.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
But it's also where the blue dress got sullied. There
you go, that's a great way of putting it, 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 4 (03:19):
Make America Great Again hats, the forty forty five dash
forty seven.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I mean it's it's it's legit.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
And he has all these shells full of swag and
he like says, hey, what do you want? Take whatever
you want?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
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 5 (03:37):
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, the.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
One that Elon Musk wore that kind of made it famous.
A lot of people remember he put it on.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
He was like, so he actually pointed that out, and
so that's the one Elon wears. Yeah, so and it's
got all this stuff He's got. It's cool stuff.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
So and by the way, the VIP gift is what
I was told, which I think we can confirm is true.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
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 it's presidential cuplinks. They're amazing.
I still have in this day. You've got a pair
now as.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Well, so I do, and I've had a couple of
presidential cufflinks in the past.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, but these are the coolest that.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
These are really damn cool. And I will say his
challenge coins. So in the military and in law enforcement,
people carry challenge coins and they're 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
I don't know, two hundred of them. That is, I've
traveled the world.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
They give them to you, they get awesome.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
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 kind of across my desk. So they're
normally about the size of a silver dollar. Trump this
(05:06):
evening gave me two challenge coins, and his challenge coins
are literally three hundred percent the size of it.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Oh, it is like the size of the tariffy put
on Chinese gun.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
It's the size of a pancy.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, it's a it's a coast.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
It's a coaster that's exactly like And he is one
that's sort of gold and fancy, and then he's another
that is gun medal, 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 3 (05:34):
I love it. That's the fun part about it.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
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 pot.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
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 into law. And so I've been there for a
number of bill signings of legislation I've pass But it's
always cool because you're passing legislation the President signed it
(06:03):
and suddenly becomes law.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Did you get to keep the pen? He loves giving
away the sharpie?
Speaker 5 (06:07):
Yes, and it's not a sharpie. It is much like
the challenge coin.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
It's huge.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
It is huge. It is probably three hundred percent the
size of a shark.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
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.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
So so I'll end up in my office framing that
signing pen because it's legislation that I passed. That's truly significant.
And in my office I have a bunch of different
pieces of legislation signed and a number of them are signed,
are are framed with the signing pin. So I was
there for that. But look a couple of things. One,
we talked a lot about tariffs, and let's rewind two
(06:48):
days ago. Yep, so we have talked in this last week.
We've had two podcasts entirely devoted to the Trump tariffs.
We had one our Friday podcast right after the tariffs
came out on 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
(07:09):
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
(07:30):
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
and I are sitting here Thursday night. Tuesday night, I
spent an hour on the phone with President Trump and
(07:51):
I had several other senators there and we were urging him.
What I was saying is, listen, the market is in
free fall. It's dangerous. People are freaking out.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Sure.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
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.
Pick one, pick two, and cut a deal where they
slash their tariffs massively and we slash our terraffs massively.
(08:26):
I said, I think that will calm the market down enormously.
That will assuage people that we are headed to a
world which 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
(08:46):
ranchers and small businesses and manufacturers are 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
(09:06):
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. Spent 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
(09:29):
of the reciprocal tariffs he had announced on April second
for ninety days, for ninety.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Days, which is enough time to get deals done.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
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
(09:57):
China are one hundred and forty five percent. Well, 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 Scott looked at his phone and announced, Hey, the
President's just paused all the teriffs and increased the tariffs
(10:18):
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.
(10:40):
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 3 (10:56):
That's a good day.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
That is a massive day. And so I will 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, they're 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 announcement of
(11:19):
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 4 (11:31):
Well, and Scott Bessett, 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.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Take a listen. President's decision.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
There was a president's decision to wait until today.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
And again, as I said in the past, no one
creates the leverage for himself like President Trumps.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
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 and
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.
Speaker 6 (12:09):
And 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
(12:31):
the world 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 requests 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 tariff level
(12:54):
will be brought down to a universal ten percent tariff.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I mean listened to them, and I think it's pretty clear.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
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 3 (13:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
And by the way, the Constitution the minimum age for
member Congress is twenty five years old.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yep. So she was on the House side, yep, yeap.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
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 Hampshire. As
you know, I raised a ton of money for Caroline
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.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
She was a great presidentadidate.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
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
(14:07):
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,
(14:29):
You'd rather do the job you have now than being.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
A biggest blessing in disguise, because she would have done
that job.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
She would be the press secretary right now.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
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 missed?
