Latest / Kvetch & Release / 610 CKTB | Tariffs, Blockades, and Borders: How Trump’s Trade Strategy Mirrors Star Wars

Transcript

610 CKTB | Tariffs, Blockades, and Borders: How Trump’s Trade Strategy Mirrors Star Wars · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A heck of a job this week. It's John Letke
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: with Letke's Got a Take. Good morning, John.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Gene.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Now, people should know that John's a young newspaper guy.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I don't want to call you old because you're not.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: You're still a cub. And John loves to pitch me
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: on ideas when I'm working on the show in the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: afternoon at home. So when I saw your pitch yesterday,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to be honest. I thought you had
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: lost your mind. But you know what? I trust you, man.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And I know this is going to be spectacular. But
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: how on earth is Star Wars Episode 1, the movie
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: everybody mocked for Jar Jar Binks, the key to understanding
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump's trade war? I'm looking forward to this one.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: You know, I know I do sound like an absolute lunatic,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: but I mean, while we were all whining about a
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: CGI Jar Jar Binks back in 99, George Lucas was
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: giving us a masterclass in modern trade politics. He literally
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: opened a $ 115 million space opera with a yellow text
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: crawl about the taxation of trade routes to outlying star
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: systems and Senate gridlock. Let me just read this to you.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: This is the beginning of Star Wars Episode I, the text.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: routes to outlying star systems is in dispute. Hoping to
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Greedy Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: planet of Naboo. I mean, some of that sounds a
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: little bit similar right now. I look out the window
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: over across to Detroit from Windsor, and it seems like
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: that's the same script playing out on our borders right now.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Lucas wasn't just making movies or selling plastic toys. He
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: was preaching macroeconomics. We were just too busy hating on
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Jar Jar.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: This is getting better. Okay, if I remember, in the movie,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the Trade Federation blockaded a planet to protest taxation on
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: trade routes and to serve as a secret, sort of
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a political trap to install an evil emperor. So how
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: does a spaceship blockade map turn into the Trump USA
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: tariffs against Canada?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, in Star Wars, it took a Lucra
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: Hulk-class droid control ship to enforce the blockade there. And
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: then with their invasion. But with Trump, he's able to
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: do all of this with just simply tariffs. But this
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: didn't come out of nowhere in the Star Wars universe. Naboo.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: and the Trade Federation specifically, through an absolute corporate tantrum
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: over the Republic taxing these free trade routes to the
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: outlying systems. They used a logistical stranglehold to force the government,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: the Republic's hand. Trump forcing this tariff onto all of
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: our goods and threatening a 50% one on our cars
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: and trucks and steel, it's another hostage situation. It's the
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: same way, a manufactured, weaponized chokehold. on our borders. But
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Trump isn't firing turbo blasters or lasers. He's using customs
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: forms and raw economic extortion to decapitate the cross-border supply
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: chains and squeeze us into submission. But just like in
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: the movie how, you know, Darth Sidious, who became the Emperor,
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: secretly engineered the blockade to manufacture a political crisis to
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: oust the then current leadership and install himself at the top,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: These tariffs, though, are just pure political theater designed to
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: consolidate domestic leverage. It's the same playbook being played out,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: but we're just dealing with Mar-a-Lago instead of a Sith lair.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: It's getting good. Okay, one of the biggest headlines right
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: now is how Trump is bypassing Congress and I guess
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: what we could call standard trade laws to slap these
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: tariffs unilaterally. So, how closely does that match the political
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: maneuvering in Star Wars?
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: It's the same playbook, Gene. In Star Wars, the Galactic
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Senate was too bogged down in bureaucratic procedural garbage to
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: do a damn thing. Does that sound familiar to the U.S.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: a little bit? Hello. So, in the movie, Palpatine manufactured
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: the border crisis to get the Queen Almedala to grant
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: him to vote non-confidence in the then-Emperor, to put him
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: in as Emperor, giving him emergency executive powers. when the
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Trade Federation got cold feet and then asked Darth Sidious,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: is an illegal blockade actually illegal? What was his line?
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I will make it legal. Look at Trump. He looks
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: to Congress. He looks to the House. He looks to
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the Senate. He looks to the WTO. He invokes the
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: manufactured national emergency on the border, and he says, I'm
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: going to make it legal. I'm going to use my
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: executive powers to tariff Canada into submission. It's the ultimate
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I-will-make-it legal flex. It's pure, unadulterated politics at its rawest,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: its power. And I'm not even going to go the
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Ferris Bueller route right now where we could talk about
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Ben Stein talking about the Smoot-Hotley terror fact and Bueller, Bueller.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Bueller, Bueller. Okay, this is getting good. Okay, so you
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: compare the Trade Federation and Star Wars to countries and
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: modern multinational corporations with CEOs scrambling to Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: to protect their supply chains or cutting profit sharings with
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the government. So are today's corporate leaders basically acting out
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the same script from Star Wars?
