Full Comment - Trump seems ready to settle this trade war

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00:01:15.100 Canada did what? A podcast from Post Media uncovered the untold stories of the Canadian

00:01:20.800 history you might think you remember with me, Tristan Hopper. From one Prime Minister's crazy

00:01:26.360 camaraderie with communists to the war over metric conversion and the harrowing reality

00:01:31.220 of the October crisis. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.

00:01:38.460 How do you take a sense of how the world is working, how Canada-U.S. relations are working

00:01:44.040 in what is a moment of absolute chaos? Hello and welcome to the Full Comment Podcast. My name's

00:01:50.560 Brian Lilly, your host, and we have been talking an awful lot about Canada-U.S. relations, about

00:01:55.800 Donald Trump, his impact on the world, Justin Trudeau leaving the stage, and, well, we expect

00:02:01.100 Mark Carney taking over. Conrad Black is someone who has been around the Canadian political and

00:02:07.960 business establishment for decades, going back to the 1960s, and has known many of the great

00:02:14.460 players. In fact, he wrote a book about Donald Trump called A President Like No Other. He knew

00:02:20.200 Pierre Trudeau. He knows Justin Trudeau. He knows the folks involved. And what is his take on this?

00:02:26.740 So, beyond the fact that he started National Post, used to own a good chunk of what is now

00:02:31.920 called Post Media, wanted to reach out to him because of his experience on all of this. How does he view

00:02:39.600 how the current government has handled things? How does he view how Trump is handling things? The

00:02:46.120 Canadian media? How, what is happening when it comes to Ukraine? The relationship between the

00:02:53.900 United States, Russia, and the attempt to push China off to the side, rather than allow them to 0.91

00:02:59.680 continue to be an aggressor and a challenger to American power in the world. Conrad Black,

00:03:08.280 Justin Trudeau is about to leave. By the time, we're talking on Thursday afternoon, by the time this is

00:03:13.940 posted Monday morning. There's going to be a new liberal leader. We presume Mark Carney. We'll get

00:03:18.500 into that in a moment. Who knows? But there will be a new liberal leader. But Trudeau has been managing

00:03:24.440 this Trump file, the whole tariff issue, since the threats began on November 25th. So, I want to

00:03:30.960 start with that. How would you rate his performance? How has he done so far? Because whether we like him or

00:03:39.240 not, whether we think he should have left long ago or not, he has been the prime minister, and he's

00:03:44.340 been the one managing the file until this point. Yeah. You're asking me how he's done on this present

00:03:50.320 issue or overall overall? On the present issue. I think not badly, but I think he precipitated part

00:03:59.740 of the problem when he said, well, if you proceed, you know, when he went down to have dinner with him

00:04:05.980 in Palm Beach. Which I thought was a good move, but maybe you took the wrong message.

00:04:11.560 You know, I'm not one of these people who criticized him for going there. I mean,

00:04:14.020 the problem arises, you go straight to it, and nothing wrong with that. But when he said, well,

00:04:20.020 something, according to Trump, he said, if these tariffs are imposed, our economy will collapse.

00:04:25.120 Well, that's not the right thing to say in general. It's technically not the right thing to say.

00:04:29.760 And I think it incited in Trump the view that Canada is a much less resolute country than it is.

00:04:38.860 And so I think that was a tactical error. But beyond that, I think he's been fine. I think

00:04:43.560 particularly he's been wise to not to argue the whole thing out in the public, you know. I mean,

00:04:50.980 that was the problem of that Zelensky business. The conversation that they had there should not

00:04:56.260 have been in front of the whole world, in particular in front of the Kremlin. But here,

00:05:03.800 I think he's done a good job coordinating with the premiers, and he's been relatively judicious.

00:05:11.640 Obviously, it was a somewhat contentious session they had on the telephone yesterday, and he said

00:05:16.840 it was colorful or something like that. So I know-

00:05:19.360 Some expletives, I understand. Who has ever heard of grown men swearing at each other?

00:05:24.840 I don't, I doubt if they swore at each other. I think they would have used adjectives and

00:05:30.100 references to other things. I do not believe that those, I know both those men, I don't

00:05:35.220 believe they would swear at each other. Say, you know, you son of a bitch or something like that. 1.00

00:05:40.060 They wouldn't do that. 1.00

00:05:41.260 It would be more about swearing about the dairy or some, you know, perceived protectionist measure. 1.00

00:05:47.440 Some slightly coarse adjective to an object, you know, to an inanimate thing, these goddamn 0.99

00:05:55.420 tariffs or something, that sort of thing. But Trump is not, he's a plain spoken and blunt 0.98

00:06:02.260 man, but he's not particularly vulgar. I mean, he doesn't, he swears a lot less than people

00:06:12.120 who are otherwise public statesmen who are otherwise generally more mild-mannered than

00:06:17.380 him.

00:06:17.440 Yeah. I mean, you know him better than, I don't know him at all. I know Justin Trudeau. I don't

00:06:21.680 know Donald Trump at all.

00:06:23.240 You know, the thing is, like a lot of these New Yorkers, he takes Yiddish words and uses

00:06:30.520 them. Bernie was cloned and stuff like that. I mean, they're colorful words, you know, and

00:06:35.200 you sort of know by the sound of them what they mean. And that's, but I, I don't think

00:06:39.240 he would do that with Justin, but, but he, he, he's not a guy who swears a lot.

00:06:43.720 Now, my view over the past little while, and I'd like to see if, if you share this, this

00:06:49.800 viewpoint with me is that since Trump announced these threats, November 25th, uh, I remember

00:06:56.560 he was about to go to the United States. Um, and, uh, uh, I was going for two separate

00:07:03.400 trips, one to Tampa for a couple of weeks, one to Palm Springs in California for a few

00:07:07.240 weeks. And the threat comes out on true social. We're going to put you at 25% tariffs. If

00:07:13.580 you don't fix everything, you're done. Wow. Okay. We're going to the Forex right now. We're

00:07:19.220 going to get some American cash before the, uh, the, uh, Canadian dollar tanks in the morning.

00:07:24.700 Thank goodness that hasn't really happened. It's gone down a little bit, but not a lot.

00:07:29.040 But since then, what I felt has happened is that there have been far too many Canadian 1.00

00:07:36.020 politicians who want to run and get in front of a camera or a microphone and denounce Trump

00:07:42.720 rather than look to find a way to say, okay, do you have a, an actual grievance? Do you have

00:07:48.360 a problem that we can fix? Is there a way so that Canada wins? Do you agree with that? Or do you

00:07:54.640 think that most Canadian politicians have been, you know, looking to do the best for the country

00:07:59.580 rather than trying to use anti-American, anti-Trump sentiment among voters to, to boost themselves?

