“I’m against a lot of the decisions that the Trump administration makes, and I am for America.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said those words this week while discussing the difficult distinction between a government and the country it governs. Her point was simple, but it has stayed with me: We do not have to approve of every decision made by our leaders to remain loyal to our nation.
That distinction matters now.
The United States and Canada are entering a dangerous trade confrontation. Negotiations have broken down. The United States has imposed tariffs on billions of dollars in Canadian goods, and Canada has announced dollar-for-dollar retaliation against American products.
Canadian leaders say they are defending their sovereignty. Prime Minister Mark Carney says the United States “asked too much and offered too little.” Some Canadian commentators describe this as an attack by America itself.
I see it differently. I am an American. I love my country, and I will not apologize for wanting the United States to be strong, secure and victorious.
That does not mean President Donald Trump has handled every part of this confrontation wisely. His talk of Canada becoming the 51st state was unnecessary. His suggestion that Lake Ontario could become “Lake America” was needlessly provocative. Those statements handed Canadian leaders ammunition and allowed a serious dispute over trade to become a rallying cry about Canadian nationhood.
But careless rhetoric does not erase legitimate American grievances.
The United States has raised specific concerns about barriers facing American dairy farmers, restrictions on American alcohol, quotas affecting American vehicles and regulations burdening American businesses. Canada has enjoyed extraordinary access to the largest economy in the world. That relationship has benefited both countries, but friendship does not require the United States to accept every imbalance forever.
American farmers and ranchers deserve fair treatment.
American manufacturers deserve an opportunity to compete.
American workers deserve a government willing to defend their interests.
Here in New Mexico, those are not abstract principles. Agriculture is a way of life. Ranching supports families and communities across the West. Trade rules negotiated in distant capitals eventually reach our farms, grocery stores, dealerships and kitchen tables.
The American government has an obligation to fight for those people.
Canada has the right to defend its interests, too. It is a sovereign country, and Canadians have every right to love their home as deeply as I love mine. But sovereignty does not guarantee unlimited access to the American economy on terms the United States considers unfair. Nor does a demand for reciprocity amount to an effort to extinguish Canadian culture, erase the French language or conquer our northern neighbor.
America is not Canada’s enemy.
That is what makes Canada’s response so troubling.
For generations, the United States and Canada have shared more than a border. We have built industries together, defended a continent together and stood as members of a free world created through enormous sacrifice.
Americans and Canadians fought through the darkness of two world wars. Our nations helped build an international order intended to prevent dictators and empires from deciding the fate of smaller countries through force. We formed an alliance grounded not merely in convenience but in a common belief that free people should determine their own future.
That alliance matters today.
The Chinese Communist Party is expanding its economic, technological and military influence. Russia continues its war against Ukraine. Iran and its proxies threaten American forces, our allies and the movement of commerce through international waters. Authoritarian governments are watching the free world for every fracture they can widen and every weakness they can exploit.
This is no time for the nations of North America to forget who their actual adversaries are.
Canada should be careful not to allow its anger toward one American president to harden into hostility toward the United States. Presidents come and go. The geography remains. The economic relationship remains. The security of our continent remains.
The flame of liberty carried through the centuries by free people on both sides of the border must matter more than the politics of this moment.
Our forefathers understood that liberty could not survive on good intentions alone. They pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor because independence required courage. The generations that followed understood something equally important: Freedom must be protected, renewed and handed forward.
The American inheritance is not passivity.
It is not an obligation to remain silent when our workers are treated unfairly. It is not a command to accept economic arrangements simply because they have existed for a long time. America has every right to reconsider the terms of its relationships and demand agreements that serve its people.
That is not imperialism. That is self-government. I know some Americans will disagree with me because they oppose Trump. They will see his name attached to these tariffs and immediately conclude that Canada must be right.
But Trump is not America.
No president is America. America is older, larger and more enduring than any one administration. America is the Constitution. It is the flag carried into battle by generations who refused to surrender liberty. It is the farmer working before sunrise, the miner descending into the earth, the soldier standing watch and the family trying to build a better life.
America is the promise that free people can govern themselves and shape their own destiny.
That promise does not belong to a political party. It belongs to us.
Patriotism does not require blind obedience. I can say that the president’s language has been reckless while believing the cause he is advancing is right. I can want negotiations to resume while insisting they produce a fairer agreement. I can respect Canada’s independence while rejecting the claim that America has no legitimate case.
And I can oppose decisions made by an administration while remaining for the United States.
I am for the American workers whose livelihoods are affected by these agreements.
I am for the farmers and ranchers asking for fair access to markets.
I am for the manufacturers competing against protected industries.
I am for a free and secure North America capable of standing against the authoritarian powers gathering beyond our shores.
I am for America. Canada should return to the negotiating table. Its leaders should lower the temperature, suspend their retaliation and recognize that the United States is not demanding the destruction of their country. America is demanding a relationship it believes is fairer to its own people.
Victory should not mean humiliating Canada or diminishing its sovereignty.
Victory should mean a durable agreement that protects American workers, opens Canadian markets, strengthens continental security and restores a partnership capable of confronting the actual dangers facing the free world.
But the United States cannot reach that agreement by surrendering its interests merely to end the dispute.
Canada has chosen to test American resolve. It should not mistake American division for American weakness.
The people of the United States may argue fiercely among ourselves. We may disagree about presidents, parties, tariffs and nearly everything else. That has been true since the founding of the Republic.
But beneath all that noise still burns the flame handed down through 250 years—the belief that this nation is worth defending, that liberty is worth preserving and that America’s future belongs to the American people.
I will not apologize for keeping faith with that inheritance.
I will not apologize for standing with my country.
And I will not apologize for believing that the United States of America must prevail.
God Bless Cibola County.
God bless the United States of America.
God bless our troops. And may the flame of liberty continue to light the way to Freedom.