CSPAN - Washington Journal Susan Ferrechio
Aired: 2026-02-23
Duration: 41:56


=== State Of The Union Returns (12:33) ===

[00:00:00]  Members of the United States Congress, thank you very much.
[00:00:06]  And to my fellow citizens, America is back.
[00:00:13]  Watch C-SPAN live Tuesday as President Donald Trump delivers the annual State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress.
[00:00:21]  Our coverage begins at 7 p.m. Eastern with a preview of the evening from political reporters.
[00:00:27]  Then, at 9, the president's address, followed by the Democratic response given by Virginia Governor Abigail Spanbergson, will also take your calls and bring you reaction from lawmakers.
[00:00:38]  Over on C-SPAN 2, experience the moments leading up to the speech and the address itself as if you're there, uninterrupted.
[00:00:45]  No commentary with unfiltered sights and sounds.
[00:00:49]  The State of the Union Address, live Tuesday, with coverage beginning at 7 p.m. Eastern on the C-SPAN Networks.
[00:00:57]  C-SPAN, bringing you democracy unfiltered.
[00:01:04]  Susan Ferricio is back with us this morning.
[00:01:06]  She's been covering Washington and politics for three decades.
[00:01:08]  She's currently national political correspondent for the Washington Times.
[00:01:11]  And Susan Furiccio, start with a follow-up.
[00:01:13]  After the Supreme Court struck down most of President Trump's tariffs on Friday, we saw the president boosting what he said was going to be a 10% global rate to a 15% rate.
[00:01:24]  Now, what more are you watching for out of the White House this week?
[00:01:29]  Well, the President first announced the 10% and then he upped it to 15% global tariffs in response to the Supreme Court 6-3 ruling striking down his use of the 1977 trade law.
[00:01:43]  Now that that has been set aside, the president is going to refocus his trade policy on other authorities that he can use to impose tariffs.
[00:01:51]  And there are several and some that will keep tariffs ongoing, such as the aluminum and steel tariffs and other tariffs that can be associated with national security.
[00:02:03]  I think we'll see those tariffs continue.
[00:02:06]  And the next shooter drop in this will be what happens to the tariff revenue that's already come in.
[00:02:13]  There's upwards of $140 to $190 billion in tariffs now that are in question.
[00:02:19]  And how will those rebates go back to the sellers, the people who are sending items into the United States?
[00:02:27]  I know that we heard yesterday from the Trump administration that they're waiting to hear from the trade courts on this, on how to deal with this revenue.
[00:02:38]  How will they refund this revenue?
[00:02:39]  So that's going to be a really important component of the fallout of this Supreme Court ruling.
[00:02:45]  And then next, I think we'll just hear more about how the president will try to jam through tariffs going around the Supreme Court ruling.
[00:02:52]  They've had a backup plan in place, they claim, kind of realizing the Supreme Court might vote this way.
[00:02:59]  And I think you'll hear the president talk more about ways that he'll try to impose these tariffs going around the Supreme Court.
[00:03:05]  This 15% tariff has a time limit on it.
[00:03:08]  He can only do it for a few months before he would need congressional approval.
[00:03:12]  I don't anticipate that the Trump administration will realistically expect Congress to vote to approve tariffs, which is the only way he could go forward again with these reciprocal tariffs that he had imposed over the past year.
[00:03:25]  So I think they're going to try to do the unilateral approach where they're not relying on Congress, which is what the Trump administration has done with a lot of his policies since taking office.
[00:03:37]  And so I would be keeping my eye on more things that the Trump administration could do with existing authorities in the law to try to impose these tariffs and to keep these trade deals in place that he's already negotiated with many different countries.
[00:03:55]  How many answers do you think we'll have or get from the president on these trade topics by tomorrow night's State of the Union at 9 p.m. Eastern Time?
[00:04:03]  How much do you think this decision is impacting or restructuring how the President will give that address?
[00:04:11]  That's a really interesting question because we know who will be in the audience.
[00:04:14]  At least some members of the Supreme Court will be there.
[00:04:18]  And we can recall back to the Obama administration where he famously rebuked the Supreme Court from his position in Congress addressing Congress at the State of the Union.
[00:04:30]  So one wonders what will President Trump have to say with the Supreme Court sitting there?
[00:04:35]  He's already criticized them for the ruling.
[00:04:38]  Some of them were his own appointees who ruled against him on this.
[00:04:42]  So I'm curious to hear how he responds.
[00:04:45]  He's not happy.
[00:04:46]  We know that.
[00:04:48]  He may talk about his plans to keep using tariffs as a central part of his economic agenda.
[00:04:55]  Now, remember, the president's doing this for a multitude of reasons that he's already made clear.
[00:05:00]  And we may hear more of this tomorrow night.
[00:05:03]  That is bringing jobs back to the United States, balancing trade deficits.
[00:05:08]  So we're bringing revenue into the U.S. that we weren't getting before, securing deals that are fair to U.S. producers, thus helping our economy in that effect.
[00:05:17]  We're able to sell more goods overseas.
[00:05:19]  So he's just secured a lot of good deals for the U.S.
