Transcript

4.10.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the reading of Today's Washington Post. It is Thursday,
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April tenth of twenty twenty five. Your reader is Alie Stainer,
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with a reminder that radioize a service for those blinded
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with typocalties in holding a reading printed material. And I
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will start with the front page to the Washington Post,
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and across the top, in big bold black letters tariffs
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paused amid warnings worries.
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Speaker 2: There are two articles underneath.
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Speaker 1: That divided by a huge chart which I'll describe in
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a moment to the left chaotic eighteen hours as White
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House Switches course by Michael Bernbaum, Natalie Allison, kat Zarazuski
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and Theodoric Maya. In the middle, it looks like flame
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stitches on a needle point up and down and up
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and down down down down down up down down down
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down down down, down, up and down. And it is
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a chart in sort of purple green and blue colors,
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more of a pinky purple in blue colors. Starting on
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April the second, when the stock marks it was up
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two percent, the stock market plunged to minus two percent,
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and on April fourth, it plunged to minus six percent.
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Speaker 2: Up and down, up and down, up and.
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Speaker 1: Down down to April the fifth and sixth, when it
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plunged to the lowest point at minus fourteen percent, and
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then back up on about April the morning of April
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the eighth or something back up to minus six percent,
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and then plunged back down to minus twelve thirteen percent.
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And yesterday it went right back up, especially the NASDAC
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to just minus point eight percent, and the Dow Jones
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minus two point eight percent, and the standard and Poor
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minus two point four percent. But it is absolutely up
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and down, and it's called the latest swing and a
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turbulent week. And to the right of the chart, stocks
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surge on Trump's reversal, but in latest escalation rate on
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China rises again by Rachel Siegel, Jeffstein, and Aaron Gregg.
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Below that just about where the fold would be. Fixation
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on tariffs disdain for trade trace to nineteen eighties in
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New York by Matt Vaiso and to the right of
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that strains and bond market raised Fears of a coming
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crisis by David Lynch. And at the bottom of the
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front page on the left at office that represents us
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before High Court and exodus by Anne Mirimah and a
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picture of a Ukrainian town snared by nuclear plant dispute.
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People are standing at a bus stop where silhouettes of
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six nearby nuclear reactors once projected at the nation's energy independence.
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Today the plant, controlled by Russia and sought by the
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United States and Ukraine could mean a permanent life.
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Speaker 2: On a front line. There's no article on that one.
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Speaker 1: And then to the right, Social Security kills those led
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Department of Government efficiency plan to slash phone services.
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Speaker 2: My first article.
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Speaker 1: Many lawyers who argue for Trump at the Supreme Court
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are heading for the exit. At least half of the
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frontline attorneys in the Solicitors General office plan to leave.
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People with the familiar with the matter said as Trump's
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emergencies request pile up at the High Court. And there's
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a picture of Solicitor General d John Sawer in January
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twenty of twenty four, during his earlier tenure as a
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private attorney to Donald Trump. This is by Ann E. Merrima.
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At least half of the frontline lawyers in the elite
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Justice Department office that represents the Trump administration at the
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Supreme Court are preparing to leave or have already announced
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their departures. An unusually high amount of turnover at a
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time of intense litigation involving the president's initiatives. The people
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planning to leave the Solicited General's office have various reasons,
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according to several people close to the workforce who spoke
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on the condition of anonymity to discuss upcoming personnel changes,
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Many are uncomfortable or turned off by directives from Justice
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Department leaders, including Attorney General Pambondi's demand for zealous advocacy
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of President Donald Trump's agenda.
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Speaker 2: These people said the.
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Speaker 1: Planned departures and the newly announced retirement of veteran Edwin S.
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Needler came or come as the Trump administration has repeatedly
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asked the High Court to clear the way for its
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efforts to dramatically reshape the federal government and immigration enforcement
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and halt federal spending. The justices handed Trump a string
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of temporary procedural victories over the past week in response
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to requests from the office. A divided court on Monday
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allowed the administration to use a wartime salute or statute
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to try to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members, though it
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said the migrants must have an opportunity to challenge their removals.
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On Tuesday, the Court paused a judge's order requiring the
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government to rehire thousands of probationary employees, and last week
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it said the government could freeze tens of millions of
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dollars in teacher training grants. Attrition from the office also
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coincides with an abrupt restructuring in leadership following the arrival
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of Solicitor General d John Sower, who was confirmed by
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the Senate last week along party lines. Sauers successfully represented
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Trump at the Supreme Court last year in his case
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seeking broad presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for acts while
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in office. The Solicitor General is the Justice Department's fourth
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highest ranking official, sometimes referred to as the tenth Justice
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because that person is so often involved in the cases
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the Court accepts. In addition to presenting the government's views
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at the court, the office developed the department's brought appellate strategy.
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It has traditionally hired lawyers from politically diverse backgrounds to
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provide an array of legal perspectives. The Trumps administration's demands
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for loyalty, as well as its removal of prosecutors and
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FBI officials, deemed not supportive of the President's age goes
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against that tradition outside analysts, so too does Trump's directive
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that BONDI seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms that
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the administration believes are engaging in frivolous, unreasonable, and vexation
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litigation against the United States. Georgetown University law professor Steve Vladik,
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who closely tracks the work of the court, said the
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Solicitors General's office has speaked its entire history building a
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reputation of trust and credibility that the Supreme Court relies
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upon and takes very seriously.
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Speaker 2: The question is who's left.
