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|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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Wow the world has changed today the fast reliable internet connection is something no one can live without so wow is there for our customers with speed reliability value and choice Now more than ever, it all starts with great internet. | |
| Wow. | ||
| WOW supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. | ||
| The LA Times highlights some of the details when it comes to the trip in the Middle East, adding that the president, bringing with him a phalanx of business leaders for a Saudi U.S. business summit Tuesday. | ||
| That includes BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Palantir Technologies Alex Karp, Tesla's Elon Musk, and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg. | ||
| The heads of other major firms, including IBM, Boeing, Qualcomm, and Alphabet, will also attend. | ||
| The White House Artificial Intelligence and Cryptozar David Sachs also already in Riyadh. | ||
| This LA Times story saying that the president will attend that summit with Gulf leaders on Wednesday and then travel to Qatar on the same day, ending the trip in the United Arab Emirates. | ||
| It will be there where he will receive more gifts, the UAE, pledging $1.4 trillion in U.S. investment packages over the next decade. | ||
| That's from the LA Times. | ||
| The Associated Press follows a little bit more on that meeting that will take place on Wednesday as the president travels, saying that he will join a gathering of members in the Gulf Cooperation Council made up of Beiran, Kuwait, Oman, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates before leaving. | ||
| The story adding that Saudi Arabia and fellow OPEC plus nations have already helped their cause with Mr. Trump early in his second term by stepping up oil production. | ||
| Mr. Trump seeing cheap energy as a component to lowering costs and stemming inflation for Americans. | ||
| That's the aspect of the Saudi trip again. | ||
| This comes a day after the president announcing that U.S.-China tariff deal that the White House with several respond with several of his key members responding to that, the BBC picking up, asking what does it mean? | ||
| At the end of the day, this is from the BBC saying that both the U.S. and China confirmed a reduction in tariffs they imposed on each other following that initial escalation by the president. | ||
| The deal involves both nations canceling some tariffs altogether and suspending others for 90 days by May the 14th. | ||
| And that result, the additional U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, that's the extra tariffs imposed on the recent standoff, will fall from 145% to 30%, while recently hiked Chinese tariffs on some imports will fall from 125 to 10%. | ||
| So those two things happening in the last couple of days. | ||
| The president in Saudi Arabia today, the announcement of the China, the temporary trade deal with China. | ||
| And you can comment on both of those. | ||
| Again, the lines 202748-8,000 for Democrats, Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Here is the president before leaving on that trip to the Middle East Talking about the trade deal. | ||
| In addition, yesterday we achieved a total reset with China after productive talks in Geneva. | ||
| Both sides now agreed to reduce the tariffs imposed after April 2nd to 10% for 90 days as negotiators continue on the largest structural issues. | ||
| And I want to tell you that a couple of things. | ||
| First of all, that doesn't include the tariffs that are already on, that are our tariffs, and it doesn't include tariffs on cars, steel, aluminum, things such as that, or tariffs that may be imposed on pharmaceuticals because we want to bring the pharmaceutical businesses back to the United States. | ||
| And they're already starting to come back now based on tariffs because they don't want to pay 25, 50, or 100% tariffs. | ||
| So they're moving them back to the United States. | ||
| I spoke to Tim Cook this morning, and he's going to, I think, even up his numbers, $500 billion. | ||
| He's going to be building a lot of plants in the United States for Apple. | ||
| And we look forward to that. | ||
| I really do look forward to that. | ||
| But the talks in Geneva were very friendly. | ||
| The relationship is very good. | ||
| We're not looking to hurt China. | ||
| China was being hurt very badly. | ||
| They were closing up factories. | ||
| They were having a lot of unrest. | ||
| And they were very happy to be able to do something with us. | ||
| And the relationship is very, very good. | ||
| I'll speak to President Xi maybe at the end of the week. | ||
| We have some other things we're doing. | ||
| Announcement was yesterday. | ||
| You can see that complete announcement on our website and our video app. | ||
| Brenda in California. | ||
| Democrats line. | ||
| You're up first this morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
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Now agreed to reduce the tariffs. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| What I wanted to say was that, I'm sorry, I'm turning this off. | ||
| Okay, unmute it. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| I wanted to say that I just listened to them talking about health care and the drug deal that they made. | ||
| And I really hope the Democrats don't drink the Kool-Aid because, on its face, it sounds very good. | ||
| I work in healthcare, so I understand it a lot that by them increasing the cost in other countries. | ||
| I know the president believes that they're going to drop the costs here, but you know, that's never happened. | ||
| I don't believe that they're going to drop the costs here. | ||
| They're just going to make other companies pay more, and the drug companies are going to make more. | ||
| And if you work for a drug company, that's probably a good deal. | ||
| But if you don't work for a drug company and work for a public health system like I do, it's going to be terrible. | ||
| I mean, we're already reeling based on some of the policies that he's trying to put in place. | ||
| Everybody's unsure about everything to do with Medicaid. | ||
| We have a bunch of people, at least in the city where I work, in San Francisco, that probably are going to lose their coverage. | ||
| Then what? | ||
| You can't have all these people out there with no coverage. | ||
| So then that's going to put a huge burden on all these individual cities to come up with money or system like we have Healthy San Francisco to cover cases. | ||
| That's Brenda there in California, the BBC going further. | ||
| And as far as the trade deal that was announced yesterday, adding that what goods do the U.S. and China trade with each other, they ask, in a word, lots. | ||
| In 2024, the biggest category of goods exported from the U.S. to China were soybeans, primarily used to feed China's estimated 440 million pigs. | ||
| The U.S. also sent pharmaceuticals and petroleum. | ||
| Meanwhile, China exported large volumes of electronics, computers, and toys. | ||
| The biggest category of U.S. imports from China is smartphones, accounting for 9% of the total. | ||
