MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell details Donald Trump’s 24 hours which included backing down from trade war with Canada – again – and trying to save Elon Musk's struggling car company in the White House driveway.
For more context and news coverage of the most important stories of our day click here: https://www.msnbc.com/
» Subscribe to MSNBC: https://www.youtube.com/msnbc
» Subscribe to MSNBC on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@msnbc
» Subscribe to MSNBC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/msnbc
Download our new MSNBC app for the latest breaking news and daily headlines at a glance: https://www.msnbc.com/information/download-msnbc-app-n1241692
Follow MSNBC Show Blogs
MaddowBlog: https://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog
MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of political headlines, commentary and informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Inside with Jen Psaki, Morning Joe, The Beat, Deadline: White House, All In, The Last Word, The 11th Hour, and more.
Connect with MSNBC Online
Visit msnbc.com: https://www.msnbc.com/
Subscribe to the MSNBC Daily Newsletter: https://link.msnbc.com/join/5ck/msnbc-daily-signup
#Trump #Canada #tariffs
For more context and news coverage of the most important stories of our day click here: https://www.msnbc.com/
» Subscribe to MSNBC: https://www.youtube.com/msnbc
» Subscribe to MSNBC on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@msnbc
» Subscribe to MSNBC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/msnbc
Download our new MSNBC app for the latest breaking news and daily headlines at a glance: https://www.msnbc.com/information/download-msnbc-app-n1241692
Follow MSNBC Show Blogs
MaddowBlog: https://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog
MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of political headlines, commentary and informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Inside with Jen Psaki, Morning Joe, The Beat, Deadline: White House, All In, The Last Word, The 11th Hour, and more.
Connect with MSNBC Online
Visit msnbc.com: https://www.msnbc.com/
Subscribe to the MSNBC Daily Newsletter: https://link.msnbc.com/join/5ck/msnbc-daily-signup
#Trump #Canada #tariffs
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Well, today Donald Trump backed down.
00:04Big surprise.
00:05Donald Trump backed down again, so not so big a surprise.
00:10Donald Trump backed down again and once again proved himself the weakest, most irrational
00:18negotiating president in history today when he backed down after one of his out-of-control
00:25threats to impose 50% tariffs, double them, 50% tariffs on Canada starting tomorrow morning.
00:30The stock market was already crashing downward and then sunk further after Donald Trump's
00:36unhinged threat of 50% tariffs against Canada.
00:41And then the stock market got some good news.
00:44Ukraine agreed to the terms of a possible ceasefire, which we'll discuss later in this
00:49And Ontario's premier, Doug Ford, decided to suspend the 25% tariff he imposed on electricity
00:56that Ontario sells to the northern border states of Minnesota, Michigan and New York,
01:03saying the temperature needs to come down.
01:07And then Donald Trump's temperature came down a little bit.
01:11He dropped his threat of 50% tariffs starting tomorrow morning and the stock market then
01:17stabilized for the rest of the day with a huge loss.
01:22But it didn't keep sinking.
01:23It stabilized at a loss of 478 points was on its way to a much, much bigger loss.
01:33These are, as I was just saying, fantastically exciting days to be watching CNBC's daily
01:39coverage of the stock market, which normally puts reasonable people to sleep, because normally
01:45CNBC is reporting on the most stable economy in the world and the strongest stock market
01:52in the world.
01:53And for certainly all of the Biden years, the stock market was doing very well, setting
01:57new record highs all the time.
01:59And the economists and stock analysts who appeared on CNBC and the CEOs were all sharing
02:05variations on how to get richer that day in the Biden stock market.
02:11But now some of the CNBC regulars who, like good airline pilots, never want to sound panicked,
02:20sound as close to panicked as they can get.
02:26If those two good developments perhaps stand down on the Canadian tariffs and hopefully
02:33a ceasefire in Ukraine, if they hadn't come up, I think we would have had another thousand
02:38point drop day to day.
02:40I mean, it's clearly this disruptive, destructive, if I should say so, up and down trade policy
02:50that has really worried the market and sowed uncertainty among consumers and businesses.
03:01Disruptive and destructive.
03:04That is the distinguished Professor Jeremy Siegel, who teaches economics at Donald Trump's
03:09alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School.
03:15Here is what the worst economic student ever to attend Wharton said about that today.
03:21Mr. President, you mentioned the ups and downs in the stock market.
03:25You said it'll go up, it'll go down.
