00:00We'll go to Marjorie in Wanakee.
00:02Hello, Marjorie.
00:02Thanks, Sonny.
00:03Stay on the call.
00:03What's your question?
00:06Yes, hi.
00:06I am also a small business owner, single entity, and these trade wars are absolutely killing us, killing the business, as well as really cutting into my personal expenses.
00:23I mean, you know, you go to the store and you can see the price increases.
00:29I have no idea why the CPI has not increased because I can see the 9%, 10%, and 20% increases in prices, and also we're really being hit with international businesses not wanting to do business with us.
00:49So how are you going to help us to get rid of these tariffs and stop this trade war, please?
00:55So, Marjorie, if you've listened to me on the media, I've been voicing my skepticism about the trade war since pretty much day one.
01:03What I do do is I collect and, you know, listen to businesses, and we provide the information to Representative Greer and Secretary Besant and President Trump's trade representatives,
01:16so they know exactly the kind of damage being done, which even President Trump acknowledges as he tries to reset global trade.
01:26I think there's no doubt that our trading partners have definitely taken advantage of America.
01:30He's trying to reset that, and it's not an easy thing to do.
01:33I will say that the generalized 10% tariff, the impact on inflation is pretty imperceptible and a one-time thing.
01:46If you think about it, at most, it's applied to the wholesale cost of goods.
01:51At most, that's 50%.
01:52In many cases, probably more like 10% or 20%.
01:55So, it just doesn't filter through the economy, and it doesn't keep happening.
02:00So, I'm less concerned about the overall 10% tariff as I am just about, you know, the negotiations that President Trump is engaged in.
02:13Personally, I don't want to undermine his leverage so that he can conclude these trade deals as quickly as possible,
02:17and we can provide that certainty, just like, by the way, taking a massive automatic tax increase off the table returned a lot of certainty to our economy.
02:27People can breathe a sigh of relief and go, okay, good, that's not happening.
02:31Plus, just what President Trump is doing in terms of trying to reduce the regulatory burden is helpful, but I don't disagree with you.
02:38What I do is I just let the administration know exactly, case by case,
02:42just the harm being caused, try and conclude these trade deals as soon as possible.
02:47But, Marjorie, thanks, Jayon, for the call.
02:50Good luck to you.
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