April 11, 2025 • 42 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 (00:01):
It is one fifty in the morning. I have just
left the Capital and there is a one am vote
that is happening right now because of Democrats who forced
one am vote to protest Donald Trump and Elon Musk
and the agenda. This isn't a joke. I put the
(00:24):
video up on social media so you can see it
and welcome. By the way, it is nice to have
you on the Ben Ferguson Podcasts. I can't believe I'm
doing the show right now one fifty one am. I
am going to be joined with Senator Ted Cruz as
we are doing this special pod on an insane night
in Washington. We're also going to talk about the lads
(00:45):
with tariffs as well, and Mexico stealing water from America
that is shutting down farmers, all of that. As again,
it's one fifty one in the morning, and this is
while dysfunctional Washington actually is. Here is Senator Cruise and
I chatting about the big news and he's spent over
(01:06):
two hours in the Oval with the President on tariffs,
all of that for you right now. 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 (01:19):
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
(01:41):
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 that
We're going to talk about the backstory of why the
(02:04):
President 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 (02:18):
And we're in the same place. This usually doesn't happen.
We're in the same time zone right now.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
We're both in DC. Why are we in DC because
in a half hour I'm going to be on 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 gonna
(02:42):
commend Republicans of the Senate. 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.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So we're like, fine, we'll do it. Hang out tomorrow.
So hour, let's go. By the way, if the Democrats 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 one in the morning. By the way,
we've got senators in their eighties, we've got senators in
their nineties.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I do not envy the guy who has that job
to wake up the center because you know they're asleep.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
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 (03:28):
Know, believe you, I've seen you in the morning.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
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 (03:42):
Let's keep going on. There we go. Now we're getting
into reality.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Show seven am has? When it started, I had to
be up in like up and adam, Thank the Lord,
I don't.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Do what you had to be awake.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
I had to know what was going on, like I
mean it would be educated.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
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 (04:24):
Yes, you were, you were on your way. It was
the easiest way to get rid of me.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
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 (04:37):
And there's a reason why they took me off that
show one day.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
There's a reason, and 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 (04:54):
That is how I know what my life is valued
on this earth.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Right now, there you go, So and night. 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
(05:17):
fight on a very long time, 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
(05:39):
else they're going to be very serious penalties, tariffs, 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
(05:59):
a fascinating in terms of how international diplomacy has played
out and the advantage of a strong president who actually
fights for America versus the incredibly weak and an effective
president we had for the last four years.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah. Good, 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.
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All right, so let's just start with a little bit
of color here. I gotta say one of the most
(08:23):
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.
And he pays for it out of his own pocket.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
He does.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
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 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 in, no, no, come over here, and he walks you
(08:59):
around the corner into the room. He has this like
full swag room and he's like three different hats with
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 with all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
To be fair, you're not in the oval.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Well, no, you're outside of it, but you walk back in.
You're like holding all this stuff in the olden you're.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
In the little office next to.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
The open yes, where the swag room is.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And what happened in that little room, which.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
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 2 (09:37):
This is where Monica Lewinsky.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Did not have sex with that man?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
But but but shall we say? I don't know, I can't.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Problem is I think I did it perfectly there.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I'm trying to find a way to say this.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, and this is he did not have sexual or
regulations with that woman quote unquote, but may have.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But it's also where the blue dress got sullied.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
There you go, that's a great way of putting it.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Uh make America great again hats, the forty forty five
dash forty seven. I mean it's it's it's legit.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And he has all these shells full of swag and
he like says, hey, what do you want? Take whatever
you want.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
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 it.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And he just does that and he pays for it
all like he's out of his like 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 (10:46):
The one that Elon Musk wore that kind of made
it famous. A lot of people remember he put it on.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
He was like, so he actually pointed that out, and
so that's the one Elona wears.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So, and it's got all this stuff. He's got it's
cool stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So and by the way, the vip geah is what
I was told, which I think we can confirm is true.
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 cuplings. They're amazing.
