Toronto Star

WASHINGTON—High-stakes trade negotiations between Canada and the U.S. were dramatically upended on Friday morning by inflammatory secret remarks from President Donald Trump, after the remarks were obtained by the Toronto Star.

In remarks Trump wanted to be “off the record,” Trump told Bloomberg News reporters on Thursday, according to a source, that he is not making any compromises at all in the talks with Canada — but that he cannot say this publicly because “it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal.”

In a remark he did not want published, U.S. President Donald Trump said that a possible NAFTA deal with Canada would be “totally on our terms,” according to a source.


“Here’s the problem. If I say no — the answer’s no. If I say no, then you’re going to put that, and it’s going to be so insulting they’re not going to be able to make a deal ... I can’t kill these people,” he said of the Canadian government.

In another remark he did not want published, Trump said, according to the source, that the possible deal with Canada would be “totally on our terms.” He suggested he was scaring the Canadians into submission by repeatedly threatening to impose tariffs.

“Off the record, Canada’s working their ass off. And every time we have a problem with a point, I just put up a picture of a Chevrolet Impala,” Trump said, according to the source. The Impala is produced at the General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ontario.

Trump made the remarks in an Oval Office interview with Bloomberg. He deemed them off the record, and Bloomberg accepted his request not to reveal them.


But the Star is not bound by any promises Bloomberg made to Trump. And the remarks immediately became a factor in the negotiations: Trudeau’s officials, who saw them as evidence for their previous suspicions that Trump’s team had not been bargaining in good faith, raised them at the beginning of a meeting with their U.S. counterparts on Friday morning, a U.S. source confirmed.

The Star was not able to independently confirm the remarks with 100 per cent certainty, but the Canadian government is confident they are accurate. Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait, who was one of the journalists in the room, did not dispute their authenticity.

“If this was said, it was said in an off the record capacity. I understand you guys have obtained it; I’m not sure where you’ve obtained it from,” said White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters.


She said she was looking into “the authenticity of what was said,” but she added that there are “sensitivities” to off-record comments.

Walters later provided a more formal comment.

“The Canadian and American negotiators continue to work on reaching a win-win deal that benefits both countries,” she said.

The unusual series of events began on Friday morning, when the Star asked Trudeau’s team, which was heading into a critical top-level 9 a.m. meeting with Trump’s team, for comment on the remarks.

Trudeau’s team believed the remarks to be accurate, and it saw them as confirmation of its suspicions that Trump’s team has not been truly planning to compromise. Earlier on Friday morning, before becoming aware of the remarks, a Canadian official told the Star the U.S. side was not offering “any movement” on the issues most important to Canada.

So at the outset of the Friday meeting — which was expected to involve Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and senior Trudeau adviser Gerald Butts among others on the Canadian side and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and senior Trump aide Jared Kushner among others on the U.S. side — Trudeau’s officials unveiled the quotes to their U.S. counterparts.

The Canadian government declined to comment on what transpired in the meeting.

Link

I've never understood the benefit of off-the-record comments, other than stroking someone's ego.

There is a better than average chance that someone made these comments up and that President Trump never actually said them.

If it is real, the statement really isn't that bad though. He is simply saying that he doesn't want the Canadian government to be publicly humiliated by the terms of the deal. He wants people to think that this was a compromise. It is being blown out of proportion by the media just like everything they report about him. Those commie fucks would rather starve to death then let Trump win.

Does anyone honestly believe Trump would do anything with the press and expect them to ever be "off the record"?

Heh.

The President evidently wanted that information spread to the public as quickly as possible.

It worked.

Canada is over a barrel on this deal. BFD about what President Trump did or did not say.

Catbird's seat- that's where we are. Over a barrel- that's Canada's position, and their PC buffoon leader can't do dick about it.

quote:

Originally posted by Some Shot:
The President evidently wanted that information spread to the public as quickly as possible.

It worked.

Yeah I think you are right. I edited my post because I wasn't thinking clearly. If this report is true he wanted it to get leaked. He's playing a level above everyone else and I forget that sometimes.

