Charlie Angus on Canada Fighting Back Against Trump

0:00Ben Meiselas:Canada is striking back hard and Donald Trump can't handle it. The Premier of Ontario telling Donald Trump, kiss my ass. And Premier Doug Ford said, I'm a big guy, so there's a lot of ass to kiss is what he said. He also said that we are going to unite at the premier level and we are going to inflict massive amounts of pain against the United States. Let me show you first where Doug Ford, the right wing conservative premier of Ontario, talks about that Donald Trump needs to kiss his big ass. Here play this clip. You sound a little more subdued than you did this morning on the radio when you said Donald Trump could kiss your ass.

0:41Ben Meiselas:Did the prime minister tell you to ask you to tone it down a bit? No, he didn't. I'm not going to comment, but he wasn't against that. And I have a lot of real estate on my ass. so he has a lot of room to kiss my ass. So I just do. I'm a big dude. What can I say? And Donald Trump then posted lots of bluster from Doug Ford, who is the premier of the Canadian province of Ontario, but who is better known as the less charismatic, intelligent, and overall unimpressive brother of the late great Rob Ford. America has been carrying Canada for decades, but no longer. The U.S. will always be far bigger, richer, and stronger than Canada.

1:23Ben Meiselas:Without the United States, Canada couldn't survive. It's where they get all their money. And because of their current bad leadership, primarily Governor Carney is how he refers to the well-respected, world-renowned leader of the free world, Prime Minister Carney, and his flunky Ford, they will not be allowed to keep taking advantage of the United States. their key to survival. And for our Canadian viewers, the fact that they would say the right wing premier of Ontario of the Conservative Party, Doug Ford, is somehow like tied to the hip to Prime Minister Carney, but just goes to show you that Donald Trump doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, number one.

2:03Ben Meiselas:But number two, that Canada is united and ready to pummel Donald Trump and his despicable regime. Donald Trump goes on to say, remember, much of the electricity, oil, and gas that Canada gets is transported through the USA. Someone should get these clowns to fall in line or the consequences for Canada will be far worse. Canada's unemployment rate is now 10 % and rapidly rising. Their businesses are fleeing for the United States and it's all because of their failed policies and inept leadership. The days of ripping off our farmers and other businesses are over. Thank you for your attention to this matter, Donald J.

2:44Ben Meiselas:Trump. Now, the United States gets the majority of its crude and a huge amount of its electricity and other critical things like critical minerals from Canada. Everything Donald Trump said in this statement is completely false. You know, it's like when Donald Trump also says, I'm having negotiations with the Ayatollah. Oh, we have demolished them. They are begging for a deal. He's doing the same loser behavior. He's just a freaking loser. And Premier Ford of Ontario says, look, I can go back and forth with this guy. But you know what? He's a loser. The guy's an idiot. He's a loser. He's a bankruptor.

3:26Ben Meiselas:He bankrupts things. I didn't even want to deal with such losers. Play this clip. You know, I'm not going to. I'm just not going to take the bait. this guy's a loser he's gonna be a loser and simple as that we're gonna fight with everything we have and uh you know something i have more courage more brains in my baby toe than he has in his whole body so there you go more from ford right here saying i'm not gonna take any advice from the king of bankruptcies play this clip 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 Take your lunch money one day, take your toque off your head the next day, and then steal your running shoes.

4:09Ben Meiselas:But I'm not going to take any advice off a guy that's the king of bankruptcies. And he's actually tariffing his own people, taxing his own people. And 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. He ran on reducing the cost of living. Last time I checked, foods are more expensive down there.

4:48Ben Meiselas:Homes are more expensive. And the reason homes are more expensive is because he has a tariff on our lumber, which 33 % of all homes that are built in the U.S. use Canadian lumber. So I'm not going to take lessons off President Trump. He's the last guy that I would take any lessons off. And it's about Team Canada. Well, we'll see how this goes. But he wants to put pain on Canadians. We'll leverage every bit of pain we possibly can on Americans. And do you know what I feel bad for? I've always said I love the American people. I still stand by that statement because there's a lot of people in the U.S.

