Trump Picks New Trade Fight with Canada

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0:33Monday.com was built for that gap. The AI work platform where people and agents work side by side to deliver more together. Create your first Monday agent today at Monday.com. Welcome to The Beat. We are following how Donald Trump's making it harder for the Republicans in these midterms. Here we are, 500 days after Trump first unleashed those terrorists. It was a widely panned announcement, later ruled illegal, I'll get into that, but we're also 185 days after the Republican-filled Supreme Court knocked down the tariffs as illegal. And yet Trump is now reviving the tariff clash against our ally and trading partner Canada after losing even more GOP support over the months and now over a year that we've been in this.

1:17Now, Rupert Murdoch runs the famously conservative media empire, which generally supports Republicans. But also today, his Wall Street Journal says it's the dumbest trade war revisited. Well, here's how it sounds on Fox. I think right now it's a coin flip right now as it relates to the House. I'm not saying the Republicans aren't trying, but I don't see the energy with the Republicans right now. Everything is going to be about the pocketbook in this election. Well, if people vote their pocketbook this election, they may be voting against the MAGA Tech Titans pushing these data centers, unpopular job losses.

1:56That's a major midterm issue, as the Times put it today. They may be voting their pocketbook in against high gas prices and its cause, Trump's Iran war, which many Republicans know already has them facing these headwinds. And they're angry that Trump, who knows his tariffs are unpopular, is still reviving this now, regardless of how much it already failed. Remember, the economic jitters over the tariffs were originally one of the first ruptures among Trump's digital base. Trump has put his tariffs all over the place. I've been trying to understand them. I don't. I'm down 7 million bucks in stocks and crypto.

2:35I don't know how many of you guys are invested in crypto or stocks. What the f*** is going on with our country? Guys, why am I poor? His giant tariff policy that he just dropped on the market unilaterally, probably unconstitutionally. The system is rigged. Kids feel like there are no options other than to burn it down. Now, those podcasters aren't the Wall Street Journal, and the Journal's not exactly Walter Cronkite. But politically, there's kind of a faint echo here of Trump losing the air cover he needs while losing a war abroad, just as Cronkite famously channeled that national consensus against Vietnam.

3:15It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. But it is increasingly clear to this report that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy and did the best they could. Historians state that after that broadcast, LBJ privately told aides if he'd lost Cronkite, he'd lost Middle America. Well, if Trump has lost the Wall Street Journal and former Fox hosts Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly and a host of podcasters, whether they're Cronkite or not, he is losing a lot of America.

4:00His candidates losing in more of these primaries we've been covering. And he already lost the rest of the nation as the polls show the approval cratering. Trump underwater in 47 of 50 states now. Now, in other words, you could plan a trip to just about any state in the U.S., North, South, and most people in that state would say they oppose Trump, this second-term version of Trump, even if they voted for him before. That includes states that he previously won easily, like Texas, was supposed to be a safe seat for the Republican Senate. Now, it's a dead heat, which is why Dems may have a shot of taking back the Senate, as the Times reports.

4:36That's the national data. Trump's governing response has been, as I told you, reviving the trade war. And his political response, I can tell you today, is to post online complaining that because he's trailing in the polls, he doesn't believe them. There is a lot of news tonight, including other legal news we're going to get to. But we start with what Republicans see as the main story, their crumbling hopes to hold the House. And we're joined by Kurt Anderson, a veteran journalist who created legendary spy magazine Tangled with Donald Trump, the best-selling author of several books. He has a new novel called The Breakup, which we will get to.

5:12But we start with all the news. Welcome back. Happy to be here. You look at the way Trump's acting, talking, and governing. It doesn't even have the appearance of trying to necessarily help Republicans. No, he's acting entirely on Trump impulse. There is the lack of political appeal to anyone but his hardest core, I don't know, what is that, 40%, 15 %? It's amazing. And he's not helping Republicans running for Congress. It's nuts. And you know, in their heart of hearts, and privately, many of these elected Republicans have always said, oh, he's difficult. They must be saying, now, this is a real problem.

5:55And want to be rid of him, but they're not going to be rid of him between now and November, obviously. And apparently they're not going to be rid of the trade war and the economic headwinds. Here's how some of the guests on Fox Business, which has a little more of what we might call reality or gravity to it. On to this. Take a listen. Probably the pain is not worth the gain. And, you know, I've been a bit of a skeptic on the tariff front with respect to the Trump strategy. So remember, tariff is another word for tax. and putting taxes on products means there's less economic activity. Period. Republicans should know that.

6:35Do I think now is a good time to fight a trade war with Canada? Probably not. No, I mean, finance and economics do keep you untethered to reality, which is why even why Fox Business is tethered to reality. It can't just be, you know, trying to please Donald Trump and his cult. Yeah. It's really striking. I mentioned that we're tracking a lot of news today. That's sort of where the president's head is at because he's posting about it and where we see coming out of the weekend, some of the Murdoch empire has been. The other big legal news is this brand new from the Supreme Court late in the day.

