| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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Renowned author and civic leader David Rubinstein, each week features in-depth conversations with the thinkers shaping our national story. | |
| Among this season's remarkable guests, John Grisham, master storyteller of the American justice system. | ||
| Justice Amy Coney Barrett, exploring the Constitution, the court, and the role of law in American life. | ||
| Famed chef and global relief entrepreneur Jose Andres, reimagining food. | ||
| Henry Louis Gates, chronicler of race, identity, and the American experience. | ||
| The books, the voices, the places that preserve our past, and spark the ideas that will shape our future. | ||
| America's Book Club, premiering this fall only on C-SPAN. | ||
| We're going to get to your thoughts here, your confidence level in President Trump's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
| We're pegging this question off of a recent poll conducted by Pew Research, and this is what they found. | ||
| 36% of those that participated in the survey said they are not at all confident, while 19% said not too confident, 21% said somewhat confident, and 23% said that they are very confident in President Trump's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
| When they broke it down by party, 80% of Republicans were very or somewhat confident, while 11% of Democrats were very or somewhat confident. | ||
| We want to hear from you this morning. | ||
| It's your turn to let the President and Washington know what you think about the President's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
| From theeconomist.com, we are 217 days into Donald Trump's term. | ||
| GDP grew at 3% per year in the second quarter. | ||
| The unemployment rate is low at 4.2%. | ||
| And the SP 500 is up 6.9% since he took office. | ||
| The Economist says, though, it's too early to discern much effect on the economy. | ||
| GDP grew in the second quarter, but the healthy headline figure was flattered by a sharp drop in imports. | ||
| In other words, the tariff policies have yet to show up in the economy, according to news reports. | ||
| What is your confidence level in Trump's ability to make good decisions? | ||
| On Friday, or on Thursday last week, we heard from the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, that was Friday. | ||
| He was in Jackson Hole for an economic symposium. | ||
| And here's what he had to say about interest rate drops that could come later this year. | ||
| This year, the economy has faced new challenges. | ||
| Significantly higher tariffs across our trading partners are remaking the global trading system. | ||
| Tighter immigration policy has led to an abrupt slowdown in labor force growth. | ||
| Over the longer run, changes in tax, spending, and regulatory policies may also have important implications for economic growth and productivity. | ||
| There is significant uncertainty about where all of these policies will eventually settle and what their lasting effects on the economy will be. | ||
| Changes in trade and immigration policies are affecting both demand and supply. | ||
| In this environment, distinguishing cyclical developments from trend or structural developments is difficult. | ||
| This distinction is critical because monetary policy can work to stabilize cyclical fluctuations, but can do little to alter structural changes. | ||
| The labor market is a case in point. | ||
| The July employment report released earlier this month showed that payroll job growth slowed to an average pace of only $35,000 per month over the past three months, down from $168,000 per month during 2024. | ||
| This slowdown is much larger than assessed just a month ago, as the earlier figures for May and June were revised down substantially. | ||
| But it does not appear that the slowdown in job growth has opened up a large margin of slack in the labor market, an outcome we want to avoid. | ||
| Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve Chair, on Friday. | ||
| Now, when he was talking about that fall in job numbers, Washington Times says that the Powell said in that speech that there's been a sharp falloff in immigrant workers and labor force participation went down a bit. | ||
| So this is what the Federal Reserve is concerned about now. | ||
| And this could be why there is an interest rate cut in the fall. | ||
| After the Powell announcement, President Trump talked about how the stock market reacted and his view of the economy overall. | ||
| This is what he had to say, President Trump, on Friday. | ||
| And now you look, and now you look at the stock market today. | ||
| It's way up to start off with, from where I took it. | ||
| And this market was going to crash. | ||
| If Joe Biden or Kamala were president, this market would have, we would have had a crash like in 1929. | ||
|
unidentified
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You're not going to have that. | |
| It's only a question of how high is it going to go. | ||
| You know, I had the strongest economy in the history of our country. | ||
| And despite COVID, we had the strongest economy in the history of our country. | ||
|
unidentified
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And we're going to blow it away this time. | |
| I was always good at making a lot of money. | ||
| And whether it was for myself or whether it was, I like doing it this way better. | ||
|
unidentified
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I mean, I like making it for the country. | |
| Our country has been ripped off by friend and foe, nations all over the world ripped off. | ||
| And the friends have been much worse than the foes for the most part. | ||
|
unidentified
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And they're not ripping us off. | |
| President Trump on Friday, you can hear him talk about the economy overall, expressing confidence in the direction that it is headed in. | ||
| Do you share his confidence? | ||
| What is your confidence in President Trump's ability to make good economic decisions? | ||
| Steve in Ormond Beach, Florida, an independent. | ||
