The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 2.3 Elon Musk USAID Shutdown Scandal Is Getting Crazier, Trump's Mexico & Canada Tariffs Now Paused, &

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

https://BeautifulBastard.com 3 New Tees & Crews Available Just go to https://www.zocdoc.com/phil and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Then find and book a top-rated doctor today!  Subscribe for New shows every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday @ 6pm ET/3pm PST & watch more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEqSo7xOEU&list=PLHcsGizlfLMWpSg7i0b9wnUyEZWI-25N3&index=1  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - USAID Employees Told to Stay Home as Musk & Trump Aim for Shutdown  12:26 - Plane Crash in Philadelphia Kills Seven  15:07 - Sponsored by ZocDoc 16:19 - NY Moves to Protect Abortion Providers After Doctor Charged Out of State  18:44 - Mexican & Canadian Tariffs Delayed for 30 Days 27:19 - Comment Commentary  ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino  ———————————— For more Philip DeFranco: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2V Twitter:   https://x.com/PhillyD Instagram:   https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco Newsletter: https://www.dailydip.co TikTok:   https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco?lang=en ———————————— #DeFranco #ElonMusk #DonaldTrump ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Elon Musk is wreaking havoc across the federal government right now, but most notably with USA. We've got huge updates on Trump's tariff war with Canada and Mexico, with the next 30 days being pivotal. What we've learned about the plane crash in Philadelphia and New York is now trying to protect doctors who were sending abortion pills out of state from criminal charges. We're talking about all that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show.

You daily dive into the news, how it's being covered and how people are reacting to it. But first, something fun and great before I go ahead and ruin your day for the next 20 minutes. As of releasing this video over at beautifulbastard.com, I just released three new tees, hoodies and cruise. All of which feel perfect for the times that we're living through.

Starting with the, there's been too much stuff happening lately, to be honest, gear. Accompanied by the clearly thriving goodness and the genuinely timeless, I'm just built different, poorly, tee, hoodies, and crews. All available right now over at beautifulbastard.com and a few colorways. So grab what you want while you can, wear your feelings. But like I said, we have a lot of big news

to talk about today, starting with this. We need to talk about the absolute havoc that Elon Musk is wreaking across the federal government right now, from the Treasury Department to the Office of Personnel Management to the United States Agency for International Development. Because Elon, as we know,

is the head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. There, to be clear, Doge isn't actually a government department. It's just a team within the administration. Congress is supposed to be the one with the power to establish or shut down federal departments and agencies.

And with that, right, Musk? He hasn't been elected, he hasn't been confirmed, and he sure as hell isn't a career civil servant. And in fact, as the world's richest man in, one who has consistently railed against what he sees as the injustice of federal regulation of his companies, he is possibly the most substantial conflicts of interest of anyone in this government.

But despite all that, he is reportedly creating chaos, shattering precedent, and gaining almost unheard of access and influence across almost every actual department, agency, and office in the government. And so with that, let's start with the Department of Treasury, where the news starts with a standup between Doge and a man by the name of David Liebering. Notably, David is a guy who has dedicated his life

to civil service when his former colleagues say he could have been making millions on Wall Street. He started his career in the treasury as an intern way back in 1989. He'd been the fiscal assistant treasury secretary since 2014, which is the highest position a civil service employee can actually reach. Meaning notably, everyone above him would be a political appointee. With David being described as the one who, quote, runs the nation's checkbook and being widely credited with steering the nation's finances through the debt ceiling crises of the past 15 years. The key thing with all that is that Trump named Liebrich acting secretary of the Treasury Department upon taking office last month. But then, Musk and his allies

pushing him for access to the department's payment system. And notably, according to reports, that included Tom Krause, the chief executive of a tech company called Cloud Software Group, who's now working with Doge. But what we saw is that Liebrich resisted, with him then being placed on administrative leave, the Senate confirming Trump's pick as the new treasury head, and on Friday, Liebrich resigned. And so then, very quickly, with Trump's new guy in charge, Musk's team was given access to the payment systems, which, you know, is a very big deal because these systems, they control the flow of more than $6 trillion every year. And tens, if not hundreds of millions of people across the country rely on them for the distribution of Social security and Medicare benefits,

salaries, payments to government contractors and grant recipients and tax refunds among tens of thousands of other functions. Though with all this, you then had Musk claiming on X. The Doge team discovered among other things that payment approval officers at treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups.

