Just hours after the United States announced it had attacked oil-rich Venezuela and captured its president Nicolás Maduro, the wife of a top adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to Canada on social media.
“The U.S. doesn’t need anything from Canada,” wrote Katie Miller, whose husband Stephen Miller is Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. “Free trade is over.”
It’s a familiar refrain from those within Trump’s orbit, and from the president himself. But the argument has taken on new meaning now that the United States could have access to Venezuela’s staggeringly large reserves of heavy crude oil — similar to what’s produced in Western Canada.
