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May 3, 2025 10:02-12:10 - CSPAN

02:07:48

Washington This Week

Participants

Main

tammy thueringer

cspan 26:23

Appearances

brian lamb

cspan 00:45

donald j trump

admin 02:02

justice brett kavanaugh

scotus 00:49

kathleen delaski

00:57

mark carney

can 01:32

mike johnson

rep/r 01:43

Clips

chief justice john roberts

scotus 00:27

joe neguse

rep/d 00:03

kristen welker

nbc 00:26

patty murray

sen/d 00:04

rachel maddow

msnow 00:07

Callers

chris-2 in virginia

callers 00:05

john in ohio

callers 01:28

kim in wisconsin

callers 00:30

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington and across the country.
		Coming up Sunday morning, we'll look back at President Trump's first 100 days in office with Washington Times national politics correspondent Susan Fericio and Vox senior politics correspondent Andrew Prokop.
		Then Jim Townsend with the Center for a New American Security discusses the Russia-Ukraine war and the Trump administration's efforts to negotiate a peace deal.
		C-SPAN's Washington Journal.
		Join in the conversation live at 7 Eastern Sunday morning on C-SPAN.
		c-span now our free mobile app or online at c-span.org today the mccain institute hosts its annual sedona forum This year, focusing on U.S. power through economic leadership, technological innovation, military strength, and cultural diplomacy.
		Our coverage begins at 11.50 a.m. Eastern with a panel on the Russia-Ukraine war featuring Senator Amy Klobuchar.
		Then at 12.30 p.m., an intelligence conversation with the former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence and Senator Mark Kelly.
		Watch the live panel discussions beginning at 11.50 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN.
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tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		This is Washington Journal for Saturday, May 3rd.
		This week, several new reports on the U.S. economy were released, including a stronger-than-expected April Jobs report and another showing the country's GDP fell in the first quarter of this year.
		Also, President Trump unveiled the 2016 White House budget request, which proposes cuts to non-defense discretionary spending and increased funding for defense.
		And the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could establish the country's first public religious charter school.
		Those are just a few of the stories C-SPAN has been following.
		And for the first hour of today's program, we're asking you, what's your top news story of the week?
		Here are the lines: Democrats 202-748-8000.
		Republicans, 202-748-8001, and Independents, 202-748-8002.
		You can text your comments to 202-748-8003.
		Be sure to include your name and city.
		You can also post a question or comment on Facebook at facebook.com slash C-SPAN or on X at C-SPANWJ.
		Good morning, and thank you for being with us.
		We will get to your calls and hear about your top story in just a few minutes.
		But first, wanted to give you some more information on one of the top stories I just mentioned, and that is the April Jobs Report from CNBC.
		It says job growth was stronger than expected in April, despite worries over the impact of President Donald Trump's blanket tariffs against U.S. trading partners.
		Non-farm payroll increased a seasonally adjusted $177,000 for the month, slightly below the downward revised $185,000 in March, but above the Dow Jones estimates for $133,000, the Labor of Bureau statistics reported on Friday.
		It also noted the unemployment rate.
		It says the unemployment rate held at 4.2% as expected, indicating that the labor market is holding relatively stable.
		The survey of households, which is used to calculate the jobless rate, showed an even stronger gain with an increase of 436,000 in those who reported holding jobs in the month.
		Another one of the reports looked at the GDP and the first quarter results there.
		Also from CNBC says the U.S. economy contracted in the first three months of 2025 on an import surge at the start of President Donald Trump's second term in office as he wages a potential costly trade war.
		Gross domestic product, which is the sum of all goods and services produced from January through March, fell at 0.3% annualized pace, according to a Commerce Department report Wednesday adjusted for seasonal factors and inflation.
		This was the first quarter of negative payroll growth since Q1 of 2022.
		It was during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that President Donald Trump was asked about the state of the U.S. economy and was asked about who gets credit or blame for its current state.
		Here's his response.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I don't view the stock market as the end of it.
		It's an indicator.
		But what the stock market really tells you and what you, when you look at the stock market in this case, is it says how bad a situation we inherited.
		I took place, this is a quarter that we looked at today, and we took all of us together.
		We came in on January 20th.
		So this is Biden.
		And you could even say the next quarter is sort of Biden because it doesn't just happen on a daily or an hourly basis.
		But we're turning it around.
		It's a big shift to turn around.
		And we're going to have the greatest country financially in the history of the world, I believe.
		I think we're going to do things that, and we had to do it.
		We reset the table.
		We were being ripped off by every single country with just about without exception.
		I'd have to really think hard for who hasn't taken advantage.
		And I don't even blame those countries.
		I blame the person that was sitting right here where I am for allowing it to happen where our country was ripped off on trade hundreds of billions of dollars.
		And now we're doing better than we've done in a long time.
		You know, we were losing four to five to even six billion dollars a day on trade with Biden.
		And now we have it down to a very manageable number.
		And the tariffs, for the most part, haven't even kicked in yet.
		So that's the way stock markets to me are an indication.
		But the big indication is what's happening, and the people around the table know what's happening.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Again, for this first hour, we are hearing on your top news story of the week.
		The lines, Democrats, 202-748-8,000.
		Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		And Independents, 202-748-8002.
		Some of the new stories, again, that we have been following this week include the GDP first quarter numbers as well as the April Jobs Report.
		President Trump ordering the federal funding cuts to PBS and NPR.
		President Trump threatens Harvard's tax-exempt status.
		And President Trump releases the budget request, the White House budget request for 2026, as well as the Supreme Court hearing a case on publicly funded religious charter schools.
		And a judge rules President Trump's use of Alien Enemies Act unlawful.
		Those are some of the stories we want to hear.
		If those are one of your top stories or if there's something else that caught your eye, we will start with Donald in Golden Valley, Arizona, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Donald.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm just wondering why Trump wants all of our personal information from Social Security.
		And I'm 76 years old, and he doesn't have any right to that information.
		And another thing, Trump wants to cut money from the federal budget, but how about this big parade?
		And he wants a poll of Putin where they go by and salute him and all this other crap.
		How many millions of dollars is that costing?
		And I'm about sick of it.
		All right.
		Bye.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Donald in Arizona.
		And Donald mentioned access to President Trump asking for access to Social Security information.
		It was a headline that came out yesterday.
		This is from the AP.
		Trump administration asked Supreme Court to let Doge access social security systems.
		Let's hear from Ron in San Clemente, California, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Ron.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning, Tammy.
		Thanks so much for taking the call.
		A couple of things.
		Of course, the tariff story is about as exciting as you're going to get because once he put his foot on the pedal there of the tariffs, it completely distorted all the markets throughout the world.
		So that was a good start for our president.
		I mean, what is that going to do except disrupt the natural flow of goods from now until who knows?
		And it doesn't matter if he rolls them back or not.
		Once you've started that, it's really a bad situation.
		And we can't let this go on like this.
		You know, if the first 100 days were bad, think about the next 100.
		The next 100 are going to be even worse because this guy is a systems guy.
		And you have to give Trump his due.
		He understands systems very well.
		And what he's doing is he's destructing our country step by step by step.
		And we can't let this go on.
		And I don't know how we're going to stop it except to remove the treasonous Republicans in the Congress that are going along with his program.
		And it's just not right, Tammy.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Ron, you're calling on the Republican line, is that correct?
unidentified		That's right.
		I'm a Liz Cheney Republican, old school Republican.
		I still believe in the Republican factors of the 90s and 2000s.
		And I still believe in those things.
		But I certainly don't believe in this guy.
		His methods and operation are unbelievable.
		I mean, we can't, I mean, the people he chose is, of course, I've got one big thing.
		I'm a decorated Vietnam veteran.
		And all I can tell you is when I look at Pete Hickseth and his sideburns, I just want to, you know, cry.
		I mean, because my first sergeant would have told us, you go and get your hair cut right now, or you are not allowed back in the barracks.
		So, you know, I mean, that's just a start.
		I mean, I know that's a small thing, but it's just something that is indicative of the type of people that he's had chosen to represent this country.
		And removing Mike Walsh is a bad thing.
		But it was funny because I didn't realize he was actually probably a real patriot.
		That's the reason why Trump got rid of him.
		But, you know, there's lots more they're going to be going, hopefully.
		And we'll see how it all turns out.
		But, you know, I'm.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Got your point, Ron.
		We'll go to Pete in Massachusetts, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Pete.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
		Yeah, I don't know where the list begins.
		It's another week and another disaster.
		And like the fellow said, it's going to continue.
		But the NPR PBS thing, that's more illegalities that'll be ironed out in the courts.
		So that'll be coming up.
		But that has to be approved by Congress.
		That can't be approved by the king.
		The other thing is the Russia thing, Ukraine, continues to just escalate.
		And we just seem to be okay.
		This administration just giving away land.
		It's okay for people to come in, take land, seize land.
		Do you know what kind of message that sends to our friends over there in Beijing?
		You know, with the land, that it's okay, that you get, you know, you get the the aggressor gets the spoils.
		I mean, it's just such a terrible policy.
		I don't even Rubio is supposed to be smart, but the other thing, I don't know if anybody cares in MAGA world, but this golfing thing every week, this week it'll be three or four days.
		This guy must be in the office about 20 hours a week.
		I mean, if people aren't seeing that, I mean, my God, spending our taxpayer money on these golf trips and then going to a commencement where he wasn't wanted.
		And it's just so I don't know.
		I could go on all morning if you gave me the time, but it's a disaster.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Pete.
		Let's talk with Bill in Tennessee, Memphis, Tennessee, line for independence.
		Good morning, Bill.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
		I'm just frustrated over Donald Trump.
		I voted for him the first time he read.
		I did not the second time because I figured he was going to be a disaster, and he has proven to be a total disaster.
		Now, this is one thing Americans need to realize.
		Now, this boy, what's his name?
		This me billionaire, this billionaire, is getting all this money from the federal government.
		And he's we've made him a billionaire.
		All these grants and things we give him for that sorry Tesla that he has working on.
		Why should he go into our Social Security?
		I'm almost 80 years old.
		And he's what what what he got his money from grants and all this corruption that Trump is is is doing.
		I think Trump is senile.
		I know I am.
		Have a nice day.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Bill.
		Let's hear from Julianne in Sanford, Connecticut, line for Republicans.
		Hi, Julianne.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you today?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		I'm doing well.
unidentified		So the thing I want to say is this.
		You got all these Democrats calling in every day, right?
		Making these outrageous comments that you let them talk for an hour, right?
		They don't even know what's going on.
		Because every time Trump speaks or he speaks in the cabinet or the press conferences, they don't see that.
		Because MSNBC and CNN doesn't show anything.
		They only go for more like people like Anderson Cooper, Nicole Wallace.
		So they don't know what they're talking about.
		And that's all I have to say.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Julian, you don't have a top story this week?
unidentified		Excuse me?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		You don't have a top story?
unidentified		My top story is: give this man a break.
		For four years, I heard, oh, you know, give Biden a break.
		He's doing the best he can, this and that.
		Give this man a break.
		Okay?
		He's 78 years old.
		He doesn't need millions anymore.
		He just wants to fix this country.