With the men claiming they literally never denied a payment in their entire career, not even once. But then with all that, you had people saying, you know, one, as is the case with many of his claims, he provided no evidence there to back it up. And two, to be very clear, the Treasury does in fact have a do not pay system to prevent payments to terrorists, fraudsters, and other bad actors.

But in any case, with that, Musk is now reportedly using his new power to shut down some payments to some federal contractors. With this including, for example, shutting down payments by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to Lutheran Family Services, which notably is a faith-based charity that has been providing social services to refugees.

And that is a whole other can of worms because as explained by Bloomberg, for example, treasury officials have long maintained that its role is to serve as the federal government's checkbook. And noting that the decision about whether to approve or deny payments belongs to individual agencies based on funds appropriated by Congress.

And so this is all wrapped up in this debate about whether or not the president can withhold funds Congress has already approved. Right, and with that, notably, according to a 1974 federal law known as the Impoundment Control Act, he generally can't. But you have some Trump aides arguing that the law is unconstitutional,

which of course paves the way for a court battle. But also in the meantime, Democrats are of course coming down hard on everything that happened with the Treasury. Senator Ron Wyden, for example, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, writing a letter to the new secretary saying, to put it bluntly, these payment systems

simply cannot fail and any politically motivated meddling in them risks severe damage to our country and the economy. Continuing, I can think of no good reason why political operators who have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the law would need access to these sensitive, mission-critical systems.

And then you also add Peter Welch, another Democratic member of the Senate Finance Committee, saying in a statement, it's a gross abuse of power by an unelected bureaucrat, and it shows money can buy power in the Trump White House. And then, of course, with all that, the usual cliche applies. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Because reportedly, similar Doge teams have begun demanding access to data and systems at other federal agencies as well. On Friday, for example, Musk's team reportedly locked career civil servants at the OPM out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees.

But this data reportedly including dates of birth, social security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades, and length of service of government workers. With one official even telling Reuters, "'We have no visibility into what they are doing "'with the computer and data system. Saying this is creating great concern. There is no oversight.

It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications. But then with all that, right? The agency getting the biggest shakeup, at least for now, it's probably USAID. Though shakeup might not be the word because Musk is now saying that Trump agrees that the whole thing must go. With that, USAID getting hit is something

that we've talked about ever since Trump issued a sweeping executive order suspending foreign aid for 90 days. With that, USAID getting hit is something that we've talked about ever since Trump issued a sweeping executive order suspending foreign aid for 90 days. With that then leading to mass confusion, layoffs, and program shutdowns. I mean, for example, more than a thousand USAID employees and contractors have already been fired or furloughed.

And then on top of that, around 60 senior USAID staff were put on leave last week after being accused of attempting to circumvent the foreign aid freeze. With then another senior official being put on leave or trying to reverse that move after finding no evidence of wrongdoing. But now what we're seeing is that Musk's involvement is taking the chaos to a whole new level.

We're starting with this weekend when Doge personnel reportedly tried to access classified USAID security systems and personnel files at the agency's headquarters in DC. However, they, or at least some of them, reportedly lacked high enough security clearance to access that information. So the two US USAID security officials

believe themselves legally obligated to deny access. The Doge personnel, however, they reportedly demanded to be led in and threatened to call US Marshals to be allowed access. And eventually, according to reports, they got in, again, accessing classified information, which reportedly included intelligence reports. Also on Saturday, USAID's website went dark

and a new page for the agency appeared on the State Department website. Also, USAID's ex account went offline. And then finally, those two officials who kept Doge out, they were put on administrative leave. With then Musk saying in response that, quote, USAID is a criminal organization, time for it to die. And this is you then had Katie Miller,

another Doge official claiming, no classified material was accessed without proper security clearances. However, with that, one thing to keep in mind is that in addition to canceling 50 security clearances in what's been described as an unprecedented and partisan move, Trump also granted temporary security clearances to officials who had not been fully vetted, which is something critics say makes the U.S. vulnerable.

