AGAIN, Americans find it necessary for us to apologize to our good neighbors, our good friends, Canada because of the ignorance and stupidity of NOT MY pres drumpf / trump, NOT MY vp vance, their corrupt administration and "ambassador" fascist fotze trunt petie hoekstra for the insults and vile attitude they have expressed about and to Canadians and your government officials. It is embarrassing and shameful and I am ashamed of my government's attitude toward you. Please forgive us and I look forward to you joining us in celebration when this lot is gone.
US ambassador to Canada shares Trump ‘51st State’ post
U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra on Monday morning shared a post from President Trump about Canada being the “51st State,” reupping his acquisition push for the U.S.’s northern neighbor.
Hoekstra posted a screenshot of a Monday Trump Truth Social post in which the president said “51st State!” and linked to a Bloomberg article about economic struggles in Canada.
Trump has pushed to take over Canada on multiple occasions in recent years, causing heightened tension with Ottawa, which historically has been one of the U.S.’s strongest partners on the global stage.
In March, Trump quipped about Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney being the “future governor of Canada,” bringing back an insult he used for Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau.
Hoekstra’s Trump’s repost follows previous heightened rhetoric from the ambassador on the U.S.-Canada relationship, with Hoekstra stepping into a rift between the U.S. and Canada over a purchase of U.S. F-35s in January when he said during an interview that the U.S.-Canadian defense partnership “would have to be altered” if Ottawa did not buy the fighter jets.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford shot back at Hoekstra’s repost of Trump, saying in his own post on X that he “can’t believe I have to say this again, but Canada will never be the 51st state.”
“Canada is not for sale,” Ford added. “While I’m at it, here’s the truth: in April, Ontario created 680 per cent more jobs than the U.S., adjusted for population. That’s how we protect Ontario.”
Controversial U.S. ambassador to Canada adds to Trump’s many diplomatic woes
The list of “undiplomatic diplomats” from the United States is getting longer. Pete Hoekstra is part of a pattern that shouldn’t exist.
When it comes to U.S. ambassadors, Donald Trump has two broad problems. The first is that the president just hasn’t nominated enough people to serve in key diplomatic posts.
The Wall Street Journal reported a couple of weeks ago, “Over 100 U.S. ambassador posts around the world are sitting empty in the Trump administration, a vacancy rate without modern precedent and one that some current and former officials warn is hamstringing U.S. diplomatic power abroad.”
Even in the midst of a war in the Middle East, the United States doesn’t have ambassadors in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq or Kuwait. What’s more, this isn’t a situation in which a sclerotic Senate has struggled to confirm nominees; rather, there are vacancies because the White House hasn’t bothered to even nominate anyone for many of these posts.
But the other element of the problem is just as notable: In too many instances, Senate-confirmed ambassadors are in office, but they’re doing a remarkably bad job. The Hill reported:
U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra on Monday morning shared a post from President Trump about Canada being the “51st State,” reupping his acquisition push for the U.S.’s northern neighbor.
Hoekstra posted a screenshot of a Monday Trump Truth Social post in which the president said “51st State!” and linked to a Bloomberg article about economic struggles in Canada.
The online antics did not go unnoticed north of the border, though Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters that Ottawa would not take steps to expel the U.S. ambassador.
Of course, the fact that the Canadian prime minister was even asked about the possibility of expelling the U.S. ambassador was extraordinary.
What’s more, this wasn’t an isolated incident. Politico noted last month that many Canadians have “grown accustomed” to an “acerbic, angry and highly undiplomatic tone … from President Donald Trump’s man in Ottawa.”
Time will tell whether Hoekstra, who also had a troubled career as a Republican congressman, manages to make matters even worse, but in the meantime, consider the broader pattern that he is clearly a part of:
- L. Brent Bozell III, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, was recently summoned by the country’s foreign minister after he accused the government of discriminating against white people and expressed indifference to the country’s court rulings.
- Bill White, Trump’s ambassador to Belgium, sparked an international incident of sorts when he accused Belgian officials of antisemitism via social media. Belgium’s government was not pleased, and it summoned the U.S. ambassador for an official conversation soon after.
- Charles Kushner, Trump’s ambassador to France, was soon after banned from meeting members of the French government, which is ostensibly his job, after his own politically provocative rhetoric.
- Mike Huckabee, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, recently sparked a regional incident when he suggested that it “would be fine” if Israel took lands stretching across the Middle East, from Egypt to Iraq.
- Tom Rose, Trump’s ambassador to Poland, boasted about severing ties with the speaker of Poland’s parliament after the legislative leader said Trump did not deserve to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
Taken together, Politico recently characterized the group as the American president’s “undiplomatic corps.” The Washington Post’s Max Boot added, “Rather than promoting U.S. interests, many of Trump’s mini-me envoys are alienating their host countries by insulting critics and offending local sensibilities. … Trump does enough damage to America’s reputation by himself. He doesn’t need help from his undiplomatic diplomats in alienating the rest of the world.”
Whether the White House actually approves of the ambassadors’ antics and their capacity to insult their host countries is unclear. Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
