I don't understand any of the justifications for a trade war with Canada. IIRC, Trump was fudging numbers by only including the "goods" part of "goods & services" so the deficit looked worse than it actually was (assuming a deficit is even bad in the first place)
It's also bewildering that Trump literally negotiated a trade deal in his first term with Mexico and Canada but is now saying we're getting screwed? Is this the "art of the deal" he always talks about?
The justification is Trump wants to do to Canada much what Putin is doing to Ukraine. Russia being allowed to take Ukraine legitimizes world powers engaging in conquest within their sphere. It's really that simple.
The talk about fentanyl, the supposed trade imbalance, and all the rest is just smoke and noise, because if he said that he wanted to raid Canada for resources and Lebensraum it might actually threaten his support.
He's not being subtle in this. He and his people have made constant comments that Canada doesn't work as a nation, that the border is artificial, and even explicitly that the tariffs would just go away if Canada became the 51st state. This is economic warfare driven by manifest destiny.
It is worse than this. Trump is just the spokesman for a younger group who is steering him. He doesn't actually know anything, he's just being fed punchlines and he's good at regurgitating them.
Is annexing Canada something the United States could even realistically achieve in the next four years?
Even if such an effort were attempted, any progress would likely be reversed by the next administration, assuming Democrats return to power.
Beyond that, the situation has been highly disruptive to Canada. I've witness movements like "Free Alberta" and "Alberta 51" have gained traction, while some people display pro-Trump stickers and wave U.S. flags. At the same time, others are booing the U.S. national anthem and removing American flags.
Overall, this growing division is unhealthy for Canada and has only deepened existing tensions.
To be honest, I've never seen Canadians this united. The polling numbers on "Canada joining US" dropped significantly between December and March (from a tiny number to an even smaller number). The number of Quebecois identifying as Canadian and pro-Canada also went up markedly.
Canada's market is 10% of the USA. Of course there's going to be an imbalance in trade. Trump doesn't understand this, and he thinks that it means that Canada (the government) is literally ripping off the USA.
Just like he doesn't understand that tariffs are paid by the buyer, not the government of the seller.
Finally, the current trade treaty between Canada-USA-Mexico was negotiated by Trump himself, and it replaced NAFTA. When he says it's a bad deal, why is nobody pointing out that he negotiated it? And famously said it was the best trade deal in history.
Republicans have an amazing ability to just ignore criticism. Their base is primed to also ignore any criticism. This makes it seem like everyone is bringing up a "non issue". It's wild. Thats part of why some issues seem to never gain any traction.
This is a major reason trump kicked a bunch of reporters out of the press pool. They challenged the narrative which doesn't let them ignore criticism.
My take is that part of this is the fact that the US far right took an interest in Canada after the "trucker" convoy protest here during COVID. Multiple Fox segments on what a terrible "communist" place Canada is. And so it's become a brainworm in Trump's head, among a bunch of others. And a useful demagogic point to distract or rile up his base with.
(Nevermind that DHS would have shot some of those protesters on site if the same kind of protests had occurred on the US side of the border. There's a reason the convoy was mobilized towards Ottawa and not to Washington, even though the vaccine requirements for truckers were actually a Biden regime initiative.)
That and a generally liberal government holding power directly on your border, in the same linguistic/cultural/economic mileux has potential domestic consequences / threat.
> It's also bewildering that Trump literally negotiated a trade deal in his first term with Mexico and Canada but is now saying we're getting screwed?
That's the really blatant part that is ignored/swept under the rug. He's made recent comments about the worst deal made, and dismissive comments about whoever made that deal. It would be funny if he was being ironic knowing that he was the one that made that deal, but we all know that's not why he says it. He says it because he knows his followers won't look up the details.
It's also bewildering that Trump literally negotiated a trade deal in his first term with Mexico and Canada but is now saying we're getting screwed? Is this the "art of the deal" he always talks about?