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Speaker 1: Who is going to argue against positions that might be
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good for Team Trump but are inconsistent with the standards
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of the office and potentially the long term interest of
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the government, Vladik said. Asked through a spokesperson about the departures,
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Bondy defended the office in his statement, as evidenced by
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this week's significant victories at the Supreme Court, the Office
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of the Solicited General, led by John Sower, is staffed
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with brilliant and highly qualified attorneys to defend President Trump's
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agenda and uphold the rule of law. Traditionally, all of
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the lawyers in the office, except to the Solicited General
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and the Principal Deputy, are non partisan career employees who
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span administrations rather than political appointees. When the office takes
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legal positions, it has historically taken a long view about
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what is best for the US government.
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Speaker 2: Attorney Sarah M.
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Speaker 1: Harris, a former law kirk to Justice Clarence Thomas, fill
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the role of Solicited General temporarily in advance of confirmation.
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Speaker 2: She then slid into the number two spot.
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Speaker 1: This week, Saua took the unusual step of bringing in
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Hashim M. Moupan as second principled Deputy. Mupan held high
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level political appointments during the first Trump administration and has
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a similar legal pedigree to Saua. Both were law clerks
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for the late Justice Antiinea or Antonin Scalia and the
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retired Appeals Court Judge Michael Lutig. A Justice Department spokesperson
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declined to say whether the dual principal deputy structure would
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remain in coming weeks. Some turnover and the office is
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not unusual when there is a change in administration, typically
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in May, after oral arguments are completed for the term,
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but the anticipated number of departures among the sixteen assistants
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at least eight. By some counts, it is significantly higher
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than normal, according to the people familiar.
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Speaker 2: With how the office works.
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Speaker 1: Those people said the exodus raises questions about whether the
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department will be able to recruit attorneys from top law
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schools with clerkship experience and diverse backgrounds at a time
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when the administration is rapidly filling or filing emergency request
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at the High Court. The lawyers who remain include veteran
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Malcolm Stewart and Courtesy.
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Speaker 2: Gannon, another form of Scalia clerk.
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Speaker 1: The office has already lost Attorney Colleen Sindeesnik, who argued
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eleven cases during her nearly six years in the office.
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Sinsdick clerk for Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. And
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for former Attorney General Merrick Garland during his tenure on
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the US Court of Appeals for the DC's Circuit Court. Separately,
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Kneeler announced his retirement from the office after forty six years.
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He has served as Deputy Solicited General, a career civil
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service position that endures from one administration to the next,
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and argued more than one hundred and fifty cases at
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the High Court during his tenure. He is known as
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the conscience of the Office because of his advocacy among
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his colleagues for taking positions in the best instrument.
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Speaker 2: Of interest of the government.
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Speaker 1: Michael Debrin, a former member of the Office who served
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as a Deputy Solicited General and represented the federal government
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in more than one hundred cases, said for decades he
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has been the Office's institutional memory, the keeper of its
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core values, a wise council to countless members of the Office,
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a role model to department lawyers, and a valued personal
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friend to his colleagues.
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Speaker 2: And he is referring to Needler.
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Speaker 1: Needler defended President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act and worked
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on a range of cases involving separation of powers. In
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most of the Court's cases involving Native Americans. He will
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be honored this week at his alma matera, the University
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of Virginia Law School. While in office, he overlapped three
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future Supreme Court Justices. Needler worked on briefs in legal
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strategy with Roberts, mentored samuel A. Alito, Jr. And helped
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Elena Keaton prepare for her first court argument. Alito told
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the Washington Post in twenty fourteen. Whenever Ed is on
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the brief or is arguing, I know, and I won't
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speak for my colleagues, but I bet they all feel
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the same way. We're getting the best possible argument that
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can be made for the position that he is defending
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social Security abandons those led phone service cuts amid chaos backlash.
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The shift amounts to a wholesale retreat by Musk's team
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and the Social Security leadership in their bid to dramatically
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kurtail telephone access to services. And there's a sign of
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a woman saved social Security from the chainsaw. And there's
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a picture of Elon Musk holding a chainsaw. She is
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at a protest of cuts made by the Trump administration
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to the Social Security in White Plains, New York, last March.
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And it's a whole group of people, various races and
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spread around an area in a field in White Plains,
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New York. It is by Hannah Nattison and Liserene Elon Musk.
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Cost cutting operation the US Doege Service set off a
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panic in March among elderly and disabled people after proposing
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that the Social Security Administration scrap many of it served
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claims services over the phone. In an effort to end
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alleged identity fraud, Beneficiaries began lining up at field offices
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across the country, clutching driver's licenses and asking if they
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must prove who they were in person. Phone wait times ballooned,
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and the agency's website started crashing almost daily under a
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crush of panicked callers and visitors. Besieged by angry constituents,
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lawmakers demanded that the acting Commissioner in the chaos Now.