I still have in this day. You've got a pair now.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
As well, so I do. And I've had a couple
of presidential cuflings 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, 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
(11:38):
I probably got I don't know, two hundred of them.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
That is, I've.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Traveled the world.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
They give them to you, they get awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
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
(12:04):
this evening gave me two challenge coins, and his challenge
coins are literally three hundred percent the size of it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Oh, it is like the size of the tariff you
put on Chinese gun.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
It's the size of a pancy.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, it's a it's a coast.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's a coaster that's exactly like And he has 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 1 (12:32):
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 pot. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
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 passed. But it's
always cool because you're pass legislation, the President signed it
(13:01):
and suddenly becomes law.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Did you get to keep the pen he loves giving
away the sharpie.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yes, And it's not a sharpie. It is much like
the challenge coin.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
It's huge.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
It is huge. It is probably three hundred percent the
size of a shark.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
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 (13:26):
So so I'll end up in my office framing that
signing pen because it's legislation that I passed. That's really 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
(13:46):
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, one hundred percent of the podcast was on
the tariffs, and than our Monday podcast, we talked about
two competing camps in the Trump administration. We talked about
(14:07):
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
(14:28):
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
(14:49):
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. Sure, 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
(15:10):
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.
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,
(15:33):
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
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.
(15:56):
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
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
(16:19):
President put out an announcement at lunchtime, and his announcement
was twofold number one. He said he was pausing all
of the reciprocal tariffs he had announced on April second,
for ninety days, for ninety.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Days, which is enough time to get deals done.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
So the total tariffs against China are one hundred and
forty five percent now he announced it. 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
(17:15):
teriffts and increased the tariffs on China. There wasn't exactly
a round of applause, but close, pretty damn close.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
There was literally there was a relief, and yes.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
A palpable sense of relief. And what is striking is
the market within minutes exploded and stocks sored up. So
tonight when I was in the Oval, I said, miss President,
as a result of your decision yesterday, you produced the
(17:47):
single largest increase in the stock market in one day
in the history of the United States of America.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
That's a good day.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
That is a massive day. And so I will say
the pause is import and I hope over these next
niney 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 tariff's in perpetuity. Over the
next ninety days, I hope we see announcement after announcement
(18:17):
after 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.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
None of it. Well, and Scott 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.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
There was a president's decision to wait until today.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
And again I know, as I've said in the past,
no one creates a leverage for himself like President Trump vision.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
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
(19:30):
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
(19:52):
will be brought down to a universal ten percent tariff.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I mean, you listen to them, and I think it's
pretty clear.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
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 (20:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And by the way, the Constitution, the minimum age for
member of Congress is twenty five years old.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yep. So she was on the House side. Yep. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
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 candidate. 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.
(20:55):
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 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.
(21:19):
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, you'd rather do the job you have
now than being a.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Biggest blessing in disguise, because yes, she would have done
that job. She would be the press 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 missed?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
You know the country western songs. Some of God's greatest
gifts are unanswered prayers.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
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.
(22:14):
You know what it was called what failures?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
How many were in there?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
A lot?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
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 Rhodes scholar. I'm pissed I didn't get it. Yeah,
but all right, I think it's tenth grade. Okay, this is.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
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 (22:45):
Although I tried hard, I tried hard.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
How thought it be fair? Is a tennis player really
a job? Well, you know it's a sort of sec
I mean, it's not a sc it like a tennis player.
You're wearing like a white eyes on. But like it's not.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Good swag we had. We had some nice Nike swag
like they we did it right.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I'm just saying you were a ball.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
It's not basketball. It's not baseball. I'll give you that.
I will get you dunk. No, I cannot dunk.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I played hoops with you. I knew the answer.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah I cannot. But I wasn't going for 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 2 (23:22):
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 1 (23:29):
Fox and Family ties amazing show. But but all right.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
So in tenth grade, I was sitting there in.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Class with my classmates and they.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
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 to fail, so I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, and you're like, screw that. I'm going for all
of it.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
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
(24:23):
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,
(24:46):
as a geeky fifteen year old writing a poem. Poe
inspired me, Like that was.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Before chat gbts. You didn't even steal it from anybody.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
If you don't have a Cliff, you ain't grown wings.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Okay, fair point.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
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
(25:19):
in the arena and not one of those cold and
timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat nor defeat.
