On Wednesday’s Mark Levin Show, President Trump is a genius. Communist China is isolated. Most of the rest of the world seeks trade and tariff deals. The stock market shot back up. It’s Incredible. Trump has implemented a sweeping tariff plan, hitting China with a 104% levy and additional tariffs, effectively isolating it from global trade. He has shifted the trade landscape in a week, prompting over 70 countries to seek U.S. trade deals. Trump’s approach differs from the 1930s tariff wars, as he’s a capitalist, unlike the socialist FDR. He seeks to slash taxes, shrink government, cut spending and regulations, and push a pro-growth agenda absent in that earlier era. Also, Trump says that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. They need to make a deal or else. Does this make Trump a neo-con? Of course not. What really hurt America was the Biden regimen and how they help fund Iran nuclear program. Later, Democrats have contributed to a growing “assassination culture” in the U.S. through inflammatory rhetoric against Trump, and their current silence in the face of escalating violent rhetoric is tantamount to encouragement. The Democrat Party has always been violent – they even defended lynching. Finally, Adam Kredo calls in to discuss a lawsuit filed by American victims of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack accuses Al Jazeera and its U.S. affiliate of providing material support to Hamas by employing operatives as journalists and broadcasting propaganda. The plaintiffs allege Al Jazeera had prior knowledge of the attack and incited violence through its U.S.-based operations, seeking damages under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act.
NY Post
Trump’s sweeping tariff plan kicks in as China is hit with 104% levy
Breitbart
Stocks Soar After Strong Demand in Treasury Auction and Tariff Pause
Jerusalem Post
‘Nothing in the world comes close to it’: US unveils new F-47 fighter jet
Reuters
Trump repeats threat to use military force if Iran does not agree to nuclear deal
Fox News
Mike Huckabee confirmed as US ambassador to Israel in bipartisan vote
NY Post
Democrats lit the ‘assassination culture’ fuse — now their silence equals violence
Time
Adam Schiff Calls For Insider Trading Investigations into Trump Over Tariff Pause
Washington Free Beacon
How a Lawsuit From Oct. 7 Victims, Including Bibas Family Uncle, Could Cripple Al Jazeera
Photo by Anna Moneymaker
The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.
Rough transcription of Hour 1
Segment 1
Hello, America. Mark Levin here. Our number 877-381-3811. 877-381-3811. I have to say, you’re watching genius. No, not me talking about the president. And so a few hours ago, he says, you know what, I’m going to put a 90 day hold on these tariffs. I’ll just leave them at a 10% baseline, except for communist China. Communist China has now slapped another 84% tariff on us. They will slap another 125% on them. He is effectively isolated communist China from the rest of the world and of course from us. At the same time, he says, I know, gee, I get along with him, he’s a very smart guy, so forth and so on. I mean, this man really is a brilliant more than dealmaker strategist, a strategist. And so basically you have now and the Democrats are taking credit for this pullback, but of course, they take credit for everything. They’ve been so helpful, haven’t they? What exactly have they done? What have they done on their watch? This was all perfectly fine. So what did Trump do? He’s changed everything in a period of a week. In a period of a week, he’s changed everything. We now have countries told over 70, maybe over 100, but definitely over 70 who’ve come to the United States and have said, we want to we want to do trade deals with you, tariff deals with you. We agree. We want them to be more fair, more equitable. It would never have happened, period. Never have happened. And these. These tariffs have been in place, what, 14 minutes? But you get my point, a very truncated, very short period of time. And he forced all these countries to come. And he even said during his press conference today, he said, you know, we need the 90 days to deal with all these countries coming to us so we can make some smart deals. They won’t all be the same. And we not only want to get this tariff thing more equitable, but we want to get our balance of trade back in order. And so a 90 day freeze at 10%, except for China, which he whacks with 125%. Now, China can keep playing this game. The truth is their economy is about two thirds the size of our economy. Their economy relies heavily on exports. Ours does not rely heavily on exports. And he’s got a plan to grow the economy. And we’re going to get into that more in a moment as well. So these tariffs have only been in place that long. And he’s pulled them back 10% across the board. Minimum is what he’s put in place. As we negotiate