| We'll hear from you first. | ||
| Steve, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I voted for Barack Obama twice, and I'm very upset with Barack with the insurance deal, you know, with having to pay for it and being penalized. | ||
| Anyway, make a long story short. | ||
| I did not trust Trump in the beginning or Hillary. | ||
| I put my own name in the election box for president. | ||
| What I've seen, what he has done, I am 100% confident in President Trump. | ||
| Everything he does, I got to say most everything. | ||
| He's not a perfect, you know, he's a man. | ||
| He's a human being. | ||
| But most everything he's doing is correct, and I am very proud of him and very glad he's my president. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And Steve, before you go, can you tell us some policy decisions that you think are correct? | ||
| Like what so far, 217 days in, what do you like? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, let me tell you what happened. | |
| I had a heart attack six years ago, and the VA wasn't paying for it. | ||
| I didn't retire. | ||
| You know, I did my one term, and I was fighting with the VA saying, hey, I got excellent credit. | ||
| My credit's going down the hill. | ||
| I have collection agencies coming after me. | ||
| So I kept fighting. | ||
| And a few months later, the veterans call me and they say, hey, it's a good thing Trump's president. | ||
| They said now he's going to have your bills paid and you can pick your own doctor now. | ||
| I said, great. | ||
| Unbelievable. | ||
| Listen to this. | ||
| I was at a restaurant the other day and I was talking to the waiter. | ||
| He's from Brazil. | ||
| He goes, do you know since President Trump, he wasn't a fan of President Trump either in the beginning. | ||
| He says it took me five weeks to get my legal, you know, to get my paperwork done to become, you know, illegal, you know, to get for, you know, he was like. | ||
| Visa. | ||
|
unidentified
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Visa, exactly. | |
| He said, I've been trying for years and years, and now I'm getting it. | ||
| And he goes, and I invested. | ||
| I'm making so much money now in my investments. | ||
| And this is a man from Brazil working at a restaurant as a waiter. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And now, with the tips and everything, I have my son gets overtime all the time in his job. | ||
| I got family members that get tips. | ||
| They don't have to pay taxes. | ||
| I'm 65, you know, here in Florida. | ||
| I live. | ||
| Steve, are those folks that are getting tips, though? | ||
| No taxes on tips, are they concerned at all or upset that this is just temporary? | ||
|
unidentified
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No, I don't think they are. | |
| You know, this is an advantage for later on when they run for the election again. | ||
| They're going to put it back in. | ||
| You know, they're going to, you know, the Democrats are probably going to fight against it and the Republicans are going to fight for it. | ||
| They put it temporarily on purpose. | ||
| That's an advantage for them. | ||
| You know, so down the road, they can fight for it again. | ||
| That's my opinion. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Steve, with his announcement there in Florida and Independent. | ||
| Sandy and Florida, Democratic caller, your confidence in President Trump's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'm not sure he knows exactly what he's talking about, but because I wanted to call when he was speaking about the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, I was owned a company and I was one of the 125,000 employers that was surveyed in the last, I'd say it was in the last six or seven years. | |
| And I'm retired now, but I wish I'd kept a copy of that survey because I found that the questions that they were asking were statistics about my employee census, about the economy in our area. | ||
| I'd been in the particular type of business for almost 40 years, and I can't believe that it took that long for them to find me to survey me. | ||
| But I had to provide my actual numbers. | ||
| Okay, so Sandy, your point is, and how does that relate to the economy? | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, he's using that to say that those numbers are not correct and that those numbers affect the economy by the rates that are currently in place. | |
| And he took out the person that was in charge of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to be able to alter those numbers. | ||
| All right, so you don't trust the government numbers now? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, correct. | |
| All right, Sandy in Florida, Democratic caller. | ||
| We're asking your confidence in the president's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
| The lines are on your screen. | ||
| Republicans 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Take a look at the front page of the Wall Street Journal this morning. | ||
| Stagnant hiring is rising economic hazard. | ||
| The good news is that unemployment remains low, and employers haven't been all that interested in laying people off. | ||
| The bad news is that companies haven't been all that interested in hiring either. | ||
| The precarious situation means even a relatively small increase in layoffs could lead the economy to start shedding jobs, a process that can be difficult to reverse once it starts. | ||
| Worries about this possibility have come to the fore at the Fed, especially after revisions included in the July employment report showed much weaker job growth in recent months than previously thought. | ||
| This is why, while inflation is above the 2% target, Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Friday signaled the central bank's policymakers could cut rates when they meet in September. | ||
| Powell characterized the labor market environment as curious. | ||
| Frank in Gadson, Alabama, Republican. | ||
| Frank, what's your confidence level? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Extremely high. | |
