The Trump Economy Is A Whirlwind Of Instability (Hour 1)

Live from the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba show.

And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.

Across

Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.

and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I'm Todd Alba, along with our fantastic producer and engineer, Mr. Zombers Aaron Zombers on the board.

It is six past the hour of 12 noon on this Wednesday, April 9th, 2025.

It's a great day to be in Wisconsinite, and it is pump day.

That's right.

We have reached midway, folks.

Zombers, why does it feel like Friday today?

It doesn't.

It doesn't.

It's been that kind of a week already, but, you know,

We're here.

We've made it to the middle of the week.

It's fantastic.

Little clouds in the sky here at the world headquarters in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, whether across the state, at least in kind of the southeastern third, maybe draw line from Green Bay to Madison and then everything kind of south and east of that, maybe some slushy accumulations, no more than an inch and a half, maybe two inches at most.

A lot of places less than that.

Temperature is a little bit cooler today.

Front's going to come through and tonight into tomorrow morning, some slushy accumulations there.

But you know, it's, it's April in Wisconsin and Thursday, maybe 70 by Sunday and Monday.

So there's that big show today.

Looking forward to it.

Trigley Olson, our ongoing contributor, our friend, senior advisor at the Lincoln project.

We'll join us on our about 12 30.

Trigvie is a little tied up today, he said, and not in a good way.

So Trigvie will be here at the bottom of the hour talking politics and also Green Bay Packers.

Mark Murphy, of course, retiring after this year, the Packers.

Now, how is this, for example?

Because we hear a lot of times in politics, there should be term limits, which I am for.

And then recently, because of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump,

Either being or approaching oxygenarians 80 years old people are saying, you know, maybe there should be a point where we just say there should be an age limit for serving in government, particularly the federal level.

Well, the Green Bay Packers are way ahead of that.

They have in their bylaws that the president of the Packers organization may not continue on after the age of 75.

And believe it or not, Mark Murphy

turned in 75 this year.

So this is last year.

He's on a tour, as they often do with the Packers, kind of their winter tour.

They're going to be in Madison tonight.

Tickets are 75 bucks, if you want to go, to Garver Feedmill.

And I just got word now that Civic has bought us a couple summers.

So that's nice of him, isn't it?

Indeed it is.

It's not true, but it would be nice.

Yeah, it would.

But I'm sure Mike Clemens, our great sports reporter, Mike Clemens has been at some of these around the state of Wisconsin.

And it's a great thing where people could come out and meet the Packers.

And so Mark Murphy has done a lot of news and we're going to talk with Trigvie a little bit later, who of course is a Packers owner.

What is Mark Murphy's legacy as he leaves the Packers organization after this season?

So we'll talk about that.

Lots to get to in news, a little fun as well.

Remember that show we did last year in Appleton at the home of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers?

I sure do.

One of our best shows, I thought.

It was a lot of fun.

It was a great lot of fun.

And the Timber Rattlers started their season this year.

Of course, they're one of the field or farm teams for the Milwaukee Brewers.

And if you've never been to the Timber Rattlers, get yourself there because it's a great stadium, a great environment, a heck of a lot of fun.

And...

They put out a thing on social yesterday with many and a lot of these guys are not from most of them or not from Wisconsin.

And so the Timber Rattlers put in put in front of them the players different Wisconsin city names and said, say that.

And it was it was a good time to have by all is a lot.

It was a lot.

So we got that clip and we'll listen to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers a little bit later, pronouncing Wisconsin names.

Going to talk a little bit about the tariffs today as well.

Immigration and ice and much, much more.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

But before we get to that, and I was on Pat Krightlow's show this morning, Up North News Radio, and I talked about this, I thought we'd better talk about it on our show as well.

So I went to the grocery store last night.

Groceries, an amazing old fashioned word, isn't it, people?

It means different things in a bag together.

Making fun of Donald Trump, of course.

That's an actual quote from him, if you don't know recently.

He thinks groceries is an old fashioned term.

And he

keeps saying

it over and over

like

he did with Hannibal

Lepper.

Because, because he doesn't, he's never bought a bag of groceries in his life.

I'll guarantee it.

Never happened.

If he has, it's only someone, like someone, some hand or walked him through it

to say

that he has.

That's the only way.

So he doesn't think people buy groceries anymore, Trump.

Anyway, I went grocery shopping last night and, uh,

And so as I'm checking out, there was a lovely young Girl Scout.