00:08:08.920 I think it's been a mixed bag, Brent. I think that, um, uh, for example, Doug Ford dissolved the

00:08:16.680 Ontario parliament and had an election sort of running as captain Canada, you know, I'll defend

00:08:22.900 and, and it, it, it, nothing was really happening. Trump extended the deadline during the election

00:08:29.740 period, as it turned out. And, and that wasn't the issue here. The issue was, has Ford's government

00:08:34.960 done a competent job? And, uh, you know, there was, you didn't see a lot of signs out in people's

00:08:40.720 lawns and it was not the kind of weather where people like going out campaigning very much. And

00:08:45.500 it was a kind of under-recognized election and, and, and, but there was no great issue against him

00:08:51.680 and he was reelected. Uh, but the idea I'm, I'm going to, you know, arm myself with a mandate to

00:08:58.440 fight tooth and nail against these tariffs, it fizzled. I mean, if he was saying that wasn't much

00:09:04.340 publicized, but, uh, I think that, um, it is very injudicious of Kearney to be out campaigning

00:09:11.040 for the liberal leadership, criticizing Trump personally and, and, and making really rather

00:09:17.360 snide remarks about him personally and criticizing the American political system. And that has

00:09:23.000 absolutely nothing to do with running for liberal leaders. So I think it's a hokey

00:09:26.460 sideshow and, and I, I doubt it impresses people very much. In the case on, on, you see,

00:09:33.220 Trump's technique is he always starts with a sort of shock and awe surprise to, to try and get an

00:09:41.060 edge in any discussion or, uh, controversy he's going to engage in. And then, and then he, he

00:09:49.260 conducts himself with, uh, an unpredictable level of, of syncopated changes, but he is careful not to

00:10:01.440 become the guy saying, I dare you to cross this line, uh, Ben, and then I dare you to cross this

00:10:07.080 line and so on. So these delays that he's making are, are, are not going to go on forever. I, he

00:10:13.740 doesn't actually want a tariff war. And, and, uh, in my opinion, the weakness of the arguments that

00:10:20.860 some of his spokespeople are making indicate that they want to settle this fairly quickly. I mean,

00:10:26.300 I saw Peter Navarro follow Doug Ford on Fox news. Uh, I think it was last night, but it might've

00:10:33.060 been Wednesday night. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, it was very weak what he said, you know, I mean,

00:10:38.620 complaining about fentanyl coming from Canada, it is, um, one 500th of the quantity that comes in from 0.99

00:10:45.740 Mexico at, but it's, it's rubbish. I mean, the fact is every country has the right and the duty to put 0.82

00:10:53.020 whatever level of security it considers appropriate on its own border. That was Trump's complaint about

00:10:58.860 Biden. They let millions of people come in and didn't even take their names. Weren't aware they

00:11:03.320 were coming in other than in general, as they saw, you know, they, they saw the impact of it and,

00:11:08.520 and ultimately all the American cities. And it's up to the United States to, to put whatever level

00:11:16.420 of security at once on both its borders. And, and you see the number of people entering the country

00:11:23.140 illegally in the United States is declined by 96% in six weeks. I had occasion to say to President

00:11:29.340 Trump a few days ago, he phones me occasionally, like he does hundreds of people. I'm no great

00:11:34.820 intimate of his, but he's got hundreds of people all over the world where he phones from time to time

00:11:39.960 just to get opinions, just to get different views, you say. And I said, look, you know, we're not

00:11:44.860 East Germany here where, you know, we don't have a wall preventing people from leaving or, or preventing

00:11:49.780 goods from leaving. And, and if you have a complaint about what's coming from this country into your

00:11:55.040 country, I mean, it's your border, you deal with it. And, and, uh, you know, I said it very politely

00:12:01.780 naturally. And then he, I, it's all a pretext, I think. And, and it's not going to go on very long.

00:12:09.640 He, look, he's not, he's not angry at Canada and he doesn't want a war of any kind with Canada.

00:12:15.880 I mean, I hope not. I, uh, look though, I, I, I will look at the numbers and I'll say that,

00:12:21.240 you know, we do have a fentanyl problem in this country that we should have taken seriously

00:12:26.160 without Donald Trump telling us to do it is conservative leader, Pierre Polyev has pointed

00:12:31.080 out more than 49,000 people have died in this country from fentanyl overdoses. Uh, we've seen that

00:12:38.900 the triads and the cartels are laundering their money in Vancouver and Toronto. Sure. Um,

00:12:45.480 this is a major problem. Indeed in a Canadian bank in the United States.

00:12:50.200 Yeah. And we are becoming an export country. I mean, the Globe and Mail did this. The Canadian

00:12:55.440 media is a bit bizarre at times. Uh, look, I'm part of it. I've long been a part of it,

00:13:00.040 but I've also long been a critic. Uh, the United States says we have a problem with fentanyl from

00:13:05.180 Canada. And then the Globe and Mail is like, Oh no, no, no, we're not exporting fentanyl to

00:13:10.020 America. We're sending it to Australia as if that's any great thing. Like, no, we should not

00:13:16.320 have super labs here. They're exporting fentanyl to anywhere and we should be taking care of this

00:13:22.720 issue. But we've had a government that has had a very bizarre view on narcotics in, in my view of

00:13:31.500 the world. Um, that, you know, was leaning towards handing out opioid pills, was leaning towards

00:13:38.140 decriminalization of all hard drugs. That has not helped us in this discussion. I don't think.

00:13:43.980 Let me ask you this. You would know this better than I, but am I right that to some extent,

00:13:49.420 uh, we've suffered from these people who poured across the Southern border of the United States, 1.00

00:13:56.440 then crossing into Canada and operating, uh, a drug export business back into the U S there.

00:14:05.540 Is this a myth or is this going on? My impression is that it's happening to some extent.

00:14:10.460 To some extent that is happening. And then the Americans do have a fair complaint on

00:14:15.440 the increase in illegal cross. I mean, there never used to be any illegal crossings going from Canada

00:14:21.480 into the United States. And then we open up the, uh, temporary foreign worker program,

00:14:27.040 the foreign student program. And suddenly you've got within one year, 43,000 Indian nationals

00:14:34.300 being stopped going from Canada into the United States, declaring asylum and all these things.