		This country was going to be destroyed if Kamala Harris or somebody else was going to be elected.
		Why can't they see that?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That's Julianne in Connecticut.
		Catherine, Plymouth, Massachusetts, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Catherine.
unidentified		Yes, I'm so glad.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I'm so glad I got on after that Republican.
		I mean, that guy is full of baloney.
		All of the channels cover Trump.
		But also, the thing that bothers me more than anything else is that Trump with this business about he's going to make America great again.
		My father was in World War II.
		My father-in-law, who I never knew, was killed in the Korean War.
		We are very patriotic Americans, and we think America is the greatest country in the world.
		Also, the people like this guy that just spoke, Biden had created the strongest economy in the world, so I don't understand what the people are talking about.
		Let's bring the economy back.
		Let's make America great again.
		But my other point I wanted to say is that people don't know what happened with Trump's first administration.
		One quarter of the farmers went out of business because of his tariffs.
		And some of those farmers committed suicide because those farms had been in their families for years.
		So the tariffs didn't work the first time with Trump.
		But I don't understand why the majority of the American people don't understand that.
		And then the other thing that bothers the heck out of me with Trump is that he has given the power to Elon Musk, who's a nobody, to basically dismantle our government.
		And certainly as an older person, I'm 79, I'm objecting to him having our Social Security numbers and any information about us.
		And there was one story out that didn't get much coverage that one of those Doge young men had been selling that information to a foreign country.
		Now, whether that's true or not, I don't know.
		But I want to say that I grew up with a Republican family background.
		And in the old days, the Republicans were well-dressed, well-informed, and well-educated.
		Now I think they're just a bunch of like, I'm mean.
		I'm very mean.
		I'm calling them scumbags.
		I also knew Donald Trump from New York City because I grew up in New Jersey.
		He was a white supremacist then, and he's a white supremacist now.
		He wouldn't rent or sell to black or non-white people until the courts went after him.
		So thank you very much.
		I appreciate your shows, and I wish more people were like better informed.
		Oh, one story I wish you'd cover is: did he negotiate the withdrawal from Afghanistan with the Taliban?
		He closed down the airports in northern Afghanistan so they couldn't use them.
		And then he blamed Joe Biden for the chaotic withdrawal.
		And somebody said that he freed 5,000 Taliban prisoners.
		And some of them could have been the ones that killed those American soldiers.
		I don't know.
		But that story has never been out on the news.
		And I wish somebody who knows something about it would put it there.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Catherine in Massachusetts.
		And another story making headlines this week was President Trump signing an executive order cutting funding for NPR and PBS from Axios.
		It says President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday night that's designed to cut funding for those two stations.
		Under Why It Matters, it says the order that calls the two biggest public broadcasters in the U.S. biased and directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease direct funding for them comes amid a broader push to target traditional media companies that Republicans see as biased against them.
		It goes on to say the situation is already intense with the CPB, which allocates about $535 million in federal funding annually to NPR and PBS.
		The CPB filed a lawsuit against Trump and several administration officials on Monday for attempting to fire members of its board.
		It was during an event on Wednesday that Axios hosted that PBS CEO Paula Kerger discussed potential cuts to public broadcasting.
		Here's a clip from that.
unidentified		Paula, we've got a lot of breaking news, but I first want you to respond to Speaker Johnson.
		He said that in a free market, you should be able to make your case for why PBS deserves government funding.
		In 30 seconds, make your case.
		Yeah, I actually agree.
		I mean, I think anyone that is asking for federal funding should be very clear on why it's important.
		And I think it's important to understand that the federal appropriation actually goes to our stations.
		Most of the money that comes in through the federal government was designed to ensure that we have public media stations in all parts of the country.
		And it's especially important for parts of the country where without that support, there wouldn't be public media stations.
		So for me, that's the strongest argument.
		I've spent a lot of time on the road.
		I've visited a lot of stations.
		In many communities, our public television, public radio stations are the last remaining locally owned and operated media companies.
		And just remind the audience: how many of those local stations fall under that PBS umbrella?
		We have 330 stations across the country.
		So we are in every community.
		When we think about what's been happening lately in terms of public funding for media, the Trump administration has tried to go after your funding as well as the funding of USAGM, which is the VOA parent.
		Yesterday was a very newsy day.
		The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is the entity that funds PBS and NPR, sued the Trump administration for trying to fire three of its board directors.
		Within hours, a federal judge halted that through an injunction.
		I would like your reaction to that situation.
		Yeah.
		So CPB should speak about their own board circumstance, but from what I understand, those three board members, you know, they're nominated by the president.
		They're approved by the Senate.
		This is not a government agency.
		This is a nonprofit organization that was set up to receive the federal appropriation and then distribute it out to the stations.
		Their job principally is to make sure that the stations are well run and that they are worthy recipients of funding.
		They do that for public television and public radio stations, and I think have done an excellent job.
		So it was a little surprising yesterday because they are an independent company, as we are.
		We're a separate 501c3 organization.
		So we'll obviously be following that very carefully.
		If Donald Trump were to go after your board members, would you take the same action and sue?
		Well, it would be hard to understand how that's possible because we're a non-profit 501c3.
		We have no connection to the federal government whatsoever.
		But of course, if anyone went after our board in any way, we would defend it vigorously.
		We have an outstanding board that does an extraordinary job in making sure that we are meeting the needs of the communities that we serve.
		Half of our board are the presidents of stations from around the country.
		And then we have a wonderful group of leaders representing both parties that represent a broad spectrum of interests and experience.
		And they do, I think, a really terrific job in making sure that we are meeting the needs of the public.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Back to your calls.
		Let's talk with David in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, line for independence.
		Hi, David.
unidentified		Hi, how are you doing today?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Doing well.
unidentified		Sounds good.
		The reason I called is because I've been thinking about everything that Donald Trump has done for the country.
		He's done a lot.
		He's done many things for our country, and people don't see it.
		And because they don't see because 92% of the 92% of all the information brought against him is negative.
		So I'd like to see all the things really tell the truth about what's going on.
		I know Trump isn't perfect, but he's not all these things that everybody is saying online about him.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was David in Wisconsin.
		Lanita in Fort Payne, Alabama, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Lanita.
unidentified		Good morning.
		First of all, that stuff that you just played, we can watch that for ourselves.
		And the newspaper clippings that you keep reading, we're not interested in that.
		And the lady from Massachusetts, I cannot believe that you sat there and let her call people names.
		That should not happen.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Lanita, what's your top story?
unidentified		We're all human.
unidentified		And that lady had no business calling in and degrading.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Leana, what's your top story?
unidentified		That's it.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		You'll go to Roland and Glenn Burney, Maryland, line for Democrats.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Roland.
unidentified		Yes, ma'am.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		You know, the whole purpose, the whole essence of the Trump administration is cruelty and retribution.
		That was all this man had in mind.
		Cruelty and retribution.
		That's the guiding force, that's the guiding light to everything he does.
		You know, you know, I wish folks in West Virginia that normally votes 80% for Republicans and voted 80% for Trump would actually call him and explain and tell me one thing they've actually gained or how he's made life right now in West Virginia better.
		As a matter of fact, they're about to get it and have it worse because when half the folks in Virginia lose their jobs, it's going to affect West Virginia as well.
		And back to the guy that's called the back, you know, somebody that said a while ago, oh, and he doesn't even take no salary.
		I mean, a paycheck for all he does.
		Are you kidding me?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Roland, Roland, our question for this first hour is your top news story.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		What caught your eye this week?
unidentified		Yeah, when will Cisan do a story about all the different ways Trump has been making all kinds of corrupt money?
		You know, they went on and on and on a Biden, I mean, Hunter Biden.
		This man has made, this man makes the kind of money Hunter Biden makes, made his entire career in one day.
		I mean, all kinds of ways.
		Next thing we'll be like, oh, really?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Got your point, Roland.
		We'll go to Kevin in Aria, Pennsylvania, lying for Republicans.
		Good morning, Kevin.
unidentified		Hi, good morning.
		So, my thought story this week is exactly what probably your last five or six callers have called in about.
		And it's about the media and about the negative news that Trump has been going through with this media.
		The things we can look at in the past, your last caller said something to the fact that telling us something positive about it.
		We'll let you know that he's not watching the news that some of the Republicans are watching because we just had the first 100 days of Donald Trump's presidency, and they listed this thing one thing after another.
		He's had 200 executive orders that have really made things happen.
		Earlier this week, he's in an interview with JD Vance, where they were asking him about this lopsided polling of the president.
		And I think Vance said it well when he said, well, look at how the pollers are.
		They said that Kamala Harris was going to win all the swing states.
		That didn't happen.
		They said she was going to win the popular vote.
		That didn't happen.
		So I think something that's very important in the news right now is the media and when are they going to be checked?
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That's Kevin in Pennsylvania.
		Barry in New York, lying for Democrats.
		Hi, Barry.
unidentified		Yeah, hi.
		Your last caller was such a snowflake.
		I'm sorry.
		All of your Republican callers today just seem to be lamenting how Trump has been covered by the media.
		I just have to remind them, he has an extremely lengthy rap sheet.
		But my top stories were: first of all, I attended a town hall meeting with my representative, Mike Lawler.
		And what really annoyed me, I'll be, I think he's holding several more.
		I'll be to each one of them.
		I'm sure you've seen the clips.
		He got booed and laughed at.
		And what annoyed me most about him was that he would be asked a direct question, and he would launch into an extremely boring and condescending explanation that totally bypassed each of the questions he was asked.
		In the next town hall meeting, if I'm called on, God help me, I hope I'm called on.
		I want to know from him.
		He was called, he was asked direct questions about Medicaid.
		The people in the town hall meeting were concerned about cuts to Medicaid.
		And he kept assuring us we will not cut Medicaid to eligible recipients.
		And he made it clear that that eligibility was going to be changed somehow.
		And so my question to him will be: tell me about the Doge Medicaid death panels that you're going to set up in order to figure out who will still be eligible for Medicaid.
		And will those people who remain eligible, are they eligible because they are sufficiently MAGA?
		Is there going to be some sort of retribution?
		I mean, this is the regime of retribution.
		I'm sure that that's what's going to happen.
		And then the second thing was I attended a May Day rally in New York City on Thursday.
		And these rallies are going to continue and they're huge.
		And the different thing that I saw in the May Day rally in New York City was the construction unions were there.
		And I actually saw a union member who was shouting along with everyone else who had a Let's Go Brandon sticker on his helmet.
		I kind of think that's an indication that something is turning here.
		And these union people are waking up to the fact that Trump is trashing unions and destroying their rights.