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After nearly a month of chaos and backlash, the DOOSE
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plans are dead, According to an internal memo obtained by
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The Washington Post. Plans to force people awarded retirement, disability
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and medicare benefits to set up direct deposit payments online
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or in person have been canceled after the agency concluded
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it could vet those transactions for fraud by phone. Those
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applying for benefits can also continue the process by phone
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without the need to go online or visit an office
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in person, according to the Monday memo from Acting Deputy
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Commissioner Doris Diaz to Acting commission Leyland Dudek. At the
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same time, the agency will implement a new fraud detecting
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tool to flag suspect tele claims based on known common
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characteristics of fraudulent claims. Memo said only if an applicant's
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phone call is flagged will they be required to show
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up in person. According to the memo, the shift amounds
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to a wholesale retreat by Musk's team and the Social
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Security Leadership in their bid to dramatically curtailed telephone access
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to services. The changes, announced by Dutick in March and
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pushed by members of the DOGE team would have directed
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all people filing claims to first verify their identity online
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or in person. The new system would have removed a
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phone option in place for years, which has come to
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be a mainstay for the seventy three million Americans who
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rely on Social Security for retirement, survivor and disability benefits
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and Medicare claims. After lawmakers in advocates warned of consequences
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for a population ill equipped to navigate a website or
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show up to a field office, of Security, in late
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March backed off the title requirements for those with disabilities,
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but said those applying for retirement or survivor benefits would
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still need to do so online or in person. The
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agency handles about nine point five million claims each year,
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and about forty percent come in over the phone. The
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fraud tool will debut by April fourteenth, the same day
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some of the phone services were scheduled to end, the
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memo states. The memo warns the new strategy may lead
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to the false positive flagging of legitimate teleclaims, but says
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it's still a better option than limiting phone service for
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retirees or disabled customers, which have would have caused tens
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of thousands of confused Americans to descend on field offices
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every week. This risk is lower than sending forty thousand
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plus US teleclaim customers to field officers per week for
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in person identifying proofing, the memo says, adding that the
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new plant significantly reduces risk of potential service disruption. The
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agency published a series of posts on the ex social
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media site Tuesday night that obliquely described the shift. Asked
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about the changes, a Social Security spokeswoman confirmed that your
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agency will allow all claim types to be completed over
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the phone, and that SSA will perform an anti fraud
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check on all such claims. Only people whose calls are
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flagged as fraudulent will have to prove the identity in person,
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the spokeswoman wrote.
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Speaker 2: In an email.
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Speaker 1: Telephone remains a viable option to the public, the spokeswoman wrote.
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The whiplash policy and reversals come at a time of
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crisis for Social Security, reeling from staff cuts and expecting
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thousands more firings as its phone and in person waittime
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skyrocket and its website crashes almost daily. The suggestive revisions
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to phone services have also led to an explosion in scams,
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as bad actors having taken advantage of the moment to
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send senior's emails purporting to be from Social Security and
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instructing them to provide their personal information to verify their identities.
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Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the
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Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement that the phone
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policy and Wednesday's retreat had caused head spinning chaos that
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is undermining American's faith that Social Security will be there
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when they need it. A White House spokesperson defended the
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administration's record at the agency. Spokeswoman Liz Hudson said in
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his statement Wednesday, the Social Security Anti fraud team has
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worked around the clock in person to improve technological capabilities,
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and they are now able to identify fraud on claims
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filed over the phone. Under President Trump's leadership, the Social
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Security Administration is taking bold steps to transform how they
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serve the public, improving frontline customer service, modernizing their technology,
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protecting beneficiaries, and securing the integrity of their programs. Meanwhile,
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the Trump administration is continuing to push falsehoods about rampant
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fraud at the agency, a line repeated by Trump and Musk,
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the billionaire tasked with downsizing the federal government. Most recently,
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Vice President J. D. Bance falsely claimed that forty percent
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of the people who called socialsts Security are committing fraud.
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Vance was misinterpreting a statistic previously published by the agency
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that set about forty percent of fraud related to direct
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deposit bank account changes is associated with a phone call.
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What this actually means, as the Post reported, is that
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about zero point zero zero six two five percent of
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Social Security benefits are lost to direct deposit fraud each year,
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with zero point zero zero two five percent lost through calls.
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Social Security's own internal reports and audits have repeatedly found
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over the years that interesces instances of fraud are low.
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Less than one percent of their payments in recent years
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were determined to be improper. The memo repealing the phone
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service cuts points this out again.
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Speaker 2: Let me be that again.
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Speaker 1: The memo repealing the phone service cuts Phone service cuts
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points this out again. The agency has assessed cases of
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widespread fraud in teleclaims and found memorimal instances, the memo
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states on its first page. The memo offers few details
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on the new anti fraud tool or how the agency
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will manage to stand it up in less than not
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to stand it up in less than a week. It
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stated only that the tool will be launched with current resources.
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The agency, already blending bleeding employees, is facing a dose
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proposed fifty percent cut to its IT staff. The Post reported.
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Many of the agency's best coders, tired of the turmoil,
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have already retired or left for jobs in the private sector,
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said a Social Security employee briefed on the situation, whose
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on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. In particular,
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the employee said people who know how to program Cobol,
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an old coding language that powers Social Security websites and systems,
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are fleeing with potentially dire consequences that the agency doesn't
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manage to staunch the blood letting, it will be difficult
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to finalize any kind of fraud detecting tool by next Monday.
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The employee said. There is nowhere near enough IT staff
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left to actually implement changes. The employee said, the COBOL
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team is scrambling. There's just so little that can be
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done at this point. Starting Tuesday, emails and trainings began
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to go out to field staffers informing them they wouldn't
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have to curtail phone servers after all. Managers told other
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employees verbally in meetings that the m person identity thereification
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idea was dad, so back to where it always was.
