Donald Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, explained to CNBC how Trump’s tariffs will not only make the U.S. money, but also protect the American worker and boost American manufacturing.
As Howard Lutnick explained back in September, before Trump even won and Lutnick was nominated for an administration role, tariffs are “a bargaining chip” and an “amazing tool.” He described how the post-World War II-era Marshall Plan and similar projects long outlasted their usefulness and ended up creating a system rigged against American manufacturing, and in favor of our competitors in Europe and Asia.
Lutnick told the skeptical CNBC hosts on “Squawk Box” at the time that “We can’t sell a Ford or G[eneral]M[otors] in Europe. You go to Europe, you can’t sell [or] afford a GM. Why? There’s 100% tariffs. How about in Japan, 100% tariffs.” If Trump threatened 100% tariffs on European and Japanese autos, “Do you think they’re going to allow Mercedes and all these Japanese companies and Porsches and BMWs to all of a sudden, have 100% tax in America? Of course not, they’re going to come and negotiate and their tariffs are going to come down. And finally, Ford and General Motors are going to be able to sell in these places.”
One CNBC talking head began repeating over and over that Trump needed to impose tariffs “strategically” rather than “across the board.” Lutnick countered, “When you’re running for office, you make broad statements so people understand you, okay. Tariffs are an amazing tool by the President to use.” Trump does, however, understand “don’t tariff stuff we don’t make, right? … It’s pointless. But use tariffs to build in America. If we want to make it in America, tariff it, or [impose it] if we’re competing with a tariff.” He emphasized the key point: “But you got to remember, we need to protect the American worker. Finally, someone is going to protect the American worker, and Donald Trump is here to” do that.
When another CNBC talking head cut in to challenge Lutnick on multiple potential outcomes of imposing tariffs, Lutnick launched into an explanation that even the CNBC host admitted was the best explanation she’d heard on the topic. “So which is it, do we make a lot of money on tariffs, or we bring productivity here and we drive up our workers here?” Lutnick asked. Either way, “it’s a win-win scenario.” Now Trump and Lutnick will be able to make that scenario a reality. […]
— Read More: pjmedia.com
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
