Trump gets EU to cut tariffs. Why can't Canada get a trade deal with Trump, too?
Episode Stats
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Summary
Trump and the EU don't get along. Why can't the EU get along with Donald Trump? Is it because the EU is run by a bunch of interchangeable, interchangeable politicians? Or is it because Trump doesn't like the EU?
Transcript
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Tonight, the European Union does a massive trade deal with Donald Trump, cutting tariffs.
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It's July 26th and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
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You come here once a year with a sign and you feel morally superior.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
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Donald Trump doesn't like the European Union and by that I mean the political structure,
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the mini United Nations that has riveted itself to 28 different democracies there.
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I'm sure Trump loves Europe itself and individual countries, but not the EU.
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We know this because Trump supported Brexit, the referendum by which the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union,
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even though two years later the deep state over there hasn't permitted that exit to take effect.
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And when Trump was visiting the UK earlier this month, he wasn't shy about giving Theresa May some tough talk about how to get out.
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I did give Theresa, who I like, I did give her my views on what she should do and how she should negotiate.
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I would actually say she probably went the opposite way.
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If you really look, she probably went the opposite way.
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You know, she should negotiate the best way she knows how.
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Now, so you'd think that Donald Trump and the European Union would get along terribly, right?
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So here's Trump meeting at NATO headquarters last month.
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And he just blasts the Europeans, same countries, for shirking on their fair share of military spending.
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And for buying their energy from Russia, which is a paradox, because, of course, that is the mighty enemy against which NATO was created.
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Well, I have to say, I think it's very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia,
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where you're supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia.
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So we're protecting Germany, we're protecting France, we're protecting all of these countries.
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And then numerous of the countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia.
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Do you know who the president of the European Union is?
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There are actually several presidents of the EU.
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You've got the president of the European Parliament.
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His name is Antonio Tajani, if I'm saying that right.
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And then there's this guy, the president of the European Council.
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And then there's the president of the Council of the European Union.
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That's actually rotated amongst the member countries every six months.
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So right now, it's actually the democratically elected Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz.
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I mean, can you even actually get to know a job in six months?
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It's sort of a joke, really, as the whole EU is.
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But probably the real leader of the EU is this guy with the unfortunate name Jean-Claude Juncker.
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There are a few more presidents, but I'll stop boring you with all their presidents.
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But can I show you a video that I think sums this all up?
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These anonymous, interchangeable European bureaucrat politicians.
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This is actually the very first video I ever saw of Nigel Farage.
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Former leader of the UKIP parties, you know, who is in the European Parliament.
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He was having a go at another European president named Herman Van Rompuy.
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And this is a bit tough and a bit thrilling to watch.
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And I'd like to play it for you for 90 seconds.
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You have the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk.
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And the question that I want to ask, the question that I want to ask, that we're all going to ask, is who are you?
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I would like to ask you, president, who voted for you?
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Oh, I know democracy is not popular with you lot.
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And what mechanism do the peoples of Europe have to remove you?
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Well, I sense, though, that you're competent and capable and dangerous.
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And I have no doubt that it's your intention to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and of the European nation states.
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You appear to have a loathing for the very concept of the existence of nation states.
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Perhaps that's because you come from Belgium, which, of course, is pretty much a non-country.
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But since you took over, we've seen Greece reduced to nothing more than a protectorate.
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Sir, you have no legitimacy in this job at all.
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And I can say with confidence that I can speak on behalf of the majority of the British people in saying,
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And the sooner you're put out to grass, the better.
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Not only is that true and fun and slightly painful to watch,
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but remember that Nigel Farage and Donald Trump are friends, right?
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Trump even mused about having some sort of official role for Farage.
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I have no doubt that Farage is a trusted source of information and views for Trump.
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So you can imagine Trump's loathing for the EU as an institution if his best pal in the UK is that guy, Farage.
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Trump engages in rhetorical flourishes and insults, too.
