THE TRUMP ECONOMIC MIRACLE | Steve Moore

Full Episode Transcript:

Steve Moore: If you intentionally wanted to downgrade the American economy, you’d let in 10 million illegal immigrants, you’d lose control of your border, you’d lose control of your energy security, you’d lose control of your currency by running up massive deficits, you’d let crime run on the streets like it’s a Batman movie.

And that’s all happened in America. And it’s pretty clear that if you liked Joe Biden’s first four years in office, you’re going to love Kamala Harris. This is an incredibly important election. The differences in the philosophies of these two candidates. extreme. So, you’re choosing either the road to free enterprise and freedom, or you’re choosing the road towards more socialism, more government control over our lives.

Matt Kane: Joining me today is Steve Moore, an economist, writer, and author who just released his new book, The Trump Economic Miracle, and the Plan to Unleash Prosperity Again, just in time for the election. Steve, thanks so much for joining me today. Welcome.

Steve Moore: Thanks so much for joining me. I love what you guys do, and it is a pleasure so important that seniors have a, a Mac.

That is a great, pro service, a group to seniors because, AARP is, is so left wing that it’s not worth being a member of anymore.

Matt Kane: we appreciate that. And it is such a great group we have here. So, let’s talk about the book a little bit. The title obviously says it all, but specifically, what is it about President Trump’s economic plan that makes it a miracle?

Tell us about some of the specifics.

Steve Moore: we wrote the book. I wrote this book with Arthur Laffer, who’s probably the most famous economist in the world today. He was Reagan’s chief economist. He was, worked with Mervyn Thatcher. He helped many governors and senators and, has been working with Donald Trump now for the last eight years as I have.

So, it was a real thrill to write this book with him. And the book was really motivated by the fact that we wanted to just have a very, objective, concrete. Comparison of the job that Trump did when he was president. he has a record as president versus, when we started writing the book, of course, it looked like Joe Biden was going to be the nominee and then they did their switcheroo and they substituted Kamala Harris, but since she says she can’t think of anything she’d be doing differently, it’s pretty clear that if you liked, Joe Biden’s first four years in office, you’re going to love Kamala Harris.

Although I actually think Kamala Harris would be worse. She was, she had the most liberal voting record in the entire United States Senate, even more liberal than. then, then Bernie Sanders. you can’t go further to the left than, than Kamala Harris. She’s no centrist or moderate. She’s a radical leftist from San Francisco.

And we wanted to compare the records of Trump versus Harris and Trump, Biden. And something like 18 of the 20 most important variables, everything from jobs to, People’s real incomes, their take home pay, small business conditions, mortgages, the price of groceries, the price of gasoline, what happened with, American energy dominance, all those things.

Trump has a far superior record. To Biden and its home ownership is another one. Mortgage rates. it’s just no comparison, but we lay it out for people to see. And then we talk about what a second term agenda for Trump would look like. And it’s frankly, it’s very exciting.

Matt Kane: It is exciting. I think you could sense that when talking to people throughout the country.

President Trump was very popular evidenced by him setting the voting record for sitting president 2020. And I think after people will. Yeah. Not seeing him in office for the last four years. There’s an even greater hunger for a return to his policies now. I do want to stick on the topic of miracles.

During a meeting you had with President Trump in August of 2023, he expressed his desire to see GDP reach 5%, which is a stark contrast from the pessimistic outlook that so many of the other politicians are saying of late. Now, when Trump was running in 2016, for example, Barack Obama condescendingly asked what magic wand President Trump had, Donald Trump had at the time, that was going to bring back jobs and boost the economy.

Now, of course, Obama backhandedly acknowledges that. He did have a great economy, evidenced by Obama taking credit for Trump’s great economy just last week. But I want to ask, when people in government such as Obama and others set these low expectations, is that due to incompetence and a lack of vision on their end?

Or are they intentionally trying to stymie growth to keep people dependent?

Steve Moore: I think, I don’t think what they do is intentional, but some people do. when I give speeches, if you intentionally wanted to, downgrade the American economy, you do let in 10 million illegal immigrants.

You’d lose control of your border. You’d lose control of your energy security. You’d run your, you lose control of your currency by running up massive deficits. You’d let crime run on the streets like it’s a Batman movie, and that’s all happened in America. And, you don’t have to listen to me, by the way.

I’m just one man’s opinion, but a look at the official data that shows that Americans are right to be concerned about this and be look at, just, last week, a new national opinion poll, respected. Found that, two out of three Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction.

And they do because it is going in the wrong direction for most families. I laugh when you get these white rich liberals who talk about, gee, why are people so unhappy? Biden’s been so great for, the super-rich, he’s been great for, middle class families. do you think that somebody like, Take, somebody like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or, some of these other, rich liberals, they don’t care if the inflation goes up by 5, 6, 8%.