		And I am so glad to see the strength of these guys with the rest of us against the Trump regime.
		It's awesome.
		I am so happy.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Barry in New York.
		Glenn, also in New York, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Glenn.
unidentified		Hi.
		I'd just like to say that I love Donald Trump and everything that he's doing, especially the last couple of weeks.
		But he has to hire Derek Huff to teach him a few dance moves.
		What do you think about that?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We'll go to John in Florida, line for independence.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My top, I have a few top news stories.
		One of them would be the Transportation Department learns it's funding $54 million in woke grants, and they ended them.
		Also, another one was the White House sides with C-SPAN in its fight against YouTube for street streaming, which I find interesting as well.
		Also, Tulsi Gabbard, the DNI, talking about the biolabs in Ukraine this week and going to be checking into those.
		So just been a busy week.
		And also, of course, the big one was, you know, President Trump trying to get rid of the funding for PBS and I forgot what the other one was, PBS and whatever the other one was.
		Thank you.
		NPR.
		And then also trying to pull the tax-exempt status from Harvard, I found interesting, too.
		It's been a busy week as it is every week in the Trump administration.
		So I found it to be very entertaining.
		And as far as all the callers this morning, I hear a lot.
		I'm Generation X. I'm 53 years old.
		I hear a lot of old people calling in.
		And when I say old, I'm talking the boomer generation.
		And the boomers seem to be very upset about their Social Security and their Medicaid and Medicare.
		But if they ever listen to anything that President Trump says or any of the press conference or the hundreds of things on C-SPAN that you guys cover, they're not going to be touching them.
		You guys are going to be okay.
		Don't worry.
		My Generation X is the one who's going to be footing the bill for everything.
		I think they said in four years, they're looking at $47 trillion in debt.
		So I doubt I'll see any Social Security order.
		It'll definitely be altered by the time I get to it.
		So don't worry, boomers.
		You'll be okay.
		Thank you guys.
		Have a good day.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was John in Florida.
		And John mentioned President Trump threatening to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status from Politico.
		Says that the president on Friday said his administration would revoke Harvard University's tax-exempt status, escalating his fight with the nation's oldest institution of higher education.
		It says that Harvard, along with many other universities across the country, are exempt from paying taxes because they are included in a section 501c3 of U.S. tax code, which designates them as nonprofits.
		The IRS could yank Harvard's tax-exempt status, though not without cause.
		It would be, it would require to, I'm sorry, it would be required to show the school is violating long-standing rules governing when entities can receive tax exemption.
		That would be a lengthy process, and Harvard would be free to challenge the decision in court, a case that some experts have said the school would be likely to win.
		Back to your calls.
		Let's talk with Harold in Alton, Illinois, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Harold.
unidentified		Good morning, C-SPANners.
		I'm getting tired of everybody talking bad about Trump.
		It's not Trump.
		It's actually the Congress that's letting him get away with this.
		And the only reason they were letting him get away with this is because they want to keep that job.
		They're mostly Harvard and Ivy League educated lawyers that work up there in Congress, in the Senate, in the House, but yet they're willing to take jobs that are only worth $175,000, $180,000 a year.
		Why is that?
		Well, because now we don't have lobbyists that come to you with 200,000, 300,000 signatures of your constituents to get you to vote the way they want you to vote.
		Now we have corporations that fund your campaigns.
		So what I'm proposing is we get rid of the campaign financing through donations and we fund it through the federal government and through the states locally.
		And everybody gets the same amount of money.
		They get the same amount of airtime.
		And maybe we can get a butcher and a baker and a candlestick maker inside that Congress that will vote the way that their constituents want them to.
		And another thing is we need to quit gerrymandering all these states.
		We just draw a line straight through in so many sections.
		You got that section, you got that section.
		You can't gerrymander your way to where you can vote any way you want to.
		You need to vote the way your constituents want you to.
		And my other thing is the Supreme Court, if you get to go in and do your confirmation hearing and lie to the Senate to get confirmed, as in Kavanaugh and them all saying they're going to uphold president, but then they go ahead and overturn Roe versus Wade that's been the law for 50 years, they should be taken out of there because they lied in front of Congress, just like anybody else does.
		And if you take a bribe from a person, you get charged, and the person that takes the bribe ought to be charged too.
		If we go back to that way of doing, our country would be a lot better off.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Harold in Illinois.
		Dave in Omaha, Nebraska, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Dave.
unidentified		You know, since day one, even before day one, when Trump took office, the Democrats have been denied, denied, denied.
		What they're finding out is that by doing this this long, whatever they have to debate now means absolutely nothing because it's all been watered down.
		Trump is doing the best he can for the country.
		Don't worry about Social Security.
		They want to get the people that are on Social Security that don't belong on it to get off.
		We're $36 trillion in debt.
		I'm tired of the Dems.
		It's over.
		You know what?
		I know Trump's 2028 and beyond.
		Make America great again.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Dave in Nebraska.
		A headline from The Hill.
		Trump proposes steep cuts in first budget request of the second term.
		The story says that President Trump unveiled the White House budget request for fiscal 2016 on Friday, a set of proposals that would make steep cuts to non-defense programs while boosting defense and border funding.
		Said in a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, Republican of Maine and Office of Management and Budget, OMB Director Russell Vogt announced the president's budget would reduce base non-defense discretionary budget authority by 22.6%, cutting spending levels by $163 billion.
		That would include a roughly $18 billion reduction for the National Institute of Health compared to fiscal 2025.
		The article goes on to talk about the defense spending.
		It says on the defense side, the administration proposes to increase funding by 13%, bringing the total to just more than $1 trillion.
		On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson outlined deadlines ahead in the budget process as they work to enact President Trump's legislative agenda.
		Here's a clip from that event.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		It's a very aggressive timetable for a reason.
		We're trying to get this done.
		My original aspiration was by Memorial Day for the whole thing, but I've accepted reality.
		We'll get it out of the House by then, and then we'll send it to the Senate.
		I hope the Senate doesn't do a whole cloth rewrite.
		I hope they accept a lot of what we've done.
		We're working very closely with our Senate colleagues.
		Leader Thune and I meet, talk all the time, meet at least once a week with our lieutenants.
		We have a big six meeting once a week, and that's the Treasury Secretary and Kevin Hassett at NEC, Senator Crapo, Leader Thune, myself, and Jason Smith, Ways and Means Chair.
		And we meet with all of our top staffers.
		So there's a very close coordination.
		There's no secrets or surprises.
		And so the legislation that is sent over there, I think, will be well received.
		I don't think, I hope they don't do much to modify it.
		And I think we can get it at the President's desk quickly.
unidentified		But, Mr. Speaker, respect we hope isn't necessarily a strategy.
		They have serious senators over there who have serious concerns about the bill that you are drafting, and they are not going to rubber stamp that.
		So July 4th almost seems too optimistic for them.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		I don't think so.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		I mean, that was the Treasury Secretary said July 4th this week in public statements, and we applauded that, but I really hope we do it sooner.
unidentified		Is the real deadline the debt ceiling?
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		Sure, that's a big pressure point.
		And we don't know exactly when that X date will fall.
		The early projection is August or September, but I spoke with Secretary Besson just two days ago, and he said we're counting the tax receipts from April 15.
		We have a little bit more to do on that count, but we don't know exactly where it'll fall.
		I have had to work under the assumption, Hans, that it could be the earliest date, maybe early June.
		So we can't be caught flat-footed on this.
		And that is one of the other reasons why we push this so aggressively on the timeline.
unidentified		Is there no other way to do debt ceiling other than put it in the reconciliation bill?
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		Well, I wish we could do it in a bipartisan fashion.
		That's the way it used to be done.
		But Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have shown no indication they have any interest in working with Republicans, even to save the U.S. economy.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		If you would like more information on President Trump's budget proposal, you can find it on the C-SPAN website in a skybox.
		At the top of the page, just go to c-span.org.
		Let's hear from Dewite in Georgia, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Dewight.
		What's your top story?
unidentified		How are you doing?
		My top story is that I hear a lot of the Republicans, they call in and say Trump is doing this for free, which he is not.
		He has made more money from BitCon and all the stuff that he is doing just this year, over $50 million, just a billion dollars for what I was told.
		And I don't understand why they think that he's doing something for free.
		You know, they need to post how much money he has made since he's been president just this year.
		Because when he was when he lost the president and he had to pay all these fines that was due, he could even come up with the money.
		You know, in other words, that the government, they dropped down how much he's supposed to pay because he could even get the money.
		So you're paying there.
		You should have had no problem coming up with the money so you can be able to pay your fines or either put the money up so you can appeal the cases and he didn't have the money at the time.
		So all of a sudden, now he's the new president and he don't make more money since he's been in there.
		Now, he hasn't been in there for 100 days and he made a whole bunch of money.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Got your point, Dwight.
		We'll go to Lawrence in Minnesota, line for independence.
		Good morning, Lawrence.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My big story was from the Washington correspondence dinner where Alex Thompson from Axios won an award for his courage in reporting on the demise, I don't know a better word, over the years of President Trump in the White House and the failure.
		And he used the word failure of his peers to report on that.
		And while I do not think PBS and NPR should be defunded at a congressional hearing a couple weeks ago, you can look it up on C-SPAN.
		Both leadership from PBS and NPR admitted that they failed in reporting on that.
		So I appreciate your time, and I think you do a wonderful job.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Lawrence in Minnesota, and Lawrence said his top story was Alex Thompson winning an award at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
		C-SPAN covered that event.
		You can find it in full if you'd like to watch it on our website at c-span.org.
		Just about 15 minutes or so left in this first hour of Washington Journal asking your top story of the week.
		We'll hear from Richard, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, line for Republicans.
		Hi, Richard.
unidentified		Hi, thanks for taking my call.
kim in wisconsin ▲ ● ▼		My top story is Elon Musk stepping down from Doge, and I realized he was on a temporary assignment, so his time was designed to end because he had not been confirmed.
unidentified		I think it's disappointing that he's found $160 billion so far, and that's all he's found.
kim in wisconsin ▲ ● ▼		But I want to turn attention to the Social Security Administration because he's being blocked from his organization's being blocked from access, Doge, to that information.
unidentified		And I think if you were able to investigate, you would find a lot of savings there.
		And possibly you could lengthen the time by which you have to cut Social Security by 20%, which is projected to be in 2034, 2035, and everybody's Social Security check will go down.
		So that is, to me, that's my top story.
		Elon, it's not Elon's fault.
		He was limited by the typical government barriers that everybody else who has ever tried to do this has found.
		And I just hope in the future we get a handle on the deficit and the fact that we need to trim Gossett's Social Security Administration to get be able to lengthen the time we can pay out.
		That's my top story.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That's Richard in Oklahoma.
		Tim in Asheboro, North Carolina, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Tim.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
		My number one story is the raid on the house in Oklahoma City where the mother and her two daughters were forced out into the rain.
		I saw on Rachel Maddow where that raid was perpetrated by a new group as part of Oklahoma, I mean, Homeland Security, called Homeland Security Investigations.
		I would like to congratulate the administration on creating an internal police.
		This is the equivalent to Hitler's Gestapo.
		And for those who think that the debt is a problem of spending, the big problem is we're not willing to tax.
		And the administration to the proposed budget is going to make it even more impossible to find the tax cheats.
		So if you have any questions from me, I'd be love to answer them.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Tim mentioned, our caller mentioned that his top story was the Oklahoma raid.
		This is an headline from the Associated Press from just a few days ago.
		It says the Homeland Security pushes back against criticism of immigration raid at Oklahoma home.
		It says that the department on Thursday fought back against that criticism over its handling of a raid of an Oklahoma City home as part of an immigration smuggling investigation, saying the people living there hadn't been ruled out as suspects.
		The updated statement by Homeland Security came after the agency initially said the home's previous residents were the intended targets.
		The initial statement was followed by backlash from congressional Democrats and by the family that lives in the targeted home.
		The family, a mother and her three children, told KFOR-TV they had just moved into the home about two weeks earlier and had tried to tell the agents that the suspects listed on the search warrant did not live at the house.
		Let's hear from George in Maryland, line for independence.
		Good morning, George.
unidentified		Good morning, Tammy.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		And I'd like to talk about the subject most aggravating to me this week is the parade, the military parade that this character in the White House has got set up.
		I want him and the spineless Republicans in Congress to know that I'm not fooled.
		That the only reason for this parade is because it's his birthday.
		And it's something for him to satisfy that out-of-control ego that he's got.
		And I'm an independent.
		I'm also a John McCain Republican.
		So for him to perform a travesty that this parade, I hope it doesn't take place, but if this parade takes place, to me, it's not a tribute to the Army.
		It's a pass in review to his ego.
		And I feel bad for the military personnel that are going to have to take part in this parade.
		And I'm glad you brought the subject of the budget up and the money that's going to be taken from different agencies to fund the Pentagon.
		And I'm all for our military defense.
		I'm a Vietnam veteran.
		I was in the Marine Corps.
		I was proud to serve my country.
		And for him to hide behind the military like he does and then claim to be a supporter of it after he evaded military service.
		He insulted John McCain.
		And I've called in a number of times and brought this subject up, but it aggravates me so much that I want him and I want those spineless Republicans in Congress to know that I'm not fooled and that I hope that a whole lot more Republicans aren't fooled by the ridiculousness that's going on in this administration.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was George in Maryland.
		George, bringing up a parade.
		This headline is from Fox News.
		It says, Trump to host military parade to celebrate Army's 250th birthday, honor active duty service members and veterans.
		The article says that President Trump will host that military parade in June to honor military veterans and active duty service members.
		Commemorate the birthday.
		It says the parade is scheduled for June 14th.
		That's the 250th birthday of the United States Army.
		And as our caller mentioned, it's also President Trump's birthday.
		Says the parade will have reenactors, equipment, and more from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, Desert Storm, and the Global War on Terror, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.
		It will also feature active duty service members and students at the U.S. military academies.
		Let's hear from Lloyd in West Virginia, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Lloyd.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'd just like to say I'm satisfied with what Trump's doing.
		I mean, at least he's done something with the border.
		And that's more Joe Biden done.
		That's the reading.
		They say Joe Biden had a good economy.
		That's the reading Joe Biden let all the people come in here across the border because that was for his economy that kept his economy going.
		And him and Kamala didn't do anything about it.
		So Trump's done a lot more than they've ever done.
		And the same way with the Ukraine.
chris-2 in virginia ▲ ● ▼		I mean, Biden was just pouring money into Ukraine to fight the war.
unidentified		That's just like pouring gasoline on the fire.
		And so Trump sees that that's not necessary to keep doing that, killing a lot of people.
		And he's interested in stopping that war.
		And he's doing a lot of things to help.
		But the people, they just want to fight him.
		And the American people are their own worst enemy.
		They don't know what's good for them.
		And so As long as that's going on, this country will never be no better.
		And people they just fight against fighting against Trump.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Lloyd, we'll go to Harriet in Atlanta, Georgia, Line for Democrats.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Harriet.
unidentified		Good morning, America.
		And I say unequivocally not no military parade for Donald Tudor Trump ever.
		And I say, God bless America.
		And I hope everyone joins me in protest against this because I plan to hit the streets to protest.
		He does not deserve it.
		God bless you, Americans.
		Bye now.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Harriet.
		This is a story from Politico.
		It is talking about a Supreme Court oral arguments that were heard this week having to do with charter schools.
		And religion says the Supreme Court's conservative justices signaled Wednesday that they are open to allowing the Catholic Church to launch the country's first publicly funded religious charter school, despite arguments from opponents who say the school would violate the Constitution's ban on government-established religion.
		It says the justices heard arguments on an Oklahoma court decision last year that rejected a state contract to open the planned online-only charter school known as St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.
		If the justices overturned the decision, they would allow for the first time a charter school receiving state funds to teach an explicitly religious curriculum.
		It was on Wednesday that those oral arguments were heard.
		Here is a clip featuring Chief Justice John Roberts.
unidentified		And what they described it as at page 4A in their application of the respondents' appendix is the charter schools are privately operated not-for-profit entities.
		So that's what they're making up under state law.
		Just not only Oklahoma, North Dakota just became the 40th state in the Union to recognize charter schools as public schools, as the Congress of the United States is recognized.
chief justice john roberts ▲ ● ▼		What do you do with Fulton?
		You have a state agency that refused to deal with the religious adoption services.
		And we held they couldn't engage in that discrimination.
		Sure.
		How is that different from an education program and you want to not allow them to participate with a religious entity?
unidentified		So I think it's fundamentally different.
		I mean, and our position doesn't threaten faith-based contractors at all.
		The adoption agency in Fulton wasn't established by the state through legislative action.
		It wasn't fully funded by the state.
		It wasn't controlled by the state.
		I mean, the charter schools here are controlled in fundamental ways that my friends have glossed over this morning.
		I mean, with respect to curriculum, there's front-end and back-end requirements.
		They have to show as part of their application that they will meet the state's academic standards, which are, you know, highly reticulated down to the point that they have to teach Reagan's Tear Down the Wall speech in U.S. history or dangling modifiers in ninth grade English.
		They can't teach what other public schools can't teach, which is critical race or gender theories.
justice brett kavanaugh ▲ ● ▼		You're a little far afield, I think, from the chief's question, at least as I understand it, because I think a concern here is that religiously operated senior homes or food banks or foster care agencies or adoption agencies or homeless shelters,
		many of which get substantial funding from the government, would potentially, under your theory, this is the concern, become state actors and thus not be able to exercise their religion.
		So can you explain why the principle that you're articulating would not have that result?
unidentified		So in none of those cases do you have contractees that actually become a part of the state as charters.
justice brett kavanaugh ▲ ● ▼		When you say established sorry, I just want you to come back when you say a part of the state, I want to drill down on that.
unidentified		Well, that they're established by the state, the legislature, that they become a component of the state system, which is what the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Just a few minutes left in this first hour, let's talk with John Cleveland, OHIO LINE FOR Independence.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Good morning, I think, where people are like little dogs going around in circles chasing their tail.
john in ohio ▲ ● ▼		Both the Democrats and the Republicans are nothing but, at this point, and have been for a century, you might say, vassals of the CIA military industrial Pentagon Israel lobby complex,
		which has dragged us into wars for the past century, to the tune of excess of 10 times the next nine biggest militaries.
		spending powers in the world, and that that that little detail is, is hardly ever mentioned in any of the media, and I think there's a, a phrase that I made up and it is.
		It begins to reveal, if you search it, the total control of the media by the military industrial CIA Israel lobby complex.
		Is called the CIA Operation Mockingbird controls media to demonize and slander countries for U.S.
		Attacks against those countries, and I think you'd find out that there's an incredible amount of Senate and congressional committees the Church Committee and the PIKE Committee that proved this in the late 70s and is actually your point, John.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We'll go to Jerry and New Jersey line for Republicans.
unidentified		Good morning Jerry, good morning I.
		I was just for Trump because the millions of illegals that came in.
		We put out $450 billion on them.
		I voted for Trump because we were forced to take an untested vaccine that, under Biden, inflation hit 9% and Biden's dementia.
		I was a critical care registered nurse in a very high retirement area.
		And in 2021, I said Biden shows dementia.
		And, of course, I was blocked from everywhere that I put it online.
		And then I've never seen in my entire life where Kamala Harris could run without a single vote as president.
		And the entire Democratic Party covered Biden's dementia.
		And chill.
		it was obvious.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Jerry is there.
		It sounds like you're you're a Trump supporter.
		Is there a headline this week about President Trump that caught your eye?
unidentified		Yes well, the NPR.
		Now, who is the man that killed himself after he came forward that worked for them and said that all 86 are all Democrats.
		I would think that would show a little prejudice in an NPR, don't you?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		I mean, that was Jerry in New Jersey and our last call for this hour, Judy in Indiana, Pennsylvania line for Democrats.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning Judy.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		As far as there being a military parade, that's just for Trump's ego.
		When Donald Trump was asked about the four soldiers missing in Lithuania, the commander-in-chief said he didn't hear anything about it.
		He didn't know anything about it.
		Well, the four American soldiers were dead.
		And when they were brought home, Donald Trump didn't even go to Dover to meet the caskets.
		So this is the commander-in-chief that's going to honor the military.
		And the cabinet meeting I saw this week, Elon Musk said he saved $160 billion.
		Well, out of the $2 trillion he said he was going to save, he only found $60.
		And then Pam Bondi listed all the drugs that were confiscated at the border.
		And she said, thanks to President Trump, 258 million lives have been saved.
		So is she saying that 258 million people are drug addicts?
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That's Judy in Pennsylvania, our last caller for this first hour.
		Still ahead on Washington Journal.
		This morning, high school teachers Kevin Jackson and Ryan Ranka will join us to discuss this year's Advanced Placement U.S. government and politics exam and how students can prepare for it.
		But first, Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Kiernan joins us to discuss the current state of the U.S. economy, including the April Jobs Report and other economic indicators.
		We'll be right back.
unidentified		Book TV, every Sunday on C-SPAN 2, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books.
		Here's a look at what's coming up this weekend.
		At 6:45 p.m. Eastern, Dylan Mulvaney, creator of the Days of Girlhood TikTok series, speaks about her life before and post-transition in her book, Paper Doll.
		Then at 8 p.m. Eastern, British author and journalist Douglas Murray shares his book, On Democracies and Death Cults, where he argues that protecting Israel is fundamental to preserving Western civilization.
		And at 10 p.m. Eastern on Afterwards, journalist David Graham looks at how parts of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 document are being implemented by the Trump administration in his book, The Project.
		He's interviewed by author and George Washington University professor Matthew Dalek.
		Watch Book TV every Sunday on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Mike said before I happened to listen to him, he was on C-SPAN 1.
unidentified		That's a big upgrade, right?
unidentified		But I've read about it in the history books.
joe neguse ▲ ● ▼		I've seen the C-SPAN footage.
unidentified		If it's a really good idea, present it in public view on C-SPAN.
rachel maddow ▲ ● ▼		Every single time I tuned in on TikTok or C-SPAN or YouTube or anything, there were tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people watching.
unidentified		I went home after the speech and I turned on C-SPAN.
unidentified		I was on C-SPAN just this week.
patty murray ▲ ● ▼		To the American people, now is the time to tune in to C-SPAN.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		They had something $2.50 a gallon.
unidentified		I saw on television a little while ago in between my watching my great friends on C-SPAN.
		C-SPAN is televising this right now live.
		So we are not just speaking to Los Angeles.
		speaking to the country.
		Nonfiction book lovers, C-SPAN has a number of podcasts for you.
		Listen to best-selling non-fiction authors and influential interviewers on the Afterwords podcast and on QA.
		Hear wide-ranging conversations with the non-fiction authors and others who are making things happen.
		And BookNotes Plus episodes are weekly hour-long conversations that regularly feature fascinating authors of non-fiction books on a wide variety of topics.
		Find all of our podcasts by downloading the free C-SPAN Now app or wherever you get your podcasts and on our website, c-span.org/slash podcasts.
		Washington Journal continues.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Joining us now to discuss the current state of the U.S. economy, including the April Jobs Report and other economic indicators, is Paul Kiernan.
		He's a reporter with the Wall Street Journal.
		Paul, thank you for being with us.
unidentified		Thanks for having me, Tammy.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We'll jump right in.
		You had a busy week, a lot of news out, financial news on and talking about job indicators overall, including the April jobs report, which was released yesterday.
		Tell us about the report.
		What were the expectations?
unidentified		Well, the expectations were for a pretty solid report, and what we got was an even more solid report.
		Economists at the Wall Street Journal surveys had expected the economy to add 133,000 jobs in April, and we got 177,000.
		The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.2%, which is low.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		What does it say that it beat expectations considering the economic uncertainty right now?
unidentified		Yeah, I mean, really what it says is that the U.S. economy is resilient.
		It's like a big, complex machine.
		Think about it like an ocean liner or a tanker ship that's, or a container ship that's crossing the ocean from China right now.
		Those things don't stop on a dime even when they hit rough seas.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		And talk about some of the factors that are considered when we look at numbers that come out of a report like that.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		What overall are they looking at?
unidentified		Well, I mean, the biggest thing, the biggest factor in the jobs report was private sector hiring was strong.
		The federal government shed a few jobs, but it really wasn't enough to make a dent in the overall economy.
		Stepping back, I think, you know, I mentioned rough seas.
		The Trump administration is throwing a lot of shocks at the economy right now, but the U.S. economy is big and resilient, and we just haven't seen anything really roll over yet.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Another report that came out this week was on the GDP.
		It showed that the first quarter of for 20, first quarter of 2025, it shrank.
		Explain why.
unidentified		Yeah, so the headline number doesn't look great.
		It shows that the U.S. economy shrank by 0.3% in the first quarter.
		That was largely because there was a rush of imports, and imports kind of mathematically subtract from GDP growth.
		So what most economists seem to think is that companies, businesses, and consumers were kind of rushing to get ahead of tariffs that Trump has been talking about since last year and even longer.
		So there was really a surge of imports.
		But the rest of the report was like pretty solid.
		I mean, consumer spending was up, business investment was up.
		Those are kind of the real engines of the economy.
		And so, you know, the headline number was bad, but there wasn't much cause for concern, immediate concern in the report.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Our guest for the next 30 minutes or so is Paul Kiernan.
		He is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal covering the economy.
		If you have a question or a comment for him, you can start calling in now the lines, Democrats 202-748-8000.
		Republicans 202-748-8001.
		And Independents 202-748-8002.
		Another headline from one of your colleagues, Consumer Sentiment Plunges on Tariff Concerns.
		Survey shows.
		Explain consumers' expectations and what this report found.
unidentified		Yeah, so one thing that is really interesting that we're seeing in the economy right now is a split between what we call hard data and soft data.
		A great example of hard data is the jobs report that came out yesterday.
		Soft data is expectation, surveys of consumer and business expectations.
		So those are really kind of tanked this year.
		I think that you're talking about the conference board consumer confidence index, which came out last week.
		I think it's been going down for like five consecutive months.
		And that's partly a function of news headlines and policy announcements and all the uncertainty that's out there.
		So people's expectations for the economy are pretty low, but what they're actually experiencing so far is pretty good because most people have jobs.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		There is when it looks, when we're looking at economic uncertainty, there's consumer sentiment, there's also businesses.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		How have businesses been impacted or how are they reacting to the current economic state?
unidentified		Yeah, I mean, we've gotten some first quarter earnings in the past couple of weeks.
		And, you know, companies like McDonald's and Harley-Davidson and, you know, a number of retailers and consumer products companies have seen slowing or declining sales.
		So, you know, the sentiment seems to be getting felt by businesses, but, you know, at a high level, consumer spending has been pretty good.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		I want to play a clip from President Trump's cabinet meeting that he had on Wednesday.
		During it, he was asked by a reporter about the state of the economy and who gets credit or blame.
		We'll play it and then we'll get your response on the other side.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		Some people on Wall Street have expressed concerns that the possibility of a recession is increasing.
		And I want to know what you think about that.
		Are you comfortable with the country potentially dipping into a recession for a period of time if you are able to achieve your long-term goals?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Well, you know, you say some people on Wall Street say, well, I tell you something else.
		Some people on Wall Street say that we're going to have the greatest economy in history.
		Why don't you talk about them?
		Because some people on Wall Street say this is a problem.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		Well, that's what I'm getting at.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		That's what I'm getting at, though.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		It's a lot of people who are going to be able to do that.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		There are many people on Wall Street say this is going to be the greatest windfall ever happened.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		And that's my question in the long term.
kristen welker ▲ ● ▼		Is it okay in the short term to have a recession?
unidentified		Look, yes, everything's okay.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		But we are, I said, this is a transition period.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I think we're going to do fantastically.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We apologize.
		That was actually a clip from an NBC interview with President Trump.
		It'll be airing in full on NBC's Meet the Press tomorrow.
unidentified		But Paul, tell us what you heard there.
		You know, I heard the president defending his economic policy and the economic outlook.
		You know, no president is going to come out and say, you know, yeah, we're going to have a recession.
		It's going to be terrible.
		That said, we do surveys of economists, and I haven't really seen any survey responses from economists on Wall Street or elsewhere that suggest there isn't going to be some slowdown potentially from these tariffs, especially if they are made in effect.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		You had a headline back in March.
		Here's what to look for early signs of a recession.
		Tell us about some of those signs.
unidentified		Yeah, I mean, probably, so we talked about the soft data and the hard data.
		I mean, we've seen the soft data, the expectations roll over, but we haven't really seen it in the hard data yet.
		Traditionally, the first thing to kind of the first canary in the coal mine is initial claims for jobless benefits.
		When people get laid off, they go to their state labor agency and they request unemployment benefits.
		Those really have been range-bound for more than a year.
		And last week, they ticked up a little bit, but it wasn't outside the range.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We have callers waiting to talk with you.
		We will start with Guy in Oklahoma, Line for Independence.
		Good morning, Guy.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		Nice to talk to you, Paul.
		First of all, people seem to forget that a year and a half ago, we had two quarters in a row of negative GDP, which indicates the recession.
		And the media refused to acknowledge that.
		Oh, job numbers are up.
		You know, everything looks good.
		Economy is great.
		And here we are in Trump's first quarter.
		You know, we have negative GDP, but that's a lagging indicator.
		The only current indicator is the job report, which was 228,000 added last month, 177,000 added this month.
		The stock market is roaring back.
		It's almost repeat all of its losses here in the last month.
		Your take on inflation, Paul, because inflation, the last time I checked, it was at two-tenths of 1%, which has dropped from 2% when Trump came in office.
		Could you explain the inflation outlook?
		And the tariffs, also, by the way, they've all been put on pause except for China.
		And now China is coming to the negotiating table.
		So the tariffs have served their purpose.
		Please give me your take on the inflation outlook, your outlook for the next six months to year.
		Thank you, Paul.
		Yeah.
		So on inflation, I think you may have been comparing month-on-month numbers to year-on-year numbers.
		What we had in the first quarter was the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge was, I think, up 3.6% from the previous three months.
		And so that's, they target 2%.
		So inflation, I mean, inflation stepping back has been coming down since 2022 when it reached like a four-decade high.
		But it's not quite where we want it to be, which again is 2%.
		Most economists in our surveys and out in the world and also consumers expect inflation to be pushed up, at least in the short to medium term, by Trump's tariffs.
		And that's a concern for the Fed.
		On GDP growth, I'm not sure what number you were talking about when you said that it declined last year.
		If we look at sort of the first quarter of this year compared to the fourth quarter of last year, it contracted a little bit.
		And that was the first decline in three years, since 2022.
		It's pretty rare for GDP to decline, but again, like I mentioned earlier, the underlying factors are pretty strong.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		EJ in Atlanta, Georgia, Line for Democrats.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, E.J. Hello.
unidentified		I was wondering if you can tell me the difference between the economic indicators that you have now compared to what they were, you know, I guess in previous months as we had this changeover.
		Have they gotten better or worse?
		Hi, E.J.
		It's been remarkably steady.
		I mean, you know, if you look at the policy announcements coming out of the administration, the Trump administration is, you know, seems quite different from the Biden administration, to say the least.
		But the inflation or the economic data don't really show a huge change.
		I mean, one thing to think about is average job growth in the first four months of this year, I think, was $144,000 per month, including April.
		Last year was like $168,000, so that's come down a little bit.
		But if you look at kind of the underlying elements of GDP, it's pretty strong.
		So the hard data on the economy are still pretty good, but those are lagging indicators.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Along those same lines, a question coming in on X from Aztec asks, at what point do economic job numbers reflect the current administration, Biden-Harris fiscal year budget, and policies are still affecting much of what is happening?
unidentified		Yeah, I think that's right.
		And it's a great question.
		I wish I had the answer.
		I mean, I think that the most significant policy that President Trump has enacted so far on the economy are the Liberation Day tariffs, which were partly rolled back.
		But I think there's still 145% tariffs on a lot of stuff coming out of China.
		Those went into effect April 2nd.
		The jobs numbers that we just got were gathered early to mid-April.
		And so we could maybe start to see some effect in May.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Let's hear from Jerry in New Jersey, Line for Democrats.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Jerry.
unidentified		Hi.
		Listen, I have a couple of questions for you.
		One, I keep listening to the news media.
		In the last couple of days, I heard them say the jobs numbers were going to be low and things were going to be really bad.
		And oh my God, you've got to worry, everything's getting affected.
		And all of a sudden, the job numbers come out and they're pretty good.
		Now, as a Democrat, I am concerned because they keep saying how bad things are going to be.
		And yet, he's actually doing pretty good.
		Now, when you hear the numbers and then you hear the media, it don't coincide.
		And I think the media is trying very hard to get the public to really panic and go and try to stop them from spending and that kind of stuff.
		I don't see it.
		As a Democrat, I'm looking at numbers that look outstanding.
		And another thing, can you please answer what has actually gone up so far?
		Everybody keeps predicting with the tariffs, oh, we're going to be doing this and we're going to be spending this.
		Can you give me an actual increase in spending for things yet with the tariffs?
		I haven't heard that yet.
		It's possible.
		It's maybe.
		It could be.
		But can you give me an actual number of what actually has increased?
		Eggs are down.
		I'm paying gas is down.
		It's 100% better.
		So what's gone up?
		I mean, can you give me an answer to that, please?
		I'm not actually sure what's gone up.
		I mean, I was looking at one of our stories from this past week, and we analyzed some e-commerce data on about 10,000 products sold by Amazon, Walmart, and Target, I believe.
		And they're basically flat since Liberation Day.
		A big part of that is because we saw in the trade data that companies were building up inventories during the first quarter.
		They knew tariffs were coming.
		They wanted to get as much product into the country as they could before they hit.
		And so, you know, there's a little, I think there's a little bit of time before they start actually having to raise prices.
		They have warned that that is, you know, probably going to happen if the tariffs remain in effect.
		And then in terms of what's going to happen, I mean, nobody knows what's going to happen to the economy, where it's going to be in six months or a year.
		And anyone who says they know with any confidence has got a little bit of hubris.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		The Federal Reserve has a meeting next week.
		President Trump has called for them to cut the interest rate.
		So far, it has not happened.
		What needs to happen before we could see a cut?
unidentified		Yeah.
		Sorry, I was looking at the camera.
		The Fed is really worried that tariffs are going to push up prices and also drive people to expect higher inflation for a long time.
		And they really want to avoid that outcome.
		So they're in no hurry to cut interest rates.
		And the jobs report yesterday, which showed continued hiring through April, have probably pushed off the chance of a rate cut beyond June.
		I mean, a week ago, most market participants thought a rate cut might be coming in June.
		Now they've pushed it back to July.
		So to get a cut, to answer your question, I think it's going to take some kind of meaningful deterioration in the labor market.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		A programming note, it's on Wednesday that the Federal Reserve will have that meeting.
		After it, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will give an update on the interest rates and the U.S. economy.
		That's a closed-door meeting, but he will speak after.
		You can watch that news conference.
		It'll be live here on C-SPAN at 2.30 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3.
		You will also be able to watch it on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and online at c-span.org.
		Let's hear from James in Akron, Ohio, Line for Independence.
		Good morning, James.
unidentified		Yes, I have two questions, but I want to answer the lady from Jersey about the economy being better.
		What happened was that the bad projections weren't met.
		And so therefore, it is doing better than they had expected it to be.
		So the economy is not doing good.
		In fact, everything you go to the store now is just as bad or worse than it was several months ago.
		Now, I have a couple questions.
		One in particular, I don't understand.
		We talk about the border crossings and stuff like that.
		Right now, the Republicans are in charge.
		They can change, they can put a border law in so that we won't have this border problem again because they own all branches of the government.
		And by not doing that, once this thing is all over again, we start all over again and we'll start hearing about how bad the border is.
		Why won't the Republican Party pass a law so that we can change the laws to what they like so that we won't have the problem with the border?
		And the other question that I want you to answer that question in particular, and I want you to answer this one.
		At what point does the economy become Trump's economy?
		When does that happen?
		I want those two questions answered.
		When will the economy become Trump's economy?
		And why can't the Republicans pass a border law so that we don't have the border problems again?
		Thank you.
		Thanks for calling.
		Yeah, so on the second question, the longer we get into the Trump administration, the more of the economy I think he owns.
		If we had tumbled into recession in January of 2025, it wouldn't really be fair to pin it on Trump.
		But if things start to go pear-shaped later this year, next year, that looks a little bit more like it's Trump's problem.
		On the border, I can't really speak for Republicans, but the data that we have so far this year shows that border crossings have really plummeted.
		There's been a real drop in border crossings, and that's probably because of the administration's policies.
		Will it last?
		Is it structural?
		Who knows?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Let's hear from Homer in Florence, Massachusetts, Lyon for Republicans.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Homer.
unidentified		Hello, yes.
		I was wondering if you can explain to me how inflation rose under Joe Biden, and the press gave every excuse in the book.
		They said inflation is not happening.
		Then they said, okay, it's happening, but it's transitory.
		Then they said inflation is not as bad as the rest of the world.
		And then they said, it's not a recession because of the old definition of two quarters in a row.
		I mean, they changed the definitions.
		I remember during Trump's first president administration when the stock market was booming, they said that was just the rich people and that the poor people were just getting nothing.
		And now they're saying it's the 401ks and all that when it's like not even 12% of the stock market goes to them.
		So I'm just curious about that.
		I remember when the Democrats pushed through their reconciliation bill during the first two years of Biden and they didn't have any Democrat or Republican input into it.
		So nobody complained about that.
		And the Democrats had for that last guy, the Democrats had everything for the first two years of Biden and didn't do anything about the border.
		So I'm wondering why they didn't do anything about it when they could have done it.
		They just kept telling us that the president can't do anything about the border and then suddenly now the president can.
		And I'm also wondering why they said that before when everything was going bad, they said, well, the president doesn't have that much to do with the economy.
		You know, Joe Biden's spending billions of dollars on everything else in the world, like green energy, nothing to help Americans.
		And then they said the pain would be worth it.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Okay, Homer, that's a lot for Paul to unpack.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We'll have him respond to some of those.
unidentified		Yeah.
		On the border, you know, I think that people's decision to migrate to the U.S. is based in part on their perception of an administration's policy.
		I mean, you know, I'm here to talk about the economy, so I don't want to get too far into that.
		And yeah, I mean, on inflation, during the Biden administration, you're right.
		There was a big spike.
		A lot of economists, particularly inside the administration and at the Fed, frankly, thought that it was going to be transitory.
		And it did end up being transitory, but that didn't mean that it wasn't painful.
		And, you know, prices are still kind of too high for a lot of people's earnings.
		You know, they're still feeling it.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		On the topic of immigration policy, somebody sent a question in on X it says, what is the impact of the deportations on the job report?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Do we have those numbers?
unidentified		That's a really interesting question.
		So on deportations, on deportations, we don't this administration has not actually deported a lot more people than the Biden administration, I think, if I'm recalling correctly, maybe even deported less.
		It has arrested more people.
		The big change has been the significant drop in immigration flows and people crossing the border.
		That does not have an immediate effect on the labor market because for a lot of people, maybe even most people, it takes time to get a job.
		If they're getting work permits, it takes time to get a work permit.
		Most economists think that job creation, sort of the run rate, the sustainable rate of job creation the economy can handle, is going to decline over the course of this year to reflect the drop in immigration flows.
		That drop began last summer under the Biden administration, but it's accelerated under Trump.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Let's hear from Robert in Raleigh, North Carolina, Line for Independence.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Robert.
unidentified		Hi.
		Good morning, Mr. Paul.
		I have a comment and a question.
		My comment first is individuals, we're all individuals and we all have our own personal economies.
		You know, some are entering the workforce, some are retired, some are working class, middle class, working, some are millionaires.
		But in America, my comment is I find a lot of people and business people who, no matter what their economic status is, they want more.
		Everybody wants more.
		Everybody's becoming more individual.
		Everybody is hiking up prices for whatever reason.
		And then my question is, you as a reporter, how do you report without any biases when it seems like in our country there is just so much bias?
		And how can anybody truly gauge the economy when everybody is so individually minded?
		And the economy is supposed to be the distribution of wealth for everyone.
		Thank you.
		Thanks, Robert.
		You're talking to a fellow Raleighite here, so glad to hear you.
		Glad to hear you calling in.
		You know, on your second question, you know, journalism, our job, you know, someone asked me earlier what's going to happen to the economy.
		I don't know.
		I mean, our job is to really, it's a great job.
		And it's a simple job in a way.
		We go out and we kind of try to report on the state of the world as it is.
		I mean, a lot of people thought that the labor market, the economy would have turned south in April.
		We got data from a very trusted source yesterday that showed that it didn't, that it continued humming.
		And so, you know, we just kind of try and report on those facts.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Wanted to ask you about another headline that you had in March related to what you just mentioned.
		You were referring to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and that's where we got the numbers for the April Jobs Report.
		You had a headline, Trump administration disbands two expert committees on economic statistics.
		It's going to impact that bureau.
		Tell us about this story and also the impact it could have.
unidentified		Yeah, so there's been kind of a since January and even before that, you know, there's kind of a long-running concern about the quality of our economic statistics.
		Part of that is because government statisticians gather data by surveying the public.
		They call tens of thousands of people a month.
		They knock on doors and visit houses.
		And as you probably know from other survey sources, public opinion polling, people just don't answer the phone like they used to, especially when it's a strange number calling.
		So what you're talking about now is kind of part of this suite of concerns about economic data quality.
		Disbanding those panels, those committees, is not going to have an immediate impact.
		No one's out there saying that our economic data are being cooked or anything like that.
		What those panels do, if I recall correctly, is they try to make sure that the questions that the government is out asking people about the economy are still relevant.
		So there's kind of a long-term implication there, but not short-term.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk with Ruth and Sebastian, Florida, line for independence.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Ruth.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for letting me speak.
		And good morning, Mr. Kiernan.
		The question I have for you is, what is your belief or your feeling regarding the policy that Mr. Vesos, the Amazon president, had come up with advising the customers the difference in the price with the tariff, which apparently the Trump administration didn't like?
		I think we as customers would be a great idea to know what is the difference in the price, because right now we're thinking it's going to be tremendous and people are not buying.
