The notion that some poor administration sap meeting with his Canadian counterpart constitutes "damage control" on the part of a Trump administration that launched into full hellfire mode against Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, this weekend, is a long reach by Politico.
In one step of the change in tone, the Department of Agriculture announced Monday that Secretary Sonny Perdue would head to Canada later this week to meet with his counterpart Lawrence MacAulay.
Bullpoop. You've got America's worst financial prognosticator Larry Kudlow telling reporters Trudeau "stabbed us in the back" by ... continuing to promise retaliatory tariffs against Trump's announced steel and aluminum tariffs, exactly as Canadian officials promised all along. You've got White House nutcase Peter Navarro glibly lying to reporters about some supposed insult Trudeau dealt to Trump; that insult never happened, except in Trump's own gassy brain and there's ample videotape of Trudeau's remarks, but Navarro nevertheless announced to the world that there's "a special place in hell for any leader" who "tries to stab" Trump "in the back."
Each of these morons was tasked with justifying Trump's pissant little fit on the plane ride back from the meeting, so the White House is mounting an orchestrated effort to pretend they saw an insult by Trudeau where none existed. Because the president is pouting. That's all it takes to tell another leader there's a special place in hell for them and to invoke Third Reich rhetoric about the nation's closest neighbors. This is what happens when your nation is led by an unstable narcissist who has surrounded himself with toadying third-rate yes men.
Oh—but the role of Republican lawmakers in patching this whole thing up should also be noted. It consisted of several embarrassed tweets and absolutely nothing else. That’s it. If you’re looking for more substantive action, you’ll have to wait for Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to grow even the barest hint of interest in their nation, as opposed to their party: Good luck with that.
Because Larry Kudlow is an idiot, he was also unsubtle in explaining that well maybe Trump launched into an inexplicable public tirade because he wanted to puff himself up for the meeting with the North Korean dictator that would take place soon afterward. Trump is too much a coward to insult Kim before or during the meeting so he's got to act tough toward Canada in order to polish his toughness credentials instead—and even then, can only bluster about his toughness after he’s left the meeting, waiting until the plane ride back. This indeed sounds exactly like Trump, except that it still gives him credit for having a tantrum for some strategic end, rather than simply because Donald Trump is a narcissistic fat-mouthed idiot who was sent into a fury when his baffling attempt to walk all over American allies was met with, to his shock and surprise, the very predictable response.
The notion that, in the midst of all this tantrum-fueled incompetence, Agricultural Secretary Sonny Perdue is going to jet off to Canada and patch this whole thing up is ridiculous. The notion that anyone in the Trump administration even wants to is ridiculous; Trump doesn't want that to happen, and if Trump gets wind of Sonny Perdue being anything less than a total ass to his Canadian counterpart then Sonny Perdue is going to be the honorary pig judge at every county fair for the next decade and not a great deal else.
No, Trump's asinine spat with Canada is going to get worse before it gets better, because Donald Trump presumed he could decree tariffs the rest of our allies would pay and get absolutely no reciprocal response from those allies, and he presumed this because he is the stupidest man to ever hold the office, by a long and alarming stretch, and surrounded by the greatest crop of idiots the lower dregs of the Republican Party has been able to belch up. Since this is a public fight he can't win, he's just going to keep doubling down until either Republican lawmakers stop him (fat chance) or we're in a full-fledged international trade war that will continue until the man leaves office in disgrace. This ain't a "Sonny Perdue can fix this" problem.