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What a waste of air time, said one Indiana field
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office employee. As believed employees worked to understand what the
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vaguely defined fraud detection tool might mean for them. Some
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were hit with an additional puzzling change to how they
25:22
do their jobs, a new rule preventing communications with congress
25:26
or advocates for the elderly and disabled. An email went
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out to Social Security technicians on Monday instructing them to
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cease all written responses to congressional inquiries and inquiries from advocates,
25:42
according to a copy obtained by the Post. A similar
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email went out to employees in other divisions, affecting a
25:49
wide range of staff and members, including benefits authorizers, claimed
25:55
specialists and customer service representatives. The second email, also obtained
26:01
by the Toast, read simply effective immediately, do not respond
26:06
directly to any public or congressional inquiries after surgeon questions,
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and other employees sent a follow up email clarifying that
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staffers should continue to pick up the phone if Americans
26:19
call for help. It's my understanding that public covers advocates
26:25
and congressional inquiries, so staff calls can continue for status inquiries,
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the employee wrote. According to a copy obtained by the Post,
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An agency spokesman denied that anyone had been told not
26:39
to respond to inquiries from lawmakers due to it. Last week,
26:45
counseled a monthly meeting with disability advocates that has not
26:48
been rescheduled, advocates said. Also counseled is a standing meeting
26:54
that happened on Wednesdays with senior Social Security officials and
26:58
staffers from the government Account of the Office and the
27:01
Officer Management and Budget, which congressional staffers are invited to
27:05
attend that has been canceled indefinitely.
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Speaker 2: Asked about the pause, a.
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Speaker 1: Social Security spokeswoman wrote in an email that SSA is
27:17
going through a reevaluation of communications and still communicating with
27:22
the public. A next article The eighteen Hours that changed
27:29
Trump's mind on trade. From Tuesday evening to Wednesday afternoon,
27:34
Trump and his trade advisors spoke to several Republican lawmakers
27:39
and top foreign leaders who raised concerns about the faltering
27:43
global markets. By Michael Bernbaum, Natalie Allison, kat Zorazuski, and
27:50
Theodoric Mail, Washington broke up Wednesday to the highest tariffs
27:57
on foreign goods in a century and to bomb un
28:00
to market's flashing warning signs that President Donald Trump's bid
28:04
to remake global trade could spark a far bigger crisis.
28:10
Trump's advisors were still projecting confidence that his effort to
28:14
restructure the world's economy and sweep away generations of globalization
28:19
was fool proof, despite the S and P five hundred
28:22
wiping away twelve percent of its value in a week.
28:26
One senior White House official said that Wall Street didn't
28:30
understand Main Street and that Main Street was still backing
28:33
the president, but hours later Trump partially back down, escalating
28:39
his trade war with China but lowering many of the
28:42
tariffs he had just imposed on the rest of the world.
28:46
Stock market soared. I guess they say it was the
28:51
biggest day in financial history. Trump reveled less than ninety
28:56
minutes after his truth social posts that up did his
29:00
weak old policy. It was a shocking turnabout coming up
29:05
to days of Trump's aides arguing that he was seeking
29:09
to remake the global economy. But from Tuesday evening to
29:13
Wednesday afternoon, Trump and his trade advisors spoke to several
29:17
Republican lawmakers and top foreign leaders who raised concerns about
29:22
the faltering global markets and the growing concerns of a
29:25
worldwide recession, urging him to do something. By late Wednesday afternoon,
29:32
Trump was saying he had been thinking about switching courts
29:36
over the last few days. The final decision, he said,
29:42
probably came together.
29:43
Speaker 2: Early this morning, fairly early this morning. Just wrote it up.
29:47
Speaker 1: We didn't have the use of we didn't have access
29:50
to lawyers. He's old reporters in the Oval Office. We
29:55
wrote it up from our hearts. But this was certainly
29:59
some We've been talking about for a period of time,
30:03
and we decided to pull the trigger, and we did
30:05
it today and we're happy about it, Trump added. Late
30:10
Tuesday night, after Sean hadd in These nine PM show
30:13
ended on Fox News, Trump had an extensive, thoroughly, roughly
30:18
hour long phone call with a group of Republican senators
30:22
who had appeared on the episode. According to three people
30:26
with knowledge of the conversation, some of the senators had
30:30
expressed concern about the tariffs that evening. Trump was also
30:34
watching bond markets, where people were getting a little queasy,
30:39
he said Wednesday. Before the end of the last commercial
30:44
break during the Hennedy interview, Senator John Neelie Kennedy, Republican
30:49
of Louisiana, asked the host for fifteen seconds to speak.
30:55
Speaker 2: Directly to the President on tariffs.
30:58
Speaker 1: Kennedy told The Washington Post because Senator Lindsey Graham, republic
31:03
Plan of South Carolina had told Kennedy that Trump would
31:06
be watching the show. Kennedy and Graham were among those
31:11
in the group interview with Hennedy, along with Majority Leader
31:15
John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, and Republican Senators Tim
31:20
Scott of South Carolina, Katie Boyd Britt of Alabama, Tom
31:25
Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruse of Texas, and Mark Wayne
31:30
Mullen of Oklahoma. Some of the senators expressed a desire
31:35
for Trump to negotiate with other countries coming to the
31:38
table on tariffs, and several of them spoke to the
31:41
President after.
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Speaker 2: The show ended.
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Speaker 1: I'll leave it up to you what's enough, what's not enough,
31:49
Graham said he told Trump Tuesday night, But I think
31:54
you can see people are looking for some points on
31:56
the board. Crew said he told Trump that the administration
32:00
had two paths forward on tariffs. Trump could use them
32:04
as leverage to convince other countries to lower their own tariffs,
32:08
or he could keep the tariffs he at announced last
32:11
week in place, which would lead to other countries to retaliate.
32:16
Crew said in an interview the latter outcome, I expressed
32:21
to the President would be a terrible outcome that I
32:24
think would be very harmful to the country and very
32:26
harmful to Texas. Also encouraged him, as I did on
32:30
the Hannity Show, to negotiate quickly one or more major
32:34
trade deals. Crew said that he hoped the conversation had
32:39
influenced Trump, and that the President's decision on.
