This episode is presented by Create A Video – We attempt to decipher the end goal of Trump's global tariff regime. Plus, is China on the verge of collapsing?
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[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.
[00:00:29] Tons of messages. I'm going to try to get to all of them and your calls. So let me start here picking up on a message from Timoteo from last hour in the conversations we've been having about all of the tariff strategy here. He says,
[00:00:47] The miscalculation I believe Trump has made is that the Chinese leader, Xi, has no problem letting his people starve in order to win a trade war. Personally, I'm sitting on some cash after pulling my money out the day before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I will buy the dip. Trump is using tariffs as a participation fee. If you want to sell in the U.S., the U.S. wants a taste. And I don't agree with that approach. That's from Timoteo.
[00:01:15] And then this is from Moral Compass, who says, You are correct about companies moving from China to Vietnam. Nintendo moved production of the Switch 2, which is I think that's the handheld gaming thing. Yeah, the handheld video game system. And so they moved production of the Switch 2 to Vietnam and just announced a few hours ago that they are delaying pre-orders in the U.S. because of the uncertainty. And I did see this.
[00:01:45] This is from Nintendo and GameStop, which is the store that sells video game stuff. Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9th in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and devolving market conditions. Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5th is unchanged. So they do. So there's a difference here, the launch versus the pre-order.
[00:02:15] Right. So you pre-order your device and then you're basically guaranteed one. You're reserving one. And then when they launch on June 5th, then you go to the store and you pick it up. Right. And so they're still looking to do the launch on June 5th. But they're not doing pre-orders now. And I suspect that's because they don't know what to sell them for. GameStop will continue to work closely with Nintendo and provide updates as soon as more information becomes available.
[00:02:44] Stay tuned for details. OK, so that's from GameStop. And I mentioned earlier, Nintendo moved more than half of its U.S. hardware. More than half of its U.S. hardware is manufactured in Vietnam and Cambodia now. Nintendo is. Thanks to the adjustments that Nintendo made during Trump's first term.
[00:03:13] Right. So Trump nails China with the tariffs. As a way to induce manufacturers to get out of China. And it works. They go to Vietnam, also communist and Cambodia. And now he's hit them with tariffs. Well, I shouldn't say them because I don't know if Cambodia got hit with tariffs, too. Oh, yeah, both of them.
[00:03:40] So both Vietnam and Cambodia apparently both got 47 percent tariffs on them. And so now are they going to move again? I don't know. Representative Jeff Van Drew, Republican from New Jersey, went on Fox Business channel and he said, we knew this was going to be a little bit bumpy in the beginning, but let's understand what it's about. It's about fairness. It's about America first, not America last.
[00:04:08] We have been getting the short end of the stick for years, and it's important that Americans understand this. These are reciprocal tariffs. See, I disagree with that. I think reciprocal means they're equal, and that is not what's happening. We have been tariffed. Our goods are tariffed. We are always at an unfair disadvantage with these countries, so it's going to be a little bumpy. They are going to cry. They are going to yell. I spoke to the president personally yesterday.
[00:04:36] He was telling me that already countries are coming to him and saying, let's work this out. We can make a fair deal. We can do better. We will. Everybody just hold on a little bit. Be a little strong. Wall Street will come back, but this is also about Main Street. This is about making things in America. I will point out, though, that the initial line from the White House, their position was that the tariffs were not negotiable.
[00:05:08] And when people were saying that this is being done in order to prompt negotiations, they were told, no, that's not the case. And now we're hearing that they are negotiating. Donald Trump just put out a post on truth. Donald Trump just put out a post on Truth Social had a very productive call to with To Lam or to Lam.
[00:05:36] Who was the general secretary of the Communist Party. Who told me that Vietnam wants to cut their tariffs down to zero if they are able to make an agreement with the U.S. Yes, I thanked him on behalf of our country and said, I look forward to meeting in the near future. So. So. So it is about negotiations. So they were just lying yesterday in order to prompt negotiations. And maybe that's the case. That's what I said. Like.