03:27But do you and your tariff policies right now bear any responsibility for the turmoil
03:31we're seeing this week?
03:32Biden gave us a horrible economy.
03:34He gave us horrible inflation.
03:37And I think the market was going to go very, very bad.
03:42Biden gave him the strongest economy any president has ever handed off to another president.
03:46He gave him the highest stock market any president has ever handed off to another president.
03:51And so that answer would get Donald Trump an F in Professor Siegel's class today.
03:58And what Donald Trump wrote at 1015 a.m. today would get him kicked out of the Wharton School.
04:04That is when he publicly posted on social media his threat of 50 percent tariffs.
04:09When the stock market was already headed down, Donald Trump's crazy statement about 50 percent
04:14tariffs made it so much worse.
04:17But the thing that would have gotten him kicked out of the Wharton School was not what he
04:23said about tariffs in that post.
04:26It's what he said about making Canada the 51st state.
04:30If Donald Trump had said that in a college class, they probably would have sent him straight
04:36to the infirmary to see if anything medical or neurological was causing the very early
04:41onset dementia that he would have been exhibiting in that classroom.
04:44Here's what he said that is very important to American workers about making Canada the
04:5051st state.
04:52And let me first stipulate this.
04:54It's never going to happen.
04:55I don't even like to talk about it.
04:56I normally don't discuss the Canada 51st state thing in any detail because it's so ridiculous.
05:03But what's important about his statement about it today, it shows the profound depth of stupidity
05:13in what Donald Trump is saying about making Canada the 51st state.
05:18If he just said, make Canada the 51st state and left it at that, that would be one level
05:22of stupidity.
05:25But he keeps going.
05:28He said this would make all tariffs and everything else totally disappear.
05:34There would no longer be a northern border problem.
05:38Now, auto workers in Michigan and Ohio and factory workers everywhere in the country
05:43who Donald Trump pretends he's trying to protect should think about what that stupid thing
05:50Donald Trump actually said that will never happen would actually mean to them.
05:55It would mean that all the American cars being made in Canada right now that Donald Trump
06:00doesn't want to be made in Canada would still be made in Canada.
06:05Every factory in Canada would still operate and there would be zero tariffs on anything
06:10coming into the rest of the states from our 51st state, which means that every manufacturing
06:16job in Canada now would stay in Canada.
06:21And your manufacturing job in Michigan might just move over to that new state of Canada
06:26because it's the same country.
06:29And how would factory workers in the 48 states below Canada feel about the newest state taking
06:36their jobs?
06:38That utterly demented statement by Donald Trump about making Canada the 51st state completely
06:44contradicts his stated desire to move Canadian auto manufacturing jobs across the border
06:52into the United States.
06:54So now I apologize for even entertaining Donald Trump's dementia to that extent, but it is
06:59worth pointing out that within the stupidest thing he says in his social media post, there's
07:06actually an even deeper level of stupidity that is ignored by every single reporter who
07:13quotes Donald Trump saying that he once again wants to make Canada the 51st state.
07:17If Joe Biden had ever said anything like what Donald Trump said about Canada today, everyone
07:23else in the news media would have said what I'm saying about Donald Trump right now.
07:30Donald Trump's mind doesn't work.
07:34Donald Trump is mentally incapable of doing the job he was elected to do.
07:39It's not even close.
07:41It's not like, well, Donald Trump is almost smart enough for this job.
07:46No, Donald Trump's mind does not work.
07:49It is broken.
07:51It cannot be fixed.
07:53Donald Trump does not understand the English language.
07:56Some of the simplest words in the English language are beyond him.
07:59A word like, say, illegal.
08:03Donald Trump really doesn't know what it means.
08:05He doesn't, which is why he was convicted of 34 felonies in Manhattan.
08:09I believe Donald Trump didn't realize that the way he was paying off Stormy Daniels was
08:14illegal.
08:15But ignorance of the law is no defense in a courtroom.
08:18And Donald Trump's illegal imposition of tariffs is something that doesn't bother him in the
08:25least.
08:26But whenever Donald Trump does use the word illegal, he is always wrong.
08:31Like today, when he said.
08:35It is illegal for people to not buy Teslas.
08:40He said that.
08:42And he's still president.
08:44He said it is illegal.
08:46Fifteen minutes after midnight last night, the president, who doesn't understand the
08:51English language and doesn't understand law, said that it's illegal not to buy Teslas.
08:56He said it's illegal to boycott Tesla.
09:00Boycott means don't buy one again.
09:04If any other president had ever said it's illegal not to buy a car, a particular car,
09:10they would have rushed that president into a neurological exam immediately in the middle
09:16of the night when he should have been sleeping and resting that 78 year old brain of his.
09:22So it could desperately try to function the next day.
09:24Donald Trump wrote the radical left lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally
09:29and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the world's greatest automakers, and Elon's baby
09:34in order to attack and do harm to Elon and everything he stands for.
09:39Well, he's right about the motivation.
09:42The people who are protesting a Tesla dealerships, including in Donald Trump's hometown of New
09:46York City, are hoping to discourage Tesla sales because they are hoping that the richest
09:52person in the world can be driven ultimately to the bankruptcy that he is falsely predicting
09:59for the United States government.
10:00Once again, Elon Musk said the United States government would go bankrupt.
10:04He said that today.
10:05It's impossible.
10:06The United States government cannot go bankrupt and never will.
10:09But Elon Musk could theoretically go bankrupt if sales of Tesla's stopped, if they just
10:16stopped in the United States.
10:18As we reported earlier this week, sales of Tesla's have dropped dramatically worldwide
10:22in Europe.
10:23They've dropped dramatically in the United States.
10:25They've dropped dramatically.
10:26And so Donald Trump and his desperate desperation to keep his biggest campaign contributor in
10:32history, the biggest campaign contributor in the history of American politics, to keep
10:36Elon Musk the richest person in the world, especially after Elon Musk is now, according
10:42to New York Times report tonight, promising another 100 million dollars in campaign money
10:47for Donald Trump.
10:49Donald Trump did something illegal today, and he did it in the White House driveway.
10:54Donald Trump used federal property to do a TV commercial.
11:00Donald Trump stood with Elon Musk in the White House driveway with some Tesla's in front
11:04of them.
11:05And Donald Trump pretended to buy a Tesla.
11:09It has been reported by legitimate news organizations everywhere that Donald Trump bought a Tesla
11:15from Elon Musk today, as if that's a fact.
11:17There is no evidence of that whatsoever.
11:21No bill of sale.
11:23No check was passed.
11:25Nothing was signed.
11:26The two most awkward people in America stood there like statues trying to save Elon Musk's
11:31wealth with the completely fake stunt of Donald Trump pretending to buy a car from the richest
11:38person in the world with no money or paperwork changing hands.
11:43And saying, when asked, that he illegally was hoping that this stunt that he was doing
11:52on federal property against federal law would push up his friend's stock price.
12:01If you buy a Tesla, will it boost Tesla sales and boost the stock?
12:09He hopes it does.
12:10You can search the history books for the moment when any previous president of the United
12:14States used the White House to try to publicly push up the stock price of his richest friend's
12:22stock.
12:23It has never happened.
12:24It is illegal to use federal property the way Donald Trump and Elon Musk used federal
12:28property today.
12:29And neither one of them know it.
12:31It was Elon Musk who first said that boycotts are illegal, which is not true.
12:37Elon Musk said it was illegal for advertisers to boycott Twitter after he turned Twitter
12:44into a cesspool full of Nazis and assorted madmen.
12:50Elon Musk is not from around here.
12:54Elon Musk does not understand the country where he now lives.
12:58Elon Musk would fail, by a wide margin, a high school AP American history test.
13:05He grew up in white South Africa, going to a segregated elementary school and high school
13:09where he learned nothing about American history, American law, American free enterprise, where
13:15every company gets to decide where, how and when they will advertise and where they won't
13:23and where no company is allowed to advertise on federal property.
13:29A country where advertisers have never wanted to be associated with Nazis.
13:36Elon Musk is such a bad salesman that he was stupid enough today, today to bring even more
13:43attention to the latest disturbing challenges that Tesla owners are facing, thanks entirely
13:53to Elon Musk.
13:55I just want to thank the president for his support, this means a lot.
14:00And also thank everyone out there who is supporting Tesla.
14:03It's really terrible that there's so much violence being created against people like
14:08Tesla, Tesla supporters, Tesla owners, Tesla stores, these are innocent people who've done
14:13nothing wrong.
14:15So, you know.
14:18So yeah, that's true.
14:21Those people have done nothing wrong.
14:23All the problems they are facing now because of their association with Tesla are Elon Musk's
14:28fault exclusively.