Speaker 5 (14:48):
You know the country western song Some of God's greatest
gifts are unanswered prayers.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
There have been multiple steps in my life where I
desperately wanted something I didn't get it. I was crestfallen,
I was f strated. I used to keep all right,
this is gonna 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.
(15:15):
You know what it was called? What failures?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
How many were in there?
Speaker 5 (15:20):
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 Road scholarship. I
didn't get it. I was really I was like, damn,
I'd really like to be a Rhodes scholar. I'm pissed
I didn't get it. Yeah, but all right, I think
it's tenth grade. Okay, this is.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
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 3 (15:47):
Although I tried hard, I tried hard.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
How thought it be fair? Is a tennis player really
a job?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Well, you know it's it's a sort of sec I mean,
it's not a sc it.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Is like a tennis player. You're wearing like a white
eyes on. Like it's not the same.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Swag we had some we had some nice Nike swag
like they we did it right.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
I'm just saying you were ball.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
It's not basketball. It's not baseball. I'll give you that.
I will keep you dunk. No, I cannot dunk.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
I played hoops with you. I knew the answer.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah I cannot.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
But I wasn't going for a Rhodes scholar. 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 5 (16:24):
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.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Fox and Family Ties amazing show.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
But 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. Yeah, 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 to fail, so I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, And you're like, screw that. I'm going for all
of it.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
And 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
(17:25):
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,
(17:48):
as a geeky fifteen year old writing a poem Poe
inspired me like that was.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Before chat gbts. You didn't even steal it from anybody.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Have a cliff, you ain't grown wings fair point, and
so my 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, t R gave
a great commencement speech about being in the arena, the
man who is marred by blood and sweat and mud
(18:21):
in the arena and not one of those cold and
timid souls who know neither victory nor to feat.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Nor to feat.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
And so I forget where I'm going on this.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
No, you're you're talking about Caroly.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I love it, failing it, the going for conquer, the blessing,
and now it's the biggest thing in her life. So
you're saying, count your failures because they can be your
blessings later in life.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
If you have no failures, you've done nothing.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I just want to prove that right now to my wife.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
How good of a listener I am, because I just
saved that whole story right there.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I just want credit for that moment. Anyway, continue you
going to buy that I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Well, see if she listens to the show, because I
just if she If she doesn't listen, we're both gonna know.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Well. Look, I will say what happened on tariffs Wednesday
was a massive day, Number one for the market and
for a huge search, but number two, the ninety days,
we have an opportunity. This is not hyperbole. President Trump
(19:28):
could achieve the greatest victory for jobs and economic growth,
certainly in our lifetimes and maybe in the history of America.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
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 gonna bust China. They're taking advantage of us. They're
still in our intellectual property. It's national security issue. We
(20:01):
witnessed what we witnessed 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 5 (20:11):
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
(20:33):
to the United States over the next one hundred years.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Amen.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
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
(20:59):
thousand year war against the United States.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
And that's not hyperbole, and that's really how they look
at it.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
And everything we can do to delink our economy from
China is a good step. So 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
(21:29):
is coming after us.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
And this is national security. Things we depend on.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
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
(21:56):
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?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Tariffs?
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Are taxes? 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 export the hell
out of it, because I think American businesses can beat
every company on Earth if there's a fair playing field.
(22:39):
If most of 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
(23:01):
be an incredibly effective negotiation strategy. 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
(23:22):
and opening markets to American producers.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
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
re ordering the world in a proper way. For more
than thirty one years, multiple administrations have allowed the Chinese
to de industrialize this country, to take away jobs and
(23:47):
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
seen a moment politically where so many different factions are
(24:10):
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,
you get one with Vietnam, or you get one with Taiwan,
or you get one with Malaysia or India wherever it is, right,
(24:31):
and you start going country by country, when will we
start see that because that's what the market's now looking for.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Look, so what I urged the president Tuesday night is
negotiate a deal fast.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I said, I.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Don't care what country, just get one on the 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, 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
(25:05):
days to OSHA 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 3 (25:13):
So you think in weeks we'll start seeing the first ones.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
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 3 (25:26):
The ninety days gives us time to do it right.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
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
(25:49):
people's four one ks to go to crap. 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 gonna do.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
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.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeap.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Specifically, it's happening in Texas and it's making farming industry
collapse and farmers disappearing from areas because there is no water.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
So let me give you the background because this is
a really important issue. It's important in Texas, but it's
important in 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
(26:59):
year period.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
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 water they have
(27:21):
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 to 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 spent a
(27:42):
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 3 (27:55):
Farms just because they don't have the water to do
it right.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
They're laying off thousand 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 3 (28:16):
And Mexico on the other side, as green as can be.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
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's example, this is this is literally the Mexican
government stealing our water.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
And did Joe Biden do anything to stop this? Zero?
