Furious World Leaders Torch Trump and Cancel Deals!!!

Summary

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The MeidasTouch Podcast (April 25, 2026)

Episode Title: Furious World Leaders Torch Trump and Cancel Deals!!!

Main Theme Overview

In this episode, the Meiselas brothers dive into a critical moment for U.S. global standing, as world leaders across NATO and allied nations begin to distance themselves from the United States in response to Donald Trump’s antagonistic foreign policy. They detail significant diplomatic, economic, and military repercussions unfolding as nations cancel deals, exclude the U.S. from critical meetings, and publicly question the country’s reliability as a partner. The brothers weave in signature banter and commentary but maintain a sobering message about the consequences of Trump-era "America First" policies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. NATO Drops U.S. Military Contracts ([02:30])

• NATO’s AWACS Move:

  • NATO announces it will no longer buy U.S. E-3 Sentry AWACS surveillance planes, ending decades of American dominance in alliance surveillance aircraft.
  • The decision shifts NATO procurement to Sweden’s Saab GlobalEye, a move the brothers frame as directly resulting from Trump’s relentless attacks on NATO and threats of retaliation.
  • Quote:
    • Ben Meiselas: “Europe said, got your message, Donald... We’re not going to be buying the E3 Sentries. See you later.” ([05:00])

• Technical Considerations:

  • The Saab GlobalEye offers advanced radar capabilities, providing NATO faster and more versatile early warning capacity than the aging U.S. models.

2. The U.S.-Canada Defense Fallout and Shift to Gripen ([06:40])

• Canada’s Defense Review:
  • Canada, reeling from Trump’s attacks on its sovereignty and threats toward the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), is reconsidering the purchase of American F-35 fighter jets, leaning toward Sweden’s Gripen jets instead.
  • The brothers highlight Canadian concerns about American "kill switches," weapon maintenance dependencies, and reliability.
  • Canada-Sweden Partnership:
    • Sweden offers a partnership to co-build and customize Gripen fighters, promising enhanced Canadian sovereignty and job creation.
  • Quote:
    • Ben Meiselas: “Even Canada’s like, yeah, I don’t think we’re gonna go with that... Just goes to tell you how no one wants to basically touch the United States’ weapons anymore. All a result of Donald Trump.” ([08:54])

3. U.S. Excluded from Key Diplomatic Summits ([09:20])

• International Meetings Without U.S.:
  • World leaders, including UK’s Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron, convene major diplomatic sessions—such as ones addressing the Strait of Hormuz—without American participation.
  • The recurring motif: the U.S. is increasingly marginalized in international diplomacy due to Trump’s unpredictability and combative stance.
  • Quote:
    • Ben Meiselas: “Broader alliances [are] forming and the U.S. Ain’t invited to these meetings. The U.S. Wasn’t at Cyprus. The U.S. Wasn’t at the meeting held by Starmer and Macron.” ([09:50])

4. Trump Administration Plots Retaliation Against NATO ([09:50])

• Internal Pentagon Emails Leak:
  • Defense Department notes reveal discussions about punishing NATO members for not supporting U.S. actions in Iran, including possible suspensions and targeting of European interests.
  • Trump regime’s actions include moves to invite Vladimir Putin to G20 in Miami, amplifying tensions.
  • NATO’s Response:
    • NATO responds by firmly asserting there’s no mechanism to expel members, directly undercutting Trump’s threats.
  • Quote:
    • “America first means America alone right now, you idiots. You’ve destroyed the strong power of the United States...” – Ben Meiselas ([11:02])

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5. Direct Statements from World Leaders

• Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez ([12:37]):

  • Stresses Spain’s reliability in NATO, condemns Trump’s war in the Middle East, and calls for European nations to counsel together before engaging in conflict.
  • Quote:
    • “This war is illegal, is a big mistake. And I hope... we can face de-escalation and a way out thanks to diplomacy, not thanks to war.” ([13:24])

• France’s President Emmanuel Macron ([13:57] & [18:01]):

