There’s the idea that President Trump continues to be bitter about his Canadian resort ventures that went bust.
Some, on social media, have speculated {that a} 2019 photograph during which 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 towards 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 might 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 persons are “good” has led to political upheaval in Canada and created each consternation and hypothesis about why Mr. Trump needs to have interaction in a commerce struggle with one among America’s largest 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 form 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 stop migrants and medicines from flowing into the USA. On Saturday, the president picked another trade fight with Canada, this time over lumber.
Intrigue abounds in Canada about why Mr. Trump has repeatedly belittled a neighbor and threatened to destabilize its financial 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 coming 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 creating up “false statements” whereas suggesting that he may impose tariffs on Canadian-made autos.
Whereas Mr. Trudeau was usually circumspect in his public remarks about Mr. Trump throughout the president’s first administration, the 2 males have dramatically completely different private and political kinds. 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” method to political life.
In candid remarks to a bunch of enterprise leaders final month that was captured by a microphone, Mr. Trudeau supplied a idea for Mr. Trump’s Canada obsession that’s broadly shared within the nation.
“Not solely does the Trump administration know what number of important minerals now we have, however which may be even why they maintain speaking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,” Mr. Trudeau advised the gathering in Toronto.
“They’re very conscious of our sources,” Mr. Trudeau mentioned, “of what now we have, they usually 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 selected 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, had been each failures. The Toronto resort and condominium undertaking, owned by a Toronto investor who licensed the Trump identify and employed a Trump firm to handle it, went into receivership in 2016. The next 12 months, a resort owned by Malaysian traders bearing the Trump identify, once more below license and with an identical administration contract, opened in Vancouver, British Columbia. (Promotional materials exaggerated the building’s height.) It failed, as properly.
Each inns, which now function below completely different names and administration, had 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 name on it.
“Trump’s identify and model don’t have 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 sick will towards Canada.
In 2012, when the Obama administration was delaying a choice on approving the Keystone XL Pipeline, which might have transported oil from Canada to the USA, Mr. Trump declared on social media that the undertaking should transfer ahead.
“We have to use our sources 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 problem of Mr. Trump’s first presidential marketing campaign. Mr. Trump routinely referred to as the deal a “catastrophe” for American employees, and prioritized scrapping the pact as a primary order of enterprise if he gained the election.
An settlement to overtake the commerce deal was signed in 2020 after fraught negotiations between the three nations that always grew contentious. At one level, Mr. Trump suggested 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 have to 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 throughout 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 recommendations that the USA may annex Canada.
Mr. Trump even referred to as for the previous Canadian hockey participant Wayne Gretzky to run for prime minister, suggesting late final 12 months that he would “win simply.” Mr. Gretzky, who doesn’t assist Canada’s becoming a member of the USA, has confronted backlash at dwelling from residents who view him as a traitor due to his affiliation with Mr. Trump.
The insults have led to a boom in nationalism in Canada, together with “Made in Canada” Fb teams. In a single group, which has greater than one million members, Canadians in contrast notes on pancake mixes which can be made in Canada and supplied 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 modifications to the commerce relationship between the 2 nations.
The USA, Mr. Trump mentioned, has no want for Canadian merchandise equivalent to lumber, and he asserted that Canada couldn’t survive with out American army safety and favorable commerce phrases.
“I like Canada, I like the individuals of Canada,” Mr. Trump mentioned at a cupboard assembly on the White Home. “It’s not truthful for us to be supporting Canada — If we don’t assist them, they don’t subsist as a nation.”
