Episode 4482: Tony Katz Today Hour 2 - 03/27/26

0:00Why, from the heartland and the crossroads of America, it's Tony Katz today. President Trump is speaking to the farmers. I think it's national agriculture day. Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, guys, a pleasure, as always. To be with you, he's up there, he's like on the balcony. There are hundreds and hundreds of people there, a producer land in your right, it looks like all the extras in Yellowstone, and the president is speaking. But I'm thrilled to welcome all of you to the South Lawn for the single largest gathering of American farmers that the White House has ever seen, has ever had.

1:03And Raider Shine, and you don't mind Raider Shine, the one thing about farmers, they don't care about that, whether they get out there, it makes no difference. But Raider Shine, no one is more gritt or greater spirit than the American farmer. We love the American farmer, I just gave you $12 billion, I don't know if you know that or not. You're making enough money, it doesn't matter to you, right? But we just provided $12 billion, right, brood, for the American farmer. You think Biden would have done that? No, he wouldn't have done that. We're delighted to be joined by Secretary of Agriculture, who's doing a fantastic job. Brooke Rollins, Brooke, thank you very much. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Robert. EPA Administrator is doing such an incredible job. He's getting those costs down for you, and he's always protecting the environment, but he does it quickly.

2:04A real superstar, Lee Zeldin, thank you, Lee Zeldin. And someone everyone loves, and they love, in particular, the job she's doing, small business administrator, Kelly Loughler. Kelly, thank you very much. I didn't know everybody loved the job, but she's doing the tour. John Hoven, Joniers. All right, so he's going to go about giving a whole bunch of thanks and appreciation, senators that are there and everything else. The $12 billion was subsidies, remember, this was money that was going to be tariff money. Funny how that subject has fallen off the radar. Does he owe the money? He's got the paper about, you know, there are lawsuits about saying, hey, we were told you're not allowed to use certain, the IEPA, the Economic Powers Act to engage tariffs so we want our money back and people are suing and the White House is saying, we don't know how to pay you back. We don't know how to do this. Let the court figure it out. The court decided we couldn't do this.

3:05Let the court figure out how it is that we pay you back. That's where I think this $12 billion came from. The ever-growing hardship of farming, right? We talk about this in all sorts of ways and, you know, there's a great expression. I never met a poor farmer, but there is work involved here and there are pressures upon here and there is a regulatory issue here and not everyone is playing on that elite level. There are plenty of family farms that are suffering right through it in every single way. So it's one thing just to have the gathering, but I'm curious if the president is going to get into some of what it is they're dealing with and how do you, for example, keep food

4:10cost low when you have oil prices going so high. Let's take it back to President Trump. It's in 500th store in honor of America's 250th house. Thank you very much. It was great to meet you at the Oval Office two minutes ago. I also want to thank the president of the American Farm Bureau of Federation. I thought he had gotten past some of this. See, that's the trouble with live. Well, do it live. American agriculture industry with brutal restrictions and failed to negotiate even a single new trade deal on your behalf. Not one trade deal was negotiated on your behalf during the Biden administration and we happen to be the exact opposite. We have so many trade deals. We don't know what the hell to do with them. We need more lawyers. But no one ever can farmers, ranchers, growers and producers once again have a true friend

5:10and champion in the Oval Office and in my first year back in the White House farm income has soared by 20 percent very quickly. I repeal the Biden EPA's ridiculous water restrictions yet water restrictions that may give you everything but water, get it needed a little water, they wouldn't give you it. It was crazy to keep federal bureaucrats off your land and out of your pockets, it's a big deal. With the help of Republicans in Congress, we pass the largest tax cuts in American history, already 45 percent of violence have taken advantage of our new tax provisions with an average refund so far of almost $5,000 a record. In fact, we pass them and people are just starting to see how important they are. It's amazing what's happened, the numbers are reporting that it's much more money than I thought. I call it the Great Big Beautiful Bill is a great, big, beautiful bill and it's especially