[00:05:22]  So he does have a lot to brag about on that part of it.
[00:05:27]  But tariffs are an increase in prices for U.S. American consumers, and they've been a pain, obviously, for other countries as well.
[00:05:35]  So he's got that problem because we know that there is that people feel like prices are too high and tariffs have contributed to that.
[00:05:45]  So he's got to deal with that issue as well.
[00:05:47]  But I do expect him to promote what tariffs have done for the U.S. right now in terms of also national security, bringing back production to the U.S.
[00:05:56]  I mean, he's had a lot to say on that, and we'll probably hear him brag about that too on Tuesday night.
[00:06:02]  And we may hear more about how he'll move forward, even though the Supreme Court has struck down his use of many of those tariffs.
[00:06:10]  And what other major themes are you expecting him to hit on?
[00:06:13]  The president coming into the State of the Union address amid a partial government shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security, amid a major military buildup in Iran, the most U.S. planes and forces in that region since the time of the Gulf Wars.
[00:06:28]  What are you expecting him to start with when he stands before Congress on Tuesday night?
[00:06:34]  I think if I had to take a wild guess, he'll start with the economic gains that he believes he's accomplished since taking office.
[00:06:42]  And it's a theme we've heard throughout the administration where he talks about the good things that are happening with the economy.
[00:06:49]  And of course, we know that that's different than what polls are telling us.
[00:06:53]  So he's going into the State of the Union with a couple of big polls that have just come out saying that people are not happy with the way things are going in the country.
[00:07:02]  The White House is really aware of this, obviously.
[00:07:05]  And I believe they think that their messaging isn't strong enough on this.
[00:07:09]  So I do expect him to make a central theme of his speech to be about the economic gains.
[00:07:14]  The things that he's accomplished and is taking off as sort of a promises made, promises kept part of the speech where he talks about bringing down prices on some products.
[00:07:25]  Energy prices, a big deal.
[00:07:27]  That's come down quite a bit since the beginning of his administration.
[00:07:31]  And other things, the price of eggs have dropped pretty significantly.
[00:07:34]  That was a big part of the campaign, right?
[00:07:37]  Bringing down the price of eggs.
[00:07:38]  Well, he managed to pull that off.
[00:07:39]  Some dairy has gone down in prices.
[00:07:42]  He can talk about things that have improved with the economy in terms of inflation slowing dramatically, the stock market doing well, Steady improvements that he can talk about in the economy that sort of defy what people are feeling and that are showing up in the polls, basically, which is that they're still paying too much at the grocery store.
[00:08:05]  But he's got things to tout.
[00:08:07]  There's no question.
[00:08:08]  His problem is, and this is important in his messaging, is that the public's not feeling that enough.
[00:08:15]  And it's showing up in the polls.
[00:08:17]  And of course, we have this very critical midterm election coming up here in 2026.
[00:08:22]  I imagine one of those polls that you're referring to is this.
[00:08:26]  It's the front page of today's Washington Post.
[00:08:28]  As President Donald Trump prepares to address the nation on Tuesday, Americans remain generally sour about his performance.
[00:08:34]  That's according to a new Washington Post ABC News Ipsos poll.
[00:08:37]  The president's approval rating stands at 39% positive, 60% negative, including 47% who say they are strongly disapproving of his job performance.
[00:08:46]  The last time President Trump's disapproval touched 60%, that was shortly after the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
[00:08:54]  That new poll out today.
[00:08:56]  We're talking with Susan Friccio this morning ahead of tomorrow's State of the Union, ahead of a very busy week here in Washington, D.C., and a very good person for you to ask your political questions of.
[00:09:06]  She's been covering Washington for three decades, more than that, and often has been with us on the Washington Journal.
[00:09:11]  202-748-8000 for Democrats to call in.
[00:09:15]  202-748-8001 for Republicans.
[00:09:18]  Independents, 202-748-8,002.
[00:09:22]  Susan Friccio, you've seen enough of these state of the unions over the years.
[00:09:25]  What makes a good one?
[00:09:29]  They're all good in their own way.
[00:09:31]  Something will happen at every one.
[00:09:32]  Either some, you know, the speech will have some important elements that make it different and exciting.
[00:09:37]  The past few State of the Union addresses, I think they've just gotten wilder and wilder as Congress has gotten more partisan.
[00:09:45]  I mean, Congress has gotten, I think, viciously partisan over the past decade.
[00:09:52]  So I'm thinking back to some real, to me, some fascinating State of the Union addresses.
[00:09:57]  Think of the one where I think it was Trump's final State of the Union address of his first term, where the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, famously or infamously tore up the copy of his speech when he concluded his address that went viral.
[00:10:14]  And people still talk about that moment.
[00:10:16]  And then, of course, this very past address that the President gave, it was his first address of his second term.
[00:10:24]  We had a Democratic lawmaker get up and shout at the president in the middle of his speech.
[00:10:30]  And he was removed from the chamber.
[00:10:32]  You're talking about Al Green.
[00:10:34]  Yes, Representative Al Green.
[00:10:36]  And he was rebuked for that by Congress.
[00:10:40]  These things are becoming more demonstrative.
