WILD THING — DONALD TRUMP’s latest threat to NATO reaffirms JOHN BOLTON’s belief that the former president genuinely wants to blow up the transatlantic alliance. “Look, I was there when he almost withdrew, and he’s not negotiating,” Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, tells POLITICO’s KELLY GARRITY in a Q&A. “His goal here is not to strengthen NATO, it’s to lay the groundwork to get out.” From POLITICO’s MERIDITH MCGRAW, LARA SELIGMAN, ALEXANDER WARD: Trump's backers downplay his ‘off the cuff’ NATO remarks. — New this morning: Canada announced C$60 million in new funding for the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group Air Force Capability Coalition to support F-16s. — Ottawa reacts: Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND chose her words carefully Tuesday, grafting together safe talking points in response to Trump’s eyebrow-raising warning to sic Russia on NATO spending laggards. “It's incredibly important to be clear in the world today — where we are seeing countries like Russia trampling all over international law — for all NATO allies to be very, very clear that that core principle of Article Five holds,” she said. “Canada is very clear on that.” — Let America America: “It's up to the American people to choose their leader,” Freeland said in response to a question about the prospect of a Trump 2.0 administration. “A core responsibility of any Canadian government is to work effectively and in pursuit and defense of the national interest with whoever the American people choose to lead them.” — PMO ‘extremely careful’: Wellington Advocacy’s ZITA ASTRAVAS was chief of staff to former national defence minister HARJIT SAJJAN when Trump was in office. She says there’s a time and place to call out language that crosses the line. The Prime Minister’s Office has built relationships with people in Trump’s orbit, she said. “They're extremely careful and every comment is calculated or response is calculated from their perspective.” Astravas, who built a reputation as a “fixer” in Trudeau’s office before leaving the Hill last year, said on domestic politics it’s a “deliberate calculation” when the government calls out “American-style politics” on issues such as gun control. Trump’s NATO comments could be used as an example for why the PMO has taken a more aggressive approach in deliberately calling out MAGA, she said. “You have to tread carefully, right? And I think that every time that there is a comment, they have weighed the benefits and the cons of actually mentioning whether it's an individual or an ideology.” — Say less: The prime minister, Freeland and National Defense Minister BILL BLAIR are all tight communicators, Astravas said. “And they work extremely closely and well as a team on these strategies.” — Trump 2.0 new work: Whatever close relations the PMO boasts it had with the Trump administration could have limited use should the former president return to the White House. BRIAN BOHUNICKY, Astravas’ predecessor as chief of staff to the national defence minister, said Sajjan had a good relationship with then-counterpart JIM MATTIS and the pair could talk about sensitive matters at any time. “But that kind of thing is going to be much more limited in a second Trump administration because he's unlikely to have people like Jim Mattis in his administration,” Bohunicky told Playbook. “He'll have a bunch of wildcards like himself around him in the administration.” In 2020, Mattis penned an extraordinary critique of Trump, describing him as a threat to the U.S. Constitution for making a “deliberate effort” in putting Americans against each other. Building relationships and striving to have a good rapport with Washington is part of any government’s job, sure, but Bohunicky said what Trudeau’s team should be doing now is to have quiet discussions with allies to plan for worse-case situations. “I agree with what DAVID MACNAUGHTON said recently about how the government should not be engaged in political rhetorical contests with American politics, Trump or anyone else,” the public policy consultant advised. — Multilateralism test: “If Trump were to become president, again, you would see significant change on the world stage,” he said, noting the potential quick advancement of talks about a multinational European Defence force. “And Canada will have to think through how to position itself, either in new alliances or in trying to maintain the integrity of NATO.” Trump’s NATO comments, Bohunicky said, should be taken very seriously. “Past experience has been [that] Trump actually does attempt to carry out a lot of the outlandish things he says. So it can't be dismissed as just rhetoric.” — In related news: PIERRE POILIEVRE's office told the Globe that a Conservative government would “restore” Canada’s military and “work towards meeting Canada’s NATO spending commitment.” — Today’s agenda: Blair is in Brussels today at NATO headquarters where Trump’s broadside is guaranteed to come up. | 
