President Trump has declared April 2, 2025, “Liberation Day.” But will his reciprocal tariff plan work and bring manufacturing jobs and prosperity back to America? Glenn speaks with economist Stephen Moore on what Americans can expect once the tariffs hit. Yes, there will be pain, Moore says. But “Trump is the single best negotiator I have ever met in my life and I think, in the end, he will prevail.” Moore also urges the White House to emphasize its regulation and tax cuts along with the tariffs. Plus, he predicts what America could look like a year from now and what Americans should prepare for.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Stephen Moore. My good friend, how are you, sir?
Stephen, are you there?
STEPHEN: Good morning.
GLENN: How are you, man?
STEPHEN: Hi, Glenn. Great to be with you.
GLENN: Thank you very much. Today is Liberation Day. How are you feeling?
STEPHEN: Well, you know, I -- I think it's a Liberation Day. But I'm feeling a little maybe trepidation day as well.
We will see what's out there. I don't know exactly what the details are. I don't think anybody does.
Except Donald Trump at this moment.
Look, I'm a free trade guy. I understands the benefits. Benefits both countries.
But I would say, on the other hand. Because this is really a debate. Where I can go at either side of it.
Trump has an important point.
A lot of people don't understand. You have a wise listenership.
But A lot of Americans don't understand, that we're the lowest terror country in the world right now, among all the major trade partners. And what Trump is simply saying is it's not a level playing field. It's not fair. These other countries are not playing by the rules.
And they need to trade with the United States. So they better get their act together, they better start treating us fairly, or he will hit them with these tariffs. I've been listening to you, for the last 15, 20 minutes. There will be some costs to Americans.
In buying cars. And we might see a little rise in prices of things. Trump describes this as, you know, short-term pain for long-term gain. And I think it's for every American to kind of figure out where they stand on this right now.
I'm a little bit worried about it. I will say this, Trump is the single best negotiator I've ever met in my life. And I think in the end, he will prevail.
GLENN: So is he going just for a strange level field?
You can't say it's a -- it's a free market. Because there are tariffs involved. But if our tariffs are only reflecting everybody else's. Then it is a free market, if you will.
Just trying to bring everything level up to the -- you know, the place where everybody else is. Is that the goal here, which would lead me to believe, there might be some short-term effects, because we can turn the negotiating power on. Pretty quickly.
Or is he trying to bring manufacturing back, which is -- I mean, I think he's calling it Liberation Day. Because it harkens back to World War II. And he's liberating us from almost everything that we set up, right after World War II.
He's saying, effectively, with almost -- in almost every category. All of that stuff is broken. And we can't do that anymore.
So is he saying, we're not going to be part of this global thing anymore. We will bring manufacturing back here. And that will be tough. But it's the only way to really, truly grow our economy.
By building things here. Which is it, or is it both? Stephen.
STEPHEN: These are complicated questions. You know, and I can't get into Donald Trump's mind. Look, let's start with why he won this election. He won the election by winning blue-collar, middle class voters into the Republican Party, many of whom have voted Democratic, but realized that Trump was the one who really stood behind them.
I believe, gren, to answer your question about how do we make America number one in manufacturing and, you know, obviously technology. And other industries that are so important.
I believe many of the other things that Trump is doing.
For example, lead article in the Wall Street Journal this week, didn't get a lot of attention.
Front page. That Trump is deregulating our economy. It will reduce costs for American companies, by as much as a trillion dollars. So that will make us very competitive.
GLENN: Hang on just a second.
I was just talking about, I'm not seeing enough about cutting the regulation, and also cutting of tax cuts.
STEPHEN: Right. That's right!
GLENN: Because if you don't have those to go along with the tariffs, this isn't going to work. This is just not going to work.
STEPHEN: Exactly. Yeah. Great minds think alike. And that's exactly what I was going to say.
And it was almost like we were saying the same thing.
As you know, you look at the tax plan. As you know, Larry Kudlow and I -- the very first version of that tax plan. Eight or nine years ago.
And it was a huge success. Huge success.
