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April 5, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
32:02
The Economy Will Grow - April 4th, Hour 1
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If you'd like to join us, America has two choices.
And for years, I have said on this program that Wall Street is not my barometer for whether or not the economy is healthy.
I explained in great detail the comments about the economy.
Austin Goolsby, not somebody I've always agreed with economically about the fundamentals of the economy being very, very strong.
And I know, oh, my stock market.
Just watch, wait, and see.
I guarantee you there will be a turnaround.
The problem you have whenever you do something out of the box, something that is new, and whenever you break with the old order of doing things and you are an iconoclast and you shake things up, there is, generally speaking, among institutionalists or establishment types, a freak out period, and that's what we're living through.
And Donald Trump warned this would happen on Wednesday.
And I could have predicted it myself.
As a matter of fact, I did predict it.
And I told a number of people, I think I said it on the show, don't remember.
We could always go back and find the tape.
That this is the predictable response.
Now, we have two choices as Americans.
We can stick with the last 50 years of doing things, and that is America being taken advantage of, America being ripped off by friend and foe alike, America being a sucker nation, allowing people to abuse us and basically tax us.
And these are, in many cases, of our allies, these are the very countries that we're paying the bulk of money to the tune of almost a trillion dollars a year in building the weaponry and the defense systems that they need for their survival and security.
And then the fact that they turn around and treat us like this.
I don't care if it's the European Union.
I don't care if it's Canada.
I don't care if it's Japan.
I don't care if it's South Korea or Taiwan or any of these countries that have been unfairly putting tariffs on American products.
Or we can think out of the box.
We can break things temporarily and then we can reestablish a new order, a new way of doing things that will be beneficial for the American people.
You know, what the media is not focusing in on is that even the threat of tariffs resulted at very, very positive results.
When you get nearly $5 trillion in monies committed for manufacturing and building and products and manufacturing centers and auto plants being built in the U.S., guess what?
That's called winning.
The fact that Wall Street can't break through the prism of their old guard thinking, their institutionalist type of thinking.
You know, those that are, it's just impossible.
They can't accept, you know, they would rather surrender.
Unilaterally, they want America to surrender.
And Democrats that are all on record, and we've been playing them all week, from Nancy Pelosi to Janet Yellen to Chuck Schumer to Barack Obama, you know, all on record repeatedly talking about the need to put tariffs on these countries to take advantage of us.
China in particular.
I'm glad China came out with a tariff war against the U.S. raising prices.
Because let me tell you about the communist Chinese.
They need access to your money.
They need access to our markets.
They need it.
They need it desperately.
And in the end, do I think there's going to be a negotiated settlement?
It's already happening in ways that I'll tell you about throughout the show today.
I don't want to spend all day on this because I'm not really, I'm sort of non-plussed about it.
This is very predictable.
If you're an institutionalist, if you believe in the old order, if you are incapable of thinking outside of the box, if you're a rhino Republican and you want America to just maintain the old way of doing things, then this is the result you're going to get.
You're going to be taken advantage of.
I personally don't want the United States of America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, taken advantage of anymore.
And for whatever short-term, minor pain that may be inflicted on us, the long-term benefits are going to be massive.
All of these critics, I promise you, will have egg on their face, and it's only a matter of time.
Now, there's a lot of good news economically out there, not that Wall Street would pay attention to it.
You know, oil prices have now dropped to their lowest level since 2021.
That's pretty good news because it's the lifeblood of every economy.
Couldn't come at a better time for this country.
Anyway, oil prices today, lowest level in nearly four years.
A plan to increase supply by OPEC and allied countries.
Recent crude global benchmark slid nearly 8% to under $65 a barrel, which, if it holds, would be the lowest end-of-day settlement price since August of 2021.
West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. equivalent, dropped more than 8% to around $61.
If that holds true, that'll be the lowest since April of 2021.
Eight OPEC countries said that they will increase their output by 411,000 barrels a day by next month.
These two factors, the previously limited downside risk to prices, that is low recession risk, OPEC's preference for low production, no longer in place, according to Goldman Sachs, one of their analysts.
You're not hearing today the news that retail sales are expected to grow despite the media fear-mongering over tariffs and then non-stop hysteria and meltdown.
It's like Aqua-Saltzer and water.
It's like Donald Trump announces we found a cure because of my investment and my plan to cure cancer, and we now have the cure.
I could hear the liberal media, you know, they find a way to hate him for that.
They can't give him credit for anything.
Now, if you look at the National Retail Federation, they reported two days ago that they expect this year, 2025, retail sales will grow between 2.7 and 3.7%.
That's a significant increase.
Online sales, they believe, can rise as much as 9%.
E-commerce sales are forecast to grow between 7% and 9%.
And the CEO, Matthew Shea, said that the 2025 annual forecast aligns with the 10-year average annual sales growth of 3.6% before the pandemic.
That would be called good economic news.
Want me to keep going because I've got more.
U.S. economy added jobs at a faster pace in March.
Labor Department releasing their closely watched March report.
Anyway, 4.2%.
They anticipated only 135,000 jobs.
Sorry, it went up way higher.
Private sector payrolls added 209,000 jobs in March, well above the 127,000 that were projected.
Oh, sorry to give you bad news on the economy.
You know, what you're witnessing is establishment, an establishment temper tantrum.
That's what it is.
And it includes some Republicans, too.
So they're in the camp that they want America to be weak.
They want America to be suckers.
They want America to be taken advantage of.
And they don't care that you pay the price for all of this.
You know, by the way, Bill Ackman, I like to read what this guy writes.
I find him to be really, really bright.
He's a billionaire.
I'd like to get him on the show one day.
And he pointed out that the announcement of reciprocal tariffs may have put the world on edge with foreign leaders now forming their responses, some threatening retaliation like China, others looking to negotiate.
My advice to foreign leaders is that if you have not already reached out to President Trump to do so immediately, Trump is at his core a deal maker.
Sound familiar?
Who tells you this all the time?
Who sees the world as a series of transactions?
He wrote on X and he characterized the president as a tough but fair negotiator.
How do you get any tougher?
How do you get any more fair than the president offering every country in the world to have free and fair trade?
No tariffs either way.
That's fair.
If they want tariffs, they're going to get tariffs back.
You can't be any more fair than that.
And we see other stories about the economy that, you know, in spite of the hysteria, General Motors, Nissan are going to boost production at U.S. plants.
You know, I keep hearing reports of Americans are going to pay more for cars, not for American cars.
Ford is offering employee prices to consumers now.
They're looking at this as the biggest opportunity they ever had.
And guess who that helps?
That helps the auto workers' unions.
That helps our fellow Americans that work in the auto industry.
And a lot of other industries are going to be impacted in positive ways as well at the end of the day.
You know, Cameroon Motors is expanding production at an Indiana plant.
Remember, Nissan and Honda were going to build plants in Mexico until the threat of tariffs came up and they said, nah, never mind.
You think it's an accident that $500 billion was committed to the U.S. by Apple to expand their facilities and build a new facility in Texas, other facilities around the country?
That wasn't either.
Jeep's parent to a company to offer more buyers the same discount as their employees.
You know, I can go back and play Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders in 08.
He wanted tariffs.
2018, Obama called for reciprocal tariffs.
We even have Donald Trump in 1988 saying it.
But anyway, so forget the howls, the outrage, the feigned outrage, the stock market.
That's all going to settle down.
This is the establishment temper tantrum reaction to something new out of the box that in the end is going to pay massive dividends for the country, or we could just stay with the old established way of doing things, and that means America remains a sucker nation.
That's your choice here.
And there really isn't no other alternative.
Either we stay strong, united together, and understand that we're being taken advantage of and say we're not going to take it anymore, or you just get the crap kicked out of you every day and get taken advantage of by people every day.
Now, I don't live my life that way.
If somebody wants to punch me in the face, I'm going to punch them back.
That's just the way I'm wired.
I don't want to punch anybody.
I know how to punch really hard.
I can take a punch.
And if you can't take a punch, you better not get in a fight.
But I don't want to punch anybody.
I'm actually a very peaceful person.
I will do everything humanly possible to avoid any confrontation with anybody, even if I knew I was on camera and would look cowardly.
I would still, I'd rather have that outcome than having to hurt somebody.
I don't want to hurt anybody.
And speaking of hurting people, it looks like John Fetterman, because he's been very pro-Israel and anti-Hamas, the terrorist group that wants to wipe Israel off the map.
Anyway, he's been condemning vandalism that took place at his wife's store yesterday.
Did you hear about this, Linda?
This is in your state.
Vandalism was a sign that referred to him and his wife as Genocide John and Genocide Giselle.
