Trump Faces Pressure as Canada Threatens to Cut Off America’s Power in Trade Dispute

0:00Michael Popok:The petulant child that is Donald Trump has met his match with Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada and the Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Doug Ford effectively saying that Canada should just turn off the lights of America as the power grid that powers the gross domestic product of America is tied directly to Canada and to Ontario for that matter, as is the auto industry. So when Doug Ford, the pugilistic conservative businessman who won three terms in office, unlike somebody we know, when he says, kiss my ass, Donald Trump, which he literally said on a radio show in the last 24 hours, and that Donald Trump's a bully and we know how to deal with bullies, we turn their lights off, people need to listen.

0:47Michael Popok:Trump needs to listen. You know what Trump's response to that was? He said that he's going to change the name of Lake Ontario on the maps to Lake America because he's not planning to do any more business with Ontario. On both sides of the border, more than 70 % of people in Canada and America are united that the Trump administration is a failed administration, one that is circling the drain of history. And when Doug Ford says he's a bully that will one day steal your lunch money at the school bus stop, the next day your hat, the next day your sneakers, that is backed by the Canadian polls that show that two-fifths of Canadians think that Canada should be at war, if you will, economically at least, with the United States who they see as the enemy.

1:38Michael Popok:U.S. as the enemy, two-fifths of Canadians. You know what it was three years ago under Joe Biden? Three percent. Three percent. Because we valued our economic relationship and intertwined economies between the two North American giants. Not anymore. And then Donald Trump, besides threatening to change the name of Lake Ontario, the only other thing he said was basically a threat against the pipeline, the energy pipeline that helps America. And saying, you know, where do you think that energy gets transported? Somebody better get these people in line. I mean, people took that as a not so veiled threat against the Enbridge pipeline.

2:27Michael Popok:And then you've got the French attack, the attack on the French language, which now Donald Trump figured out that was a bad thing to do in negotiations in order to try to tear down the national pride, the Francophone pride of Canada. and instead to make demands during the negotiations that things not have to be in the French language or Canadian content and streaming services or in subtitles or on product labels. Come on, that is too far. So far that even Donald Trump had to deny it. Oh, I never said that, he said in a social media post. Here's a clip of Mark Carney taking on Donald Trump. Play the clip.

3:12It's not a surprise for us that the U.S. would take some form of reprisal to our response to their unjustified tariff, which was on top of other unjustified tariffs. That's not a surprise. There is a mutually beneficial deal possible here, but it has to be one that respects Canada's sovereignty. An attitude at the negotiation table that Canada is a subsidiary of the United States, that Canadian industry is going to be disadvantaged relative to American industry, that we're going to set up terms so that over time, Canadian industry is going to face constant headwinds. That's not something we're going to accept.

3:57Michael Popok:But I know what you've all come here for. Doug Ford. Who doesn't like Doug Ford? Wearing a Gordie Howe sweater, hockey sweater, elbows up. He was being interviewed about Trump's threat to double the tariffs. And here's what he said. Play the clip. Well, he can kiss my ass as far as I'm concerned. We're going to go at him full steam. And we buy 400 % more cars than anyone in the world. Maybe I have an idea. We'll get Danielle Smith on board so the cars that they're manufacturing won't be able to fill up because we'll be controlling the oil and the gas going down there. And maybe what we should be doing is charging him triple on the oil, triple on the potash, on the uranium, on our metals and our rare earth metals.

4:49That's what we need to do. We need to throw everything in the kitchen sink at him. He's arrogant. He's cocky. And, you know, as Ronald Reagan said, if you come to a draw with a bully, what stops that bully from coming after you the next day and the next day? And that's all Donald Trump is, is a bully.

5:06Michael Popok:And then he came out after Trump tried to do it again. And he made the comment about the bully, which led Trump to try to rename Lake Ontario as if they care. Play the clip of Doug Ford. I have a lot of real estate on my ass, so he has a lot of room to kiss my ass. do you want to respond to these uh these shots what would you say to the president no i don't respond to a dictator like president trump a bully like president trump as i said before he's the type of guy in school that would take your lunch money one day take your toque off your your head the next day and then steal your running shoes but i'm not going to take any advice off a guy that's the king of bankruptcies and he's actually terrifying his own people taxing his own people.

