Happy New Year 2025

Tag: Larry

LARRY KUDLOW: Elon Musk and DOGE are finding fraud — everywhere

If you think there’s no waste, fraud, abuse, or corruption in the federal government — as many Democrats that want to stop Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency keep telling us — think again.

After just a few weeks, the evidence is mounting and the numbers are growing larger.

Let me start with Mr. Musk’s Social Security database discovery, posted to his profile on X, that 20.7 million beneficiaries are allegedly over the age of 100 — including 3.9 million in the 130-to-139 age range. More than 3.5 million in the 140-to-149 range. And over 1.3 million in the 150-to-159 range.

Seriously, does anybody believe these people are still alive?

The former Director of the Social Security Administration tried desperately to keep DOGE out of Social Security. No wonder, if much of it is a scam.

Just how much?

Well, Robert Sterling — a Marine Corps veteran, former M&A specialist at Koch Industries, and current managing partner at EV Partners — calculates that roughly $522 billion, which is one third of all spending on Social Security each year, could potentially be fraudulent.

He arrives at his estimate by calculating that the U.S. Census says there are 101,000 living centenarians. The average monthly benefit is around $2,100, times twelve months, equals $522 billion — or one third of all Social Security spending. That’s incredible.

Now, the DOGE people will review all these numbers, but something is surely fraudulently remiss in the Social Security Administration.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calls out corruption in government on ‘Kudlow.’

And there’s going to be a lot more.

A couple of billion dollars at the Department of Housing and Urban Development was “misplaced” and recovered by DOGE.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, discovered a $20 billion slush fund at the agency that should not be spent.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page cited a Government Accountability Office report last spring that estimated the federal government could be losing between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud.

The GAO earlier estimated between $100 and $135 billion of fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits.

Even the IRS paused processing pandemic employee retention tax credits because they soared to more than $230 billion and counting from $55 billion initially.

Believe it or not, the Department of Health and Human Services last year estimated $85 billion in improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid — though, of course, they haven’t done anything about it.

Then-President-elect Donald Trump walks with Elon Musk before attending a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket, in Brownsville, Texas, Nov. 19, 2024 . (Brandon Bell/Pool via REUTERS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY / Reuters)

And the DOGE team is just getting started. But you know that the growing pile of fraud and corruption is going to keep on growing.

There has not been a serious financial audit in a long time. Way back when, President Clinton and Vice President Gore tried it. Even President Obama talked about it.

But the key point is that, with Mr. Musk’s jet fuel driving the process, President Trump’s audit is going to be implemented.

And legal scholars are pointing out that the Musk team is made up of political appointees who, of course, are now federal employees — and must be permitted to do their job.

You can bet they will do just that. And that’s exactly what people voted for.

February 18, 2025
LARRY KUDLOW: Sheriff Pam Bondi is making New York great again

‘Kudlow’ host Larry Kudlow gives his take on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s promise to crack down on illegal immigration and end the weaponization of government.

After just a couple of days of being sworn in as Attorney General, Pam Bondi is laying the law down, especially on illegal immigration. And especially on illegal immigration in New York.

All New Yorkers — in the city, the suburbs, and upstate — should be cheering her on for making the Empire State a safer and more decent place to live.

Here’s what she had to say:

This is a new DOJ, and we are taking steps to protect Americans, American citizens, and angel moms… New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens. It stops. It stops today – as you know, we sued Illinois, and New York didn’t listen. So now, you’re next.

– Attorney General Pam Bondi, February 12

And our new Sheriff Bondi is going after something called New York’s Green Light Law, which allows illegal immigrants to get drivers licenses and stops the Department of Motor Vehicles from telling ICE.

So, Bondi sued all the New York Trump Derangement Syndrome operatives, including so-called Attorney General Letitia James and so-called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

And, just for the heck of it, Bondi threw in the DMV commissioner, who no one has ever even heard of.

The point here is that the new Trump Justice Department is busting through sanctuary cities and states, left and right. Bondi has already hit Illinois, and now she’s hitting New York.

And, of course, the far-left James-Bragg left-wing Soviet-like cabal deserves everything they get for their attempted weaponization jihad against President Donald Trump, where they tried to throw him in jail for 700 years, take all his businesses away, and bankrupt him.