Blood on your hands at Red Since 10-723.
I'm used to the vandalism at my home, my office.
Fetterman wrote in an online social media post referring to the date that Hamas militants attacked.
And again, what part of murder, rape, torture, kidnapping, beheading do these people on the left not understand?
I don't know.
But he said this has been happening ever since October 7th, when Hamas militants attacked and kidnapped and murdered festival goers in Israel.
Giselle volunteers to distribute food, clothing, formula, and at no cost to our community, then they shouldn't have to put up with this.
I mean, his wife opened the free store in Braddock, Pennsylvania in 2012, along with nonprofits and volunteers, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the stores to eradicate food and clothing insecurity by accepting donations and redistributing the items to those in need.
By the way, I think I should donate, Linda, don't you think?
What are you going to do?
Money.
Everyone needs money.
I have a bad thing.
Do you want me to go send canned goods?
No.
I mean, I don't know.
I think you should donate your time via video lessons in conservatism.
And maybe they'll snap out of it.
I think if anybody's on the verge of snapping out of it, he's the only one that speaks any common sense in that party now.
Well, Federman is an equal opportunity hater, which is what we love about him.
He doesn't care about party.
You love anybody that has a hate list like you.
So let's begin.
I love anybody that is issue-based.
Anybody that does everything that you want.
No, we've got plenty of idiots on the right, just like we knew on the left.
Hey there, I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
And I'm Carol Markowitz.
We've been in political media for a long time.
Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.
That's why we started Normally, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.
We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.
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I'm Ben Ferguson, and I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down on Verdict with Ted Cruz now, wherever you get your podcasts.
When I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why?
Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies.
It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.
Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
Bad faith, political warfare, and frankly, bullshit.
We kill the ambassador just to cover something up.
You put two and two together.
Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.
I'm Leon Nayfak from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries.
This is Fiasco, Benghazi.
What difference at this point does it make?
Yes, that's right.
Lock her up.
Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I love when the left is fighting each other.
Did you see, and by the way, this is so revealing.
Did you see the story about little Georgie Clooney?
I'm not a fan of George Clooney.
Are you a fan?
We don't like George Clooney.
I am not a fan.
No.
No, not a fan.
Well, apparently, there was a dramatic confrontation after a liberal Joe producer apparently linked former President Obama to the now infamous New York Times editorial that called on former President Joe Biden to step aside.
Now, all these stories, Ron Clain, his new book comes out, all these stories, they had plans for Joe to die in office in Kamala to replace him.
They had a list of judges on speed dial to swear her in at a moment's notice.
So everybody knew this guy was a cognitive mess.
And then Ron Clain explains, yeah, when we were prepping him for that debate with Trump, it was awful.
And he'd get tired and he wanted to go take a little nappy.
And then people were making fun of me.
Remember when I used to say, oh, Lil' Sippy Cup, warm milky, night, night time, bedtime stories?
And people got all worked up, Linda.
I got the crap beat out of me as usual.
Oh, yeah.
And it turns out I was right.
And just like we'll be proven right on this tariff deal, too.
Anyway, so Clooney, I would bet pretty much up to my last dollar.
Just my guess.
I can't say for sure.
One thing I do know is Obama and Clooney are close friends.
It seems like it was a coordinated effort to me, in my opinion.
Can I prove it?
No.
Do I have any evidence to prove it?
No, I do not.
Does my gut tell me this is true?
Yes, it does.
I don't think he wrote that by accident.
Now, remember, he had only seen Biden, you know, not that long before he wrote this editorial.
He's very different than the person that I saw recently, blah, blah, blah.
He was not any different.
His cognitive decline was evident before the 2020 election.
They're all full of crap.
And then it turns out that Obama didn't want Kamala Harris to get the anointment.
Shows how much influence he has, which is pretty interesting.
He wanted to have a mini-open primary because he didn't have faith in Kamala.
So all this dirty laundry is now coming out here.
Anyway, there was a feature, I guess, on Liberal Joe's show with Joe and Mika suggesting, oh, by the way, this is a mediate headline.
There's no way you can run, you could be a congressman from the most conservative district, Pensacola Panhandle in Florida, and then become a raging left-wing radical lunatic like Liberal Joe and not make me think that you just wanted a job to be on TV and a paycheck.
I don't know.
Can somebody have a transformation that dramatic?
I guess.