[00:06:05] If this all works out, then Donald Trump will go down in history as a transformative in a good way, a transformative president. But he better be right. Like, that's the thing. You better be right. That's the deal. Like when you play in these types of high stakes games and literally billions of people's standard of living depend on you not messing up. And getting a deal done.
[00:06:35] If you if you're not successful, you've harmed a lot of people. The trade of the trade announcements have sparked uncertainty about the cost of goods to Americans, which the White House press secretary, Caroline Levitt, brushed aside Tuesday during a press briefing, arguing that the tariff plan is going to work. Quote unquote, which again, I say, let's hope so. One other thing I came across this the other day.
[00:07:02] There is a guy by the name of Frank Dakota. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, and he has recently returned to the United States after living in Hong Kong since 2006. And he's got a book called China after Mao, the rise of a superpower. And he actually challenges the prevailing narrative about China's rise. He argues that the Communist Party has projected very masterfully,
[00:07:32] but has projected an image of a powerful, modern and economically dominant nation. But that is largely a facade. Which does make sense because rule number one, communists lie. You ever see those videos of like, oh, look, this is the Chinese building a building in 24 hours.
[00:07:56] And it's like time lapse video where it shows them putting up a building like usually in the middle of nowhere or some farmer's field or something, which they, you know, kick the farmer off that land and took the land and set up a video camera and recorded the construction of this building. And it's supposed to demoralize other countries. It's supposed to show, look at us. Look at our cities. We're awesome. Right.
[00:08:20] Which now, as I'm saying that, it reminds me, I forget the Soviet leader that came to America for like some UN deal or whatever. And as he's flying into New York City, it's rush hour. And he sees all of the cars basically just, you know, jammed up in New York City for miles and miles all around. Just just traffic everywhere as he's flying in.
[00:08:45] And he becomes irate thinking that this was American propaganda meant to send a message that we are more advanced than you are. Right. That's that's how commies think. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina? Just a quick drive up the mountain. And Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal or get family and friends together for a big old reunion.
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[00:10:04] Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. Deep breaths, everybody. Let's go to the phones and talk with Ray. Hello, Ray. Welcome to the program. Hello, Pete. I got a couple things. I don't worry about what I've heard it said a few times, that Trump and or Elon are for these tariffs to tank the market and buy back in real low and make a killing.
[00:10:34] I say that because, number one, I think Trump's, he's more concerned about his legacy than making more money because he doesn't have, you know, has more than he'll ever spend to start with. And he wouldn't have risked a couple of assassination attempts if he was just in it for the money. So I feel good about that part.
[00:11:01] And the other part is, if the tariffs work and don't turn out the way you're saying they could, then everything will be probably great. And I think part of his strategy might be to get people to the negotiating table. But he's not going to come out and say that's the purpose of it. Of course, he's going to say it's not for negotiation. It's like a poker player playing poker.
[00:11:29] And you know your opponent across the room has figured out that when you've got a good hand, you twitch your left lip a certain way. And you know he's thinking that. And then you, when you get a good hand, you're aware of that. And you don't twitch your left lip and make him make the wrong move by betting or calling. And so, therefore, I think he's playing more cards than I've heard people say that he's playing three-dimensional chess. That's my two comments. Okay.
[00:11:59] Ray, I appreciate the call. And to Ray's point, I've never said that he's doing this to buy them. I've heard that, too, Ray's first point that the left is out there saying that Trump and Musk are just doing this to buy stocks low when they're cheaper and all that. I don't believe that. But I have no evidence. I have no evidence that that's the case. And as president, Trump doesn't control his portfolio, right? So I've seen no evidence for that.
[00:12:30] And I think Ray is right. I think Trump does care more about being known as the best president in American history. He wants a legacy. He is like we have stories like Bill O'Reilly told us that he met with Trump right before Inauguration Day. And Trump asked O'Reilly, what do I need to do to be, you know, one of the best presidents in history? And O'Reilly told him, fulfill your campaign promises.
[00:12:56] So I think that is what is motivating Donald Trump. Now, that being said, I think there is also this element that if you the people who have a high trust in Trump, then they are going to trust that what he is doing is part of a strategy and that he is adept at doing it. Right. And that's fine.