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. You know, the Trade Federation in Star Wars
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: wasn't a government. They were just a massive megacorp with
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: a standing droid army, and they did get a seat
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: in the Senate. They got into bed with the populist
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: authoritarian to protect panic margins, and when things got out
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: of hand, they panicked, and they ultimately did get nationalized
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: for their troubles. But look at things today. Look at
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: the boardrooms or look at countries. You have terrified executives.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: You have terrified elected leaders, all either running down to
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Mar-a-Lago or bending the knee to try to get tariff
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: exemptions or to... grant 15 points of their gross margins
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: to keep their operations running, and we've seen that happening
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: right now with private corporations. They think that they're playing
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: 4-D chess against Trump to be able to protect their
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: quarterly dividends or their GDPs or their voting base to
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: still stay happy with them. But at the end of
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: the day, they're just getting played by Trump's executive branch.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is cowardice meeting corporate greed, meeting domestic politics.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I'm still happy that Mark Carney stood up to Trump,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: but I still do want to see what that deal
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: was that we walked away from.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we all do. Okay, so if the U.S., according
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to your scenario here, and I'm loving this, is a
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: central power and the countries and megacorporations are the trade federation,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: where does Canada fit into this whole Star Wars scenario?
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry to say this, Gene, but we are Naboo
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: in this situation. We're the planet being blockaded and invaded.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: We are the polite, overly apologetic, resource-rich neighbor. We just
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: want to sell our goods in peace and exist. But
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: because we share this border with the massive geopolitical entity
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: that's having an absolute meltdown, we're getting squeezed in the crossfire.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: We didn't start the trade war. We just woke up
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: to find our trade routes blockaded while the politicians and
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: the capitals argue over whose fault it is. It's a
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: siege on our economy.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, so we got Ford saying, kiss my ass. He's
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: talking about shutting off electricity exports and Trump team not
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: backing down. So have we completely gone off script or
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: is there yet another Star Wars equivalent for this kind
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: of retaliatory escalation?
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: You know, Ford going full WWE right now on Trump,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: and I saw him walk it back a little bit,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: but I don't buy that he actually believes that. I
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: think he probably got a phone call that said, dial
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: it back 10 points right now. Come on, guy, you
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: made things a little bit worse. I mean, threatening to
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: tax the electrical grid, calling Trump a dictator, king of bankruptcies.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: He's basically became Queen Amidala, realizing she had enough of
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: all the garbage and the gridlock and the bureaucracy, and
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: that she was going to go back to Naboo and
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: fight the battle herself. I mean, her line in the
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: movie was, I was not elected to watch my people
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: suffer and die for this to be discussed in committee.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: And it seems like Ford is actually waking up to
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: the fact that playing nice with an economic bully does
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: get you nowhere. So I like the harsh language right now. And,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: you know, the idea if they're going to park a
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: battleship in our orbit, shoot back at them and hit
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: back harder. And even if your weapon of choice is
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: slapping a massive surcharge on electricity and threatening to shut
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: the lights off, and, you know, not bring in a
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: blaster or a lightsaber, it might work a little bit
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: to make them realize that we're not here to play games.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, finally, in Episode 1, in this whole Star Wars scenario,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: the whole trade dispute in Star Wars eventually leads to
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the fall of the Republic and mass suffering for everyday people.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: So what is the ultimate takeaway for the average Canadian
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: consumer caught in the middle of this trade war thingy
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: And considering it could be yet another Star Wars episode.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: I think the takeaway, Gene, and stick with me for
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: this one, is that when the guys in the suits,
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: the government suits or the Sith robes, start to weaponize
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: the global economy for their own political egos, it's always
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: going to be the working class, the middle class, the
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: lower class that foots the bill. So while Trump and
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Carney and Ford are playing this multi-billion trillion dollar game
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: of chicken right now, you know who's actually being affected
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: by it. It's the workers on the line. It's the
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: consumers in the grocery store. It's everyone in between. The
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Galactic Republic fell because its leaders stopped caring about the
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: actual citizens and got caught up in the bureaucracy of
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: the machinery. We just need to hope that our leaders
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: figure out our border and trade disputes before someone starts
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: building a Death Star.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, on behalf of all Star Wars fans listening
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: this morning, I only have two words. Brilliant. Take it.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Gene.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Talk to you tomorrow morning, okay?
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: 9.15. Looking forward to it. May the force be with you.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: 9.15 on Friday morning. Lit Geek's got a take.