Jack Posobiec, conservative commentator Tim Pool, and liberal commentator Luke Beasley took part in a debate at the University of Chicago. Posobiec defended President Donald Trump’s deportations and border enforcement as campaign commitments being fulfilled, while crediting federal task forces operating in cities in Republican-led states with addressing crime.
Posobiec argued that immigration increases competition for American jobs and depresses wages. He extended that argument from unauthorized construction workers to H-1B visa holders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, maintaining that legal immigration status does not eliminate competition’s effects on American workers.
To illustrate that pressure, Posobiec explained how a construction business employing American citizens could lose a contract to a competitor using cheaper unauthorized labor and offering to complete the project for half the price. He argued that reducing immigration and carrying out mass deportations would help American workers and businesses competing against employers using unauthorized labor.
Beasley challenged that conclusion, arguing that deportations can leave jobs unfilled and that legal immigration supports business formation, economic activity, and tax payments. He acknowledged possible marginal benefits for workers in certain industries but disputed that those gains outweighed the broader economic costs of Trump’s policies.
Social Security and Medicare brought Republican promises to reduce federal spending into conflict with the party’s reluctance to change retirement programs. The concern centered on younger employed Americans financing benefits for older retirees whose average wealth substantially exceeds their own, while younger workers struggle to buy homes and start families.
Pool put average baby boomer net worth at $1.6 million, compared with approximately $60,000 for Generation Z. He said 75 percent of baby boomers own homes, with some owning 2 or 3 properties, while clarifying that the generation’s average wealth does not mean every older American is wealthy.
Pool warned of Social Security payouts falling to 78 percent by 2032 and insolvency around 2037. He also cited a poll indicating that baby boomers would support higher taxes on younger Americans to maintain or increase benefits, arguing that older voters’ stronger turnout protects those commitments despite Generation Z and millennials rivaling them in population.
Posobiec urged Republicans to enact legislation directly helping Generation Z and millennials, whose economic circumstances reflect the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, changes to financial institutions, globalization, and migration under former President Joe Biden. Pool warned that continued pressure on younger workers could fuel socialist politics or encourage candidates to campaign on abolishing Social Security.
An audience member who runs a homeless association in a community adjoining the University of Chicago asked how government spending could be brought under control. He questioned Democratic efforts to restore USAID and raised an allegation that someone associated with Loretto Hospital in Chicago had walked away with $800 million in taxpayer money.
Pool drew on his experience working on homelessness to argue that smaller nonprofits performed well, while larger organizations receiving government grants and major donations sometimes spent little on their intended purposes. Beasley countered that dismantling USAID within weeks had itself wasted resources, including food and medicine intended for people who needed them.
The dispute over federal debt extended beyond spending cuts to taxation and monetary policy. Beasley blamed successive Republican tax cuts disproportionately benefiting wealthy Americans for weakening revenue, while Posobiec argued that this explanation overlooked quantitative easing under both parties and its inflationary effects; Beasley maintained that an economic crisis can require measures that increase inflation.
Pool called for controlling deficits and paying down debt but argued that public resistance makes spending reductions difficult to implement. Americans may agree that excessive borrowing is a problem, he maintained, then oppose cuts to programs benefiting them, leaving the government facing demands for fiscal restraint alongside pressure to preserve spending and maintain stability.
FINAL WORD
Posobiec’s defense of Trump centered on keeping his promises to secure the border and deport illegal immigrants, with the argument that American workers should not lose wages or contracts to employers using cheaper unauthorized labor. He and Pool also pressed Republicans to address younger Americans’ difficulty buying homes and starting families, while challenging retirement costs, wasteful spending, and money printing that leave workers carrying the burden. Their argument leaves Republicans with a clear responsibility: build on Trump’s immigration enforcement with economic policies that help working Americans get ahead and give younger voters a reason to support reform rather than socialism.
On today's episode of Human Events Daily, I take you inside my University of Chicago debate with my friend Tim Pool and liberal commentator Luke Beasley, where I defend President Trump’s border enforcement and explain how cheap illegal labor undercuts American workers.