00:14:40.660 And the Americans start saying, Hey, wait a minute, what did you do? Oh, well, it's our own

00:14:46.600 internal immigration changes that we made that led to this. So they're not without complaint.

00:14:53.300 I think it's overblown in terms of how they're reacting to it. Uh, but you, you, you mentioned

00:15:00.540 Peter Navarro. I mean, I interviewed Navarro years ago, several times on his book, Death by China.

00:15:06.580 Um, he is a hawk. He is a big tariff supporter. Uh, you've got, uh, folks that believe that tariffs

00:15:13.340 are the best way to deal with things. You're someone that's done business on both sides of

00:15:18.800 the border. What, what is your view on, on, on, on this new love affair with tariffs, whether it's

00:15:25.200 Navarro, Lutnik, Lighthizer, any of them has it in his mind that he, he, he started out saying

00:15:33.140 and looking at it and, and, and, and, and he has actually looked at it quite carefully and he sees

00:15:40.440 that with, uh, with, I, I believe the total was 80 different countries, which is essentially all of

00:15:47.060 the countries that have a significant export economy. Um, that the tariff placed by those

00:15:56.440 countries on the United States is much higher than, than the power placed by the United States

00:16:02.000 on those countries. So he, he feels that is an inequality. The U S is talking is being picked

00:16:07.960 that he's going to equalize it. And that's fair, but that's not Canada in the United States,

00:16:13.120 right? Yeah. I mean, that, but that, that's not us in the Americans. That's like Germany or India. 0.77

00:16:20.580 Sure. Yeah. Go India is one of the worst offenders as he points out. And, um, and he feels that as,

00:16:28.640 as with the slackers in paying their fees at NATO, you know, I'm paying, you know, maintaining their

00:16:34.080 defense budgets and Canada is one of the worst, as you know, that everyone just got accustomed to

00:16:38.880 taking advantage of the U S and letting the U S do the heavy lifting. And he, he, and he wants to

00:16:43.900 change that. But then, then a second, a kind of a, an overdrive clicked in on his judgment of the

00:16:50.340 tariff issue. And he got it into his mind that it could be a big, uh, revenue producer for the federal

00:16:59.320 government and help reduce the budget deficit. Uh, because, you know, he he's, he's there where

00:17:04.540 he's pledged to reduce taxes. He's, he's pledged to, uh, build the military sufficiently to ensure

00:17:11.900 continuing U S Naval superiority over China and, uh, and, uh, equals or greater sophistication in

00:17:21.000 hypersonic missiles. So these things are expensive. Uh, and, and he's given all sorts of promise

00:17:27.020 them verbally, but he will follow through them. And these tax exemptions on tips and, uh, you know,

00:17:32.620 uh, first responders. As far as a vote getter, can you think of anything better than no tax on tips?

00:17:41.080 Brilliant. No, it's brilliant. It just retail politics, right?

00:17:45.820 Oh, he's a great politician. And Art Laffer is right up to a point. And we, you know, the, the

00:17:51.260 Johnson, Lyndon Johnson tax cuts showed it and the Reagan tax cuts showed it. If you cut taxes,

00:17:56.560 uh, activity goes up so much that you do get most of that back in revenue or even more.

00:18:02.240 I used to run a chart showing that the Canadian tax cuts increased revenue every year when John

00:18:08.840 Cratchin was doing it. Of course, of course they did. So, so, so, so, you know, from his standpoint,

00:18:14.520 he sees, I want, I have to raise the defense budget and, and, uh, and I want to cut taxes. We think

00:18:21.120 economic growth and deregulation will, will help bring all that revenue back. But, uh, and, and,

00:18:27.240 and it, Doge is going to cut costs somewhat. We don't know how much, but they're, they're already

00:18:31.360 what Ian, 200 billion or something. Uh, you know, it's, it's about 10% of the deficit or something.

00:18:36.640 And, and they just started and, uh, but he's now got it in his mind that maybe tariffs would help if

00:18:42.620 we just make tariff levels equal with everybody, either they bring theirs down. So our sales go up

00:18:48.220 or we bring ours up. So our revenues go up. Um, and to the extent that leads to higher costs

00:18:54.100 domestically, that will be, you know, that'll be counterbalanced by reduced energy costs as we're

00:19:00.120 getting increased the supply of oil and so on. And so he's got it in there as a budgetary thing too.

00:19:05.380 Now, I don't know how accurate that is. I, I've never, uh, I, I have never known tariffs to be a

00:19:12.340 serious percentage of a, of a government, of an, of a fully, uh, full range economy like the United

00:19:18.920 That's because you're too young. You got to go back to what? 19, 30 something entry. I mean,

00:19:23.780 between, between the civil war and the first world war, the great issue in every American election

00:19:30.460 was the, the Republicans wanted high tariffs to raise profits and create employment. And the

00:19:37.660 Democrats wanted low tariffs to keep prices low for the working class that voted for them.

00:19:42.400 So you add the two and you, if you've looked at it, the, the popular vote until a democratic party

00:19:47.860 got into bimetalism, which was really funny money and the country didn't like it. The popular vote was

00:19:54.880 very close between those parties. I mean, for example, in 1880, Garfield defeated, uh, Hancock,

00:20:04.120 the democratic candidate by 9,000 votes of nearly 10 million. I mean, very close elections.

00:20:10.380 So are tariffs now just part of the, the new system? Do we need to get used to this? And I'll give you

00:20:18.120 this example ahead of the premier's trip to Washington, which I went down and, uh, I, I followed the

00:20:24.500 premiers and I spoke to several Americans. I was looking and I'm seeing Democrats and Republicans

00:20:30.580 talking about the idea of a universal tariff. Now, not this 25% thing, which is hugely problematic for

00:20:38.120 our economy. Uh, but perhaps the American, uh, government goes to a 10% universal tariff on

00:20:45.680 everyone. And I even spoke to, uh, Senator, uh, Kevin Kramer from North Dakota, who is very tight with

00:20:52.020 Trump, but also very much a friend of Canada who said, yeah, there's some merit to this. And this

00:20:58.300 could be a potential way for new revenue. It seems like there is a, a, a reawakening of this idea,

00:21:04.720 an openness to this idea that we may find abhorrent, but that they're saying, hmm, this could work for us.

00:21:12.760 There, there's no doubt the administration is, and the president himself are seriously considering

00:21:18.800 this as a way to raise revenue. Now, of course, in the Canadian side of things, the unspoken

00:21:26.140 element is, you know, you can always deal with the tariff to some degree by adjusting your currency.