| A large proportion of these smartphones are Apple phones that are made in China. | ||
| However, the U.S. buys much more from China and sells $440 billion and then sells it at $145 billion, which is something that Mr. Trump has been long unhappy with. | ||
| His reasoning in part for introducing those tariffs and higher ones on countries which sell more to the United States than they buy is to encourage U.S. consumers to buy more American-made goods and increase the amount of tax raised in boosting manufacturing jobs. | ||
| Sarah joins us on our Republican line, either again on the trip to the Middle East that the president currently is on. | ||
| This China trade deal announced yesterday. | ||
| Sarah from Maryland, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi there. | |
| My name is Sarah. | ||
| I'm one of the few Republican households in our state in Maryland. | ||
| And I wanted to let Republicans know in other states how dismayed we are at watching our representatives in other states feel free to cut hard-earned benefits of federal workers. | ||
| It's pretty shocking to watch people who receive benefits themselves from the federal government talk about federal workers as if they're not hardworking people who have sacrificed to help the United States move things forward. | ||
| And cutting benefits from people who've been working for 20, 30 years is atrocious. | ||
| Okay, so, but on either of the topics of China or the trip to the Middle East, do you have something to add to that? | ||
|
unidentified
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You know, I think everything is connected in terms of the economy. | |
| It seems like everybody's looking at it as one big, giant, big, beautiful bill. | ||
| And everything is connected. | ||
| So you can't talk about one thing in isolation from other things. | ||
| You want to raise money for certain things. | ||
| You want to cut for certain things. | ||
| Going after federal workers is atrocious. | ||
| And, you know, we're lost in them. | ||
| You made that point. | ||
| And Sarah and Maryland, other people reacting to the recently announced trade deal legislatively on Capitol Hill, at least. | ||
| This is Senator Mark Warner, Democrat from Virginia, saying that don't let them pull the wool over your eyes and call this trade, quote, deal a masterful stroke of genius. | ||
| This is just another day of chaos in an administration that's jerking around lives and livelihoods with absolutely no plan. | ||
| Senator Chuck Schumer saying, sadly, it looks like China once again got the better of Trump. | ||
| Another example of Mr. Trump's chaos. | ||
| He has one policy one day, one the next. | ||
| Who knows what it will be tomorrow? | ||
| It was yesterday that Senator Schumer himself took to the Senate floor to talk about the announced trade deal. | ||
| Here he is from the Senate floor yesterday. | ||
| On tariffs, early this morning, it was reported that Donald Trump caved to Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party with virtually nothing to show for American workers. | ||
| Donald Trump has changed his mind once again on his tariffs with a new deal with China to pause most tariffs for 90 days. | ||
| Sadly, it looks like China has once again gotten the better of Donald Trump. | ||
| They've hardly had to give up a thing. | ||
| It's another example of Donald Trump's chaos. | ||
| Trump has one policy for his tariffs on one day, a different policy the next day. | ||
| One day he's pretending to be a tough guy with China. | ||
| The next day he's caving to China and getting little, if anything, in return. | ||
| Who knows what Trump's tariff policy will be in the next 90 days? | ||
| If I were a business person, I wouldn't count on what he's doing or what he says today that might be. | ||
| That probably won't be in effect in the next week or the next three weeks. | ||
| And even under this deal, tariffs are still significantly higher than they were before Trump's Liberation Day. | ||
| Businesses will continue to struggle. | ||
| Supply chains will continue to experience chaos, strain, and unpredictability. | ||
| And again, this is only a 90-day pause. | ||
| It's impossible, as I said before, it's impossible to predict what will happen next, even within the 90-day period, because Donald Trump changes his mind so quickly. | ||
| Whatever seems in front of him at the moment, he goes for. | ||
| First, he's mad at China, puts in the tariffs. | ||
| Then he gets lots of blowback, backs off. | ||
| Where will he be tomorrow? | ||
| Who the heck knows? | ||
| But businesses can't count on any reliability, only on chaos. | ||
| Donald Trump's trade war is a lose, lose, lose for American families and businesses, leaving them with increased costs and more chaos. | ||
| Senator Schumer on the floor yesterday talking about that China trade deal that was announced. | ||
| You can comment on that on the lines. | ||
| You can also comment on the president's trip currently going on in the Middle East. | ||
| A couple of related stories in the papers to both those topics. | ||
| This is from the Wall Street Journal on their main headline, Trump Family Makes Middle East Its Business. | ||
| Elliot Brown and Stephen Kalin writing that Saudi Arabia, the United Emirates, and Qatar, the three countries on the president's itinerary, stand out for their embrace of Trump Incorporated. | ||
| In the past year, Trump-branded residential towers have been launched in Dubai and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and a developer in April unveiled a Trump luxury golf resort at a state-owned project in Qatar at an event featuring Eric Trump and a Qatari minister. | ||
| Also in the story, it says that when it comes to the efforts of Mr. Trump's related businesses and relatives, in this case, sovereign and royal funds from all three states have committed more than $3.5 billion to a private equity fund run by Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump's son-in-law. | ||
| Again, that story in the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| If you turn to the pages of the Washington Post, other outlets reporting on as well with the recent news of a possible gift of a Qatari plane by Qatar to the president saying that Mr. Trump saying that he would be a quote stupid person not to accept the gift of a $400 million Boeing 747-8 and called it a quote great gesture by Qatar. | ||
| The president said he intended to use the plane for a couple of years while his administration waits for a pair of Boeing planes to be completed to the strict standards of befitting Air Force One. | ||
| A White House official said it was premature to say how long upgrades to the Qatari plane would take. | ||
| The official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymities, like others interviewed, also declined to say when the Trump administration expects to take possession. | ||
| Again, those are some side stories to not only the announcement of the trade deal, but also to the plane, to the efforts on the plane, or at least questions about the plane. | ||
| The president did take a question about that before he took off for his Middle East trip. | ||
| This was at the White House. | ||
| This occurred yesterday. | ||
