Trump declared a national emergency in three U.S. states and threatened to double tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50% after Ontario imposed an electricity tariff. The speaker traces the escalating tit-for-tat cycle and notes there's no clear de-escalation strategy in sight.
Chapters
Is the US close to military action against Canada? It's Tuesday, March 11th, and Donald Trump this morning made what I think is his most clear threat against the sovereignty of Canada. This morning, responding to Ontario's tariff on electricity, Trump said he'll declare a national state of emergency in the 3 affected states, saying on social media, "This will allow the US to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada." It was a long and rambling post as usual, but he spent half of it again fantasizing about annexing Canada, this time saying, "The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear." The line, of course, is the border. And if he doesn't take military action, he announced this morning another massive crippling escalation in the trade war, saying the US will double Canadian steel and aluminum tariffs to 50% tomorrow. He says that's retaliation against Ontario's tariff on electricity, which was retaliation on Trump's incoming 25% tariffs, which was a retaliation for Canada pulling booze off its shelves and applying counter tariffs, which were retali— you know what, forget it. If irony had a tariff, this whole thing would have been paid off by now. Maybe the real national emergency is that nobody seems to know how to de-escalate this.