00:21:32.460 Now, now we've got to be a little careful there. Our dollar is quite low compared to the American

00:21:37.080 dollar now and the historical range are too low. Yeah. So we, we've got to be careful tanking it

00:21:42.620 further, but, um, or we'll go under 60 cents us, which is, uh, that, that, that's, that's not a good

00:21:50.880 thing for us, but, um, but the United States could reduce the value of the dollar against, you know,

00:21:58.880 the Euro and the yen, for example, a little bit, if it wanted to, it has the room to do that. So,

00:22:05.780 so they may be thinking it's, it's hard to tell, but, um, I think the new secretary of the treasury

00:22:13.680 is a very able man, best sent. And, uh, uh, and, and I, I, I think they're experimenting a bit. So

00:22:21.240 to some extent they're taking a tactical position. We don't want people picking our pocket, even

00:22:26.380 friends of ours like Canada. And by the way, what I as a Canadian object, who is us being put in the

00:22:31.580 same box with Mexico has a real grievance with Mexico and not only over the illegal immigration,

00:22:38.160 but over the systematic attempt of, of Mexicans to induce American companies to shut down factories 0.93

00:22:45.940 in the U S take a subsidy to rebuild those factories, 10 miles inside the Mexican U S border

00:22:52.280 Mexican side, obviously, uh, get a tax holiday on their income, exploit cheap Mexican labor and ship 1.00

00:23:00.020 the product under, under the free, you know, NAFTA back into the United States. I mean, that's not

00:23:05.900 fair trading, but we don't do that. Uh, I I'm absolutely furious with, uh, both Trump and

00:23:11.560 especially in the Lutnick who I, I thought was going to be a smarter man and steady sounded like

00:23:16.300 a carnival barker and a hype man. Um, and he's excited to be in Washington. Yeah. But, but saying

00:23:22.700 that, you know, we're stealing the, uh, auto jobs and that the auto plants moved to Canada because

00:23:28.260 there were no unions. I mean, look, General Motors would not exist if it wasn't for Sam McLaughlin's

00:23:34.100 money going down on the train from Oshawa to Detroit to help William Durante built GM.

00:23:39.540 William Durante.

00:23:40.720 That's how GM was built. Canadian bag man sent cash.

00:23:45.320 It was the McLaughlin Buick. Do you remember that? That was.

00:23:47.680 Yeah. So I mean, and look, the, the, the, the, the industries grew up side by side.

00:23:53.160 And so that infuriates me. I understand what you're saying about the Mexican side though.

00:23:58.120 Uh, our auto workers, you know, were under Walter Reuther until Bob White took them out.

00:24:03.900 You know, Canadian auto workers that became an independent union. But if they think we don't

00:24:07.560 have a auto workers union, if Navarro thinks that he's a, he's a, you know, he's.

00:24:11.780 No, that, that, that was Lutnick, not Navarro. Navarro's smart.

00:24:14.220 Lutnick is actually a pretty smart man, I think, man. And quite true Canadian too.

00:24:18.560 Yeah. He's made a ton of money, but some of his, his statements lately have been driving

00:24:22.780 me nuts. Speaking of driving me nuts, I got to ask you about Mark Carney. Um, he's going

00:24:27.320 to be taking over soon. We believe as liberal leader and prime minister, um, you know, we've

00:24:34.000 got a lot of concerns about, um, tariffs, American tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. And

00:24:39.980 yet, um, his big plan is make the big polluters pay. And when you say, well, what's a big polluter?

00:24:46.880 He says a steel mill. Okay. So you want to shut down Algoma and you want to have DeFasco's

00:24:53.300 Arcelot Mattel, uh, shift production to Detroit and Ohio. Uh, so you're, you're going to lose

00:25:00.440 jobs in Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie, uh, you know, steel mills in Regina, Edmonton, South

00:25:06.420 Montreal. They're all going to be in problems, in trouble. Uh, how can we say that it's bad

00:25:11.840 for, for Donald Trump to do this to us? And then a whole bunch of Canadians get excited

00:25:16.600 at a Canadian politician wanting to do the same thing.

00:25:20.680 Look, I, I have to say, I think Carney politically would be a disaster. I think it would be a vote

00:25:25.940 for suicide. Uh, he, he is an extremist on the ecological issue and he, he is, uh, too left 0.70

00:25:35.920 wing for the position he seeks to hold. And he was not a successful governor of the bank

00:25:41.180 of England. He made a complete mockery of the idea of an independent bank governor that

00:25:46.360 Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were so proud of. He, he immersed the bank of England in project

00:25:52.900 fear, which was this campaign to terrorize the British voters out of voting to leave the

00:25:58.720 European union. He made dramatic and frenzied statements about the consequences, uh, to Britain

00:26:06.360 if this happened, which his successor is governor of the bank of England has walked back and

00:26:11.620 retracted and apologized for.

00:26:13.920 He was completely wrong on Brexit, wasn't he?

00:26:16.120 Completely. And, and, but in any case, it's none of the governor of the bank's business to

00:26:20.620 get into what amounts to partisan issues. And, and also, um, he turned the bank of England

00:26:28.040 into an agency for radical, uh, environmentalism and encouraged, uh, punishment of countries that

00:26:37.380 were not, or companies, I should say, that were not supporting, uh, what he regarded as adequately

00:26:43.420 sustainable, uh, uh, targets for, for, for, for, I mean, he turned it into an advocacy and

00:26:51.020 enforcement operation in ecological matters. And I blame David Cameron and, uh, in particular

00:26:58.020 for not cracking down on this because that is not the central bank's business. Their, their

00:27:03.100 business is monetary policy and, uh, and, and that's what they should do any more than for

00:27:08.380 argument's sake. The, uh, minister of agriculture should, should be, uh, uh, negotiating defense

00:27:15.400 agreements with, uh, NATO countries or something. And so you don't think Carney would be good for the

00:27:21.040 Canadian economy in dealing with Trump, even though it's not any personal animus. I barely

00:27:26.140 know the man and he's obviously an intelligent man. I can say, I do, do know the man. He's a

00:27:32.580 very smart guy, but he, I, my view is he has the wrong policies. That's it. I think, I think he would

00:27:38.140 be in policy terms. That's a straight policy question, not a personal one. Uh, I think he

00:27:43.240 would be a disaster, a terrible disaster. All right. We need to take a quick break. When we come back,

00:27:48.360 I do want to ask you about Pierre Polyev's plan that he's laid out, but also get into, um, Trump's

00:27:54.300 comments about 51st state, Greenland, Panama, things of Ukraine, all of that more in moments.

