Trump adviser pushes unprecedented new punishment against Canada: report

Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro is reportedly pushing for an unprecedented maneuver that would upend decades' worth of American national security policy.

The Financial Times reports that Navarro has recently floated kicking Canada out of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing program that also includes the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

Removing Canada from Five Eyes would market a dramatic escalation in the current feud between the United States and Canada and would likely permanently damage relations between the two nations for years to come.

Formed during the Cold War, the alliance facilitates the exchange of sensitive intelligence and security information among its member countries to enhance national security and counter global threats.

It is unclear how Navarro would succeed in this measure given that the other nations who participate in the program would surely object.

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Shashank Joshi, The Economist's defense editor, writes on X that the Financial Times' reporting backs up other things he'd heard about Navarro's intentions.

He also expresses incredulity would go this far to damage their longtime ally's national security.

"The fact that anyone in the Trump administration is making these shameful and wild threats to unravel Five Eyes is a sign of how impulsive, reckless and unreliable these people are," he remarks. "They see everything as as a tool of coercion, with no understanding of interdependence."