| Okay, tell us why. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, any good thing takes time. | |
| And so the policies that President Trump has put in place are, you know, need to evolve themselves. | ||
| It's not something that's going to happen like, you know, from one day to another. | ||
| You don't build a house in one day. | ||
| It takes time, especially if you want one the last. | ||
| And that's basically what he's doing with his policies that he has in place. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Frank's thoughts there. | ||
| John, Easton, Pennsylvania, Democratic caller. | ||
| John, your turn. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi. | |
| I have no confidence in him because he never got anything right. | ||
| He said gas prices went down when he was elected, but they went up. | ||
| And all these other things that he said are happening, there's inflation because he's not doing anything about the deficit. | ||
| You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. | ||
| If the deficit is high, you're going to have problems with the economy. | ||
| You're going to have problems with inflation. | ||
| You're going to have problems with everything. | ||
| He's adding on more than the Democrats did. | ||
| A lot more. | ||
| And that is going to be a problem. | ||
| Have a nice day. | ||
| All right. | ||
| John Easton, Pennsylvania, Democratic caller, mentions inflation. | ||
| This is from the MarketWatch website, marketwatch.com. | ||
| U.S. economy gets its mojo back, SP fines, but inflation is also picking up. | ||
| The Fed is grappling with inflation and a weak jobs market, a weaker than expected. | ||
| Listen to CBS's Face the Nation yesterday. | ||
| They spoke with the Alliance chief economic advisor, and this is what he had to say about the Federal Reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He finally pivoted to the risk that matters most for the U.S. economy right now. | |
| By construct, the Fed has to deliver two things: maximum employment and price stability. | ||
| And the Fed is looking at slightly higher inflation and a weakening labor market. | ||
| And what Powell finally did, and many of us feel he should have done this earlier, is he said the risk to the employment side is higher than the risk to the inflation side. | ||
| And therefore, an interest rate cut is warranted. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As you know, many of us felt he should have cut last month. | |
| Well, the Fed chair said significantly higher tariffs are remaking the entire global trade system. | ||
| Tighter immigration policy has slowed labor growth. | ||
| And there are big tax and regulation changes you can't quite quantify at this point. | ||
| But it's a lot of uncertainty. | ||
| Since economists have to build off of models and data, how do you predict where we're going if basically he's saying throw out your models? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So one of the problems is he hasn't looked forward enough. | |
| He's been very data dependent and therefore he has tended to be late. | ||
| Look, there is something promising in our future and that is productivity enhancement that comes from exciting innovation in AI and life sciences and robotics and other areas. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We just have to manage a challenging few months in the period ahead. | |
| And if that challenge is mishandled, we will not be able to get the opportunities that we have that offset a lot of structural headwinds. | ||
|
unidentified
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And that includes high debt and high deficits. | |
| A lot of policy there in that conversation. | ||
| And that clip that we just showed you on CBS's Face the Nation. | ||
| She's talking about what the president is doing on immigration and tariffs and the tax bill that was recently passed, the so-called one big, beautiful bill. | ||
| This morning we're asking you, so your confidence in President Trump's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
| What have you seen so far and what confidence does that give you? | ||
| Here is one of our viewers, Deb, who posts on X, Terrible. | ||
| She says, higher costs coming to a store near you. | ||
| He's done nothing for the poor or the middle class. | ||
| And then you also have Raymond on Facebook. | ||
| The Big Beautiful bill was signed July 4th. | ||
| Give it time. | ||
| Businesses have to plan. | ||
| There were no assurance it would pass. | ||
| Ask in the new year. | ||
| We'll go to Christopher in Vegas, a Republican. | ||
| Christopher, what do you say? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I got to tell you, I get very disturbed when I hear my so-called fellow Republican saying how everything is honky dory. | |
| Your first caller said that everything is peachy clean. | ||
| Matter of fact, what did he say? | ||
| One of his Brazilian waiters or something had just gotten his visa thanks to Trump. | ||
| That's amazing considering that everybody who is talking about their visas right now are terrified. | ||
| So I would like to know how he was able to go down and get his visa so fast. | ||
| And then he also said something about the VA, if I'm not mistaken. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| This sounds so scripted. | ||
| This is why a lot of people in my original Republican Party can't stand. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Everything is scripted. | |
| I hear people calling in, and it sounds like I'm listening to Fox News, Newsmac, MSNBC. | ||
| Everybody is saying the exact same thing word for word. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| All right, Christopher. | ||
| So tell us your perspective then. | ||
| What's your confidence level in the present? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I can tell you. | |
| I have to tell you, excuse me, I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I have to tell you, I had a little issue with you. | ||
| As you were opening up the segment, you were reading all the stats from the news from the article. | ||