5:51And I'm going to make sure I communicate through the U.S. media. I'm going to be reaching out to every single governor, every single senator, and every single congressperson. And when it comes to the midterms, I have a message to the Americans. Don't vote in a person that's going to kill your jobs. He ran on creating more jobs. Last time I checked, jobs went down in the U.S. and Ontario created more jobs. I'm just not going to take the bait. This guy's a loser. He's going to be a loser. And simple as that. We're going to fight with everything we have. And you know something? I have more courage, more brains in my baby toe than he has in his whole body.

6:30So there you go.

6:31Michael Popok:So now we've got the reporting that Howard Lutnick, the Congress Secretary, stuck his big fat nose into the negotiations at the last minute. I guess there were some people in the steel industry or metals industry that wanted a better deal with the Canadians that was being negotiated by Jamie Greer. So Lutnick blew up the deal at the last minute, leading now to the cycle of retaliations and the taunting and bullying by Donald Trump, which is accurately and proportionally responded to by the Ontario Premier, Doug Ford. Third, when we step back for a moment, what does all this mean? Okay. Yes, it is existential for Canada.

7:19Michael Popok:I mean, they may lose 90 ,000 jobs because of the trade war, but it is a fight worth having as Mark Carney has framed it. It is a fight that if the Canadians don't go through and successfully come out the other side the victors, the bully will just keep coming back for more. And it is a demonstration to the world that this is a flailing, petulant, feckless administration that's circling the drain of history. And every time Trump gets punched in the face, and America has to suffer for it, of course, he gets punched in the face and we feel it. It weakens him and his administration. Yes, it makes him do crazy things.

8:08Michael Popok:But as we are now 80 days away or less to the midterms, and if the midterms go as terribly for Trump as every indicator, every poll, every data point indicates, with the Democrats getting 20 to 40 seats in the House, the entire House being up for grabs, and the Senate, perhaps those four Senate seats that the Democrats need to flip are flippable now more than ever. If that all happens, Canada's hand is strengthened, Mexico's hand is strengthened. I mean, you've got Scott Besant flailing. That's the dominant theme of this administration, flailing in his job as treasury secretary, can't figure out how to do debt or deficit reduction policy that anybody will pass in the House or the Senate.

8:59Michael Popok:Can't figure out how to go after Iran economically. you know, making all sorts of threats about, oh, we're going to do the full grand slam against Iran economically. There's only one way to do that, and that's to go after the Chinese, because the Chinese are buying 90 % of the Iranian oil propping up that regime. So unless you want a full-blown starting as an economic war and ending as a real war, hot war with China, which we do not, although he may buy himself that, then Besson better just pipe down. because he has no, if you don't address the China-Iran economic issue, then you don't have any way to punish the Iranians.

9:43Michael Popok:And sure, the Chinese are doing business, not just with the Canadians, travel through the Caribbean, travel through tropical islands. Who do you think's building the bridges and the tunnels and the hydroelectric plants and the new roads? The Chinese. Because we've abdicated our world power responsibility to develop those relationships. And of course, poorer countries are turning to the Chinese, and the Chinese are more than willing to build them that road, or build them that bridge, or build them that tunnel, or that port, and then run it. And that's what Donald Trump's abdication of our global position means.

10:21Michael Popok:the reordering of the world. That's why Canada is so important as a leader here. And then when you have Trump going after their language and then lying about it, my favorite part of all that is Mark Carney gave his speech in French. Because they have a really intelligent, smart guy who was a central banker in two countries, UK and Canada, an economist, super bright, multilingual. What does Donald Trump know about French or any other language? He barely speaks English. Have you ever listened to him recently? So we'll continue to follow what is obviously, it's not even, if this was a boxing match, we're already in the 12th round.

11:09Michael Popok:Canada has already won by knockout. Trump can only try to salvage something with the Canadians because he underestimated them once again. I never underestimate Doug Ford or Mark Carney or the Canadian people and never will. I'm glad that there'll be a strong, unified Canada waiting on the other side of the election for adults and leaders when they take their office, including the presidency here in America, who they can engage with, apologize to, and do a lot of breach repair and get a strong North American economy from Canada down to Mexico and everything in between. I'll continue to follow it.

11:54Michael Popok:Thanks for being here on Legal AF. Till my next report, hit that free subscribe button. I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument. Come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on Substack.

12:32Michael Popok:Come over now to free subscribe.