[00:10:44]  I think years ago, people did not bring in these paddles, holding up signs, et cetera.
[00:10:50]  That didn't happen.
[00:10:51]  It was very respectful.
[00:10:52]  And the ugliest you'd see is one side or the other not standing up and clapping with the other.
[00:10:59]  And I think there have been attempts at bipartisanship.
[00:11:02]  There's one, I think they still do this, where in the Senate where they sit next to opposite party lawmaker and they try to make it more bipartisan.
[00:11:10]  But it's really gotten more vicious.
[00:11:13]  And this year will be interesting because there is a move afoot to try to, for the Democrats, no public demonstrations in the chamber because they don't want to detract from Trump or whatever missteps Trump might make.
[00:11:29]  So the leader of the Democratic Party in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, has told, said, look, if you either don't go or be silent in your protests, but don't get up and make any public demonstrations in the chamber the way Representative Greene did last year.
[00:11:48]  So Anybody who's watched Al Green speak on the floor over the past year, he almost always has a poster that's a picture of himself from that very address pointing his cane at Donald Trump.
[00:12:00]  He's standing there on the House floor with that picture of him from that speech behind him.
[00:12:05]  Right, with pride.
[00:12:06]  You know, it's sort of the resistance.
[00:12:09]  He's been resisting President Trump since the beginning of his first term.
[00:12:14]  So there's some Democrats like the idea of that because it gets them a lot of attention.
[00:12:19]  And there's a lot of people in the party who would cheer that on, right?
[00:12:24]  People in the Democratic Party.
[00:12:26]  So this time around, I think there are a lot of Democrats who are going to go to this alternative programming.
[00:12:32]  They may not be in the chamber.

=== Epstein Files Reveal (03:19) ===

[00:12:33]  There's other events planned that are sort of counter messaging events.
[00:12:41]  So you might see a lot of Democrats not there in the chamber.
[00:12:45]  And there is the message that's out there.
[00:12:48]  Nobody get up and yell anything.
[00:12:50]  So I'm curious to see if that is how everything is carried out.
[00:12:54]  But I think you'll see a lot of Democrats missing.
[00:12:56]  You're already hearing Democrats saying that they're not going to go.
[00:12:59]  Are they going to watch it on TV or not show up?
[00:13:03]  So you may see that happening.
[00:13:04]  We'll all see it together 9 p.m. tomorrow night.
[00:13:06]  And yours can watch here on C-SPAN.
[00:13:09]  A lot of callers for you.
[00:13:10]  Before we get to this, one other topic that I know that you've written a lot, covered a lot, the Epstein files.
[00:13:15]  Want to know what your thoughts are on the Clinton depositions later this week.
[00:13:20]  What are you going to be watching for as you cover that?
[00:13:24]  Right.
[00:13:24]  So they're not coming to Washington.
[00:13:26]  The House Oversight Panel is going to go to them at their home in New York.
[00:13:31]  But I do believe they'll be talking to the press.
[00:13:35]  And what I'm looking for is I know there's a, we all know that President Clinton in the years following the end of his second term, he was establishing himself as leading his foundation.
[00:13:50]  And he was associated with Jeffrey Epstein, traveled around with him.
[00:13:56]  It's well known now he took many a trip on Epstein's private jet.
[00:14:02]  There's photos of him that have shown up in the Epstein files.
[00:14:06]  Now, Clinton has always maintained that they hadn't even been in touch for decades.
[00:14:12]  So he doesn't have a lot to say.
[00:14:14]  Secretary Clinton said she's never even met Jeffrey Epstein, but we know she knew Ghelane Maxwell because Ghelane Maxwell was at Chelsea Clinton's wedding.
[00:14:24]  There's a photograph of that.
[00:14:26]  So they know the two of them in some capacity.
[00:14:29]  We know that.
[00:14:30]  And I am actually just very curious to hear his answers, these questions.
[00:14:34]  I assume we'll get the transcripts relatively quickly.
[00:14:39]  But I just, I think a lot of us want to hear how they became friends, what he knew about Epstein, because there are some pictures that have the former president next to these victims.
[00:14:51]  So what did he know?
[00:14:53]  I think that's just my general question.
[00:14:55]  And I think people in the public want to know that as well.
[00:14:58]  I think Hillary Clinton is less of an subject here other than we know she knew Ghelane Maxwell and in what capacity.
[00:15:07]  So the question to a lot of people who are showing up in the Epstein files is, what did you know?
[00:15:12]  If you were around Epstein and you saw these young ladies, these girls, these underage girls, what did you know?
[00:15:18]  What did you think?
[00:15:21]  Did anything raise your suspicions?
[00:15:23]  I think those are the questions, some of the questions that lawmakers are going to have for the first former first couple.
[00:15:32]  And I think many in the public are also curious to know because that's part of the accountability aspect of this that I think the public is demanding.
[00:15:40]  Plenty for a political reporter to cover this week, Susan Furicio, starting the week with us on the Washington Journal and taking your phone calls online for Democrats, Republicans, and independents.
[00:15:50]  Darren's up first for you out of Lando Lakes, Florida.