32:42
Speaker 2: Wednesday was consistent with what I and the others were urging.
32:48
Speaker 1: On Wednesday morning, Trump met in the White House with
32:51
June and spoke on the phone with Swiss President Karen
32:54
Keller Sutter, whose nations, rolexes and chocolates were hit with
32:59
a thirty one percent tariff overnight, and who pushed him
33:03
to relent on a measure that was bashing her economy.
33:07
Over the course of her twenty five minute phone call,
33:09
she underlined the role that Swiss businesses pay in generating
33:14
US jobs and noted that her country last year abolished
33:18
tariffs on imports of US industrial goods. A spokesman for
33:23
the Swiss Finance ministry said this is in parenthesis. A
33:29
person familiar with Thune's conversation with Trump, speaking on the
33:33
condition of animnity to derail the discussion, said Thune was
33:38
at the White House's White House for reasons unrelated to
33:41
the tariffs. Pump watched Jamie Diamond, the chief executive of
33:48
banking giant JP Morgan Chase, give an interview on Fox
33:52
News at about eight am. The executive caution that a
33:55
recession was a likely outcome given the economic unscer certainty,
34:00
explaining that he was hearing from most everyone he spoke
34:03
to that they were cutting back as a result. I'm
34:09
taking a calm view, but I think it could get
34:12
worse if we don't make some progress here, Diamond said
34:16
in an interview which aired several hours before Trump's announcement.
34:21
Be cool, Trump told the public, and a Wednesday morning
34:25
post on truth social telling Americans not to worry about
34:28
what was happening.
34:30
Speaker 2: A few minutes later, he.
34:31
Speaker 1: Posted, this is a great time to buy. Secretary of
34:36
Commerce Howard Lutnik meanwhile fielded a call from the top
34:40
European Union trade official Morose Stukovic, whose block on Wednesday
34:46
approved countermeasures on US steel and aluminum tariffs that were
34:50
tailored to hit a range of Trump voters, from soybean
34:53
farmers to plastic manufacturers.
34:56
Speaker 2: EU leaders, who.
34:58
Speaker 1: Represent the biggest foreign market for US goods and services,
35:02
were writing a bigger retaliation, even as they sought to
35:07
deal a deal to sweep away as many trade barriers
35:10
as possible with Washington. By midday, Lutnik and Treasury Secretary
35:16
Scott Descent was sitting in the Oval Office with Trump
35:20
hashing out a reversal that would take even some of
35:23
his own team by surprise. The two men sat with
35:26
Trump as he crafted the language for one of the
35:30
most extraordinary truth posts of his presidency. Lutnik posted on
35:35
Exit one thirty pm, twelve minutes after Trump sent his
35:39
missive out into the world. I thought that people were
35:44
drumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippie,
35:48
Trump said, speaking on the south lawn of the White
35:50
House in front of race car champions, a little more
35:53
than an hour after he announced the partial trade terror reversal.
36:00
Over yet, but we have a tremendous amount of spirit
36:03
from other countries. We're going to have something that nobody
36:07
would have even dreamt possible, Trump said. After the announcement,
36:13
Trump aids raced to declare that it had been the
36:15
strategy all along. President Trump's masters strategy, bold statesmanship, and
36:23
brilliant tactical planning has done more to reform broken international
36:27
trade in days than anyone has achieved in decades, while
36:31
economically and politically isolating the grooble architect of economic aggression
36:37
China Jeopardy. Chief of Staff Stephen Miller wrote on X
36:43
but inside the White House even some senior level officials
36:47
appeared to be blindsided by the reversal. Moments after Trump's
36:51
truth social post about the pause, aides sprang up to
36:56
confer about how to proceed, moving quickly to call in
37:00
an outdoor press gaggle with Bissent and Caroline Lovett, Trump's
37:04
press secretary. A senior foreign diplomat who has been deeply
37:09
involved in trade discussions, learned of the policy reversal from
37:13
a reporter's text message moments after Trump posted the announcement.
37:18
The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak
37:22
frankly about sensitive negotiations, scrambled to find out more details.
37:29
After the post, Whitehouse's aides huddled to discuss the facts
37:33
and talking points of Trump's newly conceived plan. The key
37:37
details of the new arrangement remained unclear to White House
37:40
staff in the aftermath, as reporters sought to clarify basic
37:44
questions such as whether Canada and Mexico would also be
37:48
subject to the new ten percent tariffs, as Bissett had
37:51
said in the presser, despite their not having been part
37:55
of Trump's initial Liberation Day plan last week. Before Trump's
38:01
social media announcement, Wednesday. The White House's main orders of
38:05
business for the day were Trump greeting NASCAR champions and
38:09
signing executive orders in the afternoon, but as were some
38:14
economic news flickered across televisions in the West Wing. Biscent
38:18
and Lutnik joined Trump in the Oval Office to hammer
38:21
out the wording of his announcement. Peter Navarro, Trump's longtime
38:26
trade adviser, who had urged Trump to pursue an aggressive
38:29
tariff policy, didn't take part in the Oval Office conversation,
38:34
a potential sign his viewpoint was losing out. He also
38:38
received no mention Biscent and Levitt when the pair discussed
38:41
Trump working with Flutnik on a path forward. Bissent and
38:45
Navarro were widely seen as coming from opposite perspectives during
38:50
care deliberations, though Trump's advisors have repeatedly said they are
38:54
operating in unison and supporting all of Trump's decisions on
38:58
the matter. Navarro, who was seen outside the West Wing
39:02
on Wednesday, took part in a Fox Business interview outside
39:06
the White House soon after Trump's announcement, describing the matter
39:10
as a beautiful negotiation. He avoided reporters lingering to ask
39:16
follow up questions, though during his Fox interview he insisted
39:20
he was not being sidelined. We work beautifully together, Navarro said.
