The MeidasTouch Podcast - Furious World Leaders Destroy Trump on Trade War

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on world leaders from Canada, to the EU, to Australia, and elsewhere responding to Trump’s disastrous trade war against the entire world. iRestore: Reverse hair loss with @iRestorelaser Get $625 OFF with the code: MEIDAS at https://iRestoreLaser.com/MEIDAS #irestorepod Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. World leaders are responding with anger, resentment, fear, confusion at Donald Trump declaring Liberation Day and tariffing the entire world at rates higher than anybody expected. Donald Trump self-inflicting a collapse of the United States economy by declaring Liberation Day in America the futures market last night crashing by a thousand points and more. I'll get to that in a moment. Donald Trump listed every country that is being tariffed, which he's calling Liberation Day. When you actually look at the chart as well, as Oliver Cooper says, can someone please tell Donald Trump that the only people in the British Indian Ocean territory are the U.S. base at Diego

Garcia? He's taxing an American military base. Also, if you look at the chart of who Donald Trump is tariffing, he's tariffing the Heard and McDonald Islands. He's not making this up, declaring a trade war with penguins. Planned tariffs that were shared by the White House includes an island that's uninhabited other than penguins. Now, James Surotsky and others have been going through the formula for how Donald Trump and his regime actually calculated this tariff scheme stunt, self-induced world economic collapse. And it's by lying and saying, oh, these were just reciprocal tariffs. They're not reciprocal. I mean, if you look at the tariff rate of, let's say, Europe versus the United States, it was like

each country in Europe tariffing each other 1%. So where was Donald Trump making up these numbers? As James Czerwicki said, it's important to understand that the tariff rates that foreign countries are supposedly charging us that Donald Trump is claiming exist are just made up numbers by Donald Trump. South Korea, with which we have a trade agreement, is not charging a 50% tariff on U.S. exports, nor is the EU charging a 39% tariff. So then Sir Wiki and others figured out how the Trump regime actually calculated the tariffs and what they were going to be imposing on the rest of the world. He goes, just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn't actually calculate tariff rates plus non-tariff barriers as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us. So we have a

$17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. So you take $17.9 and $28 equals 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is. And then the White House actually confirmed that this is how they're doing it. Let's take a look at what the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had to say about Donald Trump. And she talks about how disenchanted, disheartened, disgusted Europe is at the Trump regime. Play this clip. And because of this collective experience of the last, well, almost 75 years, so many Europeans feel utterly disheartened by the announcement from the United States. Let me be clear, Europe

did not start this confrontation. We think it is wrong. But my message to you today is that we have everything we need to protect our people and our prosperity. We have the largest single market in the world. We have the strength to negotiate. We have the power to push back. And the people of Europe should know that together we will always promote and defend our interests and our values, and together we will always stand up for our Europe. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the following to the British Parliament regarding Donald Trump's Liberation Day tariff stunt scheme. Play this clip. Mr. Speaker, we've been preparing for all eventualities ahead of the confirmation of US tariffs later today.

Let me be clear with the House. A trade war is in nobody's interests. And the country deserves, and we will take, a calm, pragmatic approach. That's why we're working with all industries and sectors likely to be impacted. Our decisions will always be guided by our national interest. And that's why we have prepared for all eventualities and we will rule nothing out.

Let's take a look at what Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had to say about this. Here, play this clip. The unilateral action that the Trump administration has taken today against every nation in the world does not come as a surprise. For Australia, these tariffs are not unexpected. But let me be clear, they are totally unwarranted. President Trump referred to reciprocal tariffs. A reciprocal tariff would be zero, not 10%. The administration's tariffs have no basis in logic and they go against the basis of our two nations partnership. This is not the act of a friend. Today's decision will add to uncertainty in the global economy and it will push up costs for American households. It is the

American people who will pay the biggest price for these unjustified tariffs. Let's take a look at what Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney had to say about this. Play this clip. So President Trump has just announced a series of measures that are going to fundamentally change the international trading system. Now, in doing so, he has preserved a number of important elements of our relationship, the commercial relationship between Canada and the United States. But the fentanyl tariffs still remain in place, as do the tariffs for steel and aluminum. As of this evening, the tariffs on automobiles will enter into force and the US has signaled that there will be additional tariffs in so-called strategic sectors, pharmaceuticals, lumber and semiconductors. So we're in a

situation where there is going to be an impact on the US economy, which will build with time in our judgment. It will be negative on the US economy, that will have an impact on us. But the series of measures will directly affect millions of Canadians. We're going to fight these tariffs with countermeasures. We are going to protect our workers and we are going to build the strongest economy in the G7. In a crisis, it's important to come together and it's essential to act with purpose and with force. And that's what we will do. This time of year, it's time to shake off those winter blues and get ready for a fresh

