‘What the hell does that mean?’
Trump criticizes Canada, then says he doesn’t understand what he read
WASHINGTON— U.S. President Donald Trump lobbed some new trade criticism at Canada on Wednesday. And then he said he did not understand what he had just said.
Speaking at a rally in Fargo, N.D., on Wednesday night, Trump took a break from his usual improvisation to read out a note card he said he had been given. It was a complaint about Canada’s wheat practices. Immediately after reading the note, the president declared that he had no idea what he was talking about. “John and Kevin gave me something, they told me this,” he said, likely referring to North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven and Rep. Kevin Cramer. Beginning to read, he said, “Canadian wheat markets consistently discriminate against the United States’s wheat by grading it as feed.”
He then pointed quizzically at the audience. “Do you know what that means? They know what it means,” he said, pointing behind him. “I don’t know what the hell it means. I just know it’s a bad deal. What the hell does that mean?”
He threw the note card up in the air dismissively, letting it fall to the ground. Then he cast a long look behind him, an irritated expression on his face.
This bit received less enthusiastic applause from the audience than much of the rest of his routine.
The U.S. wheat growers lobby has complained about the Canadian system that classifies even high-quality American wheat as the lowest and cheapest grade of wheat, “feed.” The Stephen Harper Conservative government put forward a bill to address this issue, but did not turn it into law before the 2015 election.
The agriculture publication The Western Producer explained in January: “American grain can be delivered to Canadian grain elevators, but it cannot be graded as Canadian. That effectively means it has to be graded as feed and cannot be included in export shipments of Canadian grain. It also means grain companies need to segregate U.S. grain from Canadian grain, which is such a hassle and risk that it has virtually shut down shipments of American grain to Canadian elevators.”
Cereals Canada says it agrees with the U.S. wheat lobby that American wheat should be treated by the Canadian grad- ing system the same way Canadian wheat is treated.
“How that registration system is structured is a Canadian decision to make. But we do agree upon equal treatment. If there’s a variety registered in Canada and grown in the U.S., yes, that (U.S.) delivery to a Canadian system should be treated equally,” said Cereals Canada president Cam Dahl.
After he was finished talking about grain, Trump proceeded to his now-familiar criticism of Canada’s milk tariffs — this time, he wrongly claimed Canada had just increased the tariffs — and of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trump again referred to Trudeau simply as “Justin.” He again dismissed Trudeau’s argument that his steel and aluminum tariffs, officially imposed on “national security” grounds, are insulting given Canada’s history of fighting alongside the United States.
“Justin gets up, he said, ‘We fought World War I together, we fought World War II’ — all true — ‘together.’ All true. We love Canada. But they’re taking advantage of us. We can’t let that happen,” he said.
Trump spent a significant portion of the rally defending the tariffs, which have come under criticism from many Republicans, Republican-friendly businesspeople and farmers who voted for Trump. He said the trade battle is like a poker game “we can’t lose.” He urged people to give him more time with the negotiations: “Just play the game for a little while.”
“When people rush it, you know, it’s like rushing the turkey out of the stove. It’s not going to be as good — the women can tell me, and some of the men,” he said.