‘He doesn’t understand tariffs’: Fierce Trump critic responds to ‘economic force’ comments

Fierce Trump critic comments on Trump's threats John Bolton discusses Donald Trump's unpredictable and often blustery approach to international relations.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatens to take over Canada using ‘economic force.’ Trump’s former National security advisor turned fierce Trump critic John Bolton, joined CTV Morning Live Edmonton with more on his state of mind.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Kent Morrison: Canada’s premiers are holding an emergency meeting today to try to figure out how to handle incoming U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threat’s.

The Prime Minister wants all of them in Ottawa next week to come up with a strategy, and now Trump claims he will take over Canada using economic force.

Can you take us inside the strategy of Donald Trump right now? Do we know why he’s going so hard about this?

John Bolton: I don’t think it’s a strategy. I think it’s a series of neuron flashes. The good news for Canada is, he is not planning on using military force. That’s more a problem for our friends in Denmark and Greenland and in Panama.

But it’s all a piece with him trying to show that he can achieve results that Biden, or other other people, can’t. How much of this is bluster and how serious it is, it’s hard to say.

Unfortunately, these discussions about Greenland and Panama really overlook some fairly significant strategic interest and have gotten lost.

With Canada, it’s Trump’s obsession with tariffs. It’s something he’s had his entire career, as far as I can tell.

He doesn’t understand tariffs. He doesn’t understand how they work. He thinks we impose big tariffs on Canada. Canadians will pay for it.

He does not understand, although I’ve heard it explained to him in simple words, that the American importer pays the tariff and then tries his best to pass it on to American consumers.

But when you don’t understand how tariffs work, they look pretty attractive.

Added on top of that, from Canada’s perspective, Trump just doesn’t like Justin Trudeau. I’m sure he’s very happy that Trudeau is planning to resign, so he’s trolling Trudeau and enjoying himself.

Now, none of this has anything to do with good relations, political or economic, between the U.S. and Canada, but it is pure Donald Trump.

Kent: The premiers right now are trying to take the lead on this, with the prime minister stepping down, is there any strategy to negotiate with Donald Trump?

John: I think the best you can do is get a new prime minister in place as soon as possible.

I know elections are scheduled for later this year, but to have a prime minister in place ready on Jan. 20th.

I think there’s something to be said here for whoever forms the success or government to Prime Minister Trudeau and the principal opposition party, even though they’re going to face each other in elections, to think about trying to do something jointly.

I think the idea of getting the premiers of the provinces together and talking about this, makes a lot of sense.

A lot of this can be applied, in political terms, to dialog with state governors in the U.S..

There ought to be a sensible approach to this that may be impossible with Donald Trump, but just because one side in a negotiation acts crazy, doesn’t mean it’s going to benefit the other side to do the same.

Kent: Some premiers have taken a rather hard stance, but here in Alberta, our premier is taking an appeasement strategy by strengthening the border, or using a conciliatory tone. Do you think that would work?

John: With Donald Trump, you just never know. If the premier of Alberta plays golf, I think you ought to call Trump up, offer to come down and speak with him over a round of golf. If that doesn’t work, try something else.

This is not dealing with a normal person, that’s the best I can say.

I think that a lot still depends on what Trump’s tariff plan really looks like. He’s singled out Canada and Mexico, but it’s clear that he’s not yet ready to say what his plan is.

It’s a work in progress. It could change a lot. That doesn’t make things any easier from Canada’s point of view, but it also suggests that talking to other key American trade partners to present in a reasonable way why a trade war among the western democracies is going to end up hurting all of us.