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Lorne Gunter: Howe Bridge outburst underlines Trump's bullying tendencies

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Just when you think U.S. President Donald Trump can’t get any more unhinged, he outdoes himself.

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It was crazy earlier this month when Trump suggested Canada’s new trade deal with China would permit the Communist regime to “terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup.”

There are a lot of reasons Prime Minister Mark Carney’s deal with Beijing is dangerous. For one, it permits Chinese security and propaganda agents to operate more or less freely in Canada, intimidating Canadians of Chinese origin and attempting to influence federal elections.

It also prevents the Liberals from speaking out forcefully against the show trial of Jimmy Lai and the lengthy sentence a panel of Communist judges gave the former newspaper owner for standing up for democracy in Hong Kong.

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However, even more ridiculous than his prediction of a hockey ban was Trump’s late-night Monday post on Truth Social in which he threatened to block the May opening of the new Gordie Howe Bridge because Canada is trying to rip off the Americans.

“As everyone knows, the Country of Canada has treated the United States very unfairly for decades. Now, the Canadian Government expects me, as President of the United States, to PERMIT them to just ’take advantage of America!’ What does the United States of America to get — Absolutely NOTHING!”

Trump’s allegations were asinine. The construction of the entire $6.4-billion bridge has been paid by Canada in a deal negotiated with the State of Michigan. American workers and American steel were used during construction in roughly the same proportions as Canadian workers and materials.

What makes this statement worse, though, is that it fully underscored the shallowness of Trump’s thinking and his anti-intellectual approach to decision-making.

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For one thing, during a meeting with Justin Trudeau in 2017, during Trump’s first term, Trump said, “In particular, we look forward to the expeditious completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will serve as a vital economic link between our two countries.”

It’s not that he was contradicting himself in his recent criticism of Canada and the bridge. In all likelihood, Trump doesn’t have a deep enough grasp of public policy to remember ever making the 2017 statement in the first place.

So, why the president’s sudden outburst against the bridge within weeks of its official opening?

The CBC reported that on the day before Trump’s tirade, Matthew Moroun, the Detroit billionaire who owns the old Ambassador Bridge upriver from the Howe bridge, lobbied Howard Lutnick, another ill-informed billionaire and Trump’s Commerce secretary, to try stop the new bridge from opening.

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The Ambassador Bridge is privately owned by the Moroun family and generates hundreds of millions in tolls for them every year. They have even been to court to try to stop the new Howe Bridge.

Just hours after Moroun made his complaints known to Lutnick (who is also one of Trump’s strongest proponents of tariffs), Trump began ranting about Canada’s unfair trade practices and demanding we give the Americans half of the bridge.

Trump is committed to no ideal or principle strongly enough that he cannot do a 180 on it.

He’s like a child in the seat of a shopping cart grabbing impulsively at treats near the till. He has no forethought or self control.

This bridge bombast is similar to several dozen of impetuous Trump actions and decisions in the past year: His entire national-emergency tariff scheme, the firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the crime of releasing a jobs report that embarrassed Emperor Donald I, renaming the Kennedy Center, then having it closed down, insisting an international airport, a major train station and the new Washington D.C. football stadium must named for him to get public money for construction. His ICE surge in Minneapolis, his calling out the National Guard in several cities.

These and dozens of other acts show Trump is not some scheming genius out sets off uproars so he can win his true goal in the end, he is a maniacal bully with a short attentions span.

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