[00:13:24] I tend not to trust people in government. Like, I'm skeptical of their abilities to do this kind of stuff. And again, I say it every single segment, it seems like, I hope it all works. Because the alternative is going to be, it could be pretty bad. But Alan says, Pete, the pain, because I was asking earlier, how long is the short term pain? Nobody will tell us. The pain was coming either way.
[00:13:54] Whether we manage the pain or get hit with the pain that we pretended not to know was coming might mean we are only in slightly less pain than we could have been. Did you follow that? Remember China recalling the mask shipments during COVID? I do. Yeah. And that it became very obvious during COVID how reliant we were on foreign nations. Right.
[00:14:20] The global trade model has serious risks. And not just for a pandemic, but if a country decides to shut off access. Right. To these critical things that a country needs. And at the time I was saying, yes, we should have critical production in America for things that we, you know, we do not want to rely on a foreign country to like make our ammo, for example.
[00:14:50] Right. Because if we ever get sideways with that other country and now we have no ammo or we got to ramp up the production of ammunition, you know, and then you're scrambling to do that. Um, Steve says it's a Pete tweet. He says the Democrats are mad, but wait until Trump's policies work. Democrats will then be absolutely livid. See, that's the difference. If they work, I'm going to be happy. I'm going to be happy.
[00:15:20] Um, if they don't work, Democrats will not be. See, there's the difference. Um, Tyler says 100% agree with you on the tariffs issue. Um, let me, let me go back to, I mentioned this guy, Dakota, um, who wrote this book, China after Mao, the rise of a superpower. And he contends that far from being a true superpower, China remains fundamentally fragile,
[00:15:45] an empire held together by repression, propaganda, and paranoia. Despite its gleaming cities and impressive seeming economic statistics often cited by the West, Dakota asserts that much of China's so-called growth has been built on the backs of an impoverished population, often without their consent or benefit. He also explains how inflated numbers, hollowed out institutions, and internal contradictions
[00:16:15] undermine China's long-term strength. In his view, the Chinese Communist Party has not lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. It has merely stepped aside as ordinary people began reclaiming their autonomy after decades of devastation under Mao, right? So they're projecting power. They're projecting modernity, but they are not powerful. They are not modern.
[00:16:39] Dakota believes, uh, or sorry, he delves into how the Communist Party's fear of its own citizens, its fear of capitalism, its fear of peaceful evolution, has driven decisions for decades. He draws parallels with the Soviet Union and says that just like the USSR, China's power is brittle beneath the surface.
[00:17:07] Xi Jinping, who is a relative, I believe, of Winnie the Pooh, argues is not a break from tradition, but a continuation of the party's longstanding obsession with control. I was watching an interview this morning with this, uh, with this guy who was a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and, uh, he had lived in Hong Kong, just got back from Hong Kong. He was, he was there for like 20 years, wrote this book. And he says that in China, the state is rich, but the people are poor.
[00:17:37] The people of China have the lowest share of GDP in the modern world, right? And I remember when the Soviet Union fell, it was, it caught the West by total surprise. Uh, I think like months prior or something, the CIA had put, had done some, uh, assessment and said that, you know, the Soviets were, were strong and things were going really well for them.
[00:18:05] And, uh, you know, they're going to be around for decades to come. And then, you know, like the next day, the wall comes down, right? Like it's, well, I mean, it wasn't that, but it was a, it was very quick, very soon after the CIA assessment. And then, you know, Gorbachev has to leave on the plane. Boris Yeltsin goes in there, he's drinking and dancing and, you know, whatever historical record is clear on all of that. But, um, I'm not, I'm not so sure that China is as strong as well.
[00:18:32] No, I do not believe that China is as strong as it wants us to think it is. All right. So spring is here, a time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you, are all of those treasured moments from days gone by, are they hidden away on old VCR tapes, eight millimeter films, photos, slides? Are they preserved?
