Freeland hits back at Kushner books, calls Trump a bully
OTTAWA –
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said that former US President Donald Trump used “bullying” tactics in negotiations over a new North American free trade agreement more than two years ago.
Freeland is responding to portraying herself as a nasty and nasty negotiator in a new memoir by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
Freeland was foreign minister at the time and therefore Canada’s chief negotiator in the negotiations.
In his book The History of Disruption, Kushner accused Freeland of deliberately stalling the negotiations and spoke publicly about the negotiations against the wishes of the White House.
When asked about the characterization of her book, Freeland said that when faced with a bully, you simply cannot back down.
She said that Canada’s best asset in those negotiations is a united front in the talks presented by Conservative prime ministers and the federal Liberal government.
This report by the Canadian Press was first published on August 25, 2022.