Former Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland Says Canada Must Focus on Psychological Operations Against Americans Now

Conservative Treehouse 

Those who have followed the Canadian trade squatter strategy from NAFTA through the USMCA likely know former Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, and her manipulative narcissism.  Today the purple sausage reappears from Kiev where she is leading the Ukraine reinvestment and money laundering effort on behalf of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Freeland calls in from Kiev to remind the Bloomberg audience that Canada’s best next steps will be to conduct targeted narrative operations against the American people in order to retain the Canadian parasite position.  Rather than accept reciprocal terms for fair trade, Freeland notes the best strategy is to deliver targeted propaganda directly to American voters against President Trump.  This was the approach Freeland, and former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took in 2018.

It is ironic that Freeland says President Trump is trying to create Canada as a vassal state of the U.S. while she is in Ukraine, the ultimate vassal state being used for a proxy war against Russia.  WATCH:

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Freeland Leading the Canadian Trade Delegation in 2018

Freeland Leading the Ukraine Investment Operation in 2026

U.S. politicians condemn Trump’s 'chaotic' trade war against Canada

 President getting pushback as 50 per cent tariffs enacted on $20B in Canadian imports

U.S. political leaders, including at least one Republican, are warning that President Donald Trump’s escalating trade feud with Canada will raise costs for U.S. families and businesses, while damaging a longstanding relationship with the nation’s closest ally.

The widespread criticism comes after Canada pulled out of trade talks late Friday night and promised 50 per cent U.S. tariffs on CA$20 billion in Canadian imports kicked in on Saturday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday that Canada would enact dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs on Sept. 8, the Tuesday after Labour Day.

As happened during the Trump administration’s initial trade hostilities in 2025, the dispute has become a major political issue in states that rely heavily on trade with Canada.

“Canada is NOT the 51st state. Trump owes our friends and neighbors an apology for nearly 2 years of his boorish insults and jeers, ” Democratic Washington State Senator Patty Murray wrote on X, calling Canada the state’s largest trading partner.

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According to the Washington Council on International Trade, 29 per cent of all imports between April 2025 and this March — approximately $21 billion in goods — came from Canada.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer also warned that her state is “uniquely impacted” by what she called Washington Republicans’ “ongoing, chaotic tariff wars with Canada.”

“These tariffs act as a tax hike on Michigan families and businesses by raising prices at the grocery store and the gas pump,” she posted on X.

Her Michigan democratic ally, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, said the new tariffs would make life more expensive for residents of a state linked to Canada for centuries as “partners, allies and close friends.”

“You don’t rob your neighbor,” she said in an X post. “This trade war must end so we can get our economy back on track. I will keep pushing to block Donald Trump’s tariff regime and keep fighting to lower costs for Michiganders.”

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The border state took in about $55.5 billion in Canadian goods last year — 80 per cent from Ontario — while sending about $28.8 back across, most of it over the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, per the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

Abdul El-Sayed, currently running for Senate in Michigan, accused Trump of “escalating a trade war with Canada for his own vanity.

“Even before this new round, Canadian tariffs were costing Michigan families an additional $3,200 a year,” he said on X. “It’s going to get much worse.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul offered a more concise assessment.

“Needlessly picking fights with our allies and raising prices here at home,” she wrote on X. “That’s Trump’s economic policy in a nutshell.”

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the new tariffs were yet another burden on Americans already facing high costs.

“Trump’s chaotic trade wars are bleeding the American people dry, and now he’s coming back for more,” he posted to X. “This nonsense with Canada should have never gone into effect. It must end now.”

Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar said on X that the tariffs will lead to “higher costs for small businesses, farmers and all Minnesota families.”

“Canada is Minnesota’s #1 trading partner,” the candidate for governor to replace Tim Walz wrote. “Minnesotans are paying for Trump’s chaos.”

Minnesota imports more than $19 billion worth of products from Canada annually, more than two-thirds of which is energy from crude oil, natural gas and electricity, as reported by CBS.

Maine Governor Janet Mills also warned of higher costs and uncertainty, saying Trump’s latest escalation “would further strain our bond with our closest trading partner.”

“Maine has had enough of this unending trade whiplash,” she wrote on X.

Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins said the repeated swings in U.S.-Canada trade policy were already creating problems for businesses in her state.

