Until such time that Donald Trump is no longer president of the United States — and no one really has any idea when that’s going to be — the number one foreign policy priority of any Canadian government must be avoiding unnecessarily provoking the man. This is a hell of a situation for us to find ourselves in, but we’re in it. These are the facts on the ground, however weird they still seem. The president of the United States is, in general, thin-skinned, quick to take offence and prone to overreaction, even — especially? — against allies. That’s Trump 101. The situation is even more complicated when the president actually has a legitimate grievance.
Trudeau’s gossiping has, to absolutely no benefit, brought the president’s attention onto us and our chronic national defence freeloading, at a time when we need the U.S. more than is normally the case … and also at a time when the president’s own domestic political problems are no doubt giving him lots of good reasons to lash out at opponents abroad.
It was a completely unforced error, but one that doesn’t really seem all that out of character for our prime minister.
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