Tonight, car companies are responding to the president's tariffs. Stellantis, which makes Jeep and Chrysler, laid off 900 people at five different plants in Michigan and Indiana. As the company says, those layoffs are temporary, but necessary because it's pausing production at two of its assembly plants in Canada and Mexico. [00:00:17] Mr. Fain, you have praised the auto tariffs here, 25% that went into effect last night. What's your response to to what Stellantis did today? Now, look, we've been covering so many billionaires who are absolutely infuriated against Donald Trump due to his tariffs policy. [00:00:36] But on the flip side, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has actually defended Trump to some extent, which is surprising. Now we're going to hear the rest of his, you know, his answer to Kaitlan Collins. Right now, let's take a look at what he had to say. [00:00:51] The administration's been very clear that these these tariffs are coming. They backed off twice now. And now that it's time to to be implemented. You know, Ford you know obviously has been proactive. They dropped the price of vehicles. They're extending discounts to to consumers. [00:01:08] GM announced they're going to bring some work back. And meanwhile, Stellantis has had several months to prepare, announces that they're going to use employees as collateral damage. It's more of the same. You know, there is excess capacity all over this country right now. And Stellantis has excess capacity right in Warren, Michigan, [00:01:25] where they're laying people off again. They can move Ram truck production there in very short order, be producing Ram trucks. I'm here in Chattanooga, Tennessee right now. Volkswagen. Volkswagen produces 75% of their vehicles in Mexico. And you know, there's excess capacity right here at this plant. [00:01:40] So Lordstown, Ohio, Lordstown assembly plant. I mean, there's plenty of capacity in this country. And to be fair, I've heard that argument made by a lot of different people who are defending Donald Trump's auto tariffs policies. Right. So specifically the tariffs he wants to implement on vehicles that are being [00:01:59] imported to the United States, they argue, look, we still have factories that have practically been abandoned as a result of offshoring these auto manufacturing jobs. We can take those factories, you know, obviously update them, bring them back online and have these vehicles manufactured here [00:02:18] in the United States and also understand the interests at play here. Obviously, Shawn Fain is representing the best interests of workers in the auto industry. And so some of these tariffs he sees as potentially good for the auto industry, for workers within the auto industry. So if you don't follow politics closely, you might be thinking, Shawn Fain, [00:02:38] is he the guy who spoke at the Republican convention? - It's the other Shawn that did that. - Right. So that's Shawn O'Brien, who was head of the Teamsters, gave a fire breathing, progressive speech at the RNC, which is really interesting and helped to get a more progressive labor secretary. So well played. And he took a lot of heat for it. [00:02:54] And Shawn Fain was not in that camp. Shawn Fain, representing UAW, was in the camp of rah rah Democrats. And Trump is terrible. Now, I agree with him that Trump is terrible. I didn't agree with him as much on rah rah Democrats, but that's the position he's been taking. That's why this is more surprising that he's coming out [00:03:12] and saying rah rah trump on this. Now, at the same time, I totally get it for the same reasons. I understand the Sean O'Brien reached out, which is you got to do right for what's your for your workers and that's your only priority. They don't they're not Democrats. They don't represent the country. They don't represent the state. They represent their unions. [00:03:30] And those unions have specific interests. Now, as it turns out, I my honest assessment is that Sean O'Brien played it better than Sean Fain because he got in, he helped to influence decisions. And Sean Fain is agreeing with Trump at his nadir at it when he's on fire. [00:03:45] Right. And so I don't think that it's made much of an impact. And and I still get it. He he thinks it's better for his union overall, but this is like the worst time to agree with Donald Trump. And and these tariffs aren't going to last and he's going to be disappointed. [00:04:02] So at the end of the day he'll probably get left holding the bag. It will seem like he supported Trump on tariffs that didn't work. And not only will they that set him back a little bit it's not that important, his particular political leverage to the rest of us. But also if you care about doing tariffs, right. [00:04:20] As Anna and I have been talking about over the last couple of weeks, this will hurt that cause. So that's why, unfortunately, this is not a great time to back a Trump play. So look, in regard to the obvious chaos that we're seeing right now in the stock [00:04:36] market and the very inevitable issue of inflation that will follow. You know, Fain basically says that, you know, the tariffs could be at least partially absorbed by corporations. [00:04:51] We'll see. I mean, look, they're they're going to want to sell products, so they might eat some portion of the costs associated with these higher tariffs. So we have to wait and see if these tariffs remain in place. I think in regard to the auto tariffs, that's probably the area where Trump is the most serious. [00:05:07] I could be wrong, but that's my read of it. We'll see. Yeah I mean it's not impossible that he would get rid of most of the tariffs but keep a couple. So