=== Public Doubts on Economy (08:14) ===

[00:15:53]  Independent, good morning.
[00:15:56]  Hello, sir.
[00:15:57]  How's it going?
[00:15:58]  Doing well.
[00:15:59]  You're on with Susan Furicio.
[00:16:00]  Go ahead.
[00:16:02]  Yeah, I just want to say that the Trump administration is completely failing on the tariff front.
[00:16:08]  You see a lot of issues regarding GDP.
[00:16:11]  There was virtually no job growth last year.
[00:16:15]  And I just want to say that why is Trump continuing to blame Biden for his own problems, right?
[00:16:22]  It was a complete...
[00:16:24]  All right.
[00:16:25]  In terms of where we are on the economy, Susan Ferricio, that question does get asked before.
[00:16:30]  When does an economy become the president's economy?
[00:16:33]  And when can a president stop saying this is the impact of the previous president?
[00:16:39]  Well, it's really interesting that the caller said he's an independent.
[00:16:43]  And if you look at there's a second poll that came out in addition to the post-Ipsos poll, and that is the NPR Marist poll that came out today.
[00:16:51]  And that has an interesting number where 57 to 43% say that the State of the Union is not strong.
[00:16:59]  So that's 57% say it is not strong compared to 43% who say it is.
[00:17:04]  And among that group, two-thirds of independents say that the State of the Union is not strong.
[00:17:11]  So the caller is an independent.
[00:17:13]  And he's probably reflecting the feelings of a lot of independent voters who, by the way, helped President Trump win his second term.
[00:17:21]  And they're saying that this president isn't doing enough to fix the economy.
[00:17:25]  And he's citing that economic number on growth.
[00:17:30]  And tariffs have been partly to blame for that because tariffs, people believe, can stifle economic growth.
[00:17:37]  So it's one of many economic numbers.
[00:17:40]  So many of these numbers make up the picture of how the economy is doing.
[00:17:43]  And the president has had some good numbers and some bad numbers.
[00:17:47]  And the bad numbers are what people are really feeling.
[00:17:50]  So I think this caller is reflecting what a lot of people are feeling.
[00:17:54]  They're saying it's been a year.
[00:17:56]  The thing is, though, is that inflation, you know, the rate of inflation has slowed down quite a bit from the post-COVID years.
[00:18:05]  And the post-COVID years were complicated by massive amounts of government spending.
[00:18:10]  That made those prices shoot up.
[00:18:12]  And once they go up that high, I think the problem is that politicians say, well, I'm going to bring those prices down.
[00:18:19]  They can slow the rate of inflation and they can stop, even slow it way down to nearly nothing.
[00:18:25]  That doesn't necessarily lower prices.
[00:18:28]  And that's deflation.
[00:18:30]  And that's different.
[00:18:31]  And that, you know, deflation is not necessarily a good thing for the economy either.
[00:18:35]  So you have this expectation.
[00:18:36]  People are like, well, how come I'm still going to the grocery store and paying such high prices?
[00:18:43]  I can barely afford it.
[00:18:45]  And the president said he was going to lower prices.
[00:18:47]  It's so hard to get the prices to come down.
[00:18:50]  What you want to do is stop the rate of inflation so they stop increasing so rapidly.
[00:18:54]  And I think that that was a big fail on the part of the Trump administration.
[00:18:59]  They set up this expectation that you were going to go and see prices back to pre-COVID levels, which is definitely not happening.
[00:19:08]  On that NPR Marist poll, for our visual learners out there, let me show viewers what's on the website for it this morning.
[00:19:17]  It's the information that you pointed out.
[00:19:19]  Among all respondents to the poll, 57% said that the State of the Union is not strong, not very strong or not strong at all.
[00:19:28]  43% saying it's very strong or strong.
[00:19:31]  79% of Democrats, probably no surprise, saying it's not very strong or not strong at all.
[00:19:38]  But also 68% of independents with that answer.
[00:19:41]  Also, no surprise, 77% of Republicans say that the economy right now under President Trump is very strong.
[00:19:47]  Rick is next out of Boston, Line for Democrats.
[00:19:50]  Good morning.
[00:19:51]  Yeah, good morning.
[00:19:52]  Well, I basically want to say a couple of things about Trump that the guy don't listen to nobody.
[00:19:57]  The Supreme Court just told me he can't do what he was doing.
[00:20:00]  And now he jumped up, jump up, another 15%.
[00:20:03]  This midterm got the really time for the Democrats.
[00:20:06]  And they got to take over the House and the Senate.
[00:20:08]  They need like 15 seats in the Senate.
[00:20:10]  They got to get rid of that Supreme Court, too.
[00:20:12]  They're a bunch of clowns up there.
[00:20:14]  I mean, they basically watched this behind all the way to the presidency by saying, you're giving them all these delays.
[00:20:19]  Well, that's why you're going to have to go to court.
[00:20:21]  He shouldn't even be in there.
[00:20:22]  We got a criminal running the country.
[00:20:24]  And like I said, you look at Iran.
[00:20:26]  We shouldn't be in Iran.
[00:20:28]  We had a treaty when President Obama was in there.