00:28:02.900 Did you lock the front door? Check. Close the garage door? Yep. Installed window sensors,

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00:28:58.460 What are the new technologies that will change aviation?

00:29:02.880 Well, hydrogen would be one for sure if we got there. I mean, hydrogen is not just a, uh, alternative fuel.

00:29:08.340 I mean, hydrogen would change, would change it significantly if we ever managed to break the back of that.

00:29:13.500 Today, I'm speaking with Caelan Rovinescu, the former president of Air Canada and a trailblazer in global aviation.

00:29:22.980 Join me, Chris Hadfield, on the On Energy podcast.

00:29:26.540 Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

00:29:28.700 Conrad, I've asked you about, uh, Mark Carney's position.

00:29:32.040 I've asked you about, uh, Justin Trudeau's handling of this.

00:29:35.840 As you look at Pierre Poliev and the conservatives, and they've tried to pivot away from talking about,

00:29:40.880 it's funny, people said, oh, you've got to stop talking about the carbon tax.

00:29:43.840 And then, you know, first half of the liberal leadership race was everyone talking about the carbon tax

00:29:49.060 and how the liberals would get rid of it.

00:29:51.040 Um, but he did pivot and he did come up with a Canada first plan.

00:29:56.460 When I look at it, it's far more detailed, at least in what we see in public, than what we've seen from the federal government.

00:30:05.500 What's your assessment?

00:30:07.520 Uh, quite positive.

00:30:08.980 I agree with what you said.

00:30:10.460 I thought the speech he gave at the Quebec, uh, conservative conference in Quebec city a little over a year ago

00:30:17.220 was, uh, one of the most interesting and original policy statements from a party leader I've heard in this country,

00:30:24.620 going back to Walter Gordon's famous, uh, conference at Kingston,

00:30:29.140 when, when the liberals were out of office and Mr. Diefenbaker was the prime minister.

00:30:32.600 So that's 60 years ago, a little more.

00:30:34.600 And, and I thought, I thought, I think he's, he's very, uh, original and, and, and, and quite thoughtful in these things

00:30:42.920 and very good in housing, for example.

00:30:45.940 Uh, I mean, I, I think, I think they've got, they've got a genuine plan.

00:30:50.840 It's not just the liberals are bad.

00:30:52.800 It's, this is what we would do.

00:30:53.960 I, I think, I think those who are representing him as harsh and reactionary and Trump North and all this stuff. 0.96

00:31:02.440 And not, I mean, I, I have a better opinion of Trump than most Canadians do, but, um, I think that's all rubbish.

00:31:09.180 He's, I think he's, I think he's sort of the man for the hour.

00:31:12.080 I think he's thought it through carefully and, and, uh, he's what a five or six term MP though.

00:31:17.560 He's still a young man.

00:31:18.920 And, and he is, uh, I mean, though he has a French name, he's really an English Canadian, as you know,

00:31:23.780 but he speaks French very well, which Cardi does not.

00:31:26.880 And so that, you know, that's a matter of some electoral implications.

00:31:30.040 I think, as I think, I think Pierre, if elected prime minister would, would hit the ground running with a well thought out plan.

00:31:38.820 And, and, and we would reverse a number of trends that are now very worrisome and have been well entrenched the last few years.

00:31:45.300 I mean, we're, we're slipping competitively all the time in the scale of per capita income per country.

00:31:52.860 I mean, when I was a young man, which I admit it was a long time ago, it was between us and the Australians who was next to the United States. 0.91

00:31:59.900 I mean, I'm leaving out the petro states and the tax haven states.

00:32:03.240 We're not talking about Monaco or Kuwait here.

00:32:05.500 We're talking about real economies.

00:32:07.380 Where people actually build stuff and make stuff.

00:32:09.960 Yeah.

00:32:10.120 Yeah.

00:32:10.560 And, and, and, uh, and, and we're slipping.

00:32:15.200 I mean, in the end it's competition.

00:32:16.740 We've got to be competitive and this country is a treasure house.

00:32:19.600 We have everything except tropical fruit here, our precious metals, base metals, forest products, agriculture, energy of all kinds.

00:32:27.800 We got everything.

00:32:29.040 And, and, and, and we have a population of over 40 million, greater than France, the greatest days of its glory, but Renoir and Victor Hugo.

00:32:39.120 And we don't have cultural figures like that, but we have that population and, and we're underachieving.

00:32:45.960 And, and, uh, you know, we've just got to raise our game here.

00:32:48.900 I mean, we've, as you would know, Brian, we've had in the last 10 years, approximately a $350 billion deficit.

00:32:57.240 That's to say money, more money leaving the country that, that was generated here than money invested from outside.

00:33:03.420 You can't go on like that forever.

00:33:05.720 Oh, you, you definitely can't.

00:33:07.360 Now, unfortunately, I hear a lot of Canadians say to me that, but I, I, I can't, I can't vote for Pierre Polyev. 0.97

00:33:15.300 He's, he's mean, he's nasty. 0.96

00:33:18.360 He's, he's angry. 0.83

00:33:19.800 And so I was interested to hear you say that you don't see that.

00:33:22.580 Now I'll, I'll, I'll be upfront.

00:33:24.560 I, I, I've known him since his first election.

00:33:27.760 He used to be my MP.

00:33:29.020 I've known him personally more than 20 years and I see a very different man than other people do.

00:33:35.860 That's a, that's a, I've known a long time, not quite as long as that, but yeah, almost as long as that.

00:33:39.940 And he's an affable guy who laughs a lot.

00:33:42.300 Yeah.

00:33:43.140 So, so you don't see him as this angry elbows up, uh, you know, kill the opponent person all the time.

00:33:50.620 That's liberal NDP propaganda.

00:33:52.660 Well, but I also think a lot of the media, the guy who was a bit like that was Justin's father.

00:33:58.900 Now I liked him actually.

00:33:59.880 And I mean, even though I did agree with him in many ways, I'm from Quebec and I wanted to, you know, he, he was the man to defeat the separatists and he did it.

00:34:07.400 But, but, you know, Pierre Trudeau was not Mr. Generosity, you know.

00:34:11.620 I've heard stories about Pierre Trudeau calling up you to, uh, you know, tell, tell you to fire that SOB who worked for you, uh, Jim Munson.