It doesn’t affect them whatsoever. But if you’re living on an income of 50, 000 to 100, 000, and you’re trying to pay your bills and everything’s 20 percent more expensive, that makes you poor. That makes you feel much worse. And it makes you financially stressed out. And that’s what’s happened right now in America.

Matt Kane: I think what’s interesting is you just mentioned people like Bill Gates and these people that have elite levels of wealth. I think that’s actually one of the reasons why President Trump is so beloved by so many people right now because he is at a very high level of wealth, and it’s so Noted that he doesn’t have to do any of this yet.

People can really see and feel that he’s fighting for them, So I think that speaks to why his popularity is growing amongst many other reasons, but I do want to talk about Tariffs a little bit. Now, we know President Trump loves tariffs. He makes no bones about that, and they were a focal point in much of the economic successes of his first term.

And while I mentioned people such as Barack Obama now, again, backhandedly conceding that he did have a good economy, people like him and his other detractors still suggest that his tariffs will lead to, Higher prices for American consumers now for our listeners who may not be so well versed in this Tell us why that would not be the case if President Trump is reelected to office and institutes tariffs once again

Steve Moore: you know I should start by saying I agree with about 80 percent of what Donald Trump wants to do Especially when it comes to the economy.

So, I mean You’re in complete agreement with him, but I’m not a big fan of tariffs. And he is, and we, I respect Trump. He respects my opinion and he and I have argued about it over the years. And he has a different position than I do. I would like to see a world with, that’s, I’m a free trade guy.

I think free trade benefits both the, both countries that are involved in it. But A lot of countries are taking advantage of the United States and, Trump recognized that, and he’s used Trump tariffs as a strategic bargaining tool to get other countries to do things that are America’s interest.

In other words, he’s threatening to use tariffs to the same of these other countries. if you want to trade with the United States, or you want our assistance, whether it’s military assistance or foreign aid assistance, or whatever it might be, you’ve got to, lower your tariffs, and make it easier for Americans to.

Export our goods and services around the world. And he’s been pretty effective at that. I have to say, his first term, he, he was able to get other countries like China and Mexico and Europeans to do things that were in America’s interest. Trump understands fundamentally the whole concept of Leverage and leverage is everything when you’re negotiating.

You always want to be the side that has the leverage, not the country or the person who doesn’t. And we have leverage because every country in the world needs to trade with the United States. And we’re the hub of the world economy and every other country has a spoke. And so that gives us special advantage.

And we also have the global currency as well in the dollar. that gives us a commanding heights and, Trump recognized that he’s used it very effectively to force other countries to do things that benefit America. That’s why they call it America first, right? Because every decision that he makes.

It’s about putting American workers first, American businesses first, American families first. And frankly, I look at what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have done and they’re talking about, and I think in many cases, those are America last policies, not America first policies. I think that kind of is a good summary of Trump’s, trade position.

I hope in a second term, he’s able to convince other countries. not success. To stop stealing our technology to play by the rules to lower their tariffs so our export companies can do business overseas as well. And that would be the ideal outcome. And I think it will.

Matt Kane: So even as a free trade advocate that you just mentioned, you are, you’re not entirely opposed to at least the rhetoric re regarding tariffs if other countries are ripping off the United States. Would you say that’s fair to say?

Steve Moore: I’m sorry, say that again. I had a little trouble hearing that.

Matt Kane: You mentioned you’re a free trade advocate. You prefer that over tariff, but you’re not opposed to President Trump using his leverage if other countries are ripping off the United States. That’s why I wanted to clarify that.

Steve Moore: It’s interesting because I’ve learned a lot from Donald Trump, he’s taught me a thing or two. And one of the things I learned is that. by strategically negotiating, he’s been able to, for free trade, we want to have low tariffs, but we want other countries to have lower tariffs as well.

And he’s forced other countries to stop penalizing American companies. And that’s a good thing. He also wants to bring jobs back home. And the way you do that is through, lower tax rates here, which he’s, I’m proud to have played a small role in his tax bill that I think was exceptional. Yes. Remember, that’s going to expire if Trump, is not elected.

I’m going to say that again, folks. You’re going to face a big, tax increase automatically, by the way. Kamala Harris wouldn’t have to do anything. All she has to do is just let the tax cuts expire. We can’t allow that to happen. Trump won’t. She will. And so you’re facing one of the biggest tax increases ever.

