The MeidasTouch Podcast - Furious Japan Issues Major Threat to Trump

Episode Date: May 4, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Japan showing who really holds the cards in trade negotiations with Donald Trump. Thanks to Brain.fm! Unlock your brain’s full potential FREE for 30 days by going to brain.fm/MEIDAS Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are very few things that you can be certain of in life. But you can always be sure the sun will rise each morning. You can bet your bottom dollar that you'll always need air to breathe and water to drink. And, of course, you can rest assured that with Public Mobile's 5G subscription phone plans, you'll pay the same thing every month. With all of the mysteries that life has to offer, a few certainties can really go a long way. Subscribe today for the peace of mind you've been searching for. Public Mobile. Different is calling. Breaking news coming in from Bet365, where every

nail-biting overtime win, breakaway, pick six, three-point shot, underdog win, buzzer beater, shootout, walk-off, and absolutely every play in between is amazing. From football to basketball and hockey to baseball, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 or older, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling, visit connectsontario.ca. What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue?

A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacato, had a powerful message for the United States. If you treat us in Japan with disrespect over these tariff negotiations, we could use the nuclear option. We have the largest holdings of U.S. treasuries in the world, totaling over $1 trillion. You treat us with disrespect, Donald, we will dump those and we can crash the United States markets. So don't test us. Don't treat us with disrespect. Don't dishonor us. And Japan has objected to the way the United

States has presented these trade proposals. Now, this should be an easy deal to make with Japan. We already had a trade deal with Japan in 2018 that Donald Trump negotiated. And now that Donald Trump negotiated. And now that Donald Trump wants to dishonor Japan, treat Japan with disrespect, Japan is objecting to the trade proposal. And right now there's been no deal. Now, Donald Trump has told us what week after week after week, we're about to do a deal with Japan. I'm about to do a deal with India and Japan. We're announcing it. It's right around the corner. It's right around the corner. That has

not taken place despite all of Donald Trump's lies that it's going to happen. And to me, this is a major indicator again, because the deal with Japan should be the easiest deals. Now we got a whiff that things were going very bad when Japan's Prime Minister Ashiba back on April 21st, 2025 said, we're not rushing into anything. We want to strike a fair deal. We don't want to be disrespected. And Japan just can't keep on conceding things to the U.S. without getting anything in return. Japan is not going to do that. Then messages got out that a deal with Japan may not take days, but maybe weeks away. And, you know, one of the things that we're learning about as well is, and you see right here, Japan's lead tariff negotiator, Roy Siakazawa, just says things just generally are not going good. And Prime Minister Ishiba's administration saying Japan's prepared to use

its role as America's largest creditor as leverage in the trade talks. So if that's how our close allies are treating us, how do you think the rest of the world is viewing us right now? I want to just show you some data points here as well. Why is Japan saying this now? Well, if you've been watching the Midas Touch Network, you know we've been following Prime Minister Ashiba's actions. One of the things that Japan saw that they took big notice of, the elections in Canada. You go, notice of the elections in Canada.

You go, how could the elections in Canada impact Japan? It's why on this network, we have a global focus. So you can see the connections. The same reason that the Canadian elections also had a big impact on the Australian elections. And it's the Trump effect. When Trump just beginning, including in Japan. And this article talks about how the governing party in Japan is worried that the government could be toppled by the opposition party if they strike a bad deal with Trump, look weak, and they get mocked by Donald Trump. Let me show you an opposition party member of parliament. I've showed this clip before, but it's worth playing right now. Here's an opposition member and here's what he has to say. Here, play this clip.