6:11in terms of your tax refunds and your taxes because it's the lowest tax we paid, it's the biggest tax reduction in the history of our country. Has anybody felt it yet? I was asking this question on my morning show. It's supposed to be, remember this is what Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, really started digging into in December after listening to the show, of course. You got to let people know what's happening, what they can be expecting, what they got to be a part of. It's something that this administration does poorly. Let people into the fight with you. They think they can just give a dictate in everybody of all the line, it's not the way it works. People have to be a part of it. Americans want to be a part of it. So the One Big Beautiful Bill, which was so poorly messaged, is supposed to lead to larger tax returns, refunds. The question is, has anybody gotten anything yet and have they noticed anything larger when

7:16you were doing your taxes, which are doing a less than a month? Did you notice that there was more deduction, more coming your way? I'm just curious if anybody experienced these things as President Trump is saying this to the farmers. It's also the biggest regulation reduction in the history of our country, which has farmers, you know what that means. It means a lot of good things. We made the small business tax deduction permanent, benefiting 98% of America's farmers and ranchers. And thanks to bonus depreciation, farmers can now deduct 100% of the cost of new tractors and all equipment in the first year. In other words, you buy a tractor, you deduct the whole price. Normally it goes over a 38-year period. This is slightly better. You get these tiny little deductions that weren't even worth it. Now you can do it at one time. Only Trump could have gotten you that one. That was a big thing. And in the first term, you know, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country.

8:19We are blowing them away right now. And by the way, we're doing really well in Iran, just so you understand, you know? I mean, how good is our military? How good is our military? Very importantly, we saved 2 million American farms from extinction by virtually ending the unfair estate tax. We've ended the estate tax or, as they call it, the debt tax and you can now keep your family farms in the family. We had a problem. That is a big deal. See, these are all people that are slapping that love their children. If they did love their children, they wouldn't care about what I just said. Most of you, does anybody not love your child? Because that would be the one person that would have clapped the other way. No, it's a big thing. I would see farmers and they pass away. They love their lives. They love this. There's something about a farmer, maybe more than anybody else. They love that, they love the soil and they love their farms and they pass away that

9:24have wonderful children and the children would get hit with this massive tax bill for the value of the farm. Sometimes the farm is very valuable, but the cash isn't so readily available and they'd go out to a bank and they'd borrow money and they'd borrow and borrow and borrow and borrow to pay the tax. They'd be working for 20 years to pay it off of that a bad season. They'd lose their farm. We lost it many, many times and you'd have actually many, many suicides over it. They would actually commit suicide because they couldn't stand the concept of losing their family farm and I ended the death tax or the estate tax on family farms and small businesses. So I think you're appreciative of that, it was a terrible thing and those kinds of things didn't do. It's too bad that so many people in the past couldn't have taken advantage of it because it would have made a lot of happy people out of people that really had a miserable life.

10:26What's not that the life was miserable, the life was made miserable. This idea that somehow government is entitled to our labor is madness, that it's somehow unfair to leave things to your children, that that belongs to some government bureaucrat because they decided that's what's good and decent. I have discussed this before, I want to leave it all into my kids. Don't tell me, I'll take care of any charitable organization as I see fit but my job is to take care of my children and if they want to spend the money the way they want to spend the money just like I do and I'm alive fine. I'm going to leave it to strangers and not my own kids, that's madness. Government thinks that they should be involved in that process, it is obscene. What the president is actually engaged in here, whether he knows it or not, it's a conversation about philosophy, the difference between us and them, the difference between the conservative

11:28and the liberal. It isn't theirs, it is yours to do with as you see fit without the concept of acceptance. No leftist gets to decide what you do with your money and they sure as hell don't get to say well we get our share, it isn't theirs. I will decide what to do with it and it's going to my kids and anybody who would put forth the policy that says no it should go somewhere else and you shouldn't have a say that's something you don't vote for. Not worthy of your vote, not worthy of your time and not worthy of your love. We'll catch up with some more from President Trump in a moment, keep it here, this is Tony Katz today. Wall Street Journal is reporting that Iran has blocked two Chinese ships in the straight of four moves.

