The President's Daily Brief
PDB Special Bulletin: Mike Baker Speaks with Mike Slater About Trump's 'America First' Economics
Sun, 02 Feb 2025
President Trump has made it clear America must come first in the global trade economy. What does that mean for competition with China and Russia? Mike Slater discusses with Mike Baker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the significance of Trump's 'America First' economics?
Hey, Mike Baker here. Recently, I sat down with the esteemed Mike Slater for a special program called the Global Trade War, part of his Politics by Faith podcast. We discussed the Trump administration's decision to freeze foreign aid and what that move means for America's global influence.
We also got into Trump's America First trade policy, how it shapes competition with China and Russia, and what it means for the U.S. on the world stage. I wanted to share that discussion with you here. To check out the full special, well, head over to Mike Slater's Politics by Faith podcast feed and listen to the global trade war. Now, here's our discussion.
America is back and open for business. One thing we're going to be demanding is we're going to be demanding respect from other nations. We just want to be treated fairly with other nations because there's hardly a nation in the world, and I blame this on us, and I blame it on politicians that...
For some reason, probably mostly it's stupidity, but you could also say other reasons, but mostly stupidity. They've allowed other nations to take advantage of the U.S., and we can't allow that to happen anymore.
I was to the World Economic Forum. Not enough has been said about the background that Trump uses there. Remember Biden had this background. He made like a made-up set. It was like a set of like a low, like a Bush League Oval Office or something. It was like a pathetic. That's an awesome background for Trump to be speaking the truth to the world. And Mike Baker's here.
The great Mike Baker, host of the President's Daily Brief. Mike, great to talk to you, brother. My first question is- Hey, thank you, man.
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Chapter 2: How does freezing foreign aid influence U.S. global influence?
Chapter 3: What are the implications of Trump's trade policy on competition with China and Russia?
I was to the World Economic Forum. Not enough has been said about the background that Trump uses there. Remember Biden had this background. He made like a made-up set. It was like a set of like a low, like a Bush League Oval Office or something. It was like a pathetic. That's an awesome background for Trump to be speaking the truth to the world. And Mike Baker's here.
The great Mike Baker, host of the President's Daily Brief. Mike, great to talk to you, brother. My first question is- Hey, thank you, man.
Before we get started, thank you for stepping in. uh when i was overseas for the president's daily brief it really appreciate that and got nothing but great feedback and everybody loved you almost loved you too much so
No, I didn't want to put my best foot forward, Mike. You know what I mean?
I will say the only problem is you left the studio kind of cluttered with empty beer cans and empty bourbon bottles. But other than that, it was great experience.
Listen, that's a small tax that you have to pay. No big deal, right? I got to leave some mark behind, right? Thank you, brother. Thanks for letting me do it. How important is our foreign aid to other countries? And I guess the point of that question is how much leverage do we really have over other countries?
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Chapter 4: How does foreign aid affect relationships with other countries?
Yeah, you know what? It's really horses for courses, right? By that, I mean, it depends on the country. It depends on the nature of the aid. It depends on the moment, right? Is it wartime aid? Is it humanitarian aid in a crisis? Or is it just something that's always been there and the establishment, you know, once something's in place, never changes it, right?
Look, the establishment, whether we're talking about the U.S. or whether we're talking globally, you know, their heads are exploding right now, right? Because they love nothing more than status quo, right? Being comfortable and being in a position that they can understand and they can predict, and they know that they'll always be in that position.
So freezing foreign aid to the degree that President Trump has done now in this short period of time that they've been in office, with the eye towards reviewing the dollars that are going overseas, people should actually be happy. US taxpayers should be happy
that that's happening, knowing that some of that aid is wasted, some of it is critical and will be reinstated, and some other needs will probably be identified and will be funded at that point.
Yeah, that has to be just terrifying for these people who are only used to the status quo. They're finally being questioned. They finally, like in that scene in office space, have to go in front of the two guys and answer the question, what is this that you do here exactly? And is this a good use of taxpayer money? So what fear do other countries have in this?
Like I can understand the American NGO person, right? But what can we do with other countries? What's the effect of that, these freezes of spending?
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Chapter 5: What transparency issues arise from foreign aid spending?
Yeah, look, I think what it does is a couple of things. It forces some level of transparency, both on the recipient and also the U.S. government, to explain the purpose of the aid, drill down and talk about it in more detail than they tend to. It will...
Probably, I'm just going out on a limb here and saying in some circumstances, it will help to mitigate corruption that exists in the world of foreign aid, whether it's an NGO, whether it's government to government, whatever it may be, because that definitely exists. There's a lot of money over the years. that has gone missing.
And whether we're talking about money going to the Taliban, for instance, or going to Gaza, supposedly to help the civilians, and it ends up lining the pockets of the billionaire leadership of Hamas. Whether we're talking about, you know, aid to Africa, where In some of these countries, you think, how have they not improved their conditions?
Well, it's because a lot of times the despotic leaders are pocketing that money. So I think it will help to mitigate that corruption. But look, some foreign aid, there's no doubt about it. Some of it is is crucial, is critical. Right. We don't live in a bubble. So nobody should imagine that freezing foreign aid means suddenly we're drawing the curtains around the U.S. and saying that's it.
Chapter 6: How could freezing foreign aid mitigate corruption?
You know, everybody else, you're on your own. That's not that's not how this is going to work. And it can't work that way because, you know, the world is too interconnected and there are still elements out there that are hostile to our interests and there'll be vacuums. If we pull back aid in certain areas to certain countries, you know, the Chinese regime will sweep in there.
And they've been making that effort for a couple of decades now.
Yes. Great point. Obviously, China. But let me start with this. We kicked off the show talking about the little mini trade war with Colombia that lasted like an hour that Trump just swatted him around.
Are there other countries out there, though, that can match Trump and can match the American economy and the American military might in a way that Trump can't just slap him around on a golf course for an hour? Colombia is obviously not one of those. China would be. Are there any other countries out there that we would need to be on the lookout for?
Chapter 7: What role does foreign aid play in U.S. national security?
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with the members of the nuclear club, right? There's always that concern. So we have to be somewhat mindful of the nature of the country we're talking about. How hostile are they to US interests? But there's really nobody else other than the Chinese regime that's got that sort of leverage and they've still working on it.
They've been building or attempting to build significant leverage in Latin America, in Africa, parts of the Middle East. Over the past 20 years in particular, while we've been focused in the U.S. on the global war on terror, we tend to be sort of with blinders on. It sometimes seems that a U.S. administration, regardless of which administration, has a hard time multitasking.
So all our focus is on the Middle East or counterterrorism. And we take our eye off the ball in Latin America. And then after a few years, we wonder, well, how come we have so many nations down there with governments that are hostile to our interests? Well, it's because we're not paying attention. We're not in there.
We're not making an effort, not just dollars, but resources, personnel, strategic thinking.
Let's let's we got about two minutes. Let's do that. I was going to ask you about Saudi Arabia, but in that vein here, locking down our hemisphere. I know we've talked before about the Panama Canal. We understand that. And we see the Belt and Road Initiative with China all through Panama and all over up in Mexico. There's like Canadian ports in Mexico. It's crazy.
How would you like to see this president and secretary of state lock down our hemisphere tighter?
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