Trump’s back—and so are his tariffs.
60% on China. 145% cumulative by 2025. A global 10% baseline on everyone else.
In this episode of Stay in the Gray Podcast, Ryan breaks down what may be the most aggressive economic move in modern U.S. history. Is it suicide—or long-overdue strategy?
🎙 Topics include:
– What Trump’s tariffs actually do (and who pays)
– Why China’s retaliation may be backfiring
– The EU and Japan’s quiet repositioning
– Why “cheap” might be costing us more than we think
– Supply chains, national leverage, and American jobs
No spin. No safe takes. Just names, numbers, and unapologetic perspective.
🔥 Hit Follow if you think protecting U.S. industry shouldn’t be controversial.
🔹 Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction: The Epidemic of Bad Driving
00:46 - Welcome to Stay in The Gray Podcast
01:24 - Today's Topic: Terrible Drivers
04:24 - Distracted Driving: A Deadly Issue
07:34 - Tailgating and Left Lane Hogs
09:43 - Unrestrained Dogs: A Furry Danger
11:56 - Ryan's Rant: Turn Signals and Common Courtesy
15:05 - School Zones: A Serious Matter
17:20 - Final Thoughts: Be Considerate on the Road
27:07 - Conclusion: Stay Alert, Stay in the Gray
00:00:00
245% Tara. 245% started from Chinese imports.
00:00:06
Our President of the United States, Donald Trump, has now
00:00:09
imposed on China. Are you kidding me?
00:00:11
Is it to the point to where you hate Donald Trump that much that
00:00:15
you're going to say we're with you?
00:00:16
China, probably our largest enemy right now.
00:00:20
If we don't make hard choices now, we'll get harder ones
00:00:24
later. If we can't pay a little more
00:00:27
for freedom, then what's it even worth?
00:00:30
The tariffs are messy, controversial, but just maybe
00:00:34
they're necessary to get where we want to go.
00:00:37
Hey you guys, April 16th, 2025 the Trump trade War 2 point O
00:00:43
let's get into this. I just heard I'm trying to
00:00:49
figure out how to work this in. I I literally heard minutes ago
00:00:53
that the tariffs that were imposed on China have now been
00:00:56
raised again in response to China's raising of the raising.
00:01:00
Now we're at 245% Tara. 245% started from Chinese imports.
00:01:08
Our President of the United States, Donald Trump, has now
00:01:11
imposed on China. Obviously they're not happy.
00:01:15
And this penis size war continues on.
00:01:19
Who has the bigger ego and the bigger peace?
00:01:22
Let's talk about it rationally. I'm going to give you my
00:01:26
opinions and then I have some numbers.
00:01:27
I have some some thoughts and I have both sides because this is
00:01:30
a big deal to the United States. It's a big deal to everybody.
00:01:34
I think in this world and I it's important that everybody
00:01:36
understands. And I don't think that that
00:01:39
everybody does. I think that that people are
00:01:41
being on both sides are being continuing to be told what to do
00:01:46
and say and how to act and nobody's thinking for
00:01:48
themselves. Some of you I'm sure are, but
00:01:50
let's talk about this a little bit.
00:01:52
They started out the tariffs of 60% on China, OK, 145%
00:01:57
cumulative by this month. Well, when China upped that
00:02:01
instead of what some people say is caving, and I don't agree
00:02:04
with that. I think other countries have,
00:02:06
which I'll talk about in a minute, have jumped on board and
00:02:08
they're saying, all right, let's let's talk about this.
00:02:10
China is not one of those and I'm not surprised.
00:02:14
So once they raised it, apparently today we have
00:02:18
continued to raise it. And it wasn't some big, big
00:02:20
announcement, some big, you know, I didn't see Caroline
00:02:23
Leavitt, press secretary up there.
00:02:25
But the other thing is global tariffs on just about every
00:02:29
other country except for Canada, except for Mexico.
00:02:32
And the response to that has been crazy.
00:02:35
Again, one side, I hate Donald Trump, so anything he does
00:02:39
sucks. The other side, Donald's the
00:02:41
best and fuck everybody else. I lean towards the latter, of
00:02:44
course, but I'm also understanding that there isn't a
00:02:47
Gray area. There is a neutral a, a spot to
00:02:51
be in and say, hey, look, maybe we slow down or maybe we do this
00:02:54
or, or you know, whatever. But the bottom line in my
00:02:56
opinion is that this is about a mindset.