And so I forget where I'm going on this.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
No, you're you're talking about Carol. I love it, failing it,
the going for con a 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 2 (25:46):
If you have no failures, you've done nothing.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I just want to prove that right now 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, Well, see if she listens to the show,
because I just if she if she doesn't listen, we're
both gonna know.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Well. Look, I will say what happened on tariffs Wednesday
was a massive day. Number one for the market and
for a huge searche but number two, the ninety days.
We have an opportunity. This is not hyperbole. President Trump
(26:27):
could achieve the greatest victory for jobs and economic growth,
certainly in our lifetimes and maybe in the history of America.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
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 anoectual property. It's a national secure issue.
(27:00):
We witnessed 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 (27:10):
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
(27:33):
to the United States over the next one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
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
(27:59):
thousand year war against the United States, and that's.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Not hyperbole, and that's really how they look at it.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
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
(28:28):
is coming after us.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And this is national security. Things we depend on.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
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
(28:55):
in the administration who don't want the President to lower
two 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?
(29:17):
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,
(29:38):
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, and it has proved to be
(30:00):
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 and opening markets
(30:22):
to American producers.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
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
(30:47):
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 ballgame, and American
workers are saying, this is the ballgame. I've never seen
a moment politically where so many different factions are all
(31:09):
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,
(31:30):
and you start going country by country, when will we
start to see that because that's what the market's now
looking for.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yeah. 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 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.
(31:57):
That's complicated, Yes, And so I really like the ninety
day pause because it gives you ninety days to the
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 1 (32:12):
So you think in weeks we'll start seeing the first ones.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
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 (32:25):
The ninety days gives us time to do it right.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
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
(32:49):
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, all.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
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. YEA. Specifically it's happening in Texas
(33:28):
and it's making farming industry collapse and farmers disappearing from
areas because there is no water.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
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
(33:59):
year period.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
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
(34:21):
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 I spent a lot
(34:42):
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 (34:55):
Farms just because they don't have the water to do
it right.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
They're laying off thousands of work. 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 (35:16):
And Mexico, on the other side of green as can be.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
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, it's a great example. This is this is
literally the Mexican government stealing our water.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And if Joe Biden do anything to stop this, zero
and he knew about it.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
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 to lose our sugar
(35:58):
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
(36:22):
water commissioner for the United States. I like 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. Yeah, and
they just didn't care.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
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 2 (36:54):
So in South Texas, cities are also facing massive drought.
You're literally facing the cities not having an 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
(37:15):
two hundred and eighty million dollars in emergency relief for
Texas farmers because 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
(37:36):
Brook Rawlins. 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 Grande Valley wow. And she came to the
valley at my request. I asked her come down with me,
(37:58):
and we did. We did a press conference number one
where she announced I've got two hundred 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 Valley has
(38:21):
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
never happened. I have spent an enormous amount of time
(38:42):
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
over the last four years, did Joe Biden do a
(39:03):
damn thing for you?
Speaker 1 (39:04):
No? And that's how you turn this.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
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
(39:32):
this last election, for the first time, they pulled the
lever for 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 (39:46):
By the way, this is the first time for Verdict.
They've just opened the vote. They're only keeping it open
for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
So I'm gonna go momentary.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
You're gonna go momentarily, which means actually it's about twelve
minutes because I'm a couple minutes behind. Just this is
this is why I love doing Verdict, because this is
that's how it really works, and it's sending the Senate.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
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 (40:17):
Us the water. Yeah, knock it off.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
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 tonight when I was in
the Oval, I said, miss President, can you send that
truth post?
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (40:32):
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
(40:52):
hurting South Texas farmers very badly. Last year, the only
sugar mill in Texas clothes 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
(41:17):
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
(41:38):
Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins 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 Techi the water
(42:00):
they are owed. Is in all caps.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
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 a 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. Later,
President who is fighting for America. Joe Biden could have
done that for four years, but he didn't give a
(42:24):
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.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Great that's a greatreat victory for Texas in America. Go vote.
You're on the clock now. I love it. We're going
to cover it all every day for you. Make sure
you hit that subscribe auto download button and I will
see you back here tomorrow on the program.