00:34:21.420 Uh, so, so I, I worked for CFRB, which of course you owned, uh, many years ago, long before I worked there.

00:34:28.780 But I, I, I heard stories that Pierre used to call up and, and demand you fire people like Jimmy Munson.

00:34:34.520 No, well, other politicians have done that too, you know.

00:34:39.440 The worst I ever had for that was when Margaret Thatcher phoned me at two o'clock in the morning and demand, which is funny.

00:34:46.520 I, I don't go to bed early, so it wasn't so inconvenient as would be for most people, but she was shouting down the phone. 0.86

00:34:53.120 I had to hold the phone out here, you think, say, demanding I fire the editor of the Daily Telegraph because he had fired her daughter.

00:35:00.680 So I said, well, look, uh, prime minister, I can't get to the bottom of that right now, but will you leave it with me until noon later today?

00:35:08.940 So that was the end, and, uh, you know, we, we, we sorted it all out, but, uh, yeah, fire.

00:35:14.680 I said to Max Hastings, are you out of your mind?

00:35:17.300 He said, well, she did something she should have done.

00:35:19.340 I said, but come on, Max, it's like prime minister. 0.97

00:35:22.140 It's not, are you crazy?

00:35:23.160 Certain, certain things you got to look past.

00:35:26.700 Um, let me ask you about this, about people in the media before we move on to the international side of things.

00:35:32.960 Um, some of our media commentators in this country have been losing their collectivist little minds, as I like to say, over Donald Trump.

00:35:41.960 Uh, you've got Andrew Coyne, uh, suggesting.

00:35:44.380 He flipped completely, I'm afraid.

00:35:46.220 Andrew's a relative of mine.

00:35:47.780 I'm sorry to say it, but.

00:35:48.900 Oh, I, I did not know that.

00:35:50.580 My apologies.

00:35:51.040 I think he's, he's flipped his cork.

00:35:52.540 I, I mean, he's saying we've got to get out of, uh, NATO.

00:35:55.940 We got to kick us out of NATO, uh, ban Trump from the G N president to come to a G seven G seven.

00:36:02.340 I mean, he's just gone mad.

00:36:04.280 Steven Marr is saying we've got to start conscription to stop the pending us invasion.

00:36:10.740 There's a huge chunk of, of the so-called respectable commentary at class.

00:36:15.220 And look, I, I write for the Toronto sun.

00:36:17.520 I will never be part of the respectable commentary at class.

00:36:20.760 Um, I'll have a big audience.

00:36:23.780 Uh, I will have influential people read me, listen to the podcast and all of that, but

00:36:27.700 I won't be part of the respectable side.

00:36:29.780 The respectable side has lost their mind over Trump.

00:36:33.120 Yes.

00:36:33.780 No, but the Trump derangement syndrome is a well-known phenomenon now.

00:36:37.620 Uh, and, and all manner.

00:36:39.560 And of course it's mainly Americans, but there are foreigners, including Canadians like this

00:36:43.620 too.

00:36:43.860 And, uh, they, they are, uh, and I know as you do a great many of them.

00:36:48.860 And, and they, what they remind me of is nothing so much as people who is, as if there was a

00:36:54.620 little trap door in their foreheads.

00:36:56.780 And when the name Trump is mentioned other than in the context of playing bridge or something, 0.90

00:37:01.780 uh, the door flies open and this cuckoo bird flies, reaching absolute nonsense.

00:37:08.340 And then goes back in and slams the door.

00:37:10.740 And that's, that's what you get.

00:37:12.040 And I don't understand it.

00:37:13.400 He's obviously, uh, you know, whatever, you know, reservations one might have about him.

00:37:19.560 He's a very formidable man, a very important present and, and, and a great figure in the

00:37:25.260 world.

00:37:25.500 He's by far the most influential and important person in the world right now.

00:37:30.000 And, and his record is not difficult to defend.

00:37:33.380 I mean, uh, in six weeks, uh, illegal entries down 96%, recruitment in the armed forces up

00:37:40.320 20%, uh, spending cut $250 billion of sheer waste, just nonsense, you know?

00:37:47.360 Oh, there's many things I like about what he's doing.

00:37:49.700 I don't like what he's doing with Canada.

00:37:51.740 No, I, neither do I.

00:37:52.740 And I've told him that.

00:37:53.980 So let me ask you about this a little while ago, as I mentioned down in Washington, I reconnected

00:37:59.540 with Steve Bannon, who used to head up Breitbart.

00:38:02.360 That's how I got to know Steve, but he went into the white house as Trump's chief strategist,

00:38:08.320 I believe was his title.

00:38:09.920 And I said, okay, you still know the guy you're, you're not tight anymore, but what's going

00:38:14.820 on?

00:38:15.200 And, and he tied together Canada, Greenland, the Panama canal into this Western hemispheric

00:38:22.280 defense strategies and invoking the name of Alfred Mann, who was this naval strategist

00:38:28.060 from, uh, but he was the influence of sea power upon history.

00:38:34.120 That, that, that, he's a very, very important guy, but extremely important, but that has

00:38:39.060 absolutely nothing to do with Canada.

00:38:41.160 Do you put any stock in that theory that, you know, because we can't defend our Arctic

00:38:45.960 that, uh, you know, we, we haven't built Gray's Bay, which is the commercial port.

00:38:51.000 We haven't built a proper deep water naval port in the Arctic.

00:38:54.900 We didn't launch the great icebreaker, John Diefenbaker that Stephen Harper promised.

00:38:59.700 We didn't build any of the 10 nuclear submarines for the Arctic that Brian Mulroney wanted to,

00:39:05.280 to, to commission.

00:39:06.620 Uh, and we're not pulling our weight.

00:39:08.520 And I think Trump has a legitimate point.

00:39:10.320 Now the U S is an Arctic power.

00:39:11.880 They're, you know, Alaska is part of the United States and their Navy is active up there.

00:39:16.140 But as in other military matters and Alliance matters, we should be pulling our weight and

00:39:20.700 we're not doing it.

00:39:21.740 So in that respect, I think Trump and the British who are, who are, who are doing all right.

00:39:26.000 And, you know, some of those who are closer to the Russians, uh, geographically like the

00:39:30.180 Poles, those NATO members that are pulling their weight, have a grievance with us and we

00:39:34.280 should respond to it.

00:39:35.420 But, uh, on the, I mean, Admiral Mahan doesn't have a thing to do with this.

