RADIOFebruary 26, 2025

Why the FREAK OUT About Trump's Reciprocal Tariff Plan Makes NO SENSE

“I am very supportive of the President’s tariffs,” former West Virginia State Treasurer and current U.S. Representative Riley Moore tells Glenn. In fact, he has introduced a bill to codify Trump’s agenda through Congress. Rep. Moore explains his “US Reciprocal Trade Act” and how it will help American businesses and workers: “The American people and the American worker have been taken for a ride for a very long time…at the end of the day, nobody wants high tariffs. What this president has proven is when you go out here and you reciprocate, you’re going to lower tariffs and get more free trade.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Congressman Riley Moore.

Welcome!

How are you, Riley?

RILEY: I'm doing great. Thanks for having me back on.

GLENN: Great. It's good to have you. Do you like being a congressman over a State Treasurer? What do you think so far?

RILEY: Well, so far so good. I wish being around West Virginia. The sane people. In the state of West Virginia. You know, it's something I certainly prayed on a lot, and certainly I need a lot of prayers for God's protection when you're down here. No doubt about it.

GLENN: I know. So you are a guy who understands things as a Treasurer, you understand the economy, et cetera, et cetera.

So tell me what you think about Trump's tariffs, and what he's actually doing.

RILEY: Yeah. So I'm very supportive of the president's tariffs. I've actually introduced -- called it the US reciprocal trade act. And specifically, what the president is trying to do here and what I'm trying to address in my bill. In short, we're being taken for a ride. The American people, and the American worker, have been taken for a ride for a very long time.

Now, what my bill does is it addresses non-tariff trade barriers that are there, so that could be a vat. That could be a regulation. It could be government subsidies. That act like a tariff for our manufacturers to be able to enter into that marketplace.

Right?

A lot of hidden costs in there. Now, the president, what he wants to do is be able to reciprocate with all these countries that have high tariffs. What I want to do is allow to give them more latitude, to be able to reciprocate on these non-tariff areas because at the end of the day, nobody wants high tariffs.

What the president has proven is when you go out here, and you reciprocate. You will lower being tariffs. And you will get more free trade. Everyone who is freaking out about this. Oh, no. This is going to be terrible for the consumer.

This is going to be great for the consumer in the long run. And guess what, it's going to be great for the American worker. And the blue-collar worker. And the same point here --

GLENN: Riley, he is playing, I think five dimensional chess.

I mean, I've not been a fan of tariffs. They generally are not good for the economy. And the free market.

But the reciprocal tariff is just saying, I just want free, fair trade. I don't want any tariff. But if you will raise a tariff. Then I will balance the field by giving you exactly the same tariff.

Now, how do you do that, with that? How does your bill actually make, you know, all the subsidies. For instance, Airbus.

How are you balancing that?

RILEY: Right. So it will allow the USTR, to be able to calculate that, and they will come up with a value, in terms of what that looks like. In a nontariff sense.

Right?

What is that value? What is that -- inhibitor into our entrance into that marketplace. So it gives them latitude over US VR to be able to determine that. We have to be able to have the ability to negotiate on those aspects of that. A tariff. A US automobile in Europe right now. Might be right around 10 percent, but really, it's more like 25 percent. Right?

Because all of these nontariff areas that aren't quite --

GLENN: Is it going to pass? Are you going to be able to get it? There are eight sponsors to this bill.

RILEY: Eight sponsors. I mainly sponsored Marjorie Taylor Greene, her and I worked on this. We will continue to pick up more sponsors, particularly the president has started to lean in on this. And people have to -- everybody knows, Glenn. You are a huge US history expert.

You know this. Just flashback to prerevolutionary war. And one of the aspects, and issues that we have, with the British at that time. They were taking our raw goods and materials, shifting them over, to Britain, to then become finished goods. That they would export back over to us.

Does that sound familiar to anybody? That's what's happening to us, right now with the Chinese.

It's literally what's happening right now. But instead of that, it's our intellectual property. It's our technology know-how. And they're building it over there. And shipping it back to us.

GLENN: So he says that the tariffs are going to make us rich, because we will collect so much tax dollars.

But actually if -- I mean, if this works, and everybody just kind of plays fair with each other. Your tariff is not collecting that much money.

We still have to have a serious look at cutting our budget. And also, our taxes. Correct?

RILEY: Correct. Because I would say -- you're going to have some -- some revenue on that. But in the long-term, we're trying to correct a behavior here. Now, this is a -- an example that I've used before. Not that I'm in favor of this. Because I didn't support the same legislature.

But if you think about something like --

GLENN: You keep breaking up. Are you there?

RILEY: Oh, yeah, I'm there. Can you hear me, Glenn?

GLENN: Yes.