  • Asserts that the U.S. is no longer a reliable ally; calls for Europe to strengthen collective defense and pursue “strategic autonomy.”
  • Discusses uncertain future for NATO’s mutual defense (Article 5) due to Trump’s policies.
  • Notable Quotes:
    • “Everybody sees that... the number one power, the U.S., could be an ally for certain countries, but this ally is not so much certain. And nobody is totally sure if this ally is reliable.” ([14:21])
    • “[There is now] a doubt on Article 5 not put on the table by the Europeans, but by the U.S. president. And I mean, it’s clearly a de facto weakening the strength of the alliance.” ([18:12])

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6. Saudi Arabia and Other International Financial Withdrawals ([14:52])

• Retrenchment of Saudi Investments:

  • Saudi Arabia drastically reduces U.S. investments: Suspends much of its support for the LIV Golf tournament and withdraws $200 million from the Metropolitan Opera, citing war’s effect on the Saudi economy.
  • The brothers highlight the knock-on effects—U.S. real estate and private equity dependent on foreign capital face instability.
  • Quote:
    • Ben Meiselas: “You hit Donald Trump where it hurts. You hit him with the golf… They giveth, they take it away...” ([14:55])

• U.S. No Longer Seen as a Safe Investment:

  • Pullbacks extend to the bond market and other international actors, with the growing perception that the U.S. is no longer stable or a trustworthy steward of foreign capital.

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7. Enduring Impact on NATO’s Core Principles ([17:10])

• Weakening of Article 5:
  • Both Donald Tusk (Polish Prime Minister) and Emmanuel Macron publicly declare Trump has undermined NATO’s Article 5, which underpins the alliance’s collective defense guarantee. Macron explicitly states:
    • “Europeans have to be much stronger... launch together common operations... This is where we are.” ([18:50])

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Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• Ben Meiselas, on U.S. international standing:
  “America first means America alone right now, you idiots.” ([11:02])

• Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Prime Minister:
  “This war is illegal, is a big mistake... I hope... we can face de-escalation and... a way out thanks to diplomacy and not thanks to war.” ([13:24])

• Emmanuel Macron, on U.S. reliability:
  “Nobody is totally sure if this ally is reliable.” ([14:21])
  “There is now a dot on Article 5... not put on the table by Europeans, but by the U.S. president.” ([18:12])

• On withdrawal of foreign investment:
  “Lots of our private equity firms here in the United States, lots... of media companies, lots of mergers and acquisitions are funded by Saudi money... so much money used to come in and now you’re seeing a pullback... The America doesn’t seem like a safe, stable place to put our money anymore.” ([15:40])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:30] – NATO drops U.S. surveillance plane contracts for Sweden’s Saab GlobalEye
• [06:40] – Canada reevaluates U.S. F-35 jets in favor of Swedish Gripens
• [09:20] – U.S. excluded from major international conferences/alliances
• [09:50] – Internal Pentagon emails reveal plans to punish NATO
• [11:15] – NATO rebuffs Trump’s threats to suspend members (“no provision”)
• [12:37] – Pedro Sánchez (Spain) on NATO solidarity and the illegality of war
• [13:57], [18:01] – Emmanuel Macron (France) on unreliable U.S. and the need for European defense unity
• [14:52] – Saudi Arabia cancels U.S. investments, including LIV Golf and Met Opera
• [17:10] – Macron/Tusk on the weakening of NATO’s Article 5

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Tone & Style

Throughout, the brothers balance urgency and gravity with their signature banter and sharp wit—mixing deep dives into policy with pointed sarcasm (e.g., “you idiots,” “[you] have destroyed the strong power of the United States”). Their discussion is factual, direct, and unapologetically critical of Trump’s foreign policy, amplifying direct voices of international leaders for impact.