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But he's much more a New York City brawler than that British debate club champ that you saw in Farage.
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And look at the current president of the EU, Junker, which rhymes just by coincidence with the word drunker.
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You might be thinking, well, maybe he's just having ambulatory problems.
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I'll show you another clip of him getting drunk, slapping people in the face.
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He's just meeting people and making Thai jokes.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the president of the European Union.
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But I just want you to know that that is the leader of the European Union.
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Underneath all of Trump's blistering insults or his over-the-top praise, Donald Trump is a negotiator.
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He's a dealmaker, even with people he doesn't like.
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Look at how Trump is dealt with Kim Jong-un of North Korea.
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He goes from insulting him as little rocket man to praising him as a great leader, whatever it takes to get a deal.
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And in this case, to disarm a rogue nuclear state.
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Trump hates the New York Times, owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.
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But then Slim bent the knee and he called up Donald Trump and said, can we meet and figure things out?
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Carlos Slim, the great businessman from Mexico, called me about getting together for a meeting.
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Now, I think they still hate each other, but that's the thing about Donald Trump.
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He will meet with anyone to try to make a deal with anyone if it advances his interests.
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And for the past 550 days, that means advancing America's interests.
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It doesn't matter that Donald Trump probably hates him as much as Nigel Farage does.
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It doesn't matter that we know for a fact Trump hates the EU.
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Trump has a mission, advance America's trade interests.
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He was threatening the European Union with huge tariffs and other sanctions because they exclude U.S. goods and services.
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And more to the point, Trump has proven that he's not bluffing when it comes to a trade war.
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Not only has he been talking about fighting back with tariffs for decades, but he's done it, taking on mighty China.
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So Junker and the rest of the milquetoast bureaucrats at the EU, probably risk-averse, probably nervous Nellies when they see Trump, who they surely despise too, who they think is a wild cowboy, erratic, dangerous.
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He comes up and says, open up your countries to American goods or we will block your European goods from America.
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The whole anti-Trump media, the whole anti-Trump commentariat, they were saying to Trump, don't do it, don't threaten a trade war, don't bring in tariffs.
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Trump cutting back trade with Europe would hurt everyone, but it would hurt Europe much, much more than it would hurt America that's having a surging economy right now.
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And they didn't, you know, they didn't cave into America.
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It's truly what Trump talks about, a level playing field.
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Yeah, they reduced more barriers because they had more barriers, but it's equal access for both sides.
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Already today, the United States and the European Union have a $1 trillion bilateral trade relationship, the largest economic relationship anywhere in the world.
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We want to further strengthen this trade relationship to the benefit of all American and European citizens.
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This is why we agreed today, first of all, to work together towards zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods.
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Well, the stock market surged in the wake of that announcement.
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And look at this hilarious picture of Junker kissing Trump.
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I don't know if he was drunk or sober, maybe a bit of both.
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Maybe just relieved that he's not in a fight with Trump.
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Junker kissed Trump, and Trump thought it was a funny enough moment that he tweeted it.
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He said, obviously, the European Union is represented by Junker, and the United States, as represented by yours truly, love each other.
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He gets to insult the European when he wants to.
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He gets a trade deal from them when he wants to.
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I like Nigel Farage, but he only has one of those three.
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As in, maybe Justin Trudeau could get a deal with Trump, too.
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We are far more reliant on the U.S. market than the Europeans are.
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We are far more vulnerable through a trade war with Trump than the Europeans are.
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Trump specifically has threatened our auto sector with a 20% tariff.
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That would kill 160,000 jobs in Ontario almost immediately, say the Canadian banks.
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So why doesn't Trudeau just go down to the White House like Junker did, swallow his pride
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like Junker did, and get a deal with Trump like Jean-Claude Junker did?
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It's Trudeau's fault that we don't have a deal now.
