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It got up to there. We were talking about fentanyl, where, you know, various elements built it up to 145. No, it won't be anywhere near that high. It will come down to it if you have a success. But it won't be zero. Used to be zero.
We were just destroyed. So President Trump yesterday showing a little bit more leniency when it comes to the trade war, really with China. And joining us now is Charles Gasparino, Fox Business senior correspondent, New York Post columnist and author of Go Woke, Go Broke. Charles, why do you think the president was so was so, I guess, reasonable when it came to China instead of saying 145% tariffs and I'll go higher?
That was two weeks ago. It's an interesting way to negotiate, like back off your earlier position when you're not even talking yet. So that that's a tell. So what information do you think he has that made him sort of back off this sort of extreme is the extreme of his initial position? And, you know, my sources on the street say it's kind of simply this. There is an aspect to the tariff policy that does hurt his base, like you think it's all positive for the base, right? I mean, that's the working assumption that, you know, it brings back manufacturing jobs. It hurts Wall Street. It doesn't hurt the Trump base.
But there is an aspect of this that does hurt the base. And that is that's the agricultural sector. Farmers and, you know, farmers ship a lot of stuff to China. They're huge consumers of our farm goods. And that's a big part of Trump's base. And this will really hurt the agricultural industry if these tariffs remain.
I mean, it's just there's no doubt about it. That's an industry that's going to take a hit. And, you know, and it's it's it's kind of interesting because we've been we've been sort of glossing over this because, again, the conventional wisdom is that this is a Wall Street problem, not a Main Street problem. Well, here's where it's definitely like a sort of Trump base Main Street problem. And that's an agricultural stuff.
So that's true. Last time he just got him money. He just paid him. Here's here's some billions of dollars while we work out this.
They ended up with phase one and then the pandemic hit. But are you going to pay? Do we do we have billions of dollars right now? I mean, we we've been told by Secretary of Treasury Besant that, you know, we need to cut back. You know, we have 36 trillion in debt. That's that's a negative central problem for the country's future. So bail out of farmers.
Is that really where he wants to go? So if you put all that together, you know, you know, listen, there's no there's no one reason why anybody does anything. But I would say this is a pretty tough reason. And, you know, it follows the sort of logic that's been going on here. Clearly, the Trump administration paused the tariffs on everybody when the markets reacted like they did a couple of weeks ago, particularly in the bond market, which was seizing up and it was, you know, would hurt lending markets. And that when you mess with the plumbing of the banking system and, you know, hurting our ability to borrow, that's a real problem.
So that was that's why they paused back then. And this whole softening with China is because China buys our stuff, our farm stuff. And that's that's Trump country right there. So the Secretary of Treasury said the same thing. He says the Chinese tariffs are currently this whole thing is unsustainable.
Expect a situation to de-escalate. One area in which we know there's a problem is with magnets and rare earth, correct? Say that one more time.
Yeah, I could hear magnets and rare earth are a problem. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yes.
Yes. And, you know, our economies, you know, believe it or not, we listen to Trump and the administration are very solid ground when they say, you know, China is a bad actor. We all know that they should have never been let in the WTO back in 2001. Right. I mean, that's really clear because we thought they were we let them in the WTO and they would modernize and liberalize their economy and their their politics.
And it didn't happen. Actually, they became a worse player in global trade. They we opened up to them and they screwed the world.
Right. And us that that's clearly an issue. But the other issue is our economies are intertwined. We get stuff from them. You know, it's just it's it to stop it in midair is going to cause a lot of friction, a lot of corruption, as they say. So, Charlie, a couple of things are going on right now. Looks like the Indian deal with India is moving forward.
The Japan deal looks like it's moving forward. But can you educate me? Because I just thought you frame it out and let somebody else work out the details.
But if all of these deals need such detail in order to be signed off on, this is going to take forever. Right. Yes. I think that's a great point. The I'm sorry, I'm at a conference right now.
You can time out for my conference to talk to you. But, you know, here's the thing. Right. None of these deals are going to happen tomorrow.
Right. I can tell you that the Indian deal that I heard Japan is several weeks away. If it happens, it's probably going to happen.
India, same thing. You know, maybe sooner. But, you know, again, it's not happening tomorrow. All these things take a long time to paper over. And then last minute glitches occur often.
And by the way, these are the easy ones. You know that, right? I mean, you can cut deals with Indonesia, Laos, Japan and, you know, and India, because they're all our friends. When do we get to like, I mean, China is the big kahuna. That's not our friend. But there's others, too, that, you know, we'll but heads with.
So this is going to take a while. I know the markets are jubilant over this stuff. But, you know, I covered the financial crisis. I'm not saying we're in the same thing with the financial crisis, but I've covered these sort of cataclysmic moments. And, you know, markets often search for reasons to trade up the stocks, the stock market and even the bond market. You know, this could be one of those reasons, because we're a long way from figuring this out. This is rhetoric and it's good rhetoric.
Don't get me wrong. It shows that there's I've always said, I mean, I said it on your show, there was always room to negotiate here. They need us. We need them. Trump wants the ports, right?
The ports around the Panama Canal. He wants that delivered to an American company, BlackRock. The Chinese have to prove that because it's a Chinese company they're buying it from. You see what I'm saying?