[00:20:30]  He don't tell the people, the public, oh, the public don't see what we had a treaty before we went there.
[00:20:35]  He caught himself sneaking all those aerial planes and tanks on it, whatever.
[00:20:40]  He was sitting over there to go in Iran and make it simple like he's some big shot.
[00:20:44]  The guy don't know nothing.
[00:20:45]  He don't listen.
[00:20:46]  Got your point.
[00:20:46]  Susan Ferricio, I'll let you pick up on what you want to pick up on.
[00:20:50]  I would just note on the caller's math on the Senate, a lot closer than 15 seats in the Senate.
[00:20:56]  And the House is even closer than that in terms of switching control of the party.
[00:21:00]  Yeah, he's talking about 60 votes in the Senate.
[00:21:03]  The caller is aware that if they were to get that many seats, then they could stack the Supreme Court.
[00:21:08]  Now, stacking the Supreme Court is a special kind of action where you take the nine justices and you increase their number.
[00:21:18]  add new justices and that's stacking it and that way you can you know change that right now you have um more republican appointees and democratic appointees and And we call it a six to three court.
[00:21:32]  So say you stack the Supreme Court.
[00:21:34]  You can add two, three justices that match the Democratic Party who are Democratic appointees.
[00:21:43]  Well, then you would change the outcome of a lot of cases if that happened.
[00:21:47]  And I think that's what that caller was talking about.
[00:21:48]  But I will point out that this court has not always gone along with President Trump.
[00:21:53]  Now, he's gotten his way with them on quite a few things, but this very recent ruling on tariffs did not go his way.
[00:22:01]  Not everything has gone President Trump's way with his appointees on the Supreme Court, even though he's appointed a third of the court himself.
[00:22:09]  He has not gotten his way by any means.
[00:22:13]  So I would say that the 6-3 ruling was, you know, it basically destroyed the central part of his economic plan, which were to be able to impose this broad array of tariffs.
[00:22:25]  Now he has a much narrower way to go at tariffs.
[00:22:28]  So the caller was saying that the president is just overstepping the Supreme Court.
[00:22:33]  He's not overstepping that ruling.
[00:22:34]  He's going around it because there's other laws.
[00:22:36]  The first law he used that was struck down by the Supreme Court is called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.
[00:22:43]  The court said he could not use that to impose tariffs.
[00:22:46]  It's not written that way.
[00:22:48]  Now he's going for the 1974 Trade Act, which has several areas underneath that that he could use to impose tariffs.
[00:22:57]  And those are, I think, all temporary.
[00:22:59]  So he's not really getting his way with this high court.
[00:23:02]  But now on foreign policy, people are, you know, he did promise to end foreign wars and to get us out of foreign entanglements.
[00:23:11]  And of course, we've been going into the Middle East now with a huge number of our military assets.
[00:23:19]  We're poised off of Iran with the possibility that we will take military action if they don't agree to a deal.
[00:23:26]  And what's that deal about?
[00:23:28]  It's saying they're not going to have a nuclear program because when Iran has a nuclear program, they tend to use it for what people believe is to develop nuclear weapons and not for peaceful means, which means for nuclear power.
[00:23:42]  And it's true that the president throughout the agreement with Iran that was put in place by President Obama.
[00:23:52]  And part of the reason for that is the administration and other critics of that plan will say that Iran was cheating and that they were enriching uranium and doing things that were clearly on the path to developing a nuclear weapon.

=== Illegal Words Used (13:03) ===

[00:24:08]  And of course, we went in and struck two of those sites, two or three of those sites last year.
[00:24:15]  But this deal has not come together on preventing further development of nuclear weapons.
[00:24:21]  And I think that that's what the caller is talking about.
[00:24:24]  We've got a lot of our tensions are really building up there in the Middle East, and the President's moved a lot of our assets there.
[00:24:30]  And the public is obviously watching very closely to see what's going to develop there.
[00:24:37]  Just about 15 minutes left with Susan Ferricio of the Washington Times this morning taking your phone calls on phone lines.
[00:24:43]  Split as usual, Republicans, Democrats, Independents.
[00:24:46]  We'll put those numbers on the screen as we go to Spring, Texas.
[00:24:49]  Cynthia, Republican, good morning.
[00:24:53]  Good morning.
[00:24:54]  I think as we're talking about cost and refunds, and let's think about, I have thought about this so often, about the four years of illegals being allowed to come across our border, we paid to put them up in five-star hotels, paid for their meals, their education, health care, and that was in the billions.
[00:25:19]  And while we're calling for or even thinking about refunds, perhaps we should start there.
[00:25:28]  That's just my thoughts.
[00:25:29]  Susan Fauricio, will President Trump start there when it comes to immigration enforcement at the State of the Union tomorrow?
[00:25:37]  That's another issue where he can talk about his successes.
[00:25:42]  This is his first State of the Union.
[00:25:44]  He gave an address when he first came in office last year, but this is his first State of the Union of a second term.
[00:25:48]  He will be able to say that he has shut down illegal immigration across the southern border, that he has stopped the flow of millions and millions of illegal immigrants coming to the U.S.
[00:26:00]  And that has been a resounding success.