| I think Qatar, who has really, we've helped them a lot over the years in terms of security and safety. | ||
| I feel they think they, and very, very nicely, and I have a lot of respect for the leadership and for the leader, Qatar. | ||
| And I think they knew about it because they buy Boeings. | ||
| They buy a lot of Boeings. | ||
| And they knew about it. | ||
| And they said we would like to do something. | ||
| And if we can get a 747 as a contribution to our Defense Department to use during a couple of years while they're building the other ones, I think that was a very nice gesture. | ||
| Now, I could be a stupid person and say, oh, no, we don't want a free plane. | ||
| We give free things out. | ||
| We'll take one too. | ||
| And it helps us out because, again, we're talking about we have 40-year-old aircraft. | ||
| The money we spend, the maintenance we spend on those planes to keep them tippy-top is astronomical. | ||
| You wouldn't even believe it. | ||
| So I think it's a great gesture from Qatar. | ||
| I appreciate it very much. | ||
| I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. | ||
| I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, no, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane. | ||
| But I thought it was a great gesture. | ||
| And I think it was a gesture because of the fact that we have helped and continue to. | ||
| We will continue to. | ||
| All of those countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and others, we keep them safe. | ||
| If it wasn't for us, they probably wouldn't exist right now. | ||
| And I think this was just a gesture of good faith. | ||
| And I don't get it. | ||
| Someday it'll be like Ronald Reagan. | ||
| They decommission them. | ||
| You know, they get to a certain age. | ||
| They decommission them. | ||
| It'll go to my library. | ||
| They're talking about going to my library in years out. | ||
| But I thought it was a great gesture. | ||
| And it's something that was done by Ronald Reagan. | ||
| They actually decommissioned the plane and he put it in his library. | ||
| And it actually has made the library, I think a Boeing 707. | ||
| It's actually made the library more successful. | ||
| So it was good. | ||
|
unidentified
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Do you plan to use the plane after you leave office? | |
| No, I don't. | ||
| No. | ||
| It would go directly to the library after I leave office. | ||
| I wouldn't be using it. | ||
|
unidentified
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No. | |
| Here's Joshua in Illinois, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi there, Pedro. | |
| Yes, I'm an import and a custom professional, and I handle LCL imports, which are pallets for small businesses that are consolidated into 20-foot and 40-foot containers. | ||
| How do you expect small businesses to make any type of business plan within 90 days? | ||
| This is complete nonsense. | ||
| Every time you discuss or debate this topic with anybody in the MAGA movement, they start talking about using tariffs to pay their income taxes, which is nonsense. | ||
| It's complete absurdity. | ||
| And they're also talking about bringing factories home. | ||
| And as last clip you talked about with Donald Trump, if you're removing tariffs and not letting tariffs stay in place, why would American factory bring anything home? | ||
| They expect Donald Trump to change his tariff plan. | ||
| I would just also recommend listening to the port director from LA, Mr. Gene Saraka, talked about this deal having no effect on the bottom of imports coming in for this year. | ||
| It's actually going to set us back. | ||
| And lastly, accepting a plane for $400 million, how do you know in the future that any deal he makes doesn't involve him putting something in his pocket? | ||
| Well, back to the first topic real quick, as far as the tariff policy, is it the idea of tariffs overall, or is it the inconsistency of the administration on the tariff policy that's the more troublesome for you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, tariffs are complicated. | |
| You know, when you make a trade agreement, they're supposed to be passed by legislative bodies because there's multiple stakeholders involved. | ||
| So when you have one person, you know, in this place, Trump, trying to pass the tariff thing, he's only thinking of one or two people enriching his billionaire friends while everybody else suffers. | ||
| And we're talking about small businesses here. | ||
| People that are importing pallets, they're putting things, they're doing their inventory for 30 days, maybe 60 days at the most. | ||
| There's a two-week transit time from China. | ||
| Do you think these businesses are going to be able to make any type of prediction of what their costs are? | ||
| In our business, we have something called landing costs. | ||
| That's the cost of duties, as well as any other logistic charges that you have to pay when it gets here. | ||
| These people do not understand it. | ||
| And, you know, it's hard to talk to anyone in a magnet. | ||
| They don't get anything about tariffs, and they won't pick up a book or read anything outside of what they're being fed by the Republican Congress or their president. | ||
|
unidentified
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This president has no idea. | |
| I mean, every time you hear him talk, he talks about a deficit like he's losing money, but you're getting products in exchange for it. | ||
| We're not spending money. | ||
| Got it, got it, got it, got it. | ||
| Yeah, that's Joshua in Illinois. | ||
| Some other legislators reacting to the announcement yesterday that you heard about Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, saying Donald Trump's tariff chaos is shrinking the economy, jeopardizing American savings and raising prices. | ||
| And for what? | ||
| He just caved to Xi Jinping. | ||
| Congress needs to step up now and stop Mr. Trump playing red light, green light with tariffs. | ||
| Some other responses, too. | ||
| This is Steve Scalise. | ||
| It's a small print. | ||
| Apologies for that, saying, but President Trump continues to deliver on his promises. | ||
| The latest developments as a trade deal with China is huge for American consumers and businesses. | ||
| Now, Republicans in Congress must lock in Mr. Trump's tax cuts to fully unleash our economy and prevent a tax hike from hitting families. | ||
| Texter this morning, Joe from Big Rapids, Michigan, giving his thoughts, saying it's simple. | ||
| If Mr. Trump wants to keep the jumbo jet, then he should give up his presidency. | ||
| Adding that to the mix, Elise Stefanik, Republican from New York, saying that the president's trip, or sorry, President Trump is successfully restructuring global trade to put America first by standing up to communist China and so-called economic quote experts who predicted doomsday scenarios. | ||
| President Trump's vision, work ethic, and negotiation strategy are preventing, and it goes on from there. | ||
| If you're interested in reading it on X, it was Dan Goldman, the New York Democrat himself, on the shows yesterday talking about the trade deal that was announced. | ||
| Here are some of his thoughts about the China announcement. | ||
| We got a lot of turmoil. | ||