She said Maine imports about US$2 billion in non-petroleum products from Canada each year and that businesses, farmers and lobster fishers had expressed concerns about tariffs, limited domestic supply chains and possible Canadian retaliation.

“If the Administration proceeds with these tariffs, they will increase costs for Maine families, as most businesses will have no choice but to pass on the tariffs to their customers through higher prices,” she shared on X.

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Urging both sides to resume negotiations towards “a fair agreement,” she said the Trump administration should consider the effects of tariffs on Maine businesses, communities and families.

The criticism wasn’t limited to border states.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger said Canada is Virginia’s No. 1 export destination and warned that the new tariffs would hurt families, farmers, producers, foresters and businesses “in a matter of days.”

“We have seen time and time again how President Trump’s careless, chaotic tariff policies have direct consequences for Virginians,” she posted on X. “They raise prices and destabilize relationships that our producers and businesses rely on.”

Colorado Democratic Senator Brittany Peterson acknowledged Canada’s decision to impose retaliatory tariffs while warning about the consequences of the trade war.

“It’s hard to imagine the long-term consequences to critical industries in both our countries due to this incompetent and unhinged president,” she wrote on X.

California Governor Gavin Newsom was decidedly more blunt.

“Our closest ally. Our critical trade partner. And Trump is hitting Canada with 50% tariffs,” he wrote. “What the actual f— are we doing?”

Trump, meanwhile, had been quiet on the subject until early Sunday morning when he posted about Canada on his Truth Social platform.

“Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!! 

They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of Tariffs. No more!!!”

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/trump-trade-war-canada-criticism

NOTE:

Yes this is complaints from Democrats and one other: Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins...

I wonder what the people are saying ...

Council on Foreign Relations President Says Trump Gave Mark Carney an Ultimatum, USA or China? Carney Chose China

An interesting soundbite from Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) President Mike Froman who distills down the main point of contention.  Essentially, the U.S. position is to demand a common trade approach toward China and the U.S. delegation gave Canada an ultimatum within the deal proposed, us or them.

If Mike Froman is correct, Mark Carney chose China. [X LINK] Video Below:

Mike Froman, former US Trade Rep on CNN yesterday afternoon "I think the new issue is that the Trump administration is pressing Canada, as well as other countries, to adopt a common approach vis a vis China, whether it's a common external tariff or export controls, or ensuring… pic.twitter.com/RoTIXMZs3k

— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) August 23, 2026

Kelly McParland: Trump puts America's rot on display

 Trade talks breaking down was inevitable

The book on Donald Trump is that he’s unpredictable, unreliable and untrustworthy.

Based on the recent trade talks and Friday’s last minute bust-up, it’s an unfair rap. Every move the U.S. made in the weeks of dickering was predictable and, in the end, reliably untrustworthy. You didn’t have to be an Ottawa insider or politically tuned-in pundit to suspect the negotiations were largely a waste of effort and would end badly. Ordinary Canadians certainly made clear they had little to no faith in Washington’s intentions, expected the worst and were not alarmed by it.

“I’m most useful in a crisis. I’m not that good at peacetime,” Prime Minister Mark Carney boasted in his early days as a politician. Now he has the chance to prove it. If the impact of the tariff blow-up proves as predicted, Canada is in for a financial challenge. Jobs will be lost, prices will be affected. As long as the damage of a tariff war was still theoretical it was easy enough to talk tough and thumb a nose in Washington’s general direction.”Go ahead, do your worst.” How the country reacts now will take patience, resilience and backbone, possibly for some time to come. Canadians are being challenged to show what they’re made of.

The best outcome would be to finally break our addiction to American commerce and find other customers, other suppliers, other countries that are interested in doing business on an equal basis and with more honesty than has become the American norm. There’s been much talk along those lines over the months since Carney delivered his seminal speech in Davos, but — not surprisingly — there’s a natural reluctance to undertake a rupture of that magnitude if there’s even a moderate hope of avoidance.

Carney has jetted around the world at a relentless pace, signing trade deals here there and everywhere, yet outside government hallways the sense of urgency has appeared decidedly less fervent. This month two of Canada’s biggest banks sold a jointly-owned firm to an American buyer, transferring a company that handles about a third of Canadian payment transactions to a private equity operation in San Francisco. On Friday Roots, which turned Canadian iconography into a branding empire, sold itself to New York-based Marquee Brands for about $160 million in a deal identified as “a transaction designed to preserve all that makes Roots uniquely Canadian” — except, of course, the ownership.

In just three weeks Carney will host the Canada Investment Summit, a first-ever gathering of “the world’s largest investors” in a bid to lure some of the $100 trillion they reportedly control Canada’s way. According to the prime minister, “they will find a Canadian economy that has never been more connected or more ambitious.” That would be nice. It would be real progress if all they went away with was an impression Canada has more to offer than a range of successful firms willing to be snapped up at an attractive price.

One thing Carney won’t face, at least for a time, is lack of public fervour. It’s doubtful Canadians have ever been as united in their disgust at anything as they are at the U.S. president and his underlings. If Carney was ever tempted to hold his nose and accept the U.S. proposal, Canadians made it crystal clear they had no appetite for compromise or concessions. When the time came for a final decision, it must have been obvious he’d never be able to sell the deal being offered.

Trump, on the other hand, is piling up the failures. He can’t get along with Canada, he can’t get along with Denmark, he can’t get along with Italy, he can’t get along with South Korea, he no longer gets along with Israel, he wants to bomb Oman and occupy Greenland, and his idea of forging new friendships means cozying up to North Korea, the world’s last truly Stalinist dictatorship.

While his war on Iran is a disaster, the U.S. debt now tops US$40 trillion, almost double its level when Trump first won election. His solution is to temporarily lower tariffs on imported beef in the hope 90 days of cheaper hamburgers will pacify Americans long enough to get past midterm elections that are threatening Republicans in Congress. Typically enough he upset U.S. ranchers in the process, who noted that “undercutting American farmers and ranchers with inferior product from foreign competitors does nothing to create market confidence or encourage rebuilding the herd.”

There’s nothing to gain in continuing to wonder how Americans could let all this happen to their country, or whether they’ll ever get energized enough to put a stop to it. There’s more to Friday’s blow-up than a disagreement over trade. Being friends with the U.S. has become a risky position. It’s entirely in Canada’s interest to use the moment to break from what’s become an abusive relationship. That means accepting whatever challenges emerge as well worth the drive to build a stronger, self-assured and more self-reliant country.

Donald Trump’s greatest legacy may be in uncovering the depth of the rot at the centre of American public life. It’s been there for some time, mouldering away, eating at the foundations of the values the country claims to hold as a people. Trump’s brought it all to the fore, glorying in it, putting it on a display that’s impossible to ignore.

Americans twice elected Trump, they have to put up with him. We didn’t, don’t and shouldn’t.

National Post
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/kelly-mcparland-trump-puts-americas-rot-on-display

 

President Trump and USTR Greer Respond to Canada’s Claims

Conservative Treehouse 

There are a few that ankle bite about President Trump focusing on trade agreements as if it is foreign policy and not economic policy for America that is the #1 factor in our future.  I do not see value in such nonsense.  Economic security is national security – period.

After a day of Canadian government officials pushing a twisted narrative about their position regarding U.S-Canada trade, President Trump puts forth a simple truthful statement:

[SOURCE]

Additionally, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer talked to the New York Times about the current issues that created the fracture in negotiations. I will outline those aspects below.

CTH readers will note that in 2025 and again earlier this year, our prediction was the USMCA (CUSMA) would dissolve in/around early July, and the U.S. would ultimately end up withdrawing completely in/around August of 2026.  I would be remiss if I did not note current events are following a very predictable path.

Trade issues with Canada are irreconcilable against the entitlement that underpins the Canadian economic mindset.  You will note these “friction points” do not exist with Mexico; there is a cultural and brutally factual reason for this.

Canada feels entitled to maintain a trade relationship with the USA as if they are a state in our union.  However, just like the abusive mentality in any toxic relationship, Canada refuses any reciprocity.  Canada maintains protectionist tariffs, non-tariff barriers, quotas against U.S. goods and one-way restrictions on banking, finance, intellectual property and media. The latter part they call “cultural” protection.

Here are the distilled points noted by USTR Greer as explained to the New York Times:

[…] The United States had offered to reduce its tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos, and eliminate a recently imposed tariff on Canadian lumber, before negotiations suddenly collapsed last night, Jamieson Greer, the U.S. trade representative, said Saturday.

In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Greer detailed previously confidential and unreported elements of the U.S. trade offer to Canada, saying those measures would have given Canada the most preferential treatment of any trading partner.

