GOP tariff woes, Musk's unforced error, Booker's speech
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2025
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With the stock market roiling following the announcement of new tariffs, Republicans are confronting a challenge. Will they support President Donald Trump’s economic plans, even if they don’t believe in them? Or will they seek to temper his moves and draw criticism from a president who hates disloyalty?
Senior reporter Aaron Blake talks with Post congressional correspondent Liz Goodwin and Senate reporter Theodoric Meyer about the mixed reactions to this week’s bombshell economic news. They also discuss how special elections in Florida, and a state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, provide Democrats with some positive data points after their stinging 2024 defeat. In particular, Elon Musk’s spending push in support of the conservative candidate in Wisconsin may have backfired, motivating liberal voters to turn out en masse. Plus, what Cory Booker’s more than 25-hour speech from the Senate floor did and didn’t accomplish.
Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sean Carter.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So earlier this week, President Donald Trump finally announced his long-awaited tariffs on most of the countries and territories around the world. |
| 0:11.3 | But I think one territory caught the most people's attention, and that was a small group of islands called the Herd and McDonald Islands. |
| 0:19.7 | These are way off the coast of Australia, |
| 0:21.7 | actually closer to Antarctica. They are not home to humans, and yet they have been slapped with a |
| 0:27.8 | 10% tariff. I don't believe guys that they are actually exporting things, although maybe the penguins |
| 0:33.8 | there are producing something that's really important to American industry. |
| 0:38.1 | I wondered if you guys have seen all these penguin memes that are floating around. |
| 0:41.5 | They are amazing. |
| 0:44.0 | Though I would say, Aaron, you're very quick to assume that these penguins do not produce an export. |
| 0:49.7 | I'm not going to rule that out, honestly. |
| 0:51.5 | I did see a social media post from an account, Penguins Against Trump, tweeting, |
| 0:58.2 | what are you going to do, deport us? We've been dealing with ice for centuries. |
| 1:04.8 | Oh, my goodness. Oh, man. |
| 1:12.1 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post. |
| 1:14.5 | This is Post Reports. |
| 1:16.5 | I'm Aaron Blake, senior politics reporter and host of the Post Report's weekly |
| 1:20.3 | politics roundtable. |
| 1:22.1 | It's Friday, April 4th. |
| 1:24.4 | I'm joined this week by Liz Goodwin, the Post-C congressional correspondent. Hey, Liz. |
| 1:28.6 | Hello. And we're also here with Theo Meyer, who covers the Senate for the Post. Hey, Theo. |
| 1:33.7 | Good morning, Aaron. |
| 1:36.5 | So, guys, we've got a couple of themes running through today's show. The first one is things President |
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