Summary
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced Trump’s sudden 25% tariffs, warning they threaten American jobs and will inflate consumer costs.
He revealed that Trump refuses to take his calls and sharply criticized claims linking tariffs to illegal immigration and fentanyl crossing U.S. borders.
In retaliation, Canada and Mexico imposed matching tariffs, targeting crucial American exports like auto parts, agriculture, and red-state staples like famous Kentucky bourbon.
Trudeau warned American factories may shut, citing integrated supply chains.
Now that Trudeau intends to resign he sure is a chirpy fellow isn’t he?
Here are some numbers to consider.
The US sold $441 billion worth of goods and services to Canada in 2024.
Canada sold $482 billion worth of goods and services to the US in 2024.
The US has a populating of 334.9 million people.
Canada has a population of 40.1 million people.
Per capita, every American man, woman, and child spent $1,316.81 on Canadian goods and services.
Candians spent $12,019. 95 on American good and services.
Who isn’t pulling their weight in this trading relationship?
This isn’t about illegal immigration and it isn’t about the 20 lbs of fentanyl that tried to cross the border from Canada.
This is about the billionaire class raising taxes on the poor and raising prices for Americans.
Source? Does this include energy / oil or only consumer goods?
Google is your friend.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada–United_States_trade_relations
Oh so this is just layperson’s math on the back of a napkin. Thanks for clarifying.
Trump and his ilk are trying to spread the idea that the US doesn’t have to buy the $482 billion worth of goods ans services from Canada and its doing so essentially as a ‘favor’.
Canada does not have the systems in place to sell to the rest of the world efficiently, especially oil. Which is part of why the Canadian economy is more dependent on the US than vice versa.
It looks like ~20% of the $482 billion figure you’ve cited is oil which the US could reasonably procure from elsewhere, even domestically, if there was a will to do so. Especially considering that Western Canada Select is high in sulfur and needs more refinement, making it less valuable on the global market.
Oh so this is just layperson’s math on the back of a napkin. Thanks for clarifying.
Yes, I dumbed it down for the MAGA crowd and pedants on Lemmy.
This comment is a copypasta
That makes sense. And Congress is bought and just watching. Well, between calls to their brokers to buy!
Good.
Imagine after less than two weeks in office, you’re threatening and blackmailing other nations into being annexed by you and thinking this makes you the good guy in this scenario.
Not any other nations, some of your closest allies and trade partners. It’s fucking bonkers…
I doubt he thinks he’s the good guy and I’m certain he doesn’t care.
Look at his official president photo, he wants to be an evil mastermind
My impression is that he thinks morality is dumb, basically. He’s the protagonist of his own story, to the degree you’d expect from a raging narcissist, but not every story has a protagonist that’s good.
Please! We’re in dire need of consequences.
Good. Hit us with your best shot. We deserve it.
Am I the only one who was reminded of the opening video in Fallout 2?
Annexed Canada; lost Alaska to China. Then got exploded a lot.
Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
If Canada just stopped selling aluminum and steel to the US, it would heavily affect aerospace and military manufacturing.
Yeah during Trudeau’s speech the only thing I was thinking when he was listing all of Canada’s resources is, “are you trying to encourage a US invasion?!”
NATO country invading a NATO country? 🤔
Does Article 5 still work?
Potash and Canada exports a lot to the USA. This would affect the US agricultural sector.
Crank up the prices of 25-50% Potash too, its too short supply to get a different supplier and if they don’t use it the crops will fail. The US has worked our relationship carefully for decades to get some huge trade advantages from Canada, and Trump just blew it all up.
USA has already lost more than they can ever gain.
Automotive too
If you are a Canadian or Mexican please contact your representatives and have them do a more targeted tariff plan. Target American red states directly! Oil tariffs should be universal but anything made in red states and counties should have a 100% tariff. Force industry and goods to flow through blue areas and Trump’s support will crumble.
As the other posters have pointed out, we’re already on it. Which, no offence, is a symptom of why we don’t want to be part of the US - our government actually works.
I looked over the official list, and it’s stupid detailed. Like, a couple of goods mentioned are papers for wrapping cigars and fitted cases for church bells.
According to this (see first 2 minutes), they are specifically trying to target red states in hopes of getting republicans to try and intervene with trump.
T came out of the gate, clearly rewarding loyalty and smashing dissent. No red state is going to budge. It’s like T watched a CPG Grey on Monarchy.
And even if they did and tried, he’s not listening to anyone but his handlers.
This assumes the people in the red States would see the chain of causation, which is unlikely.
It will create an enemy out of the taxing countries. I dont have a better idea but at this point his base will never turn from him.
The number one predictor of electoral outcomes is people’s feelings on the economy.
Trump’s base is a lost cause, but the pain may get the soft Dem voters to get off their arses and turn out for the next election.
Nothing will shift Maga, so appealing to them is wasted.
I agree there is a large subset of MAGA that are lost causes, however, I’ve seen a couple people around me change their minds on Trump: One was over the H1B (fear of job loss) and the other was over these recent tariffs (fear of paying more). Had to cause issues that could have direct impacts to them personally to change their minds, but there you have it.
Republicans only care when it affects then directly.
The idea is this will force red state senators to do something. It worked during the Bush administration, anyways.
Justin Trudeau tried to speak to the American people and did play heavy on the lasting friendship between the two countries. Will that dull the backlash against Canada? Trump wants an enemy out of Mexico, Canada, and China.
