https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/0 ... a-00815613
The awkward truth dogging USMCA talks: 'They just hate Canada.'
The Trump White House has Canadians on edge as Ottawa braces for a trade review with a $1 trillion relationship in the balance.
Zi-Ann Lum, 03/06/2026
One year into the trade war, Canadians are feeling more patriotic and more convinced the United States is a worse place under Donald Trump. And as the president dangles the fate of North American free trade above a wood chipper, a split has emerged between business leaders worried about bottom lines and Canadians who are simply over the president’s provocations.
“The key thing that has struck me, and I think it has struck all Canadians, is so many of these guys in the Trump administration, frankly, they just hate Canada,” said Brian Clow, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s deputy chief of staff who led Canada-U.S. affairs.
Clow’s read is that the review is starting under a darker cloud than Trump’s first-term talks because there are “very senior and significant MAGA influencers” inside the president’s orbit “who really don’t like Canada” that Ottawa can’t do anything about.
Clow, who was involved with tense trade talks that led to the United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement during Trump’s first term, has been struck by the “aggressiveness and almost anger” levied against Canada by Trump and his inner circle that didn’t exist before.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick lived up to his abrasive reputation when he told a Toronto business conference behind closed doors that America is taking back car assembly and Canada can’t stop it from happening. Then MAGA influencer Katie Miller’s claim that “the U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada” came out of left field — notable because of her husband Stephen Miller’s job as White House deputy chief of staff.
No one was threatening Canada’s sovereignty during Trump’s first term, Clow said. “Nobody was posting memes with an American flag over Canadian territory.”
Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s envoy in Ottawa who makes headlines in Canada for his outspoken, confrontational diplomatic style, declined to comment on Clow’s remarks.
“That’s not because of anything Canada should or could do,” he said. “The administration is so dug in on their policies, they’re going to want and demand a bunch of unilateral concessions from Canada, and the asks may just be too significant for Canada to agree to.”
Summer deadline for vow renewal
A $1 trillion trade relationship is on the line as Canada and countless industry groups race to preserve a free trade deal that allows more than 85 percent of goods and services to flow tariff free between the U.S. and Canada.
Canada, the U.S. and Mexico have until July 1 to signal whether they support renewal of the trilateral pact — or else face the unpredictability of annual reviews until the deal expires in 2036.
It’s “not a secret” the president is musing about ripping up the deal, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told Bloomberg last month, employing a Trump negotiating tactic to repeatedly threaten to kill a group project unless he gets his way.
“Maybe we’ll have separate protocols with Canada and Mexico that we tack on to USMCA,” Greer floated. “We just have to fix some of the gaps.”
Greer and Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc were to meet Friday to officially launch bilateral review talks. LeBlanc told a Toronto business audience last week that he’s confident the trilateral trade pact will renew because it legally doesn’t expire until 2036.
......
Gautam