Conservatives pile up Donald Trump for launching the ‘dumbest trade war in history’ Canada as a risky gamble that the American economy.
Trump threatened America’s northern neighbor with a stunning 50 percent tariff on key sectors including cars, auto parts and steel, set to take effect on January 1.
That’s in addition to a 50 percent tariff on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, including hockey equipment. alcohol and more that took effect Saturday.
Negotiations between Canadian and American officials collapsed in spectacular fashion late last week. Both sides have blamed each other for changing the terms in the latest rounds of talks, and insults leveled between the two have turned personal.
Trump said Tuesday morning that he is considering renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.” He also called Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney “weak and ineffective.”
For his part, Carney has said Canada will match the U.S rates “dollar for dollar,” and Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters this week that Trump “can kiss my a**.”
Meanwhile, conservatives have raised alarms that the president’s move is misleading and potentially harmful to American interests.
“The last thing we need right now, with our economy back on its feet, is a trade war with Canada,” Trump’s first-term vice president said. Mike Pence told CNN.
With President Donald Trump threatening further tariffs on Canada, some members of his party are concerned that the trade war could impact the midterm elections.
“The last thing we need right now, with our economy back on its feet, is a trade war with Canada,” Trump’s Vice President Mike Pence said this week.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to impose retaliatory tariffs against the US “dollar for dollar”. Canada announced tariffs of up to 50 percent on some U.S. goods on Tuesday
Former Congressman Ron Paul responded: “It’s a tariff war and a trade war. They brag about how great it is and how necessary it is to save our economy… Sometimes trade wars lead to the other kind of wars.”
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine recently wrote on social media: “The US-Canada trade negotiations are raising costs, risks and uncertainty for Maine businesses.”
“If the administration continues with these tariffs, they will increase costs for Maine families as most businesses will have no choice but to pass the tariffs on to their customers through higher prices.”
The right-wing editorial board of the Wall Street Journal wrote a piece calling the recent tariffs the “dumbest” trade war in history and warning that the decision could impact the upcoming midterm elections.
“President Trump objected last year when we called his tariffs on Canada and Mexico the stupidest trade war in history,” the editors wrote.
“Things got even dumber this weekend when Trump escalated a new round of border taxes on Canadian imports just 10 weeks before the midterm elections.”
Canada’s retaliatory tariffs announced Tuesday will come into effect on September 8, much earlier than the January 1 deadline Trump set on cars and auto parts.
The timing could mean U.S. customers will have to foot the bill for Canadian tariffs before customers in the northern country pay tariffs on U.S. goods. The January deadline also gives the two countries some breathing room to negotiate a trade deal.
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine has condemned the trade war, posting on social media about how it could raise prices for American customers
The US and Canada have increased their tariffs on each other’s steel supplies
Trump quickly changed tariffs on other countries that make deals with the US, as has happened to many countries targeted by Trump’s April 2025 ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs.
The tariffs threaten to raise costs in the US, particularly in the auto sector, if Trump doesn’t change his tune between now and January.
This could spell trouble for Republicans running for office in this fall’s midterm elections, as voters remain concerned about the state of the economy.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina noted how Americans and Canadians near the border could feel the trade war in their personal lives.
‘They cross the border. They work together. They have families together,” he told Semafor.
“You create that tension, and the party that owns that tension is the party that is likely to suffer the consequences in November,” Tillis added.
Meanwhile, the White House claims the tariff war will protect American interests.
“Countless American workers, farmers and businesses have borne the brunt of America’s lopsided trade relations, including with Canada, which has demanded full access to the U.S. market without reciprocity,” WH spokesperson Kush Desai told the Daily Mail.