[00:26:03]  There's no question he stopped that.
[00:26:05]  And that now, of course, are all those people who came here illegally, many of them are still here.
[00:26:12]  But he can also lay claim to the fact that millions have left the country either through deportations or through self-deportation, where they have elected to leave on their own.
[00:26:24]  And what has that done?
[00:26:25]  He can maybe take a victory lap on lower rents.
[00:26:28]  Some rents have gone down in major cities.
[00:26:31]  And I'm told by real estate experts that part of that is due to the fact that there are fewer illegal immigrants who need the housing.
[00:26:41]  And so it's supply and demand.
[00:26:43]  So there's more available and the rents have prices have stabilized or gone down.
[00:26:48]  So that's a big housing issue.
[00:26:50]  It certainly is a big issue in terms of people affordability, which is the buzzword right now.
[00:26:57]  So he can take a victory lap on immigration.
[00:26:59]  I fully expect him to talk about that tomorrow night in terms of what he has done to force a border and the Department of Homeland Security, the critical role they've played, even as while he's addressing Congress, the funding for the Department of Homeland Security has lapsed and they're not going to get paid this week.
[00:27:22]  And so I think we'll hear from the president on that because Democrats are holding back their vote on that funding.
[00:27:30]  There have been talks back and forth between the White House and Democrats.
[00:27:34]  They haven't come up with any kind of deal yet, though.
[00:27:36]  So I expect him to talk about that as well tomorrow.
[00:27:40]  By the way, if you want more on falling rent prices, a good piece in the Washington Times on that from February 16th, the author Susan Fauricio.
[00:27:49]  Anna is in Connecticut.
[00:27:51]  It's South Windsor.
[00:27:52]  Democrat, good morning.
[00:27:55]  Good morning.
[00:27:56]  Well, as far as affordability and housing, all of these facilities that they're trying to take to house the immigrants, that could be used, I'm thinking that could be used to house people in the America, in the USA.
[00:28:11]  And as far as taking the money from us for tariff, I said we'd like to start a conversation on taking monies from us through the penny that he started producing.
[00:28:22]  The other day, my change was 29 cents.
[00:28:25]  She says to me, the salesperson, I have no more pennies.
[00:28:30]  She has no pennies.
[00:28:31]  So she took my four pennies, she gave me a quarter, took my four pennies.
[00:28:36]  Why not give me a nickel and let me owe her a penny?
[00:28:39]  If a million people get owed four pennies, that adds up.
[00:28:43]  And everybody's not going to take that lightly on old and giving the money, giving money, giving pennies add up.
[00:28:50]  Thank you.
[00:28:51]  That's Anna in Connecticut.
[00:28:52]  Susan Friccio, any thoughts on the penny?
[00:28:55]  Well, the Trump administration did stop the production of the penny in order to save money because it costs too much money to produce the penny and it's not worth it.
[00:29:05]  And that's why they got rid of it.
[00:29:06]  And also, you know, we've gone to a more of a cashless kind of society where people just pay with their debit cards or their credit cards.
[00:29:16]  But there are a lot of people who still pay cash.
[00:29:18]  And the caller, you're not the first person I've heard this from where people don't like the fact that it's rounding down the other way and they're not getting, they're losing out on money when they pay for things.
[00:29:29]  And speaking of which, I do the thing, the last thing I do believe the president will talk about, it is tax season.
[00:29:37]  And I think that we'll hear from him tomorrow about what Americans can expect as they file their taxes.
[00:29:44]  And there's some big things in there that with Congress, President Trump has accomplished to lower taxes for people.
[00:29:53]  And those include they've increased the standard deduction for people filing taxes.
[00:29:59]  They've eliminated taxes on some overtime pay, some tipped income, and some Social Security income for retirees.
[00:30:07]  And that will add up, in some cases, you know, hundreds of dollars for people or even $1,000 for some individuals who are filing their taxes.
[00:30:17]  So I do think the president will talk about those savings that Americans can expect.
[00:30:23]  And that, of course, all comes through the big tax cut bill that the president signed into law in July and that was passed through the Republican-led House and Senate last year.
[00:30:35]  This is Debbie, waiting in Williamsburg, Ohio Independents as we hit the bottom of the hour here this morning, 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
[00:30:42]  Debbie, you are on with Susan Friccio.
[00:30:46]  Good morning.
[00:30:48]  I have a couple of issues, but one of the main issues that I am seeing is that all the people that are covering Trump's actions that are considered illegal by the courts, even the Supreme Court, are using other words, spike.
[00:31:05]  Oh, well, he can get around it or we'll see what he'll do.
[00:31:11]  But what I would like to know, and the man is breaking the law.
[00:31:17]  He's breaking the laws of our Constitution.
[00:31:20]  He's breaking away from the rules of Congress.
[00:31:24]  He's imposing his own views on the way he's spending our money, the government's money, the people's money.
[00:31:35]  He's doing things that go against our own principles.
[00:31:40]  What's an example of one of those, Debbie?
[00:31:42]  One of those things.
[00:31:44]  One of those things, okay, just the tariffs in itself.