with these other countries that have very high tariffs on us. The Democrats not never squealed a word about the tariffs that foreign countries have placed on us. I mentioned this the other day and now the conga line of plagiarists, verbal plagiarists are out there repeating it. But it’s true. They still don’t really talk about it. We talk about a President Trump talks about it. Now, I understand that China. I think I heard some experts say today or I read today, really about 20% of their economy is linked to cars. That doesn’t make any sense. How do you even know that we have vibrant economic activity, including trade? Export to imports, but the whole world. So if we do decide to do something, it’s not just a matter of how it affects China directly, it can affect China indirectly. That’s the nature of economics. The point is, China can’t win that battle. It cannot win the battle against the United States economically. And I feel that Donald Trump. So what Reagan did to the Soviet Union. Maybe I’m overstating it, but I don’t think so. He’s got a portrait of Reagan hanging in the Oval Office. I know he thinks about him. Not not because he’s slobber all over the portrait because he sees he was an incredibly successful president. There are others he likes. He likes Andrew Jackson. He likes William McKinley, the Reagan. And he’s trying to slash taxes significantly. And he wants that bill passed and he talks about it. And we’ll get into that, too. We have the clip of him telling that to the National Republican Congressional Committee in their members and their their donors. But what’s happened today is really remarkable. Absolutely remarkable. And Schumer’s here, you know, davening up and down, taking credit for it. He blinked and they blinked. Nobody blinks at Schumer. Nobody. I mean, AOC is thinking about running against him. I suspect she will. And the Democrat Party. Not blink. And maybe they have something in their eye, but they’re not blinking over him. I can promise you that. We Democrats, you know, we succeeded. You succeeded at what? He’s going to get these other countries to reduce their tariffs. He’s going to get a more level playing field so we can actually have a really significant free market. He’s going to he’s going to help create wealth in this country. Every single Democrat may be one, but I doubt it. Every single Democrat will vote against his tax package as they all voted against his budget package. And then they’ll take credit for any of the benefits that take place. Right. That’s what they do. Because they’re they’re disgusting. But it’s a big day. What he did. Here. He was outside the White House today. Let’s get cut. One ready, please. And. This is this morning. Come, go regroup hours later. There was a pause put in on the terrace. Can you walk us through what you were thinking about? Why you decided to put a 90 day pause? Well, I thought that people were. Jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippee. You know, we get it a little bit here, be a little bit afraid, unlike these champions, because we have a big job to do. No other president would have done what I did. No other threat. I know the president. They wouldn’t have done it and it had to be done. What was happening to us on trade, not only with you know, if you look at it not only with China, but China is by far the biggest abuser in history and others also. But somebody had to do it. They had to stop because it was not sustainable. Last year, China made $1 trillion of trade with the United States. It said, Right. And now I reverse it and it’s for a short period of time. But we made $2 billion. We’re making now $2 billion a day. And somebody had to do it. Roger actually said that Charles Schwab was here a little while ago, one of the great financial people. And he said he’s been waiting for 40 years for somebody to do what I did over the last month. And if you didn’t do it, you wouldn’t have a country. It wouldn’t be sustainable. So I’m honored to have done it. And, you know, look, nothing’s over yet, but we have a tremendous amount of spirit from other countries, including China. China wants to make a deal. They just don’t know how quite to go about it. You know, it’s one of those things that are not quite they’re proud people. And president. She’s a proud man. I know him very well. And they don’t know quite how to go about it, but they’ll figure it out. They’re in the process of figuring out, but they want to make a deal with him. And we have others. We have we have many other countries, as you know, many more than 75. And they all want to come and they want to come here or they’ll go to commerce or they’re going to Treasury. We have our great senators here and congressmen. They’ll go John to somebody. They’ll go through somebody. But they’re all calling. How do we do this? They all want to make a deal. Somebody had to do what we did. And I did