Trump Stunned as Canada Goes for the Knockout

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0:29Michael Popok:No, Canada's not taking the bait, the sophomoric insults by Donald Trump and his cabinet now attacking the Canadian military. Is there any wonder why people are speculating that Canada is on the verge of becoming a nuclear power as a deterrent against the tax on its sovereignty? Just today in Ottawa, Mark Carney said to Donald Trump, why don't you stop with the memes, stop posting memes all day long and get back to the hard work of governing and resolving our trade war, which Canada is winning. And Canada has us by the short hairs and they're willing to tug. I'm Michael Popak. You're on Legal AF on Tuesday.

1:11Michael Popok:Let's get down to the latest in this Canadian trade war since the Canadians pushed back from the table on August the 21st. What's Donald Trump been doing in the meantime? Oh, you know, things that are juvenile, things that you would expect your third grader who's in trouble with his teacher to do, like go up to the blackboard and change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America and make Google Maps follow you or post AI generated memes against your enemies like Iran showing, you know, whatever's happening in the Strait of Hormuz and having and giving license and permission to your cabinet members to attack our allies' military.

1:53Michael Popok:Is there any wonder why there's speculation that Canada is about to go nukes? I'm not on the United States, but have them lined up for deterrent purposes. In fact, while you're here on Legal AF, take a minute, hit the free subscribe button as we continue to grow our pro-democracy channel. I've got the clip. It's from today in Ottawa of Mark Carney talking about, well, that's your brand of democracy. Play the clip. Prime Minister, what do you make of U.S. cabinet secretaries insulting the Canadian military? It's beneath their office. Sir, you don't need your party in the next election? Some officials have been mocking Canada's military, its cadets, you had Trump renamed Lake Ontario, and also some officials saying that the U.S.

2:37is not actually at war with Canada. The U.S. is not actually at war with Canada. What do you make of all this, and what is your message to the U.S. right now? What needs to happen next? Our message, first off, has always been, our plan has always been standing up for Canada, first and foremost, here at home, building Canada at home, diversifying and broad. 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.

3:21We have to respect the right of the French language and the Quebec culture as well as the Canadian culture. And when the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions. But it's not constructive, but that's their democracy.

3:45Michael Popok:Yeah, I think it's time for the United States to once and for all, even under Donald Trump, to recognize the power of the alliance of our brothers and sisters to the north. It's a NATO alliance. It's an economic alliance. Who's been part of the coalition of the willing whenever the United States has gone to war, even when it's been a folly, like in Iraq and now in Iran? Canadians. Always by our side. Who is by our side economically along the 5 ,000-mile border? That's all that separates us is a hair's width strand of a border and the economic flow back and forth. The number one economic trading partner after Mexico is Canada.

4:39Michael Popok:Canada pumps or had pumped billions of billions of tourist dollars, investment dollars, shopping dollars into the United States. So there is no trade imbalance. There certainly isn't one when you add in the service economy. We outmatch them in the supply of service economy, financial services, law firms, consulting firms, IT firms, cryptocurrency firms, and they outmatch us in goods primarily because their goods that they sell us are really, really expensive. It's part of our energy table. It's part of our energy, electric and oil, and we need it to run and fuel our own economy. And Canada knows it.

5:26Michael Popok:So when they saw a deal that was not good for their steel industry, not good for their auto industry, they pushed back from the table. And when, to add insult to injury, the Trump administration went after their culture, their French language as a dual language country, English and French. They said enough is enough. And now Mark Carney's talking about all the memes that a combination of Donald Trump, his rapid response team, and Natalie Harp, his office wife, are posting, you know, to try to troll Canada. You can't troll Canada to update a famous saying by Eleanor Roosevelt, nobody trolls me without my permission.

6:12Michael Popok:And the Canadians are not giving their permission. They're not taking the bait. They're not falling for it. You've got a serious leader with gravitas, with economic chops, having been a central banker in two different countries against Donald Trump and his juvenile, sophomoric, amateurish, erratic administration, where everybody in the administration fits that same mold. Where does Pete Hegseth or anybody in the cabinet get off trolling the Canadian military, people that fought and died next to Americans in many wars, most of which are unknown or have been forgotten by the Trump administration.

7:03Do I have to see any more cartoons,

7:10Michael Popok:AI-generated animation? God, if Donald Trump could do his entire job by artificial intelligence, I think he would. We'd have to do anything. They can put him in the retirement home, nursing home, assisted living facility, whatever he needs to be in for 24-7 care. You can put him there. And then he can just, with his team, like Natalie Harp and the others, they can just run the country by having AI-generated messages, statements, comments, quips, press conferences. They don't even need Donald. What do they need Donald Trump for? They don't actually need the person to do that. They just need him to be in a position where he can be compromised and he will give his unwitting permission for his government to be run by artificial intelligence.

7:57Michael Popok:I want to get a t-shirt that says, my intelligence is not artificial. That's the problem with the Trump administration. It's surrounded by halfwits. It's surrounded by lowlights, people who did not study in an in-depth nor have P. PhDs or master's degrees or a deep grasp or understanding of global economics, of global nuclear disarmament, of global diplomacy. None of it. Look at the people he's put in. They run small family offices, micro at best, who don't have any understanding of America's place in the world, America's place in history. They don't understand our constitution. They never read it.

8:47Michael Popok:They'd never studied it. They don't walk around with a pocket copy of the Constitution the way we do. They don't understand it. This is all about raw power and muscle flex. They met their match in Canada. Mark Carney said it right. They see this as having to be on war footing against the United States because war has been declared on Canada. How else to interpret The attacks on their sovereignty, let's make you the 51st state. The attacks on your culture, you don't have culture. Your food is terrible. You have languages that we don't understand, like French and English, apparently. And then to undermine their military, how many Canadians have died side by side, shoulder to shoulder in NATO and other operations supporting America and America's interests?

9:41Michael Popok:from World War II to date. Dozens of battles and wars and skirmishes declared and undeclared with the Canadians and their fallen comrades fighting for democracy. And now what do we do? We crap all over that? No wonder Mark Carney is winning this war. No wonder the country has rallied, Canada has rallied around Mark Carney. I mean, I would even venture to say that America has rallied around Mark Carney. We'd take him as our president. Somebody should do a poll. If Mark Carney ran for the presidency of the United States, if he were allowed, how would he poll? Well, Trump's trying to figure out who should carry on his legacy, whatever that's supposed to be.

10:30Michael Popok:Should Pete Hegseth? Well, it's too early for anybody. He said, it's too early for anybody to be declared a candidate. it. We got to get through the midterms. Yeah, that was a subtle dig, not so subtle dig at J.D. Vance, at Marco Rubio, at Pete Hegseth, all even Donald Trump considers to be lowlights. We can fast forward this right now and I'll tell you who's going to win this trade war, Canada, because they're united, because they are against the common enemy, because they have rational economic policy and goals, because their culture, because their values, because their way of life ties them together, brings them together.

11:23Michael Popok:That's who's going to win against an erratic President Trump, period. I'm going to continue to follow it. Every step and every move that Mark Carney makes right here on Legal AF. Take a minute. Hit the free subscribe button as we continue to grow our pro-democracy channel. 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.

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