Loading summary
Ad Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. It's tax season and we're all a bit tired of numbers, but here's one you need to $16.5 billion. That's how much the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Now here's a good number. 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed. Save up to 40% your first year@lifelock.com podcast terms apply.
Host
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliate. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.
T-Mobile Ad
Like your favorite travel guide. T Mobile's network knows all the spots because T Mobile helps keep you connected from the heart of Portland to right where you are on America's largest 5G network. Switch now keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off up to 800 per line via prepaid card. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com keepandswitch up to 4 lines of your virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualify and unlock device, credit service report in 90 plus days device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.
Host
Donald Trump just got a world class beatdown from the world about $60 billion in retaliatory tariffs being applied to the United States. When you add up the retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Europe, this follows Donald Trump following through on his 25% across the board. Aluminum and steel tariffs in Canada and in Europe. Canada and Europe Swift it was so odd. Yesterday Donald Trump hosted the Prime Minister of Ireland and in that bizarre Oval Office, whatever you want to call it, Donald Trump was bragging that the Premier of Ontario removed certain tariffs which the Premier of Ontario added to the existing tariffs that were already going to be part of the retaliatory tariffs because Trump has no clue what he's talking about. Just watch what Donald Trump said though in the Oval Office. Play this clip. It's not going to be a tough battle in my opinion.
Political Analyst
Not going to be tough.
Host
Just like when Ontario charged us everybody. Oh, they just said this would be one in one hour and they announced what we were going to do and they withdrew their little threat. And perhaps Donald Trump should have been paying more attention because right around that time Canada announced that it was applying its retaliatory steel and aluminum tariffs. I'll just show you. Here's the Finance Minister of Canada, Dominic LeBlanc. Here's what he had to say yesterday. Let's play the clip idly by.
Magic Spoon Ad
While our iconic steel and aluminum industries are being unfairly targeted, today, I am announcing that the government of Canada, following a dollar for dollar approach, will be imposing as of 12:01am tomorrow, March 13, 2025.
Host
You know, one of the things also that I think is so fundamental here as well as, as I've said, it's not simply that Donald Trump has declared a trade war on Canada. In my view, Trump has declared actual war on Canada. When you talk about annexing, conquering, taking over the land, I mean, to me, those are fight words, those are war words. And one of the things that Donald Trump refused to do as well is that when a new interim Prime Minister, Carney, Mark Carney, was selected by the Liberal Party, Canada is going to go into their elections, of course, shortly. Um, and I think the Liberal Party is going to be able to be able to form a government coming out of those elections, but people are going to have to go out and, and vote. Um, but Trump didn't even reach out to the new interim Prime Minister, Mark Carney, and congratulate him or say anything. And so Caroline Levitt, the chief propagandist at the White House, she was asked, why didn't he do that? And then she just went on to attack Canada. I want you to watch this. Play this clip close Ally, very quickly, when there's new leadership.
Political Analyst
Well, the President is again responding to the fact that Canada has been ripping off the United States of America and hardworking Americans for decades.
Host
Now. I like Mark Carney, the new Prime Minister of Canada's response about will he meet with Donald Trump and when, what's his plans? First and foremost, he gave this incredible speech at a factory in Canada, standing with the aluminum and steel workers who are being hit the hardest by this tariffs at the, at these factories. One of the things that Mark Carney announced is that unlike Trump, who wants to use what tariffs to enrich himself and other billionaires and make way for billionaire tax cuts or for Trump to create a sovereign wealth fund like MBS and Saudi Arabia has, so Trump could, what, buy like more Trump hotels or whatever. Um, Canadian Prime Minister Carney says, here's what we're going to do with the money that we get. We're going to give it right back to the workers and we're going to make sure that we do everything that we can to help the workers. One of the things that Carney also said is, look, I'm open to meet with Donald Trump in Washington, but he's going to have to respect the sovereignty of Canada first, Carney said. I'm drawing a clear line. I'm not going to go and sit in the Oval Office if Trump disrespects Canada. I'm just not going to meet with him. If he shows respect for our sovereignty, then I will be open to it. I think this is the right approach to it. Here, play this clip.
Mark Carney
We are ready to sit down with the Americans, with the US Government. I'm ready to sit down with President Trump at the appropriate time under a position where there's respect for Canadian sovereignty and we're working for a common approach, a much more comprehensive approach for trade.