| We had a lot of destroyed 401ks. | ||
| We had a lot of small businesses importing goods from China that are on the brink or have gone out of business, and all to just go back to where we were. | ||
| And in fact, it's not even where we were, John. | ||
| It's still a 30% tariff, which is a tax that will be passed through to the consumers. | ||
| I represent Manhattan's historic China attempt, and the small businesses there operate on very, very small margins. | ||
| They are not big box department stores that can weather several months of higher prices. | ||
| They are, some of them have gone out of business, and others have suffered from the volatility of the stock market. | ||
| And it's all for nothing. | ||
| We are back where we were before all of this chaos, all of this turmoil. | ||
| And it is just a reflection that there's no plan here. | ||
| There's no objective. | ||
| Nothing is actually going to come from this other than continued higher prices and uncertainty, instability, and a pullback in our economy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
30% better than 145%, though, in your mind? | |
| Well, yes, of course. | ||
| If 145% is completely untenable. | ||
| But again, this is all just a charade. | ||
| There's no objective to this. | ||
| You are not going to go back to the 1950s with our economy. | ||
| Our economy is going to move forward. | ||
| There's going to be technological improvements. | ||
| We're not going to go back to dirty coal as the solution to everything. | ||
| And the sooner we realize that what we need to do with our economy is right-size it and adjust the jobs to the new technology that's out there, the better off we're going to be. | ||
| We're never going to onshore all of the old manufacturing. | ||
| And even if we do, that's going to take years. | ||
| So the whole ostensible purpose of this makes no sense at all because it's just impractical. | ||
| And instead, it's just Donald Trump's ego and wanting to fight with Xi Jinping and show that he's bigger until he realizes he got his bluff called and he has nowhere to go. | ||
| And so then he just caves and goes back. | ||
| Representative Dan Goldman from New York commenting on the announced trade deal with China. | ||
| You can comment on it as well or the president's trip to the Middle East. | ||
| Sandy and Arizona Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| I just, this whole thing is just ridiculous. | ||
| We're out here in Arizona and he's talking about how prices are dropping and it's just horrible. | ||
| Our eggs are up to $7.99 a dozen. | ||
| And now they've started selling little miniature eggs for a dozen of $3.99. | ||
| And those are gone very quickly. | ||
| Who wants a little tiny egg? | ||
| And we've had a restaurant that has several restaurants around the valley called On the Border. | ||
| They have had to close all their stores because of what Trump is doing. | ||
| It's just horrible. | ||
| He is such a liar. | ||
| And I'm just, I am so sick of what he's doing to our United States. | ||
| And it's just scorable. | ||
| I was watching this thing over in Saudi Arabia where a couple of those men came up to salute the Saudi Arabia president, I guess. | ||
| And they just ignored Trump. | ||
| And I thought that was just wonderful. | ||
| The president and the Saudi Crown Prince there is earlier this morning greeting not only the Crown Prince but the President at various stages as part of the formal travel, the first stop in this Middle East trip. | ||
| As you look at that, we'll hear from Dave, Independent Line. | ||
| He's in Delaware. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| A few points about what's going on. | ||
| First, I think it is a complete embarrassment that we would even consider taking a plane from Qatar. | ||
| All the Emirates and Gulf states are autocratic. | ||
| Why would we want to take a plane from them? | ||
| We can afford our own plane. | ||
| Buy one from American Airlines that they already have in service. | ||
| Buy one from Delta, from any airline. | ||
| I think it's ridiculous that we would take one from another government. | ||
| Second, President Trump is, I think, what you would call an amoral person. | ||
| He is going to promote his own interests, but in the same sense, he's amoral about American policy. | ||
| And I think that could benefit us in some ways. | ||
| For example, he negotiated directly with Hamas for the release of one of the American hostages. | ||
| If Israel's not going to make any progress with Hamas, good on him for doing that and getting an American home. | ||
| He's visiting the Gulf and not visiting Israel on this trip. | ||
| I think that's good. | ||
| It sends a message to Israel that we're not going to give them unconditional backing. | ||
| So in that sense, I think he's promoting American interests just like he would promote his own. | ||
| Okay, let's hear from Ralph in Charlottesville, Virginia, Republican line. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, how are you doing, sir? | |
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| The CNN is on this administration. | ||
| They're never going to get off. | ||
| They're never going to agree to anything. | ||
| They're always citing bad news, the market, the stock market, and everything else. | ||
|
unidentified
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They're never going to do anything to help the Republican Party along to accomplish its goals. | |
| And that's just the way and the take of the whole thing. | ||
| So, CNN, you have to get off of it and accept it. | ||
| Donald Trump is the president of the United States, and he is doing an excellent job. | ||
| Well, specifically when it comes to either the China trade deal or the trip in the Middle East, what do you think of those things and the president's performance there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think he should have. | |
| He has tested the waters, and he knows what's going on now and what happens. | ||
| The stock market sort of plundered down a little bit, but he's trying to get a trade deal with China, and he's not there yet to what we really need. | ||
| But we're still 20% above them now as far as the net trade. | ||
| And he will get it accomplished if they'll just let him do the job. | ||
| Okay, Charles is next, also on our line for Republicans. | ||
| He's in North Carolina. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, yes. | |
| I just want to let you know that as an American and Republican, that our great nation is honored by the other nation when we have a great leader who come forth and look at the world as a whole. | ||
| Yes, the world needs us. | ||
| We need the world. | ||
| But we need to get our people back to work, get our people where they can save money and get their children through school. | ||
| And I just thank God that we live in a great nation, that we see everything that's going on and nothing's here. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So, Caller, before you go, you said there was a need to see the world as a whole. | ||
| The president talked about China yesterday. | ||
| He's in the Middle East today. | ||
| What do you think of those things? | ||
