A Canadian flag flies over Lake Ontario in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [AFP]
A Canadian flag flies over Lake Ontario in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [AFP]

The Trump administration engaged in coercive behind-the-scenes diplomacy, warning business leaders and CEOs in allied countries of consequences if their governments did not comply with White House demands, according to a new memoir.

Chrystia Freeland, who served as Canada's deputy prime minister and finance minister, detailed the pressure tactics in her recently published memoir, "The Incredible Unreliable Boyfriend: An Insider's View of a Chaotic Superpower, Its Plutocrats, and Its Complicated People."

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that Freeland wrote in the book that "ministers in the Trump administration warned that CEOs in their countries would face terrible consequences if allied leaders didn't fall in line," and that "the Trump team was arrogant and aggressively rude even behind closed doors."

Freeland also expressed disappointment at allied leaders who voiced grievances only in private while publicly capitulating to Trump, saying they had made concessions that yielded no meaningful results against his pressure.

She also warned that "China is becoming more powerful as a result of American policy."

A person who attended a dinner hosted by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shortly after the Davos World Economic Forum in January last year told Freeland that "the Americans are extremely angry and want to tame Canada."

The memoir also claims that US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick threatened to send US troops to the border if Ontario did not roll back a surcharge it had imposed on electricity exports to the United States in response to American tariffs earlier that year.

Freeland recounted that at the G7 summit held in Quebec, Canada, in 2018 during Trump's first term, world leaders persuaded him to sign a joint communiqué — only for him to withdraw his endorsement within hours.

She also described a moment near the end of the summit when Trump pulled candy from his pocket and tossed it onto the table in front of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying, "Here, Angela, don't say I never give you anything." Freeland called it "a remarkably contemptuous act."

Freeland entered politics at the urging of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and became Canada's first female finance minister. She played a central role in trade negotiations with the Trump administration, having also served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister. She parted ways with Trudeau politically in December 2024 when she resigned as finance minister.

Trudeau stepped down after Freeland's resignation, and she entered the Liberal Party leadership primary but finished second to Mark Carney, who had succeeded her as deputy prime minister and finance minister and now serves as prime minister.


mokiya@heraldcorp.com