BS BULLETIN:
- President Trump escalated his increasingly nasty trade feud with Canada Sunday: “I don’t want Canadian cars, I don’t want Canadian parts, I don’t want Canadian anything.”
- Trump called Canada the “worst” country he deals with and accused America’s northern neighbor of feeling “entitled” after decades of taking advantage of the United States.
- He offered Canadian companies a very Trumpian escape hatch: Move your operations to America “immediately” and “there are no TARIFFS!”
Donald Trump apparently isn’t shopping Canadian this Labor Day.
Not for cars.
Not for parts.
Not for anything.
“I don’t want Canadian cars, I don’t want Canadian parts, I don’t want Canadian anything,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday as his trade war with America’s northern neighbor grew considerably less neighborly.
“They’ve been ripping us off for decades, and it’s going to stop.”
Then Trump made it personal.
“They want to be treated like a State, but they aren’t one,” he wrote. “I deal with the Leadership of many Countries, but I find Canada to be the worst. They are entitled no longer!”
So much for Minnesota Nice.
Trump’s eruption comes after U.S.-Canada trade negotiations collapsed and his administration moved ahead with punishing additional 50% tariffs on specified Canadian products.
The Daily BS reported earlier this month on the administration’s tariffs and the unanswered question of how much American importers and consumers will ultimately pay.
The White House’s argument is that Canada brought this on itself.
It says Ottawa has discriminated against American commerce through policies affecting automobiles, dairy and alcoholic beverages and chose retaliation rather than accepting Washington’s proposed trade terms.
The administration says U.S. vehicle exports to Canada fell 22% over the past year and accuses Canada of imposing discriminatory tariffs and quotas on American vehicles.
Trump’s solution Sunday was not exactly subtle.
Canadian companies should become American companies.
“To all Canadian Companies doing business in the United States of America, move to the United States, immediately,” Trump wrote in a second Truth Social post.
“When you move back, there are no TARIFFS!”
He followed that with another declaration that businesses America supposedly lost overseas are already returning.
“Our long ago stolen businesses are now coming back to America in order to avoid paying tariffs,” Trump wrote. “They are lining up, just like the rest of the World!!!”
The tirade arrives in the middle of a weekend when the U.S.-Canada relationship has somehow managed to become a combination trade war and international trolling competition.
Trump ordered the U.S. government to call Lake Ontario “Lake America.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford erected a giant “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” sign.
Trump responded with an AI video knocking down a Lake Ontario sign, replacing it with “Lake America” and dancing to “YMCA.”
Ford then appeared on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday and dismissed the whole thing as something “out of Saturday Night Live.”
“No one’s going to call it Lake of America,” Ford said. “It’s been Lake Ontario for hundreds of years. It’s going to continue being Lake Ontario.”
Meanwhile, the actual economic fight is considerably more serious.
The 50% additional duties now hitting specified Canadian imports are real, and Canadian businesses are already warning about lost sales, investment and jobs.
But despite Trump’s “I don’t want Canadian anything” declaration, this is not currently a blanket prohibition on everything crossing the northern border.
It’s Trump doing what Trump does: taking an economic policy argument and turning the volume knob until it comes off in his hand.
Canada’s message is essentially: We’re not backing down.
Trump’s is simpler: Fine. Keep your stuff.
MY QUICK TAKE
I knew relations with Canada were deteriorating.
I didn’t realize we’d reached the “take your hockey puck and go home” phase.
Trump’s economic message underneath all the fireworks is straightforward: If Canadian companies want unrestricted access to American customers, build the stuff here and hire Americans to make it.
But “I don’t want Canadian anything”?
Somebody better hide the maple syrup.
- DBS WIRE SOURCES
- Mediaite — ‘I Don’t Want Canadian Anything!’ Trump Fumes at Neighbors From the North as Tariff Feud Ratchets Up
- White House — President Trump Is Finally Ending Canada’s Free Ride
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Guidance: Section 338 Additional Duties on Certain Goods of Canada
- The Guardian — Canada Erects Giant ‘Lake Ontario’ Sign as Spat With Trump Over Name Escalates
- The Daily BS — No U.S. Estimate of Consumer Cost as Canada Tariffs Take Effect
