[Video of briefing begins in progress]
-- confident that we were gonna get this positive result and we're even more confident that we're gonna win in the end. You gotta understand that Jameson Crear, the US trade representative, is the smartest lawyer, trade lawyer on Earth, and that he chose this as the best option because it works fast. It gets us to the table with our, uh, trading partners, and it's gonna hold up in court.
And so if, uh, you know, heaven forbid, if it ever did have trouble in the future, we've got so many other options on the table that the president's policy is going to be there enduring and is going to make American great again, put America farmers first and so on.
Should we be expecting an announcement on that, on those other options soon?
Oh, the, those are well-known. They're, they're well-studied. They're, there are other, you know, other options, parts of the, the trade law.
But using them, actually using them.
We won't have to use them.
Okay.
Because we're using this and, and it's been upheld at court.
Given the un --
Larry Kudlow said that --
I think this, this guy gets go first, but I promise I'll, I'll take a couple. Yeah.
Given the uncertainty, obviously that this is introduced, going back and forth with the courts, the first term, you know, you guys put in tariffs successfully using these other pathways. Why not just do those again the first time? Was it m- -- mistake to, you know, try this other new one and now we're kind of back in a position where --
The --
-- you may have to use the original pathway?
This is, this is a, a legal strategy that was designed by the best legal minds in the business. And the fact is that a lot of the stuff that happened in the previous term while I was here, uh, 2017, were challenged in court as well. And so this is a normal cycle of what happens when there's, uh, you know, trade law changes.
And, uh, we're highly confident in the end result of the way we chose because it's been so scrutinized carefully by the people at USTR and other lawyers at the government.
The, the --
Career lawyers off it, too.
The Treasury secretary had said, I think last week or a couple weeks ago that he, there were a number of deals in the pipeline. He expected that there would be agreements in the next couple weeks. And given this, is that still the expectation that in the next --
Yes.
-- week or two you'll have more --
That's, that's the expectation. Yes.
That's it?
That's right. That, that, the, I've been briefed on three that I think are about to happen, but I'm not gonna speculate which ones which.
Which, which are those?
I know, I know that's your job to ask that, but I'm, I'm not gonna speculate because in the end, the president decides. And, and, and so something that we think is close to the finish line, it could be he decides to go back to the beginning and add some more things and so on. So, we'll, we'll wait and see.
And, uh --
Mr. Hassett --
I, I'll get back to you, but I'm gonna go to the people here first.
Can I ask a question?
But what, you had a question too.
Oh, uh, I did.
I know, [inaudible 00:02:09]. Yeah. Yeah. You --
Amanda here with [inaudible 00:02:13] News. Um, I know there was a lot of stipulation that, or a lot of, um, recommendation that India was gonna be the next country when it came to a major deal. Any thoughts on that?
Yeah, no, no thoughts on specific countries. But we've had lots of productive conversations with India. Uh, I had a wonderful meeting with, uh, their ambassador just recently, and so we're hopeful about that. But, but we're not gonna put anybody ahead of the queue until the president decides to announce.
I'll let you go first.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You're good.
Mr. Hassett, Larry Kudlow said on Fox that the bill that President Trump has endorsed, the big beautiful bill is going put more money in America's pockets. Can you name one way that will happen?
Uh, I could name a whole bunch of ways, but if we, uh, don't tax tips, then when you have your tippet come, the government's not taking any away. If you don't tax overtime, then the way it's in the bill is if you get paid time and a half, then you get taxed on time, but not the half. And so that half is a lot of money.
I, I met the president of the United Auto Workers at my office a couple of weeks ago, and he said it's some of the, uh, plants that are really running all out, that there are people that are getting 20 hours a week overtime being paid 50, 60 bucks an hour. So it's real money for real people, especially real middle class people that need it the most.
When will no tax on tips go into affect?
Uh, the, well, we'll see when the bill passes and what the final language is. But as soon as the bill passes, then we expect it to happen.
Kevin, you said this morning that there are no alternatives that you're working on to pursue when it comes to putting these tariffs in place. That, that you believe the way you're doing it now will ultimately prevail. Peter Navarro just told us that they are looking at alternatives [inaudible 00:03:44].