12:29We should take a moment to discuss how flat out odd that is. Iran wants to anger the Chinese, well bold strategy cotton, let's see how it works out. Tony Katz today, that's something Iran turning back to China owned container vessels from the strait, now Israel has amounted an attack saying a target Iranian weapons facilities and warned residents in parts of the city of Iraq, A-R-A-K, to evacuate. Now if I have an idea of where Iraq is, no Iraq is in the middle of the country, A-R-A-K.

13:30That is in the, I thought that was for a second towards the Gulf, it absolutely is not. But you have this move from the Israelis and as they continue to hit at military targets, several countries in the Gulf intercepted drones and missiles but strikes hit two Kuwaiti ports, one missile landing in Jordan. So you know the, the Iranians are still firing all over the place and really trying to engage a, a level of just pure havoc, that, do they think they could just create enough stress that this will end, maybe they, maybe they do, maybe what they're wondering is, well if we try this, maybe it'll work, well maybe we try this, it'll work, man, but maybe there things that they're trying don't work because the equipment that they have doesn't actually

14:33work. But if you're going to go after Chinese vessels in the straight of Hormuz, that's, where do you think Iran's getting their money? Now maybe they believe in this idea of the hostage taking, where you can charge these ships $2 million for, for safe passage. The world is going to be okay with being held hostage to living in a bribery world. I mean, there's already got to be some level of bribery that takes place with all these things to keep these, you know, pirates onboarding you and all that jazz. The, the, the navies can't be everywhere at all times. So maybe you know, it could just be while you didn't, you didn't play the, pay the big.

15:35So we're not going to let you through. But it's certainly odd that this would affect Chinese ships considering that's where you're getting the money. They were trying to exit the Persian Gulf and they got turned away. The IRGC said this, this straight was shut. Even though President Trump has said there was an agreement to let some ships through. The only thing I could see that you're doing in this, in this scenario is creating the opportunity for the world to say, you know what, we got this. We're just going to, we're just going to end this and we're going to open up to the best of our ability, the straight. We're just going to open this thing up and, and we'll let the ships fall where they may. But we're not going to have this anymore, we're not going to put up with this anymore,

16:37we're not going to take this, this nonsense anymore. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We are going to handle this and it's going to be very bad for the Iranians. That could be it. That could be what's next here. It's not the only thing going on. You know, there is other news outside of what's going on with the Randall, though it is the big stuff. And of course, you have the DHS funding, which is getting stranger and stranger. By the way, producer Landon, I think Speaker Johnson is, is talking, I just can't find that link. If he is, can you grab that for me? Thank you so much. You have this story that the FBI is now offering a $10 million reward after hackers linked to Iran, we're able to breach the emails of FBI Director Cash Patel, FBI says investigating

17:43they call the data historical in nature unrelated to government systems, $10 million for information identifying the Iran-based Hondala hack team. I don't know what does Hondala mean? Do we have a definition there? Let me see if I can figure that out. Hondala is a prominent national symbol and personification of the Palestinian people, this according to Wikipedia. Okay. All right. Um, I don't, don't just offer $10 million, $10 million to find the team, but $3 million for the first person who brings us one of their heads on a pike. And you're saying to me, my God, Tony, that is so violent and so gross and so despicable. Not as violent gross and despicable as hacking.

18:44These people who engage in the ransomware stuff, you understand, I believe, the same exact thing. The hacking, now this is, is of course war and so you should expect many things to happen in war. But man, do I despise the hackers in a huge, massive way? Do I despise the hackers? So that they would tell us it's not, you know, anything of major import of things being worked on. I don't know if I 100% believe them. We don't know how to get hacked. We don't know where the access is. This is the latest, if I can get you speaker Mike Johnson, I will, it's a busy day, keep it here. This is Tony Katz today. Three more things, Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, guys, it's pleasure.

19:44It is good, good stuff. Three more things, these are things that should be headlines. But yet somehow, because everything is happening and everyone is insane and they are not, should be headlines. What in the world just happened right there? There it is. A little bit of repeating, that's wasn't the headline. No, the headline is Steve Bannon. As if Steve Bannon is embarrassing himself, you want to watch. Steve Bannon was at CPAC and Steve Bannon is amongst the class of not so much America first. They believe that any action outside of our borders is just a Neocon, John McCain, sexual fantasy stuff, and we are always wrong. We're always at fault. The idea of mistakes made versus always at fault, those are different things.