It is one fifty in the morning. I have just
left the Capital and there is a one am vote
that is happening right now because of Democrats who forced
one am vote to protest Donald Trump and Elon Musk
and the agenda. This isn't a joke. I put the
(00:24):
video up on social media so you can see it
and welcome. By the way, it is nice to have
you on the Ben Ferguson Podcasts. I can't believe I'm
doing the show right now one fifty one am. I
am going to be joined with Senator Ted Cruz as
we are doing this special pod on an insane night
in Washington. We're also going to talk about the lads
(00:45):
with tariffs as well, and Mexico stealing water from America
that is shutting down farmers, all of that. As again,
it's one fifty one in the morning, and this is
while dysfunctional Washington actually is. Here is Senator Cruise and
I chatting about the big news and he's spent over
(01:06):
two hours in the Oval with the President on tariffs,
all of that for you right now. 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 (01:19):
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
(01:41):
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 that
We're going to talk about the backstory of why the
(02:04):
President 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 (02:18):
And we're in the same place. This usually doesn't happen.
We're in the same time zone right now.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
We're both in DC. Why are we in DC because
in a half hour I'm going to be on 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 gonna
(02:42):
commend Republicans of the Senate. 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.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
So we're like, fine, we'll do it. Hang out tomorrow.
So hour, let's go. By the way, if the Democrats 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 one in the morning. By the way,
we've got senators in their eighties, we've got senators in
their nineties.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
I do not envy the guy who has that job
to wake up the center because you know they're asleep.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
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 (03:28):
Know, believe you, I've seen you in the morning.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
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 (03:42):
Let's keep going on. There we go. Now we're getting
into reality.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Show seven am has? When it started, I had to
be up in like up and adam, Thank the Lord,
I don't.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Do what you had to be awake.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
I had to know what was going on, like I
mean it would be educated.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
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 (04:24):
Yes, you were, you were on your way. It was
the easiest way to get rid of me.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
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 (04:37):
And there's a reason why they took me off that
show one day.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
There's a reason, and 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 (04:54):
That is how I know what my life is valued
on this earth.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Right now, there you go, So and night. 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
(05:17):
fight on a very long time, 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
(05:39):
else they're going to be very serious penalties, tariffs, 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
(05:59):
a fascinating in terms of how international diplomacy has played
out and the advantage of a strong president who actually
fights for America versus the incredibly weak and an effective
president we had for the last four years.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah. Good, 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.
Let me tell you about Patriot Mobile real quick. If
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(07:38):
bill every month is going back to support conservative causes.
Causes that stand for our First and or Second Amendment rights,
the rights of unborn children, and they stand with our veterans,
our first responders, our police and firemen, are EMTs and
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(08:00):
slash ferguson or call them nine to seven to two
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dot com slash Ferguson or nine seven to two Patriot.
All right, so let's just start with a little bit
of color here. I gotta say one of the most
(08:23):
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.
And he pays for it out of his own pocket.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
He does.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
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 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 in, no, no, come over here, and he walks you
(08:59):
around the corner into the room. He has this like
full swag room and he's like three different hats with
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 with all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
To be fair, you're not in the oval.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Well, no, you're outside of it, but you walk back in.
You're like holding all this stuff in the olden you're.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
In the little office next to.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
The open yes, where the swag room is.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
And what happened in that little room, which.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
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 2 (09:37):
This is where Monica Lewinsky.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Did not have sex with that man?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
But but but shall we say? I don't know, I can't.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Problem is I think I did it perfectly there.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I'm trying to find a way to say this.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, and this is he did not have sexual or
regulations with that woman quote unquote, but may have.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
But it's also where the blue dress got sullied.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
There you go, that's a great way of putting it.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Uh make America great again hats, the forty forty five
dash forty seven. I mean it's it's it's legit.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
And he has all these shells full of swag and
he like says, hey, what do you want? Take whatever
you want.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
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 it.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And he just does that and he pays for it
all like he's out of his like 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 (10:46):
The one that Elon Musk wore that kind of made
it famous. A lot of people remember he put it on.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
He was like, so he actually pointed that out, and
so that's the one Elona wears.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So, and it's got all this stuff. He's got it's
cool stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
So and by the way, the vip geah is what
I was told, which I think we can confirm is true.
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 cuplings. They're amazing.