Host
Canada. Tough elbows out. Elbows up over the boards. Let's go. Let me share this with you as well. This is what the Canadian foreign affairs minister had to say. I think she's amazing. Here, play this clip.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister
You've just heard the actions we're taking from from my colleague and friend Dominique Leblanc. Canada is holding strong and will continue to do so together. Well, make no mistake though, this is going to be a day to day fight. This is now the second round of unjustified tariffs level against Canada and Canadian goods. The excuse for the first round was exaggerated claims about our border. We address all the concerns raised by the US and in return, they agreed to temporarily abide by the Free Trade Agreement. President Trump signed himself with Canada. The latest excuse is national security, despite the fact that Canadian steel and aluminum add to America's security, not take away from it. All the while the threat there is a threat to further and broader tariffs on April 2 still looming. The excuse for those tariffs shifts every day. The only constant in this unjustified and unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump's talks of annexing our country through economic coercion. Yesterday, he called our border a fictional line and repeated his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric. Well, Canadians have made it very clear that we will not back down and we will not give in to this coercion.
Host
And then, you know, I can't do a video on Canada without showing you my buddy Charlie Angus, NDP Member of Parliament, when he spoke with me the other day. Here's what he said about those tariffs. Let's play it.
Charlie Angus
Well, we talked on a previous show about what will happen in Ottawa and within Four days, Toledo and Lansing, Bowling Green will start going down. And the day after the tariffs are announced, he immediately backed down on auto. Why wasn't he taking advice from the big automakers in the first place of the chaos that he would cause now in agriculture? It's going to be another big area with $73 billion shared trade. This is a totally integrated market. And Donald promised lower grocery prices in his first hundred days. Americans, like Canadians have already seen the shocks of inflation, the shocks of post Covid. Once he starts messing with that market and he's saying some things in Kuzma are protected and other things aren't, nobody knows. It's creating uncertainty and it's making it very difficult for suppliers on both sides of the border. So I think what American farmers are waking up to is the fact that Canadians are no longer buying their products. We just, we're just not going to participate in this abusive relationship. You threaten us, we don't buy your products. How about that?
Host
I want to share with you this graph before showing you the next video as well. I love Carl Quintanilla's posts. I think he does a great job showing these graphs. And you know, I love geeking out with graphs because I'm a data guy and data doesn't lie. If you look at this graph, what it's basically showing is how US stocks have completely overwhelmingly underperformed global markets in 2025. The markets everywhere other than the US are going up, up, up and the US markets are going. And you can literally see the point where the US Markets crash when the US Markets were doing great and when the world economies continued to grow when the US Market crashed. You want to take a guess on what data is ding, ding, ding. The inauguration. You guessed it right because Americans are feeling the pain right now. These, the Trump erratic behavior means people are pulling their money out of the United States. Even like getting, getting out of real estate investment. It's, it's an unstable market. In addition to people in other countries just boycotting the US not traveling here with this corrupt, idiotic, authoritarian regime we have here. People don't want to do business with the Trump United States. Let me share this with you. This was a C Span caller who says, look, I've been affected by these tariffs already. The 8 to 10% increase in the product I was buying was passed on to me. Cause that's the way tariffs work.
Caller
Play this clip just like in 30 days. I mean are, you know, domestically or. He's tanking the economy singly handed with the tariffs And I just, I just got a new heater today. I'm already affected by the tariffs. The parts are, they say up 8 to 10% already just in parts for the heater. So I ended up getting a new heater.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister
But the company told you that, the.
Host
Company that you bought it from.
Caller
Right, right.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister
And they passed on that 8 to.
Host
10% to you, so you paid an extra.
Caller
Okay, yeah. And that's, this is for every kind of part from outside the country and no matter what it is, I mean that includes everything that comes to the United States, to these terrorists that he's imposed.
Magic Spoon Ad
Magic Spoon makes high protein, zero sugar cereal and treats. Reinvented from your childhood, the nostalgia, Magic Spoon is also launching a brand new high protein granola. True to the Magic Spoon promise, it's packed with protein and so crunchy. Magic Spoon's high protein treats are crispy, crunchy, airy and an easy way to get 12 grams of protein on the go. They come in mouth watering flavors like marshmallow, chocolate, peanut butter and dark chocolate. Now my personal favorite, it's got to be the chocolate peanut butter. It's amazing and I have it each morning to start my workday. Now. Magic Spoon's brand new granola packs in 13 grams of protein and zero added sugars. They come in delicious flavors like dark chocolate, almond, honey almond and peanut butter. Get $5 off your next order at magicspoon.com midas or look for Magic Spoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery store. That's magicspoon.com midas for $5 off.