Speaker 5 (28:37):
And he knew about it, 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 roundtail
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
(28:58):
to lose our sugar 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
(29:22):
then there's a water commissioner for the United States. I
leaned in with the water commissioner, said, look, the Senate
has 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 4 (29:41):
Now, by the way, leverage for Donald Trump at this
point was him saying, hey, I'm coming after you 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 5 (29:54):
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
(30:16):
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 they're being starved of water. And so several weeks
ago I went down to South Texas with Brook Rawlins.
(30:37):
Brook Rollins is the Secretary of Agriculture. Brooke 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 Grande Valley Wow. And she came to the valley
at my request. I asked her come down with me,
(30:59):
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 roundtable with farmers where Brooke
and I talked with the farmers and the Rio grand
(31:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Incredible.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
That has never happened. I won Hispanic statewide in Texas
by six points. That's 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
(31:55):
at that roundtable, you got farmers and ranchers and you're
just asking them. Look over the last four years, did
Joe Biden do a damn thing for you?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
No?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
And that's how you turn this.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
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 grandparents voted Democrat. And
(32:33):
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 going to get you. The
damn water is one of the ways you lock those votes.
And it's a generational shift for Texas.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
By the way, this is the first time for Verdict.
They've just opened the vote.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
They're only keeping it open for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
So I'm gonna go momentario.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
You're gonna go momentarily, which means actually it's about twelve
minutes because I've a couple minutes behind. Just this is
why I love doing it, because this is how it
really works, and it's sanding in the Senate.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
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 us the water.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Yeah, knock it off.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
And he said, I'll tell you what. I'll send a
truth social post. And so I worked with him on
the wording of it, and and tonight when I was
in the Oval, I said, miss President, can you send
that truth post?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (33:33):
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
(33:53):
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
(34:17):
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
(34:39):
Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins is standing up for Texas farmers
and we will keep escalating consequences, including TIFFs and maybe
even sanctions, until Mexico honors the treaty and gives Texas
the water they are owned and gives Texas the water
(35:01):
they are owed. Is in all caps.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
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
have done that for four years, but he didn't give
(35:24):
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 great, great victory for Texas
in America.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Go vote. You're on the clock now. I love it.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
and we will see you back here tomorrow.
Somebody had to do it. Roger actually said that Josh
Schwab was here a little while ago, one of the
great financial people, and he said he's been waiting for
forty years for somebody to do what I did, and
if you didn't do it, you wouldn't have a country,
it wouldn't be sustainable. So I'm honor to have done it.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
This is a forty seven Morning Update special edition with
Ben Ferguson.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
It is one fifty one in the morning. Welcome.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
It has been Ferguson with you on the forty seven
Morning Update, and I've got a special extended show for
you right now as I am going to be joined
with Senator Ted Cruz as we are going to give
you the latest from the Oval Office where he has
spent more than two hours of the present talking about tariffs.
We're also going to talk about this insane late night
(00:43):
vote as well that is happening as I speak at
one fifty one in the morning, as Democrats are doing
it to quote protest Donald Trump and his agenda and
Elon Musk as well. Throw that in there, because you
know why not. And also something else that's shocking. We
have Mexico stealing water from America and American farmers. The
(01:06):
President is now going to stop that, threatening tariffs and
also sanctions. It's the forty seven Morning Update at one
fifty one am on Capitol Hill and it starts right now,
all right, So let's just start.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
With a little bit of color here.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
I gotta say one of the most fun things about
going to the Oval Office is Donald Trump loves having guests. Yes,
and the swag that you leave with is just the
most incredible level of swag.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
And he pays for it out of his own pocket.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
He does.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
It's not the taxpayers.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
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 State of
the Union and prep and that, and I was there
the day the State 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 say hey, no,
come over here, and he walks you around the corner
into the room. He has this like full swag room
(02:05):
and he's like three different hats of the boys signs him.