There's there's room to negotiate. But, you know, it's it's, you know, the devil's in the details, particularly with the tough ones like China. And I will say this about China. Based on what I know about the way China, Inc. works, you can't really diss them, like disrespect them in public and expect them to easily negotiate. It's, you know, I had this conversation once with a Chinese economic official and he started bringing up, you know, Trump was going to hit. This is back during Trump. Trump was going to hit with tariffs and he was talking about the opium wars. If you know anything about the opium wars, it's the time of imperialism over time. But it was Western imperialism over China.
They're never going to return to that. And that still stinks. So remember, you're dealing with the cultural differences here, too. It's not just a pure negotiating place.
It's not like dealing with banks. But there's certain things. So, Charlie Gasparino, what things, you know, other stuff can be worked out on percentages. But what has to change? In my world, I would love the fact that they keep on knocking off our products, making it cheaper and selling it alongside of us.
The IP that has to be delivered on a regular basis and, you know, the quality of product is something consumers can decide on. But we have to be able to take back certain industries as a matter of national security. But do you think some of this stuff is on the table?
Of course, it's all on the table. And that's why it's going to be it's going to take months and months. I mean, listen, I've asked people, CEOs that deal with this, you know, deal with China.
How long is this going to take months? And that's if they really want a deal. You know, maybe we could just, you know, call it a day. I mean, that's always possible that both sides say, all right, let's go back to normal.
Kind of don't think that's going to happen. So remember, this is this is why I'm saying, you know, these market reacts off of headlines, particularly the stock market, very, very contingent and on headlines. But, you know, there's a lot of devil's. There's a lot of like ups and downs to go here. And particularly with China, which is a huge thing.
I mean, if we don't sell our agricultural products in China, that's a huge part of the farm market that gets clobbered. So I want you to hear what you had this story first. Elon Musk is making a move to go back to Tesla and put more time in it. Here's what he said.
Cut 33. Starting probably next month, May, my time allocation to doge will drop significantly. I'll have to continue doing it for, I think, probably the remainder of the president's term, just to make sure that the waste and fraud that we stop does not come roaring back.
But it's starting next month. I'll be allocating far more of my time to Tesla. So what does that mean for the company and what does it mean for the country? Well, I always was a big supporter of Elon and doge.
I thought he was doing God's work. OK, I don't care if they they only save one hundred million, a billion as opposed to three trillion. I mean, anything they save is great.
And I think they'll save they'll save five hundred billion when this is over. That's what I think. I've heard that.
That's a realistic estimate. And that's really good. And then maybe you apply those principles across the board. So I think what he did was really great. The problem is that he's a CEO of a public company.
And I think I might have even said this on your show. I was first to report that he was going to he was going to step down at some point and that he was going to announce it during the earnings call. You just knew it because investors were like, OK, well, you're doing this. This company is kind of falling apart right now. I mean, they have some real structural issues. Stock is getting has been getting crushed since the beginning of the year over a lot of reasons, including, you know, the tariff issue. Remember, they're they're heavily invested in China, right?
I think they sell their stuff in China, too. They sell EVs. And then it's the political aspect which is hurt. You know, Elon's become a lightning rod and he literally alienated a big chunk of the EV user base.
I mean, I don't have an EV, but people that get them are generally left of center. You know, a lot of people are environmentally focused. Even though I think the environmental argument is dubious.
That's for another show based on a lot of stuff, including strip mining of chemicals that you need to put in those batteries. But be that as it may. You know, he alienated part of the base and then the company has some some issues, you know, regarding the rollout of certain new models. You know, they had a lousy quarter in terms of sales and he has a fiduciary responsibility, not to the country, but by law to the company.
So he had to do this. Now, what I think is good for the company, the country is that the Doge principles remain in place. I do know that people at the Securities and Change Commission are, you know, Doge just moved in. They got an office in there. They're just waiting to get started there.
And there's, you know, that's the Wall Street 8, that's the agency that monitors the financial markets. So there's more work and cuts to be done. There's no doubt about that.
And those principles are good. I mean, we, I mean, this is, I mean, you know, being a government worker doesn't, you know, doesn't mean you waste money. You have, you have, like, launch to waste money. It's ridiculous. I mean, it's amazing what's happened to his showrooms and his cars and people worry about their kids driving their Tesla.
But that is ranked like illegality. They got to stop that. I can't believe people, the police in New York are allowing people just to spray paint Tesla, Tesla showrooms in New York City and just sickening. It's sickening.
I just, I'm sitting there. But that has hurt sales. That has hurt the company and investors. He was facing a mini investor revolt. Like every analyst was saying, you've got, he has to come back. He has to come back. Big investors were telling him he has to come back. So he did capitulate to that. There's no doubt about that. And, you know, but I still think he can right that ship. And I still think the principles he created will be good for America. I mean, I think he did a great job. I mean, I don't know, like, you know, I don't understand the criticism.
Yeah. I mean, it's just incredible that I mean, this is all organized, Charlie, but I'm just telling you, you're the expert in investing. But if you look at his website with they're doing robots, the robo taxi is about to come out next year. If you see what other things Tesla is doing along with improving their car, I'm pretty sure people would be mad at themselves that they didn't invest in Tesla. But I'm not.
I don't give investment advice, but I will say this. Never count that man out. I'm Emily Campagno, host of the Fox True Crime podcast. This week, Jane Blasio joins me to discuss how she learned the sinister truth behind her adoption as detailed in her memoir Taken at Birth. Listen and follow now at Fox true crime dot com. Listen to the show ad free on Fox News podcast plus on Apple podcast, Amazon music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
