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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald

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Speaker 1: from newstalk ZB.

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Speaker 2: I saw a brilliant cartoon the other day which had

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Speaker 2: America's founding fathers sitting around a table riding up the

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Speaker 2: country's constitution, and they'd all agreed that the US wouldn't

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Speaker 2: have a king, that they were mowing the idea of

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Speaker 2: having a drama queen instead. Brilliant cartoon, and after what

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Speaker 2: we're saying overnight, I think it would be pretty hard

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Speaker 2: to argue that the current US president is anything else

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Speaker 2: but a drama queen. He's also an economic vandal, so

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Speaker 2: you will have caught up with US. Donald Trump has

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Speaker 2: announced that he's pausing his global trade tariffs for ninety

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Speaker 2: days for most countries, but he's upping the ante with China,

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Speaker 2: increasing the tariff on Chinese goods going into the States

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Speaker 2: to one hundred twenty five percent, and as Chinese political

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Speaker 2: scientist Shi Yi Hoong is saying today, this is going

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Speaker 2: to mean that trade between China and the US will

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Speaker 2: be quote mostly destroyed. American economist Arthur Kreeber agrees, saying

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Speaker 2: that what's happening right now, right this morning, shows that

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Speaker 2: Trump is committed to ending US trade with China, which

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Speaker 2: in my mind equates to one thing, economic vandalism. That's

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Speaker 2: what Trump is. He's an economic vandal And if you

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Speaker 2: want more proof, just listen to what America's Treasury secretary said,

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Speaker 2: we want to go. This is Scott Bessant. He said

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Speaker 2: a couple of hours ago that this temporary flip flop

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Speaker 2: will U turn or whatever you want to call it.

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Speaker 2: He says it was Trump's strategy all along. I'm going

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Speaker 2: to quote him directly because it's an absolute shocker. He says,

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Speaker 2: quote this was his strategy all along, and that you

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Speaker 2: might even say that he go to China into a

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Speaker 2: bad position and they responded. He says, they have shown

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Speaker 2: themselves to the world to be the bad actors, and

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Speaker 2: we are willing to cooperate with our allies and with

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Speaker 2: our trading partners who did not retaliate. He says, it

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Speaker 2: wasn't a hard message, don't retaliate, things will turn out well.

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Speaker 2: How chilling's that If that is the case, then it

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Speaker 2: says that Trump planned this all along, and he was

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Speaker 2: comfortable with the idea of causing economic chaos around the world,

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Speaker 2: and maybe that shouldn't surprise me, which is why I

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Speaker 2: mentioned that cartoon was before the one with the founding

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Speaker 2: Fathers talking about America having a drama queen instead of

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Speaker 2: a king, because all of this taro stuff, it's been

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Speaker 2: the work of a drama queen. But I reckon that

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Speaker 2: this development overnight has taken at next level when we've

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Speaker 2: got the head of the Treasury in the States saying

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Speaker 2: that was Trump's plan all along to slap countries with tariffs,

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Speaker 2: see which ones retaliate, and then give the countries which

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Speaker 2: don't retaliate some sort of ninety day get out of

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Speaker 2: jail card, which I mean what this is. As well

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Speaker 2: as economic vandalism, it's also political bullying. Until yesterday, it

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Speaker 2: was Donald Trump riding roughshod. Until earlier this morning, anyway,

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Speaker 2: it was Donald Trump riding roughshod over the global economy. Overnight,

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Speaker 2: though it's become clear that it's much more than that,

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Speaker 2: because if the plan all alongs to hit countries with tariffs,

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Speaker 2: give the ones who behave ninety days off, but go

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Speaker 2: harder on the ones who fight back, that's bullying as

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Speaker 2: far as I'm concerned. It's clear now that Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: wants the world to cower in fear of him, doesn't

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Speaker 2: he And it's working. I mean not that I expect

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Speaker 2: or want our government to go ape at him and

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Speaker 2: his administration, because that will achieve nothing. But the careful

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Speaker 2: language we're hearing from Nichola willis it's appropriate, totally appropriate,

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Speaker 2: but it shows that even our government is walking on eggshells.

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Speaker 2: Can I take you back to November November last year,

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Speaker 2: when Trump won the presidential election, political commentator Matthew Houghton,

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Speaker 2: he said that the US was entering quote its most

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Speaker 2: dangerous period since eighteen sixty one, the start of the

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Speaker 2: Civil War. He also said that the world was entering

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Speaker 2: its most dangerous phase since World War II. He said,

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Speaker 2: back in November, quote, the world enters its most dangerous

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Speaker 2: period since World War Two, with Trump threatening to launch

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Speaker 2: a global trade war and collapse the World Trade Organization.

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Speaker 2: He said that during his last term, Trump had at

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Speaker 2: least had some people in his circle who could be

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Speaker 2: relied on to keep his most extreme tendencies in check,

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Speaker 2: but Matthew Houghton said, quote, there are no such people

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Speaker 2: around him this time, nor is he constrained by the

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Speaker 2: need to worry about re election. Hence his conclusion that

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Speaker 2: we the States and the world were entering very dangorous times,

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Speaker 2: and I think maybe he's turned out to be right.

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Speaker 2: And I'm starting to think. What's more, I'm starting to

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Speaker 2: think that maybe I was wrong, because when I read

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Speaker 2: his article on the Herald, I said to you that

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Speaker 2: on the basis of the world not falling apart last

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Speaker 2: time he was president, I wasn't going to buy into

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Speaker 2: the I wasn't going to buy into the hysteria. I

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Speaker 2: did say at the time, I could be proven wrong.

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Speaker 2: And look, going by the way the world looks this

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Speaker 2: morning and the way the world feels this morning, I

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Speaker 2: may have just been proven wrong.

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Speaker 1: For more from Canterbory Mornings with John McDonald, listen live

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Speaker 1: to news talks It'd be christ Church from nine am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.