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Why does Trump keep attacking Canada · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Since US President Donald Trump returned to office last year,
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  Speaker 1: Canada can't seem to escape his wrath. From a trade
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: war to threats of becoming the fifty first state to
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  Speaker 1: delaying the opening of cross border bridge. Trump repeatedly sets
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the sites on his northern neighbor. We don't need anything
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  Speaker 1: that Canada has.
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  Speaker 2: We don't need anything that Mexico has, but they need
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  Speaker 2: everything that we have. Canada has been very, very tough
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  Speaker 2: on us over the years. I mean, in all fairness
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  Speaker 2: to them, they need us to subvive. Without us, there's
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  Speaker 2: no way they can survive and.
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  Speaker 1: To stop these fires from coming in and you know,
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  Speaker 1: poisoning our air.
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  Speaker 3: Maybe they should by us some damages or something, or
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  Speaker 3: he should do some tariffs.
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  Speaker 1: To the USMCA. Are you looking to update that.
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  Speaker 2: I don't care. I mean, I don't really want to.
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  Speaker 2: I'd have I'd rather be independent. Here's the thing. Mexico
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  Speaker 2: and Canada need us. We don't need them. The deal
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  Speaker 2: is important for them, it's not important for us.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: For more insight on Trump's Canada problem and the impact
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  Speaker 1: he could have down south, I'm joined by Robert Rowland,
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  Speaker 1: a professor of retrick and political communication, with Uversity of Kansas.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for doing this their I appreciate it. What
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  Speaker 1: do you think Donald Trump has targeted Canada in the
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  Speaker 1: way that he has.
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  Speaker 4: It's important to understand Trump only has three basic messages.
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  Speaker 4: He blames some other as causing problems for the United States.
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  Speaker 2: What are that?
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  Speaker 4: A foreign trade partner? Undocumented immigrants. He says, the leads
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  Speaker 4: don't care about ordinary people, and he says he's the solution.
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  Speaker 2: The difficulty he has is.
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  Speaker 4: That his stories sound true, but often are not true,
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  Speaker 4: and therefore he has a great deal of trouble producing
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  Speaker 4: the results he promises, such as bringing prices down immediately
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  Speaker 4: recreating manufacturing jobs.
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  Speaker 2: His response is to scapegoat, to double.
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  Speaker 4: Down on blaming some other party, and then to try
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  Speaker 4: to change the plot. He's even said that he's attacking Canada,
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  Speaker 4: using Canada as a scapegoat, and also to try to
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  Speaker 4: change the narrative from the bad things that are happening
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  Speaker 4: in the American economy, gas prices, the failures of the
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  Speaker 4: war with Iran, and so forth.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's interesting though, because I think it started
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  Speaker 1: with Trump, but it has expanded pretty broadly now, right,
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  Speaker 1: you hear Republican politicians elected or otherwise repeating a lot
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  Speaker 1: of the stuff the President says, frankly, just kind of
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  Speaker 1: bad mothing Canada. What impact do you see that having
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  Speaker 1: on views toward Canada Within the Republican Party.
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  Speaker 4: First, it's really the party of Trump, no longer the
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  Speaker 4: historical Republican party, the party the small government party of
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  Speaker 4: someone like Ronald Reagan. There are a few leftovers, but
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  Speaker 4: people who are actually in Congress or in power, there
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  Speaker 4: are very few of them. And what the Publican lead
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  Speaker 4: have learned is that it ends their political career if
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  Speaker 4: they cross President Trump, and that has led to a
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  Speaker 4: great deal of republic but many Republicans making statements that
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  Speaker 4: simply echo President Trump. I don't think there's been a
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  Speaker 4: change and attitude about Canada among the great majority of
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  Speaker 4: the American people. This is Republicans in leadership knowing that
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  Speaker 4: they cannot cross the president and maintain their political career
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  Speaker 4: mouthing what he says simply because of self preservation.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you've got Howard Lutnick out there saying Canada sucks,
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  Speaker 1: or that Canada sucks off the United States economy or
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  Speaker 1: whatever it is. Peter Navarro saying those Canadians they're the worst.
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  Speaker 1: And I sort of understand it as a tool of
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  Speaker 1: rhetoric of just sort of, you know, attacking somebody else.