He's like, now one of your son plays golf. He
signs a pro V one ball from then 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 3 (02:18):
With all this stuff.
Speaker 5 (02:19):
To be fair, you're not in the oval.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Well, no, you're outside of it, but you walk back in.
You're like holding all this stuff in the.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Olden you're in the little office next to.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
The open yes, where the swag room is.
Speaker 5 (02:29):
And what happened in that little room.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Which is one of his favorite stories. He's like, you
you know where you are right now? Twenty five years Yeah,
He's like, you know where you are right now? And
I'm like, where am I right?
Speaker 5 (02:39):
This is where Monica Lewinsky.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Did not have sex with that man.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
But but but shall we say I don't know?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Okay, problem, I think I did it perfectly there.
Speaker 5 (02:57):
I'm trying to find a way to say this. Yeah,
and this is.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Button did not have sexual organizations with that woman quote unquote,
but may have.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
But it's also where the blue dress got sullied. There
you go, that's a great way of putting it, 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 4 (03:19):
Make America Great Again hats, the forty forty five dash
forty seven.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I mean it's it's it's legit.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
And he has all these shells full of swag and
he like says, hey, what do you want? Take whatever
you want?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
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 5 (03:37):
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, the.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
One that Elon Musk wore that kind of made it famous.
A lot of people remember he put it on.
Speaker 5 (03:52):
He was like, so he actually pointed that out, and
so that's the one Elon wears. Yeah, so and it's
got all this stuff He's got. It's cool stuff.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
So and by the way, the VIP gift is what
I was told, which I think we can confirm is true.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
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 it's presidential cuplinks. They're amazing.
I still have in this day. You've got a pair
now as.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Well, so I do, and I've had a couple of
presidential cufflinks in the past.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Yeah, but these are the coolest that.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
These are really damn cool. And I will say his
challenge coins. So in the military and in law enforcement,
people carry challenge coins and they're 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
I don't know, two hundred of them. That is, I've
traveled the world.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
They give them to you, they get awesome.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
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 kind of across my desk. So they're
normally about the size of a silver dollar. Trump this
(05:06):
evening gave me two challenge coins, and his challenge coins
are literally three hundred percent the size of it.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Oh, it is like the size of the tariffy put
on Chinese gun.
Speaker 5 (05:16):
It's the size of a pancy.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Yeah, it's a it's a coast.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
It's a coaster that's exactly like And he is one
that's sort of gold and fancy, and then he's another
that is gun medal, 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 3 (05:34):
I love it. That's the fun part about it.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
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 pot.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
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 into law. And so I've been there for a
number of bill signings of legislation I've pass But it's
always cool because you're passing legislation the President signed it
(06:03):
and suddenly becomes law.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Did you get to keep the pen? He loves giving
away the sharpie?
Speaker 5 (06:07):
Yes, and it's not a sharpie. It is much like
the challenge coin.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
It's huge.
Speaker 5 (06:12):
It is huge. It is probably three hundred percent the
size of a shark.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
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.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
So so I'll end up in my office framing that
signing pen because it's legislation that I passed. That's truly significant.
And in my office I have a bunch of different
pieces of legislation signed and a number of them are signed,
are are framed with the signing pin. So I was
there for that. But look a couple of things. One,
we talked a lot about tariffs, and let's rewind two
(06:48):
days ago. Yep, so we have talked in this last week.
We've had two podcasts entirely devoted to the Trump tariffs.
We had one our Friday podcast right after the tariffs
came out on 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
(07:09):
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
(07:30):
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
and I are sitting here Thursday night. Tuesday night, I
spent an hour on the phone with President Trump and
(07:51):
I had several other senators there and we were urging him.
What I was saying is, listen, the market is in
free fall. It's dangerous. People are freaking out.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Sure.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
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.
Pick one, pick two, and cut a deal where they
slash their tariffs massively and we slash our terraffs massively.
(08:26):
I said, I think that will calm the market down enormously.
That will assuage people that we are headed to a
world which 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
(08:46):
ranchers and small businesses and manufacturers are 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
(09:06):
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. Spent 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
(09:29):
of the reciprocal tariffs he had announced on April second
for ninety days, for ninety.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Days, which is enough time to get deals done.
