Trump has negotiated better U.S. trade deals but tariffs do worry me, says Stephen Moore
2025-12-29_14-27 • 4m 22s
Joe Kernen (Co-anchor of Squawk Box)
00:00.000
All
right,
let's
talk
to
Stephen
Moore
about
the
economy,
Trump
economics
heading
into
2026.
He
is
the
co-founder
of
Unleash
Prosperity.
He's
also
a
former
economic
advisor
to
President
Trump.
Good
to
see
you,
Steve.
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
00:15.480
Hi
Joe,
Merry
Christmas,
Happy
New
Joe Kernen (Co-anchor of Squawk Box)
00:17.080
Year.
Yep,
same
to
you.
The
president
says
the
t-word,
tariffs,
is
the
most
beautiful
word
in
the
English
language.
Uh,
on
the
other
side
of
that,
we
had
the
naysayers
forecasting
a
deeper
session
starting
in
April
of
last
year
from
the
tariffs.
You're
somewhere
in
between.
Uh
I
Joe Kernen (Co-anchor of Squawk Box)
00:39.000
I
where
do
you
stand
on
tariffs?
You
You
figure
strategically
the
rationale
is
that
they
could
rebalance
certain
parts
of
global
trade
in
a
positive
way,
but
in
general
you
you
are
not
a
tariff.
You
don't
think
it's
the
most
beautiful
word
in
the
English
language.
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
00:55.600
Well,
Joe,
let's
start
with
where
we
were
exactly
a
year
ago
when
you
had
all
of
the
blue-chip
forecasters,
including
the
Fed
and
the
professional
and
academic
economists.
And
if
you
looked
at
the
forecast
for
the
blue-chip,
it
was
at
that
we
would
have
about
1.9%
growth
for
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
01:13.600
2025.
And
we
now
know
with
pretty
much
certainty
what
the
growth
rate
will
be
according
to
the
Atlanta
Federal
Reserve
Board
through
the
through
December
23rd.
And
we
we've
had
growth
rates
over
the
last
three
quarters
that
have
been
twice
that
high.
Almost
twice
that
high.
So,
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
01:33.240
we've
got
an
economy
that
is
doing
much,
much
better
than
the
economist
believed.
And
part
of
the
reason
the
economist
were
so
negative
on
the
economy,
Joe,
is
exactly
the
point
you
just
made,
tariffs.
Now,
you
are
exactly
right.
I'm
not
a
big
fan
of
tariffs,
but
you
know
what?
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
01:49.080
I
am
a
big
fan
of
some
of
these
trade
deals
that
Trump
has
been
able
to
pull
off
over
the
last
12
months,
with
Korea,
with
China,
with
Japan,
with
Canada,
with
the
Europeans,
all
making
concessions
to
the
United
States
in
a
very
positive
way.
Now
Trump
saying
he's
going
to
bring
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
02:05.600
$8
trillion
dollars
of
capital
in
the
United
Joe Kernen (Co-anchor of Squawk Box)
02:08.200
States
from
the
rest
of
the
world.
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
02:10.560
I
know
Donald
Trump
never
exaggerates
but
I
think
that's
an
exaggeration.
But
let's
say
let's
say
he's
wrong
by
90%.
Let's
say
it's
only
one
or
two
trillion.
That's
a
huge
amount
of
money
being
invested
in
the
United
States.
So
I
like
the
way
he's
been
able
to
negotiate
better
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
02:23.640
deals
for
the
US.
But
it
does
worry
me
with
terrorists
because
terrorists
do
have
a
negative
effect
on
the
economy.
Joe Kernen (Co-anchor of Squawk Box)
02:31.840
Right.
Negative
effect
maybe
on
the
economy,
although
uh
there
when
we
when
we
view
tariffs
right
now
and
what
the
economic
backdrop
is,
at
the
very
worst,
you
have
to
say
that
in
spite
of
those,
the
economy
Mhm
has
been
doing
very,
very
well.
The
president
would
say
because
of
Joe Kernen (Co-anchor of Squawk Box)
02:51.440
those
and
in
in
certain
cases
he's
right.
What
what
the
reason
that
a
lot
of
those
of
foreign
countries
came
to
the
table
was
because
of
the
tariffs.
So
Exactly.
there
is
a
linkage
between
there
that
that
people
don't
They
just
look
purely
at
what
it
cost
US
businesses
and
it's
Joe Kernen (Co-anchor of Squawk Box)
03:03.480
a
tax
on
the
past
on
the
concern.
We
understand
all
that
but
long
term
in
Navarro
and
Luttig
make
that
case.
Long
term,
we
haven't
seen
maybe
some
of
the
positive
aspects
of
tariffs
on
manufacturing
and
everything
else.
But
you
put
in
the
big
beautiful
bill
and
you
put
in
oil
Joe Kernen (Co-anchor of Squawk Box)
03:20.880
and
deregulation
at
$57
and
you
put
in
I
mean
there
are
some
serious
tailwinds
going
into
next
year.
It
could
It
could
surprise
people,
don't
you
think?
Say
it
could
be.
You
think
it
would
be
four
next
year?
I
mean
that
the
White
House
was
was
talking
about
five
or
or
even
Joe Kernen (Co-anchor of Squawk Box)
03:38.480
better.
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
03:39.840
Uh,
well
there
again,
you
know,
Donald
Trump
always
exaggerates
a
little
bit
about
what
we're
going
to
get.
I
think
4%
would
be
a
bit
of
a
stretch,
but
Yeah
as
long
as
we
can
get
between
3
and
4%,
that's
a
very
strong
number.
And
here's
one
of
the
major
reasons
we
want
to
strive
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
03:55.040
for
that
higher
growth
rate.
If
you
get
the
economic
growth
rate
over
3%,
Joe,
you
start
turning
the
debt
curve
that
we're
all
concerned
about,
the
national
debt
and
the
massive
deficits
we're
running.
We
want
to
make
sure
the
economy
is
growing
faster
than
the
debt.
That's
the
Stephen Moore (Co-founder)
04:11.920
main
thing.
And
if
you
get
to
3.5%
to
4%
growth,
you're
going
to
see
exactly
that
a
turning
down
on
that
curve
that
is
such
a
cancer
cell
in
our
economy
right
now.
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