5:24Ben Meiselas:that are calling me saying, way to go, keep going. you know, your own people, President Trump, don't even like you. And they're going to speak loud and clear when it comes to the midterms. And if I was allowed to, I'd be down there door knocking. And then he starts to roll out the plan that Canada can do as a united Canada, that the premiers can do together with Prime Minister Carney. He's like, we could put massive pain on the United States, play this clip. But we could put massive, massive pain on the US. They underestimate. President Trump underestimates us. And that's the biggest mistake, underestimating your opponent.

6:02Ben Meiselas:He further lays out his plan right here. I think we start off with a surcharge. If it escalates, we have to use every tool in our toolbox. We aren't the only one that sends electricity down to the US. New Brunswick does, Quebec does, BC does, Manitoba does, just to name a few. So we need to get together, all together, and decide if we're going to put surcharges on the electricity. How can we let them take really inexpensive electricity to make goods to compete and take jobs from Canadians? You know, you can't square that circle. So we'll use every tool in our toolbox. Then we'll see if President Trump says, do I need Canada?

6:46Ben Meiselas:watch how he does cartwheels and he shouts and screams when we put the surcharge on matter of fact i can't wait i cannot wait let's be clear i don't like the guy simple and then again conservative right wing premier who i probably disagree with on a lot of stuff but when it comes to how he's fighting donald trump and when it comes to canada standing strong together and being united right here you've got ford on the right wing in the premier level You've got EB, you've got Canoe, NDP, right? On the left, you've got Prime Minister Carney, center-left Liberal. I mean, you've got a United Canada. Played you that clip, right?

7:28Ben Meiselas:The Prime Minister has my full support in this decision to walk away from a bad deal that would have hurt Canadian workers and undermined Canadian sovereignty. And he has my full support to hit back tariff for tariff dollar for dollar. But let's be clear, this will not be easy. To stand up for Canada, to stand up against President Trump, we have to withstand the economic pain that will come with this fight. I want to bring in Charlie Angus, the head of Midas Canada, to get his reaction to everything that's going on. Charlie, of course, this weekend you have Donald Trump's trade war against Canada escalating last minute demands by the Trump regime while engaged in horrifically bad faith negotiations with Canada.

8:19Ben Meiselas:Carney just said to the negotiators, let's get back to Ottawa. We can't deal with these people, you know, and we've learned what those series of additional demands are, including Canada can't do trade deals with other countries unless they get the approval of the United States. And then over the past 24, 48 hours, we've seen Trump regime officials, J.D. Vance, Besant, like whining, like they're being mean to us and they like Canada better than us and they're being so rude. And if we just hurt them more, they're going to come back to the negotiating table and they're going to be, and that's, what's going to make them want to do a deal with us.

8:55Ben Meiselas:Charlie, talk to us about what's going on. Well, Ben, the straight of your booze is now closed and it's going to be closed for a long time. And this is going to really hurt because What we saw this past weekend, this had nothing to do with trade negotiations. Donald Trump's team put surrender documents on the table and thought we would sign it. I don't know who was advising them that they thought they'd get away with this. But the idea that in order to be able to access a market which we had access to based on a trade agreement that was signed with Donald Trump, that we would have a limited, tiny access to a market, that we would give up our sovereignty over negotiations of treaties, that we would give up the Canadian constitutional rights on provincial jurisdiction, on language rights, on diversity, all these things that are fundamental.

9:47They seem to think we're a defeated people. Well, we've never been defeated in any battle that I've ever heard of. So in Canada right now, there is a sense of unity that is beyond anything we've ever seen. And people I know around the world have been watching this with the boycott and that. I mean, I'm even watching right-wing pundits saying there's nothing to be had with these guys. But what I think on the bigger picture, Ben, is that what Donald Trump has sent to the world is a clear message that America's word means nothing, that they can't be trusted on anything, that if you pick a fight with your number one trading partner and treat them as though they were a defeated captive nation and think that you can get away with that.

