U.S. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser is warning Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney not to try and match Trump’s rhetoric in future talks on trade and tariffs, and that doing so could further damage relations between the two countries.
John Bolton says relations with Trump under Carney, who was sworn in as prime minister on Friday, “can’t get much worse” than how they got under Justin Trudeau, but said Carney needs to be careful with the language he uses moving forward.
“He can take any approach he wants on substance, but he shouldn’t sound like Donald Trump,” he told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block.
“You’re not going to improve things by trying to match Trump’s rhetoric. Number one, no sane person can do it, and number two, it’s not going to help get a better outcome.”
Bolton pointed to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comment last week that Canada is “a neighbour, they are a partner … perhaps they are becoming a competitor now,” when asked if the U.S. still considers Canada a close ally as proof of the power rhetoric has in a relationship.
“It’s better to grit your teeth than to say things in public that could make it worse,” he said.
Canadian officials — including Ontario Premier Doug Ford and federal ministers Dominic LeBlanc and Francois-Philippe Champagne, who will continue to serve in Carney’s cabinet — emerged from a meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last week with promises of further talks and confidence about negotiating a deal on trade favourable to Canada.
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All levels of government have been seeking to resolve the growing trade war with the U.S. that began in early March, with promises of further “reciprocal” tariffs matching those charged on U.S. products set to begin April 2.
In his first press conference as prime minister on Friday, Carney said he was ready to meet with Trump to discuss issues of trade and other matters important to both countries, but he had no immediate plans to visit Washington.
He also dismissed Trump’s repeated calls to make Canada the 51st U.S. state — a threat he’s made alongside allied world leaders and defended by members of his administration — as “crazy.”
“We will never, ever, in any way, shape or form be part of the United States,” Carney said.
Bolton said it’s “completely ridiculous” to discuss the question of annexation after the resignation of Trudeau, who Trump has disdained since his first term and mockingly called “governor” since returning to the White House.
Trump’s talk of the Canada-U.S. border as an “artificial line” drawn up by “some guy years ago,” as he said in the Oval Office last week — ignoring that the border was negotiated with the British in 1818 — “reflects Trump’s ignorance” of history, Bolton continued.
He said Trump’s annexation threats, rather than being a serious proposal or a negotiating tactic on trade, are likely an effort to distract from falling stock markets and consumer and business confidence since Trump’s tariffs began taking effect.
“It’s pretty clear that businesses in the United States say that this is going to be the beginning of a trade war that’s going to leave everybody worse off,” he said.
“So I think he’s tried to distract attention with his base.
“I think he’s very worried” about the market turmoil and economic uncertainty, Bolton said later, noting corporations are pausing many hiring and investment decisions. “The effects are going to be felt, I think, increasingly, and that won’t do wonders for the market, that’s for sure.”
Bolton said the growing trade war with U.S. allies further proves his observation that Trump “doesn’t have a philosophy” or “grand strategy” guiding his policy decisions.
“His supporters say, ‘Well, it’s very sophisticated three-dimensional chess he’s playing,’ and I’ll just tell you it is not. It is one-dimensional, regular chess played out one move at a time, and no further ahead than that.”
That could be taken advantage of by Russian President Vladimir Putin in direct negotiations with Trump to end the war in Ukraine, Bolton warned.
“(Putin) doesn’t want to negotiate with lesser lights in the (Trump) administration,” he said.
“He thinks he knows how to manipulate Trump, and he wants a one-on-one conversation to see if he can do that.”