Host
Yeah, I told you I thought that was powerful stuff. May I share with you though? I want you to watch this. This is Mark Carney's full speech at the factory that he was at. It's about two and a half minutes, a little bit more than about three minutes. Watch this though, because to me, and I know in Canada, you're probably used to kind of smart, sophisticated, steady leadership. This guy Carty, he led the bank of Canada during, you know, the most difficult period of time in the mid-2000s to get Canada out of that recession. And then he was the governor of bank of England where he navigated through Brexit. I mean, this guy knows his stuff. World class banker, economist, knows his stuff. Like the perfect person, in my opinion, to be the counterpoint to Trump's idiotic bankruptcy. Right? The banker versus the bankruptcy. The banker, I like that. The banker versus the bankrupt. That's what we got here. Watch this though. I think you'll just find this powerful and it's also a defense of the worker. Play this clip.
Mark Carney
You know, today is a difficult day for Canada. It's a difficult day for the industry because of these unjustified tariffs that have been put on. We and my colleagues in the government want to make absolutely clear that we stand foursquare with you in this. And we are doing several things. First, about the same time as we're having this conversation, the Minister of finance, the Minister of Foreign affairs are announcing that we, we will put in place reciprocal tariffs on US Steel, on US Aluminum, and on a series of other US Goods. So the total amount of our tariffs match the American tariffs. Now, we don't want to do this because we believe in open borders and free and fair trade, but we're doing this in response. The second thing is that we are going to make sure that all the proceeds from our tariffs go back to support workers in the affected industries. So in the steel industry, in the aluminum industry and any other industry that the Americans may affect. In addition, we will double down on the partnerships that we have with the industry. As you know, a lot of the big investments here have been in partnership with the federal government, with the Ontario government, the so called SIF Fund as one example. We are proud of what you have accomplished. It's a remarkably competitive company. It's a world leader who's going to be here for another 30 years, another 30 years after that, another 30 years after that. And I know there's multi generations of workers here and your children and your children's children will have opportunities to work at defasco and Arsalan Mattel, let me just say one other point or make a couple other points with respect to the United States and the relationship there. We understand, I understand. I respect President Trump's concern for American workers and American families. We respect his concern about fentanyl. It's an issue for us here in Canada as well. And that's why the Canadian government moved very quickly with a comprehensive response that's had a huge, huge impact in terms of controlling that issue and getting on top of that issue. Much better. We are ready to sit down with the Americans, with the US Government. I'm ready to sit down with president at the appropriate time under a position where there's respect for Canadian sovereignty and we're working for a common approach, a much more comprehensive approach for trade. We're all going to be better off workers here in Canada, which is our concern, workers in America, which is his concern. We are all going to be better off when the greatest economic and security Partnership in the world is renewed, relaunched. That's possible. You have a new government, but the same commitment. And that commitment is built rock solid on the commitment you have all made here at defasco.
Host
Told you you were gonna want to see that. I mean, just take a look at the American markets now. You look at the nasdaq, the Dow, the S and P. I mean, it's horrible, horrible stuff. Oh, I shared this with you as well earlier, but I think you gotta see it. This is the President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Here she is talking about what Europe had to do in response, regrettably, in response to the US Declaring a trade war on Europe.
Ursula von der Leyen
The trade relations between the European Union and the United States are the biggest in the world. They have brought prosperity and security to millions of people, and trade has created millions of good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. As of this morning, the United States is applying a 25% tariff on imports of steel and aluminum. We deeply regret this measure. Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business and worse for consumers. They are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake, prices up. Nobody needs that on both sides, neither in the European Union nor in the United States. The European Union must act to protect consumers and business. The countermeasures we take today are strong but proportionate. As the United States are applying tariffs worth $28 billion, we are responding with countermeasures worth 26 billion euros. This matches the economic scope of the tariffs of the United States. Our countermeasures will be introduced in two steps, starting with April 1 and fully in place as of April 13. In the meantime, we will always remain open to negotiations. We firmly believe that in a world fraught with geoeconomic and political uncertainties, it is not in our common interest to burden our economies with such tariffs. We are ready to engage in a meaningful dialogue. I have entrusted Trade Commissioner Maro Sefkovich to resume his talks to explore better solutions with the United States.
Host
Not surprisingly, Donald Trump's now approval is the lowest it's ever been on the economy. 56% disapprove. Frankly, I don't know how it's not lower than that, but it is plummeting every single day. The JP Morgan latest report talks about rising inflation, a decline in new orders, less inventories, the barrage of economic gibberish coming out of the White House is what, how they refer to the havoc that's being caused. But if you listen to Trump's 27 year old chief propagandist, Caroline Levitt. She'll say, this is effective. Things are working, Things are going great. Here. Play this clip.
Political Analyst
Most importantly, and so the president will continue to effectively utilize tariffs while again, driving down the cost of living in this country. Both things can happen at the same time. Just look at President Trump's first term as an example. When he left office, inflation was a low 1.4%.
Host
It was another day in the Trump regime. Idiotic, weak, pathetic.
Mark Carney
Hit.
Host
Subscribe let's get to 5 million.
