The Ben Mulroney Show - Chris Christie unloads on Trump as Canada-U.S. trade war erupts

Episode Date: August 29, 2026

On today's episode of 'The Ben Mulroney Show,' Ben welcomes back the host of The Sharpe Exchange, 17-year-old Wyatt Sharpe. They explore the complex Canada-US relationship through insights from political analysts and former officials like Chris Christie, Peter Mansbridge and Peter McKay. They discuss trade tensions, tariffs, and the long-term implications of recent diplomatic shifts. ‪@TheSharpeExchange‬ If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠   Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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With so much experience to draw on, it's like having your own coach. Whatever your favorite game, we have your playbook. OZoon. Well played. Discover free sports tips, casino games and poker guides at OZoon.net. If I'm being totally honest, as we are trying to navigate this world of trying to make sense of what's going on between Canada and the United States, if I was able to say after, let's say, two weeks, that I'd had former New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, foreign affairs, national defense, formerly Peter McKay. If I'd had a Trump on my show and if I'd had a former Republican congressman on the show, over the course of two weeks, I would have said that was a great two weeks.

Well, my next guest had them all on one show. It was Chocco Block. Please welcome back to the show. Our good friend from the Sharp Exchange, Wyatt Sharp. Welcome, my friend. Thanks so much. I mean, that was a heck of a wall-to-wall. to wall names. Thank you. Well, it's big times. We've got to have big guests.

Yes. Okay. So the headliner, right, obviously Chris Christie, because he has made his stock and trade over the past few years to be an exceptionally critical voice of Donald Trump from within the tent of the GOP. What did you learn from him? I will say one thing about Chris Christie just before I go into the interview that I respect about him is he's not like a lot of the other former mega adjacent people. He is still a republic. He has a number of conservative ideas. So when you're talking to him, yes, he's anti-Trump, but he's still a conservative. So you know that there's at least a little bit more authenticity and a little more genuineness than talking to some of the other people who fit into that category. He did have some pretty harsh rhetoric towards Donald Trump. He had said Canada's, of course, our greatest neighbor and ally.

But then he said that he is a spoiled, petulant child. Let's listen. Go ahead. I just want to start out. You obviously know Donald Trump very well. And the terror. that he's been putting in place on Canada have been pretty inconsistent. He has put in place tariffs. He's taken off tariffs. I think really, in some cases, people believe that he's making some of these decisions on tariffs solely, you know, day by day based off of what he sees a particular Canadian official, you know, saying on television or whatever the case may be.

What do you know about Donald Trump that perhaps can explain his rationale behind lashing out at Canada like this? Well, it's two things I'd say, why. thing is, if you look at Donald Trump's public career, the only political philosophy he's ever consistently believed in are tariffs. If you go back to listening to Donald Trump interviews in the 80s with Oprah Winfrey, he's talking about tariffing Japan. Japan was the boogeyman at the time. And so he's always been a believer in tariffs. He thinks they're, you know, they're the greatest thing in the world from economic perspective. So that's one thing. He just uses them as a tool

against anybody. Now, with Canada in particular, I think he really believes that they should conduct themselves in a subservient way to the United States. He does not believe they should conduct themselves as an independent nation state, but should be subservient to us. And let's face it, Canada has been pretty great to us over time, in my view. Yeah, and that makes a lot of sense, right? Because his rhetoric about Canada has been that we might as well be a state. We're freeloaders. And on certain files, he's not completely off base. I would use different language than that, but on a national defense and the defense of our sovereignty, absolutely. We have relied on the kindness of our American friends to take care of that for us. That's changing under Mark Carney, but it's only changing because

the pressure that he put on us. So I can cede that. But, So it makes sense, right? He does not respect us as a fully formed country. And therefore, this, I bet you he's probably kind of upset that we're not at the table and we're not taking what he's, what we're lucky for him to pass with the scraps that he's given us. I will say he's probably upset. But he also, Chris Christie told me, like one of the few things he does respect is when people do stand their ground and do similar things to what he would do. And that is very much what Canada is doing right now. Of course, you do have some people who are questioning like, okay, well, what?

Mark Carney and what did the government reject here because we don't actually fully know that right now. So I think a lot of that criticism is totally fair. The part that is unfair, I think, coming from the Americans is Donald Trump saying that Canada is just ridiculously hard to work with. The facts would disagree with that. Canada is the only G7 country that has a trade deal with every other G7 country. So clearly, we're not that hard to work with if every other country can figure something out. That's a good point. And I still have never had, I've never heard an answer to the question, And if we are so bad to work with, like, you're the one who set up the rules of engagement the last time NAFTA was reopened and you called it the greatest deal ever signed. I've never heard anyone ask him how he squares that circle.

