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'You cannot be a sycophant with Donald Trump' former White House insider · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Premier David Eby says this election is in response to
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  Speaker 1: the economic threat from south of the border. Well, joining
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  Speaker 1: me now is someone with firsthand experience working with the U.S.
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  Speaker 2: President.
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  Speaker 1: That is the author of All the Wrong Moves, How
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  Speaker 1: Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, Anthony Scaramucci.
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Scaramucci is a financier, a podcaster, former White House
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  Speaker 1: communications director, and the author of All the Wrong Moves,
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  Speaker 1: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump.
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  Speaker 2: Anthony Scaramucci, welcome to Power and Politics. It's good to
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  Speaker 2: see you, sir.
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  Speaker 3: It's good to be on. Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 1: You lay out three sort of causes that are part
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  Speaker 1: of the origin story of Donald Trump as president. The
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  Speaker 1: decision to integrate China into the world economy the way
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  Speaker 1: it was done, unfunded wars overseas during the Bush years,
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  Speaker 1: and the Wall Street bailout after the global financial crisis
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  Speaker 1: under the Obama years. How do those things come together
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  Speaker 1: to give us a two-term president like Donald Trump?
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  Speaker 4: Well, again, I just want to stipulate the book is
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  Speaker 4: a nonpartisan, at least in my view, nonpartisan, where I
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  Speaker 4: try to objectively look at different presidencies.
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  Speaker 3: There's Democrats and Republicans in the book.
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  Speaker 4: I generally say in the book that these people are well-intended.
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  Speaker 3: People and they're trying to make the right decisions for America.
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  Speaker 4: But sometimes when you're making decisions, you're getting an expected
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  Speaker 4: outcome and.
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  Speaker 3: It goes badly.
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  Speaker 4: And I'll just stipulate that there's at least 30% of
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  Speaker 4: the United States, 40% that feel left out of the system.
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  Speaker 4: There's been rising living standards for a very large group
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  Speaker 4: of people in the country.
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  Speaker 3: But at the same time, there's been stagnating wages.
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  Speaker 4: And when I go around our country or when I
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  Speaker 4: go speak to people overseas, I'm invariably asked, what happened?
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  Speaker 4: How did the United States end up going in this direction?
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  Speaker 4: And so one of the things that I say is
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  Speaker 4: these three catastrophic decisions.
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  Speaker 3: So I decided to write a book about it.
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  Speaker 1: So obviously integrating China and other low-wage economies into the
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  Speaker 1: supply chain shipped jobs overseas. The wars, in particular the
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  Speaker 1: first Iraq war, or sorry, the second Iraq war, cost
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  Speaker 1: a lot of money at a time that taxes were
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  Speaker 1: being cut, led to structural deficits and people had to
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  Speaker 1: fight overseas. And the Wall Street bailout after the subprime
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  Speaker 1: mortgage crisis, people lost their homes. But, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: bank executives kept their wealth. There's a loss and a
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  Speaker 1: resentment that builds up from this. And an outsider like Trump,
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  Speaker 1: that's fertile ground for him, essentially.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no question, but also for Bernie Sanders.
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  Speaker 4: So this is populist movements on the left, populist movements
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  Speaker 4: on the right. And I would just say, if you
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  Speaker 4: go back to the wars, we were running a budget
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  Speaker 4: surplus in the year 2000.
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  Speaker 3: It was our last budget surplus ever.
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  Speaker 4: And we had budgetary controls and budgetary restrictions in place
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  Speaker 4: throughout the 90s. They actually started in George Herbert Walker Bush,
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  Speaker 4: Bush 1's administration, and President Clinton adhered to them.
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  Speaker 3: And this was very good for the country.
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  Speaker 4: We were projected to have a $ 5 trillion surplus from
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  Speaker 4: those budgetary controls, at which point, believe it or not,
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  Speaker 4: we would have been able to.
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  Speaker 3: Pay off our national debt.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: And so by unclipping the budgetary controls after George Walker
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  Speaker 4: Bush became president and then going to war shortly after
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  Speaker 4: the tax cuts, not restoring the Clinton tax hikes.
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  Speaker 3: Was very, very damaging for us. And again, I just
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  Speaker 3: want to give you these stats.
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  Speaker 4: By the time Bush leaves office, we go from George
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  Speaker 4: Washington to George W.
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  Speaker 3: Bush.
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  Speaker 4: We have $ 7 trillion of deficit spending. And in the
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  Speaker 4: ensuing precedents, and there's only three of them, we tack
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  Speaker 4: on another $ 33 trillion of deficit spending.