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For six months, Trudeau pushed demands on Trump that NAFTA have all sorts of weird inclusions
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like feminism and global warming, things that don't belong in a trade treaty, things that
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he knew, things that he knew Trump wasn't interested in, things that were just for Trudeau's
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Gerald Butts, Trudeau's principal secretary, has more or less admitted in this tweet that
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they want to fight with Trump to use it as a 2019 re-election tactic.
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Imagine sacrificing 160,000 Ontario jobs just for a campaign slogan.
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You know that other than China, it's the country he's most upset with when it comes
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But Trump is an opportunist in the best meaning of that word.
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He just went from war to peace and a kiss with Junker in what, 24 hours?
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And now with a new Mexican president, Trump sees a new opportunity, just like he's trying
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to go from war to peace with North Korea, though that is obviously much more serious.
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Congratulations to Andres Manuel López Obrador on becoming the next president of Mexico.
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There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico.
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Trump says U.S. may have separate trade deal with Mexico.
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It says NAFTA ministers said to meet in Washington later this month.
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Trump says relationship with a new Mexican president is great.
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And then this news, just five days later, look how fast things are moving.
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This headline, Mexico wants August NAFTA deal as Trump vows dramatic action.
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An agreement would let next president focus on domestic issues.
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Negotiation's set to pick up this week with Washington meetings.
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In Canada, our prime minister is still on holidays.
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He doesn't care about a mass murder in Toronto.
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He doesn't care about a trade deal with the U.S.
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Everyone in the world is getting their trade deal with Trump.
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And by the way, Trump offered such a deal to Trudeau.
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The moment he sat down with Trudeau at the G7 summit.
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It's pretty much the deal that Junker just took.
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Justin has agreed to cut all tariffs and all trade barriers between Canada and the United States.
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Don't we actually have a free trade deal with the U.S. right now?
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Isn't Trump in jest offering something to us that's amazing?
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Free access to their huge market, the most important market in the world.
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Don't we need that right now just to keep our auto industry, for example?
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Why wouldn't Trudeau have responded, well, let's have a deal.
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And Donald, let's just hang out and have fun in Quebec for the next day.
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He could have said that, and it would have happened.
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That's exactly what Trump and the EU are doing.
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The European Union has already agreed to buy a lot more U.S. agriculture and U.S. liquefied
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I know why, because Gerald Butts wants to fight, because Justin Trudeau wants to protect
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But Junker just took the same deal, and I bet Mexico will take it too.
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And who knows what will come out of Donald Trump's negotiations with Russia.
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Canada is being run by a man-child in Justin Trudeau, who's being manipulated by an extreme
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They're spending more money on the military now.
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He'll get his Mexico deal, I bet, with people who hate him, and people who he surely hates
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In Manhattan property deals, you deal with people you hate all day long, and you make
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Donald Trump is making trillion-dollar deals now for Americans and for others, too.
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The whole world is about to get better because of these deals, these trade deals, the whole
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But our petty little prince is keeping Canada out of those deals.
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We are going to be told by white trash what to do anymore.
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And we are working to build relations with our neighbors.
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If you're not on your best behavior, you have to leave.
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That disgraceful scene happened in Burnaby, B.C.
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by professional actors and other paid protesters
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making racial demands that he prove his aboriginal status
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It looks like they assaulted the person holding the camera.
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But they're all in contravention of an order by the public,
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Tell me a little bit more about what we saw there.
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So the main fact I want to start off with, Ezra,
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Well, they didn't know I was a Suits and Boots supporter
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that seem to be getting away with far too much aggression,
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It's just they're getting leeway from the media
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to do essentially what they want, when they want,
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that would come from any of these construction projects.
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It's incredible that they're blocked by some hippies.
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tell me a little bit more about what they said and did,
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That was my fiancée holding the camera, actually.
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And it sounds like she looked like she was pushed.
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that they didn't have the courage to push you around.
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And I think it says a lot about them, doesn't it?
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I'd be surprised if she weighed over 100 pounds.