EDITORIAL: Trump keeps moving the tariff goalposts

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Several questions arise from President Donald Trump’s social media post in which he threatened 35% tariffs on all goods from Canada.

Is he a man who doesn’t know what he wants and won’t be happy until he gets it? Or, more menacingly, is he someone who knows exactly what he wants and won’t be happy until he’s crushed this country’s key industries?

His latest tirade against all things Canadian moved the goalposts once again on trade negotiations between our nations.

First, it was defence spending, fentanyl and our porous border that raised his ire.

Canada beefed up its goal for military spending. We appointed a fentanyl czar and pretended there was a problem when, as a recent report pointed out, very little fentanyl enters the U.S. from Canada. The New York-based Manhattan Institute said data from 2013-2024 showed about 99% of pills and 97% of powdered fentanyl entered the U.S. from its southern border with Mexico, not from Canada.

Then Trump complained about the digital services tax (DST). Fair enough, many Canadians saw it as a flawed policy. Prime Minister Mark Carney scrapped it.

Earlier this week, Trump announced imminent 50% copper tariffs and now he has Canada’s dairy industry in his sights. His irrational trade policy is less about commerce and more like tributary vassalization, employed by the Ottoman Empire to subjugate weaker states. Who knows? Tomorrow, it could be poutine and the day after, he could slap a tax on Mitch Marner as he heads to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Many Canadians voted for Carney because they thought he was the best person to negotiate with Trump. We’ve seen precious little evidence that’s the case. Carney’s fawning performance at the G7 was embarrassing. He scrapped the DST, no doubt hoping that would get us over the Aug. 1 finish line for a trade deal. It just emboldened Trump to push for more.

This latest threat is likely a negotiating tactic that Trump is employing to get a favourable deal. That raises a bigger question: What’s the point of Canada negotiating with the U.S. when Trump can invoke emergency powers to sweep away the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement with an executive order?

As for Carney, he needs to show a smidgen of his alleged statecraft skills that got him elected.