If she wins, I don’t care. Oh, I’m not going to tax anybody because less than 400, 000. Oh, I guarantee she will. The other thing to remember about taxes. Is that, she’s, called Trump’s tariffs, national sales tax. Now, the person who is imposed in the national sales tax is Joe Biden and his sidekick, Kamala Harris.

Every time you go to the grocery store, every time you go buy a dozen eggs, every time you go get your gas filled up, every time you pay your mortgage payment, every time you pay your utility bill, you’re paying a 20%. Inflation tax. I call it the Biden inflation tax because inflation is a tax and it’s a consumer tax.

It’s a tax on every consumer and it’s a regressive tax. So how dare these liberals say, Oh, Trump’s the one who’s going to put a national sales tax on. No, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have already done it. They’ve already done that. And it’s really hurt the American families.

Matt Kane: Their entire administration is essentially serving as a tax for everybody across the bar board.

That’s why, in my opinion, it’s quite ironic that their party, the Democrat Party, that’s currently presiding over this poor economy is lecturing anybody on economic issues. This economy is not working for. Average Americans throughout the US are demoralized, even though what I call the Harris Biden administration, since Joe Biden says he delegates so much authority to her, they’re telling everybody that everything is just fine.

Can you explain why numbers such as the stock market that this administration always touts as evidence of success? Don’t actually represent or tell the full story about the U. S. economy right now.

Steve Moore: Yeah. this is another reason why I really urge people to go out and get the book. you can just go on Amazon.

We’re number one, by the way, the Trump economic miracle on economics and business. And it really explains, and I want people to get it. we still have a lot of undecided voters out there and they could make the difference. And anybody who reads this book, who was going to vote on pocketbook issues and kitchen table issues, We’ll come away knowing that Trump is the only choice, by a wide margin.

It’s not even close. And but I was thinking, when you were talking about some people really resist the Trump message. And they, and what about these economists? the wall street journal had a front page story the other day saying, Oh, these lead economists say that Trump will be worse on inflation than Kamala Harris.

That’s a laughable preposterous proposition because Donald Trump already was president. He was president for four years and we had no inflation. And then, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden come in and they send a 1. 5 percent inflation rate up to 9. 1 percent in 18 months. And these crazy college professors say that, oh, Kamala is going to be much better on inflation.

It’s, it is just so comical that they would say something. And I, those economists probably should turn in their PhDs.

Matt Kane: One of the things I credit to Trump’s popularity right now is that so many of the threats that these elitists throw at him fall flat because he does now have that track record.

Many years ago, President Trump, before he was president, had to convince people what he would do. Right now, all these threats, whether it’s them calling him a dictator, whether he’s going to lead us into a war, or he’s going to wreck the economy, they fall flat because people remember what happened during his four years in office.

And when I travel to other parts of the country and speak with voters, their question is not at all whether President Trump can get the economy going. He’s already proved he’s capable of that. The question is, How soon? How long do you think it will take for so many of these issues you just explained to yield fruit for the American people if he returns to the office in January of next year?

Steve Moore: if he wins, and I think right now, it’s looking pretty good. Again, it’s not in the bag, but still a lot of work to do to get voters out. But, right now he has the momentum, clearly. the, the vice presidential debate, and then the, Trump, the McDonald’s incident.

Yeah. All of these things and Kamala not even be able to being able to answer the most basic questions like what are you gonna do different for Joe Biden? Nothing? Okay. that isn’t a very good answer. And so people are coming around to realizing that Trump knows what he’s talking about. And Kamala really, Doesn’t know what she’s talking about, or else he’s just so far to the left.

She doesn’t care. And I think that when Trump gets in, as I expect he will, I think it’ll be such a, there’s just going to be a new bounce in the step of the economy. People are going to realize this guy’s, on our side and for a lot of businesses, It’s really, a lot of the CEOs of companies, when I talked to them about Trump and why the economy was so good when he was president, they said, it wasn’t even necessarily anything that he did.

And he did a lot of great things, but it’s just the fact that they know that if they grow their company and make a profit and hire more workers, the government is going to come along with a sledgehammer and bash them over the head. And I think businesses are definitely afraid. We’ve got the, we’ve got the Biden administration suing every company that makes a profit practically, because how dare you make a profit, which is ironic because these people have never made a profit in their life.

They have no idea what it is to make a profit because none of them have any business experience. And so one of the things I think people should remember, and look, I know some people don’t like Trump’s behavior and some of the things he says, and as I said, I don’t always agree with Trump on every position.

He, he’s a businessman. He does know how to make things work. Kamala Harris, I guess it’s still in doubt whether she worked for one year at McDonald’s, but, that would be the extent of her business experience. So she’s just been a, government politician or a lawyer her whole life and basically being a lawyer in the government has really been her job and that doesn’t prepare you well for understanding how do you meet a payroll?