It's that time of year.

And she has a great voice for radio.

You could hear her across half the store.

And every time somebody would be walking out at Metcalf's, she would say, hello, would you like to buy a box of Girl Scout cookies and help our fund?

Very, very polite.

And so the funny thing is I actually treated myself and I bought a small little thing of cookies.

at Metcalf's license, so I didn't really need any cookies.

So now you quadruple dipped on cookies.

But I felt guilty, of course.

And so I stopped, but she was there as her mother.

And I said, well, what do you have to sell?

Do you have my favorite thin mints?

And by golly, she did.

So I said, well, well, put a box of those on there.

And then they had the, uh, I'm holding these up for those watching on the stream on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Oh my gosh.

They got the lemonade's or the, the lemon odds, whatever they call them.

The

lemon.

I put, well, you know, it's a better deal.

If you get three, I said, okay, fine.

And so I got some of the truff oils and tree.

It's the sugar cookies.

And so I got those.

And then I'm getting ready to check out.

And she says, would you like to donate a box to veterans or those in nursing homes?

And there's people around.

And I don't want to be the guy who says, oh, I'm not going to help out veterans and nursing homes.

So I, sure.

And so by the time I'm done, I'm four boxes of girls count cookies into this and I'm 25 bucks down.

I mean,

but there's no such thing as a bad box of girls.

No, it's just that my waistline does not need them all.

And so I brought them in.

And so after the show, for those listening in Madison, I'm putting a sleeve at each of these out in the kitchen and people can enjoy them back there.

This is going to take a lot of self-control.

But God bless the girl.

She was a great salesperson and she got me.

I'm just, I'm softhearted when it comes to that because I remember as a kid doing not selling Girl Scout cookies, but trying to raise money for, I don't know, like UNICEF and.

and church things like I sold

popcorn with Boy Scouts.

Yeah, I did a lot of band candy bars and pizzas and all that kind of stuff.

My mom always said, just tell me how much it would be easier for me just to write you a check to go through all of that.

But anyway, I've got if you see the Girl Scouts out there at your local grocery store or wherever, help them out because it's a good cause and it's a great organization.

So.

How about the Girl Scouts?

Yeah, Brian in Milwaukee texting in says, think about the good deed you did in supporting the Girl Scouts.

Well, yes, I'm very happy I'm able to, but it's just, I was like, okay, six bucks.

All right, you know, 12, and I'm 25 bucks plus down by the time I leave.

855-752-442.

Let's go quickly into phone lines.

David, out of beautiful San Francisco, where I left my heart is on the phone.

David, thanks for joining us.

What's up?

Oh, hey, Tom.

Yeah, I, you know, with the nice win of the Supreme Court Justice, one of the things that I'd like to see come out of whether it's local Supreme Court or the national one is the reassurgence or the restatement that the social contract is real.

You know, it's been almost a thousand years that the Magna Carta has existed.

And the social contract is when the king is supposed to look out for every sparrow.

The king is supposed to look out for the subjects instead of just milking them and kicking them to the curb.

And when you think about 100 years ago, when King Leopold invaded Africa and decided that the 15 million people in the land that he conquered were not citizens of Belgium, that they were basically his property, and he could do with them as he pleased,

He basically was trying to figure out a way that he could get rid of the social contract.

And when you think about Mussolini, who was jealous of King Leopold, and invented the corporate state, which superseded kings, where the king is supposed to look out for the subjects, but the corporations don't have any obligation to look out for the people.

Right.

And so what we're looking at right now with Trump is he wants the corporations to have free reign to never look out for the citizens and that the citizens are then disposable for the needs of the corporation.

So I'd like to see the Supreme Court.

deal, whether it's state supreme court or the federal, I'd like to see them research that the social contract is real and that whether it's kings or corporations, the taxpayers, the people of a nation,

uh, have, uh, you know, they, they have rights and they have, uh, the right to self-preservation and that corporations cannot just kill them, uh, with, uh, you know, whether it's poisonous food or pollution or economic, uh, corruption, uh, that we, the people have more rights than corporations.

Appreciate the call.

Thanks, David.

Thank you.

Interesting.

David brings that up, uh, because that's kind of what I wanted to ease into today.

with people, yeah, people, corporations, but these tariffs, these tariffs now.

And this is just getting ginned up throughout the day here.

Headline now, China and the EU, the European Union, hit back in a showdown with Donald Trump.

It's the final countdown.