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[00:19:28] Creative Video, preserving family memories since 1997. Located in Mint Hill, just off 485. Mail orders are accepted too. Get all the details at createavideo.com. Whew. Okay. Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Actually, let's go over to the phones. We'll take another call here. This is Danny. Hello, Danny. Hey, Pete. Happy Friday. Yes, sir. You too.
[00:19:53] You know, Pete, I'm like you in that many of my opinions are formed by some type of evidence-based information or data. That's so old school, Danny. No, it is. You know, we've created such an immediate satisfaction society that, like, we want to know the answers now. And the reality is, these tariffs, and let's take a step back.
[00:20:21] Our economy in the United States, as well as the world's economy, is that fabric is sewn by so many threads. Yeah. That we could spend eight hours a day for the next month talking about it, and still people not have a full grasp on, you know, what this all means and how this all works. The one thing we do know, though, it's evidence-based, is our decline in our country for years now. Some may say that's purposeful.
[00:20:51] You look at the smaller towns, and I call them M&M towns. It's meth and Medicaid, because the factories have left, the industry's left, the businesses left, and these small towns are sad. It's very, very sad to see what's left. And we've created dependence on government in these small towns. And so when you start to talk about, well, how do we change that? How do we turn that? Well, it took 50, 60 years for us to get here.
[00:21:21] And, you know, it's going to take quite a while, I think, to turn that around. But some of the evidence, too, is that Trump's been talking about this. You look at his old clips from Oprah and way back when. He's been talking about some of these things for a long time. And what most politicians can't do is what they promise and what they talk about, because the instant gratification of our society.
[00:21:47] Look at how the Democrats now are just demonizing everything and putting everything into panic and Wall Street's, all this is fear selling and panic when there's no evidence that anything's happened yet. He just announced it. Right. But no, but they're taking effect. Like some of these are taking effect tomorrow. So Wall Street and the Wall Street traders are trying to trade based on predictions of what's going to happen.
[00:22:11] So that's by its very nature going to get rattled when they don't know if the proposal is in fact real. That's part of the problem, right? There's uncertainty and that creates problems for people that are trying to buy stocks. But the uncertainty is fact of the immediate gratification. Like they could do really good and not do bad. We don't know that yet. So all this is over fear, fear of the unknown.
[00:22:40] It's a Democratic playbook for years. It's been, well, we better not do that because it might X, Y, Z. Well, I would submit, Danny, that anytime you're looking at any kind of a policy, it's incumbent upon you to look at the potential consequences, good and bad. Yeah. And I think there's possibly the biggest problem with what Trump's doing is his been his messaging
[00:23:03] over what the results he's the clarity around what these things all mean, because on one hand, he could talk about that. But then he loses leverage in his negotiation. On the other hand, he leaves it a secret to up the leverage in the negotiation. But the downside to that is the unknown by the people and the knee jerk reactions and the panic. And then all of a sudden the media is against him, which has always been against him.
[00:23:30] But then you have this sentiment that then overrides anything he could be doing. And to the point where now even Republican politicians are lining up to go against him because of that panic and that fear. Yeah, he's got a very short window, a small window to realize whatever benefits that he's trying to extract. Assuming that the tariffs are a tool, which I'm not certain that that's the case.
[00:24:00] His comments and what I have heard from people who have talked with him about it is that he believes that tariffs are the end in and of themselves. He just he likes tariffs. Well, but is that messaging because of his leverage in that negotiating power of that? No, this is what he has believed going back. He thinks that he looks at the trade deficit as us getting cheated.
[00:24:27] And it's a very simplistic way of looking at a trade deficit because it's not getting cheated. Yeah. And as you said, there are this all right. Because there are so many factors, right, there are so many factors involved that looking at it as like some loss versus gain, it's like that's not what this indicates. Well, and again, it goes back to the complexity of it all in that, you know, and then you look at that again, that you go back to it didn't get we didn't get this way overnight. Right.
[00:24:56] This took a long time. So what makes anybody think that it's going to be overnight that we get out of this or that these tariffs are going to work overnight? Because that's what Wall Street would love to have is an answer that says this is what's going to happen and this is what it's going to be tomorrow. Right. And the market would go crazy and everything's beautiful and rainbows and butterflies. But the reality is it's going to take a while. And there's probably going to be some pain. It's like ripping off the Band-Aid. No, there's all. Yeah. They have said they promised that there's going to be pain.