Glenn, one of my frustrations right now, with the Trump administration, with the president. I love this guy. I mean, I would -- I would go through a burning building for him.
And he would do those things for the country. Have you heard him talk a lot about the tax cut in the last month? No. And have you ever heard him talk about deregulation last month? No.
GLENN: No. No.
STEPHEN: No. It's all been about tariffs. And, you know, that's the medicine, but people want to see the good stuff. There are issues that unify the Republican Party, like lowering tax rates, deregulating the economy, pro-America energy policy. Those kinds of things.
Frankly, the tariff issue is the kind of issue that divides us. Some of my best friends are in favor of it. I'm kind of on the fence on it. Others are strongly against it. So I want to see Trump talking a little bit more about all of the benefits of these other things that he's doing.
In fact, I've waited 40 years, Glenn, for a president to say, we're going to dismantle the US Department of Education because it's totally useless. It probably does more damage to our schools. Well, he did it.
I was there when he signed that executive order. That was amazing. He's doing incredible things for our country.
But a lot of it gets overshadowed, because all he's talking about right now is tariffs.
GLENN: Well, he's got to bring a lot of people to the table. So what do you think is going to happen?
He obviously picked 4 o'clock, because the stock market is closed, right?
STEPHEN: I guess so. He may very well be right. I think it's going to be -- nobody knows exactly what he's going to say.
But I think he is going to call for a ten to 20 percent across-the-board tariffs, on just about anything that comes into the US. Now, that will raise prices. I mean, if you put a tax on things that come in, to some extent, you know, consumers will pay the cost of that.
And then, I think he's going to go after certain countries, that are the worst abusers like China.
And, by the way, I'm all in favor of going after China. I think China is a menace. You were one of the first people that started talking about this, 25 years ago. So China is the enemy. One thing I don't get.
And I say this with all due respect, because I do love this president. I don't understand why we've got so much discussion about Canada.
Canada is one of our most important allies. And why aren't we talking about China, and some of these other countries, that are -- you know, dangerous to our economy and national security.
GLENN: I know. Yeah. I've been questioning that.
And so let me ask you, best case scenario. What happens?
What do we look like in a year from now?
STEPHEN: Other countries dramatically bring down their tariffs. Not just tariffs, by the way, Glenn.
Trump made an important point here.
Also, nontariff barriers. The fact that many of these countries have various rules that close the markets to American products. And I'm not just talking about manufacturing products. You know, we're the breadbasket of the world. We have the greatest, most productive farmers in the world. We produce more of our food and agricultural products than any other country.
And yet, many countries lock out our wheat and our corn and our barley and our meat. Our dairy products.
So I think, if this works out. And I would never bet against this president. I think you will see other countries having to open up their markets to American manufacturers and American farmers and American technology. Because, by the way, our technology company is completely discriminated against by these Europeans and these other countries.
So there's a lot to be angry about.
GLENN: Brussels said, I think yesterday, or early this morning. We've got war plans. You know, economic war plans. You go ahead, you launch these.
We're relaunching our own attack. You know, tomorrow.
Bluster or real?
STEPHEN: I'm sorry, who said that?
GLENN: Brussels. Yeah, the EU.
STEPHEN: Oh, the EU. Yeah. Right. Okay. Well, let me address that.
Because, first of all, I'm so sick and tired of these sanctimonious.
GLENN: We don't hang out enough, Stephen. I just love you. Go ahead.
STEPHEN: You know, oh, my gosh. How tear Donald Trump do this. He's starting a trade war.
I know what Donald Trump would say, if he was on your show right now. He would say, what are you talking about?
I'm -- one-third as high as theirs now. They have a lot of nerve to say Trump is causing a trade war!
I mean, you know, it's like -- if I came up to you, Glenn, and punched you in the nose.
And then you tried to fight back. How dare you start a fight with me! I mean, so Trump has the moral high ground here because we do open up our markets.
And the other countries. By the way, there was a very famous incident that happened, I wasn't there.
But my buddy Larry Kudlow was there.