00:39:40.600 And Steve Bannon says that he does, that's horse feathers.

00:39:44.240 But, uh, I mean, he, he was, the influence of sea power upon history was one of the most

00:39:49.300 influential strategic books I've ever written, but, but it, it has nothing to do with our

00:39:54.840 position.

00:39:55.880 Now, do you put any stock in the 51st state idea that Trump is floating or is that?

00:40:01.560 Well, I did point out to him that in the first place, since we have more people in

00:40:05.880 California, we're entitled to more senators in the state of Delaware.

00:40:09.140 But I, I, I told him that, uh, it would have to be six states, but Canadians weren't 1.00

00:40:13.640 interested.

00:40:14.200 They didn't want American crime rates.

00:40:16.460 They didn't want American gun laws.

00:40:18.060 They didn't want the corrupt American justice system that no one knows better than Trump

00:40:22.000 himself.

00:40:22.900 Or, or, or yourself.

00:40:24.500 Yeah.

00:40:25.040 You dealt with that.

00:40:26.200 But, but, but on the other hand, there's room for collaboration beyond what we have now.

00:40:30.740 So, but, um, uh, I think what's happening here is there's separate questions.

00:40:38.400 I mean, if I can break them out very briefly in the case of Panama, he is justly concerned

00:40:43.600 that American flag ships are being overcharged.

00:40:47.120 American Navy ships are being overcharged to go through the canal and that the Chinese are 0.99

00:40:51.900 at each end of the canal.

00:40:52.980 And, and he is, he is, that that's the big one.

00:40:56.500 I think he's forcing the Chinese and he is going to force them. 1.00

00:40:59.360 Uh, I mean, Roosevelt did that in Mexico and the Japanese were buying up a lot of land 0.99

00:41:03.960 and buy California warned the president of Mexico.

00:41:07.080 He wouldn't stand for it, but he didn't do it publicly.

00:41:09.320 He didn't want to embarrass him.

00:41:10.440 And the Mexicans took care of it. 1.00

00:41:12.000 But, um, uh, on Greenland, again, he's right.

00:41:16.760 Denmark doesn't have the money to do what needs to be done there, which is partially Arctic,

00:41:21.720 you know, protecting our position in the Arctic and partially the, the ultimate mineral wealth

00:41:28.100 of Greenland.

00:41:29.940 So I, I, I, but I don't know that the way the president of the U S has pursued this is,

00:41:36.040 is the right course, you know, just announcing in public he wants to buy it.

00:41:40.480 I mean, I think there are better ways of dealing with that kind of thing, but, uh, but that's

00:41:44.300 a matter of making the most out of Greenland.

00:41:46.140 You don't have to take it away from Denmark, but Denmark is a, it's a fine place, but it's

00:41:50.860 only 5 million people and they don't have the means to do what needs to be done in Greenland.

00:41:55.620 Which is why China has been coming in and, and they, they foolishly, foolishly being, 1.00

00:42:01.860 allowing China to come in. 0.66

00:42:03.780 Yeah.

00:42:04.000 Well, you see, the, the, the biggest part of that puzzle is in Ukraine.

00:42:09.160 And I give Trump full credit for this.

00:42:11.760 He is the only Western leader who has said all along, we've got two objectives there.

00:42:16.380 We can't have Russia taking over Ukraine.

00:42:19.300 I mean, Ukraine has a perfect right with some revision of borders to recognize Russia's 0.95

00:42:24.740 historic position on the Russian partial composition of a population, about a sixth of

00:42:29.720 it.

00:42:30.300 Uh, they have some rights about Ukraine.

00:42:32.500 So there's an argument for revision of borders, but Ukraine having decided it does not want to

00:42:37.960 be part of Russia, which it was for 300 years.

00:42:40.780 Uh, they have that right.

00:42:42.260 And, and in any case, we don't want to yield back the largest single piece of our great

00:42:47.400 historic bloodless victory in the cold war.

00:42:50.540 And, and, and, uh, and we don't want the Western Alliance to be exposed as a paper tiger.

00:42:55.520 So we've got to, we've got to protect basically Ukraine with some concessions to Russia.

00:43:01.280 And secondly, we've got to create the conditions where it is in Russia's interest not to be 0.82

00:43:07.220 in a smothering of them embrace with China and, and be back at an independent entity. 0.53

00:43:13.460 See the real danger.

00:43:14.460 And so that, that's what I think most people don't get is that the attempt to reach out

00:43:19.360 to Putin is like almost everything else Trump is doing right now related to China and countering

00:43:26.980 China.

00:43:27.680 Yeah.

00:43:28.700 Well, China, China's the only possible rival it got. 0.95

00:43:31.880 Now in the end, China is, is no match for the United States. 0.99

00:43:35.780 It is not as powerful a country and it never will be.

00:43:38.160 But if you got heaven forbid, if you got the Chinese by agreement with the Kremlin shipping

00:43:46.080 40 or 50 million surplus Chinese up into Siberia and exploiting those resources and paying a 0.85

00:43:52.520 royalty to Russia, uh, we would be facing a much more powerful China.

00:43:57.720 We'd be facing a China that unlike the present China would be resource rich and that would make

00:44:03.940 it a much more dangerous competitor.

00:44:05.400 And, and, and the, the price Russia would pay is would be basically be a royalty collecting

00:44:11.980 formerly great power like Turkey or Spain or something.

00:44:15.780 It wouldn't really be a major power anymore.

00:44:17.800 And that's why to avoid.

00:44:19.920 Is the way that Trump is going about this with Ukraine, with Canada, is he making it so that

00:44:26.380 he's alienating people and allies now feel like they can't trust the white house.

00:44:31.680 They can't trust the United States.

00:44:33.740 No, I don't detect that last point.

00:44:36.000 I mean, I thought, uh, Macron and Starmer got on very well there last week.

00:44:40.720 He was very polite to them.

00:44:42.220 They were very polite to him.

00:44:43.680 Again, this is what happened.

00:44:44.980 I spoke to him earlier this week and he said he had excellent visits with both of them.

00:44:49.080 Uh, and look, the fact.

00:44:50.260 I think Zelensky played his hand very badly.

00:44:52.940 I don't want to get into the cards argument, but I, I, I, he had one goal and that was to

00:44:56.660 sign the minerals deal.

00:44:57.580 So yeah, you, you, look, he said he would sign it with Besson when he went to Kiev.

00:45:01.960 That's what the treasury secretary went there for.

00:45:04.060 Then he said, no, I'll sign it at the Munich security conference.