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Transcript

[A]

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[D]

Furious world leaders are canceling their military contracts with the United States. They are canceling investments in the United States. They are blocking the United States from critical international meetings. Let's talk about what NATO is doing. For example, NATO has just announced that it will not be buying any more of the United States E3 century AWACS. You know those surveillance airplanes that were the crown jewel of the United States Air Force, you may recall, that was one of the airplanes that, that was destroyed by Iran at the Saudi air base. Well, one of the big announcements by NATO as Donald Trump continues to attack NATO is they're going to be buying basically the European version of the E3 Sentry AWACS, which is an airplane made by Saab in Sweden. And NATO is going to be bolstering its defense capabilities with a plane called the Swedish Saab Goldeneye, which it's going to replace the 14 E3 Axis AWACS planes. This is a big deal, folks, because one of the things the United States was trying to do was first the United States said they were going to be making this E7 version of the E3. Then they try to hold out with NATO and say, hang tight, we're going to be working through this new generation of the E3. It may not be the E7 and NATO. Once Donald Trump just started relentlessly attacking and NATO said, enough is enough. We ain't doing it. So here's the story, folks. NATO selects Swedish Saab Golden Global Eye to replace the 14 E3 AWACS planes. As Jim Scudo explains, this shift away from the US Are a product of the US Shift away from Europe and Donald Trump's constant attack of NATO. As this one account explains, for nearly four decades, NATO's eye in the sky were American planes. The Boeing E3 Sentry, a militarized 707 with a rotating radar dish on top, has been the alliance's airborne early warning backbone since the 1980s. But the US said they were going to make this E7. They delayed in that they wanted NATO to hold out. Donald Trump starts saying, I'm going to retaliate against NATO because you didn't support the war crimes I was committing in Iran. NATO said, thank you, bye bye. NATO's procurement division said, we will be ordering the Global Eye, which by the way, it uses a fixed ASA radar rather than the E3 IS rotating dish, enabling faster target detection across air and sea. Trump spent 14 months telling Europe to spend more on defense and rely less on America. And Europe said, saying, got your message, Donald. We're not going to be buying the E3 centuries. See you later. Now, it's something similar that we're seeing in Canada right now where they're doing the F35 review. Canada was supposed to buy these F35s. Wasn't even really a question that they were going to buy these F35s. Then Donald Trump starts attacking Canada, says, we're going to make you the 51st state. All of these demeaning things in Canada says, okay, well, now that you're attacking our sovereignty, also, Donald Trump basically saying, like, why would I even, like, renew Cusa Kuzma, the Canadian United States Mexico agreement? And Trump, you know, imposed all of the tariffs on Canada. And then Donald Trump was saying, well, we could put kill switches in our F35s and our military equipment. Also, when you get an F35, where you get American military equipment, you then have to get all of the maintenance associated with it, and all of the spare parts come from the United States. And people saw, look what happened in Iran, where once you had some American parts, or if America gave you the thaad systems or the Patriot systems, like America would, like, take it back, or they would say, oopsies, we don't have the parts. Since then, we're going to send it to the Middle east to help the United States. And, you know, the United States was not a reliable partner. And so while lots of people will tell you the F35 is a superior plane than the Saab Swedish version, it's called a Gripen. There are lots of Gripen fans out there from Sweden, but lots of people believe the F35 is probably a superior plane. But in the long run, where you have to rely on the United States for spare parts and maintenance, and Trump's talking about kill switches. One of the things that Sweden has been offering is, look, don't do the F35s, or maybe you could do some F35s, but do other Gripens and let's build it together. Let's build Gripen factory. Saab Gripen factories in Canada will create lots of Canadian jobs, and you can be the masters of your destiny. Canada, let's build a plane together. We can provide, you know, the core, you know, gripen plane, you know, model, and then maybe we can innovate together. And so in response to that, Lockheed, which makes the F35s, they went to one of the big defense manufacturers in Canada and they said, all right, well, I guess we gotta run to Ottawa and we gotta help make Canadian jobs. And so the F35s, I mean, Lockheed is really sweating it, and they came up with the plan where they're gonna basically offer all of these jobs in Ottawa to try to compete with Sweden's gripen. But the very fact that, you know, even Canada's like, yeah, I don't think we're gonna go with that. And we may go with the gripe and just goes to tell you how no one wants to basically touch the United States, you know, weapons anymore. All a result of Donald Trump. I was just thinking about this big hearing in Cyprus that just took place where you had all of these world leaders, you had NATO leaders, you had Ursula von der Leyen representing the European Union Commission, you know, and I was just thinking about how they were all basically moving on from the United States, how, you know, you had that, you had that meeting earlier. You had a big meeting that was led by Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron about a week ago, bringing together 50 nations to try to figure out ways to either open up these Strait of Hormuz or figure out diplomatic solutions. While Donald Trump is out there, you know, contradicting himself each day and posting, you know, deranged social media posts, you have these broader alliances forming and the US Ain't invited to these meetings. The US Wasn't at Cyprus. The US Wasn't at the meeting held by Starmer and Macron. You know, when Donald Trump, you know, starts attacking NATO and says all of these things, NATO strikes back as well. I mean, you had Donald Trump, you know, the Trump regime had this memorandum that circulating. Colby, Elbridge, Elbridge Colby, you know, the number two at the Department of Defense prepared this memorandum about how can we retaliate against NATO countries and the Trump regime figuring out how do we punish NATO countries. Right. At the same time, the Trump regime has invited Vladimir Putin to the G20 in December. In Miami, at the Trump properties, the Trump regime is figuring out what best can we do in order to hurt NATO. As Phil Stewart at Reuters explained, Scoop internal Pentagon emails detail options that the Trump regime is considering for how to punish NATO allies who the US Believes failed to support it in the Iran war operations. They're thinking about, oh, should we suspend Spain from NATO? Can we take a new look at the Falklands and other European, quote, imperial possessions? We need to snatch European imperial possessions is what the Trump regime is saying. And Reuters talked about this email, this, this email note that prepared by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's Top policy advisor coming up with ways to attack NATO countries. To which NATO responded by saying, bet we're not buying your E3 Sentry AWACS. We're going to buy the Global Eye from Saab.