And so with that, we saw Democratic members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee writing a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying, the potential access of sensitive, even classified files raises deep concerns about the protection and safeguarding of matters related to U.S. national security. You also saw people like AOC writing on X. Having an unelected billionaire with his own foreign debts and motives raiding US classified information is a grave threat to national security.

This should not be a partisan issue. Though there, you then had some hitting back, predicting that Doge will uncover waste, fraud, and corruption with then AOC responding. If you wanna start with waste, start with Elon's defense contracts at the Pentagon. In fact, we should start with transparency around defense contracts in general,

which takes up an enormous sum of public funds. But they won't do that, will they? Also, with everything here, I will say, when it comes to USA, this is about way more than just accessing data. Or you also have Musk describing the agency as evil and a viper's nest of radical left Marxists who hate America, with then Trump piling on yesterday as well,

telling reporters, it's been run by a bunch of radical lunatics and we're getting them out and then we'll make a decision. But that decision, it's reportedly already been made with Musk saying that Trump is on board, that USAID should be shut down. With this reportedly being a claim made by Musk in a conversation on X Spaces early this morning with Republican Senators Joni Ernst, Mike Lee, and former Doge co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy. It's also incredibly politically partisan and has been supporting radical left causes throughout the world, including things that are anti-American, which is insane. And Musk is right. That is insane. And it clearly shows we need to have a conversation about what USAID actually does, because it's not that.

The agency was established in 1961 under JFK, and it is the world's single largest donor, providing 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024. But then also with that, foreign aid overall, of which USAID is only one part of, accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget. But that's still billions of dollars that, among other things, goes to projects aimed at alleviating poverty, treating diseases, and responding to famines and natural disasters,

as well as promoting independent media, social initiatives, and anti-corruption work. I mean, for example, we have talked about the agency's work combating HIV and AIDS, with also the New York Times, for example, reporting on the other affected programs, like ones working against forced labor and trafficking of Chinese workers.

You know, with all this, I constantly hit on this, the world is not black and white. All of that is not to say that the agency is beyond criticism or that there is not money going to places and people with various political leanings you might take issue with. Right, that is a conversation to be had, but it's not the one that we're having.

We're basically talking about pulling the rug out from the entire world and people are going to die. Now with that, I will say some of the USAID functions are meant to survive. You have Trump administration officials reportedly discussing placing the agency under the authority of, or merging it with the State Department.

Notably, that's a move that democratic lawmakers and legal experts have argued would break a law adopted by Congress establishing the agency. With critics also saying it's a threat that democratic lawmakers and legal experts have argued would break a law adopted by Congress establishing the agency. With critics also saying it's a threat to national security, arguing USAID has been essential to building goodwill and developing alliances to counter the country's adversaries. But despite all that, moves are still being made today. More than 600 employees reported getting locked out of USAID's computer systems overnight. And then today, you had agency staffers reportedly being physically blocked from the agency's DC headquarters by yellow police tape and law enforcement. With this leading to employees and members of Congress protesting outside,

and then lawmakers trying to enter the building, and several of them first speaking to the crown. I want to apologize. I want to say I'm sorry that you have to put up with this offensive bulls**t coming out of this White House. We are witnessing a constitutional crisis. We talked about Trump wanting to be a dictator on day one, and here we are. This is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like. We are here to enter the building and And so we can hear firsthand from whoever is here at AID, or at least witness firsthand what is happening with this Elon Musk attempted takeover,

which will not stand. We will prevail. Let's go. Meanwhile, you've got Marco Rubio, right? The head of the State Department announcing that he himself is now the acting director of USAID. With Rubio accusing the agency's employees of deciding that there's somehow a global charity

separate from the national interest of taxpayer dollars. With the Madding, that sort of level of insubordination makes it impossible to conduct a sort of mature and serious review. This is on the flip side. You had Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii saying he would do his best to stop Trump's State Department nominees until the administration's attack on USAID ends.

And also outside of the government, you have people like a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan telling Wired, what we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government. And adding, we have very little eyes on what's going on.

Saying Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of government by the richest man in the world. And again, of course, this is just the beginning. I mean, going back to that conversation with Musk this morning, he also said. I think we need to go and do wholesale removal of regulations. Like regulations basically should be default gone.