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kinds of results. The iRestore Elite is in a league of its own with 282 lasers and LEDs that deliver light therapy right to your scalp. It's like a spa day for your hair follicles. So give yourself the gift of hair confidence this spring. For a limited time only, our listeners get $625 off their iRestore Elite when you use code MIDAS at iRestoreLaser.com. That's $625 off your iRestore Elite at iRestoreLaser.com with promo code MIDAS, M-E-I-D-A-S. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Hair loss is frustrating. You don't have to fight it alone. Thanks to iRestore. I want to show you how they're reporting this internationally. Let's take a look at France 24. And in about two minutes and 43 seconds, Professor Scott Lucas,

who's a professor of US and international politics at the Clinton Institute University College in Dublin, breaks it down how economically illiterate Donald Trump's speech was where he declared Liberation Day and tariffed all of these countries. He says, this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Watch this. This is a brilliant breakdown right here. Play this clip. Economies. Let's cross back to Professor Scott Lucas, professor of U.S. and international politics. Scott, we spoke to you a little bit earlier. Now that we've heard what the detail is from Donald Trump, what do you make of all of that? Before talking about the effects and that are bad, let me just say that I think that was the dumbest, most economically illiterate speech I have heard in my life. And I've heard a lot of bad ones.

It was filled with lies and distortions. And I need to back that up. For example, the idea that the European Union has a 39% tariff rate on the United States, the weighted average of EU tariffs on the US is 1%. Japan, which supposedly, according to Trump, had a 46% tariff rate, the weighted average of tariffs on US products is 3.2%. Marcus Peterson, who was excellent, highlighted the fact that other countries which actually have high tariff rates, like Turkey, all of a sudden get favored treatment from Trump, at least relatively favored, by paying only 10%.

What you had was someone who is the President of the United States speaking almost absolute nonsense. And the biggest nonsense of all was the idea that tariffs can replace income taxes and that they will lead to economic growth. They won't. Now, how bad is this? You have varying rates across the board. You have 20% on the EU. You have 34% on China, even higher on some countries, lowest rates are still only going to be, you know, are still at least 10%. The Aston Business School modeled this, and earlier this week came out and said, in the event of a 20 to 25% US tariff, and we're roughly talking about that across the board, if the EU and other countries retaliate, the loss to the global economy will be $1.4 trillion.

That is trillion with a T dollars to the global economy. The tax burden, effective tax burden on the U.S. taxpayers will be $6 trillion with a T. This is one of the most, in addition to being economically illiterate speeches, it is accompanied by one of the most economically damaging actions that have been taken since the last round of high tariffs, which was in the 1930s, which helped lead to the Great Depression. Now, I showed you Australia's current prime minister, Albanese, and what he had to say. Let me show you a prior prime minister. Albanese is from the Labor Party.

Let me show you the former Liberal Party prime minister, John Howard. Here's what he had to say about Donald Trump generally and Trump's tariffs. Here, play this clip. I agree with tariffs on economic grounds. I made up my mind about the stupidity of tariffs 15, 20 years ago. They do not protect local jobs. All they do is increase local prices. And I think the attitude that President Trump has taken towards some great allies of America's in the past is really blameworthy. I mean, Canada, has he forgotten that when the allies launched Operation Overlord to liberate Europe and the Nazis.

The third largest of the invading armies was Canadian. After the American and the British, he'd forgotten the Canadian contribution in Afghanistan. Now, you can argue the toss about whether getting involved in Afghanistan was right or wrong. I thought it was absolutely right. But you couldn't argue the toss about World War II. That wasn't started by anybody other than Adolf Hitler.

Yeah, your point about Trump's treatment of Canada is spot on, but there's been a political impact of that in Canada. It's helped the Canadian government. And likewise here, Donald Trump looms large over the election campaign, doesn't he? Labor is trying to smear Peter Dutton as some sort of Trumpian figure. Is that realistic? Well, the Labor Party will try any dodge, but it's not realistic.

Okay, Trump is centre-right, so to speak, although in my view he's not a real conservative. There are a lot of conservative values that I hold to that he apparently doesn't. I mean, he attacks his own security services. I don't think that makes any sense. On the other hand, things he's said about gender identity and university and so forth, I agree with. Most sensible Australians do, but that's, as it were, the low hanging fruit.

That's the easy part of the harder part is what you do to your allies. And to undermine Canada is just I find it inexplicable. Now, notably, when Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Besant was asked about the tariffs following Trump's horrific, awful speech. You had Treasury Secretary Bessant really didn't know how these things were negotiated. He had no clue about where these numbers even came from. He was like, I really don't know. I was not part of the negotiation. The Treasury Secretary, as Tom Bonior says, totally normal, competent government stuff here. He's being sarcastic. The Treasury Secretary of the United States seemingly has no details on Trump's trade war.

Play this clip. Plans for conversations or a trip to Beijing? Nothing imminent. When it comes to this negotiation, April 9th, these tariffs come in place. Do you plan on having negotiations before that date? Again, I'm not part of the negotiations. So, you know, we'll see. I am sure that there are going to be a lot of calls. I just don't know if they're going to be negotiations. The president had this huge chart showing all of the different rates, Canada and Mexico notably missing on that chart. Why is that? I'm not sure. Not sure. Okay. I imagine that has to do potentially because they're already in negotiations previously with the 25%. And here's Scott Besant again saying, all these countries don't panic, don't retaliate against us. We're going to try to figure this out. Just don't retaliate.

And you can see how flustered he looks here after saying he had no part in coming up with these tariffs. You're the treasury secretary. You're saying you had no part in this play this clip. We're going to have the baseline tariffs come into effect purse first, then the reciprocal tariffs, a little bit more of a different rate for each individual trading partner. Are you preparing to negotiate with some of these trading partners before that tariff rate comes into effect on April 9th? Well, I think there have been a lot of discussions, but I think we're just going to have to wait and see what would happen. What I would say, Anne-Marie, is I would advise none of the countries to panic.

I wouldn't try to retaliate because as long as you don't retaliate, this is the high end of the number. And I think the market could have certainty that this is the number barring retaliation. So we've got a ceiling and then we can see if there's a different floor. So then Fox, state regime media in the United States, has to justify Donald Trump's disastrous actions. So they bring on Peter Navarro, one of Donald Trump's other top economic advisors. This is the guy fresh out of prison. He was the guy who served 30 days for contempt of Congress. This guy came up with the Green Bay Sweep scheme to try to overthrow the results of 2020 election. This guy is an insurrectionist,

an insurrection enabler who went to jail. Here he is, and here's how he describes the tariffs. Play this clip. This is not a negotiation, Jesse. This is a national emergency associated with chronic and massive trade deficits that are brought about by higher tariffs and higher non-tariff barriers that take our jobs, that take our factories, that lead to massive trade deficits that result in massive transfers of wealth into foreign hands that jeopardize our manufacturing base and defense industrial base. So, no, this is not a negotiation. It's a national emergency. And the president is treating it as such. And it's Liberation Day, Jesse, from an international trade system.

Happy Liberation Day, Peter. Seriously? Seriously right there? By the way, it should be noted that Democrats in the Senate led a bipartisan majority to overturn Trump's tariffs on Canada. It passed in the Senate, but it's not expected to even be taken up in the House. So it's not actually going to become a law. But the Democrats showed that they were able to bring four Republicans along with them to say, don't tariff Canada, although the rest of the Republicans want these tariffs and trade war going on against Canada. As Geiger Capital, an account that was very Trumpy, very pro-Trump, in my opinion, before all of this, now is saying the overall weighted average tariff is 29%, the highest in over

100 years, bigger than the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, which resulted in the Great Depression. Donald Trump just, you can see right here, the estimated 4-2 announcement, the Liberation Day tariffing the world, significantly higher than Smoot-Hawley, which again resulted in an economic depression in the United States. And by the way, even Senator Rand Paul, MAGA Republican from Kentucky, even he's making sense here. Here, play this clip. Tariffs have also led to political decimation. When McKinley most famously put tariffs on in 1890, they lost 50% of their seats in the next election. When Hot Smoothie put on their tariff in the early 1930s, we lost the House

and the Senate for 60 years. So they're not only bad economically, they're bad politically. Well, there you have it, folks. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. I wanted to show you what the international leaders are saying. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new Truth Over Lies collection at store.midastouch.com. All 100% USA union made.