Swamp Notes: Trump’s ‘you break it, you buy it’ moment
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Just a few weeks ago, US President Donald Trump was ready to levy tariffs on basically every nation. Today, many of those tariffs have been paused or tempered. Additionally, this week he promised he will not be firing Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell, despite his earlier criticism. Should we expect more backstepping from Trump in the face of economic data? And what do the voters think of it all? FT economics editor Sam Fleming joins alongside Jon McHenry, vice-president of the conservative pollster North Star Opinion Research.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Trump claims to have received call from Xi Jinping and to have cut ‘200 deals’ on trade
Donald Trump says he has ‘no intention’ of firing Jay Powell
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Swamp Notes is produced by Katya Kumkova. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Special thanks to Pierre Nicholson.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We're Equinor, an energy company searching for better. Currently, we supply 27% of the UK's gas, |
| 0:07.0 | 15% of its oil, and we're playing our part in the UK's energy transition. In 2023, we invested |
| 0:14.1 | 20% of our global gross spend in renewables and lower carbon solutions. Today, our wind farms power |
| 0:20.0 | 750,000 homes, and we expect this to grow to |
| 0:23.3 | over 7 million UK households. We're an energy company searching for better. Equinor.com.uk. |
| 0:31.6 | It's been nearly one month since U.S. President Donald Trump kicked off his bid to reconfigure the global economy. |
| 0:38.8 | He slapped tariffs on basically every country in the world. |
| 0:42.6 | He hinted about firing the Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, and he pushed China into a full-on trade war. |
| 0:49.8 | But weeks later, things are sounding different. |
| 0:52.7 | I'm not going to say, oh, I'm going to play hardball with China. |
| 0:55.2 | I'm going to play hardball with you, President Xi. |
| 0:57.4 | No, no. |
| 0:58.5 | We're going to be very nice. |
| 1:00.1 | They're going to be very nice. |
| 1:01.8 | And we'll see what happens. |
| 1:09.3 | This is Swamp Notes, the weekly podcast from the FT News Briefing, where we talk about all the things happening in U.S. politics. |
| 1:15.5 | I'm Mark Filipino, and this week we're asking, where do things stand a few weeks out from Liberation Day? |
| 1:21.0 | Here with me to discuss as a special guest, John McHenry. |
| 1:24.0 | He's the Vice President of North Star Opinion Research, a Republican polling group. |
| 1:28.6 | Hey, John. Good morning. Great to be with you. Good to have you. And we've also got the F.T. Sam |
| 1:33.4 | Fleming, who is our economics editor. Hi, Sam. Hi, Mark. All right. So, Sam, let's start with you. |
| 1:38.9 | We mentioned Trump started April with a big gambit. He has since softened his tone. Why has he done that? |
... |
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