a 90 day pause for the people that didn’t retaliate because I told them, if you retaliate, we’re going to double it. And that’s what I did with China, because they did retaliate. And that’s going to hurt China because their economy is already hurting. And that’s fine by me. When you use economics rather than bullets, it’s a good thing. And Reagan showed the way. Trump is now showing the way. I think it would be well for people. Our friends at National Review, The Wall Street Journal editorial page, but not just them others. To actually try and comprehend what the guy’s doing rather than fall back on shibboleths and knee jerk reactions, because I’m trying to understand it in as I think it through. A lot of this makes sense to me. It just does. And the hollowing out of our industrial sector needs to be turned around for national security reasons at a minimum. We can’t build ships anymore. We built ten ships a year. Ten. Ten. The Communist Chinese. Are building 1000 ships a year. 1000? We’re building ten. We have on order ten new naval ships. Only four of which can actually be built in a period of a year or two. Our naval yards are shut down the Philadelphia Naval Yard. I grew up in Philadelphia, one of the great naval units. It doesn’t do anything anymore. And all those men and women who were so trained, I mean, it’s tough to build a ship. It’s not so simple. Well, people have to be retrained now. They’re not around anymore. And so these things have to be done. It’s unfortunate. I think people are going to look back on this and be really. Amazed that you live through this era, that you live through this period. The big difference between the 1930s and now and I say this to all my friends out there is Donald Trump’s not a socialist. Franklin Roosevelt was so off. Tariffs were in place and they were put in place by Republicans, Coolidge, Hoover, while they were in place. The fact is, the depression was caused, as Milton Friedman has said, by monetary policy, that tightened the dollar, the availability, the dollar by a third contracted the availability of money by one third. So they took a recession and turned it into a depression. And on top of that, it lasted ten years. Because FDR was a socialist, he massively raised taxes. The highest rate was 90%, for crying out loud. He was redistributing wealth. He was trying to change our constitutional construct. And he succeeded in many respects Trousered the socialists. He’s a capitalist. The businessman who built. To build things. He didn’t just move money around like Soros. He actually built things. He developed things. He created things. So he wants a massive tax cut, massive regulatory cuts, slash the size of the federal government, slash the bloat in the bureaucracy so that he has a massive growth agenda on top of this tariff effort in which as of tonight. Shows absolute genius. Now this thing has to play out. We all know that. But as of tonight, absolute genius. I’ll be right back.
Segment 2
I think that this National Republican Congressional Committee dinner, which raises money for House candidates and he wants his tax cuts, number 18. He wants those tax cuts. And it’s got to get done, as I’ve been saying on Fox behind this microphone. It is crucial that these tax cuts be implemented and soon. For the sake of the country, his presidency and the Republicans in the House and the Senate cut 18 go. If we slash taxes on American workers and producers, our economy will soar, jobs will surge, manufacture boom, and our country will prosper like never, ever before. We got to get this big, beautiful deal done and we’ve got to get it done and get it done now. Don’t wait two weeks. Don’t wait two weeks. See, bad things happen. Crazy things happen in politics. Just get the damn thing done and stop showboating. Couple of people want to share. I got to get a little bit more. A little bit more. You know what you’re going to get and end up getting nothing. You end up getting a Democrat bill or worse. He’s right. Let’s go get it done. And the sooner the better. It’ll have an effect on the economy. Takes time for these things to kick in. But the economy is massive and we’ve 320 million people. So it takes time for something like this to resonate through the economy. So people, the end users, you and me, you feel it. So you feel it. And so, I mean, everybody talks about look at the stock market when it was down. Look at the stock market’s up. I don’t look at the stock market. I just don’t. In fact, most of my pension money is not even in the stock market. You know, you reach a point at which, okay, I’ve had it in and out of the stock market for 30, 40 years. That’s enough already. So I put it in more protected areas. But so what? My point is, okay, look at the stock market slash taxes. You want to see the stock market pop? Okay. The stock market will pop. But, you know, it’s important is the stock market is that