I still have in this day. You've got a pair now.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
As well, so I do. And I've had a couple
of presidential cuflings 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, 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
(11:38):
I probably got I don't know, two hundred of them.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
That is, I've.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Traveled the world.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
They give them to you, they get awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
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
(12:04):
this evening gave me two challenge coins, and his challenge
coins are literally three hundred percent the size of it.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Oh, it is like the size of the tariff you
put on Chinese gun.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
It's the size of a pancy.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah, it's a it's a coast.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's a coaster that's exactly like And he has 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 1 (12:32):
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 pot. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
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 passed. But it's
always cool because you're pass legislation, the President signed it
(13:01):
and suddenly becomes law.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Did you get to keep the pen he loves giving
away the sharpie.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Yes, And it's not a sharpie. It is much like
the challenge coin.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
It's huge.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
It is huge. It is probably three hundred percent the
size of a shark.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
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 (13:26):
So so I'll end up in my office framing that
signing pen because it's legislation that I passed. That's really 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
(13:46):
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, one hundred percent of the podcast was on
the tariffs, and than our Monday podcast, we talked about
two competing camps in the Trump administration. We talked about
(14:07):
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
(14:28):
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
(14:49):
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. Sure, 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
(15:10):
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.
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,
(15:33):
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
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.
(15:56):
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
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
(16:19):
President put out an announcement at lunchtime, and his announcement
was twofold number one. He said he was pausing all
of the reciprocal tariffs he had announced on April second,
for ninety days, for ninety.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Days, which is enough time to get deals done.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
So the total tariffs against China are one hundred and
forty five percent now he announced it. 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
(17:15):
teriffts and increased the tariffs on China. There wasn't exactly
a round of applause, but close, pretty damn close.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
There was literally there was a relief, and yes.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
A palpable sense of relief. And what is striking is
the market within minutes exploded and stocks sored up. So
tonight when I was in the Oval, I said, miss President,
as a result of your decision yesterday, you produced the
(17:47):
single largest increase in the stock market in one day
in the history of the United States of America.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
That's a good day.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
That is a massive day. And so I will say
the pause is import and I hope over these next
niney 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 tariff's in perpetuity. Over the
next ninety days, I hope we see announcement after announcement
(18:17):
after 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.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
None of it. Well, and Scott 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.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
There was a president's decision to wait until today.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
And again I know, as I've said in the past,
no one creates a leverage for himself like President Trump vision.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
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.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
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
(19:30):
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
(19:52):
will be brought down to a universal ten percent tariff.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I mean, you listen to them, and I think it's
pretty clear.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
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 (20:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And by the way, the Constitution, the minimum age for
member of Congress is twenty five years old.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yep. So she was on the House side. Yep. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
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.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
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 candidate. 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.
(20:55):
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 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.
(21:19):
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, you'd rather do the job you have
now than being a.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Biggest blessing in disguise, because yes, she would have done
that job. She would be the press 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 missed?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
You know the country western songs. Some of God's greatest
gifts are unanswered prayers.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
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.
(22:14):
You know what it was called what failures?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
How many were in there?
Speaker 2 (22:18):
A lot?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
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 Rhodes scholar. I'm pissed I didn't get it. Yeah,
but all right, I think it's tenth grade. Okay, this is.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
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 (22:45):
Although I tried hard, I tried hard.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
How thought it be fair? Is a tennis player really
a job? Well, you know it's a sort of sec
I mean, it's not a sc it like a tennis player.
You're wearing like a white eyes on. But like it's not.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Good swag we had. We had some nice Nike swag
like they we did it right.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I'm just saying you were a ball.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
It's not basketball. It's not baseball. I'll give you that.
I will get you dunk. No, I cannot dunk.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I played hoops with you. I knew the answer.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah I cannot. But I wasn't going for 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 2 (23:22):
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 1 (23:29):
Fox and Family ties amazing show. But but all right.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
So in tenth grade, I was sitting there in.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Class with my classmates and they.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
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 to fail, so I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, and you're like, screw that. I'm going for all
of it.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
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
(24:23):
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,
(24:46):
as a geeky fifteen year old writing a poem. Poe
inspired me, Like that was.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Before chat gbts. You didn't even steal it from anybody.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
If you don't have a Cliff, you ain't grown wings.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Okay, fair point.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
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
(25:19):
in the arena and not one of those cold and
timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat nor defeat.
