Trump threatens CEOs as tactic against allies, Freeland says

Skip to Content News Archives Economy Defence Energy Oil & Gas Renewables Electric Vehicles Mining Commodities Agriculture Real Estate Mortgages Mortgage Rates Finance Banking Insurance Fintech Cryptocurrency Defence Work Wealth Smart Money Wealth Management Investor Personal Finance Family Finance Retirement Taxes High Net Worth FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials More Innovation Information Technology FP500 Podcasts Small Business Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Financial Post Store Obituaries Place a Notice Advertising Advertising With Us Advertising Solutions Postmedia Ad Manager Sponsorship Requests Classifieds Place a Classifieds ad Working Profile Settings My Subscriptions My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ News Economy Energy Mining Real Estate Finance Defence Work Wealth Investor FP Comment Executive Women Puzzmo Newsletters Financial Times Business Essentials This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.HomeNewsEconomyTrump threatens CEOs as tactic against allies, Freeland saysHer book’s central argument is that America’s allies have too often rewarded Trump’s bullying with concessions that fail to produce resultsAuthor of the article:Former Canadian deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland speaks about Ukraine at Carleton University in Ottawa May 6, 2026. Photo by Blair Gable/PostmediaU.S. President Donald Trump’s administration privately pressures foreign chief executives and business leaders to bring their governments into line with the White House’s demands, Canada’s former deputy prime minister says in a new memoir.THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLYSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman, and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.Exclusive articles from Barbara Shecter, Joe O'Connor, Gabriel Friedman and others.Daily content from Financial Times, the world's leading global business publication.Unlimited online access to read articles from Financial Post, National Post and 15 news sites across Canada with one account.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles, including the New York Times Crossword.REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLESCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an Account“The Trump team is swaggeringly, rudely aggressive, even behind closed doors,” writes Chrystia Freeland, who also served as finance minister, foreign minister and trade minister during Justin Trudeau’s nine years in power. “Trump’s cabinet secretaries miss no opportunity to warn foreign CEOs of the dire consequences if their leaders don’t fall in line.”This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.The book is titled Unreliable Boyfriend: An Insider’s View of Dealing with a Chaotic Superpower, Plutocrats, and Other Complicated People. It combines behind-the-scenes accounts of her dealings with Trump and other U.S. officials with a retelling of her dramatic split from Trudeau in December 2024.SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE: FP West: Energy Insider brings you behind the oilpatch’s closed doors with exclusive insights from insiders every Wednesday morning.By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.The next issue of FP West: Energy Insider will soon be in your inbox.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againThe book’s central argument is that America’s allies have too often rewarded Trump’s bullying with concessions that fail to produce results. Freeland makes it clear she was frustrated with people who complained privately but capitulated to Trump publicly — and warns that China is gaining greater power as a result of U.S. policies.“Too often today, America’s allies perform the Trump-era equivalent of woke virtue signaling — too many of us talk tough about the United States, but carry a small stick. Too much is at stake for that sort of quisling behavior,” Freeland writes.She praises Prime Minister Mark Carney, her longtime friend, in whose cabinet she served for several months before her exit from politics. But she criticizes the government’s decision in June 2025 to drop a digital services tax that would have affected U.S. tech firms, only for Trump to hike tariffs on Canadian goods weeks later anyway.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.While the most visible fight between the U.S. and its allies is over tariffs, “the more consequential battle may be over Washington’s insistence that Big Tech be allowed to operate freely around the world without being meaningfully taxed or policed,” she writes.The administration brings its demands directly to foreign business leaders. After Carney’s famous “middle powers” speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hosted a dinner with business executives. One guest at that event later delivered a stark message to Freeland, according to her.“They are pissed,” the person told Freeland. “They will take it out on us. They think we need to be cut down to size. They hate Canada.”One of the more startling anecdotes in the Freeland book involves Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decision to briefly impose a surcharge on electricity exports to the U.S. as retaliation for tariffs in early 2025. According to Freeland, a Canadian business leader told her that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had privately threatened to send U.S. troops across the border unless Ford backed down. (Freeland notes in the book that Lutnick has no military authority.)This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.“Canada was offered the most generous trade deal of any of America’s trading partners despite being overwhelmingly reliant on access to the American economy, which is over 12 times larger than Canada’s economy. Canada rejected that deal to demand continued one-sided access to the American market with no reciprocity,” Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson for the White House, said in an emailed statement. “President Trump pledged to put always American workers, farmers, and businesses first and he has delivered by leveling the playing field for Americans.”‘Here, Angela’Freeland’s memoir also revisits some memorable episodes from Trump’s first term.Freeland recounts the 2018 Group of Seven summit in Quebec, during which leaders persuaded Trump to sign a joint communique, only for him to withdraw support hours later after he was angered by comments from Trudeau.Toward the end of the summit, she writes, Trump pulled candies from his pocket, tossed them onto a table in front of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and said: “Here, Angela, don’t say I never give you anything.” Freeland describes the gesture as “astonishingly contemptuous.”This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Yet her portrait of Trump is complicated. Although the president repeatedly referred to Freeland as a “nasty woman” while she led Canada’s side during trade negotiations, she says he could also be disarmingly personable in private — calling her “the killer” as a compliment.Freeland credits Canada’s eventual success in reaching the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement with a strategy that many business leaders opposed: retaliating against American tariffs rather than accommodating them.Trudeau breakupWhile the “unreliable boyfriend” in the book title refers to the U.S., Freeland names the chapter about the collapse of her political relationship with Trudeau, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.”Trudeau recruited Freeland into politics and eventually made her the first female finance minister in Canadian history. While she writes that history will be kind to him for his actions to fight climate change and social inequality, she paints a less flattering picture of his governing style.“Crying was routine at cabinet meetings. There were always boxes of Kleenex on hand, and really sad colleagues would sometimes get a hug from the PM,” she says.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.She says Trudeau’s lecturing at times veered into bullying. After one colleague casually described something as “crazy,” Trudeau scolded her because the term was insulting to people with mental health issues. Ministers were encouraged to use the word “bananas” instead, she writes.Despite his image as an empathetic leader, Freeland describes Trudeau as an aloof boss who rarely spoke with his ministers one-on-one.Their relationship finally unravelled in December 2024 — and Carney was at the centre of it.For months, rumors had circulated that Trudeau planned to replace Freeland with Carney as finance minister. During a Zoom call, he informed her she would lose the portfolio but remain deputy prime minister, in a role focused on Canada-U.S. relations as Trump prepared to return to power.Freeland writes that it was the “third-worst” day of her life, after her mother’s death and her parents’ divorce.Weeks before that call, Freeland was given advice about Trudeau by former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. “As long as you support him, he will stay on as PM. And he will lose the next election,” Chretien told her. “If that happens, it will be partly your fault.”This advertisement has not loaded yet.This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.Those words lingered. On Dec. 16, 2024, hours before she was due to deliver a major fiscal update in Parliament, she quit with a scathing public letter instead.The move blew up Trudeau’s administration. He resigned weeks later, triggering a party leadership race in which Freeland placed a distant second to Carney.“The painful personal irony is that, while my resignation ultimately forced Trudeau to step down, my close association with him hamstrung my own political prospects,” she says.Freeland now serves as an economic development adviser to Ukraine and is a contributor to Bloomberg News.“Mark Carney is an excellent prime minister,” she concludes. “I am proud my decision helped him get the top job, even though I ended up paying a pretty steep political price.”This advertisement has not loaded yet.Notice for the Postmedia NetworkThis website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.