00:45:06.420 He didn't do that.

00:45:07.220 Then he requested the visit to Washington.

00:45:09.360 As you saw, Trump greeted him at the front door of the white house.

00:45:12.340 He came out the door outside, greeted him outside in the cold, you know, without an overcoat

00:45:16.800 and welcomed him in a very, you know, jovial conversation.

00:45:21.280 And so it went for, for some while.

00:45:23.640 And then, and then, uh, with all the cameras on, uh, Zelensky got into these things that

00:45:28.880 shouldn't have been discussed in public.

00:45:30.440 He wanted to make those points.

00:45:31.680 You don't do it with Krem, you know, uh, Putin sitting in the Kremlin watching you live

00:45:37.440 on TV as you do it.

00:45:39.040 And, and, um, I'd look, I think they've sorted all that out now.

00:45:42.700 And I think hopefully, yes.

00:45:44.060 Look, Trump is the only person.

00:45:45.840 Let's remember two things.

00:45:47.800 One, nobody was talking about peace in Ukraine until he was re inaugurated six weeks ago.

00:45:52.660 Nobody, not a word, not Biden will, as long as it takes, you know, we'll just keep sending

00:45:57.800 them ammunition and weapons and until there are no living Ukrainians to pull the triggers 1.00

00:46:01.940 anymore.

00:46:02.540 And, and, uh, and, you know, now we're, we're obviously very close to a peace and that's

00:46:07.140 Trump's doing.

00:46:08.060 But the second thing is he's the only one who can produce the peace.

00:46:10.820 He can say, as he undoubtedly has to Zelensky.

00:46:14.520 He, look, this is what I can get for you.

00:46:16.660 This is the best you can do.

00:46:17.820 Take three quarters of a loaf.

00:46:19.940 And, and he can also say to Putin, if you don't take this, I'm giving Zelensky weapons

00:46:25.860 that will bring this war home to civilian Russians the way you've done it to Ukrainians. 0.86

00:46:30.780 And don't give me any of your bunk about nuclear weapons.

00:46:33.860 I have nuclear weapons too. 0.94

00:46:35.200 And you're not going to use them because you're not insane.

00:46:37.700 Because if you do, an awful lot of Russians are going to die. 0.89

00:46:41.340 Let me leave you with this.

00:46:43.300 Um, I, I, I've looked at the map and where the minerals are, where they aren't.

00:46:47.500 And I know that men, you know, many of them are within Russian controlled areas right now.

00:46:51.680 And when I look at what they've talked about out of the white house, about the peace deal,

00:46:56.600 and I look at where the minerals are, I think, okay, that's Trump's way of saying to Putin,

00:47:02.080 you're going to give that land back because I just signed on to own those mineral rights.

00:47:07.320 So I own them, not you give the land back.

00:47:10.900 Do you take it the same way?

00:47:11.900 That, and we will have substantial numbers of important Americans, not random tourists,

00:47:20.260 but, but a large group of sophisticated American specialists in that country.

00:47:26.160 And if they are put in harm's way by your aggression, you are deliberately provoking us.

00:47:31.780 Uh, you see, that's where I part company with Zelensky.

00:47:34.600 I mean, I know he's fought a brave battle areas.

00:47:37.720 I don't know all this business about corruption and I don't know anything about that,

00:47:40.840 but he's put up a hell of a fight and led a brave people in a, in a gallant task.

00:47:45.340 As Mr. Churchill said of the Finns and the Greeks in 1940 and 41,

00:47:51.380 they've shown the world what free men can do, you know, and you've got to respect that.

00:47:55.540 But, uh, but Zelensky, you know, has to realize that with Americans in country in that minerals deal,

00:48:03.180 with British and French, uh, peacekeepers in significant numbers, durably in Ukraine,

00:48:10.020 they're both nuclear powers.

00:48:11.300 They're both close allies of the U S and with article five still in effect,

00:48:15.460 meaning that if America, if British and French forces are attacked in Syria by Russia,

00:48:20.860 they can call upon the U S under article five.

00:48:23.480 And, and the United States would reply to an attack on Britain and France.

00:48:27.300 That they would certainly do.

00:48:28.980 Uh, he's got all the security needs.

00:48:32.120 I mean, he came into this with none.

00:48:33.520 The Russians just piled into his country and, and, uh, you know, 1.00

00:48:38.560 but Joe Biden's initial response was since that, that half whip chief of the chairman of the joint chiefs,

00:48:45.400 they had, uh, chief of staff of the army, uh, Millie, uh, said, uh, well, you know,

00:48:50.340 they'll take over all Ukraine in a month and Kiev within about 10 days.

00:48:56.020 None of which happened, of course.

00:48:57.740 And what great triumph of military intelligence levels, uh, you know,

00:49:02.820 and, and instead of that, he will have British and French forces.

00:49:07.020 There are American specialist mining engineers there, uh, and,

00:49:11.960 and the NATO arrangements in place.

00:49:15.180 If the British and French find themselves exchanging live fire with the Russians.

00:49:20.180 I mean, that is security, but Russia,

00:49:23.680 Russia's in no position to attack the British and French, uh, let alone the Americans.

00:49:29.280 What did the Polish prime minister say the other day?

00:49:32.160 He said, uh, uh, we faced the prospect that 500 million Europeans,

00:49:36.880 have to ask 300 million Americans to defend against 140 million Russians. 0.81

00:49:43.000 Um, there's, there's a lot of bizarre things going on.

00:49:46.440 Uh, Conrad Black, fascinating times, fascinating discussion.

00:49:49.900 Thank you so much.

00:49:50.860 Not a bit, Brian.

00:49:51.520 Very nice speaking with him.

00:49:52.840 Full Comment is a post-media podcast.

00:49:55.360 My name's Brian Lilly, your host.

00:49:56.800 This episode was produced by Andre Pru.

00:49:59.000 Theme music by Bryce Hall.

00:50:00.800 Kevin Libin is the executive producer.

00:50:02.920 You can subscribe to Full Comment on Apple, Google,

00:50:05.960 Spotify, Amazon, wherever you get your podcasts and help us out.

00:50:11.020 Give us a rating, leave us a review, tell your friends all about us.

00:50:14.580 Thanks for listening.

00:50:15.520 Until next time, I'm Brian Lilly.

00:50:17.120 I'm Brian Lilly.

00:50:26.680 I'm Brian Lilly.

Full Comment - March 10, 2025

Trump seems ready to settle this trade war

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