After President Trump imposed tariffs in Canada on Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an extraordinary statement that was largely lost in the moment.
“The pronunciation he gives today for these tariffs of the fantanil is completely false, completely unjustified, completely false,” said Mr. Trudeau to the newspaper media in Ottawa.
“What he wants to see is the complete collapse of the Canadian economy, because this will make it easier for us to have a side dish,” he added.
This is the story of how Mr. Trudeau went from thinking that Mr. Trump joked when he called him a “governor” in early December, and Canada as a “51 state”, to publicly state that the closest ally and neighbor of Canada implemented the demolition strategy to take over it.
Calls February
Mr. Trump and Mr. Trudeau spoke twice on February 3, once in the morning and again in the afternoon, as part of the discussion to reject tariffs on Canadian exports.
But these calls did not only apply to tariffs in early February.
Details of conversations between two leaders and subsequent discussions among top American and Canadian officials have not been fully reported before, as the New York Times divided them, provided four people with their first -hand content. They did not want to be publicly identified by discussing the sensitive topic.
On these calls, President Trump presented a long list of complaints he had with the trade relations between the two countries, including a Canadian protected dairy sector, difficulties with US banks face the business in Canada and the Canadian consumption tax that Mr. Trump considers unfair because they make US goods more expensive.
He also outlined something much more fundamental.
He told Mr. Trudeau that he did not believe that a contract that demarcies the border between the two countries is valid and that he wants to revise the border. He did not offer further explanation.
The border contract that Mr. Trump mentioned was founded in 1908 and completed the international border between Canada, then the British domination and the United States.
Mr. Trump also mentioned that he revised the division of lakes and rivers between the two countries, which was regulated by a series of contracts, a topic he expressed interest in the past.
Canadian officials took Mr. Trump’s comments seriously, not at least because he had already said publicly that he wanted to bring Canada to his knees. At a press conference on January 7, before being inaugurated, Mr Trump, he answered the question of a New York Times journalist about whether he was planning to use a military force to support Canada, he said he was planning to use an “economic force”.
The White House did not answer the commentary request.
During the second call on February 3, Mr. Trudeau secured a one -month delay of these tariffs.
This week, US tariffs came into force without a fresh refund on Tuesday. Canada in return imposed her own tariffs on US exports, twisting two countries in a trade war. (On Thursday, Mr. Trump approved Canada a multi -month suspension on most tariffs.)
The views of the rupture between Mr. Trump and Mr. Trudeau and the aggressive plans of Mr. Trump for Canada have become obvious in the last few months.
Star, Canadian newspaper, reported That Mr. Trump mentioned the 1908 border contract in early February and other details from the conversation. And the financial time reported that there are discussions in the White House to remove Canada from the key intelligence federation among five countries, attributing them to a higher Trump advisor.
Doublement
But he was not only the president who talked about the border and waters with Mr. Trudeau, he was distracted by the Canadian side.
The persistent social media references to Canada as 51 States and Mr. Trudeau as a governor began to thank both within the Canadian government and beyond.
Although Mr. Trump’s remarks could be a glittering or negotiating tactic to press Canada on concessions to trade or border security, the Canadian side no longer believes that this is so.
And the realization that Trump’s administration took a closer and more aggressive view of the relationship, the one that followed with these threats of annexation, sank during the following calls between top Trump officials and Canadian colleagues.
One such invitation was between the Hward Lutnika trade secretaries – who had not yet confirmed the Senate – and Canadian Finance Minister Dominic Leblanc. Two men have regularly communicated since they met at Mar-A-Laga, the home and the club of Mr. Trump in Florida, during a visit to Mr. Trudeau in early December.
Mr. Lutnick called Mr. Leblanca after the leaders spoke on February 3rd and issued a devastating message, according to several people who were familiar with the call: Mr Trump, he said, realized that the relationship between the United States and Canada was managed by a series of agreements and a contract that was easy to leave.
Mr. Trump was interested in that, said Mr. Lutnick.
He wanted to expel Canada from the intelligence exchange group known as five eyes that also includes Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
He wanted to tear the agreements on the Great Lakes and the Convention between the two countries that exposed to sharing and managing the Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario lakes.
And also inspects the military cooperation of the two countries, especially the command of the Air Force Defense in North America.
Mr. Lutnicka spokesman did not respond to the commentary request. Mr. Leblanc’s spokesman refused to comment.
In later communications between senior Canadian officials and Trump’s advisers, this list of topics appears over and over, which made the Canadian government make rejection.
The only soothing nerves came from State Secretary Marc Rubio, four people were familiar with this question. Mr. Rubio refrained from conveying threats, and recently rejected the idea of being viewed by the United States to abolish military cooperation.
But Canadian politicians across the spectrum and the Canadian society were generally abolished and deeply concerned. Officials do not see the threats of Trump’s administration as empty; They see a new normal when it comes to the United States.
On Thursday, at a press conference, a journalist asked Mr. Trudeauu: “Your Foreign Minister has characterized it all as a psychodrama yesterday. How would you characterize it?”
“Thursday,” Mr Trudeau collapsed ugly.
