Concerning the Trump remarks about the trade negotiations with Canada—

On one of the Sunday AM political talk shows this morning were reporters from the Bloomberg News organization (which supposedly violated the confidentiality of a Trump off-the-record statement) and the press organization which eventually printed the statement (as per journalistic ethics, they would not reveal their source). The former insisted they did not leak the statement, and the latter declared it did not come from Bloomberg.

Normally, I would consider this a he-said-she-said situation, with insufficient information to determine what actually happened. But with what I already know about the lies routinely propagated by the White House, I am convinced it is the following.

Trump is deliberately leaking information that can humiliate or weaken an opponent and simultaneously blaming and discrediting journalists for violating their promises of confidentiality on “deep background” statements. In this case, it puts pressure on the Canadian government by forcing them to either reject an agreement because of domestic political consequences, or accept grossly unfair and unfavorable terms from a much more powerful opponent across the table.

Canadian negotiators are put in the position of either appearing cowardly by yielding to American bullying, or to force them to cause damage to their own workers and economy. This punishes Canada for daring to publicly challenge the Trumpanzee, while inflating Trump’s reputation as a thug to his own knuckle-dragging followers.

At the same time, he can characterize the press as liars and
betrayers of confidences, simultaneously destroying their ability to learn, and propagate, the truth.

This is a new tactic, keep on the lookout for it. He will use it again–on Mueller.