00:02:59
This is about America first. This is about we're not going to
00:03:02
be taken advantage of. This is about we don't care what
00:03:05
China does. We're going to do us.
00:03:07
We're going to do, I'm going to do me.
00:03:09
And I think that that's what you're seeing spread a little
00:03:12
bit, not only in this country, but in other countries around
00:03:15
the world. Is it national security?
00:03:18
Is it political points or is it finally putting the United
00:03:21
States first? Let's roll.
00:03:23
And yes, I'm going to name names.
00:03:25
Let's flashback to 2018. If Donald Trump kicks off this
00:03:29
new trade war. We've, we've always had issues
00:03:32
with China. I mean, he kicks off this new
00:03:34
one by slapping tariffs on the Chinese goods, billions worth.
00:03:37
This was in 2018. Why?
00:03:40
Because China has been treating our economy like a doormat,
00:03:43
stealing IP, forcing tech transfers, subsidizing their
00:03:47
industries and buying more Russian vodka instead of Jack
00:03:51
Daniels. Everyone freaked out.
00:03:53
The markets dipped. Farmers were getting nervous.
00:03:57
And then it just kind of faded and you didn't hear much more
00:04:00
about it. The Biden administration, they
00:04:02
weren't as concerned about America first.
00:04:04
They were concerned about, oh, we have to keep everybody else
00:04:06
happy. And by doing that, they
00:04:08
basically bent over to China. And that's what Donald Trump is
00:04:11
undoing. You heard it here, my opinion.
00:04:14
But now it's bigger. It's back, it's back.
00:04:17
It's bigger, it's it's badder, it's louder, and a lot more
00:04:21
zeros are involved, apparently. So what's new?
00:04:24
I was going to give you the numbers again, 60% tariff on all
00:04:26
the Chinese goods, but they went up to 145, blah, blah, blah.
00:04:29
You've heard all this before. Now we're at 245%.
00:04:32
It's staying at 125% the other way.
00:04:35
President Xi, I think I say that right every time of China is
00:04:39
saying he's not going to go above it.
00:04:41
He's trying to look like the good guy and he's saying
00:04:43
anything above 125 is absurd. Basically a backhanded slab to
00:04:49
Donald saying he's the one being petty.
00:04:51
When in reality, all that we did was match the initial tariffs
00:04:54
they had on the United States. So it becomes, you know, if you
00:05:01
don't know that, then it looks like Donald Trump's being petty.
00:05:04
So don't be afraid to listen to Stay in the Grade podcast.
00:05:08
So the 10% universal tariff is 1.
00:05:10
We'll talk about also Canada and Mexico were excluded from that.
00:05:14
Apparently. We still love our room mates,
00:05:16
even though they mooch off us a little bit and use us as a line
00:05:19
of defense. My kid maybe the targeted
00:05:22
sectors in all these tariffs. You got electric vehicles, steel
00:05:25
and aluminum, semiconductors, batteries, tech, hardware.
00:05:28
The messaging here is simple. America first, China last.
00:05:33
Manufacturing is coming back to the United States.
00:05:36
The critics and the whiners to all of this, I added whiners.
00:05:40
They'll say it's inflationary, it's political, and it's bad
00:05:44
economics. But let's be real, inflation is
00:05:48
already here and China wasn't helping at all.
00:05:50
It is beyond me that Americans now, even in our government, I
00:05:54
have seen posts on social media and interviews where these
00:06:00
Americans are saying we're with you, China with the fucking
00:06:05
Chinese flag on the post. Are you kidding me?
00:06:08
Is it to the point to where you hate Donald Trump that much that
00:06:11
you're going to say we're with you, China, probably our largest
00:06:15
enemy right now and your way of life and your government
00:06:19
philosophy of communism is something that we have
00:06:22
vehemently oppose. But we're with you because we
00:06:25
hate Donald Trump that much. Even if you disagree with
00:06:27
tariffs people, there's a way to go about it.
00:06:30
You might not agree with it. You might want them to go
00:06:32
slower, but to sit here in a line with our enemy just to kind
00:06:36
of stick it to everybody, maybe to get clicks or likes, I don't
00:06:40
know, but you're trash and I and I said it.
00:06:43
So let's move on from there. Goodness, people, we're with
00:06:45
China. Really, it's very similar to the
00:06:48
to if somebody went around and said we're with ISIS or we're
00:06:51
with Hamas. If, if you want to get a little
00:06:54
bit closer to home with these protests recently, again,
00:07:01
protest, be upset all you want, but you don't have to align with
00:07:05
our enemies. Something to think about at
00:07:06
least. Who knows early on.