Well, not the final countdown, but it's the showdown with Trump and the European Union.

And of course, we talked about this yesterday, that all of this stuff.

When it comes to tariffs and the economy and whatnot, it is all self-inflicted wounds by the Trump administration on its own country.

And so when we come back, I want to play you a couple of cuts because this is really great.

We're gonna hear from the, I didn't even know this existed, the footwear distributors and retailers of America.

Everything has an association, right?

So we're gonna hear from them and talk very

But specifically because I think a lot of people think, well, you know, I'm not buying stocks or do you buy tennis shoes, sneakers, running shoes?

Most of us do.

I don't know.

Mine kind of depends on how much I change on different footwear.

But mine lasts generally two ish years.

If you're in the market for footwear.

You might want to get on it right away because the prices are going up.

Talk about tariffs, how it affects us here in Wisconsin.

Trivius will be along as well.

And Frank, it's the all-ball show on Civic Media.

Wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title of all show on the Civic Media Ready Network.

21 now past the hour of 12 noon on a Wednesday, April 9th, 2025.

Zomers at the board.

Todd at the mic.

You all across Wisconsin on the Civic Media Ready Network and around the world on the Civic Media app.

Trig V. I can say his name right.

Trig V. That's his name.

Olson will be here at the bottom of the hour.

Busy guy.

Tied up a little bit right now, but we believe we will hear from trig V a little bit later this hour right now want to pick up on something we talked about before the break The tariffs the Trump tariffs which now China and the EU are even fighting back harder prices going up like crazy already And I know that people think well, you know, this doesn't really affect me fair because I mean that's so

A lot of this is just very high level stuff.

But here's the deal.

It's going to affect all of us.

Very short order, by the way.

And last night on with Jim Shoshuto on CNN was this guy, Matt Priest, who is the head of footwear distributors and retailers of America.

Didn't even know they had an association and here are very real terms on CNN last night He explains what these tariffs are going to mean for you and me the

spot here, but just ballparking if

$100 pair of sneakers costs $100 made currently, whether it's in China, Vietnam or Indonesia.

If it was made in the U.S., how much would that pair of sneakers cost?

$300 or $400 easily.

In fact, we've even just looked at the tariffs coming to place tonight at midnight.

$150 pair of running shoes will be $230, right?

And that's coming from overseas sources without U.S.

tariffs.

That's just with the tariffs.

Yeah.

Folks will feel that,

Matt Priest.

$150.

to 230 bucks, at least.

And again, I've talked about it on this show.

I worked retail for a while, was a manager at LLB, great company by the way.

They're not unlike any other major corporation.

And during COVID, when at the start of it, when it hit, we got words went high that we had to start marking up shirts and pants by 10 bucks.

And the corporate line was, well, you know, it's COVID and the supply chains are, you know, we can't get stuff.

And one of my coworkers who worked in retail for like 25, 30 years, he said, you know, all this stuff has been sitting in the warehouse for months.

So, I mean, the fact was we weren't marking it up because that particular product cost the company more.

We were marking it up because the company said, whoa, we can do that now.

And because other things cost more, and so they raise the price

on everything.

Right.

So it's not going to be any different this time around.

Only instead of COVID, it is the self-inflicted Trump tariffs who are going to make everything, they're going to make everything increase in price.

How much could a $2 carton of egg cost?

Oh, easily, 15 bucks.

Right.

So I just want to make sure people understand this.

We've talked about it on this program before, and I'm not.

I don't want to create a panic of stampede out there.

But if you really need something, if you say, well, look, my car, I was planning on buying a new car in 2025 anyway, I had a major piece of equipment in my home that I know I'm going to have to replace in the next blank months.

My advice based on listening to people who are smarter than me, if you could afford it and you're able to do it now.

even if that piece of equipment is made in America, because the chances are, A, many of the parts or materials, i.e.

steel or other things, are manufactured elsewhere and brought in and assembled in the US.

Or, like in my example, even products that are made in the USA, look, it's all transactional folks, it's all business, business.

Businesses are gonna say, look, you know,

The price of our competitor made outside the U.S.

went up 75%.

We'll mark our stuff up 30% because we're still cheaper than the outside country stuff, but we can make money.

So if you really need something right now, if you can, buy it now.

Tony watch on YouTube says better yet do it four months ago.

Well, yeah that too You'll recall me a lot of people laughed at me and that's fine.

I Said back in October Look, I'm going to stock up on because I thought back then I thought the vice president Harris

was more than likely to win the election.

And I thought there'd be a lot of civil unrest because of that.

And that would also cause shortages and supply increases.

And so I said, look, I just feel very unsettled.

You do you.

I'm going to stock up.

And I did.

No matter who won, there was bound to be some degree of turmoil.

Right.

And because Trump won, and the voters who person lost were more restrained, there wasn't much civil distrust.

are unrest, not distrust, unrest.

But now, and again, the insanity, the craziness of this is that it is all self-inflicted.

None of this needed to happen.

None of these trade wars needed to happen.

I don't even like the word trade war because that assumes like the other side was partially responsible.

They're not.

They're just not.

I want to play, we have time for the Rand Paul cut zombies or we're up against the clock on that maybe a little bit too much, huh?

We can play.

All right, here's Rand Paul, a senator from Kentucky, a Republican explaining the craziness and the truth about some of these tariffs as it relates to dairy.

Here's Rand Paul.

We have to start from talking about the truth.

One of the things they say with Canada is, oh, there's a 270% tariff on dairy products going from the US into Canada.

Well, you know what the real tariff is?

Zero.

That's a big difference between what the truth is.

So there's a certain amount of goods, dairy goods that go to Canada every year, and they go at 0%.

If we exceed a certain amount, there's this ridiculous 270% tariff, but we've never encountered it.

And the USMC renegotiated it and raised the level.

that's under zero.

Trump should be congratulated for USMC raising the amount of dairy that goes in at zero.

But we have to have an honest debate.

We can't go around saying that there's a 270% tariff when that's not really the truth.

All right.

So did you catch that?

That's Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

And I give him props.

He said, we have to tell a truth on this stuff.

That the Trump administration is saying well we had to put up these big tariffs on Canada because you know there's a 270% 270% tariff on dairy products in the Canada But we've never reached that we've never exported so much That those tariffs have kicked in so the reality is it's zero But now we're going after Canada for a tariff that has never been imposed

That's the insanity, and that's the truth.

Back with more after this is the All Balls show in Civic Media.

Wherever it may lead and having fun doing it welcome back to the title ball show of the civic media ready Network 34 minutes now past the hour of 12 noon on Wednesday April 9th 2025 Aaron Summers our producer engineer on the board glad to have you along the little breaking news Speaking to those tariffs That's that's how quickly the national newscape changes take a commercial break.

We'll have we'll have breaking news after this

Yes, this broke as soon as we went to commercial

Here it is several places now reporting it this office CNN headline Trump says he's applying a 90-day pause on new tariffs except for China Which is now which is now being raised to get this a hundred and twenty five percent 125

percent.

President Trump says he's applying the 90 day pause on new tariffs as his trade war shakes the world economy.

At the same time, he announced he was raising tariff rates on China to 125 percent, ratcheting up his tit for tat with Beijing.

Interesting turn of a phrase by CNN.

Trump's been involved in a lot of that.

Trump says he has authorized a quote 90 day pause and substantially lowered reciprocal tariffs during this period of 10% also effective immediately.

It was not immediately clear which countries the pause will apply to.

CNN is reaching out to the White House for further clarification in the same message.

Trump says he was raising US tariffs on China as he works to bring Beijing to the negotiating table.

Quote based on the lack of respect that China has shown the world markets I'm here by raising the tariff charge to China by the United States of America to a hundred and forty five percent and it goes on from there if There's anybody who this is not that that's the end of the quote from Trump or I'm not gonna read all of it, but that's part of it If there's anyone who has shown disrespect to the world market it is Donald J. Trump That's just a blatant point.

That's the fact

And to go to 125%, there was a great story this morning.

It was on CBS.

There's no way the United States could win a trade war with China.

Why?

And don't quote me on the exact numbers, but this is pretty close.

China imports approximately somewhere between 10 and 15% of their goods from the United States.

relies, there's so much trade that they rely on with the United States.

We rely on China well over 50%.

So Trump is, by self-infliction, putting the United States into an unwinnable trade situation with China.

I'll use the phrase.

It's a Kobayashi Maru.

It's a no-win scenario with China.

But instead of having an unwinnable situation where you have to choose to save a ship or not save a ship He like he threw him.

I don't know he sabotaged all of it.

It's so idiotic.

He's just spinning a wheel every day and it's like Yes, no for tariffs and how much

well at the point of it is to create instability Tony on YouTube says what a rock of stability I love to plan for my business future in this economy unquote.

He's absolutely right and and really that's what's

Well, it's all concerning, right?

I believe that's one of the most dangerous things.

As someone who used to be a small business owner, the thing that you hate the most is instability and unpredictability.

You can plan on, hey, there's a big event in town, I know this is an advance, I'm gonna have to staff more people, buy more goods so I don't run out.

Or,

you know, in the restaurant industry, in Madison at least, you know, February, March are pretty dry times.

So you staff, those are the things you plan on.

What's dangerous is this.

All right, let's, we're gonna have to start laying off people on 50%, 100%, whatever tariffs, we're gonna have to deal with this.

And then you let those people go and you lay off people and you don't order as many goods.

And then 48 hours later, not just kidding.

Well, now, holy crap, now you need all those people, those goods back.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

Zombers?

I want people to think about this for a second.

So the stock market is a reflection of confidence and betting on whether businesses and markets are going to succeed or fail.

The stock market is crashing harder than it did during COVID.

That means...

Quite literally, that people, business owners, investors are betting that Donald Trump's economy is more unpredictable and dangerous than a disease that was ravaging the world and we did not have a cure for, killing millions of people.

That's a good point.

That's a really good point.

855-752-4842.

Let's go to Jack in Merrimack.

Jack, thanks so much for calling in.

We'll see

you.

The first thing I'm thinking is that people are going to love when their iPhone 17 comes out and it's 3,000 bucks.

Right.

But the, the, the, uh, the cherish are only a part of the problem.

Um, if somebody is making, let's say a 5% profit on something and you double the price,

All of a sudden, their profit is going to go down to 2.5%.

No,

I don't think so.

They're not going to do that.

They're going to jack up the price in additional 5% because that will then put them back even to where they were.

The third thing I want to say is, the last time this happened, the price increases according to sources.

such such liberal sources as the Wall Street Journal and Business Insider roughly two-thirds of those price increases were price gouging because businesses said, oh, this is going to cost more.

Everybody's going to blame COVID or the supply chain or things like that.

So we'll just bring our prices up and corporate profits just went through the ceiling.

I

see that happening here.

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

I appreciate the call, Jack.

Thank you so much.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

And Jack, great point.

It's not the left who's pointing the truth out.

It's the conservatives.

It's the right.

It's MAGA itself.

Let's go to this cut from Fox News.

Fox News.

I don't play a lot of Fox News cuts on here.

This was the morning show on the curvy couch.

Here's what Fox News is saying about what these Trump tariffs are going to do to small businesses and pointing out one small business who is going, this will basically cripple them and put them out of business.

There's an item in the New York Post that we all have in front of us.

It's an exclusive story and it talks about how with these 104% tariffs and went into effect, we think that

China is gonna have to pay for it, but it tells a story of a a special needs toy importer and When the tariffs went into effect at midnight his tariff he's been paying a tariff because he gets stuff from China $26,000 a year

His tariff bill went from $26,000 at midnight to $346,000.

And that's money he's gonna have to come out of his pocket.

It sounds like he's gonna have to go ahead and close down part of his business.

He tried to make the toys in the United States, but the tariff...

on that his most popular item went from zero to $17 at midnight.

And what he told the New York Post is people don't understand the tariff situation.

They think just foreign countries are paying for the tariffs.

That's not true.

Half of the tariffs are being paid for by US based companies.

So when you look at the big numbers and they look good, just remember that according to this guy, half of the small businesses and half of the tariffs are being paid by

Americans.

from Fox News.

Even Fox News knows they can't spend this.

The tariffs aren't going to be paid by the foreign company.

It's going to be paid for by you and I. One small business owner, did you get that number?

His cost on the fees for importing went from $26,000 to $346,000.

That is a small number that that is a hey, I'm out.

I'm out of business number eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five two four eight four two Gene listening up at Eau Claire on WCFW We appreciate calling them on the tap Gene.

Let's see Hi

guys, great show as usual Aaron that was great Comment there.

I believe that for sure.

Um, no one is safe

from Trump's psychotic reign of hate and chaos.

There's a fire over here.

There's a fire over there.

Oh, there's a fire over here.

Whoa, watch that fire over there.

Geez Louise, you can't keep up with all of them.

And you know who it hurts every time one of us hurts us in respect from other countries.

They can't trust us anymore.

