Navarro warns Canada against election interference

Por Oliver Ward, Daniel Desrochers and Zi-Ann Lum — POLITICO – TOP Stories

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro warned Canadians not to interfere in U.S. elections, a rhetorical escalation in the ongoing trade war between the two countries.

At an economic event hosted by a communications and policy firm in Washington on Tuesday morning, Navarro told any Canadians in the audience, “please, if you’re on K Street, get the hell out of our country.”

“You’ve lobbied this country and you’ve been successful in the past and you think you can keep doing that,” continued Navarro, who serves as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing in the White House. “Memo to Canada: You cannot do that.”

He then warned that Ottawa could face repercussions if Canadians “interfere” in the November elections in the U.S. — specifically singling out Maine and Michigan, both of which have hotly contested Senate and governors races and have been deeply affected by the intensifying trade war President Donald Trump launched with Canada in August.

The comments come the same day Trump’s import bans on about $1 billion worth of Canadian exports took effect, and on the back of double-digit tariff hikes from both governments after trade talks fell apart last month.

Navarro declined to answer a question from POLITICO on his comment following the event.

Ottawa’s “dollar-to-dollar” retaliation for Trump’s August tariff increase, which went into effect on Sept. 8, disproportionately hit goods from Michigan, Maine and other U.S. states with competitive elections this fall. When imposing the duties, Canadian Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said they were a “wise and strategic” move to put political pressure on some U.S. elections by targeting specific products. “We think it’s the right thing to do right now,” she said.

Ontario premier Doug Ford also ran television ads last year in the U.S. criticizing Trump’s tariffs. The nationally televised ad aired during the 2025 World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers and featured former President Ronald Reagan warning of the hurt that tariffs cause the U.S. economy.

The Canadian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In Maine, Sen. Susan Collins is trying to fend off a challenge from Democrat Troy Jackson, a former state senator, while Republicans and Democrats are in a neck-and-neck race for the Michigan Senate seat left open by the retirement of Democrat Gary Peters. The contests could determine which party controls the Senate in 2027. Both states also have tightly contested House and governors races.

Collins has been openly critical of Trump’s tariffs on Canada, saying they will hurt the state’s economy and is lobbying the administration to secure tariff relief for specific products. In Michigan, Republican nominee Mike Rogers has hewed closer to the party line, backing Trump’s attempts to negotiate with Ottawa, even as the business community in the state has formed an advocacy group to push back against the tariffs.

Michigan’s economy is heavily reliant on trade with Canada, especially its auto sector, which is highly integrated across North America. Maine and Canada’s agricultural industries — like forestry products — are also heavily linked, as products cross the border between harvest and processing.

Navarro’s invocation of election interference ties the trade war to one of Trump’s top policy priorities: election security. For months, he’s hammered Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which purports to secure U.S. elections, despite a lack of Republican support for the legislation in the Senate.

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and the ranking member of the Finance Committee, said Navarro’s comments were part of a “pattern of insults without facts.”

“Trump between now and Election Day, he’ll be using this for practically everything. If anybody has a sore on their knee, he’s gonna say it’s election interference,” Wyden said in an interview at the Capitol.

Navarro is one of the few figures that has remained in Trump’s White House across the two administrations, serving as director of the National Trade Council and helming the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy in Trump’s first term, during which he was also among the administration’s most vocal critics of Canadian trade practices.

In 2018, he responded to then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s pushback on U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs with remarks he eventually walked back.

“There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad-faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump and then tries to stab him in the back on the way out the door,” he told “Fox News Sunday” in June 2018.

The trade adviser apologized two days later. “My mission was to send a strong signal of strength,” he said. “The problem is that in conveying that message I used language that was inappropriate.”

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories