Trump Misfires as Canada's Carney Considers Crippling Cutoff of Nickel Supply to U.S. Industries

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0:29Michael Popok:Canada has an ace up its sleeve and it's made out of nickel, that critical mineral that Canada produces in abundance and a U.S. doesn't have much at all. And the U.S. needs nickel and processed nickel for lithium ion batteries, for its military and aerospace industry, for jets and fighter jets and for its electric vehicles and for stainless steel. And if Canada wants to go for the knockout, which is where Trump is leading them as he paints them into a corner, they can do it by embargoing nickel. I'll talk about the nickel deficiency for America and why Donald Trump going down to Mexico to try to announce a bilateral deal to isolate Canada could actually lead to the turning off the lights of the American economy.

1:27Michael Popok:Would they do it? I don't know. Can they do it? Yes, they can. Yes, Canada can. I'm Michael Popok. You're on Legal Layoff YouTube channel. Let's get down to this reporting. After Trump ran out of moves, you know, he tariffed Canada, counter tariffed. And then what are you going to do? Counter counter the counter tariffs. He instead turned his eyes to the South, decided to try to run down to Mexico to try to, you know, in a crying, wailing, flailing way, get them to deal directly with the United States in a bilateral two-party trade agreement trying to isolate Ottawa. But Ottawa has, and Canada has, an ace up its sleeve.

2:09Michael Popok:And it has to do with nickel, which is a critical mineral that they have in abundant supply. 44 % of nickel comes from Canada into the United States. And they have the entire nickel infrastructure. They know how to melt it and smelt it and deliver it and process it and turn it into stainless steel and turn it into batteries and turn it into jet airplane parts. We don't. In fact, it's hard to believe. America has one operating nickel mine. It's in the upper Michigan Peninsula. It is the Eagle Mine. It produces 4.5 % of what we need for nickel, just 10 ,000 metric tons. And that's where it ends.

3:00Michael Popok:We don't have an infrastructure of smelting and melting around that nickel in America. Oh, no. It's a dirty business, by the way, and an environmental disaster. We have to rely on other countries. You know what country stands there doing all that smelting and melting? Canada. You know who else does it? China. It does it cheaply. And we need that nickel or our economy grinds to a halt. Fell in love with your stainless steel appliances? Say goodbye if nickel dries up or at least the prices will go up skyrocketing. lithium batteries. The entire aerospace industry relies on nickel. And it's not just about getting it out of the ground, although we in America don't do that very well because we don't have the nickel ore in our part of North America.

3:55Michael Popok:When they drew that line between America and Canada, little did we know that most of the nickel was on their side of the line. It's not just that. It's that we don't have the infrastructure, the supply chain set up around nickel. Now, it's not a rare earth mineral the way that indium or magnesium or titanium is. And that's in short supply as well. But it's a critical mineral that we need and is on the Canadian side. And I'm not the first one to think about these things. Let me play a clip from people in Canada that lead parties in which they say exactly what I'm saying about how Canada can get the drop on America.

4:44Michael Popok:At the Canadian Parliament hearing, the Chamber of Commerce Vice President Michael Gullo said the following. We have eight nickel mines in Canada. The United States has one. We have three nickel refineries. They have zero. 70 % of Canada's refined nickel goes to support the U.S. because even if they don't sell it directly to the U.S., they supply it to other countries that make products that end up back in the U.S. Roughly 80 % of their aerospace sector of the United States and in excess of 60 % of their defense sector depend on the Canadian nickel. We also have statements made by Jagmeet Singh, which I'm going to play now, who had been the leader of Canada's NDP party.

5:34Michael Popok:And this is back in January of 2025. Play that clip. Going to meet with them, trying to wind and dine them is a failed approach. Donald Trump is not rational. You can't discuss a plan over a meal with him. He is a bully and bullies understand one thing that is that is strength They also understand pain. So if he wants to pick a fight with Canada We have to make sure it's clear that it's gonna hurt Americans as well There's gonna be pain felt for not just Canadians, but also Americans and so that's why I'm calling on My plan we know that the United States needs our critical minerals. They're very important for the United States So I'm calling on all political leaders to support turning off the taps on those critical minerals.