10:29The only thing I'm wondering is at what point is the rest of the political, media, economic class going to speak up? Because Donald Trump has now picked the fight that I believe is going to do him in.

10:43Ben Meiselas:Talk to us about the unity you're seeing amongst the premiers, amongst the people around Prime Minister Carney. I know, you know, we had heard from the premier of Manitoba, Wab Kanu, even earlier last week. He was worried when there was going to be a deal that seemed to be, you know, not the greatest deal for a lot of Canadian companies, but was a compromise. And he said, look, I get it. We're Team Canada. We're united. And we'll we'll we'll do it and we'll stand united. But, you know, Kanu's like, I see a very weak, pathetic loser in Trump. We see Iran beating the crap out of him. And, you know, he's a flawed person.

11:21Ben Meiselas:Canoes putting it nicely. You can't do a deal with a bad person, Canoes said. But he goes, look, I'll be united, team Canada. But then the Trump regime did what bad people do. And perhaps Carney, who's been in the highest level of negotiations, knew that that would happen no matter what. And so rather than it being, you know, him who, you know, just let Donald Trump be Donald Trump and Trump and Lutnick and all of them did what we expected that they would do. They engaged in heinous conduct at the very end and it provided Carney with the out. I think Carney knew was my own views. I think Carney knew that was going to happen eventually.

11:57Ben Meiselas:And then Carney said, all right, let's go. And then he was able to deliver that speech to Canada that addressed all the different constituencies where even somebody like Danielle Smith of Alberta, you know, who still is somewhat both sides in this and we obviously know she's maple maga but it almost puts the pierre poly have maple maga yes kind of cornered because it's like we we did everything we what more would you have done other than sell out canada and take away our sovereignty well i think uh what was really fascinating over the last week was that canadians everybody was on edge um because we didn't i don't think canadians wanted a deal canadians felt if we gave a deal if we gave up too much they would be back the next day demanding more.

12:45But there was a sense, well, our prime minister is going to go into this and we are all going to hold the line. And Wab Kanu, he's really, he is Captain Canada. You know, he reminds me of the great Phil Esposito. We do everything in hockey. All metaphors in Canada are hockey. But Phil Esposito in 1972 against the Russians when Phil Esposito rallied the team. When you put Wab Kanu on the ice, he rallies the nation. So he came out first and he said, this is not a good situation, but I'm sticking with the captain here. We are sticking together. And so Canadians were watching those negotiations. When the prime minister called our people home at midnight on Friday, my phone started to go off, just started to just go crazy.

13:31And what I was hearing from people is, thank God, thank God, we knew we were in a war, we knew they were coming for us. We knew that if we signed in good faith, because the prime minister said he'd go that extra mile. But then the prime minister said, you can't trust somebody who signs agreements in pencil. So, you know, this isn't a trade dispute between the prime minister and Donald Trump. This is not MAGA in Canada. Right now, this is the word of the United States is not worth anything. So from the moment that we came home, you've been seeing this sense of, yeah, we're in this. We're in this for the fight.

14:09And so Donald Trump's now threatening extraordinary new tariffs and he's going to do this. And, you know, they're all shouting at us about what they're going to do to us and how much it's going to hurt us. But what we're watching is we're watching the economic crisis unfolding in the United States, the massive debt levels, the fact that on aluminum alone, the Canadian aluminum industry is working at peak production and every American manufacturer is paying an extra$1 ,500 to$2 ,000 a ton because of what? To punish us? So we're not shouting what we're going to do. Prime Minister Carney said it's going to come down Labor Day.