20:50But Bannon, by the way, it's Steve's fault, he came at me. He came at me calling me a stock Republican, so every now and then I just got a bitch slap him. It's just the way it goes. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't do this, right? I didn't make the rules. These are the rules of the street. You come at the king, you best not miss. Yes, in this situation I did refer to myself as the king, which I agree with you, super weird. Steve Bannon, he's at CPAC, the conservative political action conference, and he thinks he's the leader of these people. And he, we shouldn't be at war with Iran. There was nothing imminent. We shouldn't be doing anything, and the Israelis are doing this and all that crap. And he's like, here, let me take a poll. Let's do a little poll here. This is all hardcore, mega leadership, grassroots leadership, right? Okay. That's the good news. Now it comes to hard news. You got to make some choices.

21:51Who among you would advise President Trump we have to finish what we started? How many would, how many would say right now get an off ramp and let's get out of here by Saturday? I'd say 60, 40 in favor of finishing 65, 35, 65, 35. He believes that he understands exactly where these people are and exactly what they think he doesn't understand when God's, he understands nothing. How much influence do these people really have? Why do we think it is so massive? That's different than whether or not I concerned myself with any influence they have because there's a follower count. It's all bots.

22:51None of it's real. None of it's real. I don't know if I can risk the fact that none of it's real. And by the way, I never call for de-platforming. That baddened do his show and that Megan Kelly do her show and talk her to his show and can't it? I mean, admittedly, spending your day going after a widow is super weird. It's super creepy, super weird, but hey, everyone's got a fetish. But she's just a twist in a turn away from flat out being a stalker. What I want is an aggressive counter to the nonsense that they put forth. What they put forth is ugly, what they put forth is obscene, what they put forth is madness. And they're totally disconnected from where the people are. They're completely and totally disconnected from where you and I live, breathe, act and act.

23:55That is repeating myself right there. They aren't close to understanding what they are is very focused on engaging a certain audience and how much can they dominate that audience? We have discussed this before about 20 to 29 year olds and how they are really kind of desperate to own and control that group. That's where the future is, that's what gives them the most longevity. So therefore, that's where they want to be. So that's number one, then comes number two, which is how we are putting the squeeze

24:58on H1B visa holders. The Labor Department is stating the other Trump administration that if you are going to have an H1B visa holder, right, these are people coming in from other countries and work in certain categories like, for example, software development. We are now going to increase the minimum pay that you have to pay them. The argument here is, is that if you are saying you need to bring in people from another country to do the work, the coding, the this, the that, the whatever it may be, they actually have to be worth it to you. And so this is, and the only way to describe this is an artificial increase in the cost to try and get American workers hired instead.

26:05It's, it's a big creepy in that that's not how we see our ourselves, it's not how we see America, it's not how we see Americans, it's not how we see how we, we do business where the government says you have to charge this or charge that, that's not, that's not it. That is not who we are, that is not what we want at all. The other side to this is, have we been for going American talent for the sake of cheaper foreign talent? Have we been telling people there's no jobs for you, but ensuring jobs, so over there, is that something that we should be doing now? This is maybe different than how we feel about, for example, trade deficits.

27:09And you're not buying as much from us as we're buying from you and that's not fair. That's a problem. In that situation, that's not a problem, we've already proven that it's not a problem. And tariffs don't solve trade deficits as we have seen. Remember, the tariff suck, I'm going to get so yelled at, the tariff suck, a trade deficit where you have some country where we're buying more than they buy from us, well they then invest in the United States, so we kind of get the money back as long as we can get the goods at a good price, isn't that what matters most? And I would argue that the economic says, yes, a thousand percent, is that true about the labor market? I'm asking because I think there's at least a worthy consideration there. I can do the math, I can show that it doesn't matter if we buy more from country A than they buy from us, if they're now going to invest in us because we're the place that

28:12you do the investing in the markets here, in companies here. So good, that's good for us. And if having the trade deficit also means that the goods for our people are cheaper, also good. I'm also in favor of this. But if you have people who can't get a job because the job is going overseas, if you will, even if we're bringing that person here, I mean, it's just another, it's another, it's an offshoot of, or it's just a different way to look at offshoring. Now there are some people who will tell you that there isn't actually a difference. If you've got comparative levels of education and experience, there is a little evidence of paid disparity. It's according to the National Foundation for American Policy.