How does Nicole Wallace go from working for George W. Bush, running the McCain and Sarah Palin campaign to now being Rachel Maddow on HGH and testosterone?
It's unbelievable.
It's just crazy left-wing lunacy that they peddle on the conspiracy theory channel.
Anyway, so there's this new book out, and it talks about this feature with Liberal Joe and Mika suggesting that Obama probably or may have authorized Clooney to publish the op-ed about Biden stepping down.
I told you this was a coordinated effort.
You know, this wasn't George Clooney, Mika Brzezinski said during the debate before, adding, I think that Barack Obama has a lot of influence.
Now, we do know for a fact, I know for a fact that they're friends.
So I kind of agree with Mika here.
Write that down.
This is a historic day on the show.
According to this guy, Whipple's account, and apparently he's got pretty good sources.
He's the one that quotes Ron Clain and how bad debate prep went.
If somebody's doing that poorly in a debate prep and the stakes are that high, you don't let that person debate if you want them to win and then act all shocked that the guy gets his ass kicked.
Anyway, according to Whipple's account, Clooney went ballistic.
How the F could you let her link me with Barack Obama saying he made me write the op-ed, Clooney reportedly shouted during a phone call with the morning Liberal Joe producer.
When the producer denied involvement, Clooney screamed, you F me.
You're my friend.
You should have stood up for me.
According to Whipple, the producer replied, George, this is not an effing movie.
There's no script.
It's just not a movie where you go script page to script page.
Clooney returns fire.
F you.
And the producer fires back.
F yourself.
Can't believe this.
The exchange apparently devolved in a profanity laced back and forth.
I'm telling you, it's the only thing that makes sense to me.
Now, I did see for the next, starting last weekend and this weekend, the Chosen, the new episode, season five, I went to see the first.
This is one of the greatest series of all time.
If you haven't watched it, you said to me it's on Prime, not on Apple.
I don't know why I get mine on Apple, but I think Apple is kind of intertwined with Prime, the way my TV is configured.
So what do I know?
I don't know anything.
But apparently, it became their largest grossing theatrical event in the history of the series, The Chosen, which is pretty cool.
And Snow White from Disney, DEI, woke Disney.
Jimmy Kimmel, Bob Iger, DEI, woke Disney.
Apparently, bombed.
They're going to lose, you know, a fortune, an absolute fortune.
Whoopi Goldberg signing off the view with an anti-Trump resistance.
Remember, the resistance is real.
I want each and every one of you to have a great day, everyone.
Take a little time to enjoy the view.
And remember, the resistance is real.
You're not alone.
We'll see you tomorrow.
But back to Clooney for a minute.
Clooney, he's mad at MSDNC.
You're supposed to be my friend.
So, what?
You're not supposed to call?
He's not supposed to be called out for his role if he might have been, or if they think he might have been involved in the Biden coup that backfired and failed spectacularly and dragging up his comments and his, you know, the crap that him and his wife of his said, he's just a jackass.
He is a jackass.
These actors and actresses, they think, they think they're smoking, man.
They think they are the greatest, best people on earth.
I don't know why people want to be friends with those people.
I really don't.
I have no desire to hang out with George Clooney.
That he has no desire to hang out with me.
Well, I actually think Mika probably is on to something.
That's my guess.
This wasn't George Clooney.
But what do you mean?
This wasn't.
Come on.
Well, who do you think it was?
It was not Matt Damon.
It wasn't Julio Roberts either.
Who do you think it was?
You can say the name.
You won't melt.
It's not Voltenberg.
Are you saying you think Barack Obama put him up to this?
I think that Barack Obama has a lot of influence, and I think that there's a lot there.
There's a lot there.
There's a lot there.
There is a lot there, Willie.
There are two people in this picture, and one has had a presidency that was absolutely, undeniably historic.
Well, I think you have two people that had extraordinarily historic in terms of the state.
I can't take it anymore.
I don't know how people.
I can't take it.
I don't think anybody in their right mind could watch that show.
After a Doge audit, the Social Security Administration has removed nearly 10 million Social Security accounts listed for retirees that are over 120 years old.
Checkmate Elon Musk right again.
Now, Trump does want Musk to stay on.
His outside the government appointment is only supposed to last 138 days.
He said Elon's fantastic.
He's a patriot.
He wants him to stay at the White House as long as he'd like, and that he personally wants him to stay on as long as possible.
