A family from Toronto displays their Canadian flag outside the White House on Thursday as a man impersonating President Donald Trump removes his mask. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
As President Donald Trump reiterated his intent to escalate a trade war with Canada and Mexico and said again he wants America’s northern neighbor to become a U.S. territory, his picks to serve as ambassadors to both countries sought Thursday to temper the president’s confrontational rhetoric while facing the Senate panel weighing their nominations.
Peter Hoekstra, the former Michigan congressman tapped to serve in Ottawa, touted his “special appreciation for Canada as a neighbor” and the top trading partner for some 36 U.S. states. Ronald D. Johnson, selected for the Mexico City post, celebrated the fact that “Mexico has surpassed China as the United States’ number one trading partner,” including a “record $840 billion” in bilateral trade last year.
Both men, appearing alongside George Edward Glass, Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Japan, offered commitments to strengthening relationships with countries that Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s chairman James E. Risch (R-Idaho) referred to as “some of our most important allies.” And all three, who served as ambassadors during Trump’s first administration, touted their belief in diplomacy.
But looming over their confirmation hearing was the reality that Trump has infuriated officials from those countries with a 25 percent global tariff on steel and aluminum, and his withering criticism of America’s key trade and security partners.
“The U.S.-Canada bilateral relationship is at a historic low point,” the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), said as she addressed Hoekstra. “Recent polling in Canada shows that 75 percent of Canadians have an unfavorable opinion of President Trump,” and that nearly the same percentage of Canadians (27 percent) now view the United States as an enemy as those who still view it as an ally (30 percent), she added.
She asked Hoekstra how he would approach “turning around that negative relationship that has developed because of the president’s statements” and how he would address the tariff issues.
“It’s a great question. Obviously, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about that myself,” Hoekstra responded, noting that he “experienced similar things” as ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump’s first term when the president conveyed antagonism toward NATO.
“There was a lot of hostility or concern about some of the objectives of the first Trump administration,” Hoekstra said. He said he spent a “tremendous amount of time … focusing on the strength of the relationship between our two countries.”
“We have a great history of working together” with Canada “and we know how to make this work,” he added.
Thursday’s discourse betrayed the dissonance that has come to characterize many congressional hearings in the weeks since Trump began his second term, as moderate Republicans have emphasized their support for America’s long-standing alliances while simultaneously praising the president who is upending them.
Trump is embroiled in trade conflicts with China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union. And he plans to unveil on April 2 a new “reciprocal” tariff that could lead to a steep hike in the cost of goods from dozens of countries.
As Canada, China and the European Union have responded in kind to Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on agricultural goods, cars and other materials, Trump has doubled down, telling reporters gathered in the Oval Office on Thursday that the United States would not be “ripped off anymore” by Canada.
“We don’t need their cars, we don’t need their energy, we don’t need their lumber. We don’t need anything that they give,” he said, after contending the United States can’t continue to “subsidize” the Canadian economy.
Trump went on to call the U.S.-Canadian border an “artificial line,” though he conceded that he likes Canada’s national anthem and would allow the Canadian people to keep it once annexed by the United States.
POTUS on tariffs: "We've been ripped off for years and we're not going to be ripped off anymore. I'm not going to bend at all -- aluminum or steel or cars -- we're not going to bend... We've been subjected to costs we shouldn't be subjected to." pic.twitter.com/ycZcizxO3A
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 13, 2025
Trump’s musings about deploying the U.S. military to target drug cartels inside Mexico and his administration’s targeting of Latin American migrants and immigrants, in addition to the mounting trade war, have outraged Mexican officials as well.
But in the Senate hearing room, Johnson emphasized the importance of collaborating with Mexican authorities to accomplish Trump’s agenda — and even expressed approval with recent Mexican actions to crack down on the cartels.
“I’m encouraged by what I’m seeing recently in Mexico,” he said in response to a question by Sen. David McCormick (R-Pennsylvania). “I think there are opportunities for us to work together more closely.”
The Senate’s Democratic minority, relatively powerless to challenge Trump’s actions, have used nomination hearings like this one to question what they consider the president’s erratic foreign policy statements and seek public reassurances from his nominees that the administration will strive to preserve long-standing alliances.
“Last week, President Trump suddenly called our defense alliance with Japan a bad deal, and unfair,” Shaheen said to Glass. “You pointed out in one of your statements that we’ve actually been at ... ‘the apex’ of our relationship … So can you explain to me why the president would be calling out that relationship and suggesting that our agreement with Japan is a bad deal?”
Glass suggested that Trump’s remarks were, in fact, helpful, and connected to the U.S. desire to see Japan spend more on defense, something that he said Japan is receptive to.
“How will you help the administration appreciate” Japan’s importance, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) asked, after describing recent meetings with Japanese business leaders whom, he said, find Trump’s trade war hectoring “profoundly unsettling.”
Glass did not say, but noted that Japan’s support for the U.S. military presence there has been “consistent” and that the U.S. simply wants it to spend more on defense. He offered to return to Capitol Hill to answer any further questions, and Coons thanked him.
“All three of you have been chosen to represent the United States for absolutely critical allies,” Coons said. “And I hope that we can together sustain these trusted and long-standing relationships.”
David Lynch contributed to this report.