that again is you know goes towards Sean Finn's strategy being right if you know, if it goes in that direction. But guys, just real quick clarity on prices and how things work. [00:05:25] So if you have a 30% tariff on something, but the margin of that product is only 15%, they the company cannot eat the whole 30% tariff because then they'll be losing 15% instead of making 15%. Just giving you that as one example, oftentimes their margins [00:05:41] are higher than that. But so and it was a corporation going to want to move most of the costs onto you. Yes. In fact, they'll move as much as the cost onto you as you could possibly afford. Exactly. And when you get to a breaking point and they think you're going to go [00:05:56] to another company or not buy at all, that's when they'll ease up a little bit. But that means you'll eat most of the tariffs and they'll eat a little bit of them, but they're never going to get to a point where it completely erases their profit margin, because then they wouldn't do it. Of course, of course. [00:06:12] Now, what does Sean Fain have to say about that? Let's take a look. Tariffs aren't the solution to everything. Tariffs. Tool in the toolbox. But ultimately we got to fix the broken trade system. And that's the part. [00:06:28] Unfortunately, when we hear all these talking heads talk about the crisis with the stock market dropping. Where was the cry? Out of the crisis when millions of jobs were leaving this country over the last 20 or 30 years? The real problem isn't these tariffs. The real problem here is corporate greed. I mean, let's talk about the auto industry from 2020 to 2023, when they jacked up [00:06:47] the price of vehicles 35%. It wasn't because wages went up. It wasn't because of tariffs. People were manipulating and price gouging consumers because of a pandemic that was in place. So, you know, it's a choice for this crying all day about the stock market. You know, a majority of Americans don't own stock. [00:07:04] Working class people, you know, 60% don't have any retirement savings. That's the crisis in this country. That's what we need to be talking about. And how do we how do we make the trade laws and make these things fair and bring work back to puts people to work where they can, where they can have a decent quality of life? [00:07:21] See, look, this is the reason why I really value the fact that Sinn Fein was willing to go out there and say the things that he's saying, because that clip that we just showed you, he's absolutely right. And it's amazing how right now there's like a 24 hour news cycle. I'm like, oh my God, the stock market, the stock market. [00:07:38] But as Americans, we're losing everything as a result of corporations moving jobs over to other countries in order to exploit cheap labor. No, I mean, yes, there were some people on the left specifically who were complaining about that. But now those folks are so wrapped up in their hatred of Donald Trump [00:07:54] that they forgot about how, you know, outsourcing American jobs has been absolutely disastrous for American workers, for American labor. And that's why I'm not as black and white on this issue of tariffs. And the way it's being covered right now in the media, it's very much black or white. [00:08:10] It's either good or bad. It depends. The nuance matters. Right. So the main reason why I'm frustrated with Trump is this like blanket tariffs policy and this like weird ham handed way that he's implementing or imposing these tariffs is doing away with whatever goodwill exists among Americans [00:08:29] in regard to targeted tariffs that actually do look out for American workers. Yeah. So look, there's tons of nuance here in that. Like, I think some targeted tariffs could work mainly in, in fighting back against tariffs that were laid against us that were not reciprocal. [00:08:48] Do I think most of our jobs are manufacturing jobs are going to be outsourced? Inevitably I do. Does that mean that, you know, we should be okay with, you know, all the rules that are in these trade agreements set by corporations? No, because corporations write these agreements and they write it [00:09:05] for their benefit, not your benefit. But the number one point that I would make is that we live under corporate rule. That's our number one problem. These corporations have bought off almost all of our politicians. They rig not just one rule or two rules. They rig all of the rules to their advantage. [00:09:21] And now they're about to lower their taxes from they went from 35 to 21% last time around. The the more the less they pay, the more we pay. And now Trump is saying he wants to bring it down all the way to 15%, deregulate more, take away fraud charges, etc. [00:09:36] Which all strengthens corporate rule and is the opposite of populism. And last point on this overall is look, while we do all these nuances, that's important about tariffs. The way Trump did it had no nuance. Right. And since he nuked everyone it tariffs wind up looking terrible overall. [00:09:54] And it is it's set back everyone. And for Sean Fain and Sean O'Brien I love that there's a new more aggressive union leadership out there. And that is not just listening to the parties and that it's making their independent decisions, right or wrong in any given circumstance, to fight for their [00:10:13] workers and getting the word out. Both of them are about how corporations have rigged all the rules and set this economy to their advantage and against us. That's the core of the issue. And that's the thing we all should be united around. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. [00:10:30] Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.