Trump Digs Economic Hole Deeper...

About a month ago, Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Besson declared Operation Economic Outcast against Iran, that we are going to so isolate the Iranian regime that they will be crippled. Just you wait. In two weeks, there will no longer be an Iranian regime. They will beg us for a deal. They will say, you have tortured our civilians so much by not letting them use commercial flights and not getting food and medicine, that the people are saying, we need Donald Trump and Besson, the people who are torturous. Same thing in Cuba. You torture the people enough, and then the people will love you. That's the thesis from Donald Trump and Besson with economic outcasts. But it seems that the Trump regime makes themselves more and more economic outcasts by the day. Take a look at what's happening in Canada, for example, where Prime Minister Carney held a press conference in Alberta with their premier, Daniel Smith, about building a pipeline to get crewed out through the West Coast, take it directly to Asia, and not send it to the refineries in the United States. Great work there, Trump regime. And the Trump regime says, South Korea, they gave us $54 billion for an LNG, $54 billion for an LNG deal in Alaska. One problem, President Lee of South Korea said, we never did that. I mean, there are, I guess, preliminary discussions, but we're not doing a deal there. And this is Donald Trump this week, the Pied Piper, a fraud, frankly, it's him every week. And he's picking locations where MAGA Republicans are trailing behind in the election. So this week, he held the press conference about Iowa. And Donald Trump has these friends in India who have an operational base. And he has them say, we're going to do a $20 billion facility in Iowa. One problem, Iowa doesn't know about it. I mean, the Iowa legislature never approved such a thing. They never did environmental studies or actually look at the permitting process or any of it at all. And I saw a bunch of local Iowa TV doing deep dives and they're like, nope, this isn't happening. We don't know when this is going to happen. We don't know when this is going to be happening. And, you know, he just wants to put numbers on the board. Billion, billion, billion, billion. Then Donald Trump takes his shtick to Europe to shake them down. We're going to do an economic diesel ban in the United States. Unless, Europe, you do what I say. In essence, threatening a global depression. Because if the United States did a real diesel ban, a diesel export ban, rather, you know, Europe relies on a lot of money. If the United States did a real diesel ban, a diesel export ban, rather, you know, Europe relies on a lot of money. And these statements over here, they serve no interest other than, I guess, a propaganda for a small audience in the United States and Donald Trump. And, you know, this is long-term damage being caused here. I want you to break this all down because I just think we're outcasting ourselves, Justin. I love the fact that you put a thousand things on the table and say, now find the golden thread that connects these. You know, the way I thought about this, because you and I did another video this weekend we're releasing. Ever listen to like a Slipknot song or like one of those like real heavy metal? You got the guy who comes in and screams, and then you have the guy with the melodic voice who comes in and goes, you're that guy. You're the melodic voice. Is that me? I tell you what, Ben, here's something for you. If you scream like thrash metal, I will do a melodic bit right now. What do you reckon? I reckon that you'll just deliver the economic news. Okay, fine. And I'll wear my purple shirt. Did you just chicken out? If you want Ben to sing next time, make sure to put it in the comments and I'll see what I can do for you. I didn't even force him to be melodic. I'm not melodic for crying out loud. Look, here's what I want to pick up on. Everything that's going on there, these so-called international deals, it's actually something that's been going on for a long time. And it reveals something about our political and media environment. So, for instance, Trump says, I've got a deal with South Korea. They're going to help us out. And South Korea's like, who are you? Have we even met? I don't know what you're talking about. We've seen that play out over and over, particularly through the second Trump administration. And here's the deal. Basically, Trump understands the American media better than it does. He will actually get in a room with someone or maybe he'll have someone send him an email. And they'll get to a point where they say, let's do a press conference. The press conference usually is Trump declaring victory so that he wins the day's news cycle. And the other side basically being able to go home and say, I managed to tame Trump. It could have been so much worse. But what happened, and I want you to think back