RILEY: An example to think about would be, say like a cigarette tax, which I'm not in favor of. But what they're trying to do is change the behavior on the other side. So you might get some revenue in the beginning. But eventually, people will come off of cigarettes. Right?

So it's the same way you can think to an extent to tariffs. We're trying to correct a way that the foreign countries are dealing with us with be and bringing it to a more level playing field. As the president said, he's for free trade. But for fair trade.

This is not a long-term play though, I don't think.

GLENN: I'm talking just a few minutes to one of the congressmen that are on the DOGE oversight committee.

And I can't figure out what's real and what's not on these numbers. You know, the Wall Street Journal said, I think it's only $6 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal that they've cut. I'm really not excited about anything, until we get over a trillion dollars in cuts. And I'm not sure that that -- that we're serious enough to do that. And certainly, in Congress, we're not serious about cutting. Are we?

AARON: Well, I can tell you, that I am.

And, you know, this budget resolution, that they're going to have on the floor today, has a floor itself within it. Provides some guard rails in there for one and a half trillion dollars in cuts.

GLENN: Yeah. But isn't that like an 85 trillion-dollar bill over ten years? You're only cutting. I mean, really?

RILEY: Yeah, so that's over the ten-year window. You're right. So that's over the ten-year window. So -- and the way I've talked about it. And I've talked to people. They're like, oh, it's one and a half trillion dollars. What if it gets to $2 trillion? Well, one, it's over the ten-year window. What you're saying, we will reduce let's say $200 billion a year to $2 trillion. If this place tomorrow, woke up and said, they wanted to spend 200 more billion dollars a year, they would do it in a nanosecond.

GLENN: Yeah, and you wouldn't feel it. In Washington, they wouldn't feel it.

They have to cut 10 percent! At least 10 percent from this, and to cut a billion dollars is nothing in an almost 90 -- or trillion. 1 trillion. Out of almost a 90 trillion dollar budget.

Is -- is frankly, pathetic. And a slap in the face, to people who are actually serious. And voted for serious reform.

RILEY: Yeah. And we do have to get more serious on this.

And I do think though, I mean, the things that we're seeing from DOGE, if people have the intestinal fortitude, which I'm one of these. To actually take what they're doing, and put it into law. They can pause this spending.

GLENN: Yes.

RILEY: But if we don't put it into law, it will be reappropriated in the next year.

GLENN: Yes. So the -- that's so incredible.

The -- I think the American people, I don't know if you saw what Christopher Rufo came out with as an exposé about what is happening.

RILEY: I did not.

GLENN: Oh, look it up. I won't waste your time now. Look it up. It's one of the most the bust things I've seen.

What our Intel community is doing, on our secure servers.

Where they're -- they're -- they're having the -- the most vile sex talk stuff. And NSA says it was important.

Because it was, you know, DEI crap. It's -- it's just vile.

I think when the American people start to see how our money was spent. And some of these things, when they come out and they are out in the open, and they are shown to be absolutely true. I have to tell you, I think Donald Trump is -- is running so fast. And the American people like that.

And if the Republicans don't start moving at his speed, to make massive changes, they're not going to -- they're not going to be in favor with the American people.

RILEY: No. And they won't show up. Right? And they won't show up in 2026, and rightfully so. If we don't get to the speed of Donald Trump and start cutting in the manner, in which particularly DOGE is -- Obviously, this is so frustrating for me, coming then from state government. We balance our budget every year. Every year!

GLENN: Right.

RILEY: Balanced budget. No problem. And guess what, when we come up short, what do we do?

We cut. When the Democrats are in charge, they tax. We cut, and we got our way there. Balance our budget every year.

GLENN: Yeah, well, and the other thing is, and I would love to hear your opinion on this. I don't know why we're just shifting money around in the Pentagon. I want the defense budget.

And I'm somebody who believes in defense. Strong defense.

But we have to cut everything. Including defense.

Why are we not cutting the 8 percent?

We're just moving that money around? According to Hegseth.

RILEY: I could not agree with you hoar.

Everything has got to take a cut. And I'm a big believer of national defense.

Huge believer. But everybody has got to do more with less.

Because everyone in America is doing more with less.

GLENN: Is doing that. Yes. Yes.

Riley, thank you. Thank you very much. We'll be watching what happens to your tariffs.

You are introducing that, when? To the floor.

RILEY: We just got it introduced, here last week.

And so we're actually working with the White House on the bills right now, as we speak.

GLENN: Okay. Good. Good.

Thank you so much for everything you're doing. And congratulations on -- or my condolences on being a member of Congress now.

RILEY: Well, thank you. I appreciate it.

GLENN: From West Virginia. Congressman Riley Moore.

Shocking train video: Passengers wait while woman bleeds out

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?

STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.