At one of the G20 meetings, I think it was in Ottawa.
And the Europeans were sitting there and complaining and grousing about Trump talking about tariffs. I don't know if you're aware of this.
But Trump, it's on the record. People were there. Trump said, okay! You know what, why don't we all go to zero on tariffs?
They ran to the doors as quickly as they could.
GLENN: I know. I know. I know.
So now, tell me what you think is -- is -- say likely nor a, if things don't go exactly the way. You know, bring this up. Because Paul Krugman. The New York Times.
He said, with Biden. Don't dismiss the careful work of our statistical agencies because you're feeling angry on the check out line.
I don't want to say that about tariffs.
I mean, it's going to make things harder to buy what you need.
And we shouldn't downplay that.
The president is not even downplaying that.
He says, it's going to be a little painful for a while, right?
But people are on the edge financially. And, you know, no amount of political theory helps people pay for the groceries, or makes it feel better when you're paying for the groceries, so I don't want to be in that camp.
What should people mentally respect for, that is a likely scenario, even if it turns out, that it was the right thing? What's coming our way?
STEPHEN: So I think that Trump has -- has -- has made a mistake here, in the sense that, we should have done this tax bill, first!
GLENN: Yeah. I agree.
STEPHEN: That would have been a huge victory. I hope your listeners understand, if we don't get this thing done. We're talking about a 3,000-dollar per family tax increase. On January 1st. And, by the way, every single Democrat in Congress voted for that.
$3,000 per family tax increase. So we should -- I -- I hope as he's talking about these tariffs. He links that to the fact that he's talking about, you know -- a major growth enhancing tax reduction.
You know, I like his idea, for example, Glenn. Where he said, look, if you will bring something into the country.
You will pay a 15 percent tariff on.
But if it's made in America. You will only pay a 15 percent tax.
I love that. Let's do that.
Let's implement that now. What you're doing is giving a little bit of favoritism to some, in Ohio and Maine and Vermont.
GLENN: My guess is, he would have done that, if he could count on the Republicans.
STEPHEN: He can't! I know.
GLENN: I know. There are two groups of people that worry me.
Congress. And, quite honestly, the Justice Department. I don't know where Pam Bondi is, but that's a different story. But Congress needs to do their job.
STEPHEN: And, you know, I think you're right. What are we?
Day 89. I can't keep track.
But it's amazing what Trump has done already. I mean, Trump should have that tax bill -- he has the voter mandate.
Why have the Fed been sitting on this for five weeks?
GLENN: I can't tell you. I can't tell you. So tell me about the -- tell me about the -- tell me about the regulations that you're seeing.
Is the regulation -- because tariffs, tax cuts, regulations.
Tell me about the regulations that you're seeing.
Is it significant? The regulation slicing!
STEPHEN: Enormously so. So remember, you remember. What was the first thing that Joe Biden did when he became president?
GLENN: Energy.
STEPHEN: Yeah. He killed all our energy infrastructure project.
That's something our enemies would have done to us.
Biden did it to us. He shut down the pipelines.
He put incredibly onerous climate change taxes on our goal and gas and coal industry.
Remember Hillary saying, well, that's okay.
The coal miners can become computer programmers or something.
GLENN: That's working.
STEPHEN: Exactly. So Trump is opening up our energy. We have more oil, gas, and minerals, by the way.
You know, this new Secretary of Interior, Governor Doug.
GLENN: Burgum. Burgum.
STEPHEN: Burgum. He's doing an amazing job. You know, we have $10 trillion of mineable, critical minerals in this country. In the mountains of Utah and Dakotas. We can do that.
You know, he's --
GLENN: So, but what I want to ask you.
STEPHEN: He can allow more mergers and acquisitions. So our companies can be more effective. It's all over the board.
It's on transportation policy. And that will cut costs dramatically for American consumers and that's a really positive thing. In fact, when I give talks to small businesses, you give a lot more talks than I do.
I always ask the men and women, I say, which is worse for you? The tax burden or the regulation burden? And you know what they said, the regulations.
GLENN: The regulations, every time.