There are 18 very important trading relationships. We are currently negotiating with 17 of those trading partners. China we have not engaged in negotiations with as of yet. [00:00:15] So that is Scott Bessent detailing that there are negotiations ongoing with some of America's main trading partners, but not one of them, the most important one, that being China. And obviously there he is uncomfortable revealing that, partly because I've literally never seen him look comfortable, like not once ever has. [00:00:33] He looked like he's comfortable in his own skin, but in particular when he's revealing that no, Donald Trump's been lying. We're not actually actively negotiating with China. They haven't bowed down to the massive tariffs that we put on them that might not be received well by Donald Trump. And so maybe he's uncomfortable about that too. [00:00:50] But, now we have a development. Okay, maybe there's movement towards not a normalization of relationships, but at least like going in that direction. Trump posted this on Truth Social. 80% tariff on China seems right up to Scott B. In other words, not my problem. What am I, the president or something? [00:01:10] It's up to him. So if it works fine, I'll take credit. If it doesn't, it's on him. If our economy or consumers suffer terrible financial damage. Hey, it's always been Scottie B this entire time. And so, look, maybe Scott Bassett will be able to work something out. [00:01:26] He's going to be meeting with an economic representative of China in Geneva sometime this weekend. And so that means that maybe talks will begin. But this is also kind of, I think, trying to like moderate people's expectations going into it, he said. My sense is that this will be about de-escalation, [00:01:43] not about the big trade deal, but we've got to de-escalate before we move forward. You know, 145% tariffs, 125% is the equivalent of an embargo. We don't want to decouple. What we want is fair trade. And I just because he seems a bit confused about how we got here, I want [00:01:59] to remind him Trump is the one that put those tariffs in and trying to match them. True, which we said they would. You guys said, don't worry, we're going to hurt them so bad that they'll back off. Clearly they're not doing that. There is some indication that China is worried about the economic damage that would be done if this trade war continues for a long time, and they should be. [00:02:18] Trade wars are damaging in that way. But it's clear that America Americans are also worried he's been slipping in the polls when it comes to the economy. And so I think maybe this signifies that Trump realizes that this has gotten out of hand. [00:02:34] He's not in control of it. And so maybe they will dial back these tariffs a little bit because they're pretty bad. Oh yeah. This reminds me of the meeting that he had with Zelenskyy when he was criticizing Zelenskyy about the power of his hand. You're overplaying your hand. Trump overplayed a hand that didn't need to be played at all [00:02:50] when it came to tariffs. So you're exactly right, John. When you suggest clearly there's a thawing here, a realization on Trump's part. Oh my God, these guys aren't coming to the table. And he was representing that China was calling the entire time that there are sort of these backroom negotiations or back line negotiations [00:03:07] when they weren't going on. I mean, the Chinese culturally don't respond to this kind of smack talking, in-your-face, ridiculous terror imposition. So now you're seeing the US in the form of bessent beginning to back [00:03:22] it down and try to get them to the table, and maybe they'll make some kind of moderate deal in Geneva. The problem is you have to make a big deal. I mean, from 146 to where to get us into any kind of reasonable trading situation. I know you're going to touch on the percentages because they're shocking. [00:03:38] I mean, it really is an embargo right now. And you'll have to get to a much, much, much lower number for this even to, to be playable. Yeah, yeah. And while Trump in that first truthsocial post that we showed you is like, hey, maybe this is reasonable, but again, it's not really me. 80% is. [00:03:55] That's still insane. That's utterly like, imagine whatever. What have you bought recently from China, which is probably most of the things you bought 80% over and above, what you would have paid three months ago, purely because Donald Trump doesn't understand how tariffs work. That sucks. And also, it's effectively the same as 145. [00:04:12] Like at a certain point this is nonsense. It doesn't mean anything. It's too much. It's simply too much. You wouldn't buy those products anymore. But also, more importantly, you wouldn't even necessarily have the opportunity to buy the products because they're not going to be available. Companies stores are