Ex-Trump official reveals how the president’s 'bullying' has failed

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at a working lunch with leaders of G7 and the Middle East, in Evian-les-Bains, France, June 16, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/File Photo

On Thursday, a former official of President Donald Trump laid out how one country has successfully stood up to the Commander in Chief’s attempts at “bullying” it into submission. According to Miles Taylor – who served as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term – Canada has shown not only how to push back against the president’s attacks, but is providing an example for other nations to follow.

“Trump spent two years mocking Canada as America’s future 51st state,” writes Taylor. “This week, Europe offered to make Canada its first.” As Taylor explains, the European Commission has proposed making Canada the EU’s first-ever “associate member,” not only because the country has been hammered economically and diplomatically by Trump, but because it has blazed a path for nations that want to stand up to his “bullying.” Predictably, writes Taylor, the EU’s move prompted a “tantrum” from Trump, who called the idea “laughable,” branding Canada “a terrible trade partner,” and threatening to slap “very heavy tariffs” on Europe, or to stop trading with the continent entirely, if he decides the whole thing is a “hostile act.”

But Canada remained undeterred. According to Taylor, “Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stood before the European Parliament and twisted the knife with a butler’s politeness. Canada was not proposing ‘a third bloc in order to become a great power rival, only with better manners,’ the prime minister said with a smile. His country simply seeks resilience “so no one can control our open markets, impair our sovereignty, threaten territorial integrity or undermine our freedoms, our democracies, our rule of law.’ He never uttered the name of the global bully who threatens Canada’s markets, sovereignty, and territory. He didn’t have to. Everyone in the chamber knew who he was talking about, and they gave him a standing ovation.”

In Taylor’s estimation, “This is what defiance looks like when a nation does it.” Trump can level tariffs and belittle the U.S. ally, but still, Canada refused to beg. “Instead,” writes Taylor, they’ve walked across the street to build a better future with people who keep their word. Mark Carney didn’t throw a tantrum or melt down on Truth Social. He held his head high and shook hands with other Western leaders and cut a new deal and smiled. Judging from Trump’s reaction, that act is succeeding at the game Trump thinks he’s good at (but at which he’s a total failure): getting leverage.” According to Taylor, “Alienating Canada should be diplomatically impossible, like getting into a bar fight with a golden retriever. Who would punch a golden retriever? Yet this president has bullied our closest friend so relentlessly that they didn’t just move down the block. They moved to Europe.”

Taylor concludes with a prediction, writing, “I’m certain that historians will study this the way they study lost empires, and they’ll probably struggle to explain how one man managed — with his microwaved mind and Egg McMuffin over-confidence — to do it in under two years, out of pure spite, and basically for nothing.”

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