Default gone, not default should be default gone. Default gone. Not default there. Default gone. And if it turns out that we missed them all kind of regulation, we always add it back in. This is our shot. This is the best hand of cards we're ever going to have. And if we don't take advantage of this best hand of cards, it's never going to happen. So we're going to do it. I agree. Now or never.

Yeah. Now or never. Again, are there too many regulations? That's definitely a conversation that we should have. But what Musk is talking about there, it's pretty extreme. And arguably, the people that it would benefit the most are people like him. And so with that, I got to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts with everything in this mess that we just talked about? But then, shifting gears, we need to talk about a few different plane-related stories from over the weekend.

Starting with the tragic news that a small medical plane crashed near a shopping center in Philadelphia on Friday evening, killing all six people on board and a seventh on the ground. Authorities have also confirmed that 19 others were injured by the crash, though they have warned that that number could still change. In this, as officials are still assessing the damage on the ground with videos circulating on social media

showing fires burning all around the impact site, a massive crater where the jet landed as well, as charred cars and debris from the crash spanning multiple blocks. It's also been reported that nearly a dozen properties were damaged, but officials are going door to door to determine if there was any more hidden structural damage. Now, as far as what we know about the crash,

it's really not all that much right now. But we do know that the plane was a jet rescue air ambulance which conducts around 600 to 700 flights a year and specializes in critical care patients, with a spokesperson saying that in 27 years of operation, the company has only had one other fatal incident in 2023 when five crew members died. We also know that the medical plane

left the Northeast Philadelphia airport at around 6 p.m. and was planning to stop in Missouri to refuel before reaching its final destination at Tijuana International Airport in Mexico. With that, you have officials saying that the jet was only in the air for about a minute before it crashed. And this is the cause currently remains unknown and both the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board

or NTSB are investigating. Now as for the victims here, it's been confirmed that all six on board the plane were Mexican citizens. With this, including an 11 year old girl who had reportedly just finished receiving life-saving treatment at Shriners Children's Hospital and who was returning home to Mexico alongside her mother.

You had a spokesperson for the hospital also confirming that the other people on board were two pilots, a doctor and a paramedic. And as for the seventh person who was killed on the ground, they still have not been publicly identified yet. And that's pretty much all we know about the crash right now. Though, like I said, that was not the only plane safety story

from the weekend. Yesterday, we had a United Airlines flight going from Houston to New York that was evacuated after an engine issue. The video on social media is showing visible smoke and flames coming from the right wing of the plane. And thankfully, according to United, all 104 passengers safely exited the plane to the runway

and no injuries were reported. With also the FAA saying in a statement that the United flight received an indication about one engine and halted the takeoff while still on the runway. But this also as the agency is investigating the matter. And with both of these incidents, there is a lot of attention on them right now

because notably they come just days after the deadliest crash in nearly two decades when an American Airlines plane and a Blackhawk helicopter collided near Washington, DC. A crash where notably many of the key details still remain unknown to the public. And over the weekend, the NTSB revealed that investigators have determined

that the airplane was at 325 feet plus or minus 25 feet at the time of the collision, which is actually very, very notable because it would mean that the Blackhawk was flying above the 200 foot altitude limit for helicopters flying that specific route. But also preliminary data reportedly shows that the control tower's radar showed the helicopter

at 200 feet at the time of impact. Though notably there, officials say that information hasn't been confirmed yet. And so unfortunately right now, we still have more questions than answers. And then we'll get to more news in just a moment, but are you still looking for the one? Also not talking about dating,

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No sugar added? Neutral. Refreshingly simple. Then, in other important news we should talk about, New York's now trying to protect doctors who provide abortion care to residents of other states after a doctor was charged for doing just that over the weekend. So what we saw is that on Friday, New York-based doctor Margaret Carpenter

was indicted in Louisiana for allegedly providing abortion pills via telehealth to a Louisiana state resident. And a key thing is that this is a historic case. It is believed to be the first criminal charges ever filed against a medical provider for this reason. And it'll put a lot of post-war legislation to the test. Notably, this case involves a girl under the age of 18

whose mother ordered the abortion pills in April of last year. And the mother's also reportedly being charged here. But the prosecutor's here saying that the girl experienced a medical emergency after taking the pills and had to go to a hospital for treatment. And with this, I do wanna know,

