When people talk about being “diplomatic” they usually mean something along the lines of being tactful, sensitive, of smoothing over difficult issues.
In that sense Donald Trump’s top diplomat in this country, U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, must be the least diplomatic guy around.
If he’d set out deliberately to inflame Canadian opinion, Hoekstra couldn’t be doing a better job of it. He’s been going on about how “disappointed” he is that Canadians have their backs up in the face of Trump’s tariffs and hostile rhetoric and lamenting the “anti-American” tone of the federal election campaign. When it comes to blatant insults like all that “51st state” talk, his advice has been blunt: “Get over it.”
