Today in Politics, Bulletin 89. 3/11/25

… Trump escalated his trade war with Canada today: “Despite the fact that Canada is charging the USA from 250%-390% Tariffs on many of our farm products, Ontario just announced a 25% surcharge on ‘electricity,’ of all things, and your not even allowed to do that. Because our Tariffs are reciprocal, we’ll just get it all back on April 2. Canada is a Tariff abuser, and always has been, but the US is not going to be subsidizing Canada any longer. We don’t need your Cars, we don’t need your Lumber, we don’t your Energy, and very soon, you will find that out.”

… Trump then made a second post: “I have instructed my Sec of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE US FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th. Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the US which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA! Also, Canada pays very little for National Security, relying on the US for military protection. This cannot continue. The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State.”

… Then a 3rd post: “Can you imagine Canada stooping so low as to use ELECTRICITY, that so affects the life of innocent people, as a bargaining chip and threat? They will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come!”

… Ontario Premier Doug Ford on CNBC: "Even the Republicans I speak to - behind closed doors, all of them are saying, 'This is crazy, what's he doing.' CEOs of the largest Fortune 500 companies are telling him, 'This does not work. Protectionism doesn't work.'"

… Ford later on MSNBC: "If we go into a recession, it's self-made by one person. It's called 'President Trump's recession.' It shouldn't be this way. We should be booming. Both countries."

… New Canada PM Mark Carney: “President Trump’s latest tariffs are an attack on Canadian workers, families, and businesses. My government will ensure our response has maximum impact in the US and minimal impact here in Canada, while supporting the workers impacted. My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade.”

… Former Clinton Admin Treasury Sec Lawrence Summers: “The just announced tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum are the worst trade policy yet. Increasing the price of key inputs for the US manufacturing industries, who employ 10 million people, is what a U.S. adversary would do. It is a self-inflicted wound to the U.S. economy that we cannot afford, at a moment when recession risks are rising.”

… Later in the day, Ford and Lutnick issued this joint statement: “Today, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Premier of Ontario Doug Ford had a productive conversation about the economic relationship between the US and Canada. Secretary Lutnick agreed to officially meet with Premier Ford in Washington on Thursday, alongside the US Trade Rep to discuss a renewed USMCA ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariff deadline. In response, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25% surcharge on exports of electricity to MI, NY and MN.”

… This ain’t over. That’s just the energy surcharge from Ontario.

… Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) didn’t sound very positive on Fox about all this: “The truth is that we haven't had in recent history a president who believes as passionately as President Trump does in tariffs. He's dug in. I mean he's dug in like a like a tick. Will it cause inflation? Will it be a positive? Will it be a negative? The truth is we just don't know. And markets don't like uncertainty.”

… There’s a reason why no president since Herbert Hoover has been in love with tariffs. They result in global trade wars and depressions.

… But Mike Johnson told CNBC that Trump has a master plan: “What President Trump is doing - I think of it sort of like when you're playing billiards. When you're playing pool - you go on the table and the balls are racked, right? And you hit it as hard as you can. This is many people's strategy: Hit as hard as you can, to break up the balls on the table and send them to spread."

… Johnson’s ass-kissing skills need work. Not that he doesn’t try hard and get lots of practice, but that was pretty lame.

… WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: “Tariffs are a tax hike on foreign countries and a tax cut for the American people.” AP Reporter: “Have you ever paid a tariff? I have. They don’t get charged on foreign countries, they get charged to the importer. Leavitt: “I think it’s insulting that you are trying test my knowledge of economics. I now regret giving a question to the AP.”

… Leavitt always reminds me of Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

… Seth Basham with Wedbush Securities told Bloomberg that tariffs hurt lower income people the most: “Undoubtedly you’re going to have a larger impact on the lower-income consumer who’s already been struggling with inflation and elevated interest rates to a larger degree. This is going to set them back even further.”

… Peter Orszag, CEO of Lazard: "The amount of uncertainty that has been created by the tariff wars with regard to Canada, Mexico and Europe, is causing boards and C-suites to reconsider the pathway forward. People can understand ongoing tensions with China, but the Canada, Mexico, and Europe part is confusing. Unless that gets resolved over the next month or so, this could do real damage to the economic prospects of the US."

… Delta Air Lines cut their 1Q profit estimates in half. CEO Ed Bastain cited “heightened US economic uncertainty.”

… Ross Mayfield with Baird securities told Reuters: "The Trump admin seems a little more accepting of the idea that they're OK with the market falling, and they're potentially even OK with a recession in order to exact their broader goals. I think that's a big wake up call for Wall Street."

… Trump economic advisor Kevin Hassett says this is all Joe Biden’s fault: "We've got a Biden economy. Still, most of Biden's policies are in place. If you look at the Atlanta Fed GDP number now, it's showing negative first quarter, which is kind of a metric of the inheritance of President Biden."

… Hassett KNOWS this is lie. The Atlanta Fed originally estimated in January and February that GDP in Q1 was going to grow by over 2%. But they recently REVISED that projection to negative growth based on Trump’s handling of the economy - not anything to do with Biden. Just incredibly dishonest as usual.

… Trump posted that the boycotts of Tesla are illegal: “To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for. Why should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???”

… Musk was asked on Fox how he is running all of his other businesses while spending so much time on DOGE: "With great difficulty.”

… ABC said Tesla shareholders, which include many large employee pension funds, are outraged by what is happening with the stock price due to Musk’s political activities. There have been calls for the Board to replace him as CEO. IL State Treasurer Michael Frerichs: "This is a real cost to real people. We're talking about firefighters, police officers, nurses. Their retirement dollars are at stake.”

