I’ve clearly never been afraid to wade into unknown or even hostile waters, as a populist nationalist who worked…at CNN, for years.
During the Trump and Vance campaigns, I was the regular go-to spokesman for the most adversarial interviews, such as my 2020 battle vs. Chris Wallace, then he was still at Fox News — and virulently anti-Trump!
This group in Toronto was by no means rude, like Wallace was.
In fact, they were personally gracious and they deserve credit for inviting me to attend, given my views which clearly contravene the overriding themes of their conference.
This gathering was an august room of some of the most influential leaders in the Americas, with some representation from Europe as well. As you might expect, these powerbrokers pine for a return to the old “rules base order” — which basically means that the U.S. provides world security while American workers get completely hosed by foreign interests.
They also long for the Republicanism of Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham…meaning a political party that wants to intervene all over the world but refuses to defend the domestic Main Street interests of the American masses at home!
So, from CEOs to think tank directors to Ambassadors, this crowd is still overwhelmingly frustrated with populism, broadly. More specifically, they remain intrinsically opposed to America First, and basically aghast that President Trump is back in the White House. Most of them remain blind to the damage that was done to working class constituencies in America (and much of the West) from the misguided rush toward globalization and the massive offshoring of production from the United States.
They also remain far too naive regarding China and the predatory aims of the CCP, both in trade and in national security realms.
Did I win over any hearts and minds? Probably not.
But attending these kinds of events to persuasively explain our movement…it’s important! We can calmly make the facts-based case for the patriotic populist agenda, including appropriate protectionism in trade.
After my presentation, one of the senior leaders of the conference complimented me, sort of…saying “you say harsh things in a very not-harsh manner.”
I’ll take it!
Steve