All of that was one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in history.

Whether or not AG Bondi had that in mind we’ll never know, but bravo to her for correctly arguing that federal law supersedes state and local law. And giving Tom Homan and his ICE brigade the right to capture and deport the murderers and rapists who have broken the law.

There’s no escape for them under the new Trump-appointed sheriffs. And these local yokel New York officials can whine as much as they want, but the voters’ tide has turned against them.

And then we come to the case of Mayor Eric Adams, whose biggest crime during the Biden years was to begin cooperating with federal officials to stop the flood of illegals coming into the Red Apple. So the Bidens weaponized the legal system against him.

A phony indictment from Biden’s Justice Department tried to lay him out, basically for doing nothing more than taking a couple of first-class airplane seat upgrades and helping a foreign embassy get a faster repair job.

The Trump-Bondi Justice Department dropped the indictment against Mayor Adams. And now you have a couple of Assistant U.S. Attorneys screaming like banshees, with highly visible resignation letters that no one really cares about.

Left-wing news outlets are telling us how brilliant these former prosecutors are, but, if so, they’re only book-smart or pedigree-smart.

They are not street-smart, with no common sense at all, because Adams is cooperating with Bondi and Homan to get the illegals out of New York and make New York safe again, even reopening ICE facilities on Rikers Island.

You could say the new Trump sheriffs are now weaponizing justice in favor of Mayor Adams — but so that he can fight migrant crime and get rid of illegals.

I’m calling this good weaponization. High moral ground weaponization. Law and order, safety weaponization.

And because of his good works, Democratic Mayor Eric Adams is being mentioned as a possible Republican Mayor Eric Adams.

Stay tuned for more on that.

February 14, 2025
LARRY KUDLOW: The markets applaud Trump’s reciprocal tariffs

Today, President Donald Trump expanded on his fair and reciprocal trade policy that is aimed at creating a level playing field for American workers and businesses — and will hopefully deal with the many unfair trading practices around the globe that are aimed at the United States.

He is using a simple metric: if you tax us, we’re going to tax you. But, if you lower your tax on us, then we’ll gladly lower our tax on you.

Actually, President Trump sees this as a road to free trade.

And taxes are really tariffs. So, one place the President singled out was the European Union for their nearly 20% value added tax (VAT), which, yes, functions as a tariff.

Plus, they have across the board tariffs that are much higher than ours. On that score, President Trump singled out the 10% European auto tariff, which is four times America’s 2.5%. That’s on top of the 20% VAT. Of course, that’s patently unfair.

And there are country-wide examples galore: India has six times the tariff rates that we do, Mexico three times, China nearly five times, Brazil six times.

President Donald Trump signs new executive orders on reciprocal tariffs from the Oval Office.

The world trading system has been broken for over 25 years. And most countries have taken advantage of America by aiming their trading barriers at us.

There is no international court to fix it. The World Trade Organization is a bust and is also corrupt, in bed with China.

So, President Trump’s going to try and fix this by applying a reciprocal tariff benchmark. It seems like a fairly straightforward metric.

At this point, we don’t know exactly how far the policy will go. Nor do we know how much in tariff revenues will be raised. These are important questions yet unanswered.

In today’s presser, Mr. Trump used a very moderate, low-key approach.

He wasn’t really bashing anybody, and he focused most of his remarks on how the industrial heartland and our whole economy will become bigger and more productive as a result of his reciprocity-based level playing field goal.

Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni, former World Bank president David Malpass, and Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-S.D., weigh in on President Donald Trump’s reciprocal trade policy on ‘Kudlow.’

The stock market rose nearly 400 points on the news. No actions will be taken until April 1st, after a review led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Reporters keep nagging President Trump about inflationary tariffs. But they are wrong.

Foreign exporters will bear the largest burden, because they will be forced to cut their prices in order to sell in America. Plus, the export country currency will fall, while the U.S. dollar will rise.

And, if the European Union – or whoever – lower their tariffs, our consumer prices will go down.

That’s all counter inflationary.

All that said, I strongly support trade reciprocity. It is a noble mission.

Next up, I’d really like to see the President start talking up tax cuts, jobs, middle-class wages, and rapid economic growth.

Let’s not forget the growth message.

February 13, 2025
LARRY KUDLOW: Trump is the most statesmanlike President in generations

With the passing of each day, President Donald Trump is proving to be the finest international statesman America has produced since Ronald Reagan — and surely harking back to the American and world leaders who defended freedom during World War II.

Trump critics, hearing his ‘America First’ North Star guiding principle, accuse him of being an isolationist, uninterested in other parts of the world or the complexities of foreign relations. But Trump is proving them all to be very badly wrong.

In just the few weeks since his inauguration, he has negotiated border-closing and deportation policies with Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and El Salvador.

He has focused, laser-like, on the Panama Canal and the importance of preventing China from running it. He is moving rapidly to prevent China from infiltrating Central and South America in violation of the Monroe Doctrine. And he has cast a sharp eye on the strategic value of Greenland to prevent Russia and China from advancing into the Arctic Circle.

Plus, he has directly engaged with Israel on the hostage release negotiations with the Hamas terrorists. He has offered an outside-the-box solution to the age-old Gaza problem.

And, now, he has finally broken through the Russia-Ukraine stalemate.

First, by meeting directly with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Then, this morning with an hour-long phone call to President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

In a lengthy Truth Social post, he laid out a brand-new U.S. strategy to end the war. In his own words:

I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects.

– President Donald Trump, Truth Social, February 12

Joe Biden never spoke to Putin since the war began. Not once. But Trump is clearly making good on his campaign promise to end the war, and he’s doing it at his usual warp speed.

Again, in his own words:

But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine. President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of “COMMON SENSE.”

– President Donald Trump, Truth Social, February 12

Common sense has been a constant Trump theme — on the economy, with the DOGE audit of the out-of-control federal budget, on ending the radical left-wing culture, on closing the border, and cutting taxes.

And foreign policy must have a strong common-sense theme to it, too.

Again, in his own words, Trump laid out the strategy and the key American players:

We will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now. I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful.

– President Donald Trump, Truth Social, February 12

This is a dramatic move by President Trump, not only to break the logjam of war, but to engage directly with the key players — Putin and Zelenskyy. And Mr. Trump is essentially orchestrating what will become a peace conference strategy, which will lead to cease-fire principles, and ultimately an end to the war.

Mr. Trump is essentially driving a process for all three sides — the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine — that will lead to an end to the violence and hostilities and the war. Mr. Trump’s actions are a breathtaking demarche. It is the most statesmanlike effort we have seen in generations.

Trump should’ve won a Nobel Peace prize for brokering the Abraham Accords during his term. What he’s doing now to end the seemingly intractable Russia-Ukraine war should earn him his second Nobel Prize.

But for him, it’s just promises made, promises kept.

February 13, 2025
LARRY KUDLOW: Trump is making showers great again

I can’t thank President Donald Trump enough. He’s going to make showers great again.

For the first time in four years, I can take a real shower, with the water pounding down on me. Not a puny Biden drizzle.

It will be a wonderful feeling. I’ve missed it. And I believe millions of other people feel the same way.

Why do I say this?

Because this morning, at 6:57am, President Trump instructed EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to go back to Mr. Trump’s old environmental orders that were terminated by Biden — on water standards and flow.

I am hereby instructing Secretary Lee Zeldin to immediately go back to my Environmental Orders, which were terminated by Crooked Joe Biden, on Water Standards and Flow pertaining to SINKS, SHOWERS, TOILETS, WASHING MACHINES, DISHWASHERS, etc., and to likewise go back to the common sense standards on LIGHTBULBS, that were put in place by the Trump Administration, but terminated by Crooked Joe. I look forward to signing these Orders. THANK YOU!!!

– President Donald Trump, Truth Social, February 11

In other words, folks, you can let the water rip. Finally. After four years of missing it.

And not just a decent shower — but in the sink, too! You can really wash your face, get a better shave. Wash your hands as often as you want, with real, strong, live water flow.

Not like some third-world countries I know. Or even Europe, where nobody washes.

And toilets can flush the way they’re supposed to, with just a flick of the handle, everything is solved.

And your dishwasher will actually clean the dishes, because it will have a strong water flow and get the job done.

Fox News contributors Douglas Murray and Deroy Murdock react to President Biden’s climate agenda targeting home appliances and compare it to China’s efforts to tackle climate change on ‘Kudlow.’