| You didn't mention the fact that the last two months of job growth have been horrible. | ||
| Yes, we did. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's right there on the screen. | |
| 73,000 jobs in July. | ||
| You didn't mention that at all. | ||
| Yes, we did. | ||
| Yes, we did. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ma'am, I'm sitting here watching you. | |
| You say one word about the jobs in July and June. | ||
| You missed the shot at the document while you were talking. | ||
| Christopher, you missed the shot from Powell, where he talked about it. | ||
| And I also mentioned it from the Washington Times. | ||
| Sophia in Manhattan, Independent. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Greta. | |
| Morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I don't have no confidence of Mr. Trump. | |
| Majority of the restaurant that I enjoy, they shut down. | ||
| I voted for him in 2016. | ||
| He had make me laugh. | ||
| He had made me sad. | ||
| He had made me anger. | ||
| Now, I am so feeling horrible. | ||
| A lady that calls from Tennessee, you had a good day, and I had a good day. | ||
| She was 96 years old. | ||
| She said she worked until 92. | ||
| You see, Mr. Trump, in 1987, when the stock, I'm going to try to make it faster. | ||
| And I had one question, Greta. | ||
| In 1987, when the stock market crashed, he bought everything and sell it and he became a billionaire. | ||
| Now, he is selling most of the people. | ||
| He became a tradioner. | ||
| Question for you. | ||
| Greta. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| I feel bad about this. | ||
| C-SPAN, open poll used to be at least 30 minutes without interruption. | ||
| You see, people call iCourt to listen to each other. | ||
| I always say, if you don't like the guest or if you don't like the host, just change the channel. | ||
| But 10 minutes is everything what we already heard and everything. | ||
| And 10 minutes that the people calling and then they were calling. | ||
| Even me, Greta, you know, it's stopping. | ||
| But like I said, you know, but we're going to be survived. | ||
| We're going to be okay. | ||
| All we have to do is just be strong. | ||
| And I feel sorry. | ||
| I stopped working. | ||
| All right, Sophie. | ||
| I'm going to go on to Benny, who's in Louisville, Kentucky, Democratic Caller. | ||
| Benny, we're talking about the economy this morning. | ||
| Your confidence level in President Trump. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have little to no confidence in President Trump's economy. | |
| I do looking at the gas prices, they've not gone down. | ||
| They seem to be going up. | ||
| The food seems like the only ones getting enriched is President Trump, selling Bibles and Bitcoins and things like that. | ||
| And it does scare me that that's entering our economy, the digital money and stuff, because I think it has the propensity to mess it all up, mess our dollar up, playing around with this Bitcoin stuff. | ||
| So I have little to no confidence in President Trump's economy. | ||
| All right, Benny, this morning, let's turn to USA Today. | ||
| This is a recent piece published by them. | ||
| U.S. will dodge recession, but Trump's policies will slow economic growth. | ||
| This is from a report by Moody's Analytics. | ||
| President Trump's aggressive economic policies will likely significantly slow the U.S. growth and push up inflation, but stop short of a recession or stagflation, the dire scenarios that forecasters envisioned before he took office. | ||
| Again, this is from Moody's Analytics. | ||
| Stagflation is an economy characterized by high inflation, slow or stagnant growth, and high unemployment, an unusual and toxic cocktail. | ||
| Typically, a sluggish economy leads to low inflation, allowing the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to stimulate more borrowing and activity. | ||
| The Fed, however, faces dilemmas because lowering rates to bolster a softening labor market could further drive up inflation. | ||
| Consumer price increases generally have eased substantially over a pandemic-related spike, but recently edged higher in part because of Trump's sweeping import levies. | ||
| We'll go to Becky next, Memphis, Tennessee, Independent. | ||
| Morning, Becky. | ||
| Good morning, Greta. | ||
| I have zero confidence in Trump for anything. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm scared. | |
| You know, I'm a senior citizen and I retired in January. | ||
| And anyway, I just have no confidence. | ||
| I think he's just for the rich, just for them to make more money. | ||
| I don't think he could care less about poor people. | ||
| Becky's thoughts there. | ||
| Woody in Augusta, Georgia, Republican. | ||
| Woody, good morning to you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How are you doing this morning? | |
| Doing well, Woody. | ||
| What's your confidence level? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, I believe in giving everybody a shot. | |
| Everybody be complaining. | ||
| The man ain't been in office one year. | ||
| It's just the whole last name that these haters, the ones who hate him, they just hate his name. | ||
| And he ain't did nothing. | ||
| They ain't gave a man a year to find out. | ||
| They're so used to getting so many freebies from the damn, so everybody need to work and save a little money. | ||
| Not everybody going crazy. | ||
| That's all it is. | ||
| Ain't nobody. | ||
| I don't see nobody losing everything. | ||
| They've been panicking. | ||
| I see all the athletes signing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts and everything else. | ||
| Nobody ever gets on C-SPAN and complain about the athletes making too much money. | ||
| I don't understand that. | ||
| But she wants to talk about what Trump did during the when the crash market crashed. | ||
| Hell, everybody do that. | ||
| I'll do it. | ||
| When the stuff down, I'll buy a low sale. | ||
| I mean, that's the American way, isn't it? | ||
| But it calls his last name Trump. | ||
| Everybody wants to prosecute him. | ||
| Get a man a chance. | ||
| All right, Woody. | ||