Oh, no. I, I, if I said that, then I misspoke, because there's so many ways to do it. But, but the point is, we're highly confident in this way, but there are so many ways to do it with 301s in the past. And anyway, so, so --
So why not implement those now while this is fighting it out in the courts?
Because this is going to work, this is gonna win. We're very, very confident this is the right approach. And so we're, we're, you know, very adamant that this is the right approach. And so, you know, while we're ready for a backup plan, that's never gonna happen 'cause this is gonna work, that, you know, we're confident this is the right approach.
Yeah.
We've been talking about sort of the other mechanisms that the administration could use to legally justify these, but one mechanism that couldn't face any court challenges is Congress, right? Constitution ultimately grants Congress the power to regulate trade. So with Republican majorities of both chambers, why not ask lawmakers to pursue your trade agenda?
Well, right now we're working on the big beautiful bill, and the trade policy we have the authority to do from the White House. And so we view this as a better approach. And in addition, uh, what President done is started a negotiation that's moving a lot of pieces. So what we're doing is we're opening up, uh, foreign markets to US products in a way that's never happened before.
And that's the kind of thing with all these moving parts that's best done through the authorities that we have, rather than trying to negotiate every nuance of what happens with, you know, US beef in the UK and so on. So there's a lot of country to country, uh, relationship management for each trade bill.
And that's the thing that, that we believe is best done at the executive branch, so that's why we're doing it that way. Okay?
D- -- do you have concern about, um, you know, the impact on businesses, the impact on the economy of just the prolonged uncertainty, whether or not it's the court's fault or whether or not, you know, uh, the fact that this is just kind of dragging out now and businesses essentially don't know how exactly to plan, you know, going forward?
No, I, I'm, I'm not that, uh, worried about the uncertainty. In fact, if you look, we've had really strong jobs numbers. We had an explosion in capital spending in the first quarter, 20% equipment spending up 10% overall capital spending. And so what's happened is that the belief, it's not the uncertainty, the belief, the high confidence of President Trump is going to land this plane.
It's making everybody create jobs in the US, move factories in the US and [Inaudible] the data. And so I don't think that there's a heck of a lot of uncertainty where we're gonna -- Like, maybe someone wonders, is the rate gonna be this or that at the margin? But I think people are highly confident that President Trump is going to land this plane and that's why there's so much activity coming to the US, why, uh, job creation is so high, and why, by the way, we just had one of the biggest increases in consumer sentiment that we've ever seen.
Because people understand, "Oh, now I understand what's going on. I see that this is gonna happen and I'm planning accordingly."
H- -- have you spoken with any business groups, chamber or business round table since this decision just about how they're --
Uh, uh, which decision? Uh, I haven't spoken with anyone today [Laughs].
Uh, just -- [Laughs] I just [Inaudible]
But I speak every day at all sorts of groups. I've met with groups yesterday.
Were you in the room today for the president's meeting with the Federal Reserve Chair?
Yes, I was.
And how did, how would you describe how that meeting went?
Uh, I think that, uh, the Chair issued a, a statement about it. And I agree with his statement.
Though you agree with Jerome Powell's statement?
That he issued, yes.
And did the president express his displeasure -- I, I -- what -- how did he -- how did he express his displeasure?
I -- if you look at Truth Social, the president's opinion, the interest rates could be lower right now, uh, is very clear and very public, eh --
So he repeated his Truth Social post, basically.
I won't talk about what happened in the Oval, but the president's views are very clear. Yes.
Chris, can I ask you --
Uh-huh.
The Section 232 investigations that were ongoing before this court ruling in the last 24 hours --
Mm-hmm.
-- or so, is speeding those up an option as this legal process plays out w- -- when you sort of look at other avenues to enact the president's tariff agenda?
The, the --
Or are those already at max speed?
The, the, the pace of those legal questions is something that you have to ask James [Inaudible] about.
Okay.
I'm just an economist, again, so --
How -- how are you --
Like, like if the lawyers are moving too slow for an economist, but maybe much faster than is possible [Laughs].
That's fair.
Okay.
I guess, I just -- is, is that -- uh, is pivoting to existing authorities plan B or plan A, as your colleague called it earlier?
I -- I don't think we need a plan B. I think plan A's going to work, but we're ready for every -- everything that happens.
All right.
Okay? Well, thanks guys. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Enjoy the beautiful day.
Really appreciate it.