to the trade war of 2025, I know it's still going on, is they'd always announce it. And then three days later, you go looking for the paperwork. And the thing is, three days is longer than an American news cycle. And what would inevitably happen is there was nothing after the press conference. And I remember we were told we were going to get 90 trade deals in 90 days. Well, the administration is very pleased, very puffed up about that. It actually got, by my measure, zero. Now, by their measure, they got a couple. For instance, the United Kingdom went to sign something. But it was an understanding that there was an understanding that maybe in the future they'd come to an understanding. And they got halfway through talking to the Europeans and learned something we all know. That takes a lot of patience. The Europeans don't move quickly. And before you know it, the Supreme Court had ruled all the tariffs illegal. All the deals that Trump thought he had, none of them were signed. In fact, most of them never really actually existed at all. They were talks to have talks. I mean, it's like dating in middle school, frankly. But the thing is, I was struck time and time again. I would talk to American journalists. And they'd say, well, what about this deal, the one with Europe, the one with Canada, the one with the Ukraine? I'd be like, there is no deal. Just go to the White House website. See if you can find the text. Go to the other country. This thing that happened with South Korea has happened time and time and time again. It means that the president has garnered a lot of headlines, presumably that's what he wants, but actually done nothing. That, in turn, speaks to this broader issue you're getting at, Ben, which is he's spending American capital. He's spending our goodwill, the trust that others have in us, the faith that they might have. And increasingly, foreign leaders are learning either pretend to give him something and then go away and actually run a real country the right way. or just duck and stay away from the whole darn game altogether because it's going to hurt you politically and it's not going to help you because he's not going to give you anything useful for your economy. And this, I think, comes back to so-called Operation Economic Outcast. It's that same pattern once again. So Scott Besant swallows a testosterone pill and announces that it's economic D-Day. Wow. I don't know about you, mate, but I don't talk about D-Day when I'm talking about anything other than something really very, very serious that I mean and that involves a tremendous willingness to sacrifice, a real challenge. But what happened? Well, let me explain what Operation Economic Outcast did. It attempts to cut off the Iranian economy and the Iranian people from the rest of the world. It's based on an interesting, that's a generous term, premise that if you starve a people that they will revolt against their leaders rather than the folks who starved them. But it's actually even, you know, I think a little bit weirder than that. So the law, the parts of it they can enforce is against people like you and me. If you've got family back in Iran and you would like to send them some cash so that they can eat, so they can buy fuel, so they can get medical care, that's now illegal. You might be off to jail. That's the attempt to isolate. It was meant to be that great. But then actually think about the reality of the isolation. Since Operation Economic Outcast was announced, maybe folks haven't been sending money to loved ones in Iran, but the Iranian leadership has met with the leaders of Switzerland, Norway and the Netherlands and Lebanon and China and the Emirates and Russia and Iraq and Egypt and South Africa and Malaysia. And did I say India yet? Qatar. That's not isolation. Honestly, it sounds like a 21st birthday party. I didn't have that many people come to celebrate my birthday. So the only pain here is not actually against the folks we do want to hurt. It's regular folks in Iran. And regular folks in America. So all of that talk has failed to isolate the Iranian regime in any important way. And no one has followed through to ask those hard questions that you invited us to ask, Ben. And so this is what they're going to do. I mean, and you have Trump saying, you know what, if the Democrats who he says, the Democrats, if they win, there's going to be a Great Depression and the federal reserve board, it's made up of all Democrats, even though I got Kevin Warsh in there and there's lots of Republican, it's going to be their fault also. And it's going to be the fault of, you know, we had to stop the nuclear weapon. You know, if you, if you go back to COVID his whole claim, which is BS, because things were going bad before that, but that was an accelerant and you're in office, your job is to deal with catastrophe, you know, in his story, everything was going good, then this thing happened and then Dr. Fauci happened and then