| Woody there in Augusta, Georgia. | ||
| Ted in Hawaii, Democratic caller. | ||
| Ted, we'll turn to you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hello. | ||
| And, Greta, I want to give you a pat on the back for being very nonpartisan. | ||
| There was a guy a few callers back that was trying to criticize you for not putting a segment on. | ||
| And I heard the segment, and you were right. | ||
| Okay, that's just a pat on the back for your nonpartisanship. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| But I'm calling about Trump and the confidence level. | ||
| I'm out here in Hawaii, and we're pretty much on our own in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. | ||
| I've been out here 48 years since the Vietnam War got over. | ||
| And anyway, I do not have confidence because I watch critically what goes on. | ||
| And I would like to be able to say yes to him, but I got to be honest. | ||
| And honesty seems to be in short supply in that city these days. | ||
| And so, and I've been a farmer for over 50 years in Washington State here and Hawaii. | ||
| And I consider all the farmers I know to be very honest and tell it how it is. | ||
| Their life depends on it. | ||
| And anyway, I just wanted to give you a pat on the back for being, yes, you were correct about that one caller that you had played that segment. | ||
| I heard it. | ||
| You were right. | ||
| And I don't have confidence in what's going on. | ||
| And I wish I could. | ||
| I really do, because that's good for all of us. | ||
| And Ted, what about his agriculture policies are impacting you as a farmer and others that you know? | ||
| What are they saying to you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I have to be honest, I did retire shortly ago, but I have a lot of cousins, et cetera, that grow apples and things in Washington State, and they have always been for Trump for that. | |
| Got it. | ||
| All right, Ted there in Hawaii. | ||
| I want to share some other news with you this morning. | ||
| Earlier this morning, Washington Post reporting that the National Guard in Washington, D.C. will be carrying weapons. | ||
| That was the latest on the takeover of Washington, D.C. by the National Guard, by the president. | ||
| And then this is the front page of the Washington Post this morning. | ||
| Trump's threat of troops looms over big cities as well. | ||
| The Illinois, he's talking about Chicago is next. | ||
| That's in the Washington Post this morning. | ||
| And then you also have this headline in the Washington Times this morning: free again. | ||
| And then Mr. Garcia faces new ICE arrest deadline this morning. | ||
| This is from the Washington Times. | ||
| Stephen Dinan reports that lawyers for Kilmar Garcia said that the threat appears to be part of a strategy to coerce Mr. Garcia's plead to plead guilty to embarrassing criminal charges. | ||
| They've offered to let him be deported to Costa Rica if he does agree. | ||
| The lawyer said in new court filings, he has a Monday deadline this morning to check in with ICE, where the government has told him he could face a quick deportation to Uganda, a country to which his lawyers say he has no ties. | ||
| A deadline this morning at the ICE office in Baltimore. | ||
| So that's the Washington Times this morning. | ||
| There's also this in the Washington Times: the president seeks billions from Congress to beautify D.C. streets. | ||
| The president is eyeing roughly a three-mile radius from the White House. | ||
| $2 billion to beautify D.C., and this comes after Republicans approved a spending bill that resulted in a roughly $1 billion cut for the district in 2025. | ||
| So that's from the Washington Times this morning. | ||
| There's other news to share with you as well. | ||
| This is from the Washington Post: New Republican bill's latest push to extend the federal control of D.C. police. | ||
| It comes from Congressman Andy Biggs, Republican of Arizona. | ||
| He's pushing to extend the federal takeover of the DC police for months longer through new legislation. | ||
| Under Washington's Home Rule Act, which grants D.C. limited forms of self-governance, the president can take over the Metropolitan Police for up to 30 days if special conditions of an emergency nature exist. | ||
| And the Senate and House must pass a joint resolution to extend that timeframe any further. | ||
| So, Congressman Andy Biggs is now going to introduce legislation to do that. | ||
| So, that's your update this morning on the federal takeover of D.C. police. | ||
| We'll go back to our question on the economy. | ||
| Guy in Stigler, Oklahoma, and Independence been waiting. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Go ahead, Guy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, good morning, Greta. | |
| How are you today? | ||
| Doing well. | ||
| What's your confidence level? | ||
|
unidentified
|
My confidence level is extremely high. | |
| First, I'd like to back up under the Biden administration. | ||
| You know, people were complaining about inflation and prices going up. | ||
| Remember, under the Biden administration, housing prices doubled. | ||
| Automobile prices doubled. | ||
| Mortgage interest rates quadrupled from 2.5% to 8.5%. | ||
| Groceries doubled and tripled. | ||
| And here are Democrats complaining about a few little ticks going up, percentage points. | ||
| Give me a break. | ||
| And in fact, the last three months in a row now, month-to-month inflation three months ago was three-tenths of 1%. | ||
| Two months ago was three-tenths. | ||
| I'm sorry, two-tenths of 1%. | ||
| Last month was three-tenths of 1%. | ||
| Inflation is basically flat. | ||
| All the propaganda, all the fear-mongering from the fake news, and the Democrats were going into recession. | ||
| They're stealing your Social Security. | ||
| They're going to cut Medicare and Medicaid, all a bunch of filthy lies. | ||
| And if you look at the stock market, NASDAQ, record high. | ||
| Dow, record high. | ||
| SP, record high. | ||
| Trump has brought in $17 trillion, trillion dollars of foreign investment. | ||