39:27
Scotty's one of my best friends. We've worked together for
39:30
years now. We're all doing our job for the president,
39:33
and this is the result. One band, one sound, my brother,
39:38
Navarro said as he.
39:39
Speaker 2: Ended the interview. Ended the interview.
39:42
Speaker 1: Later, as Trump talked to reporters in the Lowell office,
39:45
he laid bare his broader strategy as the massive tariffs
39:49
of last week gave way to Wednesday's partial reprieve. A
39:53
lot of times, it's not a negotiation until it.
39:58
Speaker 2: Is, Trump said. That happens.
40:03
Speaker 1: Trump's long history hating global trade and loving tariffs. Now
40:10
that view is being tested on the global stage. With
40:13
markets in turmoil and US investors, corporate officials, and even
40:17
pro Trump Republican's warning of a recession, some worry that
40:21
the president doesn't understand how world markets work. There's a
40:26
picture of a young Donald Trump in nineteen eighty four.
40:31
The article is about Matt Vissem. President Donald Trump was
40:37
upset that other countries were taking advantage of the United States,
40:41
the debt was growing, the stock market had crashed.
40:44
Speaker 2: He freely shared his opinions. I believe very strongly in tariffs.
40:50
Speaker 1: All of the many nations that abuse the United States
40:54
should pay a major tax, like a fifteen and twenty
40:57
percent tax on any product they sell in the United States.
41:01
Speaker 2: He said.
41:03
Speaker 1: It was the late nineteen eighties. Not much has changed.
41:09
The seeds of President Donald Trump's latest tariff plans were
41:13
planted decades ago, when the brash businessman from New York
41:17
was still just toying with the political career, but already
41:21
developing a zero sum view of the competitive landscape of
41:25
the global economy, forged over a long career in real estate,
41:30
of which many of his clients were wealthy foreigners.
41:33
Speaker 2: Trump gled to believe that the.
41:35
Speaker 1: United States economy was letting others profit from their markets.
41:39
He didn't blame them for taking advantage, he blamed US
41:43
policy for allowing it to happen. Now that view is
41:47
being tested on the global stage, with vast amounts of
41:51
wealth as well as longtime trade alliances on the line.
41:55
Trump's tariff frenzies sent markets into turmoil and left US
41:59
and best corporate officials and even pro Trump Republicans warning
42:03
of a recession. They worry the president doesn't understand how
42:08
global trade works. Other countries get US dollars, but Americans
42:13
get products they want. The president is losing the confidence
42:18
of business leaders around the globe. Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman,
42:23
a Trump supporter, wrote on X last week, this is
42:28
a moment of testing for the president's advisors. Former Treasury
42:33
Secretary Larry Summers said Sunday on ABC News this week,
42:39
the intellectually honest ones know that this reflects a presidential
42:43
forty year fixation, not any kind of proven economic theory.
42:49
The change has caught so many investors off guard that
42:52
many rush to sell off stocks in one of the
42:54
biggest market drops in US. It equally stunned world leaders,
42:59
about seventy of whom have called the White House to
43:02
set up meetings with Trump or somehow gain a reprieve
43:05
from the plan amid attempts to negotiate in stock market volatility,
43:11
Trump on Wednesday announced a ninety day pause on many
43:15
of the tariffs, while also simultaneously raising levies on Chinese
43:19
imports to one hundred and twenty five percent. We have
43:24
to put America first, he told host Republicans at a
43:27
formal dinner Tuesday evening. Put America. First White House Press
43:34
Secretary Caroline Levitt said recently that the new policy amounts
43:38
to monumental change exactly what Trump is after. The President
43:44
is focused on restructuring the global economy, on restructing the
43:48
domestic economy as well. The politicians in this city have
43:52
not seen a president who is actually willing to take
43:55
the steps to implement such change really in modern history.
44:00
To those who have followed his long career, the move
44:03
came as little surprise. The most beautiful word in the
44:09
dictionary to me is tariff, Trump said during a Warren
44:13
Michigan rally in November twenty twenty four. I think it's
44:18
the most beautiful word. It's going to make our country rich.
44:22
His first term as president was also marked by tariffs,
44:26
particularly on China, but many of the guardrails that were
44:30
there eight years ago, including several Cavate cabinet members who
44:34
challenged his views and advised him to take a different tack,
44:38
are no longer there, replaced by people who are largely
44:41
aligned with his worldview. The circumstances have also changed, White
44:46
House officials say, with a stronger economy that can withstand
44:50
the turmoil required for his plans, a view that economists
44:54
dispute his entire professional life. If you go back to
45:00
interviews with the President Trump in the late nineteen seventies, he's.
45:04
Speaker 2: Been speaking passionately about this issue.
45:07
Speaker 1: Stephen Miller, the Deputy Chief of Staff, said during a
45:10
panel discussion of White House.
45:12
Speaker 2: Officials last week.
45:14
Speaker 1: And he warned in the nineteen eighties about all of
45:17
our critical industries moving too at that time Japan, and
45:21
he warned for years about the loss about automotive industry.