[00:25:25] They say it's short term and then it's going to go great. But that's why I keep asking, like, how long is this short term? So but I don't know. Nobody knows. You're asking an immediate gratification society that question, too. Mm hmm. Yeah. We think in quarters. China thinks in in decades. So, Danny, I appreciate the call, sir. Have a great weekend. Thank you. All right, buddy. To Danny's point about the the messaging.
[00:25:49] And again, if the messaging is designed to be chaotic in order to give the White House the most leverage, mission accomplished. Right. There are. This is Megan McArdle writing at The Washington Post. She said there are four broad arguments that have been used to justify the tariff regime. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know, I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do, too. And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why?
[00:26:19] Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app. It's an app. It's a website. And it combines news from around the world in one place. So you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news. Slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description, too.
[00:26:40] I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news. Slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature.
[00:27:07] Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Four broad arguments. One idea is that these are a negotiating tool to force other countries to lower their trade barriers, not just tariffs, but other barriers. Another is they will restore our manufacturing base and turn us into a superpower exporter of goods, not services.
[00:27:34] Third explanation is that we're trying to halt China's rise to a geo-strategic as a geo-strategic rival. And the fourth is that we need to rebuild our manufacturing capacity for vital goods like semiconductors in case of another pandemic or war. These are the four broad arguments that Trump and his supporters have offered to justify the tariffs. There are problems with these, though. I'll circle back, Pisaki-style, to that.
[00:28:04] First, let me go over to the phones, talk with Sam. Hello, Sam. Welcome to the program. Hello, Pete. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. What's going on? Thank you. Thank you so much for taking my call. Yeah, sure. I often disagree, but I'm going to agree with a couple of great things that you said and your caller said. One, the last caller said that the analysis of these tariffs need to be evidence-based.
[00:28:25] And then the second thing you said, which is really powerful, you said that you weren't certain whether this was a ploy to negotiate or that Trump really believes in tariffs. Right. And I think that's very astute. What I both fear and I'm hopeful for is that he believes in tariffs. These are going to stick. And it's going to be the biggest failure in presidential 50-year history. And I think he does. I think he does.
[00:28:56] And I'll make two points about why tariffs aren't effective. And I haven't heard this in your recent calls. It's impossible to disagree with the fact that tariffs are inflationary. A quick example. I read an interview this morning of a bootmaker, one of the largest bootmakers and sellers in the United States. He says the best boots are made in the United States. I sell them. My clients love them. But they're really expensive.
[00:29:25] I sell most of my product imported from China. Those boots are much less expensive and they're high quality. And now they're going to be more expensive to the consumer because I'm passing off that cost entirely to the consumer. We can't make boots as inexpensively as China does. So why are we trying to, through tariffs, push our industry to do what it cannot do because the cost of goods is too high because the cost of labor is too high?
[00:29:54] We don't have employees that will work for wages that they will work for in Vietnam. Right. So the counter on that is that we should impose a tariff that is comparable or would offset the labor costs that China enjoys because of its child labor and slave labor. Right.
[00:30:24] But then you end up with simply a product made in the United States that's much more expensive to United States buyers. Right. That's been my right. That's and that is the generally accepted wisdom of economists going back a century, which is that when you put tariffs on products, they raise the cost to the domestic consumer. And this is why I keep listening to you, even though I'm progressive. We agreed on something.
[00:30:50] Oh, that's why you know that's why you were hopeful that the that he wanted the tariffs to stick and then Trump fails. Yeah, I got you. One more. All right. One more thing. One more thing. I think I think a key to the success of this tariff effort is the one that he has imposed on the herd and McDonald Islands in Australia. He imposed a tariff yesterday on the herd and McDonald Islands, which are uninhabited.
[00:31:19] The only thing that exists there are penguins. Yes, this has been. I will say that that tariff has actually prompted an increase in production, an increase in production of hilarious memes. That's that is what it is. But it's evidence of incompetence, which is another reason that I fear. I don't fear the Trump administration is going to fail because that's incompetence.