7:14This is about this very infamous executive order. The Supreme Court basically clearing the way for Trump to make his move to try to restrict or critics say distort voting by mail. Now, we don't know how much of this order will be implemented. We are much closer to the midterms because it was originally stopped in the courts. A key part of Trump's order is also blocked from a separate ruling. If you're curious just how this thing went down, we do know that the three Democratic-appointed justices dissented. With Jackson warning, the decision could needlessly inject uncertainty or even, quote, chaos into the upcoming midterm elections.

7:49This is that thing where this Supreme Court helps Trump even when he's on his way to losing. Yes. I will tell folks again, we have to see what happens in government, but it's probably a little late for them to use this to completely upend how we vote in the midterms. Right. A little late. Early voting starts in a month. Right. Well, you know, you could be as strong as you want. I try to be as fair as I can. But but with that said, yes, go on with your view. Well, that's the thing. I mean, our voting process these days, and of course, Trump probably doesn't, not probably doesn't, doesn't like early voting at all because it's small g democratic, just like mail-in voting, which many states, maybe most states at this point have depended on mail-in voting for years and years and years.

8:34Red states, blue states, all of them. So the idea that he would, again, a month from early voting and two and a half months from the election would try to upend this is crazy. I doubt that that will succeed, except, as you said, adding uncertainty to the legitimacy of voting is his, you know, what he'll do no matter what. and what he's done, what he did in 16, what he did in 20, what he's doing now. Yeah, and this goes to how the court has been caught up in so much of Trump's aggressive and at times very clearly lawless actions. I mean, we led the show with these tariffs that were already mostly locked down.

9:20I just want everyone to understand what the state of play is and get your reaction. And then we're going to still get to your very interesting political book. But the way the court, even in this ruling today, refers to reality, I just want to remind everyone, is that Trump has been losing this battle in the lower courts. So I'm just reading from this. They say states sued the government contending this order, the executive order that Trump pushed, quote, unconstitutionally infringes on their authority to administer elections. The district court agreed and stopped the government from implementing that order.

9:53So that's the state of play. Now you have the Supreme Court not saying the order is okay, but just saying that while this grinds to the courts, some parts of the order might be allowed to be pursued. And so on the one hand, I think, again, it's our job to make sure people understand, Trump lost in the lower courts. That's the state of play. On the other hand, Kurt, this is why a lot of people, including liberals, get so mad and they say, well, if he's losing so much, why does it feel like the court comes in and gives him a second shot at everything? Well, they give him every chance, this sixth justice majority gives him every chance he can.

10:28And often, as you made clear in the history of tariffs or anything else, they give them stays. They don't say, no, he can do tariffs. They don't, they, yeah, let it go on, let it go on, let it go on. Now, with this case, I mean, you tell me, has it worked its way into the appeals court, this election tampering decision? Is that where it has to go for them to do? Yeah, the rejection is at the district court. Yeah. And so what the Supreme Court is saying is we might let you go while the appeal is pending. And so if you are skeptical, as many people rightly are, of how this administration works, they aren't doing this always in an honest, good faith process.

11:08They're just trying to pull every lever. That's why they call it a shadow docket. No, exactly. And, you know, I mean, if this executive action, while it's working its way up through the appellate process, which you tell me never happens in a month or whatever, does that mean his executive order will obtain on the United States Postal Service and they just won't mail? They won't take ballots? That is upending. And, again, I'm not a lawyer. It seems to me, however, that that interference with states' administration of elections is patently unconstitutional. Yes. And the states have the primary responsibility and the Constitution is clear about that.

11:48So, you know, we have a lot more, including on the Supreme Court in tonight's program. And we have Nancy Erica Smith, a great lawyer, standing by. So we're going to keep on a bunch of these related issues. You just said you're not a lawyer, but you know what you are? What? Son of a lawyer. I don't know if I knew that. Grandson of a lawyer. You're an author and a very political author at that. And so while we've had you on the program many times as a guest, I want to draw everyone's attention to your new novel, The Breakup, imagines a post-Trump era in 2045 after a kind of second civil war. The U.S.

12:18as we know it, it doesn't exist. This is fiction, but not, if you will, or you're probing at questions you think are relevant now. I think it's very plausible speculative fiction. I have thought about it a long time. And, you know, it's about a family who have dealt with this, a Gen Z family who are in middle age in 2045, who have lived through basically their entire adult lives has been Trumpism, MAGAism, and then this uprising that starts in 2036, 10 years from now. And I tried to make it, again, it's from their eyes, the way they see it, experienced it, their own conflicts with some political tinge as well.

