𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗠𝗣 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗦 𝗖𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗗𝗔 𝗔 "𝗡𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗧𝗥𝗬," 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗡𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗜𝗠𝗣𝗢𝗦𝗘 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗙𝗙𝗦 𝗔𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗟 𝟮

                                         

Donald Trump, who promised an end to the Ukraine War on "Day One," now seems hell-bent on warring with Canada, our nation's closest ally.

While his MAGA worshippers might view Trump's clumsy diplomatic efforts as "playing 3D chess," Canadians seem unimpressed with the bullying tactics and threats.

As someone who grew up along the Canadian border in western Washington, I never dreamed I'd hear an American president refer to Canada as "nasty."

"I deal with every country, indirectly or directly.  One of the nastiest countries to deal with is Canada," Trump said recently.

Referring to outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau demeaningly as "Governor Trudeau," Trump added: "His people are nasty.  They never tell the truth." (Trump's limited vocabulary has him frequently falling back on the word "nasty.")

He continued: "Canada was meant to be the 51st state because we subsidize Canada by $200 billion a year," referencing an exaggerated estimate of the U.S. trade deficit with Canada, which the U.S. Trade Representative's Office placed at $63.3 billion for 2024.

Trump added: "We don't need their lumber, we don't need their energy, we don't need anything. We certainly don't want their automobiles."

                               

Trump has taken aim at a system, which he himself agreed to in 2018 as part of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement into its successor trade deal, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X: "My meeting with the Council on Canada-U.S. Relations was focused on keeping Canada's economy strong in the face of unjust tariffs. We're ready to engage with the U.S. on a comprehensive negotiation—when Canada is shown respect as a sovereign nation."

Adam Chapnick, a professor of defense studies at the Royal Military College of Canada, previously told Newsweek: "Canada and its allies must take the president's threats seriously so as not to allow them to become normalized among his extraordinarily loyal base, but the likelihood of Washington putting serious resources into taking Canada over remains slim to none. I suspect that the president will continue to speak longingly of taking over Canada because it gets such a rise out of Canadians, and he enjoys the attention and the ability to exert power, even if only through unrealistic threats."

Joseph Politano, an economic policy analyst at Apricitas Economics, told The Washington Post: "The last two months have already hurt American businesses and consumers, but the April 2 deadline seriously could make all of that look like a tempest in a teapot. We don't know exactly what they're going to do, but from what they're saying, it sounds functionally like new tariffs on all U.S. imports."