There is a theory that President Trump is still bitter about his Canadian hotel venture becoming a bust.
Social media speculates that Justin Trudeau is poised to kiss Melania Trump, the first lady of the seven-time French group, has left Trump with a grudge against the dashing Canadian prime minister.
And there is a deal view that Trump considers Canada's acquisition to be the 51st state.
As Trump prepares to advance new tariffs on US neighbours in the north and south, he has expressed a special brand of disgust for Canada. The most notable stereotype is that the people being “nice” led to political upheavals in Canada, creating both surprise and speculation as to why Trump wants to engage in a trade war with one of America's biggest trading partners.
“I can't understand that,” said Stephen Moore, an economist at the Heritage Foundation and former Trump adviser. “I don't know if it's some kind of strategic leverage.”
Moore noted that “there is no lost love” between the president and Trudeau, adding that “Trump is personal.”
Trump threatened to strike Mexico and Canada with a 25% tariff on all imports on Tuesday, unless he does more to prevent immigration and drugs from flowing into the United States. On Saturday, the president chose another trade battle with Canada. This time we're looking at wood.
In Canada, there are plenty of conspiracies about why Trump repeatedly downplayed his neighbors and threatened to destabilise the economy with tariffs.
This contrasts with the close and supportive relationship that Trudeau, who is entering his final week in office, enjoyed with another US president, Barack Obama, whose relationship with Trump is fractised.
Following a group of seven summit conferences held in Chalebois, Quebec in 2018, Trump hecked Trudeau on social media, plaguing him as “very dishonest and weak” and crafted “false statements” suggesting that he might impose tariffs on Canadian-made cars.
Trudeau was generally cautious in his public remarks about Trump during the president's first administration, but the two men have dramatically different personal and political styles. Trump boldly denies those he perceives as opponents, but Trudeau talks about the value of bringing people together, what he once called a “sleek road” approach to political life.
Last month, in a candid remark to a group of business leaders captured by the microphone, Trudeau provided a theory to Trump's widely shared Canadian obsessions across the country.
“The Trump administration not only knows the number of important minerals we have, but that may even be why they continue to talk about absorbing us and making us a 51st nation,” Trudeau told a gathering in Toronto.
“They are very aware of our resources,” Trudeau said.
He added: And that's true. ”
Trump has a particularly affinity for minerals. He is pushing to mediate transactions to ensure access to Ukraine's rare earth supply as he seeks to mediate an agreement to end the war with Russia.
As a businessman, Trump had two deals with Canada, both of which are relatively limited, but failed. The Toronto Hotel and Mansion Project, owned by Toronto investors, approved Trump's name and hired the Trump company to manage it, and took the acceptance position in 2016. The following year, the hotel owned by a Malaysian investor with Trump's name again opened in Vancouver, British Columbia, under license and similar management agreements. (Promotional materials exaggerated the height of the building.) Similarly, they failed.
Both hotels, currently operating under various names and control, were magnets of protesters in the country where Trump had long been unpopular due to Canada's “America-first” views and disparities. Before Vancouver opened, then-city mayor Gregor Robertson wrote that he would ask the building owner not to use Trump's name.
“Trump's name and brand can't be anywhere better on the Vancouver skyline than his ignorant ideas have in the modern world,” Robertson wrote.
Before delving into politics, Trump expressed mostly maliciousness towards Canada.
In 2012, when the Obama administration was delaying its decision on approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which transported oil from Canada to the US, Trump declared on social media that the project had to move forward.
“We need to use resources like Canada and support our allies,” Trump said.
By 2015, however, his perceived failure of the North American Free Trade Agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico had become a central issue in Trump's first presidential election. Trump routinely called the deal a “catastrophe” for American workers, prioritizing the decision to scrap the agreement as the first order if he wins the election.
The agreement to overhaul a trade contract was signed in 2020 after being negotiated between the often controversially growing trilateral countries. At one point, Trump proposed leaving Canada to the bystanders and proceeding with deals between the US and Mexico.
Now, Trump has made it clear that the agreement he signed is not sufficient for the United States and must be rewritten. Recently he assaulted him at Christia Freeland, a Canadian official whom he negotiated on behalf of Canada.
“She's a bang,” Trump said in an interview with audiences about Freeland, Canada's deputy prime minister and finance minister during his first term as president.
Trump acted as a new tariff threat in Canada last month, so his tone to the prime minister leaving is even more deriving. He is called Mr Trudeau in a lasting proposal that the US may annex Canada.
Trump called for former Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky to run for Prime Minister, suggesting he would “win easily” late last year. Gretzky, who has not supported Canada's participation in the United States, faces backlash at home from citizens who view him as a traitor due to his relationship with Trump.
This insult led to a boom in Canadian nationalism, including the “Maids of Canada” Facebook group. In one group with over one million members, Canadians compared notes on pancake mixes made in Canada and provided recommendations on the flavor of Cove Soda, a potential alternative to Coca-Cola.
“We've been working hard to get into the world,” said Ira Wells, a professor at the University of Toronto Victoria.
However, Trump appears to be unsure of Canada's declaration of independence. He showed last week that the US is ready to cut ties with Canada without changing trade ties between the two countries.
The United States does not need Canadian products such as wood, Trump said, and he argued that Canada cannot survive without US military protection and favorable terms of trade.
“I love Canada, I love the people of Canada,” Trump told a cabinet meeting at the White House. “It's not fair that we support Canada. If we don't support them, they won't be born as a nation.”
