Anthony Zerker
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
I think it tells you that there is some conflict within Donald Trump's inner circle. And Donald Trump doesn't necessarily have a problem with that. Sometimes he actually encourages his advisers, people in his staff to kind of go at each other. He enjoys the conflict. He likes being able to float above it and then make the decisions based on what he sees.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
But I think there are different factions in this White House, and some of them, including Scott Besant and others, are in favor of a more restrained trade policy. They want to focus on China. They don't want as big and sweeping across the board tariffs. But then you see other sides advocating a much more aggressive policy.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
trade policy, Peter Navarro being one of the leading members of that group. And so now it seems like at least the folks who are preaching caution, the folks who are telling Donald Trump to take a step back and let the markets cool off a little bit, they have the upper hand.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
I think it was a dramatic reversal. And I think that fosters views that that this administration is not being consistent.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
And one thing when you're applying these tariffs, if you want American businesses to start making decisions based on the moves of these tariffs, they have to know that they're going to be there, that they're not going to change overnight because they're going to be building factories, for instance. to produce things on American soil.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
And if the tariff policies change in the middle of that construction, it could leave them high and dry. I think you did hear from members of the administration say this was an art of the deal. This is where they wanted to be to begin with. They were bringing people to the negotiating table, allies, South Korea, Japan, the EU, meanwhile, focusing attention on China as being the big villain here.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
But Donald Trump kind of undercut all of that yesterday afternoon when he came out and talked People were getting a little bit afraid and they were getting yippy and that the bond market, what was happening with the instability in the bond market was one of the reasons why Wednesday morning he made the decision from his heart, he said, not with lawyers, but from his heart to dial things back.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
And that that definitely undercut all of these. This was our grand plan type of explanations.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
Well, we're starting to see some polls come out in the middle of this week that were in the field at the beginning of Donald Trump's move on tariffs. And they do show that the United States public is concerned, is a little more apprehensive about what Donald Trump is doing. His overall approval ratings are have dipped somewhat.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
His approval for his handling of the economy and tariffs in particular showed that a majority of the American public don't like what he's doing. And then you have to remember that with these permutations, the gyrations in the stock market, over half of Americans own stocks in their retirement accounts. They aren't Wall Street traders. They aren't folks who live and die by the stock market.
Global News Podcast
Trump's tariffs explained
But their retirement, their futures are based on stocks going up. And so they can't help but see, even if it's going to take longer for prices to go up and the tariffs to really take a bite, they can't help but see this affecting their savings and their long-term plans.
Global News Podcast
The Ukraine War: What happens next?
Hey there, Ukraine cast. It is good, as always, to be on with you. I'd say it's a bit too early to have any kind of accurate polling on what Americans think about that Oval Office Trump-Zelensky dust-up last week.
Global News Podcast
The Ukraine War: What happens next?
But there was a recent CBS poll that showed the United States narrowly divided on whether they approved of how Donald Trump has handled the Ukraine war so far in the month he's been president. Americans also are evenly divided on whether the U.S. should continue to send arms to Ukraine. But when you dig down into those numbers, you'll see a very sharp partisan divide over the issue.
Global News Podcast
The Ukraine War: What happens next?
Democrats, they overwhelmingly support continued USAID to Ukraine and Republicans overwhelmingly oppose it. And after that tumultuous visit by Zelensky to the U.S., we did see some pro-Ukrainian protests in the U.S. across the U.S. in a variety of different cities. But the demonstrators numbered in the hundreds, not the thousands at most.
Global News Podcast
The Ukraine War: What happens next?
Now, as for your question about whether anyone or anybody or anything could be done to stop Trump's decision to suspend aid, it is possible. But all of that is part of what is a larger legal battle. Congress approved continued funding for Ukraine. That's just the bottom line. They assigned the money and it's up to the president to distribute it. It's his obligation.
Global News Podcast
The Ukraine War: What happens next?
But as with many other areas of government spending, Trump is simply refusing to do so, at least temporarily. It's going to be up to the courts and perhaps ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court to decide how much scope, how much freedom the president has to simply ignore the instructions of Congress.
Global News Podcast
The Ukraine War: What happens next?
So when push comes to shove, US presidents generally do have broad authority to conduct foreign policy. And that's something that the court is going to take into consideration. And it's not as though Trump wasn't clear in last year's presidential campaign how he felt about the Ukraine war, how he felt about Ukraine, and for that matter, Russia.
Global News Podcast
The Ukraine War: What happens next?
So I would say chances are Donald Trump is going to be able to do what he wants here, as he has with so many other things. And the rest of the world and the American public who would object to it are just going to have to find a way to deal with it.