… Frerichs added: “Michael Jordan was famous here for not being involved in Democratic politics, because, as he said, ‘even Republicans buy sneakers.’ He knew he didn't want to lose those customers."

… Tesla shares have lost over 50% of their value in the last two months, wiping out over $800 billion in market cap.

… Barstool Sports founder, Trump supporter, and Tesla stockholder Dave Portnoy is unhappy. On Fox: "I like DOGE, I like what they're doing. But let me tell you this. If you are going to send out - and you got to call it both ways - if you are going to send emails to federal workers and say, 'What have you done for the last five days,' I think Tesla shareholders are entitled to ask their CEO, Elon Musk, 'What have you done for Tesla the last five days?'"

… Portnoy: "Seemingly all he cares about right now is DOGE. Now, could it be coincidence the stock is way down since he really started this? I guess. But I think it's fair as a shareholder of Tesla to say, 'What are you doing for shareholders?'"

… Trump and Musk then conducted an infomercial in front of the White House for Tesla, where Musk had several different models lined up and Trump spoke to the media using a script to help him sell some cars for Elon. Trump said he was there to buy a car from Elon to show support for Tesla.

… Trump was asked at the event if he was concerned about the stock market: “Nope! Doesn't concern me. I think some people are going to make great deals by buying stocks and bonds and all the things they're buying. I think we are going to have an economy that's a real economy, not a fake economy. It was a fake economy.”

… Fox’s WH Correspondent Pete Doocy was live on air waiting for Karoline Leavitt’s presser to start: “The WH is trying to reassure folks who are looking at their 401Ks going down and down and down. This is a WH that came in trying to get federal workers to retire by the hundreds of thousands. But it is tough to make the argument you should retire if your retirement accounts are getting throttled, which is what is happening right now. We hope for answers to all these curiosities.”

… Doocy then asked Leavitt: “You said the Dow dropping and dropping and dropping is a period of transition. Are you sure nobody at the White House shorted the Dow?”

… Doocy is obviously sitting on a bunch of stock.

… Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): “The stock market is comprised of millions of people who are simultaneously trading. The market indexes are a distillation of sentiment. When the markets tumble like this in response to tariffs, it pays to listen.”

… Matt Gaetz decided to try and make a few bucks off Trump’s incompetence by posting this for his podcast sponsor: “We told you there would be market volatility. You CAN protect your savings and retirement. I trust GoldenCrestGold to manage my gold and silver portfolio, and it’s growing my wealth!”

… But Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) says this is all perfectly normal: "We were probably over-bloated with the stock market here for a while.”

… Trump posted this about Biden and Harris on August 5, 2024: “STOCK MARKETS ARE CRASHING, JOBS NUMBERS ARE TERRIBLE, WE ARE HEADING TO WORLD WAR III, AND WE HAVE TWO OF THE MOST INCOMPETENT ‘LEADERS’ IN HISTORY. THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!”

… Trump had it right, he was just 7 months early.

… The Dow was down another 478 points today.

… Elon Musk set off a firestorm with his comments about Social Security to Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow when he was asked about making cuts to the program: “Most of the federal spending is entitlements. So that’s like the big one to eliminate.”

… This is why the WH won’t let Musk to interviews unless it is with Fox. Any other interviewer who pressed him on just about anything would eat his lunch and expose him.

… Mike Johnson then did some damage control after Musk screwed up and said the quiet part out loud again. To CNN: “The president is in charge of the executive branch. He said very clearly he’s going to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. What Elon is talking about is trying to make these programs work more efficiently and effectively.”

… Right. He used the word “eliminate”. Not efficiently and effectively. Eliminate.

… Karoline Leavitt was asked about Musk’s (false) claim that $500-700 billion in fraudulent Social Security payments went out last year, which would be almost a third of the entire program: “He said ‘we think’ - so it’s an estimate based on what he’s seen. He’s not saying definitively, he’s saying that’s what DOGE suspects and thinks.”

… I keep waiting to see the proof about all these fraudulent payments Musk claims he found. Hasn’t released it yet.

… Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO): "It is true that the Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security make up about 75% of our budget. We've got to find the savings there. We will do that."

… Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said none of this is about reducing the deficit like Republicans claim: “Remember, any ‘savings’ they take from gutting your healthcare go to massive tax cuts to billionaires and millionaires. They’re not trying to be fiscally responsible, they are trying to keep it for themselves and their donors.”

… Sen. Bernie Sanders said he knows the real reason behind Musk’s comments about Social Security: "I think this is a prelude not only to cutting benefits, but to privatizing Social Security. Why do you lie so much about Social Security? Why do you make it look like it's a broken, dysfunctional system? The reason is to get people to lose faith in the system so you can hand it over to Wall St."

… Just a reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my podcast Uncovered live at 4:00 ET. You can find it on the MeidasTouch channel on YouTube. That is where I do a deep dive to give lots more background info on the Top 10 stories of the week - things that were not reported on in legacy media. I will also post the link on Substack tomorrow before the show.

If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can read it here.

… NYT reported that Liz Oyer, head of the DOJ office that makes pardon recommendations to the president, said she was fired after refusing to sign off on a recommendation to restore gun rights to actor Mel Gibson. Gibson lost his gun rights because of his domestic battery conviction in 2011. Oyer said she was pressured to add Gibson to her list of recommendations for restoration of gun rights and refused: