Has Trump reached peak stupidity? Tired of it, yet?

Another unnecessary, childish Trump war. Retaliatory tariffs from Canada set to take effect Trump threatens to escalate trade war with another round.

By Ian Austen, The New York Times

OTTAWA, Ontario — After more than two weeks of finger-pointing, threats and patronizing insults between longtime trading partners, Canada’s latest retaliatory tariffs against the United States were set to take effect just after midnight Eastern time Tuesday.

Polls show that Canadians strongly back Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to end trade talks with Washington last month and to hit back with tariffs on about $20 billion in U.S. products entering Canada.

But concerns remain about what might happen next. President Donald Trump has threatened another round of U.S. tariffs if Canada follows through on its plan. Some in Canadian industry say they are inclined to take Trump at his word, at least on
this threat.

People in the Trump administration “are willing to hurt themselves, their own sectors and industries, in pursuit of their goal, however misguided I think it is,” said Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association of Canada. “So they may escalate. I hope that we don’t end up in a tit-for-tat situation. We’re going to run out of runway.”

Carney announced Canada’s new tariffs after he pulled Canadian negotiators out of talks in Washington last month — an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to stave off 50% U.S. tariffs on $20 billion in Canadian exports and to reduce or eliminate tariffs of up to 50% on Canadian steel, aluminum and automobiles.

The Trump administration said the tariffs it imposed last month were in part a response to retaliatory tariffs Canada placed last year on some U.S. imports, particularly autos. U.S. officials have repeatedly noted that only China and Canada retaliated against the United States since Trump began upending global trade.

At a news conference after a sternly worded speech announcing the tariffs, Carney declared that Canada had been attacked by the United States and that the two countries are now “at war.”Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent rejected that framing, arguing that Canada is too small an economic power to battle the United States.

“I don’t think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone who’s 13 times larger than you are,” Bessent said on CNBC.

On Friday, Trump escalated his trade rhetoric even further. He said that he might “end all trade with Canada” and other countries that have trade surpluses with the United States.

Separately, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Carney had shut down the talks to gain “political leverage” at home, not because of what the U.S. side had offered.

As last week went on, Carney made it clear that he was in no hurry to return to negotiations and was focused instead on diversifying Canada’s trade and expanding its domestic economy.

Even MAGAs are growing tired of Trump’s endless wars and bullying, all designed to take their minds off his incompetence and the damage he is doing to America. “Make America great again???” Really??? How do these repeated wars make America great? Oh, and don’t forget about his Epstein scandal.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell