A new Campaign Research poll in Canada finds that 81% of Canadians said they “disapproved” of the job President Trump is doing, while 11% approved and eight per cent didn’t know.
The poll also found 72% believe Trump’s protectionist policies have “harmed” the Canadian economy, while only 3% said they have “helped.”
“Top Canadian officials, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, rushed to express support for Ambassador Kelly Craft after a package containing a suspicious substance and a death threat was mailed to the U.S. diplomat,” Bloomberg reports.
“White powder was found Thursday in a package addressed to Craft at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa and discovered by a mailroom employee at the ambassador’s residence… An expletive-filled letter containing death threats against Craft, Trump, and members of Trump’s family was also enclosed.”
President Trump said that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “learned” from the mistake of criticizing him and it’s going to cost Canada “a lot of money,” the Globe and Mail reports.
“He said the Canadian leader must not have realized that Trump had televisions on Air Force One, allowing him to monitor Trudeau’s news conference at the end of the G7 summit.“
New York Times: “It takes a lot to rile people in this decidedly courteous nation. But after President Trump’s parting shots against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the day he left the Group of 7 summit meeting in Quebec, the country reacted with uncharacteristic outrage and defiance at a best friend’s nastiness.”
”Canadians across the political spectrum said that while the world had grown used to Mr. Trump’s social media rants, the ferocity and personal tone of the insults against Mr. Trudeau had crossed a line. Some even asked whether Canadians should boycott United States products and stop travel south of the border.”
“President Trump upended two days of global economic diplomacy late Saturday, refusing to sign a joint statement with America’s allies, threatening to escalate his trade war on the country’s neighbors and deriding Canada’s prime minister as ‘very dishonest and weak,’” the New York Times reports.
“In a remarkable pair of acrimony-laced tweets from aboard Air Force One as he flew away from the Group of 7 summit toward a meeting with North Korea’s leader, Mr. Trump lashed out at Justin Trudeau. He accused the prime minister, who hosted the seven-nation gathering, of making false statements.”
Bloomberg: “His comments undermine the G-7, a bloc that was once a pillar of U.S. foreign policy and has long acted as a defender of the global economic system. It could also cause fresh friction with his northern neighbor as tensions percolate over efforts to redraw the North American Free Trade Agreement.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “sharply criticized President Trump’s tariffs and promised Canada would answer with its own on July 1 unless the United States reversed course,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trudeau: “I highlighted directly to the president that Canadians did not take it lightly that the United States has moved forward with significant tariffs on our steel and aluminum industry. Particularly, they did not take lightly that it’s for a national security reason that for Canadians … who stood shoulder to shoulder with American soldiers in far off lands in conflicts from the first World War onwards, it’s kind of insulting.”
He added: “Canadians, we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”
President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “had a testy phone call on May 25 over new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration targeting steel and aluminum imports coming from Canada, including one moment during the conversation in which Trump made an erroneous historical reference,” CNN reports.
“Trudeau pressed Trump on how he could justify the tariffs as a ‘national security’ issue. In response, Trump quipped to Trudeau, ‘Didn’t you guys burn down the White House?’ referring to the War of 1812.”
“The problem with Trump’s comments to Trudeau is that British troops burned down the White House during the War of 1812. Historians note the British attack on Washington was in retaliation for the American attack on York, Ontario, in territory that eventually became Canada, which was then a British colony.”
“President Trump boasted in a fundraising speech Wednesday that he made up information in a meeting with the leader of a top U.S. ally, saying he insisted to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the United States runs a trade deficit with its neighbor to the north without knowing whether that was the case,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “Trudeau came to see me. He’s a good guy, Justin. He said, ‘No, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please. Nice guy, good-looking guy, comes in — ‘Donald, we have no trade deficit.’ He’s very proud because everybody else, you know, we’re getting killed.”
He added: “… So, he’s proud. I said, ‘Wrong, Justin, you do.’ I didn’t even know… I had no idea. I just said, ‘You’re wrong.’ You know why? Because we’re so stupid… And I thought they were smart. I said, ‘You’re wrong, Justin.’ He said, ‘Nope, we have no trade deficit.’ I said, ‘Well, in that case, I feel differently,’ I said, ‘but I don’t believe it.’ I sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out, I said, ‘Check, because I can’t believe it.’”
Canada is increasingly convinced that President Trump will soon announce that the United States intends to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Reuters reports.
“The sources said they expected Trump would make his move at about the same time that negotiators from the United States, Canada and Mexico meet in late January for the sixth and penultimate round of talks to modernize the treaty.”
“White House staff called the Prime Minister’s Office last month to urge Justin Trudeau to persuade President Trump not to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement,” the National Post reports.
“The unconventional diplomatic maneuver — approaching the head of a foreign government to influence your own boss — proved decisive, as Trump thereafter abandoned his threat to pull out of NAFTA unilaterally, citing the arguments made by Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto as pivotal.”
“But the incident highlights the difficulties faced by governments all over the world when it comes to dealing with a president as volatile as Trump.”
“To those fleeing persecution, terror and war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength.”
— Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, on Twitter.
Canada’s Parliament broke into chants of “four more years” as President Obama wrapped up the first address there by a U.S. leader since 1995, the New York Times reports.
The reception prompted Obama to joke that the “extraordinary welcome” tempted him to just “shut up and leave.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Wonk Wire, Political Job Hunt and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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