all right welcome back to the carl jackson show i want to talk about uh these tariffs that president

trump seems to be using as an ultimatum um and actually that he is using as an ultimatum against

canada china mexico and then later in the week he told the brick nations listen i'm going to slap a

100% tariff on you uh if you don't try to, if you guys don't stop trying to undermine the dollar.

So I wanted to bring on E.J. Antony. He's an economist at the Heritage Foundation. You can follow him online. He's excellent at what he does, obviously. Or he wouldn't be at the Heritage Foundation. E.J.

and Tony, welcome back to the Carl Jackson Show. I appreciate you coming on.

Carl, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having me again.

All right, absolutely. So, E.J., I want to go through as many questions as I possibly can

or get through as many questions as I possibly can with you, but I want to try to understand

what Trump is doing here as well.

I mean, I am a free trader, but I do believe that you could use and you should use tariffs as leverage at times, which is what Trump appears to have done, both with Mexico and Canada. That appears to be working. And also,

he's doing that with China, at least threatening this 25% tariff. Obviously, he's not in office yet.

But give us your general take on tariffs. Are they good? Are they bad? Useful? What's your take?

Well, Carl, look, I agree with you. I'm all for free trade,

but I'm for free trade, not just on the international stage, but I'm for free trade when it comes to domestic trade as well. In other words, I want lower taxes across the board, not simply on stuff

we're buying from other countries. So I want lower income taxes.

I want lower sales taxes.

Again, I want lower, I want free trade domestically, not just internationally.

And that's something that a lot of economists for some reason really seem to miss.

So what Donald Trump has essentially done here is he's figured out a way to weaponize the purchasing power of the American consumer. And so he knows he holds all the cards when it comes to negotiating with countries like Mexico, like Canada, that if they decide to engage in this game of chicken with him, if they really want to go toe to toe,

it'll basically be a blip on the radar for the American economy and for the U.S. consumer,

except it would put those countries, Mexico and Canada, into recession.

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