There may be the idea that President Trump remains to be bitter about his Canadian lodge ventures that went bust.
Some, on social media, have speculated {that a} 2019 {photograph} wherein Justin Trudeau appeared poised to kiss Melania Trump, the primary girl, at a Group of seven gathering in France, left Mr. Trump with a grudge in opposition to the dashing Canadian prime minister.
After which there’s the transactional view, that Mr. Trump sees the acquisition of Canada because the 51st state as the final word actual property deal that will seal his presidential legacy.
As Mr. Trump prepares to push forward with a brand new spherical of tariffs on the USA’ neighbors to the north and south, he has expressed a particular model of loathing for Canada. The bullying of a rustic whose most outstanding stereotype is that its individuals are “good” has led to political upheaval in Canada and created each consternation and hypothesis about why Mr. Trump needs to interact in a commerce struggle with certainly one of America’s greatest buying and selling companions.
“I can’t fairly determine it out,” mentioned Stephen Moore, the Heritage Basis economist and former adviser to Mr. Trump. “Whether or not it’s some type of strategic leverage, I don’t know.”
Noting that there’s “no love misplaced” between the president and Mr. Trudeau, Mr. Moore added: “With Trump, politics is private.”
Mr. Trump has threatened to hit Mexico and Canada with 25 p.c tariffs on all imports on Tuesday until the nations do extra to forestall migrants and medicines from flowing into the USA. On Saturday, the president picked one other commerce struggle with Canada, this time over lumber.
Intrigue abounds in Canada about why Mr. Trump has repeatedly belittled a neighbor and threatened to destabilize its economic system with tariffs, a course of that has introduced relations between the 2 nations to a low level not seen in many years.
In distinction to the shut and supportive relationship that Mr. Trudeau, who’s getting into his ultimate week in workplace, loved with one other U.S. president, Barack Obama, his relationship with Mr. Trump has been fractious.
In 2018, following the Group of seven summit assembly in Charlevoix, Quebec, Mr. Trump heckled Mr. Trudeau on social media, accusing him of being “very dishonest and weak” and of constructing up “false statements” whereas suggesting that he would possibly impose tariffs on Canadian-made autos.
Whereas Mr. Trudeau was typically circumspect in his public remarks about Mr. Trump in the course of the president’s first administration, the 2 males have dramatically totally different private and political types. Mr. Trump bombastically denigrates individuals he perceives as opponents, whereas Mr. Trudeau typically speaks concerning the worth of bringing individuals collectively, what he as soon as referred to as a “sunny methods” strategy to political life.
In candid remarks to a bunch of enterprise leaders final month that was captured by a microphone, Mr. Trudeau provided a idea for Mr. Trump’s Canada obsession that’s extensively shared within the nation.
“Not solely does the Trump administration know what number of vital minerals now we have, however which may be even why they maintain speaking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,” Mr. Trudeau instructed the gathering in Toronto.
“They’re very conscious of our assets,” Mr. Trudeau mentioned, “of what now we have, and so they very a lot need to have the ability to profit from these.”
He added: “However Mr. Trump has it in thoughts that one of many best methods of doing that’s absorbing our nation. And it’s a actual factor.”
Mr. Trump does have a specific affinity for minerals. He has been pushing to dealer a deal to safe entry to Ukraine’s provide of uncommon earths as he seeks to dealer an settlement to finish its struggle with Russia.
As a businessman, Mr. Trump had two dealings with Canada that, whereas comparatively restricted, have been each failures. The Toronto lodge and condominium mission, owned by a Toronto investor who licensed the Trump title and employed a Trump firm to handle it, went into receivership in 2016. The next yr, a lodge owned by Malaysian buyers bearing the Trump title, once more underneath license and with the same administration contract, opened in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Promotional materials exaggerated the constructing’s top.) It failed, as nicely.
Each motels, which now function underneath totally different names and administration, have been magnets for protesters in a rustic the place Mr. Trump has lengthy been unpopular for his “America First” views and disparagement of Canada. Earlier than the Vancouver opening, the town’s mayor on the time, Gregor Robertson, wrote to the constructing’s homeowners asking that they not use the Trump title on it.
“Trump’s title and model haven’t any extra place on Vancouver’s skyline than his ignorant concepts have within the trendy world,” Mr. Robertson wrote.
Earlier than delving into politics, Mr. Trump expressed little in poor health will towards Canada.
In 2012, when the Obama administration was delaying a call on approving the Keystone XL Pipeline, which might have transported oil from Canada to the USA, Mr. Trump declared on social media that the mission should transfer ahead.
“We have to use our assets and assist allies like Canada,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
However by 2015, his perceived failings of the North American Free Commerce Settlement between the USA, Canada and Mexico turned a central difficulty of Mr. Trump’s first presidential marketing campaign. Mr. Trump routinely referred to as the deal a “catastrophe” for American staff, and prioritized scrapping the pact as a primary order of enterprise if he received the election.
An settlement to overtake the commerce deal was signed in 2020 after fraught negotiations between the three nations that usually grew contentious. At one level, Mr. Trump advised leaving Canada on the sidelines and continuing with a deal between the USA and Mexico.
Now again in workplace, Mr. Trump has made clear that the settlement he signed didn’t do sufficient for the USA and should be rewritten. In latest days he has lashed out at Chrystia Freeland, the Canadian official who negotiated it on behalf of Canada.
“She’s a whack,” Mr. Trump mentioned of Ms. Freeland, who was Canada’s deputy prime minister and finance minister in the course of the president’s first time period, in an interview with The Spectator.
As Mr. Trump has wielded the specter of new tariffs on Canada during the last month, his tone towards the departing prime minister has been much more derisive. He has nicknamed Mr. Trudeau “governor” amid persistent options that the USA would possibly annex Canada.
Mr. Trump even referred to as for the previous Canadian hockey participant Wayne Gretzky to run for prime minister, suggesting late final yr that he would “win simply.” Mr. Gretzky, who doesn’t assist Canada’s becoming a member of the USA, has confronted backlash at house from residents who view him as a traitor due to his affiliation with Mr. Trump.
The insults have led to a growth in nationalism in Canada, together with “Made in Canada” Fb teams. In a single group, which has greater than 1,000,000 members, Canadians in contrast notes on pancake mixes which are made in Canada and provided suggestions on flavors of Cove Soda, a possible various to Coca-Cola.
“There’s a generalized sense of patriotism that has not been evident in Canada in a few years in response to Trump and Trump’s hostility,” mentioned Ira Wells, a professor on the College of Toronto’s Victoria School.
However Mr. Trump seems unfazed by Canada’s declarations of independence. He indicated final week that the USA was additionally ready to sever ties with Canada with out adjustments to the commerce relationship between the 2 nations.
The USA, Mr. Trump mentioned, has no want for Canadian merchandise corresponding to lumber, and he asserted that Canada couldn’t survive with out American army safety and favorable commerce phrases.
“I really like Canada, I really like the individuals of Canada,” Mr. Trump mentioned at a cupboard assembly on the White Home. “It’s not honest for us to be supporting Canada — If we don’t assist them, they don’t subsist as a nation.”