I got ruined my whole plans, you know, and now he's, you know, the setup is everything was going great. We set up the banquet and then this happened. I had to stop the nuclear weapons that I claimed I obliterated the prior year. And I'm the one who pulled out of the JCPOA and now it is and he's got a bunch of different people. It's Zelensky's fault for striking Russian refineries. It's the fault of Democrats. Generally, it's the fault of Jerome Powell. It's the fault of, you know, and so it's just this blame game. And that's where I see he's heading into because he's not, you know, it's hard making hard decisions, but you got to make him sometimes. And this is where we keep on going. And, you know, just like he's, you know, frozen in the Strait of Hormuz. Fake deal, fake deal, fake deal. That's what he does. Like, that's his thing. Two weeks to the health care plan. Two weeks to this. Two weeks to that. And then the thing just spirals out of control. And then he waits and then he's like, OK, who's who's my blame? Who's my blame? You. You're my blame. And then that's his that's his shtick. And he keeps going through it. I'll give you the final word, but that's what alarms me. I think you're right to say none of this is particularly edifying. And Ben, it's kind of you to offer me the final word. But actually, I want to come back to you on this because I don't know what to do and I'm totally serious and I would like your help on this. The point that you just made was every time he happens, his mouth, he lies. So then there's a question, should we spend time on the lies? And I just don't know the answer if I want to understand the future of the American economy. I look at what he does, not what he says. But if you and I don't talk about what he says, are people believing the falsehoods? I just don't know. Well, I think this there's a trillion dollar media apparatus, quite literally, that is invested in just being a stenographer and pumping whatever words he says, no matter how outlandish it is. So I think it's incumbent to immediately, even if it's exhausting, even if it's annoying, even if people say, I don't want to hear what he says, I still think we're duty bound to say, this is it. This is a lie right away, and then provide a way out and provide the truth and say, well, here is the accurate information. But then I think the third point is we can't be involved in the day we can, but we can't get lost in treating all of this like it's a game between the Mets versus the Yankees or the Celtics versus the Lakers or pick your favorite football or soccer team competing against each other, that we're on Team America, and we have to be going in a direction that benefits this country, and we exist in a world where we have to be responsible globally. We're global citizens. And so we have to make all of those connections. And so to me, that's how we have to report on them the way we did here, the way you and I just did it. And I think that's what's missing. If it takes us 16 minutes and 12 seconds, that's what it takes. Sometimes you can't get it done in two minutes and 30 seconds. And if you get it done in five minutes, great, if it takes 30 minutes, great. But I think that's what an audience is hungry for right now. Well, Ben, I'm just going to say, I appreciate you. I thought that was the words of a wise man. I was genuine in saying, I don't know the right answer. You've got a view. It's refute the lie first. As an economist, when I'm trying to understand the future of the economy, I don't need to listen to the words because the words are irrelevant. But I think you're right. As a communicator, we need to be clear about what is true and what isn't true. And at one level, I want to thank you, Ben, but I think the real heroes here are our audience. These are folks who are tuning in because they want the truth. And so, mate, you and I have a real responsibility here. Thank you. Yeah, it is. And that's what I think makes our platforms imbued with the community first lens is recognizing that it is, it is that that's why we do this, you know, is because we have these incredible communities who want the truth and want to be a part of this and we listen and that's what's most important. So everybody subscribe to Platypus Economics, that's Justin Wolfer's YouTube channel. And if you want Ben to sing next time, put it in the comments. Maybe give him a part that you want him to sing. He said he set the bar pretty low, death metal. I reckon death metal's not that hard to just yell a little bit, Ben. I'll try next time, next time. Justin Wolfer's Platypus Economics, subscribe to his YouTube channel. And he's also the chief economist here in Midas. Thanks, Justin. Thanks, mate. Everybody hit subscribe. Before you go, our book WTF America is available for pre-order now. It's the story of how we got here and how we fight our way back. To pre-order scan the QR code. Or click the link in the description. Let's do this.