not going to be stocking these things, [00:04:28] whether they're 80% or 145%. There is let's see. Well, on both sides of that, we'll get to where we need to get that number down for at least companies start to stock them. But even if tariffs went to 0% this weekend, according to CNN, the US [00:04:43] would still likely face in the short term both price hikes and shortages, because for some time ships have not been coming into port, they haven't been delivering these products. I think Caitlyn Collins talked to one of the port managers and said they didn't have a single ship, and you don't fix that overnight. [00:05:00] That's just not how it works. It feels like we're in the depths of the pandemic again. But even so, let's say we get to the 80%. So they say even if tariffs fall to 80%, it's not clear that that would actually convince you, US businesses to import Chinese goods. Economists have said 50% is the make or break threshold for [00:05:17] the return of somewhat normal businesses between the two countries. That means that we would actually have access to the products, but I want to remind everyone they'd still cost 50% more than they should otherwise. And all of this, again, is still just due to Donald Trump. [00:05:32] He decided to put us in this mess. He doesn't want to take responsibility for it. Of course he's not. He's never taken any responsibility for anything in his life. But people don't like it. That's why his poll numbers have been dropping. I actually saw that he's now underwater in both Florida and Texas, which is not great. He should still be in the honeymoon period as a is a Republican president, [00:05:50] and those two red bastions don't like him. And in terms of the tariffs in particular, new polling shows that while Trump has been successful in the short term in stopping companies from listing the added costs due to the tariffs, a lot of people do want to see that stuff. Something like 61% of all Americans want businesses to label the tariff fees. 80% [00:06:09] of Democrats, 61% of independents, even 42% of Republicans want that information. Yeah, and these are strong arm tactics on the part of the administration to sweat Amazon and other providers to the point that they don't want to post what the tariffs are actually costing. [00:06:25] And if you're a small business, to John's point, I mean, the reason that there are barren shelves is because you can't order these items from China and pay these huge tariffs. It's the, you know, it's the businesses that are paying the tariffs initially, and then they have the option of passing that on to the consumer. [00:06:41] But they can't even as you've described John with 146 or 80% Percent pay these excruciating tariff rates. So a lot of businesses may even fold in the face of all of this. Yeah, and there's word that Chinese businesses are worried about that, that in the short term, before they can pivot away from the US market to other markets, [00:06:59] that they could suffer some damage. That's one of the calculations I think, that Trump is making is that maybe their economy will be destroyed before ours will, but there is no guarantee of that. And also, someday, if he decides to just snap his fingers and tariffs go back down to 30% or 10% or 0% or whatever, maybe he feels like he's gotten some sort of win. [00:07:19] He'll post on Truth Social about it. But but our businesses that have closed down, they don't just get to reopen. Thanks to that, people have lost their jobs. They don't necessarily get those jobs back, certainly not in the short term. And so he's playing games, but I feel like we including many of his voters are the pieces in that game. [00:07:36] Yeah. And you know, just to your point and your, you know, the snap of the fingers is actually a really good way to describe it because these are impulsive decisions that he's making on when to raise the tariff, when to lower the tariff, and then to your other point about his notion that somehow you're going to outpace the Chinese economy because you have [00:07:55] the greatest leverage already, the Chinese economy is beginning to build relationships around the United States so that they no longer have to count on the United States, obviously their biggest customer, but they can begin to develop other parts of the world, and they will. [00:08:10] Their economy is far more durable in many ways than is ours. Yeah. And if they form those new partnerships, then maybe he snaps his fingers and maybe our economy doesn't recover. Sure, because they don't necessarily need us. They don't focus on us anymore. So again, he is he's making. [00:08:27] Astounding, Johnny, that this is the way that this guy inherited the best economy in the developed world, and that he could just tank it in the first 100 days. It's extraordinary. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.