But maybe you'll be able to get Donald Trump to ask that one day. Okay. But from there you went on a Peter Mansbridge. Yes, sir. And what did you learn from Peter Mansbridge about this Canada-U.S. relationship? You know, the reason I wanted to talk to Peter Mansbridge just off the bat was that he obviously has covered, you know, Canadian, American politics for decades. He's interviewed presidents. He's interviewed prime ministers. He has so much understanding firsthand of kind of what's happening here. So it was about the relationship

and whether or not he thinks it can be restored after this trade fight. And he said it's going to take a really long time because of how alienated people feel. And also the fact that right now, even though tariffs, these could be a short-term thing if Donald Trump decides to repeal them, the long-term economic consequences of these could be pretty severe. And, you know, if Canada looks to diversify our trade, signing that EV deal, with China to reduce the tariffs from 100% down to 6%. You can't really reverse diversification once you get there. And frankly, I don't think people would want to do that.

No, I agree. And I think the emotional hurt that people feel that that's going to last a while. And whatever comes of this, once we diversify, once we do all the things that we were promised we were going to do, still not doing. But ultimately, when we do make sure that we can get our natural resources to other markets, Yeah, you're right. Like that we will be looking elsewhere. But we're never going to decouple from the United States. Anybody who thinks that's going to happen is living in a fantasy land.

But the tone and the tenor has changed. It'll be interesting, though, what happens when the page is turned on Donald Trump. And how much Trumpism remains in the DNA of the GOP? Yeah, because to Chris Christie's point, the idea of terrorists is very much a Trump idea. It's not a Republican or conservative idea. I had Chris Sununu too on my show. He's the former governor of New Hampshire. He had a similar kind of line of argument to Chris Christie, and that is that they are, you know, free trade enthusiasts, free market economy, enthusiasts, and they don't understand why the president is doing this year.

And so to that end, I think that's important. I also think that to your point after Donald Trump, I think the rhetoric will be toned down, but Gavin Newsom has been making the rounds on podcasts and shows as well. And in one interview, he said he doesn't know if the tariffs would necessarily disappear under a Democratic administration, which underscores the importance of diversification. Yeah, because the bell has been wrong, right? Once that bell is wrong, you can't unring it. And Donald Trump has been very good at feeding the Kool-Aid to enough people within that party that there are acolytes of tariffs that will be in that party for generations. They're 12-year-olds who think that Donald Trump's idea on tariffs are the best thing ever.

And those 12-year-olds will grow up and they will be leaders within that party. The last guest I wanted to talk to you about was Peter McKay, the former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and also a Minister of National Defense and Foreign Affairs. What did he say? He took a pretty diplomatic approach in terms of what he was saying just because he recognizes that, as I think you've even pointed out before, like, we don't really know what Mark Carney was fully rejecting here. And so there was a lot of criticism levied for that. But he obviously thinks that the Americans, in terms of how they've been going about this trade deal, are totally forgetting. what, you know, the importance is of this reciprocal deal were coming up on the 25th anniversary of 9-11. Canada was obviously instrumental in helping the U.S. then. And I also don't think that

it's necessarily just that Canada relies on the U.S. and vice versa. It's that we're heavily integrated into each other's economies and, you know, Americans buy some of their products that aren't necessarily the final product, but they go into different things that are made. So I think that's important as well. Well, I think we all learned this week that 80% of the toilet paper that Americans use comes from Canada. Yeah. Like that's, if you're going to, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, if you, I think that's, uh, cause, cause, cause that's universal. 80% of their toilet paper comes from Canada.

Yeah. And I, and, you know what, this, this 9-11, um, rememberance of the fact that it's 25th anniversary. I, I, I think, uh, hopefully that Canadians will be doing the rounds on American TV to remind Donald Trump and Peter Navarro and all those guys who say that we say that we have. have nothing. And all those Fox News people who've been diminishing our relationship and the sacrifices that we've made in that relationship, I think it's a great time to do that because we, we weren't attacked and we did not blink to then go to war to defend our ally and our values.

And I thank you very much for, it was a great show, man. Thank you. So if people want to watch it. It's on YouTube. Yes, sir. And it's the sharp exchange with a sharp with a knee. Yes, sir. Sharp with a knee.

And you're going back to school soon. Great 12 last year. God love you, man. All right, thank you so much for being here and come back anytime, man. Thanks so much.