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  Speaker 3: And it really started with a war.
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  Speaker 4: And the Brown University estimate on that war is $ 8 trillion.
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  Speaker 4: Sometimes I get pushed back, and I try to point
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  Speaker 4: out that we have to count the interest on the money.
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  Speaker 3: People say, oh, no, it's only $ 7 trillion.
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  Speaker 4: I say, well, no, it's $ 7 trillion, but you're racking
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  Speaker 4: up interest because you borrowed that money to prosecute the wars. Right.
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  Speaker 1: And well, and I think it's like a trillion dollars
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  Speaker 1: being added to your debt now, essentially every 100 days,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and it's becoming to the point where the
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  Speaker 1: long term bond yields are over 5 percent. And there
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  Speaker 1: are there are dark clouds on the horizon.
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  Speaker 2: And in this, we have further disruption, right? The whole
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  Speaker 2: political and fairness.
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  Speaker 1: And equity of society was disrupted over a period of
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  Speaker 1: 30 years, say. And now the president is disrupting the
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  Speaker 1: whole global order. Centrist parties are struggling everywhere. He's unleashing
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  Speaker 1: trade wars, especially here with us in Canada. You've been
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  Speaker 1: a fan of how Prime Minister Carney has dealt with
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump, suggesting he's probably handled it better than any
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  Speaker 1: Western leader.
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  Speaker 2: What makes you say that?
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  Speaker 1: Because if you look at where things are, we're not
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  Speaker 1: in talks. The tariffs are still there and the situation
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  Speaker 1: is still grim. So why has it been a success
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  Speaker 1: in your view?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think you know this better than me, but
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  Speaker 4: I think the prime minister has a 70% approval rating
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  Speaker 4: in Canada. I mean, it's been reported here in the
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  Speaker 4: United States that that's the highest approval rating in the
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  Speaker 4: history of Canadian prime ministership. So if I'm wrong about that,
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  Speaker 4: please push back.
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  Speaker 2: No, you're right. You're right.
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  Speaker 4: That's information I'm getting from the national news.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm just saying the Canadian people are with him.
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  Speaker 4: I have said to Prime Minister Carney, because we have
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  Speaker 4: a personal relationship, that pushing back on President Trump is
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  Speaker 4: the only way to handle President Trump. You cannot be
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  Speaker 4: a sycophant with Donald Trump. He will steamroll you and
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  Speaker 4: you will lose your respect. And so you will find
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  Speaker 4: this ironic. And even the prime minister himself is starting
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  Speaker 4: to say this to members of the media.
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  Speaker 3: President Trump probably calls him more than any other Western leader.
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  Speaker 4: And that's because he's garnered a level of self-respect for
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  Speaker 4: himself and respect for the.
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  Speaker 3: Country of Canada. So.
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  Speaker 4: If this is going to go on, if it's a
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  Speaker 4: protracted trade war, the estimate is that the Canadians will
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  Speaker 4: lose 89,000 jobs and it will cause a recessionary retraction
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  Speaker 4: in your economy. But I don't predict that that's going
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  Speaker 4: to happen. You've got a very tough, strong backbone prime minister.
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  Speaker 4: He's trying to maintain the integrity, the sovereignty, and the
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  Speaker 4: national standing of Canada. And after his middle power speech
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  Speaker 4: that he gave in in Davos, which I was there
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  Speaker 4: with him and spent time with him that night, I
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  Speaker 4: believe he's doing the right things for Canada. The attachment
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  Speaker 4: potentially to the EU, the energy exportation to other.
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  Speaker 3: Countries besides the United States.
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  Speaker 4: Listen, it pains me to say this because I have
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  Speaker 4: a love affair with Canada and I certainly love my country.
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  Speaker 3: And there's absolutely no reason that we should be.
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  Speaker 4: Having this level of animosity at the political level, trade level,
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  Speaker 4: booing each other's national anthems, whatever it might be, it's
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  Speaker 4: all Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 3: He is the individual.
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  Speaker 4: That has changed the landscape of what has been several
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  Speaker 4: hundred years of great Canadian-U.S.
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  Speaker 3: Diplomacy, rapport, and relationship.
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  Speaker 4: And so I think it's very important for your leadership
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  Speaker 4: to push back on.