The United States is saying is completely unreasonable. The logic is all over the place and there's no consistency. However, when Japan negotiates regarding what they're saying, well, to put it clearly, it's close to extortion by juvenile delinquents. its negotiation or a deal. It will set a bad precedent and create a negative example. If the extorter gains money once, it's certain that they will extort again. The formula itself is a complete mess. I wasn't great at math but if that showed up in a math exam it would definitely score zero. That's why although Minister Akasawa is serious and capable, there is also concern about whether a serious person can handle it. Since they are not reasonable, they won't listen to reasonable things. Although I said every option, you absolutely must not provide information to an

unreasonable opponent. If you get concessions that way, it will set a bad example. Anyway, please do not give in to the extortion from the US, though it's really bad to say, but this is extortion. If we listen to this, it will really become a bad example. So you ever sit down to work and your brain just won't cooperate? That was me for so long. I find myself getting distracted, scrolling through social media, just totally unable to focus, Especially with a job like this, where I need to stay locked in, productive, creative, and on top of the news, distractions aren't just annoying, they can derail everything. Then I found Brain.fm and it's been a game changer. Brain.fm is an app built for anyone seeking to boost productivity. They create science-backed music that syncs brain patterns,

helping you focus better, relax deeper, and sleep easier. I use their deep work and creative modes daily. It's like flipping a switch in my brain. There's even a turbo mode specifically designed for ADHD support. And this isn't hype. Brain.fm is the only music company supported by a National Science Foundation grant and just published a peer-reviewed study showing their patented tech improves attention and brainwave synchrony.

Unlock your brain's full potential free for 30 days by going to brain.fm.mitus. That's brain.fm.mitus. That's M-E-I-D-A-S for 30 days free. Going back to the other data point that I wanted to talk about with Trump's disrespect as well. On, it was Thursday, Donald Trump spoke where University of Alabama, he gave that disrespectful speech where he was like doing the, remember he was doing that move. It was the whole thing was just so utterly weird. Go back and watch the video that I did on that for like, Ben, what the hell are you talking about? Go and watch it. But here, Donald Trump says

that the U.S. can sell cars in Japan because it's tariffing the hell out of the United States. Japan hasn't imposed a tariff on car imports since 1978. Trump has no clue what the hell he's talking about. Play this clip. Pretty soon, sooner than most people think, because that's what other countries have been doing to us. Just so you understand, they were tariffing the hell out of us. We couldn't sell cars in Europe. We couldn't sell cars in China. We couldn't sell cars in Japan or anywhere else.

We couldn't do anything. Now, the Financial Times reported last week that donald trump is attacking japan over a quote bowling ball test that is that donald trump takes issue with where donald trump says in japan in addition to tariffing our cars which they don't they drop bowling balls this is what donald trump says but is it crazy they drop bowling balls on the roofs of our cars. And then when the cars break, they say, we're not buying American. Trump has, quote, puzzled trade negotiators in Tokyo after complaining about a test where he claims a bowling ball is dropped on a car. Japan does not carry out such tests. Here's from April 24, 2025.

This was Charles Gasparino from fox's big scoop people inside the trump white house are alerting wall street execs they are nearing an agreement in principle on trade with india according to my sources gasparino warns we've been here with japan but there has not been any deals yet with japan It's all market manipulation. They go tell this to Wall Street. They spike the stock prices for a few days. Then they get dumped. Main Street gets hurt. And the billionaire oligarchs who get the tips from the Trump regime about when they're going to message these things and not do them, they make money. we the people get absolutely screwed over these things right here. Japan's press secretary, Kitamura Toshishiro, he was in the Philippines this past week talking

about the bilateral relationships with the Philippines, broader relations in the region as well. Here's what he talks about in terms of dealing with Trump. And I want you to, when you watch it, I want you to see how Japan's press secretary, Kitamura Toshihiro, just how composed he is and contrasted to Trump's behavior. Play this clip. This morning, our prime minister met a representative of Japanese community日本の社会の代表として 日本のビジネスマンの 関心や意見を聞きました そして 米国のタリフの関係について 前月 トランプとの電話会議が 行われました

