MAGA billionaire Kevin O’Leary says he’s blocking out all of the “noise and bluster” about “pencils and dolls” from doomsday critics who insist that Donald Trump’s unnecessary trade wars soon will throw gasoline on smoldering inflation, while producing empty shelves, layoffs and likely a recession.
O’Leary — known for his curmudgeonly deal-making on the TV show “Shark Tank” — predicted “100%” that the Trump administration will get trade deals done with America’s top partners — Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Switzerland, Italy and India — within the next four or five months.
Former Democratic New Jersey Congressman Tom Malinowski, who appeared with O’Leary on CNN, smirked.
“Trump said, ‘This will be easy,’ just as he said that solving the Ukraine war will be easy,” Malinowski said. “‘We’ll do it on the first day. Solving the Gaza war will be easy. [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] will just do what I ask him to do.
“‘I’ll impose tariffs on every country in the world, and before long, every single one of them will be begging me, will be coming to the White House to kiss my ass.’ And it hasn’t happened. It’s not going to happen. One reason it’s not going to happen is because … the most popular thing to be in the world right now is a leader who stands up to Donald Trump. And that’s not a situation that’s conducive to these countries compromising with us on trade or anything else.
“So, you know, maybe if we’re looking for meaningful deals, it could take a year,” Malinowski said. “It could take two years. The American economy does not have that time. Small business people don’t have that amount of time. Truck drivers don’t have that amount of time. Consumers who worry about inflation don’t have that amount of time.”
When Trump first announced his tariff plans, O’Leary — a huge Trump supporter — said, “I would like to go to DEFCON 1 with China, tariffs 400 percent, I brought it up, bring the supreme leader to Washington, or crush his economy until he has riots in the streets for food.”
On Tuesday, Trump’s tense meeting with Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney ended without trade deal, but with Canadians (and the rest of the world) cheering each time Carney poked Trump — like over the border and Trump’s delusion that Canada someday will become part of the United States.
“Somebody drew that line many years ago with, like, a ruler, just a straight line right across the top of the country,” Trump said in the Oval Office with Carney beside him. “When you look at that beautiful formation when it’s together – I’m a very artistic person — but when I looked at that, I said: ‘That’s the way it was meant to be.’”
One nation is not how Carney believes it was meant to be.
“As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale,” Carney said. As Trump quietly remarked, “That’s true,” Carney continued.
“And having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign last several months, it’s not for sale,” Carney added. “It won’t be for sale ever.”
Later, when asked what he was thinking as Trump talked about claiming Canada as the 51st state, Carney told reporters: “I’m glad that you couldn’t tell what was going through my mind.”
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