[00:31:47]  The fact that the Supreme Court had to rule against him that what he was doing was illegal.
[00:31:56]  The killings with ICE, that's illegal.
[00:32:02]  These laws that he is letting go.
[00:32:05]  Congress is letting these things slide.
[00:32:09]  And I don't know who it is in Congress.
[00:32:11]  Somebody up there knows the truth about what's going on.
[00:32:15]  I mean, he's taking and establishing his family's fortunes in these other countries.
[00:32:27]  And in the meantime, it's like it's a bribe.
[00:32:30]  It's like extortion.
[00:32:31]  Well, you know, you all are having these problems and we'll come over and you give us your minerals and stuff and then we'll say it's okay.
[00:32:41]  It's somebody has to know what's going on.
[00:32:46]  And I just like with Johnson the other day when that ruling came down on the Supreme Court instead of him saying, well, this was illegal and, you know, we'll try to get it straightened out.
[00:32:57]  He says, well, he has been bringing in this money.
[00:33:00]  So it's like, that makes it okay to break the law.
[00:33:04]  Debbie, got your point.
[00:33:05]  Susan Furiccio, what do you want to pick up on?
[00:33:07]  It's kind of interesting.
[00:33:08]  Presidents will push the limit.
[00:33:09]  Sometimes they'll be pushed back by the Supreme Court.
[00:33:13]  And certainly President Trump is not the only one.
[00:33:16]  I think another example would probably have been the student loan forgiveness program under the Biden administration.
[00:33:24]  So you had a lot of people saying, well, he can't do that.
[00:33:26]  That's against the law.
[00:33:27]  And it did end up with the Supreme Court.
[00:33:30]  I struck it down.
[00:33:32]  And then what the Biden administration did is they found other authorities under the law to keep that program going in some capacity.
[00:33:41]  And so what they do is they look for other laws.
[00:33:45]  The federal books are just full of laws that you can, thousands of them.
[00:33:50]  And so they found another law that they could use to get around that.
[00:33:55]  And so in this sense, so President Trump will no longer use the 1977 law to impose these tariffs.
[00:34:03]  In that sense, he won't be able to impose the same number or sleeping type of tariffs that he imposed before.
[00:34:10]  He'll be limited now.
[00:34:12]  But he can impose tariffs under other authorities.
[00:34:15]  So in a sense, that's not breaking law.
[00:34:17]  He is following the law.
[00:34:18]  He's following a different law.
[00:34:20]  And presidents will do that sometimes.
[00:34:21]  They don't like what the Supreme Court has to say, like, well, how else can we pull this off?
[00:34:25]  You know, they don't just give up.
[00:34:27]  And I think that you will see that increasingly in future administrations as well.
[00:34:34]  They're just trying to find a way around a Supreme Court ruling to keep their agenda going.
[00:34:40]  And I think that's becoming more of a common practice with presidents.
[00:34:45]  Just a couple minutes left with Susan Furicio.
[00:34:46]  I want to get your thoughts on, we talked about in our last segment the celebration in the United States on the gold medal game, the win yesterday by the United States, some political controversy in the wake of some of that celebration.
[00:34:59]  Just want to get your thoughts as a political reporter.
[00:35:01]  This is the headline from the New York Times.
[00:35:03]  FBI director celebrates hockey victory as the Bureau stares down crises.
[00:35:08]  Kash Patel's trip to Italy came at a fraug and frenetic time for the FBI, One of those crises that they mentioned when an armed intruder was killed at Mar-a-Lago yesterday.
[00:35:21]  This is the video that emerged of Kash Patel in the U.S. men's hockey team locker room there celebrating with them.
[00:35:29]  Paula Reid of CNN posting it on her ex-feed.
[00:35:33]  What do you think about this story?
[00:35:36]  Well, I know that the FBI director posted on social media that he was unapologetic about it and just said he was invited back there and he was proud to celebrate with the Americans.
[00:35:48]  It's not as though he was at a Bruins game or something.
[00:35:51]  He was with the USA hockey team and celebrating with a big American victory.
[00:35:58]  And he's a huge patriot.
[00:35:59]  We know that.
[00:36:01]  So in that sense, it doesn't seem like it was a very harmful thing to do to go celebrate what's the big deal, right?
[00:36:08]  But then you could say, well, look at all the things going on here in the United States.
[00:36:12]  Could he have known that there would be this incident at Mar-a-Lago handled by the Secret Service, not the FBI.
[00:36:21]  So I think that Kash Patel has been sort of a sort of, I guess, a controversial figure within the Trump administration.
[00:36:32]  And there's been lots of stories written about him.
[00:36:35]  But he's also had a lot of successes, too, as a leader within the FBI.
[00:36:41]  And I think he is well liked by the Trump administration as well.
[00:36:44]  So, you know, it's one of those issues where, you know, he's a public figure.
[00:36:52]  People are always watching him and criticizing him and his leadership.
[00:36:57]  And he's really in the public eye.
[00:37:00]  And I think that you would expect to see criticism like this, even though it doesn't seem kind of benign.
[00:37:06]  You know, he's just celebrating with the USA team, but then you could say, what's he doing in Italy?