| And how do you think that benefits the United States? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, if you go back a long time ago when the United States owned the oil rigs in Saudi Arabia in the Mideast, the United States gave them back to the countries. | |
| Those countries have not forgot it, but we as Americans work with people. | ||
| That's just like into the Second World War. | ||
| Russia came into Germany to stay. | ||
| The United States came in and rebuilt and real. | ||
| So we, as a nation, need the country again, but they need us more than we need them. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Charles there in North Carolina, finishing off this round of calls, taking a look at not only the trade deal announced, but also the president traveling in the Middle East. | ||
| We will change gears and invite you to comment on those things and others in the worlds of politics when it comes to our open forum segment. | ||
| Here's how you can participate if you want to make your comments there. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| Again, Open Forum is you can comment on the topics we just talked about if you want to still comment on either China or the Middle East trip or things related to that, other matters in politics as well. | ||
| If you want to make your thoughts there known, including what the caller had brought up concerning that Israeli-American hostage, Eden Alexander, Amas releasing him from Gaza, paving the way for a possible return to ceasefire talks for the war-torn enclave, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Yetana, who said Alexander's freedom had been won through military action and pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, Israelis gathered along a roadside at dusk on May the 12th to cheer as an eight-vehicle convoy brought Alexander, | ||
| the last American held by the Islamic militant group, to a military base in the southern city of Rheim, not far from the Gaza border. | ||
| It was during his statements yesterday at the White House, the president also talking about this latest development concerning Eden Alexander. | ||
| Here's the president from yesterday. | ||
| Very happy to announce that Eden Alexander, an American citizen who, until recently, most thought was no longer living, thought was dead, is going to be released in about two hours, actually. | ||
| And he's going to be released before the eyes of Steve Witkoff, who has done a fantastic job. | ||
| I just, you know, I know a lot of people, they have a lot of talent. | ||
| I know Steve had a lot of talent. | ||
| But I know a lot of people with a lot of talent, but I had this one that I thought had a special way about him, special personality, aside from being a good dealmaker. | ||
| Had a special way about him, and it was Steve. | ||
| Knew very little about the subject matter, who does, but he learned it in about two hours. | ||
| And he's been fantastic. | ||
| So I want to just thank Steve. | ||
| But they're going to be releasing Edon in about two hours from now, or sometime today, let's say. | ||
| And again, they thought he was dead just a short while ago. | ||
| His parents are so happy. | ||
| They're so happy. | ||
| So it's, as you know, Eden's the only American citizen who's captured and held hostage by Hamas since October 7th, 2023. | ||
| And he's coming home to his parents, which is really great news. | ||
| I mean, to me, it's big news. | ||
| They thought he was dead. | ||
| Again, that was the president yesterday. | ||
| The Wall Street Journal's analysis of the event from yesterday adds this thing. | ||
| The U.S. deal also brought domestic complications for the Israeli prime minister. | ||
| Many Israelis felt it showed Netanyahu wasn't doing enough to free hostages. | ||
| On the right, there were fears that Netanyahu would cave to U.S. pressure to sign a broader deal that would end the war before Israel had defeated Hamas. | ||
| That's the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| Again, you can bring that into open forum if you wish. | ||
| 202-748-8000 for Democrats. | ||
| 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Tim on our independent line. | ||
| He's in Maine. | ||
| Hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| And I'd like to engage you in some constructive criticism. | ||
| You had a gentleman on Sunday from Breitbart News who, in his interview, emphatically stated that only citizens afford a due process, and that is just blatantly false in the Constitution. | ||
| And your moderator didn't call him out on that. | ||
| And I think when we're talking about things as important as the Constitution, you really have to call these people out on such things. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Tim there in Maine. | ||
| Again, if you comment on an interview that you've seen, you can do that as well. | ||
| Again, call the lines that best represent you a little bit more from the Washington Post this morning. | ||
| us there a lead editorial talking about the trade deal, the trade announcement from yesterday, saying that 90-day pause, by the way, which is meant to give Washington and Beijing a chance to negotiate a lasting trade agreement, does little to relieve the paralyzing uncertainty that is freezing business investment and causing financial markets to worry about tariff-induced stagflation. | ||
| That's inflation coupled with an economic slowdown. | ||
| The editorial from the Washington Post editor saying the uncertainty derives largely from the lack of any coherent policy to guide the Trump administration's trade warfare. | ||
| Actions are taken haphazardly and without warning. | ||
| And just as the United States and China were announcing the temporary deal, for instance, Mr. Trump was also declaring that pharmaceutical companies would soon no longer be able to charge higher prices for their drugs in the United States than that they charge overseas. | ||
| Again, one final bit about that from the Washington Post editors this morning. | ||
| That cost of drugs, though, story picked up by the Washington Times. | ||
| This is the headline, Kerry Pickett writing under that headline saying that the policy that was announced yesterday in which the president resurrected his most favored nation policy promising that he would cut pharmaceutical drug prices by 30% to 80%. | ||
| The policy pegs the price for a drug in the U.S. to the lowest rate charged for the same medicine in another part of the world. | ||
| Mr. Trump signed an executive order that established that the U.S. will pay prescription drug prices based on the lowest cost in another country. | ||
| He implemented the plan through an executive order for the health secretary to establish a mechanism for Americans to buy drugs directly from manufacturers at the most favored nation price, bypassing intermediaries. | ||
| That's the Washington Times if you want to pick up that story there. | ||
| Bobby in St. Paul, Minnesota, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I want to comment on the Melendez brothers. | ||
| They're having a hearing, I believe, just either today or this week. | ||
| And for those who are not quite sure what it's about, the Melendez brothers killed their parents in cold blood. | ||
| And apparently the father was sexually abusing the sons at that time. | ||
| And Mark Geracos, I think that's the way you pronounce it, is a defense lawyer that's the leader of the band on this thing. | ||
| So I'm pretty much addressing this point to him. | ||
| I don't think they should see the light of day outside of prison. | ||
| And the reason is this. | ||
| When they came in and they premeditated this, they got the guns or guns, came in, shot the father, killed the father, shot the mother. | ||
| But the mother was still alive. | ||
| And they went back out. | ||
| And at that moment in time, maybe some rational thoughts could have came in. | ||
| And then the mother was, as I said, still alive. | ||
| Come back in and say, hey, look, you know, look what we just did. | ||
| Let's call 911 and save our mother, the woman that brought us into this world. | ||
| And of course, no, we can't do that because she's a witness. | ||
| So they blew her away. | ||
| And that's the reason why I don't think they should have any type of parole or whatever they're shooting for at this particular time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Okay, Bobby there in Minnesota giving us his thoughts this morning. | ||
| Let's hear from the that's Bobby there in Minnesota. | ||
| Again, the numbers on this open forum: 202-748-8,000. | ||
| For Democrats, 202-748-8,000. | ||
| One for Republicans. | ||
| Independents, 202-748-8,000. | ||
| Two, Pat Fallon, a Republican there posting on the trade deal that was made yesterday, saying that the president's tariffs are giving the U.S. new leverage to use against China. | ||
| Going on to say, this is a huge win for U.S. economic interests and our national security, he adds, as well as Sue Whiting texting us this morning, which you can do if you want at 2027-488003. | ||
| This is on an aspect of the China trade deal saying that do we really need to work 80 hours a week in order to have the latest high-tech gadgets, often made in China, shipped directly to our door. | ||
| Michigan up next, this is from Sterling Heights on our Independent Line. | ||
| Ruth, hello. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, this has to do with a lot of savings of millions to billions of dollars. | |
| You're talking about the cost of pharmaceutical medicines, which I'm a senior citizen, so it does affect me. | ||
| That's billions of dollars of savings. | ||
| Now, also about the aircraft that Saudi Arabia wants to give Trump: $480 million. | ||
| You mean to tell me that we have our presidents, Democrat presidents, Republican presidents, flying in an aircraft that's 40 years old? | ||
| Do you know that that thing could actually break down when they're up there in the sky? | ||
| And then what do you do when half the news media that are also on that aircraft? | ||
| Do you think they're going to survive? | ||
| Anybody that's in that aircraft ain't going to survive. | ||
| So it's time and say thank you very much, really, to Saudi Arabia. | ||
| That's a savings of $4,380 million. | ||
| So if Congress doesn't approve it, I'd have to question who in the heck is in Congress. | ||
| And yes, we do have a lot of people in the United States that are not friendly with us. | ||
| Our borders were open. | ||
| You seem to forget how many people came through those borders. | ||
| And they were not friendly people. | ||
| When you have drug cartels and everything, we really have to open our eyes. | ||
| And it's time that the Democrats, Republicans, Independents all open their eyes and start working for their country instead of for themselves and their own party. | ||
| Okay, that's Ruth there in Michigan. | ||
| Let's hear from James in Virginia, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, sir. | |
| I just wanted to say this morning, I can't understand this president Trump over there trying to make all these deals for his own good and his family. | ||
| And the Americans don't understand this. | ||
| And also, we're suffering here in the United States. | ||
| And the prices of groceries, department stores, and at the gas stations is outrageous. | ||
| And his promise as becomes president was he's going to change all these, do all these things for the American people. | ||
| He hasn't done anything. | ||
| He's over there fatting his pockets right now for his family right now and making deals. | ||
| And also, what would we stop this? | ||
| They always talk about the blame game, but Joe Biden did this. | ||
| Joe Biden did this. | ||
| I wouldn't get on a plane right now because they fired everybody in the FAAs and did all this bad stuff. | ||
| And now we're paying for it. | ||
| And it doesn't make any sense for the American people to keep on. | ||
| Okay, James there in Virginia, the president in Saudi Arabia today and part of a summit there with business leaders. | ||
| The next stage of his visit there. | ||
| Earlier on, you saw him depart the plane being created by the Saudi Crown Prince, now engaged in that meeting, a dinner planned for later on today, all part of the president's Middle East trip. | ||
| Close to C-SPAN for more on that, as we've been talking about, and you can comment on it as part of the open forum if you wish. | ||
| This is Janice, Janice in North Carolina, Republican line. | ||
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I'm about to forget what I was going to say, but a lot of them Democrats, they need to sit down and shut their mouth. | ||
| Look at the years they're in office and what they do. | ||
| Not a thing for me. | ||
| And another thing, I don't know who it was that said something about we should turn against Israel. | ||
| If that's one of our congressmen, he needs to step down, go back to church, and read his Bible, what God says about countries that turn against Israel. | ||
| He better stay on their hands and knees and pray the United States will stand behind Israel. | ||
| That's all I had to say. | ||
| Mary is up next in Washington State, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, good morning. | |
| I've got kind of a sore throat. | ||
| I mean, but I have a couple questions. | ||
| How are you doing? | ||
| I can't get my voice out, but there's a few things I wanted to bring to your attention that was on the other day, and I didn't get on. | ||
| With the meme coins and the Bitcoins and all that, how are people going to get taxed? | ||
| Because they don't even know, they're not going to know what people are using those for. | ||
| And the other thing, I didn't think that they were supposed to have the vet prints or have anything to do with them since Jaham, whatever the man was that they cut up or whatever years ago. | ||
| And then on the other channel, before I turned you on, I said something about President Trump was supposed to give so many chips to the Emirate. | ||
| And I don't know if he's going to be, if they were saying something like China, but I don't pay attention to a lot of this stuff. | ||
| But I just wanted to know the other thing I thought of, and I'm not going to say anything bad about anybody because it's not helping anybody if we're all separated. | ||
| But the one thing is, you know, back in 83, they put money away, even if they took 5% of the Congress or all of the people and put it away and it drew interest because they know who to draw from. | ||