6:18Let's stop the flow of those critical minerals into the states. This is, there's no quicker way to get Donald Trump to back away from tariffs than to shut off the tap on critical minerals, what the states need very clearly. Where are you on turning off the taps or restricting oil exports to the United States? When I was in law school, I learned that when you're in a fight or when you're in a legal battle, you don't put out all your tools right at once. you escalate step by step. So that is a tool that should be on the table, but not something we start with. I'm proposing we start with critical minerals, but we need to look at every option.

6:50Every response to the tariffs that could hurt Canadians in a serious way should be met with tariffs in kind, and all solutions that we can propose should be on the table. And that's absolutely one of them.

7:00Michael Popok:Now, this fits in well with Ontario's premier's Doug Ford's position that everything is on the table in its discussions and firing back at the United States, because we are at war. Play Doug Ford. How are you feeling? Is it still Ontario all alone? I feel positive. What I did say, too, we need a Team Canada approach led by the Prime Minister. And that's what we look forward to hearing the Prime Minister today and go out there as Team Canada. Do you think Trump's tariffs are meant to divide? Provinces, Ontario, BC, and Quebec are particularly Well, you know, he has his own strategy. We need our strategy, a strong strategy led by the Prime Minister and we look forward to hearing what the Prime Minister is saying today.

7:46What's your marker for a successful meeting? How will you know if it was a successful meeting or not after today with the Prime Minister? Well, making sure we stay united as Team Canada, making sure that we don't roll over and, And as I've said, going our back foot, we need a strong, strong plan. I don't expect it today, but hopefully in the next two weeks we'll have a strong plan and we move forward united. But what does it mean beyond offense? Beyond offense, put everything on the table. That's my opinion. I'm speaking for Ontario and Ontario only. Everything is on the table right now. Are you prepared to put up the electricity surcharge again?

8:29It depends where we go with the U.S., but Ontario has the most to lose right now, and I will do everything to protect the people of Ontario. You said two weeks. Did you get new information? No, I think you have to be fair to the Prime Minister and his team to put a strong plan together, and hopefully it will be before two weeks. But what are we down to, 28 days now after yesterday? 27. 27? Okay, so... What are your requirements for that strong plan? What do we need in that strong term? Well, that's going to be up to the prime minister to tell us the plan. And then we move forward as a united Canada.

9:05But I have to head in there. Thanks so much, everyone. Appreciate it.

9:09Michael Popok:If I was Canada, and I'm sure they have thought about it, given these other statements that I just made and referred to here in this hot take, they know that they've got America by the nickel shorthairs and they're willing to tug. And if they pull the plug on nickel, I'm doing a lot of bad puns here. If they pull the plug on nickel, and we got to go other places, it'll overturn the nickel market. It'll lead to tremendous price increases. We'll price America out of the nickel market. China, which is a huge smelter and maker of processed nickel, of course, gets the advantage along with Canada. Say goodbye to a dominant U.S.

9:56military and aerospace industry.

9:59Michael Popok:You like your fighter jets? You like your airplanes? You're not going to like them without Canadian nickel coming in reasonably cheap. Batteries for electric vehicles, stainless steel all come from nickel production. And other countries that supply products and materials to the United States rely on Canadian nickel as well, because it has so many nickel ore mines. So I did a prior hot take where I talked about we're pushing Canada into considering having nuclear weapons. They're a nuclear power in the sense that they have nuclear power, but they use it for civilian use. But we're pushing them towards seriously considering strategic nuclear warheads and weaponry because of the threats to their sovereignty by the madman in the White House.

10:50Michael Popok:It's an easier go and a faster bet for the Canadians to just embargo or seriously tariff nickel, Canadian nickel. Now, the downside of that, of course, is obvious. Their own economy is dependent on nickel sales to the United States. One of the reasons they haven't done it yet. I mean, when 44 % of your nickel or 44 % of America's nickel is coming out of Canada, that has a tremendous impact on the GDP of Canada. But could they at least temporarily shut it down in order to get Trump and his trade representative and his commerce secretary back to the table? Absolutely. We're going to continue to follow how Trump tries to get out from under an economic disaster and trade disaster of his own making here on Legal AF.

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