As I so often post concerning President Trump...

When it comes to negotiating, "Robert Lighthizer is a vicious son of a bitch," Ritchie said. "This may not be the hill that Mr. Trudeau wants to die on."


(Gordon Ritchie was one of the Canadian NAFTA negotiators)

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/why-...er-19-080000561.html

I don't know a single person who believes "off the record" is a real or binding thing, and surely President Trump isn't foolish enough to trust the media in that regard these days.

I put it up there with thinking you can ask an undercover officer if they're police and expecting an honest answer as though it's some legal requirement once the magic words are uttered.

As I understand this, we’ve got Bloomberg News (a left leaning media outlet) giving “off the record quotes” to a Canadian news outlet. Right? I would assume that Bloomberg understood that the Toronto Star would not feel obligated to honor Bloomberg’s “off the record” agreement.

I for one am totally shocked that a news outlet would manipulate information in such a manner with the obvious goal of smearing Trump. Shocked I tell you, just shocked!

quote:

Originally posted by Veeper:
Does anyone honestly believe Trump would do anything with the press and expect them to ever be "off the record"?

Heh.

Exactly. He did this all the time with his atlantic city issues and his first divorce. It's all well documented in trumps 4 part series on netflix. Playing the press like a fiddle.

I wonder who the star's source might be? It was either someone at Bloomberg, in which case, they have allowed politics to compromise their ethics, or it was a White House staffer who was in the room during the interview, which would be way worse.

Pressure is on Trudeau, not Trump to agree to a deal. Canada will be out in the cold, with USA / Mexico heading into their own deal and NAFTA ending.


TRUDEAU REMAINS ‘POSITIVE’ AFTER TRUMP REPORTEDLY SAYS NO COMPROMISE WITH CANADA

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will “remain constructive” after hearing a report that President Donald Trump won’t make any compromises with Canada during the NAFTA negotiations.

The Toronto Star is reporting what it claims to be off-the-record remarks by the president Friday during an interview with Bloomberg News. Trump ruled out compromise and said the United States was “going to be so insulted [Canada is not] going to be able to make a deal.”

According to CBC News in Oshawa, Ontario, Trudeau told reporters, “We’re going to remain constructive, positive, serious and creative about what we do around the negotiating table, in what we do in relation with the United States. But we are also going to be unequivocal about always standing up for Canadians’ rights and Canadians’ interests.”

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is in Washington in the thick of negotiations and says the two countries have not arrived at a deal, despite Friday afternoon being an arbitrary deadline for reaching one.

“We’re looking for a good deal, not just any deal. And we will only agree to a deal that is a good deal for Canada. We’re not there yet,” Freeland said Friday from Washington, where talks are taking place for a new NAFTA deal.

Freeland and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau both stressed today that the government will always stand up for the national interest in trade negotiations.


http://dailycaller.com/2018/08...trump-no-compromise/

quote:

I wonder who the star's source might be?

No need to guess. Trump said it. He's negotiating and is well known to use these tactics to his benefit.

"A man can be an artist... in anything, food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Trump's art is negotiation. He's about to paint his masterpiece".

(Adapted from Man On Fire.... )

So Trump tells the press to keep something off the record as it may negatively affect a major trade deal between two neighboring, allied nations.

The press decides its more important to try to screw Trump, but I have no doubt they are the President's unwitting dupes in this negotiation.



.

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
"A man can be an artist... in anything, food, whatever. It depends on how good he is at it. Trump's art is negotiation. He's about to paint his masterpiece".

(Adapted from Man On Fire.... )

Well said.



.

Again, all these morons think the President is an unstable idiot....he's repeatedly said he opposes NAFTA and wants bilateral trade deals...oh look, we're probably getting out of NAFTA & we've been negotiating bilateral trade deals...who's the idiot now!



The media & Never-Trumpers can't see the forest for the leaves

^^^ The last line in that tweet gives it away. No?