you have men and women who go to work every single day driving trucks. In construction farmers, ranchers, people working on assembly lines. The stock market doesn’t have a hell of a lot to do with them. Maybe they haven’t, you know, a41k or an IRA. But their everyday life is not affected by the stock market. Their everyday life is affected by the here and now, not what happens when you retire. You’ve got a long life to live before you retire. You’ve got a family to take care of. These are your earning years, as we call them. And so slashed the damn taxes grow the economy. How many more examples do we need? You had Kennedy and Reagan. You had Trump in his first term. Slash them. You want to be competitive, slash them. The Democrats don’t want to cut taxes. They want to cut regulations. They want to cut government. They don’t want to cut cut government personnel. They don’t want to really take on the world when it comes to the way they they apply tariffs to you. And then they go around wringing their hands, We’re going to be in a recession. And Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing. And on and on and on as they embrace Marxism, Islamism. All right. Tons more. I’ll be right back.
Segment 3
Last night the president responding to the people telling him that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Cut 19 go. But the same people now telling me about how to deal with China are the ones who sold out America for decades to China. For decades they gave up to China. I’m the only one that you know how much China has paid? Almost $700 billion in tariffs under me. And then they say Donald Trump hasn’t been tough on China. Hmm. And then finally, let’s go, Mr. Producer. Cut. 20, Go. This is bigger than any deal, you guys. Some of you work for companies. Your companies are peanuts. I don’t care how big they are. Compare this the largest transaction in the history of our country. And don’t let some of these politicians go around Seguros, because I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make it here. Please. Please make it. You know, I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir. And then I’ll see some rebel or Republican, you know, some guy that wants to grandstand. So I think the Congress should take over negotiations. Let me tell you, You don’t negotiate like I negotiate. Congress takes over negotiating. Sell America fast because you’re going to go busted. You know, I just saw it today. A couple of your congressmen said, I think we should get involved in the negotiations of the tariffs. So that’s what I did. I need some some guy tell me how to negotiate. Yeah. Schumer says Congress needs to take it back. Do you want Schumer in charge of tariffs? You on Trump interrogators? I mean, Schumer could have done something before. He didn’t do anything. President Trump posted this earlier. Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the world’s market, some here by raising the tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125% effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S. in other countries is no longer sustainable or acceptable. Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 countries have called representatives of the United States, including Department of Commerce, Treasury, the USTR, to negotiate a solution of the subjects being discussed relative to trade, trade barriers, tariffs, currency manipulation and non-monetary tariffs that these countries have not, in my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape or form against the United States. I have authorized a 90 day pause and substantially lowered reciprocal tariffs during this period of 10%. Also, effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Now, keep in mind a reciprocal tariff of 10%, and some of these countries are charging us far more than 10%. So we’re saying, okay. And he also said later, we need the 90 days to negotiate with each one of these countries, and that’s what we’ll do. None of this would be going on. But for him, can they at least admit that at The Wall Street Journal, can they at least admit that at National Review? Can they least admit that? Well, the Democrats want them in anything because they are mentally deranged no matter what. They’re mentally deranged no matter what. And that is the truth. 90 day pause reciprocal 10%. It’s not it’s not that reciprocal because I said some of these other countries have it at a much higher, much higher level. Stock markets. Well, the stock market surged. It’s the highest increase in the stock market, the main stock market, the Dow Jones ever in one day. Ever in one day. Three major indexes jumped by over 7%. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 saw their biggest gains in five years. The tech oriented Nasdaq jumped over 10%. So you’re happy on Wall Street. Because, you know, we all exist for you after a Wall Street have been reeling since last week when Trump announced a dramatic tariff package. Many predicted Trump’s tariffs would immediately cause a significant uptick to consumer prices. And reduce economic growth. But you see what he’s done here. You see what he’s done here? Treasury Secretary Scott. Percent. Now, this guy is pretty sharp, dude. And I think they’ve decided that he should speak for the for the cabinet rather than every member of the cabinet speaking about these tariffs. And by the way, we’re not going to spend the whole show on this. But this is very important. What’s taking place in front of me truly is history, economic history. It’ll affect everybody’s life in this country. Let’s get cut for ready, please, and the subsequent cuts to here, he says. Outside the White House today, every country wants to talk to us Cut, Forego. And we saw the successful associated strategy that President Trump implemented a week ago today. It is brought more than 75 countries forward to negotiate. It’s a great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment. And what we have ended up with here, as I told everyone a week ago, are in this very spot. Do not retaliate and you will be rewarded. So every country in the world who wants to come and negotiate, we are willing to hear you. We’re going to go down to a 10% baseline tariff for them. And China will be raised to 125 due to their insistence on escalation. Hmm. Hmm. Cut five. Go. In terms of certainty, we will see what China does. But what I am certain of what I’m certain of is that what China is doing will affect their economy much more than a world ours. Because they have an export driven one. The world will consume export models and the rest of the world. Now understand, because when we put our culture, all those exports were already flowing to the rest of the G7 and to the global south. And you can see exactly how. The decision was driven by the bond market cratering overnight when things happened in China selling their bonds. I am guessing that says that we actually had quite a good ten year auction today. And all this was again, this was driven by the president’s strategy. You and I had a long talk on Sunday, and this was his strategy all along. And you might even say that he got in China into a bad position. They responded, and they have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors. And we are willing to cooperate with our allies and with our trading partners who do not retaliate. It wasn’t a hard message to retaliate. Things will turn out well, I think. And again, you have to keep something in mind. In every one of these cases, their tariffs are higher than ours applied against us and our goods. Then finally cut six Go. I think it’s unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system. They have the most imbalanced economy in the history of the modern world. And I can tell you that this escalation is a loser for them, that they have some very smart, the economist, academicians, technocrats within their bureaucracy. And they would be telling the leadership that we do not have the edge here. They are the surplus country. And so their exports to the U.S. are five times our exports to China so they can raise their tariffs. But so what? Mm hmm. So what is right? Now, some industries will be affected. Pharmaceuticals is one of them. So we need to be very mindful of that, of course. But the fact of the matter is that at some point this had to come to a head, didn’t it? At some point it had to come to a head. So it did. And luckily, Trump is in place to deal with it because he knows how to deal with these sorts of things. He’s experienced these sorts of things before. Now, let’s see, China hit us with another 84%, and that’s why Trump hit them with 125%, said, okay, we can keep this up. But I think it really does harm China in a significant way. You know, when you watch TV, you listen to some. These people, so-called experts. I heard one, as I mentioned earlier at the top of the hour, however, were only 20% of the Chinese economy. And that’s a big piece. Then you hear others say that, you know, this this will be a massive impact on them and us and so forth and so on. It’s like all these other countries, all they have to do is pull back is what Trump saying. All you have to do is pull back. Canada. You got 250% tariff on our you know, on some of our dairy products. Pull back. Or Mexico. You’re not securing our border to prevent fend off are coming into our country and killing people. Do something about it. The European Union. The European Union hit a bunch of our businesses today. We’ll see how that turns out, what they do. But, you know, the battle’s on. And I don’t see I don’t view this as a tariff war. It’s something different, you see. It’s different than in 1930s. It’s very different than the 1930s. I know people keep referring to the 1930s. But. But it’s different. This isn’t