Lutnick suggests U.S. to eventually make new bilateral trade deals

Glacier FarmMedia—As NATO secretary general Mark Rutte sat quietly beside U.S. president Donald Trump in an Oval Office press conference March 13, the president declared that Canada, a key NATO nation, should willingly submit to American dominance.

This statement suggests the kind of aggression that NATO was formed to protect member countries from, but Rutte said nothing.

That public appearance dovetails nicely with the messaging that several administration officials have been sending out across the U.S. media networks — that Canada is the bad actor and needs to stop its aggressive and unfair trade behaviour toward the U.S.

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It’s all strikingly similar to the loathsome accusations by Trump that Ukraine was the bad actor in its defensive war with Russia.

That level of propaganda effort may be what’s helping prop up the current level of U.S. public support for the president’s foreign policy actions, particularly its tariffs, which remains a little less than 50 per cent, according to a recent poll conducted by CNN.

‘America last’ era ending

An example of the message going out to Americans is a statement by trade secretary Howard Lutnick while speaking on MSNBC a week ago.

“These policies are the most important America has ever had.”

Later in an extended interview on CBS, he asserted that tariffs were intended to influence border security. Without providing evidence, he claimed 75 per cent of terrorists captured in the U.S. came through Canada and the amount of fentanyl was grossly more than statistics show.

A few moments, later he went on to say how important it is to have steel manufacturing back in the United States, pivoting away from the border security basis for tariffs and claiming they were an economic necessity, apparently wanting it both ways.

Speaking during a White House press briefing, the administration’s spokesperson said: “The America-last globalist era is ending under president Trump. He will no longer allow our country and our workers to be ripped off.”

The continued mixed messaging about Canada, economic imperatives and now broader application of tariffs to the European Union seems to make clear that the initial border security claim is a lie.

The greatest dealmaker?

When asked in that CBS interview what was being accomplished by on-again-off-again tariffs on Canada, Lutnick said, “the president is the greatest dealmaker to ever sit in that chair.” He suggested these were just clever negotiating tactics.

He then added the U.S. will eventually seek to negotiate separate bilateral trade deals with individual countries.

But what would be the value of those deals if the U.S. so easily walks away from the existing Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement?

Democratic Minnesota governor Tim Walz expressed his opinion on that in a March 12 interview on MSNBC.

“Donald Trump doesn’t know how anything works. Donald Trump is this caricature that had a reality TV show that pretended he knew how to run businesses. The reality is he doesn’t.

“He’s the guy that starts the fire, then stands there and gives directions, acts like he’s the only one that knows how to put the fire out. He’s an arsonist with our economy.”

Later in the interview, Walz stated the obvious, that the president’s long history in relation to contracts and ethics makes any new agreement largely meaningless.

“We (the U.S.) have become untrustworthy.

“If he thinks trade is so bad with Canada, he’s the guy that signed the deal. It defies logic. I think this is how he ran business. He stiffed contractors. He stiffed workers. He doesn’t pay his bills. He declares bankruptcy. One thing is he claims he’s the business president. He’s the worst possible business executive I have ever witnessed.”