we currently do not know her exact age, how far she was in the pregnancy, or any details like that. Still, with this, you have Tony Clayton, the district attorney for the West Baton Rouge area, telling the New York Times, I just don't know under what theory could a doctor be thinking that you should ship your pills to Louisiana to abort our citizens' babies. The pill may be legal in New York, it's not legal in Louisiana. But there, notably with the outlet explaining, Dr. Carpenter was

operating under a shield law that New York previously enacted to protect doctors, saying that New York will not cooperate with authorities who try to prosecute or penalize the state's healthcare providers for giving abortion care. And on Friday, we saw New York Governor Kathy Hochul doubling down on this, saying in a video statement. I will never, under any circumstances, turn this doctor over to the state of Louisiana under any extradition request. And I wanna also say this, this is exactly what we feared. Republicans are fighting to have a national abortion ban that'll deny reproductive freedom to women,

not just in our state, but all across America. We must stand firm and fight this, and I will do everything I can to protect this doctor and allow her to continue the work that she's doing that is so essential. And Hochul took her stance one step further this morning by signing a new protection for abortion care providers. And so that law will allow doctors to have their practices

listed on abortion pill bottle prescriptions instead of their names. And this is per a report from the Associated Press, authorities were able to identify Dr. Carpenter from the medication label. And so you had Governor Hochul saying that after today, that will no longer happen. So with all this, you know,

one, we're gonna have to wait to see if this law actually prevents any further similar cases or not. And two, for now, this current indictment is definitely one we need to watch. And while so far Dr. Carpenter hasn't responded to the charges, the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine,

which she co-founded, said in a statement that it is, quote, the latest in a series of threats that jeopardizes women's access to reproductive healthcare throughout this country. And this is, notably, this is not the first time a state has tried to penalize Dr. Carpenter. Right back in December, she was actually sued by Texas' Attorney General for violating the state's ban

on online prescriptions of abortion medication. But then from that, next up, we need to talk about President Trump's tariffs. The 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico were announced on Saturday alongside a 10% increase on goods from China, though one notable exception was on energy imports from Canada, which were only slapped with a 10% tariff. And almost instantly, we saw stock markets react negatively despite being closed over the weekend. For example, futures on Canada's Toronto Stock Exchange going down 1.3% before trading opened this morning. Meanwhile, in the US, the Dow plummeted by 600 points, which was in line with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ,

all three of which were down by about 1.6 on average. I mean, even stock markets in countries that weren't directly affected by the tariffs reacted negatively. You had the German DAX falling by nearly 2%, which matched the fall of other European markets. And keep in mind, this was all happening before the trading floor was even open.

But then there was a surprising twist when the New York Stock Exchange opened, things seemingly calmed down and only slightly dipped. And it appears that that's because shortly after the exchange opened, it came out that Mexico and the US made a temporary deal to delay the tariffs for one month, right? And so reportedly during that time,

Mexico will send 10,000 National Guard to the border to try and stem the flow of illegal drugs and illegal migrants. And in return, the U.S. will go after guns that illegally cross the border. And you had Trump, on Truth Social, calling it a friendly conversation, also saying negotiations will be spearheaded by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Besson, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level representatives of Mexico. You know, a big thing with this is that even if Mexico and the U.S. cannot come to an agreement to permanently end the tariffs, it does give Mexican exporters time to find new markets, which is something they would desperately need to do as 80% of Mexican exports are sent to the U.S., with experts largely

agreeing that the tariffs would lead to a recession there. And something that we've seen since the news broke is that the Trump administration has been taking a victory lap, with Vice President J.D. Vance, for example, tweeting, For three days, a lot of the far left have actively rooted against America and argued we'd get nothing out of President Trump's demands that Mexico secure its country. With him then adding, well, how do you like them apples?