Speaker 5 (09:36):
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
(09:57):
China are one hundred and forty five percent. Well, 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 Scott looked at his phone and announced, Hey, the
President's just paused all the teriffs and increased the tariffs
(10:18):
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.
(10:40):
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 3 (10:56):
That's a good day.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
That is a massive day. And so I will 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, they're 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 announcement of
(11:19):
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 4 (11:31):
Well, and Scott Bessett, 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.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Take a listen. President's decision.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
There was a president's decision to wait until today.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
And again, as I said in the past, no one
creates the leverage for himself like President Trumps.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
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 and
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.
Speaker 6 (12:09):
And 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
(12:31):
the world 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 requests 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 tariff level
(12:54):
will be brought down to a universal ten percent tariff.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I mean listened to them, and I think it's pretty clear.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
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 3 (13:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
And by the way, the Constitution the minimum age for
member Congress is twenty five years old.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yep. So she was on the House side, yep, yeap.
Speaker 5 (13:23):
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 Hampshire. As
you know, I raised a ton of money for Caroline
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.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
She was a great presidentadidate.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
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
(14:07):
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,
(14:29):
You'd rather do the job you have now than being.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
A biggest blessing in disguise, because she would have done
that job.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
She would be the press secretary right now.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
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 missed?
Speaker 5 (14:48):
You know the country western song Some of God's greatest
gifts are unanswered prayers.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
There have been multiple steps in my life where I
desperately wanted something I didn't get it. I was crestfallen,
I was f strated. I used to keep all right,
this is gonna 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.
(15:15):
You know what it was called? What failures?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
How many were in there?
Speaker 5 (15:20):
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 Road scholarship. I
didn't get it. I was really I was like, damn,
I'd really like to be a Rhodes scholar. I'm pissed
I didn't get it. Yeah, but all right, I think
it's tenth grade. Okay, this is.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
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 3 (15:47):
Although I tried hard, I tried hard.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
How thought it be fair? Is a tennis player really
a job?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Well, you know it's it's a sort of sec I mean,
it's not a sc it.
Speaker 5 (15:57):
Is like a tennis player. You're wearing like a white
eyes on. Like it's not the same.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Swag we had some we had some nice Nike swag
like they we did it right.
Speaker 5 (16:07):
I'm just saying you were ball.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
It's not basketball. It's not baseball. I'll give you that.
I will keep you dunk. No, I cannot dunk.
Speaker 5 (16:15):
I played hoops with you. I knew the answer.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah I cannot.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
But I wasn't going for a Rhodes scholar. 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 5 (16:24):
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.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
Fox and Family Ties amazing show.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
But 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. Yeah, 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 to fail, so I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Yeah, And you're like, screw that. I'm going for all
of it.
Speaker 5 (17:00):
And 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
(17:25):
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,
(17:48):
as a geeky fifteen year old writing a poem Poe
inspired me like that was.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Before chat gbts. You didn't even steal it from anybody.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Have a cliff, you ain't grown wings fair point, and
so my 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, t R gave
a great commencement speech about being in the arena, the
man who is marred by blood and sweat and mud
(18:21):
in the arena and not one of those cold and
timid souls who know neither victory nor to feat.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Nor to feat.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
And so I forget where I'm going on this.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
No, you're you're talking about Caroly.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I love it, failing it, the going for conquer, the blessing,
and now it's the biggest thing in her life. So
you're saying, count your failures because they can be your
blessings later in life.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
If you have no failures, you've done nothing.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
I just want to prove that right now to my wife.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
How good of a listener I am, because I just
saved that whole story right there.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
I just want credit for that moment. Anyway, continue you
going to buy that I don't know.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Well, see if she listens to the show, because I
just if she If she doesn't listen, we're both gonna know.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Well. Look, I will say what happened on tariffs Wednesday
was a massive day, Number one for the market and
for a huge search, but number two, the ninety days,
we have an opportunity. This is not hyperbole. President Trump
(19:28):
could achieve the greatest victory for jobs and economic growth,
certainly in our lifetimes and maybe in the history of America.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
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 gonna bust China. They're taking advantage of us. They're
still in our intellectual property. It's national security issue. We
(20:01):
witnessed what we witnessed 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 5 (20:11):
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
(20:33):
to the United States over the next one hundred years.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Amen.
Speaker 5 (20:37):
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
(20:59):
thousand year war against the United States.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
And that's not hyperbole, and that's really how they look
at it.