14:32Imagine you work at America's oldest car manufacturer, Ford, and you watch the president of the United
14:38States doing an illegal commercial today on federal property for the newest car maker
14:43in America.
14:46Imagine you're a factory worker at America's biggest auto manufacturer that has the most
14:52auto manufacturing jobs in the United States, General Motors.
14:56And you have to watch today when the president of the United States does an illegal TV commercial
15:02at the White House for America's newest auto manufacturer because the owner of that company
15:07has given the president more money than anyone has ever given a politician in American history.
15:12NBC News reports a major automaker said, quote, Tesla has benefited more from taxpayer money
15:20than any other car maker by far.
15:22Now the White House is marketing Tesla's vehicles.
15:27What's next?
15:29Donald Trump is a terrible actor.
15:33And so there was nothing convincing today in his pretending to buy a Tesla or pretending
15:40to even like Teslas.
15:45They cost too much and they don't go far.
15:48Electric cars are good if you have a towing company other than that.
15:52It's terrible.
15:53There's this whole electric car sick.
15:55It's sick.
15:56They don't go far.
15:58It's good if you want to go to the grocery store, take a quick little drive.
16:02You know, they say the best thing about an electric car, the first 10 minutes you feel
16:05great.
16:07The next 45 minutes you're worried about where the hell am I going to get a recharge?
16:13So it's a problem.
16:14But they don't go far and they they're very expensive.
16:17And the other thing is, you'll never make them in this country because everything you
16:19need for an electric car is in China.
16:22We have the stuff that you need for our cars.
16:24It's called gasoline and oil.
16:26It's right underground.
16:30That's the real Donald Trump.
16:33Before Elon Musk bought the presidency for him, Donald Trump all but admitted today that
16:40he doesn't know how to drive or doesn't remember how to drive a car because it has been decades
16:45and decades since he's actually driven a car long before he became president.
16:53You don't want me to drive it, do you think Biden could get into that car?
17:04Yeah, I think Biden could get into that car.
17:09Here comes the president now.
17:17She looks great.
17:18We don't get to do this very often.
17:20Yeah.
17:21Feel like going for a ride?
17:22I'd love to.
17:23Why don't you drive?
17:24Hop in.
17:25Thank you, pal.
17:26The nice thing about this is you can outrun the Secret Service.
17:30This is the only time you get to drive.
17:31Yeah, it is.
17:32It's a God's truth.
17:33I know.
17:34It's funny.
17:35And I miss it.
17:37Instead of trying to save Elon Musk's struggling car company and the White House driveway,
17:41Donald Trump should have been listening to Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel on CNBC.
17:50You think the people in Florida, they would go off, you know, the accumulated wealth that
17:54they've done in the last 10 years are going to be all excited about, you know, some plant
17:59that Trump saves in Erie, Pennsylvania for 300 jobs or 500 jobs.
18:07By the way, producing something that they could have brought cheaper without the tariffs
18:12beforehand.
18:13I mean, it just doesn't make sense.
18:16Don't forget, almost half the American public own stock, if not directly, indirectly through
18:23their 401ks, through their IRAs, through their pension funds.
18:27You have 180 million, 150 million people there.
18:34So, you know, we're going to bring some manufacturing back to the U.S.
18:37How many jobs is that?
18:40Less than one tenth of one percent.
18:42Yes, I understand what happened to the heartland and the manufacturing there, by the way, which
18:46happened everywhere in the world, which also happened to Europe and everywhere else.
18:52What we have seen over the last 40 or 50 years, the deindustrialization of the West is really
18:58due to the fact that China, India, the rest of the world opened up, industrialized and
19:05could produce goods of equal quality at 30 percent to 40 percent less price.
19:12So, you know, I mean, that's just a fact of world trade.
19:16And we economists have talked about the gains from trade.
19:19We want to protect the people that are hurt.
19:22But this idea about, you know, going through a recession, unemployment, six, seven percent,
19:30and then what, when are these factories going to be built and how many are they going to
19:35employ when we, you know, if we're going to lay off two or three million, we're not producing
19:41anywhere near that amount of manufacturing jobs.
19:44The numbers don't add up.
19:47In that story.
19:49And that's why the Wall Street Journal's editorial on Donald Trump's trade war that will appear
19:55in tomorrow's print edition of The Wall Street Journal says, we said from the beginning that
20:01this North American trade war is the dumbest in history and we were being kind.