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[D]

came out with a pretty strong statement. There's no how dare you? NATO said. And there's no provision to expel members at all, so don't even think about it. NATO said the alliance's founding treaty does not foresee any provision for suspension of NATO membership of Spain or other countries. You believe Donald Trump's like, hey, Putin, you should join the G20. And then we wanna suspend members from NATO. Yes, it's Russia, Russia, Russia. Because Donald Trump is a Putin sycophant, obviously. I mean, what else can you describe of what's going on right now? And by the way, when a Pentagon press secretary, Kingsley Wilson, confronted with the fact that this note punishing NATO members leaked. Uh, this is what Kingsley Wilson said on behalf of the Trump regime. Despite everything the US has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us. The War Department will ensure that the president has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their party. Yeah, they're not buying your weapons anymore. They're not. They're not inviting you to meetings anymore. America first means America alone right now, you idiots. You've destroyed the strong power of the United States while Donald Trump is social media posting ranting and raving like a lunatic. By the way, here, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Here's what he had to say. Play this clip.

[E]

Spain is a reliable partner within the, within NATO. And we're fulfilling our obligations with NATO. We are deploying military capabilities and also soldiers at this time flank of Europe. So therefore, no worries at all. I would say that it would be important if European countries, European allies, we can share our thoughts and information before starting wars as the one that we are now suffering in the Middle east, because this part of the world is closed by Europe and we need also to be aware and to have an opinion on this. From my point of view, this war is illegal, is a big mistake. And I hope that in the near future we can face de escalation and of course, a way out thanks to diplomacy and not thanks to war.

[D]

And here is what French President Emmanuel Macron had to say when he was in Greece about how America is no longer a reliable ally or even an ally at all. This is from French President Emmanuel Macron's recent trip to Greece. I'm going to do a whole other video on this, but let's play this clip.

