Despite the increasing likelihood of a renegotiated NAFTA collapsing, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains positive about his relationship with President Donald Trump.
In a Christmas interview with CTV News, Trudeau said he remains positive about working with Trump because the president was elected “to make America great again.”
Trudeau admitted that he’s found Trump to be difficult: “Donald Trump has demonstrated that he’s a bit of a disruptive force. He does unpredictable things. He’s a deal-maker. He’s a negotiator.”
But the prime minister noted that he looks beyond the surface and finds common ground with his U.S. counterpart. “The thing that reassures me fundamentally is he got elected on a commitment to help people, to make America great again.”
Trudeau encouraged Trump to extend his desire to assist the American people to NAFTA. “The way to help those people is to bring in trade deals and jobs and economic growth that is going to help.”
Trudeau was asked about his hugely unpopular decision to award former Taliban terrorist and Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr $10.5 million (Cdn). The PM described himself feeling “frustrated and outraged” but not because Canadian taxpayers had provided a small fortune to the confessed killer of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. Rather, he said future governments should “never again think it would be easier to allow for someone’s rights to be violated because they are politically unpopular.”
The prime minister also offered further assurances that returning ISIS fighters can be “turned away from their hateful ideology,” even though his own public safety minister has assessed that possibility as “pretty remote.”