| And I understand because it's like I can wake up in the morning and one thing's going on, and then by the time I'm eating dinner, it's another thing that's totally turned around. | ||
| But I would think if they just took 5%, because they don't work every day. | ||
| And the thing is, I wish the Congress and the Senate and all of the people would get together. | ||
| And the one other thing, and this is the last thing, Pedro, thank you for having me. | ||
| I cannot stand the word oligarch. | ||
| That's Russian, and it drives me nuts. | ||
| We're all Americans, and I just still don't understand how I think it's whatever the Tesla direct guy is. | ||
| I just can't think of it because I'm getting over a cold. | ||
| But I don't, does he have to pay tips? | ||
| I mean, that tips. | ||
| Does he have to pay taxes? | ||
| Okay, let's hear from Joe. | ||
| Joe in D.C., Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| I just want to encourage everybody to really look critically and think critically about the statistics that the Trump administration is using to kind of tout their accomplishments in these first hundred days. | ||
| And I saw an article the other day about how the Trump administration released this graphic about how illegal border crossings were down like 95% in the first week of the administration. | ||
| And first of all, the downward trend in border crossings started last summer when Biden signed an executive order that related the restrictions. | ||
| And Trump's taken the credit for a lot of things that Biden has done, and that's just one of them. | ||
| But then the other thing is that just on the statistics side of it, the graphic that they showed, if you look at the data, they compared the 95% by comparing the total number of encounters during the last seven days of Biden's administration with the average number of encounters from the first seven days of Trump's administration. | ||
| So they're comparing a total some amount with an average, first of all, which is just like, it's just a lie. | ||
| I mean, it's not that the numbers aren't a lie, but it's misleading representation of the numbers, right? | ||
| So just everybody's got to really look at these numbers, right? | ||
| And then the other thing is that when the first thing that Trump did as far as the immigration on day one was shut down the CBT app that allowed people to apply for legal entry into the United States. | ||
| So, you know, if you people want people, you know, I think the number one thing I hear conservatives saying when they call in about border crossings is if you want to come here, do it legally. | ||
| Well, Trump shut down the best, you know, kind of the people's best chance of applying for legal citizenship, applying for asylum. | ||
| So, you know, I don't say it doesn't feel like they want people to come here illegally. | ||
| It feels like they don't, you know, they, meaning conservatives and Republicans, don't want immigrants coming here at all because they just shut down a pathway for legal citizenship. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, look out for the way that people manipulate statistics. | |
| Okay, Joe in D.C., this is Mary Ann in Virginia, Republican line on this open forum. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hi, good morning. | ||
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I just want to say that I voted for Trump twice, the first time when he ran for Roberts, and obviously the second time. | ||
| And while I still like the stuff that he's doing for the country, I have to admit there have been times where I cringe, especially when moments where he might say something that just sounds ridiculous. | ||
| And the other thing is that I wish that they would just move on and stop saying Joe Biden did this bad thing in Joe Biden because it's already done. | ||
| He already won. | ||
| He got the majority vote. | ||
| He got the electoral vote. | ||
| And there's really no need anymore to keep referring back to the past administration because it's done. | ||
| That's all I have to say. | ||
| Mary Ann there in Virginia on this open forum. | ||
| Let's hear from Bill in Pennsylvania, Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Hello. | ||
| I just wanted to ask a question of the American people, the President, the Congress. | ||
| And my question is, why don't the lives of Palestinians matter? | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the reason I asked that question is because so little attention is given to the horrendous situation in Gaza where people are starving, have been starving, are dying. | |
| Why don't they matter? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| That's Bill there in Pennsylvania calling on this open forum. | ||
| And you can do the same for the next several minutes if you wish, called the line that best represents you. | ||
| One of the things to watch out for this week in three specific committees in the House side is work on the reconciliation bill. | ||
| This is part of the president's domestic package that deals with a lot of issues from immigration to tax cuts. | ||
| One of those committees is the Ways and Means Committee of the Tax Riot and Committee. | ||
| They'll debate and vote on their 2025 budget package later on today. | ||
| That'll be 2.30 in the afternoon. | ||
| Some of those provisions, you'll remember, include making the 2017 tax cuts put in place under the first Trump administration permanent. | ||
| It would adjust the tax code and the child tax credit as well. | ||
| The legislation might also include some tax increases. | ||
| Those amendment votes are expected late into the evening. | ||
| It's part of the process. | ||
| And if you want to watch it happen as it plays out, you can start watching at 2.30 this afternoon live on C-SPAN 3. | ||
| Follow along on our app and c-span.org as well if you're interested in how this so-called reconciliation bill plays out. | ||
| One of the topics related to that was what happens to Medicaid funding as part of this effort. | ||
| The Washington Post takes a look at how seniors particularly could be affected. | ||
| This is the headline. | ||
| Potential Medicaid cuts could threaten those care, saying that the, quote, provider tax remains one of the top targets for drastically reducing federal spending to achieve major budget cuts. | ||
| House Republicans apparently are backing away from other consequential and far-reaching proposals for Medicaid. | ||
| And several lawmakers unveiled that language Sunday, saying they would restrict the ability of state officials to tax health care providers such as nursing homes and return the revenue to them as higher payments for Medicaid services. | ||
| The maneuver allows states to collect more in federal matching funding. | ||
| We'll have a roundtable discussion on various aspects of the reconciliation bill, including what happens to Medicaid and potentially what could happen to Medicaid. | ||
| That will be in our next segment in about less than 10 minutes from now. | ||
| Let's hear from Michael. | ||
| Michael is in Wisconsin, Democrats line. | ||
| Hello, go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for taking my call. | |
| I'd love to know what people with half a functioning brain think Trump is getting in return for that big airplane, that big $40 million or $400 million airplane. | ||