a Franklin Roosevelt, a Trump, again, a capitalist, not a socialist, a Republican, not a Democrat. There are there are other aspects to this that are important to that is the money supply. The money supply today is not tight and the Fed is not tightening and tightening and tightening. And yet that’s what they did. In 1929 to 1933. But they did it in 1929, 19. They brought the whole system down. That’s not what’s happening today. The Fed’s not doing that. The money supply is fairly vigorous. Interest rates are quite low. I think you can get a mortgage rate for five and a half, five and three quarters percent, somewhere in that ballpark. So the Fed is not reacting the same way. Trump is not doing what FDR did. So he wants slash taxes. So there’s more money available on the private sector like Reagan did, slash the size of government, try and cut spending, cut regulations are industries can actually breathe. It’s a whole pro growth agenda that did not exist in the 1980s, in the in the late twenties, early thirties. In the early forties, but especially in the thirties, especially, I should say, after the election of Franklin Roosevelt. It was not a pro-growth agenda, it was a socialist redistribution of wealth agenda. So the environment’s totally different. So as I said on Fox, as I’ve said here behind the microphone earlier this week, we’ve never really seen this kind of environment and we’ve never actually seen this kind of policy play out. We just haven’t. And so far, so good. For the stock market folks out there, it’s back up. And for the folks who are worried about tariffs, they’re temporarily. Frozen, but for a de minimis 10%. And these foreign countries have an opportunity if they want to be real trading partners with America to level the playing field. You know, when this is said and done. Donald Trump can go down as the biggest free market politician in American history. Seriously? Because isn’t that what he’s trying to do? Trying to save the market system. Many ways he is. I’ll be right back.
Segment 4
Lots of stuff going on out there in America, stuff that doesn’t really fit into any category. But I love it, you know, that we’re working on something called the F 47 fighter jet. President Trump I’m thrilled to announce that in my direction, the United States Air Force. He’s moving forward with the world’s first six generation fighter jet. Now, he mentioned this a few weeks ago, but I never mentioned it. I should have. This is a big deal. This is a game changer. Boeing has been awarded the contract to produce the U.S. Air Force’s next generation fighter jet, the Air Force Seven. It’s classified. It’s the sixth generation fighter. It’s expected to be the most advanced fighter jet ever divide, ever developed by any country. The president said, I’m thrilled to announce that in my direction, the United States Air Force is moving forward with the world’s first sixth generation fighter jet. Nothing in the world comes close to it. And the new name at 47 reportedly acknowledged from second terms the 47th president. The United States got a lot of it. But they sure picture this thing. It looks like a UFO. And I’m glad needs to be done. We need to build our military back up, despite what the the isolationists among us say because they’re moronic. President made some statements about Iran today and I will play that for you to. And I will play that for you, because he’s got a very smart sense of what’s taking place in the Middle East and with Iran. And he cares about defending the American people. And he understands that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, that they could destroy our country. We do not have a Iron Dome like the Israelis do. We won’t catch all the nuclear missiles that are being fired into our country. Once you have the know how to build one, you have to know how to build 1,000,001. That’s the problem. You can’t undo the technology, can’t undo the knowledge. You know, in the 1980s, under Menachem Begin, the prime minister of Israel, they took out the nuclear site that was being built in Iraq. They didn’t announce it to the world. They just did it. And of course, our government was quite concerned about it, but then praised Israel for doing it. And Iraq never got a nuclear device. That’s very important, don’t you think? And in the case of Iran. Iran’s worse than Iraq ever was. Now, when you have Islamo Nazis who keep threatening to take out the United States of America and they’re perfecting, even before they have the nuclear warheads, their intercontinental ballistic missile, you don’t need an intercontinental ballistic missile to hit Israel or any of your Arab neighbors. You need an intermediary, an intermediate risk missile to do that. They already have that. So they’re trying to get these. They’re trying to get these warheads built to threaten us. So we’ll get back to that after the break. I’ll be right back.