Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, said Sunday that President Trump’s response to a Canadian advertisement featuring former President Reagan shows an “upside-down world.”
“What exactly is the national emergency for Ontario running ads of Ronald Reagan?” Short asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“What is the defense to say that’s a national emergency, and how upside down is our world today that a quasi-socialist economy in Canada is running ads with one of America’s greatest presidents extolling the virtues of free trade, and a Republican president is condemning the words of Ronald Reagan and has more central planners in their administration than any Democrat administration in the last 100 years?” he added. “It’s an upside-down world that we’re living in right now.”
Trump’s tariff policy in the first nine months of his second term has resulted in strained relationships with other U.S. allies like the European Union and Mexico, caused economic uncertainty and rattled markets.
A mayor from the Canadian province of Ontario on Sunday defended the advertisement paid for by the province that features remarks from Reagan to take aim at Trump’s tariffs. The ad did not go down well with Trump, who said he would impose an extra 10 percent tariff on Canada’s exports to the United States.
“I support the premier’s approach,” Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said on CBC’s “Rosemary Barton Live,” referring to Ontario Premier Doug Ford. “Sometimes you need to throw a rock in a pond to get a splash. He’s got a reaction.”
Trump shut down trade negotiations with Canada last week in the wake of the advertisement. Its launch earlier in October marked the beginning of the Ontario government’s “new advertising campaign” targeting their southern neighbor’s tariffs.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board went after Trump on his reaction to the advertisement.
“Mr. Trump is wrong about the Reagan speech, and he was wrong when he said on social media that ‘Ronald Reagan LOVED tariffs for purposes of National Security and the Economy,’” the editorial board said in a piece published Sunday.
When reached for comment, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said that following “decades of American presidents looking the other way as foreign countries ripped America off with unfair trade practices, it indeed is an upside down world for Americans who finally have a president who will put them and America First.”
Updated at 5:55 p.m. EDT
Source: The Hill
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