		They're not going out to eat restaurants.
		They're not going to McDonald's.
		But if you know the difference in the price, you may even give us an idea to see how we're going to proceed.
		And also, the price may go down eventually.
		So what is your feeling?
		Yeah, it's a good question.
		I wasn't reporting on that, but I think it's not surprising that Amazon would want to say these price increases are not our fault.
		And it's equally unsurprising that the administration would not want to be publicly blamed for that by a company that so many people buy their goods and services on, goods on.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk with Willie in Chicago, Illinois, Line for Democrats.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Willie.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Mike's question is a simple one.
		I see on the news that the deportationists are approaching the farmers, and I wanted to know how accurate that is.
		I'm not sure.
		I'm not sure that we've seen, I'm not sure that I haven't personally seen those reports.
		I'd love to know more.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Mentioned at the beginning of the segment that it was a busy week for you with a lot of information, data coming out.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		What are you going to be watching in the coming weeks and months?
unidentified		Yeah, I mean, I think the main thing is really going to be continuing to keep the pulse on the labor market.
		Also, inflation.
		I mean, it's possible that we could start to see some prices rise in April.
		The more companies kind of wind down their inventories, the more likely that's going to be.
		And then, of course, the Federal Reserve's meeting this week is probably the kind of highlight in economic news land.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We had hit President Trump's 100 days in office earlier this week.
		When we look at what he's done and what he's put in place, a couple callers have asked the question, when could we see the overall impact?
		When could we see his actions affect the economy?
		Traditionally, do we know how long it's taken other administrations to see an impact?
unidentified		Yeah, we don't really know because the tariffs that President Trump has imposed are kind of unprecedented.
		You know, the most recent comparison we have is, I think, like the 1932 Smoot Hawley tariffs or 1930, I can't remember.
		So, you know, there's really not kind of a strong precedent for like this many tariffs on this many products, this many countries, you know, when it starts to jack prices up.
		But, you know, companies are not going to buy a year's worth of goods to put in their inventories.
		So maybe in the next few months.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Let's take one more call.
		It's Tony in Cleveland, Ohio, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Tony.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I was calling to see how come people can't see that what Trump is trying to do is to tear down our democracy, the rule of law, so that he could make everything in his way and disenfranchise black, poor, and brown people.
		And the problem that he's calling like he's fixing now, he made these problems and now he's trying to act like he's fixing them.
		How come people can't see that and talk about the plane issues?
		And when they're talking about issues, get straight down to the point.
		He's disenfranchising black people, brown people, and he acts like he don't know the law, but he knows the law.
		Hi, Tony.
		You know, we live in a polarized country that's politically polarized.
		And people live in often their own kind of little information bubbles online.
		You know, they get news feeds on, you know, ex formerly Twitter or other, you know, social media platforms that often kind of reflect the views that they already have.
		And, you know, I think that happens on both sides of the political spectrum.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Our guest, Paul Kiernan, reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
		You can find his work online at WSJ.com.
		Paul, thank you so much for being with us.
unidentified		Thanks for having me, Tammy.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Still ahead this morning, high school teachers Kevin Jackson and Ryan Werenka will discuss the upcoming Advanced Placement Government and Politics exam and how students can prepare for it.
		But first, it's open form.
		You can start calling in now.
		Here are the lines.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		And Independents, 202-748-8002.
		We'll be right back.
unidentified		Next week on the C-SPAN Networks, the House and Senate are in session.
		The House plans to vote on legislation by Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, codifying President Trump's executive order into law.
		The Senate will vote to confirm Frank Bizignano to serve as Social Security Commissioner.
		Also, for the first time since taking office, Trump cabinet members will testify before House and Senate committees on their respective departments and agencies.
		On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam testifies before the House Appropriations Subcommittee conducting oversight on her department.
		And Treasury Secretary Scott Besant will appear before two committees on Tuesday before the House Appropriations Oversight Subcommittee on the Department of Treasury.
		And on Wednesday, before the House Financial Services Committee for his annual testimony on the state of the international financial system.
		Also Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gives a press conference following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
		And Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will participate in a fireside chat to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York.
		Watch live next week on the C-SPAN networks or on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app.
		Also, head over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on demand anytime.
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		Washington Journal continues.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back for the next 20 minutes or so.
		We are in open form.
		We will start with Daniel in Ithaca, New York, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Daniel.
		Daniel, are you there?
unidentified		Oh, yes, ma'am.
		Yes, ma'am.
		What?
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Daniel.
		Go ahead.
		You're on.
unidentified		Yeah, I was homeless in D.C.
unidentified		That was Barbara Harry first, Kazziet, and I'm my roommate out on the other side of town.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We'll go to Luann.
		I'm sorry, Lukandu in Chicago, Illinois, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Likandu.
unidentified		Are you there?
		Yes, good morning.
		I just had one question.
		One thing I wanted to say about this.
		Like, I don't understand why we're not seeing what this Trump administrator is doing.
		He's not doing nothing for the country.
		He's only doing stuff to make him and his billionaire friends who elected him richer while the other country starving.
		Dan, for him to say some stuff that we're going to be go through a little transition period where we're going to have a little bit of problem.
		But is any other billionaires going to have any problems like that?
		No.
		So I don't understand this.
		Trump administrators the one.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Lakandu in Chicago.
		Let's talk with Diane in Barberton, Ohio, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Diane.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning, Channel.
		Okay, first of all, I think let's go back to years ago when the government then allowed the open amount of money that came in from the companies that went to China.
		These were rich people who had companies, then got people to work for very little, and so they then in turn got very rich.
		Somehow, they transitioned over to the Chinese people, and so they became the Americans that went over there became very, very rich.
		Why shouldn't they be the ones that pay for our debts in terms of they made all the money off of that Chinese, and yet we're the ones who are having to pay back money that they actually were earning?
		So why wouldn't that help our economy instead of throwing the tariffs on the Chinese?
		And second of all, I want to say that people who are talking about him doing such a good job, he's not.
		He is doing what he thinks we need.
		And we need a strong economy.
		And prices are going still sky high.
		I can tell you right now, I went to the grocery store yesterday.
		Beef alone is $3 more than it was back in December.
		So this idea that prices are going down, they're not.
		When it comes to gasoline, those are still sky high.
		I think it was, I saw 305, 350 in the Northeast Ohio area.
		There are many, many things I can talk about, but we don't have the time.
		So thank you, Tammy.
		And people listen.
		Don't just assume he's doing a good job.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Diane in Ohio.
		Mary in Maine, line for Independence.
		Hi, Mary.
unidentified		Hi.
		My comment is that, and my question is: could Donald Trump have done what he wanted to do in a legal, kind, respectful way instead of the bullying way he's doing it, instead of making us the laughing stock of the world, instead of making us ashamed to be an American, could he have done what he wanted to do in a respectful and legal way?
		I just want everyone to consider that.
		That's all I have to say.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Mary in Maine.
		Linda in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, line for Republicans.
		Hi, Linda.
unidentified		Yes, Tammy.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I've been trying so many times.
		And I'm going to go back to everybody made a big deal about COVID and Donald Trump.
		Okay, what about all the people that have died because the Biden administration left all the illegal people in?
		They're complaining about the price it's going to cost.
		What about the cost that it costs to bring these people in and take care of them?
		Also, this is something old.
		The Democrats always say Donald Trump's a rapist.
		Well, what was Clinton in the White House with his wife and his child there with the interns?
		They forget about that.
		And we wouldn't even be talking about immigration if they wouldn't have left all these people in.
		Also, nobody protested when Biden signed the thing where all the fracklers lost their job, 11,000 people.
		Second of all, what about the people that were government people that got let go because they wouldn't take the shot?
		Where's my body, my choice?
		It's all confusing to me.
		I know Donald Trump's not perfect, but I'm sure the Biden administration was more imperfect because we never even saw the man.
		We see Donald Trump constantly, like it or not.
		So that's all I got to say.
		And thank you.
		Thank you, Tammy.
		And you do a great job.
		Thank you very much.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		And that was Linda in Pennsylvania.
		A look ahead at next week.
		A headline from The Hill, Canadian Prime Minister says he'll visit the White House on Tuesday.
		It says that Canada's newly elected Prime Minister, Mark Carney, said he will visit the White House on Tuesday for a meeting with President Trump.
		It says that the meeting comes in the wake of tariffs that Trump has imposed on Canada and the President's proposal for the nation to merge with the U.S. Something Kearney earlier this week said isn't ever going to happen.
		It was during Prime Minister Kearney's first news conference after winning the election that he was asked about Canada becoming the 51st state.
		Here's a clip from that event.
unidentified		In your second call with the president, did Mr. Trump outright say or insinuate at any point that Canada should become the 51st state?
		He did not.
		All right.
		We've heard Mr. Trump on April 23rd and his surrogates throughout the final days of the campaign reiterate the idea that they believe Canada should become the 51st state on the campaign trail.
		You said on multiple occasions that respect for Canada would be one of the key things in terms of having a meeting with him.
		Do you think over the past few days we have seen respect for Canada from the Trump administration?
		Look, I would always important to distinguish want from reality.
		La volunté et la realité, right?
		What someone wants and what is reality, and what the Canadian people clearly have stated, virtually without exception, is this will never ever happen.
		And if any of the leaders of the party and their representatives would attest to that, I think the votes attest to it.
		I think the public dialogue attests to it as well.
mark carney ▲ ● ▼		And we are, you know, we're meeting as heads of our government to discuss that partnership.
unidentified		Now, I'm not pretending those discussions will be easy or they won't proceed in a straight line.
unidentified		There will be zigs and zags, ups and downs.
mark carney ▲ ● ▼		But as I said in my remarks, I will fight for the best deal for Canada and only accept the best deal for Canada and take as much time as necessary.
unidentified		Davis Lagree, eye politics.
unidentified		Hi, thanks for taking our questions.
justice brett kavanaugh ▲ ● ▼		Just one for me to try and squeeze some more reporters in.
unidentified		But to my colleague's point, the White House's public position has continued to be that Canada should be the 51st state.
		You yourself have said that Donald Trump is trying to break Canada.
		Considering all that, how can you expect good faith negotiations when you travel to Washington next week?
mark carney ▲ ● ▼		Look, I think the first I've had the direct conversation with him on whatever day it was, Tuesday, I guess it was a couple of days ago, and we agreed to have those negotiations.
unidentified		Very clear discussion between us, as I said, very constructive.