And so I forget where I'm going on this.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
No, you're you're talking about Carol. I love it, failing it,
the going for con a 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 2 (25:46):
If you have no failures, you've done nothing.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I just want to prove that right now 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, Well, see if she listens to the show,
because I just if she if she doesn't listen, we're
both gonna know.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Well. Look, I will say what happened on tariffs Wednesday
was a massive day. Number one for the market and
for a huge searche but number two, the ninety days.
We have an opportunity. This is not hyperbole. President Trump
(26:27):
could achieve the greatest victory for jobs and economic growth,
certainly in our lifetimes and maybe in the history of America.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
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 anoectual property. It's a national secure issue.
(27:00):
We witnessed 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 (27:10):
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
(27:33):
to the United States over the next one hundred years.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
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
(27:59):
thousand year war against the United States, and that's.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Not hyperbole, and that's really how they look at it.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
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
(28:28):
is coming after us.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And this is national security. Things we depend on.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
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
(28:55):
in the administration who don't want the President to lower
two 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?
(29:17):
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,
(29:38):
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, and it has proved to be
(30:00):
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 and opening markets
(30:22):
to American producers.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
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
(30:47):
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 ballgame, and American
workers are saying, this is the ballgame. I've never seen
a moment politically where so many different factions are all
(31:09):
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,
(31:30):
and you start going country by country, when will we
start to see that because that's what the market's now
looking for.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yeah. 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 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.
(31:57):
That's complicated, Yes, And so I really like the ninety
day pause because it gives you ninety days to the
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 1 (32:12):
So you think in weeks we'll start seeing the first ones.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
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 (32:25):
The ninety days gives us time to do it right.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
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
(32:49):
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, all.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
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. YEA. Specifically it's happening in Texas
(33:28):
and it's making farming industry collapse and farmers disappearing from
areas because there is no water.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
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
(33:59):
year period.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
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
(34:21):
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 I spent a lot
(34:42):
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 (34:55):
Farms just because they don't have the water to do
it right.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
They're laying off thousands of work. 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 (35:16):
And Mexico, on the other side of green as can be.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
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, it's a great example. This is this is
literally the Mexican government stealing our water.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
And if Joe Biden do anything to stop this, zero
and he knew about it.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
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 to lose our sugar
(35:58):
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
(36:22):
water commissioner for the United States. I like 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. Yeah, and
they just didn't care.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
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 2 (36:54):
So in South Texas, cities are also facing massive drought.
You're literally facing the cities not having an 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
(37:15):
two hundred and eighty million dollars in emergency relief for
Texas farmers because 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
(37:36):
Brook Rawlins. 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 Grande Valley wow. And she came to the
valley at my request. I asked her come down with me,
(37:58):
and we did. We did a press conference number one
where she announced I've got two hundred 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 Valley has
(38:21):
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
never happened. I have spent an enormous amount of time
(38:42):
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
over the last four years, did Joe Biden do a
(39:03):
damn thing for you?
Speaker 1 (39:04):
No? And that's how you turn this.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
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
(39:32):
this last election, for the first time, they pulled the
lever for 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 (39:46):
By the way, this is the first time for Verdict.
They've just opened the vote. They're only keeping it open
for fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
So I'm gonna go momentary.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
You're gonna go momentarily, which means actually it's about twelve
minutes because I'm a couple minutes behind. Just this is
this is why I love doing Verdict, because this is
that's how it really works, and it's sending the Senate.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
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 (40:17):
Us the water. Yeah, knock it off.
Speaker 2 (40:18):
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 tonight when I was in
the Oval, I said, miss President, can you send that
truth post?
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (40:32):
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
(40:52):
hurting South Texas farmers very badly. Last year, the only
sugar mill in Texas clothes 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
(41:17):
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
(41:38):
Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins 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 Techi the water
(42:00):
they are owed. Is in all caps.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
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 a 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. Later,
President who is fighting for America. Joe Biden could have
done that for four years, but he didn't give a
(42:24):
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.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Great that's a greatreat victory for Texas in America. Go vote.
You're on the clock now. I love it. We're going
to cover it all every day for you. Make sure
you hit that subscribe auto download button and I will
see you back here tomorrow on the program.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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