45:26
For a time, his view of the international economy came
45:29
through apartment sales at Trump Tawa, He wrote in his
45:32
nineteen eighty seven book The Art of the Deal. Middle
45:36
Eastern bias came when oil prices rose. South American and
45:40
Mexican buyers were next. When the economies were strong and
45:43
the dollar was weak. Wall Street bias surged with the
45:47
stock market, and the Japanese when their economy improved. They
45:53
rarely smile, and they are so serious that they don't
45:56
make doing business fun.
45:58
Speaker 2: Trump wrote fortune.
46:00
Speaker 1: They have a lot of money to spend, and they
46:02
seem to like real estate. What's fortunate is that for
46:06
decades now they have become wealthier in large measure by
46:09
screwing the United States with a self serving trade policy
46:13
that air political leaders have never been able to fully
46:16
understand or counteract. Trump most prominently began articulating his current
46:23
beliefs in the nineteen eighty seven, as he began weighing
46:26
a run for the presidency. He spent one hundred thousand
46:29
dollars on an ad he termed an open letter that
46:33
was published in The Washington Post, The New York Times,
46:36
and the Boston Globe. He focused desire on Japan, a
46:41
nation that was rising economically and becoming a stronger competitor.
46:46
He was also watching his Japanese interests, bought American icons
46:50
such as Rockefeller Senna In New York. He bought the
46:53
Plaza hotel just up the street across from Central Park
46:57
for a Japanese corporation. Japan and other nations have been
47:03
taking advantage of the United States, Trump wrote, explaining that
47:07
the American military was taking care of military defenses while
47:11
Japan spent money to build a strong and vibrant economy
47:15
with unprecedented surpluses. Tax these wealthy nations, not America, Trump wrote,
47:22
into our huge deficits reduced their taxes. In Latin America's
47:26
economy grow unencumbered by the cost of defending those who
47:30
can easily afford to pay us for the defense of
47:33
their freedom. Jennifer M. Miller, a professor at Dartmouth College,
47:39
wrote a paper examining how Japan's rise to global economic
47:45
prominence influenced Trump's world view and approach to the global economy.
47:51
What's very, very striking about this is just how consistent
47:54
it has been. That does tell us that this seems
47:59
at this point how Trump understands the global economy and
48:03
America's place in it. Miller said, Trump has always described
48:08
tariffs as a tax on imports that other countries should
48:12
would pay to the United States. History shows that's not
48:16
typically how it works. Importers pay the taxes, but often
48:21
they manufacturers and retailers passed those costs on to American consumers.
48:29
He wouldn't use the words tariffs, but he would use
48:32
attacks of other countries.
48:34
Speaker 2: Miller said. We see that today in this.
48:37
Speaker 1: Notion that other countries are going to pay for it,
48:40
not something that Americans are going to pay for, even
48:43
though that's not how most economists.
48:45
Speaker 2: Think this is going to play out.
48:49
Speaker 1: Trump also considers tariffs not so much a tool of Congress,
48:53
but of a strong executive. Shortly after taking out the
48:57
newspaper add nearly forty years ago, Trump went to New
49:01
Hampshire and railed against the tax system he toyed as
49:04
he toyed with a presidential bid. I'm tired of nice
49:09
people already in Washington. I want someone who is tough
49:12
and knows how to negotiate if not our country faces disaster,
49:17
Trump said. Trump eventually dropped his president to run, but
49:22
he continued railing against the global trade system. If you
49:27
ever go to Japan right now and try to sell something,
49:30
forget about it, Oprah, He told Oprah Rmfrey in nineteen
49:34
eighty eight, Just forget about it. They come over here,
49:37
they sell their cars, their BCRs. They knocked the hell
49:40
out of our companies. Then as now, He didn't blame
49:46
the foreign countries for taking advantage of favorable policies. He
49:49
blamed the United States leaders for allowing it to happen.
49:54
Why are we so stupid? We catered to these people
49:57
and the end result is they don't respect us, he
50:00
said at an aviation conference in nineteen eighty nine, in
50:03
which he said the nation's leaders were the biggest suckers
50:07
in the world and called for twenty percent tax on imports.
50:12
That expression, a kind of gentler America is the worst,
50:16
he said, a slam at then President George H. W. Bush,
50:20
who used the praise to try to usher in an
50:24
era of national civility in the face of a changing
50:28
global landscape. If we get any condor or agenda, we're
50:33
not going to have any America. Trump also spoke all
50:37
those years ago as he does now, about how it
50:40
isn't only adversaries to be concerned about with or to
50:45
be concerned with, but bully allies also who used favorable
50:49
diplomatic relationships to gain an advantage. He would say, don't
50:55
be ridiculous. They're laughing at us. They're not friends. In
50:59
the global economy, there are only competitors. Miller said of Trump,
51:06
I won't be able to finish this article, but I'll
51:09
read as much as I can. Supreme Court lets Trump
51:13
remove independent regulators for now. The case tests the boundaries
51:20
of presidential power and involve GWNN. Will Cox of the
51:23
National Labor Relations Board and Kathy H. Harris of the
51:28
Merit Systems Protection Board.
51:31
Speaker 2: By Anne E. Merrimot, Chief Justice John G.
