White House trade adviser Peter Navarro was sharply critical of Canadian policies toward the U.S. in interviews with CNN’s Jim Sciutto for Sciutto’s new book, “The Madman Theory,” the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported.
In an interview, Navarro reportedly dismissed the idea that Canada is “doing us a favor” with its military presence in Afghanistan.
“Were they doing us a favor, or were they brought into the idea they needed to do that as part of the global effort against terrorists?” Navarro told Sciutto. “I mean, if they were just doing us a favor, maybe their government should have been thrown out of office. I mean, every time that a Canadian shows up in a uniform, it’s doing us a favor? How’s that work?”
Navarro also blasted the United States’s northern neighbor on trade issues, accusing the country of serving as a way station for Chinese products that would otherwise be subject to stiff U.S. tariffs.
“What’s good about Canada?” he told Sciutto, according to the CBC. “It’s like this blue-eyed brother kind of thing. It’s just Canada. It has its own national interests and self-interests.”
Leon Panetta, who served as Defense secretary and CIA director during the Obama administration, pushed back on Navarro’s characterization in an interview with CTV News. Trump, he said, “sends a strong signal that he is not a trustworthy member or a trustworthy ally, and that raises a lot of concerns with regards to those strong alliances that are critical to peace and prosperity.”
“Instead of an America that is a world leader, the rest of the world is looking at the United States as a rogue nation that cannot be trusted,” Panetta added.
Navarro and other Trump administration figures have frequently blasted Canada on trade issues. In 2018, Navarro accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of “bad-faith diplomacy” and said there was a “special place in hell” for him at the Group of Seven summit in Quebec.