Welcome to Wednesday\u2019s edition of Washington Secrets. Tensions between Canada and the United States are at an all-time high, yet it needn\u2019t have ended up like that. If only the vice president and a pal from his fantasy football league had been in charge of the negotiations, it all might have been different. Plus, what are the takeaways from last night\u2019s primaries (anything you want, probably), and is it time to make the Washington Commanders affordable again?<\/p>\n
JD Vance<\/a> was talking to a private audience in New York when he offered an intriguing detail on how trade talks with Canada went down.<\/p>\n After ridiculing Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> for trying to \u201cout-tough\u201d Donald Trump, Vance revealed that an old friend of his had opened a back channel, helping win what turned out to be a temporary reprieve last week.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the quiet sort of behind-the-scenes story is that this, like, random MP who has a good relationship with us has been a pretty effective advocate,\u201d he said, according to a recording obtained by the Canadian Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jamil Jivani is not exactly a random Canadian MP. He has, in fact, been a close friend of the vice president ever since they bonded over their outsider status as students at Yale Law School.<\/p>\n They are so close that the two are in a fantasy football league together, and Jivani delivered a Bible reading at Vance\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n Vance\u2019s office did not want to talk about contacts with Jivani during trade talks. Nor did the Conservative MP \u2014 Jivani did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n But it illustrates once again that personal relationships and unconventional diplomacy remain at the heart of the Trump administration\u2019s approach to negotiations.<\/p>\n Jivani has been open about his backchannel in the past. In February, he met Trump, Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a visit to Washington.<\/p>\n In a video posted to X<\/a>, he said he wanted to help Carney negotiate a deal.<\/p>\n \u201cCertainly, my 15-year friendship with the vice president played a key role in opening those doors,\u201d he wrote in a column for the National Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is an unorthodox axis, founded by two people who felt like outsiders at Yale. Jivani previously described<\/a> how he met the future VP at a wine-and-cheese event at Yale. He gazed around the room in bewilderment at the variety of cheeses and spotted another student who \u201cseemed equally unfamiliar\u201d with wine and cheese.<\/p>\n After Yale, Jivani ran Our Ohio Renewal, a nonprofit group set up by Vance to tackle the social problems he had identified in his book, Hillbilly Elegy.<\/p>\n Elected to parliament in 2024, Jivani has modeled much of his approach on American conservatism. Last winter, he toured college campuses, reaching out to young men in a strategy compared with that of the late Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n This time around, he has kept his trade talks under wraps.<\/p>\n In the audio, Vance said that although Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer were leading negotiations, he had been more involved than normal because of his friendship with Jivani. He described him as a \u201cvery good dude.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow what\u2019s interesting is [Jivani\u2019s] been like quietly inserting himself into these negotiations,\u201d he told the crowd.<\/p>\n His audience last Wednesday included Donald Trump Jr.<\/a>, the president\u2019s son, as well as Cantor Fitzgerald President Brandon Lutnick, the son of the commerce secretary, and World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff, son of senior Trump adviser Steve Witkoff.<\/p>\n At the time, Trump had just paused the introduction of 50% tariffs and announced that a deal was SIMPLY a matter of straightening out the paperwork.<\/p>\n That optimism did not last long. Talks broke down over the weekend and by Tuesday the president was trolling Canada on social media, announcing plans to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America<\/a>.<\/p>\n It puts Vance\u2019s friend in an awkward spot. As a Conservative MP, Jivani is no friend of Carney, even if they share the aim of protecting Canadian exports. And every visit to Washington risks undermining his party leader.<\/p>\n In the leaked audio, Vance called Pierre Poilievre a \u201cnon-entity\u201d in talks. No wonder the Conservative leader looked unhappy when he was asked this week if he knew about Jivani\u2019s negotiations.<\/p>\n \u201cI told all my members of Parliament to use every single contact they had to fight for Canada and Canadian jobs,\u201d Poilievre told reporters, urging them to use any contacts they had south of the border to protect jobs.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take that as a \u201cno\u201d then.\u00a0<\/p>\n You are reading\u00a0Washington Secrets, a guide to power and politics in D.C. and beyond. It is written by Rob Crilly, who you can reach at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0with your comments, story tips, and suggestions. If a friend sent you this and you\u2019d like to sign up,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Quote of the day \u2014 sort of<\/p>\n Elections and primaries are always a chance for pundits to cherry-pick results and data in order to say: I told you so. And last night\u2019s result in South Carolina, where Lindsey Graham\u2019s sister won the nomination<\/a> to fight for his seat, is no exception.<\/p>\n There are lots of reasons why Darline Graham Nordone may have squeaked past Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) in the primary. Her name, the mammoth spending by Trump\u2019s super PAC MAGA Inc, and the fact that she is new to politics. Take your pick.<\/p>\n Last week, Trump made the trip to the state to campaign for her.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I\u2019m on the ballot. Just come and vote. It\u2019s so important,\u201d Trump told his audience.<\/p>\n Is that the takeaway that could help juice the midterm Republican vote?<\/p>\n Make the Commanders Affordable Again<\/p>\n Last week, Secrets brought you details of a populist MAGA uprising<\/a> among the genteel members of the D.C. Republican Party. This week, John Fredericks, radio host and Ward 2 party chairman, is setting out what it might look like in practice.<\/p>\n He is taking aim at the new Washington Commanders stadium, which will be backed with $1.1 billion of taxpayers\u2019 cash. In return, D.C. residents should be entitled to affordable tickets, he says.<\/p>\n His \u201cD.C. family ticket guarantee\u201d would set aside 10,000 tickets for every home game to be sold to residents for $15 each. Buyers would be limited to four tickets, and resale would be banned.<\/p>\n \u201cD.C. taxpayers are on the hook for more than a billion dollars for this stadium,\u201d\u00a0Fredericks\u00a0said. \u201cCity Hall calls it \u2018the largest economic development project in D.C. history.\u2019 Fine \u2014 then it should be for D.C.\u2019s working families too. Not for lobbyists in corporate suites. Not for scalpers charging a thousand bucks a seat.\u201d<\/p>\n Secrets asked Mayor Muriel Bowser\u2019s office if she supported the idea of affordable tickets for residents. A spokesman declined to comment.<\/p>\n Secrets is happy to comment. We live a block from the old RFK Stadium, and we fully back the idea that taxpayers get affordable access to games.<\/p>\n Lunchtime reading<\/p>\n