14:48My feeling is with these latest threats, now he's going to destroy our auto sector. Donald Trump hasn't realized what he's done. It's going to make the prime minister target serious, serious retribution. They're going to target red states. We're coming into the midterms. You put an export tax on potash, and you are going to destroy the American farm economy in no time. And all those red state governors are going to be freaking out. So I see potash. I see electricity. Premier Eby's talked about the key critical minerals that are essential to Silicon Valley. Donald Trump has forced this fight. You're seeing from our prime minister.

15:26He's just carrying on. Canadians are hunkering down. We are ready for this. We are unified in a way we've never been before. And I will also say, Ben, the decision at the last second to pick a fight over French language rights in our country, that's the political third rail in Canada. We've survived for 250 some years by this delicate constitutional dance on language. And Donald Trump decided to stick his finger in that socket. Well, every Canadian that I know is doing a little bit of French today. Maitre chenou. Maitre chenou. We are masters of our own house. It's a great French slogan, and every Canadian's using it.

16:02So he's unified us in a way that nobody else could have. So for that, Donald, we're going to drink some Canadian whiskey tonight.

16:09Ben Meiselas:Then you've got the idiot Treasury Secretary in the United States, Besant, who couldn't run his own$5 billion fund when he was in the private sector and ran it into the ground. And he wants to make today the day of economic D-Day. And so he shows up and gives this press conference, and he says, the world, you're going to have to choose the united states or iran and as i was watching that too i was reflecting i'm like do you also realize what a sign of weakness that even is that you now had to tell the world you need to make the choice is it going to be the us or is it going to be iran and you already have you know china's foreign ministry spokesperson put out a statement saying iran iran iran you want us to say a lot of, you know, I mean, they said it more diplomatically.

16:58Ben Meiselas:They said, we don't support any of this economic coercion, you know, internationally. And then Iran's parliament leader, Mbigalabov, put out a statement saying, we've already heard from a lot of our own allies and no one takes the United States seriously. But, you know, you need alliances. If you're going to go and do things, you know, whether it's actual kinetic war, although I don't like the term kinetic, it feels like it, it reduces the war crimes that are being used, you know, and the horrible, whether it's an actual war, um, or whether it is a, uh, trade war or whatever you're doing geopolitically, you need friends, you need allies, you need to move together and Trump's isolated himself.

17:40Ben Meiselas:And so it's just like the weakest, you know, it's like, what are you even doing? You know? And it's like, we're super serious when it comes to China this time, we're going to be sick. Really? You're going to take that fight too. Okay. You're just going to fight. You're going to fight everybody. It's just, it's, you know, look, Trump was ranting and raving like a lunatic, Charlie in the seventies and the eighties about, and he was viewed as a loser lunatic. All these MAGA people who are running the government are all loser lunatics whose MAGA arc were being outcasts because they were horrible humans and they couldn't, they didn't do things good.

18:11Ben Meiselas:So it's ironic that they call this operation an outcast regarding Iran right now when they're all outcasts and they've like, and these losers have taken over the U.S. guy, just a bunch of losers, Charlie. It sucks. It sucks. Well, I mean, but the problem is, again, you know, when is the American political economic media machine going to stand up? I mean, I heard someone on the news today talking, well, Prime Minister Carney blew off some steam on the weekend and now Donald Trump's blowing off steam. That's BS. This was a unilateral attack on a neighbor that has been a loyal ally forever. And now this loyal neighbor and friend is going to fight back and is going to hurt you in a big way because we are in the fight for our lives.

18:57That's what's at stake here. The fact that they're using the term D-Day against Iran, I think, is also really offensive to Canadians because we were at D-Day. And at D-Day, We were there with our allies and we were fighting fascists. And, you know, Dwight D. Eisenhower, we respected him as the global leader at the time, not because he was an American, but because he was a good general who understood how to work with people and how to work across really diverse lines. So for us, D-Day has a really sacred meaning. So we see this as our D-Day. Donald, you're picking a fight with the Canadians who landed at Juneau Beach and got further on that first day than any of the allies while you were still trapped on the beach, our American friends.