How do you grow a business? How do you make a profit? How do you put people to work? How do you make America more competitive? We shouldn’t expect Kamala to know the answer to that because she’s never done it. And so that’s why I think this is a pretty easy decision.

Matt Kane: I think it’s pretty rich when people like Kamala Harris or Joe Biden who have spent their entire careers in government.

When they try to lecture the public on why Donald Trump, a private industry, a private sector businessman, is going to make their life so much worse off financially. So I, just, it is in line with everything else they do as a campaign. I do want to thank you for your time today, Steve. Before we let you go, tell our listeners where they can purchase your book.

I know you mentioned Amazon and really any other information that they should know about it before buying it.

Steve Moore: Yes, there’s two things. Thank you for asking. One is, that, the book is called The Trump Economic Miracle. And the best way to get it is just go to Amazon or online book services. I think it’s like 14.

It’s not, it’s, you can read this in two or three nights. It’s not War and Peace, but it has a lot of the information. And if you know someone, I said this before, but I’ll say it again. If you know someone who’s an undecided voter, maybe a family member. Or a neighbor or a coworker and they, I can’t decide, give them this book and all they have to do is look at it for 10 minutes and they’ll say, wow, this is night and day it’s, Trump is on Venus and, Kamala is on Mars when it comes to the economy.

So that’s number one, number two, I do have something for people for free. And that is we put out our, what we call our prosperity hotline every morning. This is put out by. Steve Forbes and our laugher and I, myself, and a great staff of people. It goes out to 170, 000 people every morning and I want people to have it and it’s free.

It costs nothing. I’m not selling anybody anything. Just go to unleash prosperity. com. Sign up for the free email. Newt Gingrich the other day said it’s the first thing he reads every morning. He said, I love this product. So many CEOs and members of Congress and senators. And even people working way up for Donald Trump, including Trump himself, have, have read the hotline.

So just go to unleash prosperity. com and give us your email. I think you’ll love that. And finally, because we are just on the eve of an election, it is your duty. as a citizen to vote. And this is an incredibly important election because the choices are, the differences in the philosophies of these two, candidates could not be more extreme.

So you’re choosing either the road to free enterprise and freedom, or you’re choosing the role of a citizen. road towards more socialism, more government control over our lives, including taking away air conditioning, taking away gas cars, taking away gas stoves, raising tax rates, off, suppressing our free speech.

All of these things are very much in danger. So, make sure you vote. And I encourage people to early vote because if you’re early vote, we know you voted. And, and that’s the way to win because I always say, People like us, we do policy and we’re very good at policy. They know no one would dispute the fact we have better policies than they do, but they do politics, right?

They’re really good at politics. We’re really good at policy and let’s get good at politics this year. Let’s get our people out. We don’t want to think, God, only if I had gotten, we’ve had four of the last six elections that have been decided by virtually less than a hundred thousand votes out of, out of, over 80 million votes.

Well, every vote really does matter a lot. And, and not just for the presidential race, by the way. I’m starting to think as I look at these numbers, I think it could be a red wave election. I really do. And that would mean, you’re talking about Republicans winning races. They’ve never won before.

City council races, school board races, dog catcher races, people who run for the state Senate or the state house. We, the Republicans have a pretty good chance now of holding onto the house of representatives. It didn’t look like that a couple of months ago. Trump has big coattails.

Go, if you’re going to go out and vote for him, which I hope you do. But even if you’re not going to vote for him, just go out and vote. Just, you may not know a lot of these candidates, but vote for the ours, because those are Trump Republicans behind him. So that’s my sermon for the day. I love AMAC.

I love what you guys do. I can’t wait till we have a big party. I don’t know if it’s going to be in November, December, or January. AMAC events and, I can’t wait to just hug people in person. We’re going to be overjoyed, I think, because it’s going to be a happy, election.

Matt Kane: I think so, too. I hope so, too. Just a quick mention about a landslide election. It’s so interesting because the polls will continue to tell everybody this is a 50 50 country, no matter how bad things get under the left. But I would say, number one, President Trump’s appeal and his popularity is higher than ever. Number two, don’t underestimate Democrat voters.

And how much they could take and how fed up they could get at a certain point, too. I think everybody has a limit, especially when it impacts their safety and their finances. So the next two weeks will be quite interesting. I think you’ll agree. And I hope we have something to celebrate in November, December, January, as you just mentioned.

Steve, thank you again. We’ll encourage our listeners to get their hands on your book and go to unleash prosperity. com and to all of our listeners out there be sure to like and subscribe so that you don’t miss any of our great content Here at AMAC. I’m Matt Kane until next time