51:37
Speaker 1: Roberts Junior on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to temporarily
51:41
remove a pair of independent regulators while the full Supreme
51:45
Court decides how to proceed with their cases that have
51:49
brought implications for at least two dozen other agencies, including
51:53
the Federal Reserve Board. The brief administrative order from Roberts,
51:58
which does not address the marriage of the cases, came
52:01
less than three hours after the administration asked the court
52:04
to quickly schedule argument in the matter for May. President
52:10
Donald Trump has moved aggressively to seize greater control of
52:13
the bus of the bureaucracy, hosting independent watchdogs, and removing
52:19
the two Democrats on the Federal Trade Commission, which protects
52:23
consumers from deceptive practices and monopoly power. The cases before
52:29
the Supreme Court involved Gwyn Wilcox of the National Labor
52:33
Relations Board, which oversees laws protecting workers' rights, and Kathy A.
52:39
Harris of the Merit System's Protection Board, which protects federal
52:43
government workers from partisan practices, as well as a ninety
52:47
year old court president for the Trump administration said it
52:51
will seek to overturn lower court judges reinstated Wilcox and
52:57
Harris after they were fired by the president, with the
53:00
judge in Wilcox's case writing that Trump's interpretation of the
53:05
scope of his constitutional power, or more aptly, his aspiration,
53:10
is flat wrong. A three judge panel of the US
53:14
Court of Appeals for the Circuit reverse that ruling, siding
53:19
with Trump, only to see the full d C's Circuit
53:22
return the pair to their posts this week while litigation continues.
53:27
This situation is untenable, Solicitor General d John Sower told
53:33
the Justices in an emergency request wild Wednesday, the President
53:38
should not be forced to delegate his executive power to
53:41
agency heads who were demonstrably at odds with the administration's
53:45
policy objectives for a single day, much less for the
53:48
months that it would likely take for the courts to
53:51
resolve this litigation. The pair of cases test the boundaries
53:56
of presidential power and to what extent the Supreme Court
53:59
will allow Congress to constrain the president from somilarily firing
54:04
independent agency leaders without good reason. Lawyers for Harris and
54:09
Wilcox will have an opportunity to respond to the Trump
54:12
administration's request before the Justices decide whether to schedule their
54:17
cases for oral argument next month. The DC's Circuit is
54:22
already set to hear the cases on May sixteenth. Since
54:26
nineteen thirty five, the Supreme Court's decision in Humphreys' Executor vs.
54:32
US has permitted job protections for independent agencies led by
54:37
multi member biparttersan boards, but the current court's conservative majority
54:43
with three Trump nominees, has taken a robust view of
54:47
presidential authority and shown skepticism toward independent agencies, particularly those
54:53
led by a single director. If the Supreme Court were
54:57
to remove job protections for board means numbers and overturn
55:01
the Humphreys Executive decision, it would be a real earthquake
55:06
in terms of the way our government operates. All these
55:10
agencies that people may not think about have a real
55:13
impact on people's day to day lives, said Brian Gurad,
55:18
chief counsel of the Constitutional Accountability Center, which filed a
55:23
brief in support of Harrison Wilcox at the DC Circuit.
55:27
The Constitution gives the president the power to remove top
55:31
executive branch officials for any reason at all, but Congress
55:36
set up independent agencies like the Assuma Product Safety Commission
55:40
to ensure they would have expertise, stability and insulation from
55:45
day to day politics. The Trump administration says that those
55:50
laws signed by presidents in both parties are an unconstitutional
55:55
encroachment on the president's powers, and that he must be
55:58
able to put his own pear people in place. Trump
56:02
lawyers have already told Congress they are prepared to ask
56:05
the Supreme Court to overturn Humphrey's executor, which involve the FTC.
56:11
In its filing Wednesday, the Trump administration said the president
56:15
has been narrowed in recent years and does not apply
56:18
to the boards on which Harris and Wilcock sit because
56:21
they wield substantial executive power in implementing and enforcing federal
56:26
labor and civil service laws, an assertion the full d C.
56:31
Speaker 2: Circuit rejected.
56:33
Speaker 1: The solicited General's Office said it intends to ask the
56:37
Supreme Court to overrule Humphrey's Executor if the justices agree
56:42
to review the case this spring. More broadly, the administration
56:46
is seeking to sideline powers centers outside White House control
56:51
and to clear the way for Trump to install business
56:53
friendly replacements who can deliver on his promise to reduce regulations.
56:59
Companies like Elon, Musk, SpaceX, and retailer Amazon have also
57:04
sued the NLRB, making similar claims that the structure is unconstitutional.
57:10
In parenthesis, Amazon founded Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.
57:16
The Trump administration's robust view of a president's power is
57:20
consistent with the unitary executive theory that dates to the
57:26
Reagan administration and stands for the idea that the president
57:30
is the person in which all executive power is vested,
57:33
so the president needs to be able to control everything
57:36
the executive branch does. Cass As Sunstein, a Harvard law
57:41
professor who worked in President Ronald Reagan's Justice Department and
57:45
for the Obama administration, says Trump is the first president
57:48
since the nineteen thirties to try to assert control over
57:52
so many independent regulators. If he is successful in court,
57:56
Sunstein wrote in a recent column, it could lead to
57:59
a significant can shift in power to the White House
58:02
that would be unsettling and potentially dangerous. If presidents took
58:08
control of the Federal Reserve Board, for instance, they could
58:11
promote their own short term political interest by reducing interest
58:15
rates to the detriment of the economy's long term health.
58:19
At the Federal Communications Commission, the president could use the
58:22
agency to punish political enemies, and manipulate the media market
58:27
to promote a similar particular agenda, Sunstein wrote in an
58:31
article with Harvard law professor Adrian Vermule titled The Unitary Executive, Past,
58:39
President and Future. And that is the end of the
58:42
reading today for The Washington Post on the tenth of
58:46
April of twenty twenty five. Please stay tuned for continued
58:50
programming on Radio IR