A former national security advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump says it was a mistake for Prime Minister Mark Carney to apologize for the anti-tariff ad that angered Trump and prompted him to terminate trade talks with Canada.
“I think that showed weakness, and I think that will be in Trump’s consciousness as he looks to see what the next steps are in negotiating with Canada,” John Bolton told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday. “You haven’t heard (Chinese President) Xi Jinping apologize for anything that he’s done.”
The ad, paid for by the government of Ontario, features a clip of former Republican U.S. president Ronald Reagan in a speech saying tariffs “hurt every American.”
In response to the ad, which played during two World Series games between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers, Trump announced he was terminating trade talks with Canada and slapping an additional 10 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods. It remains unclear when those levies will come into effect.
Trump later told reporters that Carney apologized for the ad, which the prime minister later confirmed, but that he still did not plan to restart trade negotiations.
Carney also suggested trade talks with the U.S. “had been making progress” on affected sectors like steel and aluminum until Trump’s anger over the commercial.
Government sources previously told CTV News that Canadian officials were hopeful there could be movement on a steel and aluminum deal by the APEC summit at the end of October.
Speaking to reporters three days later, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he would “never” apologize to Trump for the ad, even if he was “put on a stretching rack.”
“I think the ad stung very badly, and it should have,” Bolton said, when asked by Kapelos whether he believes Trump’s decision to terminate trade talks was really about the ad, or if it was a negotiating tactic.
“Because what Ronald Reagan was saying in that speech is, ‘I’m against tariffs, I need to do it for this specific purpose, against Japan, hopefully it will be limited, and then we’ll get back to more serious negotiations,’” Bolton added. “About as clear as you can be.”
Bolton, who also formerly served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said his advice to Canada in trying to negotiate a new trade deal would be to slow down until the new year, when the U.S. Supreme Court is likely to have decided on Trump’s tariffs.
This week the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case, which will determine whether Trump has the authority to impose his sweeping tariffs.
“I think the Supreme Court understands how important this case is, how important getting a result out to the economy, as a whole, is,” Bolton said. “They’ll make their constitutional decision, or whatever the basis is, but speed is important.”
“So, it’s possible, no guarantees, but possible their decision to come by the end of the year,” he added. “I do think that will present a very different set of circumstances for Canada and other countries on which to negotiate whatever is going to come next.”
He said it’s important that Canada not “take steps now that (it) can’t retrace” after the Supreme Court decision comes down.
A formal review of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) is also set to begin next year.
Supreme Court loss would ‘fundamentally change Trump’s negotiating position’
Bolton said if he were to bet at this point, he anticipates the court will invalidate the bulk of Trump’s levies.
If that is the case, he said, it will have an “extraordinarily significant, negative impact” on the president.
“This is his signature program, and the court would be sweeping away the vast bulk of it,” Bolton said, adding that while Trump would have alternative avenues by which to invoke tariffs on other countries, those would be more restricted and challenging to implement.
“That’s one reason I think the tariffs will be struck down, but it fundamentally changes Trump’s negotiation position,” Bolton also said. “He will not have the authority if he loses in the Supreme Court, to have the size, the level, the scope of the tariffs that (International Emergency Economic Powers Act), that he claimed to have under IEEPA.”
Bolton has been a longtime critic of Trump’s, and is facing legal challenges of his own. He’s been indicted on eight counts of transmission of national defence information (NDI) and 10 counts of unlawful retention of NDI.
You can watch former national security advisor John Bolton’s full interview on CTV Question Period Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.
With files from CTV News’ Stephanie Ha