Our neighbors, guys, wake up.

you know, stand up, call your representatives because they need to hear from you because more of the crowds, even at their non-existence, you know, when they get together with me with their constituents, have them anyway, so the press is there so that they can see that people don't like this because until it's visual, all the people upset, they're not going to act.

Thank you very much and great show.

Appreciate the call, Jean.

Thank you so very much.

Jean brings up a good point, as she always does, which is,

This is beyond just the money, the dollars.

This is our reputation as a country, as an ally.

The European Union, NATO, Canada, people who have been our longtime friends now view us as the adversary because of one person, Donald Trump.

They're having to make alternative plans for their national security, for their financial

fitness as a country because of Donald Trump and the Trump tariffs.

Mark from Sussex weighing in on the text line on the civic media app saying the market is up $2,500.

Look.

Mark that.

I haven't looked at it.

I can look at the market right now.

I'll take your word for it.

But the point Zomers was making earlier and other people texting and calling in right now as well.

Over the weekend, people's 401Ks was crushed.

Here's Carol.

And Waukesha says, sure, crush my 401k when I'm 65 just to create, quote unquote, buying opportunities in the market for the rich.

So sure, I mean, yeah, it makes sense, right?

Trump says, oh, today we're going to take the tariffs off.

Sure, the markets will go back up today.

Just wait till 4 p.m.

The long term damage, the long term damage, particularly to people who have 401ks and have put their money in retirement accounts.

People lost tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over the weekend, in one weekend.

You're not going to make all that up today and tomorrow.

And to the point, this destabilizes the world economy.

This destabilizes world markets.

This destabilizes trust that we have between our allies around the world.

The world is a less safe place today because of Donald Trump.

855-752-4842.

855-752-4842.

Kurt listening on WMDX in Madison.

Kurt, thanks for calling.

We'll see you.

Kurt,

are you

there?

Good afternoon.

You're

on the air, Kurt.

Go

ahead.

Hello.

Good afternoon.

What concerns me now is the tariff debacle is created permanent damage.

There's no, you know, the Humpty Dumpty has been beaten up to the bat after he fell off the wall.

There's no putting this back in the box.

The United States is going to suffer huge financial losses, probably in the next 20 years.

And a lot of people out there who have been relying on their job and making ends meet and all the rest of it, that is now going to compound and only get worse.

And I'd like to remind all the Republican listeners, when the US government can no longer collect taxes to pay bills and debt,

We either start printing money, which is very, very bad, or a lot more bad things happen.

So I don't know what else to do to demonstrate for them to wake up, smell the coffee, and realize he's a loose cannon.

He's out of control as well as all his appointees.

Yeah, appreciate the call, Kurt.

Thank you so much.

855-752-4842.

Let's go quickly to West Alice.

Robert in West Alice, you have 45 seconds.

It's yours.

Yeah, the danger here is stagflation.

We saw that in the 70s.

So Paul Volcker at the Fed kept raising interest rates.

So we could have a recession with rising prices.

We need to know how much Bitcoin and Doge and other currencies these guys use.

I think they're trying to ruin the full-stage and credit of the U.S.

on the dollar so that they can go to digital currency.

And that's used for terrible things.

Drug running,

human

trafficking, tax evasion, avoiding economic sanctions.

That's a great call.

A great call, Robert.

I really appreciate it.

We're up against the clock.

I went to cut you off.

Watch what Robert said.

Listen, if you follow the plan tonight, Naeem Boukely in El Salvador, they're moving to digital currency, and that ain't good.

Back after

this.

Pursuing truth wherever it may lead and having fun doing it.

Welcome back to the title ball show on the Civic Media Radio Network nine before the hour of one o'clock on Wednesday, April 9th, 2025.

Glad to have you along with us breaking news at this hour.

President Donald Trump, pardon me, President Donald Trump said he's applying a 90 day pause on new tariffs as his trade war shakes the world economy.

At the same time, he announced he was raising tariff rates on China to 125% ratcheting up his tit for tat with Beijing.

It was not immediately clear which countries the pause will apply to.

CNN and other sources reaching out to the White House for further clarification.

In the same message Trump said he was raising US tariffs on China as he works as he said to bring Beijing to the negotiating table on quote although But they weren't the ones that started this war.

It was Trump And it's the in the uncertainty LA Tom by well, I guess he's on the phone, but he's he had this comment here Said you know Trump loves the media talking about him 24-7.

He's absolutely right and believe me I

I'm not thrilled to keep talking about Trump, but his actions have real world implications from what we pay at the store to our 401ks.