mark carney ▲ ● ▼		And I would say the time allocated to our meeting and the seniority of the president, so that's as senior as you get, but the other members of his administration who will be assisting at those meetings suggest the seriousness of the discussions.
unidentified		Again, we are not, do not expect white smoke out of that meeting.
		There will be white smoke probably later somewhere else in the world this month, but do not expect that.
		So that's the first thing, is just the level of the direct dialogue, the discussion, the level of people there.
mark carney ▲ ● ▼		The second point, I'll make it quickly and thank you for restricting the question so others can get in, is that he respects, as others who are good negotiators, and he's one of the best negotiators, they respect strength.
unidentified		That's why we're building Canada strong.
mark carney ▲ ● ▼		There's lots of reasons to build Canada strong, but the point is, and I will make this point repeatedly, we have more than enough to do here at home.
		That point about we can give ourselves more than the Americans can take away is absolutely right.
		We can have a bigger boost to our economy, to incomes, to jobs, by focusing on building one Canadian economy, by building these nation-building projects, by focusing on getting productivity up, by reducing government waste, by driving investment in this country.
unidentified		And so that is a good in and of itself.
mark carney ▲ ● ▼		We're going to focus on that while we have these negotiations with the Americans.
unidentified		And if the negotiations with the Americans take longer, so be it.
unidentified		We've got more than enough to do here.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Just a few minutes left in this open forum, but wanted to share a programming note.
		Today, the McCain Institute hosts its annual Sedona Forum this year, focusing on U.S. power through economic leadership, technological innovation, military strength, and cultural diplomacy.
		Our coverage of the event begins at 11:50 a.m. Eastern with the panel on the Russia-Ukraine war featuring Senator Amy Klobuchar, and then at 12:30 p.m. and intelligence conversation with the former Deputy Principal Director of National Intelligence and Senator Mark Kelly.
		You'll be able to watch the live panel discussion beginning at 11.50 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN.
		You can also find it on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and online at c-span.org.
		Let's talk with Perry in Bellflower, California, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Perry.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'd like to address two presidents that everybody seems to think are so great.
		The first would be Mr. Lyndon Baines Johnson.
		I don't know if anybody out there has been watching, but Ken Burns' Vietnam mini documentary has been on.
		And it just shows Lyndon Johnson for what he was, an openly racist president who passed the Civil Rights Act in an attempt to save his legacy after putting all these thousands of young GIs into Vietnam when three presidents before him knew better than to do that.
		They all sent special forces in.
		But this guy, he had to send all these Americans in there and try to win this no-win war.
		And then the second one would be Mr. Barack Obama, who no less than 10 years ago, knowingly, willingly, and with forethought, armed the cartels with thousands of semi-automatic weapons in an attempt to undermine the Second Amendment and then tried to call it a botched gun-running operation when even the IG, Michael Horwitz, the former IG, thank God, even he could not clean that up.
		So, you know, all these people with all their hate for Donald Trump, what they don't like about Donald Trump is he's a lot like Teddy Roosevelt.
		He wasn't liked by Democrats or Republicans in the upper echelon of the elite country here.
		So that's my thing for today.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Perry in California.
		Carl in Washington, Pennsylvania, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Carl.
unidentified		Good morning.
		We are living in a dictatorship right now.
		How can the Republicans defend the slashing of funds from various agencies of the federal government?
		Yet we're going to have a parade on June the 17th to glorify the man that lives in the White House.
		Those tanks rolling down the avenues in Washington, D.C. are going to crush the streets.
		Who's going to pay for that?
		Who's going to pay for the nearly 7,000 troops on the vans and the airplanes and the helicopters that we're going to fly over?
		We live in a dictatorship.
		Until they are willing to justify this spending, he is a dictator.
		Thank you.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Carl in Pennsylvania.
		Joseph in Florida, line for independence.
		Good morning, Joseph.
unidentified		Yes, thank you for taking my call.
		I find this astounding.
		Here was Trump held a cabinet press conference this week where all his cabinet members sat there and extolled the virtues of him and their accomplishments.
		What's astounding is that Fox News wouldn't even carry it, which is absolutely amazing and shows you what's going on here that nobody's even believing what it was said.
		Ian Coulter likened the conference to Kim Jong-il in North Korea's conference calls where they all just sit there and tell him how great he is.
		But for Fox not to carry it must really tell the MAGAs that, of course, the MAGAs would not know about this because the MAGAs weren't able to see it.
		The second thing is Doge.
		Musk is leaving or stepping back quite a bit.
		And this week, which, you know, they promised $2 trillion in savings.
		He has now admitted that it is going to look like $150 billion to $160 billion.
		Once again, what is going on here?
		And what's really interesting is that the Wharton Institute has estimated the cost to save that $150 billion is $135 billion.
		And last but not least, there was a town hall on News Nation with Como heading it, and Trump was on it.
		And Trump was asked the question: What is his biggest mistake?
		And he said, I haven't made any mistakes, and I'll leave it like that.
		But MAGA, wake up.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Joseph in Florida.
		Craig in Lomeda, California, line for Republicans.
		Good morning, Craig.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		I'd just like to thank you for taking the call.
		And also, it's interesting to hear all the different opinions from all over the country on what's going on.
		And again, that the last caller just stated what the media puts out is all that we're given.
		And, you know, Fox, ABC, and Donald goes back to fake news, fake news.
		But if you look at what's really happening, and there's a lot to look at, obviously, but with the immigration and the gas prices and the tariffs, which aren't in place yet, it's going to take a little time to shake this whole thing out.
		But, you know, God bless America.
		And I think that he's the only guy that really sees this in the big picture: that we need to straighten stuff out and get back on track and make America first again.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That's Craig in California.
		Let's hear from Fred in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, line for Democrats.
		Good morning, Fred.
unidentified		Yes, ma'am.
		The reason I'm calling is the people in Gaza are starving to death, are dying from thirst, and the Israelis are not letting the food and water get through to them.
		I want to know why Donald Trump isn't enforcing a no-fly zone over Gaza, why the Israelis, what they're doing to the people, the Palestinian people, not Hamas, the Palestinian people, is no different than what the Nazis did in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.
		And they're exterminating these people.
		And that needs to stop.
		And the United Nations should step in and do something.
		Secondly, I found it interesting that they had the peace talks for Ukraine and Russia held in Saudi Arabia.
		Now, doesn't it seem strange that Saudi Arabia is a major oil producer, Russia's a major oil producer, the United States is a major oil producer, and Ukraine wasn't even invited.
		And all of a sudden, now prices are starting to come down because Saudi Arabia is going to start production up.
		That seemed kind of odd to me.
		And the third thing, and the final thing, is the next three months are going to be retribution, paying back for those who spoke out against Donald Trump.
		So keep your eye, what the people in the media out there who are listening to this, keep your eye on Guantanamo and see who gets picked up off the street and who gets taken there.
		Well, how are they going to be treated?
		Are they going to have good food?
		Are they going to have shelter?
		Are they going to have clothing?
		Or are they going to be mistreated and punished and tortured?
		I think it should be, people should watch out for that above all else.
		But the people of Gaza are starving and dying of thirst, and the United Nations should get off their rear end to do something about this and stop Israel from killing all these people.
		Thank you for letting me talk.
		Goodbye.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		That was Fred in Pennsylvania.
		Our last call in today's open forum next on Washington Journal.
		It's our annual cram for the exam.
		High school teachers Kevin Jackson and Ryan Renka will join us to take live questions from students across the country ahead of Tuesday's Advanced Placement U.S. government and politics exam.
		We'll be right back.
unidentified		Sunday night on C-SPAN's Q&A.
		Education Design Lab founder Kathleen Delasky, author of Who Needs College Anymore?
		Questions if the U.S. higher education system with its skyrocketing costs and declining enrollment is currently suited to meet the needs of future generations of students.
kathleen delaski ▲ ● ▼		The four-year degree college model has been seen for the last hundred years at least as the surefire ticket to better jobs, to the corner office, being a doctor or a lawyer.
		And so that's been the aspiration, particularly in the last 50 years, right, for families for their children to be successful.
		And I think that's beginning to break down to the point where even the haves, if you think about the haves and the have-nots, even the haves are recognizing that the degree, the four-year degree is not necessarily achieving the American dream for them or their children.
		And it's becoming, you know, the affordability issue, has kind of reached a fever pitch.
		And we're kind of looking at how jobs are changing and how quickly skills become obsolete.
unidentified		Kathleen Delaski with her book, Who Needs College Anymore.
unidentified		Sunday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's Q ⁇ A. You can listen to Q&A and all of our podcasts on the C-SPAN Now app or wherever you get your podcasts.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		After a career in investment management and some time as a credit risk specialist at the U.S. Treasury Department, Jill Eicher has written her first book titled Mellon vs. Churchill.
		The Untold Story of Treasury Titans at War.
		It's all about collection of war debts from World War I, which was fought between 1914 and 1918.
		Andrew Mellon, a wealthy industrialist, served as Secretary of the Treasury for Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.
		11 years total.
		Mellon took on Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill.
		Jill Eicher tells a story that will be new to most readers.
unidentified		Author Jill Eicher with her book, Mellon vs. Churchill, The Untold Story of Treasury Titans at War.
		On this episode of BookNotes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
		BookNotes Plus is available on the C-SPAN Now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.
		Celebrate Mother's Day with our C-SPAN shop sale going on right now at C-SPANShop.org, our online store.
		Save up to 20% on our Mother's Day collection of apparel, accessories, drinkware, mugs, and more.
		There's something for every C-SPAN mom, and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations.
		Scan the code or visit c-spanshop.org during our Mother's Day sale going on right now.
		Washington Journal continues.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
		High school students from across the country are getting ready for end-of-year advanced placement exams.
		And for the next hour, we are looking at the AP U.S. Government and Politics exam that's coming up on Tuesday.
		It's part of our annual Cram for the Exam review session where we take live questions from students.
		Joining us for this year's Cram for the Exam is Kevin Jackson.
		He is a high school teacher in Petaluma, California.
		And Ryan Warenka, he is a high school student in Troy, Michigan.
		Kevin and Ryan, welcome to the program.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Glad to be here.
		Thanks for having us.
tammy thueringer ▲ ● ▼		We will jump right in just with an overview.
		We know that there are a lot of students watching.
		We'll be talking with them in just a bit.
		But Ryan, first explain what is the advanced placement government and politics course.
		How extensive is it?
		And what are some of the recent topics that students are learning about in addition to the foundations?
unidentified		Yeah, well, first of all, happy to be here.
		You know, I'm coming from Detroit, Michigan, which during World War II was the home of the Arsenal of Democracy.
		But I like to think in 2025 that the new Arsenal of Democracy are all the classrooms around the country where students are learning AP government from all these great teachers.
		And so you're going to have a chance to show on Tuesday what you've really learned.
		So we've got five units for the AP U.S. government exam.
		The first one is Foundations of American Democracy, which is the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, several Federalist papers.
		Our second unit is about the interaction amongst the branches of the government and including also the bureaucracy.
		Our third unit is about civil liberties and civil rights.
		The fourth unit is about American political beliefs and ideologies.
		And the fifth unit is about political participation.

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