And ditto for your clothes, where Trump washing machines will get all those stains out that you could never do with Biden’s puny water trickle.

And, you can read again! Because President Trump is going back to common-sense standards on incandescent light bulbs — instead of Biden’s phony fluorescent hospital-type lighting that ruined your eyes and gave you a headache every night while you tried to read yourself to sleep.

Now I look forward to a return to reading great books like “The Art of the Deal,” “Think Like a Billionaire,” “Time to Get Tough,” and “Why We Want You to be Rich.” So inspiring.

And, for me, that includes James Lee Burke and Detective Robicheaux. And John Sandford and his Detective Davenport.

What a wonderful prospect each evening.

Take a good shower, read a good book, sleep soundly, and wake up fresh the next morning — to a golden era of peace through strength.

February 11, 2025
LARRY KUDLOW: Elon Musk is here to stay — Democrats just have to deal with it

Donald Trump likes Elon Musk, and trusts Elon Musk.

President Trump totally supports the Elon Musk efficiency audit that has already uncovered fraud in numerous areas inside agencies where there’s been spending on items that Congress never mandated.

In fact, Mr. Trump is going to expand Musk’s remit to include auditing the Education Department and the Pentagon. And there may well be more.

Here’s how I put it this morning on Fox News Channel’s Outnumbered.

“The Elon Musk exercise is about systems, and efficiency, and delivery. It is not changing policies on the fly. Hence, there is nothing wrong with an audit… They’re finding judges, okay, who are all slightly to the left of Whoopi Goldberg… There’s nothing constitutional, there’s nothing policy about this.”

– Larry Kudlow, “Outnumbered” on Fox News Channel, February 10

Attorney General Pam Bondi will be moving rapidly to vacate various restraining orders put on many Trump actions, including the Elon Musk payments systems reviews.

Interestingly, none of the left-wing judges opposing Trump have used any case law so far. Department of Justice appeals may have to go all the way up to the Supreme Court. If they do, hopefully the Supremes will act expeditiously.

But the whole point of the Musk operation is transparency and efficiency in spending taxpayer dollars.

Additionally, Elon Musk and DOGE staff are federal government employees. They have been on-boarded, received ethics training and records training, have gotten interim clearances, and, according to Fox News Legal Editor Kerri Urbahn, the idea that career employees can have access to sensitive information — but political appointees should not — is preposterous on its face.

There is nothing unconstitutional about any of this.

Then comes a bunch of former Democratic Treasury Secretaries writing in the New York Times that efficiency audits in the Treasury Department might somehow impede U.S. financial commitments, even reaching into the credit worthiness of Treasury bonds. This is absolute Democratic hogwash.

As current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has found, “controls for spending of the previous [Biden] administration were unacceptable. They were sending money out without knowing where the money was going.”

Last week, Scott Bessent told me on this show in Washington, D.C., “they are moving a lot of people’s cheese here in the Capitol and, when you hear this squawking, then some status quo interest is not happy.”

February 10, 2025
LARRY KUDLOW: Congressional Republicans must not stop the Trump Tax Cuts

All of a sudden, nothing but bad news is coming out of the Republican Congress regarding tax cuts. Some people in the House are talking about a 5-year extension of the Trump Tax Cuts. The Senators are talking about 2, or even 3 budget bills that would put the tax cuts toward the back of the queue. This is bad economics and bad politics.

Are Republicans suffering from amnesia about the economy. Which was the number one issue in last November’s election. And there were 2 components to the economy: inflation and affordability. In other words, with Bidenflation going up 20%, real wages for middle- and lower-income blue-collar workers went down. Mr. Trump’s successful coalition of working-class voters was not based on race, gender, or left-wing culture. It was based on the paucity of income.

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, discusses bringing back economic growth under President Donald Trump on ‘Kudlow.’

There are 2 ways to fatten middle-income wallets. Getting inflation down, which would lower energy costs, and less government spending and money printing, and cut their taxes. Supply-side policies are always political and economic winners. Working class voters could not afford to live in the Biden economy. But Republican economic policies must give plenty of elbow room to working folks so they can fatten their wallets and easily afford the Trump economy. And if the Republican hang-up is a bunch of failed economic models from government bean counters, like the CBO, the GOP should stand up and fight it.

