Donald Trump’s Summer of Screwing Our Allies
The Bulwark · C · trust 39/100
Trump’s offensive against America’s friends has produced outrage in Italy, defiance in South Korea, and a renewed trade war with Canada.
Jill Lawrence August 25 Upgrade to listen 7 minutes 25 5 5 (Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/ The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock) WHERE DO I LINE UP to get Canadian citizenship?
Kidding, not kidding. Americans have sought refuge in Canada for all kinds of reasons over the centuries. Fugitive slaves crossed the border to avoid being returned to their owners. Later came tens of thousands of Vietnam War resisters. Now it’s common to hear Americans talk about moving there to escape the Trump administration, and some are actually doing it.
Leaving Donald Trump behind is an excellent reason to relocate north of the border, and I can’t say I’m not tempted—especially now. That’s because Prime Minister Mark Carney just exposed Trump’s absurd delusions of conquest with a series of hair-raising details about the trade negotiations that began over a year ago .
“We recognized from the start that America has changed,” Carney said Saturday. “Our government understood before many . . . that it would put a series of tariffs on its closest allies and use economic integration as a weapon. We recognized that sometimes, its signature was written in pencil.” Then, asked for examples of last-minute deal-breakers, he offered three he said would have compromised Canada’s economy, culture, and sovereignty.
Diplomatic shockers are far from rare these days. It was only June when Trump told an Italian TV station that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had “begged” him for a photo at the G7 Summit. This triggered an international incident: A fed-up Meloni called Trump’s claim “completely fabricated” and said she was stunned. “There is one thing he should remember,” she added. “Italy and I do not beg.” The Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, called Trump’s remark offensive to Meloni and his country, and immediately canceled a planned U.S. trip.
Then came Trump last week ordering the Pentagon to substantially cut back this year’s joint military drills with South Korea. He cited the U.S. ally’s refusal to help fight Iran (Trump’s ongoing catastrophic war of choice) as well as his own “good relationship” with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, supreme leader of the nuclear-armed Communist dictatorship.
“Kim Jong-un has always treated me with great respect,” Trump said. “I understand him. He understands me.” Translation: We wouldn’t want to provoke such a nice guy; that would be “inappropriate and hostile.” Got it.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s response amounted to “get off our lawn” and do it faster. The U.S. military has been deeply involved in South Korean defense since the Korean War, and Lee has been working toward regaining full control. A Guardian headline nutshelled it : “South Korea president calls for military independence in wake of Trump call to cut joint drills.”
Words fail, as they so often do these days, in considering these incidents with Italy and South Korea. And yet, what Trump has wrought with Canada lifts us to mind-boggling heights of gall and fantasy. Take the three demands from Trump, via Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, that Carney said drove him to suspend negotiations:
Limits on Canada’s ability to negotiate and sign trade deals. Canada has negotiated twenty economic and security partnerships in the last year, and forthcoming deals in the next six months could double its market access. “We’re the partner of choice in many respects for countries around the world and the Americans wanted to restrict that. . . . It’s a power play and becomes a question of sovereignty.”
Continual efforts “until the very last minute” to restrict French language protections (like bilingual labels), Canadian culture, “and in effect our sovereignty,” even though “these issues were never on the table” and never will be.
Late U.S. demands that would have been unfair to Canadian auto parts and extended favorable tariff treatment to some cars and trucks but not others. The exclusions were “a big change” with no rationale given, Carney said, and would have made Canadian vehicle production “more uneconomic over time.”
Why negotiate for over a year and then, at the very end, make egregious demands no self-respecting nation would or could accept? Why pick a fight with a simpatico neighbor in the first place? “We cannot cave to a bully,” Canadian author Louise Penny wrote on Facebook. “It was Trump who threatened ruinous tariffs to begin with, out of the blue. An attack on a longtime friend, trading partner and ally. He declared the war.”
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The Republican party past and present made an appearance Sunday when Mike Pence, Trump’s first-term vice president, said sensibly that a trade war with Canada is “the last thing we need right now” but Sean Duffy, Trump’s current transportation secretary, said it’s foolish for Canada “to think that they’re going to go to war with Donald Trump and actually win that war.”
Alternatively, Trump may have awakened a sleeping giant.
Carney says Canada is in “the strongest fiscal position in the G7,” it’s creating jobs “at four times the rate of the United States,” and it has become “more unified, more determined, more ambitious” since Trump launched his tariff wars last year. And though he didn’t brag, Carney’s own background bolsters Canada’s prospects. Beyond his economic degrees from Harvard and Oxford and long career in finance, he is the first person to head two G7 central banks (the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England).
Let’s see.…
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