そして 両国の民主党との 民主主義の議論を And they have decided to establish, to launch a ministerial dialogue between two countries. And Minister Akazawa was designated as chief of negotiator. And he had already advanced ministerial discussions in Washington, D.C. And now he is visiting to Washington, D.C. to hold the second round of this negotiation.この協議を2回目にするために ウォシントンとDCに対して対処しています また、米国のタリフの問題については タリフの行動はグローバルエコノミーと 自由販売システムに大きな影響を与えることができます この朝日本の社会について 日本の人気を聞いたことがありました heard the concerns of the Japanese community this morning as well and we based on those opinions

concerns we convey our message to our counterpart of the US and we hope that we can find out a good solution between two countries which is not only good for two countries but good for the world

including Philippines. And finally, I had the opportunity a few weeks back to do this interview with the United States, the former U.S. ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel. And if you want, when did we do this? We did this in March, mid-March, actually, I think. We did it before the Liberation Day or Liquidation Day, I think, or right around then. We were warning about this months ago. Japan, China, Philippines.

And it was important for me to give us the right, you know, to give you all the warnings. Because you could just follow the data. If you speak to the experts and you follow the data, like if you follow the freight levels, if you follow the trucking volumes, if you see the ships aren't coming into the ports on the West Coast, Long Beach, Seattle, East Coast, Boston, you go, oh crap, we're going to run out of supplies. Yeah, it's going to happen. There's going to be a Tom Hanks moment.

I call it a Tom Hanks moment. Remember Donald Trump said, like a miracle, it's all going to go away with COVID. And then Tom Hanks got it like, oh shit, lockdown mode. We're going to have a Tom Hanks moment soon with stuff not being on the shelves. That's what's going to happen. Anyway, here's former ambassador Rahm Emanuel to Japan. That's why we had to get him on. We need to speak to him about this. Here, play this clip. Japan's the number one foreign direct investor in the United States for the last four years consecutively. Over a million Americans work for Japanese companies, and nearly half of their investment goes to manufacturing. So it's a kind of, you know, we're going to kind of be penny wise and dollar foolish here. Second, you know, Japan hosts the largest military footprint the United States has anywhere in the world. It's the only country that has a permanent aircraft carrier. It is in the, it is

the long pole in our deterrence against China in the Indo-Pacific. And so, you know, nothing stays just in the economic lane. It's a relationship. So that means national security, diplomatic support. It means political support, and it means economic support and integration. Second, imagine this. When the United States wants to put further sanctions on China as it relates to export controls for high tech,

the only way it's successful is Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the Dutch stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States. They're going to think real hard about whether we should stand with the United States or allow our companies to continue to export to China. So, you know, relationships don't just have one lane. It's a series of things you weigh equities against each other. So I think this is very short-sighted in this approach there's a way you could have approached as we did in years past both when i worked for president clinton we did the five pillars on trade etc japan now is the number one as i said number one foreign investor in the united states nearly a million americans work for them and of those half

are in the manufacturing industrial space so So powerful words from Japan saying, ain't happening. We're prepared to use our treasury holdings if you dishonor and if you disrespect us. Also, as we previously reported, and Reuters and Carl Quintanilla did a good job of highlighting this too, the Chinese government sent a letter a few weeks back to Japanese Prime Minister Ashiba calling for a coordinated response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff measures. They had a ministerial level meeting. Japan, South Korea, and China. Does that sound familiar?

Former President Biden, that's why China did it. That's why Xi Jinping did it. He knows. Trump's too stupid to get it. Former President Biden brought together those leaders in Washington together, side by side, shoulder to shoulder as a deterrent to China. It was the ultimate checkmate move. Donald Trump took the checkmates and turned them into checkers and then put them all over his face like a fool. That's what happened.

We'll keep you posted with more. But he can't do a deal with Japan. No deal. Donald can't do a deal with anybody. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas Plus sub stack for ad-free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron

Filipkowski and more. Sign up for free now at MidasPlus.com.