Trump trade adviser says Canada will 'pay even more dearly' if 'you interfere' in U.S. midterms
Peter Navarro said Canadian lobbyists should 'get the hell out of our country'
One of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade advisers is threatening repercussions for Canada if it "interferes" in the upcoming midterm elections — though it's not clear what he anticipates the country would do to impact the vote.
Peter Navarro, who has lashed out at Canada in the past, made these latest remarks during a talk at an economic conference in Washington on Tuesday.
Navarro was speaking generally about the Trump administration's trade policy when the conversation turned to the ongoing dispute with Canada. He blasted Canadians on "K Street" — an area in Washington known as a hub for lobbyists — telling them to "get the hell out of our country."
"The problem you have is you lobby this country and you've been successful in the past and you think you can keep doing that," Navarro said of Canada's approach.
"Memo to Canada: You cannot do that. That game is up and if you interfere in our elections in Maine or Michigan you will pay even more dearly."
Navarro said he "loves" the Canadian people but has had no love for Canadian negotiators since 2016.
"You just can't trust them," he said.
During the talks that led to the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) in Trump's first term, Ottawa leaned on U.S. labour and business groups to help make its case. More recently, a number of Canadian provinces have hired their own representatives to be present for ongoing trade discussions in D.C. since Trump returned to the White House in early 2025.
Navarro didn't elaborate on what he meant by suggesting Canada could interfere in the election, but the ongoing trade war has become an election topic in the two border states he mentioned.
Asked about Navarro's comments during a Tuesday afternoon news conference in Vancouver, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he has "no response."
The Democratic nominee for Michigan's open Senate seat, Abdul El-Sayed, has sought to make trade with Canada a central ballot issue for the vote in November. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, has opposed the trade war.
Navarro made the comments on the same day that Trump's latest trade escalation came into effect.
As of Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. ET, some Canadian alcohol products, dairy byproducts, motorcycles and molasses have been shut out of the U.S. market.
The White House announced the bans and some additional tariffs a few days after Canada slapped counter-tariffs on U.S. goods earlier this month. Both moves came after trade talks collapsed in August.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he expects Canada to return to the negotiating table in the coming weeks with an apology.
"I think what's going to happen is over the next three or four weeks, they're going to come to us and they're gonna say, 'We're gonna get rid of all the tariffs,"' the president said.
Trump also repeated claims that Canada has treated the U.S. "unfairly" and said it's been "one of the worst countries in the entire world" when it comes to trade.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said during an unrelated news conference on Tuesday that the government has no intention of apologizing for "standing up for Canadian workers, Canadian businesses [and] defending our economy."
"We are having conversations with our American counterparts. We're not negotiating detailed texts as we were five, six weeks ago. But we remain in contact with them," he said.
"If the prime minister concludes at some point that there's a deal possible, that protects the sovereignty of our country, that would be in the economic interest of the country, then we would obviously be in a position to have that conversation."
During his Tuesday remarks, Navarro suggested that Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford were acting to promote their political self-interests as opposed to "what's good for the Canadian people."
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"Mark Carney and Doug Ford just talk trash about Donald Trump. That's what they do and then they go up in the polls and they think that's a winning strategy," he said.
"We look at that and go, 'Oh, that's not smart. OK, do your thing. You got tariffs now.'"
Last year, Ford's government paid to run an anti-tariff ad featuring former U.S. president Ronald Reagan that sparked backlash from the White House. U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra has since likened the advertisement to foreign meddling.
Navarro has taken heat for past comments on Canada. In 2020, he questioned Canada's role in the U.S.-led multilateral NATO mission in Afghanistan, suggesting the country's role was motivated more by a desire to curry favour with the U.S. than to support the global fight against terrorism.
Those comments spurred a former chief of the defence staff to call Navarro an "idiot."
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With files from Cat Tunney and The Canadian Press