Quote:
Originally Posted by direwolf
At this point my hope is that Trump f***s things up so badly within his own country that his administration will be way too busy trying to put out fires domestically, and that they'll end up forgetting about Canada. And then eventually we can just quietly go about our business and leave the U.S. behind.
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I don't have that level of optimism. Trump will play the whole "they're treating us unfairly" cry baby routine. He already has a lot of people convinced that a trade deficit with Canada is "unfair" simply because they consume way more than us, and adding tariffs makes it fair. It won't be a big jump to then suggest that our tariffs on them makes us the aggressor. Just like how Russia invaded Ukraine and Ukraine not capitulating makes them in the wrong within his warped world view of the powerful eating the less powerful. Trump will make it look like Canada is the baddy and MAGA will buy it because it is a cult. For the past decade, people always think this is the time we finally have Trump exposed and that the gig is up, but it never works out that way.
Tariffs are only a starting point and if the economic war escalates, there are other things on the table Trump could use. I would not be surprised to see Trump use economic sanctions and blockades on Canada at some point.