13:00But really, plausibility was my lodestar. What do I think is a plausible way for this to happen? How on earth the logistical complexity of dividing the country? You don't have a Mason-Dixon line. You've got to figure out 92 cities and how to make them independent and so forth and so on. But, and, you know, there are other alternatives. There are peaceful ways of devolving power to the states more than we ever have and on and on and on. Do you think the partisans are happier apart? In this case? Yeah, I wrote a piece a couple weeks ago in the Times about the national divorce. And, you know, we all know people who've been much happier after divorces.

13:41After they recognize that the differences are irreconcilable and what are you going to do? It's tragic. It's awful. It's expensive. It's complicated. But the kids will be happier in the long run. Yeah, it's super interesting. And you're tapping into something a lot of people are talking about. Again, the book is called The Breakup. Kurt Anderson, our special guest tonight on more than one topic. Coming up, we look at Pete Hegseth's trouble handling of this war. And next, what I mentioned, I have a special legal report on Trump's revenge tour at the DOJ when we're back in 90 seconds.

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15:16A BetterHelp ad. One of the hardest parts about starting therapy? Not knowing what to expect. Instead of listening to an ad, hear from the people who've actually been there. Visit betterhelp.com slash reviews to explore real client reviews that are updated every day. With an average live therapy session rating of 4.9 out of 5, based on more than 1.7 million client session reviews, the feedback speaks for itself. Visit betterhelp.com. Turning to our special report, let's begin with the legal reality. Donald Trump's second term is a constant legal dumpster fire. No modern president has pushed this many illegal plots, faced this many court setbacks, and made legal problems an actual core part of how he governs.

16:04Just tonight, two extreme Trump moves are in the news because they lost in lower courts, tariffs, and that voting executive order that we'll continue to cover. Now the Supreme Court is letting one of them continue until it hears that case, something we just discussed at the top of the hour. But this is part of a wider, ongoing feature of this term. So in this report, I want to dig into a key area where Trump is trying to skirt or break the laws that oversee prosecutors. We know throughout history of tremendous power and where Trump is losing more often. The DOJ has found some of those nonpartisan prosecutors, even ones they appoint, won't do Trump's illegal bidding when asked.

16:45So the DOJ has tried to find loopholes to get temps or others to do that same powerful job. But by doing that, they are dodging the laws and rules. Now, two top appeals courts have crushed this ploy, finding two of those types of prosecutors were in the job illegally and banning them. That's in New York and Nevada within days. Trump's trick, used much more now than in his first term, is to avoid the required oversight and Senate confirmation by basically putting in temps. They are limited to a temporary role that's supposed to be only up to 120 days max. But then he tries to get them to serve basically indefinitely if he can.

17:26Now, how sneaky is this? Well, few administrations have ever tried to do this trick this regularly across several jobs. And it is now faltering. Our report finds at least nine districts where Trump used this trick to install loyalists who might do that which other honest prosecutors, including Republican prosecutors, would not. Now, that alone can impact many cases, but Trump has lost six of them. As we highlight here, these are the losers in the sense of the court ruled against them. And sometimes that means the prosecutors are out entirely. other times the Trump DOJ is trying new loopholes to keep them in their post.

18:11I have a little bit more on that in a moment, but one takeaway here is that Trump's bluster still fails when it means opposition, when it's tested in court, when people sue. Trump tried a version of this ploy recently when his AG nominee didn't seem to have the votes initially. And so Trump claimed, well, maybe he could just keep him on as a temp AG, basically a permanent temp, which is as Orwellian as it sounds. The president said he had, quote, no objection to withdrawing Todd's name, Blanche's name, saying that he would keep him as acting attorney general until Senate Republicans John Cornyn and Tom Tillis are out of office.

18:49Todd will survive. He'll keep him in his acting. Yeah, sure, he'll be acting. He's going to be acting and, you know, we'll try it again. So the abuse of that acting or temp rule comes from the very top. But remember, Trump later backed down. Instead of saying, oh, we'll just hold him on as acting, Blanche actually compromised on some key Senate issues about the thug fund in order to get those Republican votes. So that particular temp threat was a bluff. Now, there are times when the government does need acting officers, just like there can be real government emergencies. But abusing emergency powers to undercut the government is wrong.

19:29It's a classic challenge that one could call Trump's unfortunate Jar Jar Binks tendency if you know your Star Wars characters. Mesa proposed that the Senate give immediately emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor. I love democracy. I love the republic. The power you give me, I will lay down when this crisis has abated. Mesa think that character has not aged well. But the underlying Jar Jar warning, the implication there, is timeless. Power corrupts. Excuses for extra power are ripe for abuse. and the public must protect itself against corrupt rulers and their handmaids. Trump's current version is, of course, different than the emperor, and Trump doesn't even claim to support democracy as much.

20:32But here is now how it works at DOJ so you understand. When Trump finds the prosecutors rebuff his demanded revenge cases because of, say, law or evidence, he'll often fire them, and then a loyalist takes their place as acting U.S. attorney. And then in cases where a judge says, no, you can't do that, the DOJ will try to sometimes relabel them as a first assistant or a special attorney and try to have them act as basically a different temp prosecutor under another title. Now, this matters because the temp prosecutor is avoiding the required Senate oversight and may target opponents, as you've seen here, in ways that no honest, law-abiding, permanently confirmed officer would.

21:14In fact, that's what happened with political spokesperson Alina Habba, who Trump tried to elevate in New Jersey to that post. A judge stopped the ploy. She later left. Or the top federal prosecutor in L.A. found to be serving unlawfully as an acting U.S. attorney. Then the Trump DOJ retitled him First Assistant, trying to make a mockery of a very clear ruling that he was illegally wielding those same powers, whatever you call his title. Now, that first assistant title was rejected in the new ruling that I told you about out of Nevada. Or in that New York case, Trump's fake temp prosecutor tried using subpoenas to go after Trump longtime opponent, Letitia James.

21:55But a judge quashed him and disqualified him. Now, if tracking all this sounds exhausting, that is part of the point. You know, other administrations emphasize trying to always follow the law, and then sometimes they end up in these skirmishes that may go all the way to the Supreme Court. But that's not who we're dealing with here. Donald Trump tried to overthrow an election. He pardoned vicious, violent thugs, putting them back out on the street, siding with violent criminals over police. So the U.S. court system is apparently only slowly catching up to a Trump DOJ that is run from the top by that sometimes illegal mindset.

22:39In the New York case, the judge hammered the Trump DOJ for skirting restraints from Congress, using power to subject political adversaries to these criminal investigations, acting without lawful authority. Now that sounds firm. But then you still have to check. And we did. And I want you to know tonight, the prosecutor in that very office is still on the job as, quote, first attorney, unquote, right now. So some of these judges, and certainly Congress, has to wake up if they don't want to be a part of this lawlessness. Now, a different fake prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, brought an earlier case against Comey.

23:20And there it's worth recalling that this ploy I'm telling you about actually ended up dooming the whole case. a judge not only pushing her out, but tossing Comey and James indictments because Halligan's appointment was unlawful. One of those cases died completely. So sometimes this ploy does run into real sanctions. But Trump does press on. His new AG has engineered another totally separate case against Comey. Now, this ploy I'm telling you about, which frankly I don't think has gotten enough scrutiny, we've relied on some newspaper and legal accounts as you've seen here, but this is a big deal.

23:55And yet, in a certain way, as I told you, it's exhausting, it's dry, it's intricate. It's not exactly the tyranny of tanks or violence. It's not the spectacle of an emperor seizing the galaxy. It's more of an autocratic slide through a kind of endless bureaucratizing of everything. New titles, new skirmishes over the title and what it means and who's doing what. So for a more arcane reference than Star Wars, we turn to a dystopian film from Latin America, which has much experience with autocrats and wannabe despots. A 1985 satire Brazil darkly mocks how fascism can kind of be laundered or normalized through the bureaucracy of a different agency or department where no one's really taking responsibility.

24:45This is one iconic scene. What have you done with his body?

24:55Oh, gosh. I don't know anything about them, Mrs. Blattle. I'm really just delivering a check. He hadn't done anything. He was good! What have you done with his body?! Yes, yes, not my department, of course. I'm only records. These only records, right? The killing, the disappearance of a human being under government authority. That's somebody else, maybe somebody he works with. This kind of cultural commentary is built off grim experience with autocrats. One lesson is to stand up to their pressure. and even these ploys, this sort of bureaucratic creativity I'm telling you about, rather than go along and say, well, you're only records.

25:47Any more than a judge could claim, well, I only did my part. I ruled against it. It's not my fault if they found a workaround to do what they were doing anyway that I ruled against. So that is the warning. But there is nuance and balance here. There are some U.S. judges getting tougher, however late. Here's how some of that's been going. Donald Trump's Justice Department is on a losing streak. The Trump administration is losing an initial wave of legal battle. The court found the president's global tariffs were found to be illegal. A new legal blow to President Trump's immigration crackdown. A federal appeals court says he unlawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members.

26:31A federal appeals court in Denver has ruled the Trump administration must grant immigrant detainees bond hearing. A federal appeals court has ordered an immediate halt to construction on the Trump administration's$400 million White House ballroom. Judges ruling to uphold the law and in many cases, leaving the administration with no path, no ploy around those legal losses. judges often responding to an incredible effort, one that doesn't always make it on TV, waged by people, plaintiffs, lawyers, activists, and other individuals and entities who are saying, yeah, we get it, we get the game, we're going to meet them and challenge and file whatever we need to.