Why is Trump so fixated on Canada?

PA hunters in Washington so is Bloomberg White House reporter Josh wingrove so Josh uh let's start with you you're the you're the Canadian in every room it seems that Donald Trump is in you were on board Air Force One over the weekend what's Your Gut telling you about why he's fixated on Canada is it because you keep asking him these questions or is it as the Prime Minister says critical minerals he hasn't said it yet is it water like what's happening well I don't think it's door number one although I've seen that theory floated I

I I appreciate people that think I've got a lot more power than I do I think what's important here to not is he keeps bringing it up you know he brings up Canada when asked about other things whether it's Mexico or tariffs and that was the case yesterday when he spoke to us on Air Force One where he was being asked about steel in the context of us steel a company that the Japanese are trying to buy or at least a Japanese company is he sort of volunteered and popped off that these tariffs announced tonight

are coming in now I should note they're announced with a significant lag time and he's saying essentially that he's going to hit Canada with the 25% steel tariffs that he had in Exempted them from in the first term or at least by the end of it and raised the aluminum tariff to 25% from 10 uh and also apply that to Canada but the same deadline that he has deferred the overall tariff threat to so that of course is going to kick off questions about whether there is some sort of grand bargain in the offing but

I I think that people are maybe missing the Trump has sort of Canada stuck in his mind and he brings it back often to a few subjects one yesterday was defense spending Canada's being a lagered in NATO NATO spending target has been long an issue for the president as as all you know all countries NATO spending has been an issue and I think it just seems that he can apply pressure including by threatening yesterday to you know change something related to Autos with the flick of a pen that he could sort of crush Canada's Auto

sector so right now I think overall the measure is not entirely clear but you know Canadian steel companies of course are going to be happy that this tariff on steel is not kicking in immediately but isn't kicking in instead on March 4th and now of course the question will turn to what they can get done by them but it has certainly been an unusual one you can imagine what it's like being you know the Canadian in the American Press Corps trying to do my job and just get news out of this guy yeah no kidding

uh so so Paul you you looked at what Donald Trump signed today what does it tell you about what's coming well look I mean technically this all comes under what's known as section 232 in US trade law Adrian which allows for kind of a workaround on trade deals that the US has signed on to all in the name of National Security in other words declare something a threat or risk to US National Security and you can apply tariffs despite trade deals for example to protect against that threat or risk in this case steel and aluminum

what's the security risk well one could say if the US deems it's too reliant on foreign steel and aluminum such that it's you know if if it's cut off the US might not be able to build battleships and fighter jets in a time of War well that's the security risk as unlikely as it seems Canada would cut off such stuff in that way that's the argument section 232 gives the US president the ability to basically call almost anything a national security risk and act accordingly as a result and these tariffs anounced today fall under that

justification he strongly believes in tariffs Adrian and clearly he's willing to use him and OB he's done it before right not the first time count steel and aluminum industry was was hit by tariffs why do you think he wants to do it again did did it work that well for him yeah it's not the first time I mean he's imposed a lot of them before and he'll likely continue to impose them regardless of where this latest round ends up taking him I mean he campaigned on tariffs and look at him in office right now emboldened

like never before flooding the zone as they say with so many executive orders directives threats and Beyond in 2018 he imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum at that time it was 25% and 10% respectively and Canada retaliated uh with targeted tariffs in America by 2019 the next year Canada was Exempted from the US tariffs and then Canada dropped its tariffs against us Goods this came when the countries ratified the new NAFTA something some believe Trump now wants negotiated again and that all of this might simply be a tool aimed at forcing that new renegotiation

but there's another reason Adrien tariffs are basically taxes on Goods coming into America every dollar collected by a tariff is a dollar that goes into US Government coffers at a time Trump needs to find a way to pay for tax cuts he promised during his campaign for the White House this in theory could do that and so in no small way Trump could see it as allowing him to make that tax cut but truly the tricky part in answering any question about Trump's thinking Adrien what's actually truly behind all this is that no one really

knows so Josh we only have about 30 seconds left and I'm curious you were talking about being in the room what have you been able to glean from the reaction o of his advisers in the room when he talks about Canada and then how they respond to you in the media after the president's allies are signal boosting his complaints about Canada even the ones like on fentanyl you don't have a lot of data to support you know large volumes of fentanyl coming across the border I think what's important understand here is that there's a bipartisan

consensus that trade uh is broken and has problems there both parties have issues with usmca Trump is trying to completely remake it he wants to lower the corporate tax rate for companies that make their things in America wants to add General tariffs including on Canada he wants to add extra sectoral ones like on steel but also like on Pharmaceuticals and computer chips I mean this is all part of a mix to sort of onshore things he keeps saying he wants to make cars in Detroit I think these are all warning signs for Canada even if

there is some kind of grand bargain here clearly Trump does not like the status quo all right Josh wingrove and Paul Hunter thank you both thank you [Music]