A WORLD GONE MAD
A Progressive Liberal News Podcast
Veteran Television, and Radio Broadcaster Jeff Alan Wolf offers his Observations on the issues (many issues) of the week with a fearless liberal bent. His solid delivery, and dry common sense approach sets him apart from other liberals that populate Talk and Commentary Podcasts”
Jeff Does NOT Pull Punches.
He does NOT Make comments that are “SAFE”.
He tells the Truth.
(He Tells It As He Sees It)
He Is Very OPINIONATED!
He says the things Out Loud YOU’RE
already thinking.
Jeff is Unfiltered, Unspun, A little Unhinged, but offers a lot of Common Sense.
This Podcast could make you MAD.
This Podcast could make you SMILE.
Regardless, it WILL make you THINK!
A WORLD GONE MAD
Trump Lies About EU and China, Billionaires Agree With Trump?, Greatest Theme Park Ever?
Trump's global tariff policy continue to send markets into a tailspin, with traders desperately searching for any sign that these sweeping measures might be paused or reconsidered. What began as a 10% baseline tariff on all imports has escalated to targeted duties of 34% on Chinese goods and 20% on European imports. However a surprising group of elite people do NOT agree with Trump’s policies.
The economic warning signs are flashing red.
Trump defends his actions with assertions that don't align with reality. Trump makes ridiculous claims about the EU, and China.
Meanwhile, Trump finds time to attack an artist's portrait of him at the Colorado Capitol, potentially destroying her 40-year career, while meeting with Netanyahu about Gaza and tariffs.
Against this chaotic backdrop a new theme park is week’s away from opening. Potentially the world's largest theme park, and it might turn out to be the greatest!
Good things CAN happen in A World Gone Mad.
Join me in making sense of this madness and share your thoughts at wolfpacklistener@gmail.com or 833-399-9653.
Together, we'll navigate these uncertain waters and find reasons for hope amid the chaos.
AWorldGoneMadPodcast@gmail.com
This is a World Gone Mad. This is a World Gone Mad, mad, mad, mad, mad. This is a World Gone Mad. Welcome to the Resistance.
Speaker 1:I'm Jeff Allen Wolfe and I give my commentary on national and world news and politics. Here we go. Us stocks are extremely volatile again as Wall Street is still rattled by Trump's tariffs. Us stocks were volatile today, monday, tumbling, surging and then bouncing around in every direction as traders searched for any sign that President Donald Trump's tariffs could be negotiated or halted. Markets around the world had tumbled earlier in the day over concerns about how Trump's sweeping tariffs might upend the global economy and stymie economic growth.
Speaker 1:Us stocks opened today in bear market territory but surged an hour later on rumors that the Trump administration may pause tariffs, perhaps for several months. That rumor turned out to be just that. A White House official called any suggestion that Trump would pause tariffs fake news. And despite hopes that some trading partners, including the EU, might be willing to negotiate with Trump, the president dashed detente hopes when he said he could slap another 50% tariff on China. And just like that, the Dow, which had risen nearly 900 points, was back down once again. The wild swings in markets underscore just how badly investors want Trump to put a pause on his trade war. Us stocks surged off their lows, even briefly turned positive on the rumors of the pause. However, that rebound proved fleeting as traders realized nothing official from the White House had been announced. That was a good example of what would happen if we actually got some rational thought mixed in with the ignorant tariff policy. Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Reilly Wealth Management, told CNN in a phone interview Monday. The stock market vigilantes have spoken loudly that we need rational thought mixed in with this trade policy, and there is none so far. Hogan added that oversold markets, desperate for good news, are subject to wild swings that could quickly reverse. You know the markets are waiting on Donald Trump. They just indicated that and Hogan just said that we need rational thought. The markets are looking for leadership from Donald Trump. Donald Trump doesn't know the meaning of the word leadership and until he does which is doubtful that'll ever happen the markets are going to be volatile and drop further.