19:44We were pushing into the Nazi line. So we see this as an existential threat because it is an existential threat. But right now, this fight is unifying us, whereas Donald Trump is creating chaos. We are going to take hits. We know that. But I think what the American people need to consider is what happens when we come back and decide that, hey, what's the electricity rate you're paying at Trump Tower? Well, maybe we'll add 25 % or 30 % on that. What's that going to do to the cost of living? What's it going to do to the cost of living when potash gets hit? Critical minerals start shutting down Silicon Valley because you threaten our auto sector.

20:23We've got to come back. We've got to drop the gloves. We've got to go for this. And so at the end of the day, you're doing this, Donald, to the neighbor that was the most trustworthy that you could have had. We would have had your back on anything. And it really sends a message like, who is this guy and who are his friends other than gangsters, other than criminals, other than sexual predators like Epstein, other than, you know, despots like Putin and the head of North Korea, Netanyahu. You would choose them any day over Canada. We'll go for it, Donald. We'll see how this ends at the end of the day.

21:01Ben Meiselas:Before we go, your message right now to the Trump regime. We know they watch this very, very carefully. Donald, in Canada, we know who you are. You're scum, Donald. You are the scum of the earth if you treat people like that. And I think of Canada and the incredible lands that we have here that we have to protect. And I think of our communities that stick together, our multicultural, diverse identities and our language issues. We are a nation built not on bluster. We are a nation that had to be forged through hard compromises of being able to work together because, you know, there's no such thing as a Marlboro man in Canada.

21:42You don't survive as Marlboro man here. It's minus 45. You've got to go to your neighbor. You've got to knock on their door and you've got to trust that your neighbor will help you, whether they agree with you or whether they don't. That's what makes Canada who we are. We've had to stick together. We've had to work together. and we love, we love, we love the diversity of this land and man, we will do anything to protect it. And the other thing, Donald, you've never shown up for a fight. You've always had people go and die for you. Well, Canadians show up and we don't stop till the job's done. So you think this is gonna be a fight you're gonna win?

22:20You've already lost, Donald. You lost because you have no moral character. You have no moral fiber. And when you are down, Donald, And when you are finally in jail as the predator criminal that you are, Canadians will be toasting each other and celebrating with democratic allies around the world because your days are numbered.

22:41Ben Meiselas:Charlie Angus, leader of Midas Canada. Catch Charlie Angus traveling around Canada, giving speeches as part of the resistance tour. Charlie, great to see you as always. I can't wait to Canadians get a copy, though, of WTF America, because there's a whole chapter on Midas Canada and everybody out there. Well, Ben, I just want to thank you. And, you know, we're coming up to our one year anniversary of Midas Canada. And people say, why did you go with Midas Touch? Well, once we started talking about fascism, I don't think we were on a national news show ever again in Canada. And you guys reached out from the get go.

23:17And we've been working ever since because you're not afraid to say what has to be said. And we were calling out fascism from day one. And here it is, the gangster fascists. And at the end of the day, we're all going to be celebrating when they go down. So thanks so much. And we can't wait for that book to get out.

23:32Ben Meiselas:Everybody subscribe to the Midas Canada YouTube channel. And Charlie, that's the point I make in the WTF America book, is that what this is about is it's about international solidarity against fascism. The forces of fascism are aligned internationally. Trump is a vessel of that in the United States. But we see what was emerging in Canada. We saw what was emerging in Australia. We see it internationally. And so if we want to be equipped to fight it, we've got to form these alliances. Frankly, the way Canada is reaching out and forming alliances internationally and is becoming the leader of a new shaping order in the world.

24:11Ben Meiselas:Thanks, Charlie. Everybody subscribe to Midas Canada. Thanks so much. Before you go, our book, WTF America, is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order, scan the QR code or click the link in the description. Let's do this.