29:14Now they are an organization that focuses on skilled immigration to the US. So they have a point of view. If we're hiring foreign workers because it's cheaper and we're now raising the price and it gets more Americans hired, the vast majority people are going to say, good, good, we want Americans to be hired. We want this to take place. I would say that one could argue it on its national security merits. But I think that as people do think about these things, it gets a little, it might get a little stickier for some people. And then because I do like a good list, I'm a sucker for a good list. The five most reliable cars of all time. This was a story over at Autoblog. And I find myself looking for used cars all the time, all the time.

30:24I'm always searching for stop and looking at stop, not always buying stuff. I have before about, I'm looking. So they went through, they, I mean, they went through a little bit of history. What, what are the five most reliable, use cars, use cars of all time? I think it's just cars, five most reliable cars. They were built and they're bulletproof and they could do anything. Now, I know that one of them, although it's not on this list, is the Toyota Land Cruiser. That car will go on for forever. And then it's the sister of that, which is the Toyota Sequoia, which is the wider version. I actually own a Sequoia, not a new one, a used one, it's what I like. And then, you know, you've got the pickup trucks. So the 1983 to the 1997 Toyota pickup, according to them, unbreakable, 2.4 liter engine,

31:27ladder frame chassis, just supposed to be forever, a forever car. That was number one on the list. Number two, the Ford Crown Victoria. For those of you who used to get arrested in the late 80s and the early 90s, Crown Vic, that's, that is on the list. 4.6 liter modular V8, between 190 and 250 horsepower. Then they get to number three. Now, I will tell you right now, if I could find one of these, I would buy one of these. Mercedes Benz 240 diesel or 300 diesel, which is the W123. And they built tanks, absolute tanks. The 2.4 liter diesel 240 D is 72 horsepower.

32:31Don't ask me. Tank will last forever. They then go on to the Honda Civic, between 1996 and 2000. And yes, the Lexus LS 400, first and second generation, 1989 to 2000. Yes, that car will last forever and a day. More to get to you guys. Keep it here. This is Tony Katz today. The press has gathered to hear what it is that Mike Johnson, the speaker of the house, is going to say, but I think we got a kind of preview of this when he was walking the halls in the house. And the press is speaking to him and he was pretty clear. I'm going to get all the members together and start an adventure this morning, but they infuriating that Democrats are willing to inflate hate on American people simply so they can defund the agency that is responsible literally for removing criminal illegal aliens.

33:35That's what this is about. I don't think I'm an expert in Mike Johnson's demeanor, but maybe you and I were a little more observant than others because we do this every day. That's a pretty angry Mike Johnson. That is a pretty angry Mike Johnson. Listen again. The morning that they infuriating that Democrats are willing to inflate hate on American people simply so they can defund the agency that is responsible literally for removing criminal illegal aliens. That's what this is about. I just put it on this way for the country to end with their floor. Is there? I mean, you don't know until you know, but I'm telling you right now. They are serious about putting a continuing resolution on the floor of the house and dismissing

34:44what the Senate has done. We don't care that Chuck Schumer is happy with this. We're not playing this game. We'll get TSA funded one way or another, but we're not giving Schumer his anti-ice anything. What is the calculation that the Republicans have done that this is the hill? And there's no way they're making this move. And so this was what Axios reported that the speaker is considering forgetting what the Senate passed regarding funding Department of Homeland Security, which they did yesterday. They'll fund Department of Homeland Security, but not a board of patrol, not ICE. And what it could now has to go to the house to get passed because it's different legislation. And so the argument is the house is going to say screw that. Here's a continuing resolution for 60 days to fund everything in the Department of Homeland Security while we figure it out. We're not going to give into Schumer. We're not going to budge an inch.

35:48The only way that happens is if Trump's OK with it and there must be a way to fund TSA agents that has to have been accomplished. Watch for this. It's going to be fascinating. I'm sorry, Katz.