| Yeah, it's going to take a year or so to really bump the economy up and hit the GDP. | ||
| And in fact, the GDP, it went from 2% to 3% in the last six months. | ||
| It's been 2% for the last five years. | ||
| It's been flat. | ||
| It just hit 3%. | ||
| What an indicator. | ||
| Go, Trump. | ||
| Guy, before you go, respond to concerns highlighted in this Economist article. | ||
| The strains are starting to show, is what they write. | ||
| Retail sales are weakening. | ||
| Housing starts have dropped to their lowest since mid-2020. | ||
| And an immigration crackdown is tightening labor supply. | ||
| And the labor market may be softening. | ||
| America added just 73 jobs in July, far below economists' expectations. | ||
| So, Guy, do you have any concern about that economic data? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you know, the immigrants before Biden opened up the border, there was already 20 to 30 million immigrants here to begin with. | |
| They added another 10 to 20 million. | ||
| And out of the people that Biden brought in over the last four years, only 8% of them have found jobs. | ||
| Over 90% are living off the government, the taxpayers, us, free education, free medication, free housing, free food. | ||
| And remember, when they came across the border, they got a debit card preloaded with $8,000. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And then every month after that, they got it reloaded again with another $5,000 every month. | |
| We've spent $800 billion in the last four and a half years funding these illegal aliens. | ||
| All right, guys. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, you know, interest rates went from two and a half to eight and a half percent. | |
| Confidence was low. | ||
| Um, the interest rates are starting to come down, but it's going to be a while until the housing market recovers. | ||
| It went from the best housing market in history under Trump to the worst housing market under Biden. | ||
| What about during the pandemic, though, and the buildup with the appreciation during the Biden administration that folks saw in their houses? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yeah, housing prices doubled inflation because of all the money they crypted with these bills: the CHIPS Act, the infrastructure bill, the rescue act. | |
| And remember, the infrastructure bill, that to me, that was an abomination. | ||
| Only 9% of $1.6 trillion went to infrastructure. | ||
| 9%. | ||
| Where did the other $1.4 trillion go to? | ||
| It vanished. | ||
| It disappeared. | ||
| Nobody knows where it went. | ||
| What a crime. | ||
| All right, guys, Guy's remarks there in Stigler, Oklahoma, an independent caller. | ||
| I'll just piggyback off of what Guy was saying about immigration deportations. | ||
| This is from the New York Times this morning. | ||
| Take a look at this chart where daily ICE arrests surge the most this summer. | ||
| These are arrests by ICE Field Office. | ||
| The Boston, Miami, and Chicago offices cover multiple states and territories. | ||
| So you can see the uptick. | ||
| These are the cities across the country this summer where they saw an uptick in deportations and the along from the president's crackdown on immigration. | ||
| We'll go to Pat, who's in Florida, Republican. | ||
| Good morning to you, Pat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning. | |
| We're listening, Pat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Pardon me? | |
| We're listening to you. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, okay. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Yeah, I was just going to tell you that here where I live in Florida, businesses are going up everywhere. | ||
| And there's signs out there saying needing 140 employees. | ||
| I think that Trump's done a great job. | ||
| I'm making money now on my investments. | ||
| He, you know, I'm like the guy I said earlier: you can't build a house overnight. | ||
| You got to give him a chance. | ||
| And I just think that a matter of fact, yesterday I bought gas for $2.69. | ||
| How long has it been since we've seen it that cheap? | ||
| And I just feel like that everybody, you know, when you say Trump, you know, they just want to degrade him. | ||
| You know, you got to give the man a chance. | ||
| And I appreciate you taking my call. | ||
| And I think that if everybody would just set back and realize that it takes time and he's doing the best he can do between that and all these wars going on. | ||
| And thank you for taking my call. | ||
| All right, Pat Margaret, Fort Valley, Georgia, Democratic caller. | ||
| Margaret, good morning. | ||
| Share your thoughts with us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I'd like to switch gears. | |
| President Trump is a pedophile. | ||
| He knows he's a pedophile. | ||
| All right, Margaret, we're talking about the economy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I want to switch gay. | |
| I want to talk about Trump. | ||
| Well, we're going to talk about the economy. | ||
| We're going to have an open forum later. | ||
| Angela, California, independent. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, how are you doing? | |
| I've been independent since 1978. | ||
| I'm nonpartisan. | ||
| Here's my thought on everything. | ||
| I'm looking for the future. | ||
| I'm just turning 65 years old. | ||
| I got a seven-year-old great nephew. | ||
| 20 years from now, what is his future going to be in this country? | ||
| Is he going to be able to buy a house? | ||
| Is he going to be able to eat? | ||
| Is he going to be able to work? | ||
| I'm noticing here in California, the majority of the employment in medical field is going to the Asians. | ||
| We keep talking about the illegal aliens. | ||
| They're just doing the bottom of the line working. | ||
| I'm in insurance. | ||
| They're bringing in A1 now to start reading medical reports. | ||
| So that means they're going to start throwing the humans out of that market. | ||
| Military. | ||
| We're playing with the military like they toy ships. | ||
| Who is paying for all this military to be in these cities? | ||
| Where's the money coming from? | ||
