Trump's Petulance

Donald Trump just declared war on his friends. Tariffs went live, Ukraine support collapsed, and J.D. Vance is chiming in from the sidelines like a petulant child. This week Joseph Lavoie and Andrew Percy try to make sense of what the hell just happened to the Western Alliance.

This is a Cheeky Half, which means it's just the two of us, a couple of beers, and a lot of swearing about the state of the world.

We discuss:

NATO is dead. If Russian troops march into Lithuania tomorrow, does America trigger Article 5? Andrew wrote the piece. Neither of us thinks the answer is yes anymore.

The Starmer gambit. Did the British Prime Minister figure out how to handle Trump with that King Charles letter, or did he just get played? And why Canadians are pissed their own head of state is hosting the guy who just slapped 25% tariffs on them.

Where are the voices? Republican congressmen told us in December none of this would happen. Now it's happening, and they're silent. Lindsey Graham is out there defending Trump's treatment of Zelensky. What the hell happened?

The trust problem. Joseph and Andrew have spent years as some of the staunchest pro-American foreigners you'll meet. If Trump is losing people like them, America has a problem that lasts long after 2028.

Redraw your risk matrix. Anything that touches US politics just went from unlikely to high likelihood, high impact. Plan accordingly.

Also discussed: whether this is all some grand disruptive strategy or just making it up day by day, why J.D. Vance's dismissal of European troops is historically illiterate, the 5am Vancouver earthquake Joseph felt while nobody else did, and two very different beers: a creamy Woz IPA from Beak Brewery and a surprisingly light bourbon porter from Strange Fellas.

Recorded March 4th, 2025, the day Canada's 25% tariffs went live.

00:00 Welcome and Yorkshire chaos — heating failures and London traffic
03:14 The Zelensky Oval Office disaster — Trump's petulant performance
04:30 JD Vance chimes in — the petulant child problem
05:24 America declares war on its friends — the end of Western hegemony
06:41 Is there a grand strategy or just chaos? The rationality question
09:07 The conspiracy theorist question — is Trump a Russian asset?
11:10 Where are the Republican voices? Lindsey Graham's self-debasement
12:08 Tariffs go live — 25 percent on Canada and the downstream pain
14:57 Keir Starmer's Trump strategy — King Charles invitation and diplomatic coordination
22:03 NATO is dead — what happens if Russia invades the Baltics?
22:56 European security is American security — the insult of forgotten sacrifice
25:38 What's become of America? Losing the staunchest pro-American allies
26:49 The West minus the US — reorganizing without American leadership
28:25 Trump's address to Congress — must-see TV or must-throw-things-at-screen TV?
30:19 Redraw your risk matrix — practical advice for dealing with Trump chaos
31:00 Beer talk — Beak Woz IPA and Strange Fellas Velvet Porter
34:46 Earthquakes and apocalypse humor — wrapping the cheeky half