[F]

I think this, this very moment could be the European moment and for several reasons. Number one, everybody in this world have a clear view that this is a world of disorder. Second, everybody sees that the number one power, the US could be an ally for certain countries, but this ally is not so much certain. And nobody is totally sure if this ally is reliable.

[D]

Now, I was just watching this meeting in Cyprus. You see right here, all the world leaders, Donald Trump not invited to this. America not there at all. And I was thinking about the news also about how Saudi Arabia keeps on canceling financial commitments in the United States.

[B]

Right.

[D]

We learned about how the live golf tournament, which is basically fully funded by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Saudi Arabia is like, yeah, we're only going to be focusing our money now on essential projects. And sorry, your live golf tournament isn't essential. And so you hit Donald Trump where it hurts. You hit him at the golf with the golf league that the Saudis propped up. They giveth, they take it away, they prop it up, they rip it apart. And now the whole live golf tournament's in jeopardy. In addition, as Mark Levine reports, Saudi Arabia just backed out of a deal to provide $200 million in much needed funding to the Met Opera. The reason? Because of the war's impact on the Saudi economy. They are Pulling back on funding commitments, anything they deem non essential in the United States States. Saudi snatching up and they ain't gonna be paying. This is a terrible blow, Mark Levine says to one of our nation's great cultural pillars. Although may I push back, Mark, for a second and suggest that perhaps one of our nation's big cultural pillars should not be dependent on the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Maybe I'm going out on a limb here to say that they shouldn't be fully funded by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, but what do I know, People don't realize this, but those Middle east sovereign wealth fund funnel a lot of money to the United States, a lot of American corporations, private equity. I mean, setting aside obviously Jared Kushner, who's basically fully funded by Middle east countries while he's out there undermining American national security while negotiating on his behalf and Netanyahu's behalf, not on the United States behalf with Middle east nations undermining our security. Him and fricking Witkoff or their worst, don't even get me started there. But lots of our private equity firms here in the United States, lots of our, there's a lot of media companies, lots of mergers and acquisitions are funded by Saudi money and Middle east money that pours into the United States real estate propped up by that money. You know, so much money used to come in and now you're seeing a pullback, not just the pullback there, but a pullback from our bond market, from international buyers as well, saying, I don't know, the America doesn't seem like a safe, stable place to put our money anymore. So we're seeing that. So we have all of these things going on at the same time. Also you have Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, you know, and he's been commenting that, you know, the United States just isn't really an ally anymore. I mean, he came out with a very strong statement, Donald Tusk, saying, you know, we can't rely on the United States for an ally. Did I show you the clip where French President Emmanuel Macron also said, he's echoing the words here of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. They both said this, which is basically Article 5 of NATO, which is the joint defense article. If one person gets attacked, all of NATO supports each other. That Donald Trump's basically destroyed Article 5 of NATO. Tusk said that in a recent article. And here's French President Emmanuel Macron saying it as well. Let's play this clip.

[F]

Everybody is spending more. And at the same time, there is now a dot on the Article 5 not put on the table by the Europeans, but by the U.S. president. And I mean, it's clearly a de facto weakening the strength of the alliance. I think NATO is very useful, first for interoperability, second, because it was a very interoperability of our equipment, our armies and so on. And it is a source of efficiency. And because it's a good strategic alliance, very useful for all of us. But I really, I'm a strong believer in the European pillar of NATO. I advocated that years ago, as your prime minister mentioned. We together pushed forward this agenda of strategic autonomy and this is where we are. So my view is that we have to strengthen this European pillar. We should not be the one to weaken NATO. We have to preserve NATO and its interoperability. But the Europeans have to be much stronger and work together and launch together common operations and what we are ready to do in the Baltic Sea.

[D]

So there you have it folks. I'm going to keep you posted every step of the way, but these are some big developments right here. Hit subscribe. We're on our way to 7 million subscribers. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed. Double check. Hit subscribe. Let's do this.

[C]

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