[00:37:10]  Shouldn't he be in America doing?

=== Higher Interest Rates Impact (04:27) ===

[00:37:11]  So you can see both sides of that issue.
[00:37:13]  And of course, the media is going to, as they say, pounce on that when he was spotted in Italy.
[00:37:19]  I'm not surprised at all on the reporting on this.
[00:37:22]  Time for just one or two more calls.
[00:37:23]  Let me get to Bill.
[00:37:24]  He's been waiting in Florida, Republican line.
[00:37:26]  Bill, good morning.
[00:37:27]  You're on with Susan Fritcho.
[00:37:29]  Susan, you're doing a great job.
[00:37:31]  And you make a point that we don't often hear, which is the difference between inflation, which accumulates, and the rate of inflation, which is the rate of the accumulation.
[00:37:39]  We're printing $2 billion, we have a $2 trillion deficit every year, and that adds to the money supply.
[00:37:46]  And when you add that borrowed money to the money supply, by the way, a trillion dollars is an interest, and we're borrowing the trillion dollars to pay the interest.
[00:37:55]  And that's not sustainable.
[00:37:57]  But when you print this money, when you print this money, it's like adding a quart of water to a gallon of gasoline.
[00:38:04]  You've got more total, but it doesn't have any punch.
[00:38:08]  We've lost, just in the last administration, the value of the dollar has lost 20%.
[00:38:15]  That's not coming back.
[00:38:17]  Our money is deflated.
[00:38:19]  And I really, it's a failure of the education system that the general populace does not understand money supply and the source of inflation and that there's a cost to borrowing all this money that it deteriorates the power, the buying power of our dollar.
[00:38:40]  And I think that you make that point.
[00:38:42]  I think it's a shortcoming of the Trump administration by not making that point and not educating people that inflation is cumulative and the rate of inflation is the rate at which our dollar declines.
[00:38:58]  That's Bill in Florida.
[00:38:59]  Susan Friccio, anything you want to add?
[00:39:01]  Right.
[00:39:01]  And this was part of the debate when, now, don't forget, both parties are responsible for dumping all that money into the economy.
[00:39:08]  During COVID, the Trump administration was spending a lot of money.
[00:39:12]  They were signing a lot of bills.
[00:39:14]  Republicans were passing bills, spending bills, to try to accommodate the closures.
[00:39:20]  Small businesses and individuals who are affected by the COVID closures and spending on health, et cetera, during the pandemic.
[00:39:29]  Right after that, then there was a new debate on additional spending.
[00:39:33]  And that's where you saw a lot of Republicans say we need to hit the brakes now, because they weren't exactly what this caller was talking about.
[00:39:39]  And of course, it all came to fruition.
[00:39:41]  But this was mostly Democrats who voted this spending.
[00:39:45]  And again, I'm not casting blame.
[00:39:47]  I'm just pointing out this is how it happened.
[00:39:48]  They said, we need to spend this.
[00:39:49]  This is our opportunity to fund all these programs and kind of just spend all this money to help people we think need help.
[00:39:58]  And what that did was not only did it increase inflation, but over time, it led to higher interest rates because that's how that's the balancing act that has to happen with inflation.
[00:40:10]  So the interest rates are now much higher than they were.
[00:40:14]  So that compounds the problem.
[00:40:15]  So all these people who couldn't afford anything and paid for it with credit cards now have much higher interest rates on their monthly payments.
[00:40:24]  And of course, if you're trying to buy a house or buy a car, that adds a lot of money to your monthly payments.
[00:40:30]  This is a lot of, this is what really, really hurt consumers, I think, and hurt Americans was, again, then the higher interest rates on top of the high inflation.
[00:40:41]  That's really what the economy started to hurt people.
[00:40:44]  And how you get all that back down, that's part of the reason why you hear the president fighting with Jerome Powell at the Fed, trying to get him out of there, which is that's a whole nother story.
[00:40:53]  But he wants them to lower interest rates.
[00:40:55]  And the Fed's going to lower interest rates when they think it's economically the right thing to do.
[00:40:59]  And that's the state of the economy right now.
[00:41:02]  And that's why you're seeing people really being pained by the sticker shock at the grocery store.
[00:41:08]  And then they got to pay higher interest rates on their credit cards.
[00:41:12]  They can't buy a house because the interest rates are so high.
[00:41:15]  Really tough.
[00:41:16]  But as the caller was pointing out, a lot of this stems from heavy government spending or just dumping cash into the economy like that.
[00:41:26]  And that's where a lot of the blame lies.
[00:41:30]  Not all of it.
[00:41:31]  Tariffs, of course, are part of it.
[00:41:33]  The higher energy prices that are now coming down, they were part of it as well.
[00:41:37]  But that's just how the economy works.

=== Economic Pain Points (00:16) ===

[00:41:39]  And that is how we got to where we are today, largely.
[00:41:43]  And that's where we'll end it today with Susan Ferricio.
[00:41:46]  But for much more on her writing, her stories, WashingtonTimes.com, easy enough to find and find her stories.
[00:41:53]  We always appreciate your time on the Washington Journal.
[00:41:55]  Thank you.