Is President Trump secretly working for Canada’s Liberal Party? You could be forgiven for thinking so after the failure of trade talks with Ottawa sent support soaring for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s handling of the matter. If there’s one thing conservative Canadians dislike more than the sniveling lefties running their federal government, it’s the bombastic Mr. Trump.
Translation: It’s a little democracy that won’t knuckle under to his second-term tariff hikes. That’ll show ’em who’s boss. But Canada has its own ideas about how to inflict pain. Mr. Republicans are forewarned. This is hurtful to a frail ego. It can’t go unanswered. That was absurd. Mr.
The trouble started in February 2025 when the administration used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to announce tariffs on imports from Canada, claiming the country was a major source of fentanyl coming into the U.S.
Carney says his tariffs will be aimed at states in play in the midterm elections. The U.S. president says Canada is the worst country on earth when it comes to negotiating trade. Trump seemed to admit it soon after, when he exempted most imports from Mexico and Canada that complied with the USMCA’s “rules of origin.”
On Thursday the U.S. president said he is changing the name of Lake Ontario in federal records to Lake America.
Mr. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to the Trump tariffs, announcing new tariffs and quotas on U.S. goods entering Canada, including autos. The trade war was on. Upholstered furniture, cabinets and vanities from the north weren’t about to invade. But Mr. Trump was daring Congress to stop him. It did nothing. That hasn’t kept him from abusing other trade powers delegated by Congress. The provinces haven’t been so conciliatory. They have refused to restart purchases of American alcohol. The Trump administration has felt the heat from American producers. The U.S. accuses Canada of discriminating against American products.
In October 2025, Mr. Trump, again using Section 232, put more tariffs on Canada. In July, invoking the never-before-used Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, it said it would impose new tariffs on a range of Canadian goods.
Trump also invoked Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, claiming threats to national security, to impose duties on steel, aluminum, a variety of metals “derivatives” (e.g., heavy industrial machinery and hardware, farm equipment, and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units), autos and auto parts except those complying with the USMCA. In February the Supreme Court told the president that IEEPA didn’t give him the power to impose tariffs. “U.S. wine exports to Canada fell 78% year over year, driving a $357 million loss in export value,” the Wine Institute said in March.