00:07:09
And this is another complaint. This is where I'll kind of side
00:07:11
with a lot of people. There may be a little bit of of
00:07:15
of a fluctuation in prices with certain things.
00:07:17
We don't know exactly. It hasn't been long enough, but
00:07:20
I haven't seen anything yet. In fact, a lot of things have
00:07:22
gone down price wise. Gas has gone down.
00:07:25
People try and tell me, oh, I live in where it doesn't
00:07:28
bullshit. That stuff is researchable and
00:07:31
I've done that. Gas is going down overall.
00:07:33
Eggs have gone down, way down overall.
00:07:36
You can't use that anymore, so China's not playing very nice
00:07:41
either. It's not like they're innocent
00:07:42
again. 125% tariffs on us. They're banning Boeing imports.
00:07:46
China The country has reportedly ordered Chinese airlines to stop
00:07:49
taking deliveries of Boeing jets amidst trade tensions with the
00:07:53
US. Cutting off rare earth exports
00:07:56
that power phones, weapons, satellites, you name it.
00:08:00
The idea, though, is that we don't need that to come from
00:08:03
China. We can produce it here or we can
00:08:07
get it from others through reciprocal trade, fair trade.
00:08:10
But let's be honest, China's pretty good at this.
00:08:13
They're attempting to be ruthless.
00:08:15
The only one to stand up to the mighty crazy Donald Trump, who
00:08:20
people want to call a dictator, which is the opposite of what he
00:08:24
does. People want to call him all
00:08:26
these crazy things. The only one to stand up to him
00:08:28
so far is China. Canada tried.
00:08:31
It was cute. Mexico they tried is cute.
00:08:35
Chinas got some some power here. And so I think Donald proven
00:08:39
he's not backing down. President Xi isn't doesn't want
00:08:42
to back down. Here's the twist from the people
00:08:44
that have a problem with the tariffs and it's something that
00:08:46
needs to be addressed. China is the number one trading
00:08:49
partner. China has become its largest
00:08:52
trading partner for 120 plus countries in the world.
00:08:56
They've been playing long ball instead of, you know, over here,
00:08:59
we get mad at China and we complain about TikTok and we
00:09:03
argue that there may be may or may not be some drones from
00:09:05
China in the skies. Meanwhile, China's playing the
00:09:08
long ball game and they're set up pretty nicely with, like I
00:09:12
said, 120 plus countries. But you know what?
00:09:16
My problem with China is that their products flood the global
00:09:20
market, but they suck. When I receive something and
00:09:26
it's made in China, it's shit. I mean sometimes it doesn't
00:09:29
matter if it's a trinket of sorts or or whatever.
00:09:32
I'll tell you a quick story. I you know I'm an avid hockey
00:09:35
fan. My favorite team is the
00:09:37
Pittsburgh Penguins. If any of you like them let me
00:09:40
know. Been since I was a kid.
00:09:42
I found a a site that from China that was making authentic
00:09:46
jerseys. So I nabbed 1 and it was a my
00:09:49
favorite player over here in the United States.
00:09:52
One of those authentic jerseys, literally one that is worn in
00:09:56
the NHL can go for about 240 to $260.
00:10:01
This was $25 made in China and they claimed it would be
00:10:06
absolutely the same thing. Well, it wasn't, but it was
00:10:09
close. So kudos to them.
00:10:10
But it still started ripping apart.
00:10:12
And it wasn't probably it wasn't legal because about a month
00:10:15
later when I went on to get another one, the site had shut
00:10:18
down. So there's a shadiness there
00:10:21
when it comes to Chinese products.
00:10:22
And that's why I tend to kind of sit here and say, what do we
00:10:25
need this for? I mean, you know, Etsy's great
00:10:29
and a lot of products come from over there.
00:10:31
But at the time it takes to get here, although that's improved,
00:10:33
I must admit, Let's build relationships with others, make
00:10:38
quality products, have fair trade and be better than they
00:10:42
are, be less snake like if you will.
00:10:45
We can't, we can do better. I just, I believe that smarter
00:10:48
manufacturing, stronger materials and supply chains that
00:10:52
don't bow to Beijing. And that's what our goal is.
00:10:55
And I just can't believe there are people here that that could
00:10:57
listen to this and go, no, we like Beijing.
00:11:01
Good. Let's let's stay there.
00:11:02
Let's stay with them. Let's let's pay their absurd
00:11:05
tariffs and take ours off the table.