Though this also, as you had many arguing, this was another example of Trump setting a fire and then putting it out and then hoping to be praised. Also another angle out there is that Trump has been moving the goalposts with Trump's own statements over the weekend going from this will make America rich,' to, "'This might hurt our wallets in the short term,

but will be worth it to secure the border.'" Also notably for her part, Mexico's president avoided pointing any of that out, instead just highlighting that a deal was made and called it a good conversation with a lot of respect for our relationship and sovereignty. Also, while for now a crisis seems to have been averted on the southern border, at least temporarily, things are still tense over in Canada

where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to implement retaliatory tariffs. Tonight, I am announcing Canada will be responding to the US trade action with 25% tariffs against $155 billion worth of American goods. This will include immediate tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods as of Tuesday, followed by further tariffs on $125 billion worth of American products in 21 days time to allow Canadian companies and supply chains to seek to find alternatives. You also had Trudeau highlighting how much Canada has helped the US over the years, including when America was the only country ever to invoke the mutual defense clause of NATO when it was attacked back on 9-11. Together, we've built the most successful economic, military, and security partnership the world has ever seen. A relationship

that has been the envy of the world. Also, we've seen a lot of outlets taking the angle that Canada was specifically targeting items from Republican states, such as oranges from Florida. You know, the list, it doesn't mention individual states. And in the case of oranges, Florida is actually not even the largest producer of them. California actually eclipses them. Regardless, though, it is possible that many items on the list are part of industries that Republican states more heavily rely on. We're also seeing that Canada is looking at ways to retaliate that don't involve tariffs,

such as an export tax on Canadian energy, which I will say, I know that might sound like a tariff for a lot of people, but here's the difference. Tariffs tax importers, so Americans trying to get stuff from Canada have to pay the US government. This tax though would be the Canadian government taxing Canadians trying to send energy out.

Right, so it's meant to make sure that Canadian energy is expensive for Americans, even though the Trump administration tried to soften the blow by putting a tariff of 10% on energy instead of 25%. Notably, with all this, I'll say it wasn't just Trudeau that was critical of these tariffs. Many Americans were also angered,

and you even had the Wall Street Journal calling this the dumbest trade war in history. But with all that, we saw Trump having a lot to say, and yesterday morning he wrote on Truth Social, the tariff lobby headed by the globalist and always wrong Wall Street Journal is working hard to justify countries like Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name continue the decades-long ripoff of America, both with regards to trade, crime, and poisonous drugs that are allowed to so freely flow into America. With Trump adding,

Those days are over. The USA has major deficits with Canada, Mexico, and China, and almost all countries, owes $36 trillion, and we're not going to be the stupid country any longer. Make your product in the USA and there are no tariffs. Why should the United States lose trillions of dollars in subsidizing other countries? And why should these other countries pay a small fraction of the cost of what USA citizens pay for drugs and pharmaceuticals as an example? This will be the golden age of America.

Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe, and maybe not. But we will make America great again and it will all be worth the price that must be paid. And then Trump went on to repeat his desire to make Canada the 51st state, while also claiming that the US doesn't actually need anything from Canada.

Now with all that, there is a lot to unpack here. So to start, trade deficits are common across every country, especially one as big and rich as the United States. But it's easy to build a deficit when you're a country of 40 million selling products to over 300 million. And the fact that it's just a $50 billion deficit is actually a testament to how much Canada actually buys from the U.S. to even be remotely that close with such a small population.

The next two biggest are China and Mexico, and their deficits are over double that, despite their populations being much closer in size. And then the currency difference is another factor, right? The U.S. dollar is consistently stronger than the Canadian one. And the tariffs have actually fueled that with the price of the American dollar rising and Canadian lower. And while a strong dollar definitely has many benefits, it just fuels the deficit by making American goods

even more expensive for Canadians to buy. You know, that's without their own tariffs to deal with. Also, as far as the drug trade, very little fentanyl and other drugs come from Canada. Again, 2024, for example, just about 43 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the Canadian border, which is an order of magnitude less

than the 21,100 pounds seized down south. Also, all this has led to actions by local governments and even businesses. We're seeing things like the Ontario government reportedly looking at ripping up its $100 million deal with Starlink. And this is at the same time, local stores like liquor stores have quickly moved

to remove American booze from the shelves to encourage people to buy Canadian goods, which I will say is actually a very notable thing because it is the largest single foreign market for American booze. Also, one of the big concerns with this is whether or not Canada is going to move to cut off access to certain key commodities like potash.