Speaker 5 (21:06):
And everything we can do to delink our economy from
China is a good step. So 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
(21:29):
is coming after us.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
And this is national security. Things we depend on.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
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
(21:56):
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?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Tariffs?
Speaker 5 (22:18):
Are taxes? 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 export the hell
out of it, because I think American businesses can beat
every company on Earth if there's a fair playing field.
(22:39):
If most of 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
(23:01):
be an incredibly effective negotiation strategy. 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
(23:22):
and opening markets to American producers.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
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
re ordering the world in a proper way. For more
than thirty one years, multiple administrations have allowed the Chinese
to de industrialize this country, to take away jobs and
(23:47):
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
seen a moment politically where so many different factions are
(24:10):
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,
you get one with Vietnam, or you get one with Taiwan,
or you get one with Malaysia or India wherever it is, right,
(24:31):
and you start going country by country, when will we
start see that because that's what the market's now looking for.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:36):
Look, so what I urged the president Tuesday night is
negotiate a deal fast.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I said, I.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Don't care what country, just get one on the 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, 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
(25:05):
days to OSHA 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 3 (25:13):
So you think in weeks we'll start seeing the first ones.
Speaker 5 (25:19):
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 3 (25:26):
The ninety days gives us time to do it right.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
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
(25:49):
people's four one ks to go to crap. 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 gonna do.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
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.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
Yeap.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Specifically, it's happening in Texas and it's making farming industry
collapse and farmers disappearing from areas because there is no water.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
So let me give you the background because this is
a really important issue. It's important in Texas, but it's
important in 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
(26:59):
year period.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
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 water they have
(27:21):
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 to 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 spent a
(27:42):
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 3 (27:55):
Farms just because they don't have the water to do
it right.
Speaker 5 (27:57):
They're laying off thousand 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 3 (28:16):
And Mexico on the other side, as green as can be.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
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's example, this is this is literally the Mexican
government stealing our water.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
And did Joe Biden do anything to stop this? Zero?
Speaker 5 (28:37):
And he knew about it, 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 roundtail
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
(28:58):
to lose our sugar 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
(29:22):
then there's a water commissioner for the United States. I
leaned in with the water commissioner, said, look, the Senate
has 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 4 (29:41):
Now, by the way, leverage for Donald Trump at this
point was him saying, hey, I'm coming after you 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 5 (29:54):
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
(30:16):
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 they're being starved of water. And so several weeks
ago I went down to South Texas with Brook Rawlins.
(30:37):
Brook Rollins is the Secretary of Agriculture. Brooke 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 Grande Valley Wow. And she came to the valley
at my request. I asked her come down with me,
(30:59):
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 roundtable with farmers where Brooke
and I talked with the farmers and the Rio grand
(31:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
Incredible.
Speaker 5 (31:35):
That has never happened. I won Hispanic statewide in Texas
by six points. That's 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
(31:55):
at that roundtable, you got farmers and ranchers and you're
just asking them. Look over the last four years, did
Joe Biden do a damn thing for you?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
No?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
And that's how you turn this.
Speaker 5 (32:07):
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 grandparents voted Democrat. And
(32:33):
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 going to get you. The
damn water is one of the ways you lock those votes.
And it's a generational shift for Texas.
Speaker 4 (32:47):
By the way, this is the first time for Verdict.
They've just opened the vote.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
They're only keeping it open for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
So I'm gonna go momentario.
Speaker 4 (32:54):
You're gonna go momentarily, which means actually it's about twelve
minutes because I've a couple minutes behind. Just this is
why I love doing it, because this is how it
really works, and it's sanding in the Senate.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
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 us the water.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Yeah, knock it off.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
And he said, I'll tell you what. I'll send a
truth social post. And so I worked with him on
the wording of it, and and tonight when I was
in the Oval, I said, miss President, can you send
that truth post?
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (33:33):
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
(33:53):
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
(34:17):
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
(34:39):
Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins is standing up for Texas farmers
and we will keep escalating consequences, including TIFFs and maybe
even sanctions, until Mexico honors the treaty and gives Texas
the water they are owned and gives Texas the water
(35:01):
they are owed. Is in all caps.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
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
have done that for four years, but he didn't give
(35:24):
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 great, great victory for Texas
in America.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
Go vote. You're on the clock now. I love it.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
and we will see you back here tomorrow.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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