[00:31:48] That's a complete fumble. And so this is one of the things I've heard people advising Democrats to do is to, like, cut back on all of the cussing and the theatrics and the performances and the marches and all this. Just let Trump do what he's going to do. And eventually he'll do something and Democrats will be able to benefit from it. And all of this stuff so far has not been stuff that they're benefiting from. But this might be. Yes, sir.
[00:32:18] Do you agree with that? Thanks for what you do. Yeah. Do you agree with that advice? Yeah. Do you agree with that advice? No, I don't. I don't. I need to. I believe that that you need to resist in every way possible. I don't believe you do it with violence. I believe that you do it with speech. I believe you write your congressman. I believe you protest. I believe you point out the errors that are being made. You keep fighting the good fight and see what will happen. And we've got to wait a long time before there's another election.
[00:32:47] But I think that eventually he will shoot himself not in the foot but in the head. So now I will tell you, if you end up being wrong, and Trump is right and I'm wrong, you guys are in some serious trouble. Because if he actually does pull this off, I don't know if you guys are going to sniff the presidency for a long time.
[00:33:13] Well, the market is going down because of the anticipated inflation. Right. That's why the market's going down. And it's going to keep going down as long as these tariffs remain in place. And eventually Trump is going to go back to his narcissism and say, people don't like me, therefore I'm going to change my approach. Because ultimately what gets to Donald Trump is when people don't like him. People that matter. Rich people don't like this.
[00:33:44] Yeah. And they're going to eventually get to it. I would, right. So here's the only thing that I would caution you on. And it's a very common thing. It happens on the right and the left. But don't, well, try to avoid making or forming opinions about things based solely on Donald Trump and your belief in what he thinks. Because that sort of prism that you're looking through,
[00:34:10] it can distort reality for you. Oh, yeah. The best advice that an investor can receive today is that don't predict the future of the stock markets based on what Donald Trump will do because no one bleeping knows. That's possible. All right, Sam, I appreciate the call, sir. Have a great weekend. All right, buddy. Thank you. That's interesting. We'll go get David here, too. Hello, David. Welcome to the show. Hello, Pete. So first of all, great show.
[00:34:40] I forwarded the first hour of your podcast yesterday to multiple people. And I thought it was great. Well, thank you. I agree with you pretty much 100%, but I'm going to give you some different takes because it would be boring if I just repeated what you said. I'm a lifelong libertarian-leaning Republican. I've never voted for a Democrat. So when I oppose this tariff in Donald Trump, a lot of listeners are going to hate it, a lot of the Trump fans, and they're going to think, oh, seminar caller, he's a Democrat, he's a Joe Biden fan. None of that is true.
[00:35:10] But there's three points. The first one is check out, I'm going to tell everyone, check out the op-ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal. President Trump does not have the authority to unilaterally do that, do what he's doing, except for his emergency declaration, which is basically, we would all not want the next person who replaces him to govern like this. So when it's a Democrat, we're going to hate when someone does this. The second thing is, I can't assume, and I agree with you, that people who trust Trump
[00:35:40] already, they assume that he has some kind of grand, he's like a grand master chess player and that he knows every move from right now until the end and knows what checkmate is going to look like. I don't believe any of that because his words are so different every time he talks about it. And he's so fickle. He changes all the time. And the third thing is, tariffs, like a lot of things he's doing, are not conservative. And so they've never been conservative. And I tell Republican conservatives and Trump fans this all the time, he's really not that
[00:36:10] conservative. Right. And so when it fails, don't blame conservatism on this. And I was listening to Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell and Hayek and all of them. It's never been a conservative policy to do what we're doing now. Right. So I totally oppose what we're doing. I think you made a great point about Honduras bananas yesterday. Why impose a tax on a country that really can't buy from us? So anyway, great show. Thanks, David. That's my take. Yes, sir. Yeah, I appreciate it. Very well said.
[00:36:37] Succinctly, more importantly, because I'm up against the end of the hour break. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Calendar show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.