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  Speaker 3: Somebody like Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 4: And I'll just point out, we have a 70% approval
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  Speaker 4: rating for Mark Carney But a 70 percent, roughly, is
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  Speaker 4: 68 right now, disapproval rating for Donald Trump. And when
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  Speaker 4: the Canadian issue is polled, the average American, there are
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  Speaker 4: 70 percent of them that say they do not like
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  Speaker 4: the trade war with Canada.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no question Prime Minister Carney's approval is sky high.
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  Speaker 1: And he's got this web of global connections that he's
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  Speaker 1: using to try to diversify trade and integration with the
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  Speaker 1: European Union and other things like that, as you've pointed out.
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  Speaker 1: But there's 850 days, as we're having this conversation, left
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  Speaker 1: in the Trump presidency, which by the measurement of time
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  Speaker 1: you created, that's what, 80 to 85 Scaramucci's?
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  Speaker 2: How do we.
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  Speaker 1: Change the trajectory of this relationship in the time that's left?
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  Speaker 2: Because people look to the midterms.
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  Speaker 1: It's unclear to me if that actually reigns in Donald Trump,
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  Speaker 1: even if they get thrashed in those. What's your sense
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  Speaker 1: of what Mark Carney and everybody else can do to
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  Speaker 1: try to move it back to more of a baseline
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  Speaker 1: scenario as long as Trump is president?
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  Speaker 3: I don't want to be pessimistic about this.
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  Speaker 4: I don't think the relationship is going to move back
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  Speaker 4: to something that it was 10 years ago anytime soon.
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  Speaker 3: Only because I do.
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  Speaker 4: Believe that President Trump has done serious damage and created
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  Speaker 4: a lot of distrust, not just for Canadians, but Europeans
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  Speaker 4: and other strong allies.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know. This is right out of Putin's checklist.
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  Speaker 4: I would love to have an American president that disrupts
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  Speaker 4: and threatens NATO, threatens Greenland, starts a trade war with
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  Speaker 4: their longest standing ally, an ally that they have no
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  Speaker 4: military on.
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  Speaker 3: On one of the longest borders in the world.
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  Speaker 4: I don't know if you're going down Putin's checklist when
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  Speaker 4: he leaves office and he eventually will leave office.
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  Speaker 3: There'll have to be a period of healing. So I'm
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  Speaker 3: a realist. I'm optimistic long term about the trajectory where
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  Speaker 3: all of us are going.
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  Speaker 4: But, you know, as you mentioned, you know, there's 850
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  Speaker 4: days left to go of Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 5: I predict and I've said this often on the rest
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  Speaker 5: of politics. He's going to get worse after the midterm.
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  Speaker 5: He's not going to get better.
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  Speaker 4: The only way things would get better quickly is if
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  Speaker 4: the Republicans and the Democrats in both houses of that
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  Speaker 4: Congress teamed up and forcibly controlled the president and or.
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  Speaker 3: Frankly, removed him.
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  Speaker 5: And so the likelihood of the Republicans doing that is
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  Speaker 5: very low because.
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  Speaker 3: They're afraid of him. And the Democrats, frankly, are very disorganized.
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  Speaker 5: So Donald Trump is going to be looming over us
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  Speaker 5: for the next two years and three months.
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  Speaker 3: And he's going to be giving us a problem.
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  Speaker 4: And this is something that I'm personally disgusted by because
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  Speaker 4: we should have people.
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  Speaker 3: In our government.
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  Speaker 5: The whole process of the Constitution was to have checks
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  Speaker 5: and balances so that when you have a rogue or
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  Speaker 5: nefarious government, malevolent operator, you have other courageous patriotic people
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  Speaker 5: that step in to check and control that operator.
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  Speaker 3: And I find.
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  Speaker 4: This will be a stain on American history for decades
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  Speaker 4: to come. And, you know, there's Jacob Weisberg. You probably
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  Speaker 4: know who he is. He just wrote a book called
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: Profiles in Cowardice, which is a take on John Kennedy's
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  Speaker 4: book in the 1950s, Profiles in Courage.
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  Speaker 3: And he's basically saying you've got a bunch of cowards
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  Speaker 3: that should have stood up to Trump.
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  Speaker 4: And by not standing up to Trump, they're accomplices in
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  Speaker 4: the hurt that he's putting on our country, your country
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  Speaker 4: and the rest.
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  Speaker 3: Of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, your founding fathers, they contemplated a president like this,
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  Speaker 1: but not necessarily a Congress like this.
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  Speaker 2: And hence the moment we're all in.
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  Speaker 1: Anthony Scaramucci, author of All the Wrong Moves.
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  Speaker 2: There's the book right there. Thanks for your time.
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  Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: There you go. We appreciate you coming on. Good luck, sir.