A Trump adviser's outburst and a new poll suggest Canada’s tariff strategy is landing - National Post
Trade advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump Peter Navarro (2nd-L), joined by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick speaks after President Trump signed an executive order on reciprocal tariffs in the Oval Office at the White House on February 13, 2025 in Washington, DC. Photo by Andrew Harnik /Getty ImagesArticle contentWASHINGTON, D.C. — If Canada is betting that Trump’s tariff fight and Ottawa’s retaliation will exact political costs on U.S. President Donald Trump and Republicans in November’s midterms, it may be onto something: a senior Trump adviser just signalled that the White House sees the Canada-U.S. trade spat as politically sensitive.
Speaking at an economic conference in Washington on Tuesday, Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro had a few choice words for Canada. He likened the country to a rowboat and the U.S. to an aircraft carrier before asking whether any Canadians were in the room.
Addressing them, Navarro said: “If you’re on K Street, get the hell out of our country because the problem you have is you lobby this country, and you’ve been successful in the past, and you think you can keep doing that.”
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“Memo to Canada: You cannot do that. Okay, the game is up, and if you interfere in our elections in Maine or Michigan, you will pay even more dearly.”
Navarro offered no evidence that Canadian lobbying or retaliatory tariffs amounted to election interference. But by naming the Pine Tree and Great Lake States, both of which have close economic ties to Canada and consequential Senate races, he underscored the administration’s apparent concern about the dispute’s political effects.
The administration may have reason to be concerned. In a newly released survey, the Cato Institute and Morning Consult found that 75 per cent of registered U.S. voters said tariffs, defined in the poll as a U.S. tax imposed on imported products, would be important to their vote.
While few issues draw bipartisan backing these days in the United States, Democrats were not alone in feeling hard done by tariffs. According to Emily Ekins, vice president for policy and society and the director of polling at the Cato Institute, nearly two-thirds of Republicans also said tariffs imposed under Trump had increased prices.
“We were very clear in asking, ‘Are tariffs affecting the prices of things you buy at the store?’” she explained.