Revenues after the Trump tax cuts in 2017 increased by $1.5 to $2 trillion. Even the CBO admits it was close to $2 trillion above their early estimates. And although it seems arcane and, in the woods, the GOP should be using Senator Mike Crapo’s policy baseline — which argues that making the popular tax cuts permanent have not, yet nor will in the future, cause a loss of revenues. So they don’t have to cut $4 to $5 trillion in spending right away. Yes, they should get spending down to Scott Bessent’s 3% of GDP deficits. And lower the debt to GDP ratio. But the Laffer Curve growth dividend from tax cuts will be huge.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addresses President Donald Trump’s economic and fiscal goals during his first interview on ‘Kudlow’ since joining the administration.

That’s what history shows. And there’s another reason why the GOP should make all the Trump tax cuts permanent: the President wants it.

He was elected on the tax cut promise among others. As White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said today, the tax priorities of Mr. Trump are very clear: make the 2017 Tax Cuts Permanent, no tax on tips, no tax on seniors, no tax on overtime pay, tax cuts for Made in America products, and eliminate special tax breaks for billionaires — including sports team owners. Or the carried interest loophole on investment. These are Presidential priorities. He won the election by a near landslide.

His working-class coalition of blacks, browns, Asians, young people, women, males, that coalition was based largely on an optimistic belief that Trump can rejuvenate the economy and unlimited access to climb the ladder of opportunity is what elected Mr. Trump. Republicans in the House and Senate must not stand in President Trump’s way.

February 6, 2025
Afg vs Sa Live – Opn Sports Live – Sports Corner Live – Ptv Sports Live

The Congressional Budget Office [CBO] just re-estimated its 10-year budget forecast — and lo and behold, they’re raising their tax revenue baseline by $1.9 trillion.

This is the same outfit that has been telling us for years that lower tax rates always reduce tax revenues and increase the budget deficit. But wait a minute: the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts have been in place for over 7 years. So is the CBO now suggesting they were wrong all along by admitting that the Laffer Curve really worked? And lower tax rates produced higher tax revenues? That’s what their new forecast seems to be saying.

In fact, since President Trump’s huge reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, over the past 7 years, corporate tax revenues have essentially doubled. And indeed, throw in the lower personal income taxes and other pro-growth measures, the entire federal tax revenue base has gone up about 50%. So how in the world can the CBO come right back and now say that if the Trump Tax Cuts are simply extended, the 10-year cost is going to be $4 trillion? Cost of what? There’s no cost.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unpacks the power tariffs have in world negotiations on ‘Kudlow.’

Keep taxes low and revenues will remain high. There will be less tax avoidance and better growth. Laffer’s been right for about 50 years. The CBO’s been wrong for about 50 years. And here they go again, trying to tell us that extending the Trump Tax Cuts is going to increase the budget deficit by $4 trillion because revenues will be lower.

It is absolute nonsense and Republicans in the House, Senate and White House should fight this CBO nonsense. So far, one of the fighters has been Senator Mike Crapo(R) of Idaho — who keeps arguing that if you’re just extending current law, we’re not raising taxes or lowering taxes. There’s no $4 trillion new deficit. But if the tax bill is not extended, then you’ll have a $4 trillion tax hike and that will over time make the budget deficit even worse. Mr. Crapo calls it current policy and hopes the Republicans will fight to officially change budget rules.

Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, unpacks the tax code and tariffs proposal under President-elect Donald Trump on ‘Kudlow.’

There is precedent. In 2012, Congress and President Obama extended the George W. Bush tax cuts by using the current policy argument which assumed that the Bush tax cuts would continue — not expire. Mr. Crapo has said time and again that the CBO doesn’t score permanent spending increases as hiking the deficit every year — and therefore they should not score permanent tax increases. Otherwise, the whole federal fiscal system is like a pinball machine on permanent tilt: always promoting higher taxes, higher spending, and even higher deficits.

Republicans should work hard to reduce unnecessary and counterproductive federal spending. They should shrink the size and scope of government. But if they let the tax cuts expire, they’re going to find themselves with a terrible economy and higher deficits at the same time.

It’s a lose-lose.

