From this episode
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Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
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Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
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Democracy in America
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Harvey C. Mansfield
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Delba Winthrop
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
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The Origins of Totalitarianism: Hannah Arendt's Definitive Work on Antisemitism, Imperialism, and the Rise of Authoritarian Power
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Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)
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George Eliot
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Episode overview
If you want to understand the ruins of President Trump’s foreign policy, look no further than Canada. Trump tried to strong-arm America’s trading partner and closest ally with punishing tariffs and threats of becoming the “51st state” in order to extract more concessions.
The result? A recent poll found that 41 percent of Canadians now consider the United States an enemy country. Prime Minister Mark Carney is pursuing closer trade ties with China and Europe in order to diversify away from the U.S. And in August, he walked away from trade talks with the Trump administration, barreling our two countries toward a Jan. 1 deadline when huge new tariffs will go into effect.
Trump’s theory of power appears to have failed here because Canada — even though it’s the weaker party — simply refused to capitulate. There’s a broader lesson in that.
Chrystia Freeland served in a number of senior roles in the Canadian government, including deputy prime minister, minister of finance, and minister of foreign affairs, where she was a lead negotiator for Canada in trade talks with the first Trump administration. She’s the author of a new book, “Unreliable Boyfriend: An Insider’s View of Dealing With a Chaotic Superpower, Plutocrats, and Other Complicated People.”