Meet the Trump officials resetting the Canada-U.S. relationship

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OTTAWA — From the billionaire financier who dined with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the adviser who warned there was “a special place in hell” awaiting Trudeau, some key figures have emerged in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration as the faces redefining Canada’s relationship with its closest ally.

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Among those key advisers are U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser, and Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar.

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Here is a closer look at each official and what they have to say about Canada.

Howard Lutnick

The billionaire CEO, who Trump picked to lead the commerce file, was among the first figures in Trump’s cabinet who Trudeau met when he travelled to the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Trudeau did so alongside Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, then public safety minister, after Trump first made his threat of imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports.

Lutnick is a key player on the file and serves as Trump’s right-hand when it comes to enacting his tariff plans.

He and LeBlanc have remained in touch, with LeBlanc texting him a three-minute video about the efforts Canada has made to bolster its border security ahead of a Feb. 1 deadline, which Trump had set to impose his trade levies.

Trudeau has also met with Kristen Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., to discuss the issue.

Universal tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports were ultimately delayed until at least March 4.

Lutnick has defended Trump’s push for tariffs as a mechanism to bolster U.S. manufacturing despite warnings from economists, business and industry groups about job losses and harm to some sectors of the economy.

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“I think a thoughtful tariff policy that drives domestic manufacturing, I think, is fundamental to the American workers,” he said during his Jan. 29 confirmation hearing.

Lutnick was also the first administration voice to unpack some of Trump’s thinking when it came to the two waves of tariffs he has been threatening against Canada.

He characterized the 25 per cent universal tariffs against Canada and Mexico as a plan to spur action on the part of both countries to clamp down on fentanyl and migrants entering the U.S. Canadian officials have pushed back on the assertion that Canada is a major contributor to that problem, with Trudeau saying Canada is responsible for less than one per cent of the fentanyl and migrants that enter the U.S.

Lutnick is also in charge of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and has said that more “regular” tariffs could be coming in April when a report is due back about U.S. trade. Trump has mused about applying tariffs to automobiles.

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On a personal level, Lutnick has openly discussed how his brother and best friend were killed during the Sept.11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre, where Cantor Fitzgerland’s offices were located when Lutnick was its CEO.

On last year’s anniversary, he posted to LinkedIn about the tragedy, when 658 of the company’s employees were killed that day, including his 36-year-old brother and 39-year-old best friend. He was not in the office during the attacks.

“On the morning of September 11th, 2001, I was taking my son to his first day of kindergarten. My phone kept ringing and disconnecting. I later learned it was my brother Gary trying to call to say goodbye,” Lutnick wrote.

He remains a board member for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

Peter Navarro

Canadian officials are familiar with Navarro from Trump’s first term in office where he also served as his trade adviser.

He has long been a critic of international trade agreements and a proponent of tariffs as part of his broader push for protectionist policies, including when Trump first ran for president in 2016. He remains one of Trump’s closest advisers.

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Navarro, who spent four months in prison for not complying with a House committee investigation into the Jan. 6 storming of the capital, has had stern words for both Trudeau and Canada.

In 2018, after hosting a G7 meeting in Quebec, Trudeau spoke out about the U.S.’s decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Afterwards Navarro told Fox News during an interview “there’s a special place in hell” for any foreign leader “that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump.”

He later apologized for those comments.

Since Trump returned to office, Navarro has also been on the frontlines defending Trump’s tariffs against Mexico and Canada.

He also has denied a report from the Financial Times that says he was pushing to cut Canada out of the Five Eyes, which is an intelligence group between Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, Australia and U.K.

Calling it “just crazy stuff,” Navarro told reporters “we would never ever jeopardize our national security ever with allies like Canada.”

Most recently, a report from The Telegraph said Navarro has been pushing for the Canada-U.S. boundary to be withdrawn, which comes as Trump keeps repeating that he wants Canada to become its “51st state.”

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Trudeau and other Canadian leaders say they regard Trump’s comments as a threat to Canadian sovereignty.

Tom Homan

Homan has been the man Canadian officials have been pitching their border efforts to in an attempt to address Trump’s concerns to avoid having 25 per cent tariffs slapped on its imports.

Homan is a former border agent who served as acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

He is a crucial figure in Trump’s plan to deport the roughly 11 million people who he says are in the country illegally. Homan has delivered fiery speeches about wanting to seal the borders so that no one can cross illegally into the U.S., saying even small numbers are one too many.

Since being tapped for the role, Homan has said he would focus his attention not only on the U.S.-Mexico border, but the U.S’s northern border with Canada, which he says he is also a problem.

– With additional reporting from The Canadian Press, The Associated Press and Bloomberg

National Post

staylor@postmedia.com

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