Mr. Trump said we should never get tired of winning. Let’s start by extending the Trump Tax Cuts and growing the economy by 3- or maybe even 4% per year.

Call it the blue-collar boom.

February 5, 2025
LARRY KUDLOW: We can’t let China slip away

We know that President Trump has slapped a new 10% tariff on China, and for a bunch of reasons I hope he doesn’t relent.

In fact, today at a presser, here’s what President Trump said about talking to the Chinese dictator Xi: “we’ll speak to him at the appropriate time. I’m in no rush. I’m in no rush at that.”

Good for Mr. Trump.

In terms of China’s continuous unfair trading practices, we are learning that they never enforced the hard fought China Phase One Trade Deal negotiated by President Trump in his first term. As somebody on the China trade team, I can tell you dealing with China is like bleeding water from a stone. The key points were China’s constant theft in intellectual property and their forced transfer of technology. With very few exceptions they don’t let American-owned companies operate in China. They did not make the purchases of farm or manufacturing commodities.

Renegotiating could be an exercise in futility.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller breaks down President Donald Trump’s tariffs on ‘Kudlow.’

And that brings me back to Mr. Trump’s 10% tariff on China.

One very brilliant part of that is the so-called de minimis exemption has not been renewed. That’s the $800 limit on duty-free goods coming into the U.S.

That exception has exploded exponentially in recent years with cheap Chinese retail store goods coming into the U.S., putting out over 7,000 mom and pop retail stores out of business last year, and an expected 15,000 to close this year, according to Coresight Research.

I hope nothing like this is ever permitted again.

But wait, it gets worse because these $800 or less packages are not searched or investigated much if at all when they come in to Customs in the U.S.

The Chinese have used it to ship fentanyl-related chemicals and other pre-cursor parts directly into this country, through the so-called $800 de minimis exception.

So let’s hope President Trump never goes back to that $800 exemption or for that matter on any number of things. It’s bad enough the Chinese have bankrupt our mom and pop shops but even worse they’re killing hundreds and thousands of our kids.

February 4, 2025
LARRY KUDLOW: Tariff diplomacy means crank up the Trump tax cuts

One thing we’ve learned about President Donald Trump’s tariff diplomacy is that he’s not bluffing.

He did offer Mexico President Sheinbaum a 30-day pause in the 25% tariff.

That’s because at the last moment she came in with a proposal to put 10,000 troops on the border to stop illegal immigration and curb the flow of fentanyl and other deadly drugs.

Identically Canada’s Trudeau did the same thing – so another 30 day pause.

Shows you what strong, decisive, and energetic leadership can do.

These are big Trump wins.

But rest assured Mr. Trump was ready to pull the trigger. And I agree with his use of tariffs to protect both national and economic security.

Now here’s a related thought.

‘Kudlow’ panelists John Carney, David Malpass and Joe LaVorgna break down President Donald Trump’s economic policies.

Mr. Trumps aggressive use of tariffs should bring the Republican Congress great incentive to get the tax cuts passed.

Both the 2017 tax cut extension and some of the new Trump 2.0 tax cuts such as the 15% corporate tax, ,tax free tips for service workers, overtime pay and seniors.

Remember one of the good arguments posed by the President was that tariffs would generate revenues and revenues could finance tax cuts.

The 10% universal tariffs baseline that I strongly favor would of course allow Mr. Trump to seek reciprocity in bilateral negotiations.

But it could also provide something like $500 billion give or take to finance tax cuts.

In effect regarding the rest of the world, you tax us, then we’ll tax you back.

But our tax take will be given right back to our businesses and blue-collar working families.

And then in the spirit of reciprocity, if you stop taxing us then we’ll stop taxing you.

But who can tell if the tariff truce between Trump and Sheinbaum and Trudeau will continue longer than a month.

Mexico is a tough case because its basically became a narco state.

China’s exporting raw materials for fentanyl and other drugs, and the cartels put them all together in these hideous drug factories. And then the cartels bring them into the U.S. killing hundreds and thousands of Americans.

It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen.

Mr. Trump is willing to tariff Mexico til the end of their time until they stop allowing this.

So once again, my message to Republican House and Senate members: please crank up those tax cuts into one big beautiful bill to be finished this spring, and help launch the Trump golden era, blue-collar boom.

February 4, 2025