Everything seemed to be going fine. The US and Canada were on the cusp of a mutually beneficial trade agreement that would have ended more than a year of bitter discord. Then entered Howard Lutnick, US Secretary of Commerce and one of the "architects" of Project 2025. He was unhappy with some of the proposals on the table and demanded they be removed, essentially throwing months of negotiations out the window. Lutnick being the asswipe that he is, blamed it on Canada's last second demands, particularly as the pertained to heavy-duty trucks, but Prime Minister Carney was having none of it. Lutnick's demands infringed on Canada's sovereignty and he called his negotiators back to Ottawa. Trump was left high and dry after boasting a deal would soon be struck because of his hardball tactics. Instead, he has nothing.
Now we see the countries poised to engage in a trade war that will hurt both sides but probably the US worse, as Americans import from Canada far more than they export, largely in the form of energy supplies. This is what happens when you let ideologues determined to control the global trade market be in charge of sensitive negotiations.
From the start, Lutnick's language has been harsh and condescending, especially as Canada has signed a great number of trade deals over the past year, including one with China, which he brashly dismissed. The thing is Canada's economy is growing, ours is stagnating, largely because of these tariffs that serve no purpose other than to assuage Dotardly Don's battered ego. His negotiating teams have had a hard time striking any comprehensive deals. The best they get our memorandums of agreement which seem great when announced but translate into nothing until you have an actual signed trade agreement.
Carney accused the US of signing deals with pencils, meaning they could quickly erase them, as we have seen with Donnie's never-ending tariffs. This serves no one's interests as his administration has been forced to repay American companies unfairly burdened these tariffs. The ones unfairly burdened are consumers, who have received no refunds.
Lutnick is one of several Project 2025 ideologues sitting in Trump's cabinet who hopes to reshape American policy both at home and abroad. For the most part they have failed but not without causing a lot of unnecessary strain on the American consumer. Everything has gone up in the way of fuel and food prices thanks to their hawkish attitudes that saw harshly punitive actions taken on a number of countries, most notably Venezuela, The Palestinian State and Iran.
From the start, the Trump administration tried to force Ukraine to submit to Russia's territorial ambitions and give the US control over its remaining mineral reserves. It wouldn't fund reconstruction efforts without a comprehensive deal that favored its interests. Trump loved wielding the "big stick" only to find no one was willing to comply with his dictates because there was no advantage in doing so. When Trump backed down, any authority he had was lost. This cycle has repeated itself in almost every country he has confronted.
His lone success, if you can call it that, has been Venezuela, which has so long been crippled by economic sanctions that it wasn't able to offer any resistance to his invasion back in January and has since paid the economic price for it in billions of dollars in lost oil revenues. This administration made no effort to follow through on the agreements in forced down the government's throat, and as a result American business have been pillaging the country like a bunch of pirates. This seems to be how Project 2025 works.
Little wonder Canada wanted no part of these imperialist ambitions. The relation between these two normally amiable countries hasn't been this strained since the War of 1812 when the US tried and failed to annex "Lower Canada." Now the Trump administration tries to claim "breakaway" provinces as their own, with Alberta holding a non-binding referendum in October asking voters if they want to remain in Canada.
All this before the midterm elections in the United States which could see the Democrats take back both chambers of Congress given the massive unrest in the country. Trump's approval rating currently sits at a rock bottom 33 percent with many of his selected GOP nominees in key House and Senate races finding themselves severely compromised by their undying support of the failing president. Just imagine how they are going to defend even higher fuel costs this Fall because the Trump administration can't close what seemed like a done deal.
Of course the Trump administration will blame everyone other than themselves, in this case Prime Minister Carney. The only problem is that Carney speaks articulately and to the people about the looming trade war, whereas Trump scrambles to offer "cheap beef" by waving some tariffs in the wake of his self-inflicted trade war. This after his failed attempt to provide "freedom fuel." As Carney said in his speech to the Canadian people, the Trump administration has no long-term strategy but is looking only for short-term gains.
I suppose you could say that America has returned to its early colonial days when British "privateers" like Sir Walter Raleigh and Francis Drake used the Eastern seaboard as a base to plunder the Spanish treasure fleets coming out of the Caribbean. This was sanctioned by the Elizabethan monarchy of the late 16th century. This was how the colonies were founded in what became North Carolina and Virginia.
The Trump administration is using similarly heavy-handed measures to force countries to accept its harsh terms as if it can cripple their economies with tariffs if they don't comply. This extends beyond trade agreements and infringes on these countries' culture and sovereignty, as the Trump administration saw Quebec's French language requirements as a trade barrier. Way to antagonize everyone, Donald? Or should I say Howard, as I'm sure Lutnick was the one to call these requirements into question.
If the US treats its closest trading partner this way, imagine how it treats other trading partners. It seems like everyone is searching for ways to ride out the Trump regime, not just Iran, which has called off any more negotiations with the US until Trump is gone. So much for the great deal maker. The only thing Americans have to show for his failed leadership are higher prices across the board and a sagging job market brought about by an ever-growing inflation and massive debt.
As Kurt Vonnegut would say, so it goes.
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