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  Speaker 1: But is there any kind of long term gain that
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  Speaker 1: might emerge from it, because I can only see the
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  Speaker 1: negative side, what costs it's going to have in terms
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  Speaker 1: of repairing the relationship down.
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  Speaker 3: The roads correct and you think about it, their attacks
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  Speaker 3: on Canada now are an attack on the trade deal
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  Speaker 3: negotiated in Trump's first term, because he's the one who
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  Speaker 3: negotiated the deal that's in effect.
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  Speaker 4: And attacking your own trade deal, I don't think in
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  Speaker 4: the long term that's a very good strategy. In the
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  Speaker 4: long term in politics, having the facts on your side
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  Speaker 4: is a very powerful thing, and previous presidency the United
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  Speaker 4: States of both parties Obama and Reagan come to mind,
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  Speaker 4: understood that. And I think that the economic fundamentals are
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  Speaker 4: very likely to determine the eventuale new trade deal that
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  Speaker 4: he is negotiated.
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  Speaker 1: He speaks in one way about Canada, and we obviously
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  Speaker 1: amplify it and talk about it. It's the subject of
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  Speaker 1: every dinner party I've been to for a year and
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  Speaker 1: a half. I wonder what you read is of how
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  Speaker 1: he talks about Mexico because in a lot of ways,
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  Speaker 1: the things he says about Mexico are actually quite worse
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  Speaker 1: than they are about Canada.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think you've had prime ministers who are extremely
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  Speaker 4: articulate who have gotten under his scan a little bit,
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  Speaker 4: and Prime Minister Carney's call for the middle powers to
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  Speaker 4: pull together.
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  Speaker 2: I think he has heard that.
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  Speaker 4: And President Trump tends to respond with bluster rather than arguments.
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  Speaker 4: And I think we've seen that, for example with the
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  Speaker 4: statements about Greenland that relates to NATO and Denmark.
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  Speaker 2: But it's the.
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  Speaker 4: Same kind of thing I think he president. In President
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  Speaker 4: Trump's mind, pure power is a more powerful force with
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  Speaker 4: Mexico than it is with Canada.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you're a professor of rhetorick, you study this stuff,
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  Speaker 1: you know this stuff. Is there a historical comparison to
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  Speaker 1: a president treating Canada like this? Like I've gone through
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  Speaker 1: the history books. I can find nothing that quite approaches this.
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  Speaker 4: Well, the president frum Break is different than any previous
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  Speaker 4: American president. Much more typical of American presidents of both
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  Speaker 4: parties would be the two I mentioned. I'm thinking of
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  Speaker 4: President Reagan in particular, who famously had such a powerful
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  Speaker 4: relationship with Prime Minister mulroney. Mulroney I spoke, he gave
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  Speaker 4: one of the eulogies at Reagan's funeral. That is more
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  Speaker 4: the normal relationship of Canada and the United States. We
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  Speaker 4: share so much in culture and history and values. You
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  Speaker 4: know there are going to be disagreements about public policy.
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  Speaker 4: But this kind of of rhetoric is without president and
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  Speaker 4: American history.
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  Speaker 1: His polling numbers, Trump's polling numbers are particularly weak. They're
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  Speaker 1: especially weak in and around the subject of tariffs and
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: around the trade relationship with Canada. I keep asking myself
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  Speaker 1: if that even matters. What is your assessment of whether
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  Speaker 1: it matters?
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  Speaker 2: Economic fundamentals do matter?
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  Speaker 4: I noticed he's now hit a new low as of today,
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  Speaker 4: twenty one points underwater and unfavorability.
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  Speaker 2: And the problem with tariffs is two big problems.
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  Speaker 4: They don't produce the manufacturer revitalization that he promised in
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  Speaker 4: a second term. He's a little bit negative in manufacturing
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  Speaker 4: job growth, and they do raise prices. And if I
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  Speaker 4: also irritate our closest allies. So maybe that's three negative effects.
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  Speaker 4: And of those negative effects, the one that is most
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  Speaker 4: likely to be felt by voters and have impact in
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  Speaker 4: the mid terms.
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  Speaker 2: Would be the effect on prices.
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  Speaker 1: All Right, we're gonna have to leave it there, but
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  Speaker 1: I really do appreciate your insight. Robert Rowland, a professor
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  Speaker 1: of retric and political communication at the University of Kansas.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.