The President's Daily Brief
PDB Situation Report | April 5th, 2025: Trump's Economic Gambit & China Flexes On Taiwan
05 Apr 2025
In this episode of The PDB Situation Report: President Trump announces sweeping new tariffs on foreign imports, signaling a potential overhaul of U.S. trade policy. Kenneth Rapoza from the Coalition for a Prosperous America joins us to explain what these tariffs mean for American industries and consumers. China completes two days of military drills surrounding Taiwan, sending a clear warning to the island's new president. Steve Yates from the Heritage Foundation breaks down the strategic messaging behind China's military maneuvers and what it means for the future of U.S.-China relations. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
Welcome to the PDB Situation Report. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. We'll start things off today with a major shakeup in global trade as President Trump announces sweeping new tariffs on imports. He did that on what's now called Liberation Day.
Industry analyst at the Coalition for a Prosperous America, Kenneth Raposa, stops by to give us his take. Later in the show, China just wrapped up two days of military drills around Taiwan and labeled the island's new president a, quote, parasite. Well, that's not complimentary. It's the latest escalation in cross-strait tensions.
Our old friend Steve Yates of the Heritage Foundation, he's going to join us to explain it. But first, today's Situation Report Spotlight. In a Rose Garden address on Wednesday, President Trump unveiled a series of sweeping tariffs aimed at reshaping U.S. trade policy.
Now, the plan includes a universal 10% tariff on all imports set to take effect on April 5th, with higher country-specific tariffs such as 34% on Chinese goods and 20% on European Union products beginning on April 9th. Are you keeping track of all this?
The announcement sent shockwaves through global markets, causing significant declines in stock futures and raising concerns, of course, about potential inflation and recession risks. Now, critics argue that these tariffs could increase consumer prices and disrupt international supply chains. But my next guest has quite a different outlook.
Joining us now to give his perspective on the new tariff regime is Kenneth Raposa from the Coalition for a Prosperous America. Ken, thanks very much for joining us here on The Situation Report. Hey, thanks for having me back. Now, I'm going to ask you to take both sides of this argument, because frankly, I'm not smart enough to really understand the whole tariff situation.
And I would play devil's advocate, but I don't think I'm clever enough to do that. So let's start with why... What's the positive side of this tariff regime?
Well, the positive side is that you are going to entice companies to manufacture goods in the United States. And that might mean that they're investing in new greenfield manufacturing plants, like we heard recently from Hyundai when they said they would invest in steelmaking in Louisiana. That's unheard of. They're only doing that because of the tariff threat. Also, maybe a gesture of goodwill's
to hope that the Koreans weren't going to be tariffed, but that's another story. So that's one reason why you do it. And if you and I, let's say, here's another reason. If you and I, other than the Greenfield project, right, this would be a brand new manufacturing plant to make whatever it may be, Starlink satellites. You and I have a factory. We spent millions of dollars to build this factory.
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