00:11:07
Let's cower to China. Come on, people, I'm not saying
00:11:11
this. We cannot be naive to the big
00:11:14
picture. I get that.
00:11:15
We don't need to be dependent on others either.
00:11:18
There is a a way to do this, and I think that's what's being
00:11:21
done. Here's the messy middle, OK?
00:11:23
Supporters will say the tariffs are the only way to protect the
00:11:28
US industries from predatory pricing as slave labor, stolen
00:11:32
innovation, things like that. But the opponent's tariffs hurt
00:11:36
consumers, they disrupt supply chains, and they don't always
00:11:40
bring the jobs home. They just move them over to a
00:11:42
place like Vietnam. Now, fair fairpoint, but maybe
00:11:46
the real question is, do you want cheaper Airpods or in
00:11:51
America that actually makes stuff?
00:11:53
Again, just think about that and hopefully come up with the right
00:11:56
answer. But just when you thought it
00:11:58
couldn't get any more on the nose, President Xi the other day
00:12:01
had the audacity to demand the US remove these new tariffs and
00:12:07
go back to the way it was, which was us being taken advantage of
00:12:13
by China. Who are you really?
00:12:16
G wants a refund. I just don't know who he thinks
00:12:18
he is. He's not in charge of the United
00:12:20
States. He's not in charge of the world.
00:12:23
Good for you. You got away with it for long
00:12:24
enough. Not anymore.
00:12:26
That era is over. I don't know what we're supposed
00:12:28
to say. Sorry.
00:12:29
We'll take the economic handcuffs off and put them back
00:12:32
on so you can keep undercutting our markets and stealing our
00:12:35
tech with a smile. You don't get to gut American
00:12:38
manufacturing for decades and then throw a fit when we stop
00:12:42
letting you. It's not how it works.
00:12:44
We're not here to make Beijing feel comfortable.
00:12:47
We're here to make America competitive again.
00:12:49
So how do you make all of this work without tanking the
00:12:53
economy? We're nuking Walmart prices.
00:12:55
Here's the idea. You pair the tariffs with
00:12:58
domestic incentives, that's huge in my opinion.
00:13:01
You invest in American manufacturing with subsidies and
00:13:04
tax credits, things like that. Build tech independence,
00:13:07
semiconductors, batteries, AI, the things that I mentioned.
00:13:10
Strengthen our alliances. We have them India, Taiwan,
00:13:14
Mexico and Canada. Spread the supply chain love and
00:13:19
let's build our own network. I don't see why we can't do it
00:13:23
and finally get serious about buying American.
00:13:26
Let's not sit here and tweet about it.
00:13:27
Let's do it. Be aware of what you're
00:13:29
purchasing. And I need to be better as well.
00:13:31
I mean, I'm sitting here. I do not want to be a hypocrite
00:13:33
when it comes to anything. I hate that.
00:13:35
I hate those people. And so I need to be better as
00:13:38
well. And I'm going to when Donald
00:13:40
Trump dropped the 10% global universal tariff on the world,
00:13:47
it was loud, it was blunt. It was something called
00:13:50
Liberation Day. He tweeted about it and posted
00:13:53
it and put on true social and X and all that.
00:13:56
And everybody made memes about it.
00:13:58
And it was a big deal, Liberation Day.
00:14:00
And it was designed to make a point.
00:14:02
And that point is something I'm trying to get to you throughout
00:14:05
the show. If you want access to the
00:14:07
American market, you'd better come to the table.
00:14:10
Guess what it did. Not China, but everybody else,
00:14:14
most everybody else, almost 70 countries, it's rumored to be
00:14:18
even more, have reached out to the United States since he did
00:14:23
this to talk about trade deals or request exemptions,
00:14:29
extensions. Countries include Vietnam,
00:14:32
Brazil, India, other, some of whom are staring down tariffs as
00:14:36
high as 46%. And then how about the big boys,
00:14:39
the big players in the game, European Union, They were a
00:14:42
surprise when Donald hit them with this and they didn't like
00:14:46
it. And they came out and they did
00:14:47
their whole thing. Like everybody, he's bullying,
00:14:49
he's this and that. And I think they quickly
00:14:51
realized that wasn't going to be the game plan.
00:14:54
And then suddenly they were very interested in streamlining
00:14:56
negotiations. And they're not calling it
00:14:59
surrender per SE, but they're definitely calling.
00:15:02
And how about Japan? Look, Japan probably super
00:15:06
intelligent leadership. They've acknowledged that these
00:15:08
tariffs are damaging, but then they kind of open this back
00:15:13
channel with the United States and they're like, we don't like
00:15:16
this, but don't leave us out smart.
00:15:20
They know they of course they don't like it who we know.
00:15:23
We're not asking people to go, this is fantastic.
00:15:25
Thanks for adding to tariffs, higher tariffs.
00:15:27
Thanks for calling us out on taking advantage of you.
00:15:30
Don't expect that, but you expect rationality.
00:15:34
You expect the leader of a country like Japan to say it's
00:15:37
time to get this squared away and here we go.
00:15:41
And Japan called the US now has paused the global tariffs for 90
00:15:46
days. Obviously, that does not include
00:15:48
China. What has happened is that Donald
00:15:51
Trump and his staff has seen that other countries are coming
00:15:54
to talk. They want to negotiate.
00:15:56
So hey, pause it all and let's talk.
00:15:59
By no means was this some sort of a hightail it and and run and
00:16:03
he caved. He didn't caved for shit.
00:16:06
It is a pause. Look up the word pause in the
00:16:08
dictionary if you are unfamiliar.
00:16:10
All it is is hey, we're going to take some time to talk to
00:16:12
everybody. We're going to square it away.
00:16:14
And of course he doesn't want to hurt anybody more than he needs
00:16:17
to when it comes to trade if they can come to a deal.
00:16:20
So smart move, not cowardly move, smart move and it's paying
00:16:25
off. I think one thing I wanted to
00:16:26
mention was that some of the electronics he was actually
00:16:29
excluding from the tariff. And that's smart on his end.
00:16:31
Why would you want this immediate consumer backlash for
00:16:35
things like electronics, lots of phones, laptops, things like
00:16:38
this were excluded. So, you know, he's trying to to
00:16:41
do this the right way. But let's be clear, 10% is still
00:16:44
in place. It's on pause and China's still
00:16:47
getting smacked with now 245% tariffs.
00:16:52
I know I'm keeping my eye on this and I'd like to know what
00:16:54
and see what happens here. My popcorn is ready now.
00:16:57
Everyone else besides China is looking for a way to get off the
00:16:59
naughty list and I think that proves that it's not a weakness
00:17:04
on EU s s end. It's it's leverage, it's
00:17:06
controlled pressure and I think it's it's working Like I said
00:17:10
now like 5 times, this is how you change the game.
00:17:13
You stop playing defense and you make others start adjusting to
00:17:16
you. We've done apologizing for
00:17:19
wanting to protect American interest, American jobs,
00:17:22
American manufacturing, American sovereignty.
00:17:25
No more apologies. There's nothing wrong with
00:17:27
looking after ourselves. The tariffs are in a tantrum of
00:17:30
any kind by Donald Trump. It's a strategy they're judging.
00:17:34
And judging by the line at the negotiation table, it's working.
00:17:38
You can laugh, argue, you can meme, rage, tweet.
00:17:42
But here's the truth. We don't take control of our
00:17:44
economy. China will.
00:17:46
If we don't make hard choices now, we'll get harder ones
00:17:50
later. If we can't pay a little more
00:17:53
for freedom, then what's it even worth?
00:17:55
The tariffs are messy or controversial, but just maybe
00:18:00
they're necessary to get where we want to go.
00:18:02
And here it's Stay in the Gray podcast.
00:18:04
We're not cheering for Wall Street, we're pulling for Main
00:18:07
Street. You liked the way this was
00:18:09
broken down, Hit subscribe, drop a review, Send this to someone
00:18:13
who now thinks China's our friend, One of these people
00:18:16
that's got him in their profile picture, send it to him and say,
00:18:19
hey, look, here's a guy. Here's truly, he might not know
00:18:22
every single detail of how the tariffs are working, but it's
00:18:25
somebody who understands the purpose and understands the
00:18:30
mindset that this administration and the majority of this country
00:18:35
have right now and to align with China is not the way to do it.
00:18:42
So dig in a little deep, listen to something like this and then
00:18:45
do some research. Do your own research and look
00:18:47
into what what the tariffs are and what they were before Donald
00:18:50
started raising them. He's just matching ladies and
00:18:53
gentlemen. He's not being this big bully
00:18:56
that everybody wants to make him out to be.
00:18:58
So until next time again, any like any subscribe all that
00:19:01
helps and I'm really just loving this.
00:19:05
So thank you. Until next time, stay smart,
00:19:09
stay skeptical, stay laughing please, and stay in the Gray.
00:19:15
Love you guys.