It's not so much that trump decided to go back to yet another trade war with Canada this past week. We have to realize by now trump will never give up his belief that tariffs work the way he thinks (nor the belief that trade wars are easy to win). What's unsettling is how much of an asshole trump is being about it (via Adam Gabbatt at The Guardian):
...But not Donald Trump, who in a “hold my beer” moment this week demonstrated that he, at least, finds it easy to resent Canadians. The US president called the country “difficult and unreasonable”, and in a particularly hysterical moment, threatened to rename a lake, after trade talks collapsed...
Gabbatt is referring to trump's childish idea to rename Lake Ontario to "Lake America" much in the same way he tried to relabel the Gulf of Mexico. As though something as useless as a lake's map designation would trigger Canadians into tearful begging for mercy.
Instead, Trump and his team demonstrated the art of collapsing the deal, as trade talks fell apart due to what Canada said were unreasonable, last-minute demands from the US side.
It meant that the US tariffs duly came in on Saturday, applied to various Canadian exports including hockey sticks and tongue depressors, but if Trump expected Canada to bow to his demands – the president was seeking more favorable terms on things like steel and aluminum – he was disappointed.
The last-minute demands trump insisted upon were a) ending the French language rights of Quebec, and b) forcing Canada into an exclusive trade deal with the U.S., insisting that Canada cannot start their own trade deals with other nations: Essentially turning Canada into a vassal state suffering from whatever economic whims fancied trump on any given day. No rational leader of another nation would have voluntarily accepted such bad-faith changes.
Anyone with any understanding of Canadian history and culture will tell you pissing off Quebecois is a bad idea - it took decades for the English-speaking Canadians to get them pacified with Kraft dinners - and anyone with any skill at diplomacy will tell you insisting on gutting another nation's sovereign powers would lead to (trade) war.
Add onto this trump's constant mocking of Canada as a 'terrible neighbor' and 'one of the worst nations to deal with,' along with trump's insistence on turning all of Canada into the 51st state - something that terrifies and angers Canadians who like their own nation the way it is eh - and you have a guy who is going out of his way to be a clueless, raging bully.
But why? What does trump - and his Republican buddies - gain out of aggravating people like this? The likelihood of compelling Canada - or any other nation - into annexation is impossible, not without force that trump can't afford to use at the moment. Making demands that violate Canada's own national identity would drive that nation to push back and refuse all compromise, ensuring no deals can get done.
It could be that trump is playing a longer game here, except we've seen over the decades trump's inability to think past the second - or even first - step. Other than wanting Canada's economy to collapse under the burdens of a trade war - which may not happen fast enough to satisfy trump - there's no other reason behind this madness.
The only remaining rationale is an irrational one. What we're seeing is trump in full imperial presidency mode: Fully convinced he can do whatever he wants on foreign policy and trade, trump would rather bully and harass his opponents into giving him more of what he wants without giving up anything in return. This is trump the mob boss: reveling in whatever cruelty he can inflict on others before they give in and surrender.
Hence the constant beratements, the constant mockery. Hence the annoying insistence on the whole '51st State' routine. trump wants to keep bullying what he sees as a weaker, smaller nation just waiting for his victim to punch back; so he can claim 'oh I'M the victim here' to anyone who'll believe him - which right now is the Beltway Media - and justify any further escalation (which may include massing troops at the border to trigger an even bigger international reaction out of the UK Commonwealth and NATO).
If there's any justice in the world, it's that trump's tariff war backfires on him through his own idiocy, to where the loss of goods and services we'd normally be getting from Canada triggers even worsening inflation, shortages, possible collapse of our bonds market, and nationwide panic (we're already facing the likelihood of another run on toilet paper).
All of trump's bullying isn't going to work if the target isn't going to roll over and play dead. And trump still doesn't understand how this isn't going to end the way he wants.
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