I like smart people.
He's smart.
I like him personally.
We're in no rush.
And at some point, I mean, he does have to get back to his businesses.
And then people are trying to say, oh, see, people are getting sick of Elon Musk.
He's become a liability.
Not to me.
I think he's doing the American people a favor.
I'm grateful.
And thanks.
A lot of thanks he gets.
He gets bullets in his dealerships.
He gets firebomb dealerships.
He gets his cars burned up.
He gets his charging stations burned up and he gets death threats.
Gee, the thanks you get for helping your country and making the world a better place.
Let's just hate him.
We told you yesterday about Russia warning on Iran.
Iran is getting very interesting right now.
The reigning officials now have abandoned the Houdi allies after relentless bombardment ordered by Trump.
I'm telling you right now that there is a coming to Jesus moment coming.
It's got to happen.
I don't want war, but you have to understand the mindset of people that believe in converter die that threaten to wipe Israel off the map and wipe America off the map.
And if you have that converter die insane ideology guiding you, then as far as I'm concerned, if you think God's telling you to do all this crap and to strap palms on kids and tell them to go kill themselves and promising them 72 virgins in heaven, you're not in a really good position to negotiate with these people because by virtue of their very ideology, they're going to lie to you anyway.
Pam Bondi wants the death penalty for a homicidal, illegal alien gang member who stabbed his victim 100 times before shooting him in the head.
ICE has deported 174 Biden illegals who had a combined total of 600 criminal convictions, including homicide and rape.
Remember what I would say during the campaign?
Kamala, Joe, Mayorkas, they all have blood on their hands.
I blame them for Americans murdered, raped victims of violent crime, who have people that die of drug overdoses.
I blame them.
They did nothing but lie to us for three straight years.
A federal judge has found that Trump's American first slogan is racist towards immigrants.
Can't make this up.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to be successful with border apprehensions down 95% from last year, a whopping 95%.
New York Times even put out Trump deportations will raise wages.
One U.S. attorney, Massachusetts, blasting a Suffolk County DA and a judge who held an ICE agent in contempt as tensions continue.
The ICE agent was doing his job, which he's legally authorized to do.
And by the way, under the Constitution and the supremacy clause, sorry, the federal government has jurisdiction and authority over a state and over a local municipality.
And the fact that they arrested this guy during a trial, well, whenever you get a chance to arrest somebody on your arrest list, you arrest them.
That's called doing your job.
Thank you for doing your job.
The alleged Vegas MS-13 gang leader linked to 11 murders was arrested in Long Island.
I think I brought that one up yesterday.
And, you know, I don't know how we find all these people and make this country safe again.
Lindsey Graham has very successfully led this effort to bypass the Senate parliamentarian so that the president's no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime, making the Trump tax cuts permanent, providing the money needed to secure our border and deport criminals and the monies to get our energy dominance program up and running is working.
Last night, the motion to proceed went through.
They're going to have a vote of Rama late into the morning tonight, and then the real votes will take place next week.
I have plans that I will announce on Monday on this program.
Let's put it this way.
I'm going back to our nation's capital.
Why?
Because I want to do the best shows I can possibly do for you, my beloved audience.
That's what we do.
It is funny, by the way, with Obama and Kamala only coming out now.
They're attacking.
By the way, well, first of all, AOC is leading Schumer by 19 points in a head-to-head poll that just came out, which I love.
19 points.
But Obama and Kamala, they're only coming out against Trump.
It doesn't mean a thing what they say.
If they had any impact, Kamala would be president, and I'd be pretty miserable, and so would most of you.
You want smart political talk without the meltdowns?
We got you.
I'm Carol Markowitz, and I'm Mary Catherine Hamm.
We've been around the block in media, and we're doing things differently.
Normally is about real conversations.
Thoughtful, try to be funny, grounded, and no panic.
We'll keep you informed and entertained without ruining your day.
Join us every Tuesday and Thursday, normally, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Ben Ferguson.
And I'm Ted Cruz.
Three times a week, we do our podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
Nationwide, we have millions of listeners.
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, We break down the news and bring you behind the scenes inside the White House, inside the Senate, inside the United States Supreme Court.
And we cover the stories that you're not getting anywhere else.
We arm you with the facts to be able to know and advocate for the truth with your friends and family.
So down a Verdict with Ted Cruz Now, wherever you get your podcasts.
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