Foreign Policy

“She Hates America”

Written by SK Ashby

Canada's top foreign trade official is no fan of America according to Trump.

I'm sure this is not true, but Trump told donors at a private, off-the-record fundraiser that Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland "hates America" and that's why he took such a weak tough stance against Canada.

President Trump publicly praised Canada’s leaders this week after announcing a new trade deal, sending them his “highest regards.” But only three days before the deal was announced, Trump privately railed against Canada’s foreign minister, saying that “she hates America.” [...]

“She hates America,” Trump said, referring to Canada’s negotiator without using Freeland’s name. He was in the midst of a 10-minute riff on Canada and the then-ongoing trade negotiations, not dissimilar to remarks he gave at the previous day’s news conference in New York. In those public remarks, Trump said, “We don’t like their representative very much,” again without saying Freeland’s name but referring to her directly.

The funny thing about this -- and if you've been following along you probably already know -- is that Canada and Chrystia Freeland got almost everything they wanted from Trump.

By giving up just a tiny sliver of access to the Canadian dairy market (about 3 percent) Freeland persuaded Trump to give up almost everything else he demanded from Canada, such as a sunset clause that would put NAFTA under the gun every 5 years. Freeland agreed to renegotiate NAFTA every 16 years.

If Freeland "hates America," as Trump insists, why did he get owned by her?

Maybe "America," in this case, is a stand-in for Trump himself. I will concede that there's a strongly possibility that Freeland hates Trump. And in that case, join the club.