| Now he wants to beautify D.C. Guy talking about gas in Florida is $2 and something. | ||
| With a gas here in California, it's $5 and $6. | ||
| The cheapest you find in right now is $4.86. | ||
| All right, Angela. | ||
| All right. | ||
| We'll go to Danny in South Carolina, Republican. | ||
| And Danny, your confidence in President Trump's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No confidence at all. | |
| I just feel sorry for the Republicans. | ||
| They're always talking about immigrants. | ||
| Why? | ||
| It's all right for Himlim. | ||
| Democrats. | ||
| They don't have no problem with that. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right, Danny there in South Carolina. | ||
| We're talking about the economy this morning in our first hour of the Washington Journal. | ||
| We want to get your thoughts, your confidence level in the president's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
| Here are the lines. | ||
| Republicans, 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats, 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| We're pegging this question this morning off of a recent poll that was conducted by Pew Research. | ||
| And when they asked folks, your confidence in the president's ability to make good economic decisions, this is what they found out. | ||
| 36% not at all confident. | ||
| 19% not too confident. | ||
| 21% were somewhat confident. | ||
| And 23% very confident. | ||
| When they broke it down by party, 80% of Republicans were very confident or somewhat confident, while only 11% of Democrats were very or somewhat confident. | ||
| In case you missed it earlier, this is what the president had to say, his take on the economy overall on Friday when he was in the Oval Office responding to the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's hint at cutting interest rates. | ||
| Here's the president on Friday. | ||
| And now you look, and now you look at the stock market today. | ||
| It's way up to start off with, from where I took it. | ||
| And this market was going to crash. | ||
| If Joe Biden or Kamala were president, this market, we would have had a crash like in 1929. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're not going to have that. | |
| It's only a question of how high is it going to go. | ||
| You know, I had the strongest economy in the history of our country. | ||
| And despite COVID, we had the strongest economy in the history of our country. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And we're going to blow it away this time. | |
| I was always good at making a lot of money. | ||
| And whether it was for myself or whether I like doing it this way better. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, I like making it for the country. | |
| Our country has been ripped off by friend and foe, nations all over the world ripped off. | ||
| And the friends have been much worse than the foes for the most part. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And they're not ripping us off. | |
| The president of the Oval Office on Friday with his take on the economy. | ||
| Front page of the Wall Street Journal this morning, stagnant hiring is rising economic hazard. | ||
| Even as employers keep workers, fragile job market is front and center for the Fed. | ||
| The Fed pointing to lower job numbers than expected in July and hinting that that could be the reason why interest rates are cut in September this fall. | ||
| We're talking about your confidence in President Trump's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
| Tariffs is also part of the mix here with the economy. | ||
| When Pew asked about Trump's tariff policy, this is what they found out. | ||
| 39% strongly disapprove. | ||
| 22% somewhat disapprove. | ||
| 15% strongly approve. | ||
| And 23% somewhat approve. | ||
| We'll go to Pat in New York, Democratic caller. | ||
| Pat, you are up first. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, my concern about our economy is so many thousands of people have lost their jobs. | |
| How can the economy increase with the people that have lost jobs? | ||
| And with the job increase, they say, it has to be because probably the people that lost their jobs that had a paycheck that could cover basically their needs now may have to work two or three jobs just to pay their bills. | ||
| So I have no faith in the way that the economy is going now. | ||
| And it's a concern. | ||
| It's a very big concern because people are suffering. | ||
| Inflation is going up. | ||
| And if anyone says it is, something's wrong with them. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Pat's thoughts there. | ||
| Michael and Logan, West Virginia, Republican. | ||
| Michael, what do you say? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'm 110% pro-Trump. | |
| And I was born here long ago. | ||
| I left as five or six years old. | ||
| My daddy won't bring me up life of a miner. | ||
| One grandpa never met. | ||
| He was crushed in the mines where I was born. | ||
| And the other one died at Blackwell and moved to Woodbridge, Virginia. | ||
| It's between Washington, D.C. and Fredericksburg. | ||
| And I worked for the PAR company, Virginia PAR, and I was in a bad wreck. | ||
| No alcohol or dope, never did, never will. | ||
| And then I'm on a check. | ||
| I just cannot afford to live in Virginia. | ||
| And I hear Interstate 95 is two stories high in places. | ||
| And people keep on hurting there. | ||
| You get paid good, but. | ||
| All right, so Michael, your confidence level in the president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
110%. | |
| I'm pro-Trump. | ||
| All right. | ||
| All right. | ||
| I'm going to go to James, who's in Alexandria, Virginia, Democratic caller. | ||
| James? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, Greta. | |
| It just bothered me that all these guys, white guys particularly, calling in saying the economy is good. | ||
| Trump left us a bad economy. | ||
| He left us 8. | ||
| Yes, one term, $8.1 trillion in debt. | ||
| He turned around and killed 1.4 million people with the COVID because he thought it was a hoax. | ||