And yes, the markets now are starting to surge after this announcement just five to 10 minutes ago.

Well, of course they are.

But again, people lost hundreds of thousands of dollars over the weekend in the retirement account.

Other countries are making long-term plans to trade with other countries.

They're not going to reverse those things now that Trump just put his finger up in the air and the wind's blown in a different direction.

To the earlier caller's point, this is long-term damage and it ain't good for you and I. And by the way, China is where we get most of our foreign goods from and that tariffs going up 125%.

So all the people that shop at Walmart,

All the people that shop at big box stores, all the people that shop at Costco, most of those goods are made in China.

Those prices ain't going down, they're going up.

So what you and I pay for things at the store is going to go up.

855-752-4842.

Tom, listening in McFarland on WMDX.

Tom, thanks for calling, we'll see.

Thanks take my call and you know if you would have told me even four years ago that the GOP would willingly walk away from free trade and embrace mercantilism I would have told you I'll take that bet I'll take that bet every day It's just insane to me that this is what they're doing when we built this system for the past like 80 plus years The United States is the one that's been championing free trade

And we're the one that rigged the system to make sure that it benefits us.

If you take a look at the wealthiest corporations, the countries that have the most billionaires, let alone millionaires, the United States is always coming up on top.

And it's because of the system that we built around free trade, a lot with the alignment of the GOP with corporate interests.

And now they're just going to take a wrecking ball to that.

Well, like you mentioned,

The world right now is built on free trade.

The world is not going to go back to mercantilism.

So

instead of having the United States being top dog, there's going to be another country that's going to take that role.

And we are the ones that did it to ourselves.

It's absolutely nuts.

Like I said, I never would have thought that.

As

a former Republican who left the party in 2011, I'm gobsmacked as much as you are.

Never thought this day would come.

But again, it just goes to show you that the Republican Party is no longer the Republican Party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, or even Reagan and Thompson.

It is the MAGA Party of Donald Trump.

8-5-5-7-5-2-4-8-4-2.

Out to Los Angeles we go.

LA Tom, LA, thanks for calling.

We'll see

you.

Yeah, I gotta have a question for you, Todd.

The Republicans are very, very good at having surrogates.

I think Bill Clinton was good at it as well.

But why is it that the Democrats of today, two questions, one that they did, like Joe Biden, why didn't he have a surrogate every day talking about what was going on?

And two, why is it that the Democrats don't set up a shadow government and say that, you know, we are the party of FDR, we are the ones that brought you social security?

We want to strengthen Social Security.

We want to strengthen Medicare from Lyndon Johnson, all Democratic presidents that brought that across the goal line.

I think those are

those are great questions and stay on the line.

I want to we got what two minutes here left We can talk about this a little bit a as you know, I'm not a Democrat I was a lifelong Republican until 2011 left the party.

I'm an independent now So I can't I don't want to speak for the Democratic Party quote-unquote I can just give you an outsider perspective and I've heard you on our show and another show and not just you other other Democrats I'm not sure what's in the water FDR is very popular amongst Democrats these days And I think that I think FDR did a lot of great things for this country whatever

probably our country's best presidents.

I don't know, L.A., whether or not that's the right messaging for this genre.

You look at Zomers, people in their 20s.

When you say FDR and Lyndon Johnson, that doesn't register.

I don't think a lot.

Doesn't Zomers?

I mean, I know, but I also work for a political radio station.

I think a lot of people don't.

I just think that's the wrong branding as an outsider.

That's not the Democratic Party.

I'm not sure that that's the branding you want to use.

I think taking some of the ideas

I, I, and, and, you know, I'll push back a little bit and say, I'm not here to defend or speak for Joe Biden, but I think Pete putting up someone like Pete Buttigieg out on Fox, even on CNN.

I mean, that guy is an incredible surrogate, an incredible speaker.

and does it in a way that makes sense to the mainstream of America on both sides of the aisle.

So maybe you needed more Pete Buddha judges out there.

I don't know, LA, but I'm not arguing with you on the ideas of FDR, but I just don't know that's the right spin.

You know what I'm saying?

Well, yeah, but I do think that that's why we study history.

Sure.

So I mean, we're I mean, why not follow the FDR playbook?

Trump is following Hillers playbook.

We're following Hoover's playbook.

Right.

Hoover.

I

like that.

That was great.

That was great.

Back after this, hour two straight ahead.

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