Magic Spoon Ad
Can't get enough Midas. Check out the Midas sub stack for ad Free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski and more. Sign up for free now@midasplus.com.
Podcast Summary: "OMG! World Leaders Destroy Trump in Trade War" The MeidasTouch Podcast – Episode Released March 13, 2025
In this episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas delve into the escalating trade war initiated by former President Donald Trump and its repercussions on international relations, particularly focusing on Canada and the European Union. The discussion is rich with insights, expert opinions, and firsthand accounts, painting a comprehensive picture of the current economic and political landscape.
Host Introduction (01:28): The episode begins with the hosts outlining the recent developments in the trade war, highlighting Trump's imposition of a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports into the United States. This aggressive stance has prompted significant retaliatory measures from both Canada and Europe, amounting to approximately $60 billion in tariffs against U.S. goods.
Key Points:
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Approach (05:56): Mark Carney, the new Prime Minister of Canada, delivered a robust response to Trump’s tariffs. Unlike Trump's confrontational tactics, Carney emphasizes respect for Canadian sovereignty and the welfare of Canadian workers.
Notable Quote:
"Here’s what we're going to do with the money that we get. We're going to give it right back to the workers and we're going to make sure that we do everything that we can to help the workers."
— Mark Carney (05:56)
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister’s Statement (06:31): Reiterating Canada’s resilience against U.S. economic pressures, the Foreign Affairs Minister denounces Trump's actions as unjustified and harmful to both nations' economies.
Notable Quote:
"The only constant in this unjustified and unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump's talks of annexing our country through economic coercion."
— Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister (06:31)
Prime Minister Carney’s Speech at the Factory (12:51): Carney further cemented his commitment to Canadian workers by announcing reciprocal tariffs matched to U.S. tariffs and pledging that all tariff proceeds would support affected industries.
Notable Quote:
"We are all going to be better off workers here in Canada, which is our concern, workers in America, which is his concern."
— Mark Carney (13:56)
Ursula von der Leyen’s Statement (17:52): The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, condemned the U.S. tariffs, emphasizing their negative impact on businesses, consumers, and global supply chains. She announced reciprocal tariffs and called for meaningful dialogue to resolve the trade tensions.
Notable Quote:
"Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business and worse for consumers. They are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake, prices up."
— Ursula von der Leyen (17:52)
Impact on U.S. Markets (09:20 & 17:25): The hosts discuss alarming data indicating a significant underperformance of U.S. stock markets compared to global counterparts. They attribute this downturn to Trump's erratic trade policies and the resulting loss of investor confidence.
Notable Quote:
"Donald Trump's erratic behavior means people are pulling their money out of the United States."
— Host (09:20)
Caller’s Testimony on Economic Strain (10:53): A listener shares personal experiences of rising costs due to tariffs, highlighting the tangible effects on everyday Americans, such as increased prices for essential goods like heaters.
Notable Quote:
"He's tanking the economy single-handed with the tariffs. I just got a new heater and the parts are up 8 to 10%."
— Caller (10:53)
Trump’s Declining Approval (20:01): The hosts cite recent data showing a plunge in Trump’s approval ratings, with 56% disapproving of his handling of the economy. Economic indicators like rising inflation and declining new orders further underscore the administration's struggles.
Notable Quote:
"Donald Trump's now approval is the lowest it's ever been on the economy. 56% disapprove."
— Host (20:01)
Political Analyst’s Perspective (20:44): Despite the economic downturn, Trump’s spokesperson maintains a positive outlook, claiming that tariffs will drive down the cost of living.
Notable Quote:
"The president will continue to effectively utilize tariffs while again, driving down the cost of living in this country."
— Political Analyst (20:44)
Host’s Commentary (12:51 & 21:02): The hosts draw a stark contrast between Mark Carney’s seasoned, economic expertise and Trump's erratic policies. Carney’s strategic approach aims for mutual economic benefit, whereas Trump’s actions are portrayed as self-serving and destructive.
Notable Comparison:
"The banker versus the bankruptcy. The banker, I like that. The banker versus the bankrupt. That's what we got here."
— Host (12:51)
The episode concludes with a critical view of Trump’s administration, emphasizing the broader implications of the trade war on international relations and the global economy. The hosts advocate for strong, principled leadership as exemplified by Canada’s Prime Minister Carney and the European Union’s Ursula von der Leyen, positioning them as models for navigating economic challenges without resorting to coercion.
Overall Themes:
This episode serves as a comprehensive analysis of the ongoing trade war initiated by Donald Trump, showcasing the multifaceted responses from global leaders and the resulting economic turbulence. Through expert commentary and real-life anecdotes, The MeidasTouch Podcast offers listeners a nuanced understanding of the complexities surrounding international trade and political strategy.