Speaker 1:Trump falsely says Europe doesn't buy anything from the United States and wildly exaggerates trade deficit with China. From the United States and wildly exaggerates trade deficit with China. Speaking to Reporter Sunday on Air Force One, president Donald Trump defended his new global tariffs with a familiar series of false claims about tariffs and trade and, as he said before, trump wildly exaggerated the US trade deficit with China, describing it as more than three times higher than it actually is. He repeated his frequent false claims that China paid the tariffs he imposed during his first presidency on imported Chinese products. These payments were made by US importers and Trump once again falsely described trade with Europe, wrongly saying the continent doesn't buy anything from us. In reality, the European Union purchased about $649 billion worth of US exports in 2024.
Speaker 1:Trump said Sunday that the US has a trade deficit with China of $1 trillion or more. We have a tremendous deficit problem with China. They have a surplus of at least $1 trillion or more. We have a tremendous deficit problem with China. They have a surplus of at least $1 trillion a year. I think it's like a trillion and one. Trump said those numbers are not close to accurate. In fact, official federal statistics show the 2024 deficit with China in goods and services trade was about $263 billion. Even if you exclude the services trade, at which the US excels, and count only trade in goods, the 2024 deficit with China was about $295 billion. The US has never approached a $1 trillion trade deficit with China. The deficit in goods trade alone hit a record of about $418 billion under Trump in 2018, before falling back under $400 billion in subsequent years.
Speaker 1:Trump made a series of false claims about trade with Europe, all repeats from previous comments he said Sunday they don't take our cars, they don't take our food products. They don't take anything. And we take their cars Mercedes, volkswagen, bmw. You know we take their millions of cars. They take no cars. Trump said they don't take our farm product. They don't take anything. Well, no shock to the Wolfpack listeners. None of this is correct. They don't take anything. As far from the truth. While the European Union certainly has some trade barriers that make it harder for US companies to export products there, the official federal statistics show the US exported about $649 billion worth of goods and services to the European Union in 2024. It's similarly false that they don't take our farm products, while the EU does have some trade barriers on that that impede US agricultural exports. The US Department of Agriculture says the EU bought $12.8 billion worth of US agricultural exports in 2024, making it the fourth largest export market for US agricultural and related products behind Mexico, canada and China, and while US automakers have often struggled to succeed in Europe, trump went too far when he said they take no cars. According to a report last month from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, 164,857 US-made cars were exported to the EU in 2024, valued at about $8.4 billion at current exchange rates. Some of these are vehicles made by European automakers at plants in the US.
Speaker 1:Let's not sugarcoat this, okay. You can't operate a country like America, or any country for that matter, if you are a habitual liar. Trump is a little boy, an insecure little boy, making up crap just to justify his decisions. This is the so-called leader of the free world, the most powerful man in the world, making up bullshit on a daily basis, even even sometimes hourly basis. This doesn't work. It causes massive damage, increases stress level among the citizens. Yet his supporters don't understand these premises. Lying doesn't steady the ship's course to make America supposedly great again. We need a person in the White House who doesn't make up fake facts and figures to suit his purpose, who doesn't distort the truth because he's so freaking insecure. This has been Trump's MO since he was a little boy and all the way up to now, adulthood. No wonder America is in trouble.
Speaker 1:Benjamin Netanyahu arrives at the White House for a meeting with Trump. President Donald Trump greeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outside the West Wing ahead of their Oval Office meeting. Now the leaders are expected to discuss a wide range of issues, including Israel's war in Gaza and the Trump's tariffs. The White House canceled a news conference that was set to happen this afternoon. Earlier today, kevin Heset, the director of the White House National Economic Council, said Monday's meeting between both leaders will be the first in-person meeting with a foreign country trying to negotiate with the president on the tariffs that he announced last week. You know. I'm very interested to hear what comes of this meeting. Trump placed tariffs on Israel. Netanyahu wants to own all of the land in the Gaza area. Trump wants to make Gaza into a Riviera resort. Our country is so screwed and the world is so screwed with leaders like these two. Would leaders like these two?
Speaker 1:Painter of truly the worst Trump portrait says president's comments threaten her art career. The painter, whose portrait of Donald Trump was removed from the Colorado State Capitol after the US president branded it truly the worst, says that criticism has put her four-decade art career at risk. In a statement published to her personal website, portraitist Sarah A Boardman said Trump's allegation that she purposely distorted his image was directly and negatively impacted by business, which is now in danger of not recovering. Boardman's painting had hung alongside portraits of other US presidents at the state capitol in Denver for almost six years before Trump voiced his displeasure with the artwork on social media. Last month, the work was subsequently removed at the request of Republicans, including Colorado Senator Minority Leader Paul Lundin, who said it should be replaced with one depicting Trump's contemporary likeness. The Associated Press reported In a post published on True Social, the US president had written nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado in the state capitol, was purposefully distorted to a level that even I perhaps have never seen before.
Speaker 1:Trump unfavorably compared the painting to Boardman's portrait of former President Barack Obama, which hung beside it in the capitol's third floor rotunda, writing Trump did his looked wonderful, while the one of me is truly the worst. Trump also took a personal swipe of British-born boardmen, saying she must have lost her talent as she got older. All right, let me state this up front to all of you listening. All of us, all of us have some vanity to some extent, agreed. I mean I'm doing a podcast now, and when I did television, I wanted to make sure I look good in my media photos. It's honest looking at ourselves and not liking what we see sometimes. So, with that comment in mind, I wanted to see the portrait that Trump was referring to. So I looked online expecting I don't know, quite frankly, what I was expecting. Either Donald was full of shit or the portrait truly is a lousy portrait. I looked at it and it honestly looks fine. I'm trying to be objective as a Democrat. He has puffy cheeks in the portrait. He's older, but that's what he looks like.
Speaker 1:You, the listener, go take a look at the painting, decide whether you think Donald is right to complain about this or not. But the issue is to ruin someone's career by denigrating a painter. Saying she is so bad is just irresponsible. But what the hell am I thinking? We're talking about Donald, the insecure, delusional nutcake who's running the White House. You know the old saying birds of a feather flock together. Well, billionaires must love Donald Trump with everything he's doing. Au contraire, mon ami.
Speaker 1:Wealthy business leaders are turning on US President Donald Trump over his plan to impose a colossal set of tariffs on America's trading partners as losses mount on stock markets around the world. Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump's 2024 presidential bid, warned Sunday that going ahead with the new tariffs was tantamount to launching an economic nuclear war. On Wednesday, trump said he would impose significantly higher reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries that have the highest trade imbalances with the United States. In a post on X, ackman said business investment will grind to a halt and consumers will close their wallets. If the new levies do indeed come into force, we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world. That will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate. He added in the post, which was viewed, by the way, by 10.6 million people. Already, trump's baseline 10% tariff on all goods imports into the US went into effect Saturday, and dozens of economies are bracing for even higher levies starting Wednesday. Those harder-hit countries include major US trading partners, china and the European Union, which face new duties of 34% and 20% respectively.
Speaker 1:Other billionaires and wealthy business leaders have also openly criticized Trump's tariff agenda in recent days, as fear over its economic fallout gripped markets. Jamie Dimon, ceo of JP Morgan, warned Monday that the tariffs threatened to raise prices, drive the global economy into a downturn and weaken America's standing in the world. The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession, diamond said in an annual letter to shareholders. Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth, he said. Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller, founder of the Dukes Family Office, an investment firm, said in a post on X Monday that he did not support tariffs exceeding 10%. Druckenmiller is worth an estimated $11 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Speaker 1:Even Elon Musk yeah, the man who thinks he's president, the world's richest man and top Trump accolade said Sunday that he hoped for a zero-tariff situation between Europe and the US. In an interview with Italy's Deputy Prime Minister, matteo Salvini via video link, musk said he wanted to see an effective free trade zone created between Europe and North America. If you're a mid-sized or even a large cap company, you're going to be very hesitant about what to do. Musk said. If those tariffs are going to be negotiated back down again in a few months' time, then you'd be wasting your time investing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in new plants in the US, musk concluded In his post.