| Now he comes in office after the Democrats, after four years, straighten out his mess. | ||
| And then you have these guys calling in, giving data that they can't even verify. | ||
| They listen, they listen like him. | ||
| Just like he said, we spent $340 billion in Ukraine. | ||
| We haven't even spent $200 billion in Ukraine. | ||
| Just because of the white supremacy, they think they can get on the phone and talk all this stuff with no verification. | ||
| And I think some kind of way, we got to verify this information because this information is going out throughout the United States and people are believing this stuff. | ||
| Trump, just ask for Trump grades in college. | ||
| Let him produce that, just like he asked for the birth certificate for Obama. | ||
| Once he produced those grades, we'll see what the dummy we have inside the overall office. | ||
| All right, James' opinion there. | ||
| Back to inflation. | ||
| USA Today, this morning in their newspaper says Trump's tariffs are opposed by 61% of U.S. adults. | ||
| A majority think the president is hurting how the federal government functions, and more people oppose his signature legislative achievement, dubbed the one big beautiful bill, than support it. | ||
| Recent economic reports also show inflation creeping back up and job growth slowing, presenting more potential challenges for the party in power. | ||
| Your confidence in President Trump's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
| Rip in Fredericksburg, Virginia. | ||
| Republican, good morning. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Morning. | |
| Trump isn't stupid. | ||
| Trump is brilliant. | ||
| Putin's brilliant. | ||
| There was a time probably that Biden, even though I very much dislike him, was brilliant. | ||
| Just after you have been in the kitchen for that long and made so many mistakes, you learn a lot, as we all do. | ||
| And we're all creatures of habit, and we all learn a lot. | ||
| The big thing that I've always stated is I think we have probably close to 100 million illegal immigrants in our nation. | ||
| And we were always told we had 10 million, 9 million, 8 million. | ||
| Now it's 30 million. | ||
| But there are think tanks all over the world that say we have close to 100 million illegal immigrants in our nation. | ||
| And it wouldn't surprise me. | ||
| It wouldn't surprise me if Obama was not from this nation. | ||
| It wouldn't surprise me if Kennedy wasn't killed by the FBI. | ||
| I mean, none of these things really. | ||
| People need to listen back to themselves and don't listen to yourself on the phone. | ||
| Just go back to Washington Journal and you can click on it. | ||
| You can listen to yourself as many times as you want to. | ||
| All right, Rip. | ||
| Lisa in Georgia, Democratic caller. | ||
| Your confidence in President Trump's ability to make good economic decisions. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He didn't do it his first time, and he's definitely not doing it now. | |
| Let me just make a comment right quick on one of the callers just called about three calls. | ||
| He said that give Trump a chance, give him a chance. | ||
| He had a chance his first term. | ||
| And I hope Republicans member when they came out the day after and said, we want to make Barack Obama a long-term president. | ||
| Now the rep Lisa, I apologize. | ||
| Our connection is not great. | ||
| You're breaking up too much. | ||
| We'll go to James in Arkansas, Republican. | ||
| Morning, James. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I would like to make a comment on the economy that Trump's doing. | ||
| But right now, we're kind of in a mind out here in the economy. | ||
| Trump says it's doing good, but what about people that's on a fixed income? | ||
| That's got to go with the economy, too. | ||
| And what's it like, James, for those, for those folks? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the gas went up. | |
| The electric bill went up. | ||
| All the utility bills went up. | ||
| You don't have enough money to pay your utilities or pay your bills. | ||
| Yeah, what have you seen on your electric bill in the past few months? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've been paying over $200 the last two months. | |
| And how does that compare to previous summers? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, the previous summers is like $85 and something, you know, but it wasn't no real high bill. | |
| So, what do you got the gas company right now charging away way too much for the gas? | ||
| Yeah, gas is up as well. | ||
| So, here's a headline. | ||
| Here's a headline in Forbes to share with you: Electric bills are up 10% so far this year. | ||
| Why they could keep getting costlier. | ||
| Electricity bills have increased almost 10% since the start of the year and could rise another 170 per year for households by 2035, thanks to the repeal of clean energy tax credits, new tariffs, and rapid expansion of electricity-hungry data centers to fuel a boom in artificial intelligence. | ||
| You can read more if you go to forbes.com. | ||
| CBS.com also has a similar headline. | ||
| Let's go to Brittany in Fort Lauderdale. | ||
| Fort Lauderdale. | ||
| Good morning to you, Brittany. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| I believe that Trump, his policy, is to exacerbate income inequality. | ||
| For example, when you look at military spending, billions of dollars go to very few people that profit from war. | ||
| In the Middle East, when he went there earlier this year, he got those leaders to buy a lot of U.S. weapons in the EU. | ||
| He also was encouraging every country to increase their military budget to 5% of their GDP. | ||
| And with the war in Ukraine and then also with Israel, we keep sending billions of dollars for military spending. | ||
| And like I said, it just goes to a few war profiteers and everyone else, it takes away from what that money could be spent in our communities. | ||
| Also, with the Golden Visa program, I'm here in South Florida. | ||
| And so you have a lot of foreigners that are very wealthy. |