Greg Sargent Podcast: Trump Tariff Cave Actually Reveals Weakness, Jeffries Says

[Dennis Donovan]

Greg Sargent Podcast - (archived: https://archive.ph/ZRBzx ) Podcast and Transcript: Trump Tariff Cave Actually Reveals Weakness, Jeffries Says

In an interview, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argues that Trump's tariff reversal reveals weakness, red districts are in play, and Democrats must mount a strong stand against Trump's lawlessness.

The Daily Blast with Greg Sargent
April 10, 2025

The following is a lightly edited transcript of the April 10 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.

/snip/

Greg Sargent: We just learned that Trump has changed his tariff policies once again. He’s pausing his tariffs, but apparently keeping in place 10 percent reciprocal tariffs on all countries while hiking tariffs even higher on China. Your reaction, Leader Jeffries?

Jeffries: Well, two things are occurring here. One, Donald Trump continues to crash the American economy in real time. He’s increasing costs when he promised to lower costs on the American people, and that will continue. In fact, Donald Trump and the reckless Republicans in the House of Representatives are actually driving us toward a recession that is going to hurt everyday Americans all across the country.

At the same period of time, what we’ve seen as a result of this so-called pause is that Donald Trump is at least backing down again, which has been a repeated pattern throughout his presidency. The whole flood-the-zone strategy is designed to create the appearance of inevitability—when nothing can be further from the truth. The American people have been rising up consistently, we’re battling him in Congress, battling him in the courts, battling him in terms of pushing back aggressively in community after community after community to win the hearts and minds of the American people. And it works when the American people show up, stand up, and speak up. This is another example.

Sargent: Well, the tariffs are continuing in some sense, as you point out, and there’s a very decent chance that they’ll come back in 90 days because he’s pretty erratic. And now, House Speaker Mike Johnson is using a procedural maneuver to prevent a vote terminating the national emergency that Trump has declared to justify imposing these global tariffs unilaterally. Johnson’s move prevents this vote from being privileged, which would have meant that it has to go to the floor. He doesn’t want that to happen. What’s your reaction to that, Leader Jeffries?

Jeffries: Mike Johnson and the Republicans are afraid of a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives because they know that Democrats—partnering with a handful of more enlightened Republicans on the tariff issue—will vote to reclaim our authority as members of Congress and push back against these out-of-control tariffs that Trump has imposed, and as you pointed out, Greg, will continue to try to impose moving forward. What we’ll need to see happen is just a handful of Republicans to partner with us so that Congress can end these fake emergencies that Trump is using to justify the wild imposition of these tariffs, which are a tax on the American people.

/snip

[Johnny2X2X]

1. Honestly, it's the first real sign in a while

That he isn't purposely trying to destroy the USA at the behest of Putin.

I still think he's an amateur who will cause a deep recession. But when he cited the bond markets, at least it was a sign that he isn't actively trying to end the US.