Speaker 1:Ackman said the new tariffs were massive and disproportionate. Saying this is not what we voted for. He called for a 90-day timeout in which Trump could negotiate with trading partners to resolve unfair, asymmetric tariff deals. Trump has set his tariff agendas designed to redress years of lopsided trade between America and its partners, caused, in his view, by other countries imposing steeper tariffs on US goods imported into their markets than the US does on theirs, but investors are clearly not convinced by the wisdom of Trump's plan. When your own peers think what you're doing is wrong, that says a lot, billionaires hating what Donald is doing. Trump won't listen, though, and I'm laughing and wondering how anyone keeps supporting this man when his fellow billionaires think his policy on tariffs is wrong.
Speaker 1:And finally, flying dragons and omnidirectional elevators. This and more inside Epic Universe, one of the largest, most expensive theme parks ever made, as if the words from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix have jumped off the page into reality. Fluorescent green fog surrounds people walking through a Wizarding World flu network transit tunnel, to be greeted on the other side by an atrium with soaring ceilings depicting moving storm clouds. It might be the first time muggles those who are non-wizards have been inside the Ministry of Magic. This is just one jaw-dropping moment for guests to experience when Universal Orlando Resort officially opens its third and newest theme park, epic Universe, on May 22nd. It's the first major theme park to open in Central Florida in 26 years. At 750 acres, that's right, including both guest areas and backstage space for employees. It is believed to be the largest theme park in the world, estimated to have cost up to $7.7 billion to build, according to Dennis Spiegel, owner and founder of consulting firm International Theme Park Services. Universal hasn't commented on the park's cost. I've seen them all, spiegel said, of theme parks around the world, and Epic Universe, he said, is too damn good thing to do with Universal's use of the most advanced technology available, coupled with intentional design to build a sense that the visitor is truly in a fantastical space with no glimpse of the outside world.
Speaker 1:With so much buzz around Universal's new park, industry experts are watching for Disney's response. Disney and Universal are in the greatest boxing match that has ever been at this point in time and it's a slugfest, spiegel said. I believe that within 12 to 16 months, disney will announce its fifth gate theme park because it's necessary. Disney's still the dominant leader in the theme park industry. Currently has four theme parks on its Walt Disney World property in Central Florida, the last one, which opened in 1998. Now, for the moment, the company has announced a slew of new themed lands and attractions within existing parks, but no new theme park.
Speaker 1:Is Epic Universe going to put Disney out of business? Absolutely not. Is it going to put a chink in their armor? Yes, it will, spiegel said. He added that he expects 2025 to be a year of heavy discounting by all parks, not just to compete with Epic Universe, but to anticipate a worsening economy, even with the stock market roller coasters and Goldman Sachs predicting that recession odds are rising. Spiegel predicts at least 6 million guests will visit the Epic Universe theme park within its first year alone.
Speaker 1:And I didn't even tell you the Wolfpack listener details of the Epic Universe theme park. Go, check out online. Read for yourself some great stuff. When you see what they're going to do, you will be excited. If you like theme parks, I'm not suggesting everyone with limited income can go visit Epic Universe, but if you can, or you can get a gift from a relative or a friend for a birthday or you're planning a celebration, it probably would be worthwhile to check out Epic Universe. Nice to know there's something worthwhile to look forward to in our country, with everything negative going on right now, and if you care to comment on this or anything in this episode, or even just to say hello, jeff, it would be nice to hear from some of you Now. I do hear some of you breathing out there in the background, so I know you're listening.
Speaker 1:Wolfpacklistener. At gmailcom. You can reach me, email 833-399-9653, toll-free voicemail box or leave me a comment on Blue Sky if you're there, and please check out my Substack. I just started that again. You can find it on Substack, look under Jeff Allen Wool, the Wool Sten, or you could contact me. I'll send you a direct link to Substack to make it easier for you. I'll be back again in two days. This is A World Gone Mad. I'm Jeff Allen Wool. Without your comments, your feedback, your engagement, I'm sitting in a room talking to myself. Stay hopeful, democracy. This is a world gone mad. This is a world gone mad.