There’s a personal enmity between Trudeau and Trump. Trudeau shot his mouth off a lot the last 8 years, and really ramped it up the last 4, never thought Trump would be back, and then went on the news crying about Trump winning wasn’t fair, after making an ill advised trip to Mar a Largo instead of sending his foreign affairs minister, or anyone else that Trump didn’t literally hate. Trump, he’s talked a lot of shit about Trudeau being a two faced weasel and other (also not untrue) comments about his intelligence. If anyone is gonna fix it, it’s Trudeau’s replacement, coming fairly soon, or possibly the guy after that, federal election by early summer, late spring most likely. Trudeau’s desperate need to hold on ten years into power when literally everyone was telling him to get the fuck out is really hampering us right now.
Trump hasn’t liked Trudeau since he won Trump’s stupid little handshake game.
yeah ok. anyone want to seriously discuss politics?
I’m not sure how you’re going to talk politics without personality, and this is both indicative and typical of his personality.
… what? No lol.
you need to pay atention
I have been. You should try it sometime.
Trump wants an enemy out of Mexico, Canada, and China.
Which is hilarious because one of those things is not like the other
Even 38.3% of Californian voters voted for Trump. The Trump party only has a 9 set majority in the house, and California has 9 of them, all of which are up for reelection in 18 months. Targeting individual states probably isn’t that helpful.
The Republican party isn’t acting like they’re worried about having to compete in fair elections again. It’s also looking like the administration doesn’t need congress or the courts, and can do whatever they want.
It absolutely will. Red state leadership only cares about one thing. Money. The moment you start targeting their bank accounts. They’ll flip on Trump. Spreading the tariffs across all voting bases is dumb. Yes 38.3% voted for Trump, but that’s nowhere near as much as the other 61.7% that actually want a better future for all! Red states are already struggling. Push them to the breaking point first to see how they react. Hurting working class blue voters will only push them right.
California has over 6 million Trump voters, why avoid them?
Did Donny dickbrain watch the southpark movie and think it was a documentry.
And canadian bacon!
I just watched it for the first time last week…
I guess it was funnier in the 90s…
I’m waiting for him to announce “Operation Get-behind-the-darkies”.
He was talking directly to the American People, as he mentioned right before this quote.
But it seems American media is invested in keeping the American people uninvested. Like this is between two leaders and we just get to watch.
The state of most manufacturing facilities is already abysmal. They barely need any help going under.
Orange 🍊
Mangoes 🥭🥭🥭
Bananas 🍌🍌🍌
Ohh, that’s clever. It took me a moment.
spoiler
Orange man goes bananas
It’s baffling how foreign relations 101 gets completely thrown out the window by this shining idiot. It is SO important to establish good trade and relations with your bordering countries, and what does this guy do? The exact opposite.
Some of those relations have taken decades to refine. Now little Donny is playing with a hammer and turning it all to shit within weeks.
remind you of any sickly potato shaped dickheads in moscow who sit atop thrones of skulls you know?
Dude, just… shut up and let him fuck over the people who voted for him.
Targeted tarrifs can be done in retaliation without hurting canada. Like not selling American booze. Canada makes tons of booze we can sell to ourselves
This is going to hurt me, and I did as hell didn’t vote for him
We were all going to suffer, but the only hope we have of avoiding slipping into a dictatorship is if the dumb fucks who say “both parties are the same” and the true undecideds who don’t pay attention suffer enough to side with the movement to preserve democracy. His base will never change their minds.
He’s raping civil liberties, minorities, women’s rights, worker’s rights, free press; I think it’s selfish to vocally complain about the one thing that affects you just because you’re not a teacher, or an immigrant, or gay.
This is something the while country will feel, and I hope the idiots who aren’t in his cult yet still voted for him will pay more attention as a result.
if only this affected just the people who voted for him…
Yeah, well, I was shocked that he didn’t have to cheat this time, and that he actually won the popular vote.
This is going to disproportionately hit blue collar voters, who tend to vote red. Billionaires will also be affected as stocks tank, since most of their value is disproportionately held in the market.
Everyone’s going to suffer; that’s a given. I don’t want the suffering to be limited to LGBTQ+, minorities, and women.
This is designed so billionaires can snap up assets in the cheap when the economy craters. They can hold their positions in what they currently have.
This sounds plausible. Billionaires can ride out a slump pretty easily, even if it lasts a decade, confident that they can buy low and sell when Democrats restore the economy[1].
I think the problem is that, this time, there may not be a rebound. Opportunists believe we can intelligence our way out of the extinction event we’ve created, and maybe we could have. I see no indication that we’ll collectively recognize and respond until it’s far too late. Global warming is already affecting economies, and by the time we recover from the economic devastation of Trump’s presidency, global warming may be the defining economic force.
[1] I am in no way a cheerleader for the modern (post 2k) Democratic party, but it doesn’t take much searching to find graphs that chart Republican/Democrat control against economic trends of the time. In the past 30 years or so, there’s been a strong correlation between Democratic leadership and strong economies and reduced national debt.
Who says he didn’t cheat? He said he was going to cheat, he tried to cheat last time, he even thanked Musk for “help with voting machines” IIRC. The fucker cheated and y’all just accepted it
I mean the usual Republican cheating, which is using The Fucking Electoral College, leading to elections where they list the general vote but won the election.
Republicans may very well have subverted voting machines, but I haven’t yet seen any evidence - only speculation.