Which quick version of what that is, is that it's a group of minerals that are super important for fertilizer and Canada has one of the largest deposits in the world. And this is another key thing is that other big sources of potash are not super friendly to the US. So if this got cut off, it would be a huge blow to American farming. In fact, it is so important that American farming groups

are trying to get the Trump administration to carve out tariff exceptions for it. Although notably there, that does not mean that Canada still can't put its own export taxes on it as we discussed earlier. And then of course, finally, there's China. The new 10% increase on existing tariffs

have ruffled their feathers and led their Ministry of Commerce to say that it is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposes the tariffs. With China also then threatening to file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization and warning that retaliatory tariffs would be implemented. Now, currently, we're still unsure exactly what that'll look like, but one of the big things that Trump wants out of China is for them to stem the flow of fentanyl. And a big thing there is that a lot of precursor chemicals that make fentanyl, they do come from China. So there,

we saw China's foreign ministry hitting back, saying it is one of the world's toughest countries on counter narcotics, both in terms of policy and its implementation. You know, for now, we're gonna have to wait to see what actually happens. It does appear this is likely just the start of tariffs with Trump warning that Europe was next. But as for the actual economic impacts,

it will likely take weeks or even months to get a real idea of just how much it'll hurt the economies involved. And as we've seen, this administration, it just moves lightning fast. So who knows, we may see updates or even a complete reversal in a month, a week, maybe 10 minutes after the video got uploaded.

Actually, I'm now filming this right as I was about to upload today's show. We got an update with Justin Trudeau tweeting, I just had a productive call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan, strengthening the border with new helicopters, new technology, new personnel, increased coordination with our American partners, and more resources to combat fentanyl tracking.

Nearly 10,000 officers are and will be on the ground protecting our border. With Trudeau then adding, in addition, Canada is making new commitments, saying we will appoint a fentanyl czar, add Mexican cartels to the list of terrorist entities, ensure that we keep an eye on our border 24-7, and launch with the United States a joint strike force on organized crime, fentanyl tracking, and money laundering. With Trudeau then closing, I also signed a new intelligence directive focused on organized crime and fentanyl, which will be supported by an investment of $200 million.

The proposed tariffs will be put on hold for at least 30 days while we work together on this. And so yeah, a lot for us to keep our eyes on. And in the meantime, of course, I'll pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts with all this? But then finally today, let's talk about y'all's comments on the last episode in some comment commentary. Starting with the fact that y'all were clowning on me for a

little editing mistake. I accidentally included a little double about a game of peekaboo with a baby. You know what? I don't even feel bad about it. It was a 46 minute video. I'm genuinely shocked that we turned videos of that size around two days in a row. And that was the only mistake. Now, again, I will say do not get used to 46 minute episodes because that is not a thing that I want to repeat. And hopefully, unlike last Thursday, I am not saying that and then also repeating it in the same video. Separate from that, understandably, there were a lot of conversations around the plane crash in DC as well as the whole fight against DEI. But some of y'all like scrap saying, I'm an FAA employee and I work directly with ATC personnel daily. Trump advances comments about letting just anyone into these positions are just not accurate.

Air traffic controllers have extremely long and difficult training programs that ensure they have the appropriate skills for the position. Many are turned away when they cannot perform to the strict standards. The idea that they let just anyone work in these towers without years of intense training is completely misleading. Others adding, I'm glad the journalists were at least pestering Trump about how he was blaming DEI before the investigation even has a chance to come to any conclusion. Though there, you had people responding, this is just a strategy saying never let a good tragedy go to waste. Also, on the note of strategy, you had people saying that it's Trump's strategy to accuse, confuse, deny.

Saying this is always his playbook, even when addressing tragedies. Meanwhile, some instead talked about Hegseth, saying how dare Hegseth speak on having the best and brightest in every position when he's grossly unqualified to lead the DOD. Though also the feeling of people being unqualified was something that wasn't just limited to Hegseth. With one of the most liked comments on that show reading, you do have to love the irony of at least three highly unqualified dudes blaming something that wasn't yet

investigated on the people that are quote, not most qualified and smartest. And for the sake of time today, I've already stolen more than I should have in this past week and a half. Here are some other top comments that you can pause to read. But y'all, that is where your Monday evening, Tuesday morning dive into the news is going to end. And of course, remember, I'm giving you a brand new news show every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Thank you for watching. I love your faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.