00:00I've got a few minutes, I've got a nine o'clock, so I can't take too long.
00:05I told him he could have a person.
00:07Can I ask you what the president meant when he said that he'll be watching Walmart?
00:10What's the message to corporate America?
00:12Well, I think that the tariff policy has been very successful in the sense that we've raised 20 billion in revenue last month,
00:20and the consumer price index went down, and inflation actually got closer to target.
00:24But depending on supply and demand elasticities for each product, I guess the answer could go one way or the other.
00:30One thing we're highly confident in is that real wages are going to grow,
00:34and so the people going to Walmart are going to have a lot more money in their pockets.
00:37In fact, we have a new study out from the Council of Economic Advisers that highlights just how much real wage growth there's going to be because of these policies.
00:43And so there's some uncertainty. We're going to watch it very, very closely about how this ends over the next two or three months when the tariff rates get set.
00:51But also don't forget it's not a measure of inflation, that to the extent there was a price change,
00:56that it's just a one-time level adjust based on whatever the incidence of the tariff is.
01:00It's been almost two months. It's been almost two months.
01:02It's been almost two months.
01:03You were the next.
01:04Just how closely is the White House watching the bond market this morning?
01:08Well, yeah, I think that American bonds are the best buy in the world,
01:13that they're going to be an even better buy once all of our policies are in place.
01:17And this downgrade is something that happened because of the runaway spending in the previous administration.
01:23They were the last agency to move, and I don't think it should be a surprise to market.
01:26And a very quick play on reconciliation, what's the White House support moving up the work requirements when it comes to Medicaid?
01:31We support what it takes to get the bill through.
01:34I'll try to get to everybody in the U.S.
01:37What's the health of the economy right now in the U.S.?
01:42We've got low inflation almost at target.
01:44We've got jobs numbers that have been way above expectations.
01:47We have core GDP of about 3% growth.
01:50We had a capital spending boom in the first quarter, which is something that's really kind of unprecedented.
01:54You've never seen equipment investment growth that high anywhere close to a recession.
01:58So I think that the onshoring of American production is something that has been the top priority of the President,
02:03and it's quite visible in the data already.
02:05On trade deal negotiations, what are the key elements left now?
02:09I have to leave that to the negotiators, sir.
02:12The President is going to announce trade deals when he returns from this trip.
02:15Can you offer a preview of what countries are close to getting trade deals?
02:18I'm sure the President has lots of stuff on his desk, and he's going to decide what's good enough and what's not.
02:22We'll find out this week which deals he wants to announce.
02:24You told us even before Liberation Day that you had 15 countries that were on the brink of making a deal in nearly two months, and you've had one deal.
02:32So what is the hold-up with all the other countries?
02:34There's been a whole bunch of deals.
02:36I'm sorry, with what countries?
02:38Well, I mean, so you don't think that the deal with China counts as a deal, and the deal with the U.K.
02:43We've got like an agreement in principle with India.
02:46I said the deal with the U.K.
02:47But anyway, everybody, you can talk to Jamison Greer.
02:50Scott Bessett and Howard Luck.
02:52Everybody has seen awesome deals that are on the table.
02:54But, you know, last week we were in the Middle East cutting trillions of dollars of deals with our Middle Eastern friends.
03:00And now we're closing the trade deals.
03:02No, I understand.
03:03Now we're closing the trade deals because the President is back in the country.
03:06So I have time for one more question.
03:07I don't know if the inflation report isn't for the one that you will get over the finish line.
03:11What do you say that's going to serve as a capital and a public interest rate?
03:15Well, I think everybody should just go read the Council of Economic Advisors' report about the growth effects.
03:20It's based on the same kind of models that we used in 2017, and we pretty much nailed those growth effects,
03:25got everything right within a tenth or two.
03:27And so I think there's a lot of academic scientific credibility in the work that they're doing
03:31that says that we're going to have really high GDP growth, really high rates growth, low inflation from the supply side effects of the policies.
03:38So thanks, everybody.
03:39I've got to run to a nine o'clock.
03:40What's your message to Republicans who oppose this deal?