[…] over the following days, and particularly late into the night Friday, that consensus crumbled. It fell apart over a series of issues that, individually, may have seemed small but collectively represented a big division over issues of importance to both sides.

[…] Mr. Greer said that the Trump administration had pledged to eliminate the 10 percent tariff on softwood lumber that Mr. Trump imposed last year using a provision known as Section 232.

The United States had also offered to reduce a 25 percent tariff on cars that Mr. Trump put in place last year. But because Canada qualifies for a further reduction when the cars contain any amount of U.S. content, the automotive tariffs could have gone as low as 7 percent, he said.

The United States also offered to lower tariffs on metals, one of Canada’s most important priorities.

“The United States was prepared to reduce the tariff on steel from 50 percent to 25 percent for the majority of steel Canada sent to the United States,” Mr. Greer said. Steel would be subject to what is known as a tariff-rate quota system, in which only a certain amount of steel imports would receive that lower tariff.

On aluminum, the United States had offered to reduce its tariffs to 25 percent from 50 percent without such a quota limitation, Mr. Greer said.

For products made with steel and aluminum, like golf clubs and beer cans, the United States offered to cut those tariffs by anywhere from 10 to 25 percentage points, with the lowest tariffs set at 15 percent.

Mr. Greer said that the United States had also offered to suspend the 50 percent tariffs that it brought into effect early Saturday morning on Canadian dairy, wine, hockey sticks and others goods.

“Obviously, we would completely suspend the 50 percent Section 338 tariffs that we were going to apply to 5 percent of Canadian exports,” he said, referring to the tariffs that went into effect Saturday. (Source)

You will note that “metals” are of keen interest to Canada.  That is because Canada relies on imported metal product, rolled steel, aluminum ingots etc., as an outcome of their energy policy.

Canada could not/would not promise to stop Chinese steel being transshipped into auto parts & then into the U.S. market.  Why? Because the U.S. requires a strict “melt and pour” rule.

Steel and aluminum must be melted and poured in North America to qualify for preferential treatment. This stops Chinese steel from entering Canada, getting light processing, and crossing the border as “North American” content to evade tariffs.

Why is this a problem for Canada specifically (not Mexico)?  Well, steel and aluminum cannot be made without coal and gas (heavy carbon emissions), because the core issue is heat (joules) for the melting. You cannot make molten metal from renewable energy, (ie. windmills and solar farms) you need massive heat (oil, gas, coal). It’s simple science, you need joules.

Canada’s energy policy, climate change stuff, is about the creation of electricity and non-carbon emissions. They have decarbonized their industry, and as a consequence have disconnected their ability to melt metal. That’s why they import rolled steel and cast aluminum ingots from China.

Their choice to decarbonize is exactly why Steel and Aluminum tariffs against Canada are structurally irreconcilable.

 ♦ So, what’s going to happen?

Last year and earlier this year I pegged August of 2026 as the likely USMCA (CUSMA) termination and then ultimately withdrawal date.  Think about it, if Canada refuses to reject ‘climate change’ and Canada refuses to accept tariffs, well, there is no option for a USMCA renewal.

Yes, it really is that structurally deliberate.

If I was to update my predicted schedule, I would now say President Trump is waiting for Canada to announce their retaliatory measures. It doesn’t make sense to wait until Canada announces retaliation and then just go up a notch from 50% to 75%, then they hit again and you go from 75% to 100% etc. etc.

It just makes more sense to call it quits, make the announcement and withdraw completely from the USMCA.  That would tell Carney the six-month clock is now ticking.  Then go back and finish a bilateral agreement with Mexico.

Eventually the reality will set in for Canada, and the collapse of the Canadian dollar (CAD) will begin as predicted by the Bank of Canada.

“A cascading series of events could cause a sharp loss of investor confidence and lead to a spike in demand for liquidity or rapid asset sales. Funding markets could come under pressure, and stress could spread more broadly.” {source}

Additionally, Lori Turnbull, a political scientist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, previously said that reopening the USMCA or trying to structure a bilateral deal to replace it reflects the impossibility for Canada of fully or even substantially replacing the United States as a trade and economic partner.

“Canada is going to have to find a way to deal with this, and the American are still going to put on the tariffs,” Professor Turnbull said. “We’re in the weak position and they can call the shots.” (link)

As a consequence, when Canada crawls back to the table for their bilateral discussion, they will end up with the exact terms they just rejected.