| You know, the Saudis gave his son-in-law $2 billion to, you know, for a fund of his that he, a hedge fund of his, something that he has no skill whatsoever in running their, they're giving them all these gifts for a reason. | ||
| He's selling out this country behind our backs. | ||
| And we have to keep in mind that this man is a convicted felon. | ||
| So he's doing all this criminal, all these criminal things while he's in office. | ||
| And people are sitting back going, oh, he's looking out for Americans. | ||
| No, he's not looking out for Americans. | ||
| He's looking out for himself and his family, and he's lying in his pockets. | ||
| And when he gets done with this whole ordeal, this whole grift that they got going on, they will be billions and billions of dollars richer. | ||
| And I think a lot of the money that's going into this Bitcoin thing that he's got is coming from all these foreign countries. | ||
| And they're getting something in return. | ||
| And that's something I think may be a whole lot of gifts in the way of our military equipment and in the way of our information because everyone that he put into all these positions in his cabinet are saying nothing to stop him from doing all these illegal things. | ||
| They're in it with him. | ||
| They're all in on the grip. | ||
| So people better wake up and pay attention. | ||
| This man is selling us out. | ||
| From Florida Independent Line, we will hear from Tammy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Thanks for taking my call. | ||
| I was directing towards the woman earlier who was calling about the plane. | ||
| The issue with the plane is one, they actually rebuilt Air Force One to Air Force Two during Trump's last administration. | ||
| So they have a new plane. | ||
| Number two, it goes with the caller who just came in. | ||
| The issue over the plane is this is a direct gift from the Saudi government to Donald J. Trump. | ||
| He gets to keep it when he leaves office. | ||
| Now, the Republicans got crazy upset over Biden potentially getting favorable terms and employment in exchange for meetings with his father. | ||
| At the time, he wasn't even a member of the government. | ||
| And they were talking about maybe a couple million dollars. | ||
| But it was this huge thing. | ||
| It went through months of Congress. | ||
| He wanted to throw him in jail. | ||
| But now Trump is taking at least a billion dollars personally and then $2.2 billion for his son, Kushner. | ||
| And nobody cares about that. | ||
| So for the Republicans to say anything about the Democrats is ridiculous. | ||
| From Jeff Next in Alabama, Republican line. | ||
| Oh, he's gone. | ||
| You can still call in if you wish to give your comments in the last couple moments of the open forum that we have together. | ||
| Let's try Kim. | ||
| Kim in Ohio. | ||
| Republican line, you are on. | ||
| Go ahead, please. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I just have comments to the guy from Wisconsin that is stating that Trump is lining his pockets. | ||
| I don't know if he realizes that Trump was worth less after his first term than what he was before he started. | ||
| And I don't know where he gets off thinking all this stuff when Biden and Obama are millionaires after their term. | ||
| He needs to wake up. | ||
| Was he here during Trump's first term? | ||
| How much did Trump rip us off? | ||
| How much did he line his pockets? | ||
| How dumb people can be. | ||
| That's all I have to say to him. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| It was yesterday that the head of the Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president, talking about the drug pricing order, the head of the secretary of HHS following up with that and the significance of the executive order signed by the president. | ||
| Here's RFK Jr. from yesterday. | ||
| We have 4.2% of the world's population. | ||
| Our country represents 75% of the revenues for pharmaceutical companies. | ||
| We spend in our country $1,126 per capita on drugs. | ||
| In Britain, they spent about $240. | ||
| They spent one-fifth of what we do. | ||
| And this is true across Europe. | ||
| And the drug companies, Europeans, if you ask them, it made no sense what they were saying. | ||
| America has to pay for this innovation or it's not going to happen. | ||
| President Trump is saying to our European partners is you've got to raise the amount that you're paying for those drugs and pay for your share of the innovation. | ||
| That the United States is no longer subsidizing that. | ||
| If the Europeans raise the price of their drugs by just 20%, that is $10 trillion. | ||
| That can be spent on innovation. | ||
| And the health of all people all across the globe is going to increase because we're going to have better products. | ||
| So I'm just so grateful to be here today. | ||
| I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime. | ||
| I have a couple of kids who are Democrats, big Bernie Sanders fans. | ||
| And when I told them that this was going to happen, they had tears in their eyes because they thought this is never going to happen in our lifetime. | ||
| And we finally have a president who's willing to stand up for the American people. | ||
| Let's hear one more call. | ||
| This will be from Beverly, Beverly and Wyoming Democrats line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| Good morning, everybody. | ||
| And everybody's getting fooled. | ||
| But that's okay. | ||
| Everybody learns from it. | ||
| Trump, he has been greedy, selfish, and deceiving. | ||
| And I don't like a Trump like that. | ||
| I meant a president like that. | ||
| Dividing people is so evil. | ||
| And they just go with it. | ||
| The people need to know that they're loved and start taking care of the children and forget about all of our bad habits and start doing something for the children, like making schools safe for them and making the seniors, or having the seniors safe. | ||
| Everybody needs to be safe, but they lost common sense. | ||
| Get on Geronimo's horse and see the real truth. | ||
| Okay, Beverly in Wyoming, last call. | ||
| Thank you for those of you who participate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
President Trump is in Saudi Arabia at the beginning of a Middle East excursion, which includes visit to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. | |
| This morning, the President will be speaking at a U.S.-Saudi Arabia Investment Forum. | ||
| It's expected to get underway in just a few minutes. | ||
| We will have live coverage here on C-SPAN. | ||
| Well, back here at home, the U.S. House is in session. | ||
| At about 3 p.m. Eastern today, members are expected to debate 16 bills, including support for first responders and national park passes for the families of deceased veterans. | ||
| And off the floor, three House committees are meeting to review tax and spending legislation. | ||
| The House Ways and Means Committee is working on their part of the fiscal year 2025 budget package with amendment votes expected late into the evening. | ||
| You can watch that live on C-SPAN 3. | ||
| We're also covering the Energy and Commerce Committee debating the bill. |