Trump Squeezed as Canada Fight Leads to Huge Voter Losses Just in Time for Midterms

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2:58Michael Popok:Donald Trump's not just losing to Canada in the trade war. He's losing the Midwest. He's losing all of the battleground states that he won against Kamala Harris, not just for the midterms, but a permanent readjustment of political alliances through the 2028 presidential election. Wait till I give you the states that are harmed the most by Canada's$30 billion worth of counter tariffs in their attempt to gain leverage against the United States and pull Donald Trump by the shorthairs. It is almost exactly a one-to-one correlation of the states that Donald Trump won in the Midwest in the Rust Belt.

3:41Michael Popok:And what does Donald Trump do about all that? What does he say? He just panders to his MAGA base. He just gives them bread and circus or let's change the name of a great lake. And then says during a press conference in the last 24 hours, we don't need Canada. Canada needs us. That's not what the polling numbers say. I'm Michael Popak. You're here on Legal AF as we go into the Labor Day weekend celebrating workers as we should. Take a minute, hit that free subscribe button. Let's start with the facts, shall we? It's the stubborn little things called facts that Donald Trump spends a considerable amount of time trying to avoid or distract his voter base from, the dwindling voter base.

4:28Michael Popok:I'm not even sure what's left of that voter base. And there's a big divide about his Canada strategy. I think the word strategy is doing a heavy lift in that sentence, by the way. Let's start with what states are negatively impacted, severely negatively impacted by Donald Trump's trade war with Canada. You got$30 billion in counter tariffs established by Canada about steel, aluminum, iron and other ferrous material, motor vehicles, autos, trailers, trucks, dairy, appliances, and the like. For steel, aluminum, and iron, the states that are hit hardest, number one trading partner, if you will, for Canada, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, half of all steel and aluminum and autos are coming out of those states to Canada.

5:33Michael Popok:Then if we add dairy to the mix, you'll add those same states plus Wisconsin. If you add appliances to the mix, you've got Kentucky and Tennessee and California. What is the path for midterm success for the Republican Party? I mean, I know Elon Musk is threatening to spend another$100 million to try to buy his way through a midterm. We know that didn't work the last time in many individual races when he tried to buy Supreme Court seats in places like Wisconsin. The people of those states rebelled and took their country back by voting. But how do you win Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania? How do you win the Senate races in those places?

6:22Michael Popok:if you are harming them by billions of dollars economically and you act like you don't care, which Donald Trump certainly is acting like. Let me play a clip of Donald Trump bashing Canada again in the last 24 hours. Play the clip. We do a very small percentage compared to others. We do a very small percentage by comparison to that. But they need us. We don't need them. They've taken advantage of us for years and it's time to stop. We can't lose 60 to 100 billion. All right, we are. This is why Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, when caught in Ottawa, told Donald Trump, you're not serious.

7:08Michael Popok:I feel like I was watching a new episode, long lost episode of Succession, where the father says about the children, I love you to death, but you're not serious people. Played Mark Carney. Our plan has always been standing up for Canada first and foremost here at home, building Canada at home, diversifying abroad. Everyone in the world wants to do more with Canada and we're doing that in a way that's in the best interest of Canadian workers, Canadian families, Canadian businesses. That's first. There's a positive opportunity that has always existed with the United States for a mutually beneficial trade deal that respects Canadian sovereignty, which respect the rights of the French language and the Canadian culture.

7:56But it must have those characteristics. And when the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions. But it's not constructive, but that's their democracy.

8:16Michael Popok:So instead of trolling Canadian women and its military, which Pete Hegseth just did, they should think about the electoral impact in the United States of the trade war, which Donald Trump is losing. Let me give you some poll numbers that have just come out. Now, in new polling, Republicans now see Canadians as the enemy, 38%. 38 % of Republicans, driven by MAGA primarily, see Canada now as the enemy. I mean, 64 % of Americans still consider Canada to be an ally, and 22 % see them as unfriendly. And that's being driven by the MAGA base of the Republican Party, even those high numbers. In Canada, 70 % or more of Canadians have an unfavorable view of Donald Trump.

9:15Michael Popok:And two out of five see the United States as an enemy. When you look at the Lake Ontario trolling by Donald Trump, get this split. But MAGA Republicans, who are still wedded to their fearless leader, you can tell this is a cult, almost half of MAGA Republicans believe the name change was appropriate. Yet 70 % of non-MAGA Republicans disapprove. I mean, you've got a war going on within the Republican Party.

9:53Michael Popok:and the good news for the democrats if you will is that there's no end in sight to the trade war the canadians have made it clear mark carney has made it clear that he's not coming back to the bargaining table unless there's a mutually favorable deal to be had for both sides and he's not going to let Donald Trump troll him back to the table to cut a deal that's not right for Canadian interests. And Trump's attacks on the history, patriotism, legacy, and sovereignty of Canada, trust me, is not helping. If he thinks this is going to work, he should see what's happening and watch carefully what's happening in his Iran strategy.

10:39Michael Popok:Is there any strategy to get Iran back to the table? It's just going to be tit for tat bombings and economic sanctions. It's just going to be tit for tat bombings and economic sanctions all the way through, through the midterms and through the 2020 election and let the Democrats have to clean up the mess left behind with Iran. That seems to be the plan. Because Donald Trump doesn't practice any type of diplomacy. They're constantly insulting our allies. They're insulting the American intelligence. Scott Bessett, who's our Treasury Secretary by day and propagandist by night, is over at the G20 summit of developed countries talking about the economy.

11:26First of all, they took away the press credentials for Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal because they don't want Bloomberg, which is the number one financial outlet, financial media outlet in the world.

11:40Michael Popok:They wouldn't let Bloomberg come to the summit on a credential or the Wall Street Journal. And then he had the balls to stand in front of the media, a media that he had pruned to remove ones they didn't like and say that they are propaganda supporting Iran. Play the clip. Mr. Secretary, with the economic pressure on Iran, as well as the kinetic strikes we're seeing, do you believe that we are closer to the end or are we in the middle of this conflict? Well, look, Iran does not have control of the strait, and they are in a death spiral. We have control of the strait. The limited kinetic strikes that we did yesterday were to take out radar, some patchwork of tinkertoy or rector set radar that they were trying to reconstruct along the banks of the strait.

12:33I can't remember what the number is. I just saw it, but I think we got out about 17 million barrels of crude yesterday. That is not Iranian control of the strait. And I will tell you that one of the best allies that the Iranians have on this is the media, because the media immediately publishes all the lies, all the lies that they say. There are no mines in the strait. Two ships did not hit mines. This is Iranian Agyprop, and everyone in this audience and every news outlet should be ashamed for publishing that, taking a lying regime at face value.

13:18Michael Popok:So Canada and the Canadian trade war started by Donald Trump will end when Mark Carney and the Canadians say it's going to end because they are prepared for a hard winter. Even if it means a loss of jobs in Canada, they have rallied around Mark Carney. They've rallied around Doug Ford, the Ontario premier, and they're in it to win it. And they're in it to not give Donald Trump any reprieve at the midterms. I'm Michael Popok. You're on Legal AF. We've got some great news for the Legal AF community. Help us grow this community. Hit the subscribe button here on the YouTube channel. Come over to Legal AF Substack.

14:01Michael Popok:We're running a 50 % sale through midnight Eastern time on Monday, Labor Day, in honor of Labor Day. Take advantage of it. Become a card-carrying member of the Legal AF community. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.