NAFTA talks, Round 1
NATIONAL POST
As far as unlikely political friendships go, it’s not quite Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley or Kim Jong-un and Dennis Rodman.
But the fact that Justin Trudeau’s top adviser, Gerald Butts, is apparently pals with Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, will surely raise a few eyebrows. The revelation was buried in a piece published Tuesday about Bannon’s influence on Trump.
“Bannon sees Butts as a sort of leftwing version of himself,” writes Ryan Lizza. The two met during the transition period between Trump’s election win in November and his inauguration in January and “now talk regularly.”
As Bannon searches for some way topullTrump’sapprovalratingsoutof the gutter, he may be looking north for ideas. According to Butts told Bannon that “there’s nothing better for a populist than a rich guy raising taxes on rich guys” and touted the success of Trudeau’s tax increase on top earners.
It remains to be seen whether anyone else in the Trump administration, or the Republican congress for that matter, will be sold on tax hikes, especially considering the focus of
article is Bannon’s precarious position in the White House.
Bannon and Butts may both consider themselves populists but, on policy grounds, there’s not a lot of overlap. Butts was largely responsible for former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty’s platform, which called for a big boost in renewable energy and the phasing out of coal plants.
Trump’s populism during the 2016 campaign involved trashing the Paris climate accord and promising to return coal miners to work. Bannon is the former head of Breitbart News, a leading hard-right publication, and helped make immigration and border patrol a key issue in the campaign.