hat is so powerful, this first impression stuff.

So by doing a very capable and early and aggressive staffing, and much better than the first time he did it most people would say, it gives a real good impression. So even people who might not have voted for him said, you know, it looks like he's getting some work done. And that is so good persuasion-wise. Getting the first two months right is like getting the first year right. But if you were a standard politician you'd probably be quiet for a few months and then once you're sworn in you might say, okay, now we're sworn in, we'll get this year right, have a good first year. Trump is going to get his first year right before he's sworn in. Now that is so much smarter than what you'll see anybody else do. It's just a whole different level anyway.

Trump's popularity according to Modernity is surging among young Americans. So it rose from 19% to 57% in just over a week. What? So according to this one source, Trump's popularity surged among young Americans in that 18 to 29 in the space of just over a week. So conducted from November 17th to 19th, the survey revealed that 57% of Americans 18 to 29 now hold a favorable view of Trump, marking a net favorability increase of 19 points in that demographic in a week. Is that possible? Apparently TikTok has gone strongly Trump or at least there's a big movement in that direction.

I guess my first impression would be this might be like that Iowa poll that said Harris was way ahead and you said to yourself that's a fake poll. And then later you find out, well, okay that wasn't real. I don't think that in one week Trump's popularity went from 19 to 57. You believe that? That seems far more likely something wrong with the way they ask the question or something. I do believe that his popularity is sharply up. That feels right. I don't think it's up this much but could be wrong anyway.

Here's something I didn't know. Did you know that China is no longer the main source of U.S. imports? And a lot of that is because of Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods. So Trump in the first term tariffed Chinese goods to try to get more things made in other countries and made in America. And the made in America part I don't know about but Mexico surged. So Mexico is the number one place that we buy stuff from the United States now. That doesn't mean that the raw materials are from Mexico. So a lot of the components of what they make in Mexico might be made or produced in China. So there's still that. But Vietnam and South Korea and Mexico and at least one other place have gone way up and China has gone way down in terms of stuff we buy.

So the tariffs worked. To me it looks like they worked. So if you're looking for when do tariffs work and when they don't, apparently we got something like what we wanted from the Chinese dominance of our purchasing situations. But last year products coming from China made up 14% of all imported goods, the lowest share in nearly two decades. But like I said a lot of the stuff is really Chinese but it's coming through manufactured by other places.

Well, Trump and crypto apparently has a backer. This banker, Arkansas representative French Hill. That's a funny name, French Hill. He used to be a community banker. Apparently he's really big on crypto and he seems to have the confidence of the administration. So if you're wondering why is Trump getting pro-crypto advice, which appears he is, this is one of the sources. I assumed it was JD Vance and maybe Elon. I assumed that they were the ones who were whispering crypto in his ear. But maybe having it from an Arkansas representative makes it that much more palatable because you've got a solid representative who's elected. It's not just the swirling around people who were not elected. So that's good news for crypto.

Meanwhile Christopher Rufo has apparently met with Trump a few times now. If you're not following the career and work of Christopher Rufo you should. So he's, let's call him an anti-DEI activist who's been very successful. He's met with Trump and he's trying to get Trump I think to threaten colleges and universities with losing their federal funding if they keep doing DEI stuff. He wants to get rid of all the affirmative action stuff from any institution with federal government funds. I think Trump's going to do that. And I do think that Christopher Rufo, I think he's won a place, assuming that this happens, I think there's a good chance I think Rufo has won a place in history. Like he's not a footnote. If he pulls this off he's one of the important people in American history. This is a big deal. A really big deal. And he's certainly the biggest name in this push.

All right, I'm going to call this the Trump effect. You ready? So apparently over two million people have signed a petition in the UK calling for a general election because they're not happy with their government. And Paul says their prime minister Keir Starmer, his approval rating has plummeted by 43 points since he took office just four months ago. Have you ever heard of anybody's popularity in American politics plummeting by 43 points? I've never heard of anything like that. I've never heard of anything even close to that. What's the most any American politician ever plunged in popularity in a short period? Nowhere near 43%. I mean I think even Nixon did better than that after Watergate. I'm not sure but probably anyway.

So the lawmakers are going to debate the petition and I feel like that's a Trump effect. You know why? Because I think the UK has this feeling: you don't need to live this way. There's something very powerful about that statement, isn't there? You don't have to live this way. Trump has used it and I feel like they feel it because the United States just proved to the UK that you don't have to live this way. And if they're watching the United States and they're watching what happened with Trump and then they're looking at their own country and they're looking at their own government, the election of Trump could make your popularity if you're current leader drop 43 points in four months. I mean more, probably more recently is my guess.

So do you think this is a Trump effect? I strongly believe it is. Now tangentially because obviously UK has their own problems so just having lots of problems would be enough to not want to keep your leadership. But to this degree, this is a crazy degree of loss of confidence. I feel that the reality of Trump getting reelected probably fundamentally changed how the UK voters saw their own country. Like they have a chance because the U.S. looks like it went to the precipice, maybe we're still at the precipice, but found a way to go back. And it's obvious that we found a way back and everybody can see it. America did it.

By the way, for all you countries who are watching and wondering if we could pull this off, I think we can. I think America has certain advantages that apparently we've had for a long t