It is too early in the day for my blood pressure to be this high.
We work up this morning to this story.
So he is cancelling trade negotiations with Canada because a provincial government took our an ad that uses the words of Ronald Reagan to make the point that tariffs are not a very good policy tool! He complains of an attempt to influence the upcoming Supreme Court case which will decide the legality of the tariffs he has imposed.
There are so many ways that this pisses me off…
First, the fact that this U.S. president, let alone any of them, forgets their own history in foreign interference is stunning. Foreign interference is the modus operandi of the Trump Administration. In my news feed from just today I can find stories reporting on efforts aimed at regime change in Venezuela; a $40 billion bailout of Argentina that is conditioned on his buddy President Milei being reelected; tariff threats to Brazil following the guilty verdict in the case against another Trump acolyte, Bolsonaro, for an attempted coup; tariff threats to Spain if they don’t come into line on NATO spending. And let’s not forget the “51st State” insult that he constantly comes back to with Canada. Yet… Trump says “Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country.” Bully’s just hate it when you call them out.
Second, the ad, and Trump’s reaction, has seemingly undone a lot of careful, quiet work that PM Carney and his team have been doing with Washington on some important sectoral deals. Trump tariffs are ruining significant sectors of the Canadian economy. Canada is a federation, of course, and while leadership on international trade lies with the federal government, Canada has tried to hone a Team Canada approach to trade negotiations which involves provincial governments when issues involve their jurisdiction. Some provincial premiers, Ontario’s Doug Ford in particular, have tried to carve out bigger, more performative roles for themselves in the fight against Trump…it’s good politics here. But surely Ford would have known that his ad would anger King Don. Did he tell Ottawa he was going to run it…or did he just run it? Last I looked Ontario did not have responsibility for tariff policy. Performative politics can get you into trouble…and this seemingly has. But it has also clearly touched a nerve with Trump. Was it worth it? I doubt it, but time will tell. Managing Canadian international trade policy should be left to the federal government. The Premier should have stayed away this ad and continue the fight elsewhere.
Finally, the twisting of the truth by Trump (and I gather the Reagan Foundation…with claims that i) Ontario did not seek permission to use the Reagan video and they are looking at their legal options (the old chestnut in the U.S. politics of when the going gets rough, threaten litigation), and ii) the double speak that Reagan was in favour of tariffs and Ontario used only an edited portion that was not a true representation of the Reagan speech. The Reagan speech is freely available on-line…see below. And it is a pretty clear endorsement of free trade when listened to (or read) in its entirety.
Also read “What Ronald Reagan said about tariffs as Trump cancels Canada negotiations”
Leave a Reply