- The book is called Trumponomics

Stephen Moore and Art Laffer

has collaborated insideAmerica's first plan

to revive our economy.

There it he and he's here with us.

So good to see you.

Thanks for being with us.

- Thank you so much for that great tribute

to President Bush.

I really enjoyed that.

- Well, you know

our fathers served together in the senate

and he always remembered that

and we've just--

- That's amazing.

- He's a good guy.

- What a life and especially at a time

when we need great American heroes--

- Yeah.

- He was one of them.

- Well, he was indeed.

Talking about heroes though,

when Trump came on the scene,

you were not initially in favor of him

because you didn't appreciate the trade,

you're for free trade.

- Yeah, you know it's funny

we talked about this in the book that,

you know the first chapteris meeting Trump and

remember two and a halfyears ago there were what?

15 republicans running for president.

- Yeah, that's right.

- And I think I knew 14 of the 15

and the only one I'd nevermet was Donald Trump.

And Larry Kudlow who's nowthe chief economist for

for Donald Trump.

And I went to see

Trump in Trump Tower and I remember

not having a positive opinion of him

when he walked in, wewalked into that room.

And after about..

Spending about an hour with him,

I just had stars (laughs)

in my eyes, I mean..

- Really?

- He's just a very charismatic guy.

You remind me of him in that way.

(laughs)

you have a winning way, both of you.

And so we started working with him,

you know, I saw the presidentjust a few weeks ago

and I just said, Mr. President this is

working better than Ieven thought it would.

(laughs) you know.

He smiled and said, "youain't seen nothing yet"

so you know it's..

Can you believe thiseconomy today, Pat I mean.

- We were having a..

It's like under Obama

it was gonna be permanent 2% growth,

that was the..

That was the goal we could hope for maybe,

and now he's talking 4%

how we're gonna get threeor 4% that's attainable

nobody thought that was possible.

- Yeah.

For the last six monthsthe US Economy's grown just

most exactly 4%, you're right.

I used to debate the economist for Obama

and for Hillary Clintonduring the campaign.

And they'd say, "Oh Donald Trump is lying

"to the American people, wecan't grow at three or 4%"

Well, we're doing it.

The also say, remember

Barack Obama a few weeksbefore the elections,

said you know, "Trump says he's gonna

bring back all thesemanufacturing jobs and

he's gonna get the three to 4% growth,

how's he gonna do that with a magic wand?

(laughs)

well, maybe, maybe Pat,

he has a magic wand

because those jobs are back.

- What're the numbers now, Steve?

- Pardon?

- What are the numbersof manufacturing jobs?

- Oh, so just since the election

we've created..

Just short of one million manufacturing

and construction jobs.

One million blue collar, working class.

Those were the good jobs

that were leaving the United States.

- Yeah.

- And people said,

"Oh, the manufacturingjobs aren't coming back"

now we saw unfortunately last week that

GM announced they're gonnaclose a couple plants,

I hate to see that and

heart goes out to the families that are

affected by that.

But, we're not losing manufacturing jobs

in this country,

we're gaining them for every factory

that's been closed downthere's probably 10 new ones.

Fact, when I talk to employers today, Pat

what they tell me istheir biggest problem,

you know what it is?

- [Pat] What's that?

- Getting workers, findingworkers to fill the jobs.

- Well, you know I was interviewing him

before the election and I mentioned this,

the fact that taxes, taxcuts were important but

regulations, the regulatoryburden was so strong

and he said that's what everybody tell me,

the regulations are worse than the taxes.

- You know, the big themeof this book Trumponomics

people ask, you know,

what single thing is it

that Trump did thatturned around the economy?

- [Pat] Yeah.

- I don't think you canreally point to any one thing.

I mean look, I think the taxcut was really important.

- [Pat] Yeah, sure.

- But I think it was really..

Look what happened, remember what happened

just a couple of daysafter the election in 2016?

All of a sudden you hada spurt of consumer CAF

and it's a business CAF

and it's the..

We were actually putting a man in office

who knew something about business.

And was a successful..

What a concept, right?

To have a businessman as president.

- It's almost like Obama hated success

and hated free enterprise.

And Trump applauds free enterprise

and wants people to makemoney and be successful.

- Well, that's what AmericaFirst is really all about.

People say, well thisis a racist concept or

it's you know, it's

putting aside other countries, no.

I mean, it's about basically

every decision he makes Pat,

and I've talked a lot about this

people say, "Oh he justcares about the rich people"

No, every time we wouldtalk about policy to him,

he would say, "how is this gonna affect

"that coal miner inCharleston, West Virginia."

Or "how is this gonnaaffect that steel worker

"in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania."

Or "how is this gonnaaffect the auto worker

"in Michigan"

He cares deeply about middle class work..

He used to say, "look, the rich

can take care of themselves"

(laughs)

he said, "it's the middle class

"that's really not hada pay raise in 20 years

and it's great to see, isn't it?

That wages are starting to rise.

- It was those peoplewho put him in office.

- Exactly!

Like the old saying,you dance with the one

who brung you and he knows it was,

it was the Reagan Democrats.

- [Pat] Yeah.

- Who put Donald Trump into office.

- When they were talking about it,

there was no path to victory

when we began to add up the states,

but when you starttalking about Pennsylvania

and Ohio and Wisconsin and Michigan.

That's, that's blue collar workers

who were coming out to vote.

- It's really interesting how the

republican party's actuallychanged under Donald Trump.

If you look at thedistrict's that, you know

the Democrats won in these midterms.

They tend to be the very wealthy districts

or the inner cities.

The counties that were won by Republicans

tended to be workingclass, you know, towns

and it's just interesting to me that

Democrats always accuse the Republicans

of being the party of the rich.

Now they're the partyof the rich (laughs).

But look, I think he'sin great shape for 2020.

- [Pat] Do you?

- This economy continuesanywhere near as strong

as it is two years fromnow as it is today,

he's gonna win a 40 state re-election.

- We were talking aboutBush, remember that's where

the mantra for Clinton is

it's the economy, stupid remember?

And they beat him up

of course they mouse trapped him

Peggy Noonan wrote that speech,

you know, read my lips.

I was in the convention,

everybody had sharedit's a wonderful life,

no new taxes and then

they trapped him and forced him.

Do you think, the thoughtis Pelosi will force Trump--

- No.

- To play the same game.

(laughs)

- I don't think, Idon't think Donald Trump

is gonna make that mistake.

He knows that, you know

the key to economic success,

keeping taxes low,

getting government off theback of our businesses.

- [Pat] Yeah.

- Reducing the regulatory burden,

so he understands that.

And by the way, what happened

I'm really pretty excited about,

we're just learning about

what happened this weekendin Buenos Aires, Argentina.

But it looks Pat, tome like it was a pretty

big victory for Donald Trump

in terms of getting some

real concessions from China.

- Well, what is the deal now?

Have you got the inside on --

- Well, we're still, I'mstill figuring it out

and you know my buddy

Larry Kudlow was over there advising

the president on this.

But it, the preliminary prognosis is that

China has agreed to reduce

some of it's tariffs on America--

By the way, I'm a free trade guy,

I always told Donald Trump, you know

that I disagreed with him

on some of his trade policies,

but I think he's right on China.

We cannot move forward with these abusive

trade practices that China's engaged in.

- [Pat] It's not just the trade, though

it's these theft of ourintellectual property.

If you're gonna do a deal with China

you gotta turn over allthe intellectual property,

that's what the theft is.

- [Stephen] Yeah.

And that's why I thought, yes we estimate

by the way that's 300 billion,

not 300 million, 300billion dollars a year

is basically stolen it'sthievery by the Chinese.

- Is he gonna go along with that?

I mean--

- Well, see this is the thing.

And I think Donald Trump knows this,

Remember the old Reagan doctrine

when he used to

negotiate with the Soviets,

trust but verify (laughs).

That's what you haveto do with the Chinese

because they will say one thing, Pat

and they will do another thing.

We know that from the last 25 years,

so he's got a great agreement right now.

I think by the way,

the financial markets are gonna love this.

I think you're gonna see a nice opening

in the stock market

because it looks like these

the trade wars aren't gonna happen.

But he has to verify andenforce this agreement

and by the way, thisis just the first step,

because you mentionedthe intellectual property

that was not covered in the spring.

- What he's done with tariffs though,

I mean, the Chinese say well,

we won't put tariffs on

American automobiles for example.

That's a pretty good deal.

- That's a good deal.

And that's a good start, you know.

And earlier I said, whatI want out of this is

is a deal to make a deal.

I think that's what we got here.

By the way, if you wannaunderstand Donald Trump.

- [Pat] Yeah.

- You have to read hisbook The Art of the Deal.

This guy is one of the greatnegotiators of all time.

And he used to say, "lookwe can do so much better

"at out negotiations with

"with China or whatever country it is",

Mexico or you know Canada

we got a great, new free trade deal

with Canada and Mexico.

- Well, he's, he's a batting and after

as of today is the amaz-- (laughs)

I'm walking away from lifeand this is a new deal

and it's Mexico- It's better.

- In a lot of ways it's abetter deal than we had before.

Look, if he can get this,

if this is real, whathappened this weekend

that China is gonna actually open up

their markets to the U.S products.

They should do not justautos but also you know

you mentioned our agriculture.

We have the most productivefarmers in the world.

China has high tariffs on those

think about what this would mean

for the American economy and our ability

to sell things,

There's a billion Chinese.

- Soy beans

(laughs)

- Exactly!

I'm from Illinois, corn, soybeans.

We eat all of these things,

we have the best farmers in the world so

I'm really optimistic about the future.

- I think Obama and otherswho've led this country

don't understand that we'rethe big player in the world

and when we move

they've got to move with us or else.

Trump realizes that.

You know what that's called?

You're exactly right andit's called leverage.

We have leverage overthe rest of the world

'cause every country that we trade with

they have to be able to,

we have the biggest consumermarket in the world.

So if they can't trade,

and Trump realized that,

look we have an advantageover these countries.

We can get better deals

and that's what he always said to me

when we'd talk about this.

I can get a better deal for America

and so far so good,

- You've got to believe yourcompany is the strongest

and if you believethat, and he believes it

the others, they didn't trust America.

- If you get a level playing field.

- [Pat] Yeah.

- Which is all Trump has said,

I just wanna make sure

they're playing by therules and we have le..

American companies our manufacturers,

our farmers, our workers can now compete

with anybody in the world.

No question about it.- There's no question.

- Well amen, well listen

(laughs)

thanks for your

insights on Trumponomics

- [Stephen] Thank you.

- Is the book out now?

- It is out.

And by the way I got abig lift on Thursday,

Donald Trump tweeted it out to his--

- [Pat] Oh did he? Did he?

- (laughing) 25 million followers.

That's one of the greatadvertisements, you know.

But people say, "Oh Idon't wanna read that book,

"I don't , I don't like economics"

It really isn't an economics book.

It's really aboutunderstanding Donald Trump

and how he rebuilt the American economy.

- Alright folks, it'savailable wherever books