Trade War Revival: Trump, Canada, and Tariffs || Aug 25, 2026
Crippling one of the world's most deeply integrated manufacturing systems probably isn't a great idea, but here we are again.
Trump has ensured that the trade war between Canada and the U.S. is alive and well, following the announcement of another series of tariffs. The U.S. isn't just shooting itself in the foot; it's shooting all of its closest friends' feet in the process...
Looking for something else?
The links below will take you to the Zeihan on Geopolitics YouTube page, each of our social media channels, info on how to purchase Peter Zeihan's books, our website, and more. Click the box to navigate to your desired page.
If there is still something else that you need, the helpful links tab below will direct you to anything you might need. This includes the Patreon support page, how to submit a question for Peter, and more.
Comments (56)
The traitor in the WH is executing Putin's order. I'm a sane American supporting Canada in this fight.
Not a brilliant move from the Trump administration as it will slow consumption as prices rise on the back of tariffs.
Is Peter heading for his bunker?
Hi Peter, from practical point, how are these 50% tariffs (let alone the thousands of previous tariffs) actually implemented? Which agency is actively tracking the compliance and collection of these tariff (aka taxes)? I think it would be very instructive if you or Michael could do a post on how this actually works for SMEs and large companies on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.
looks like canada walked on purpose, they’re listening to china, now that china lost south america
"WTF just happened" has now become a daily thing. Some notes from the press about this one: Financial Times says rumors about requiring nullifying of Quebec language laws are real, one of serveral last-minute Lutnick specials. Ditto monopoly access to Canadian minerals, and veto right over any future Canadian trade deal with anyone else. All three are completely bonkers. PBS confirms the first-cited item. NY Times confirms the language demand, and partially the minerals one, adding that therre were sudden new demands in several other key industries. Axios is uselessly vague on specifics, but says the new demands were a direct assault on national sovereignty.
Canada needs to send oil and tourists to Cuba!
Peter has said many times, given that countries like Canada (among others) tried negotiations with, and polite cooperation with, TrumpCo in hopes of avoiding punitive tariffs, but got tariffs anyway: Isn't the logical response turning elsewhere? Yes, I know Canada's mousetrapped by geography and interprovincial disunity, but: How about European Economic Area (EEA) status (like my ancestral Norway), or EFTA (like Switzerland)? That would at least dull the pain for Canadians. (Sorry, neighbours. Some of us Yanks are still very much your friends.) Note that joining the EEA or EFTA's much easier and faster than joining the EU.
Just Trump starting another war, war of distraction from the other war, Iran, a distraction from the Epstein files, you get me...
Peter, greetings from Toad Suck, Arkansas, where the town motto is “We put the fun in dysfunctional,” and the mayor is a retired rodeo clown who still wears the face paint to city council meetings. From this proud outpost of American exceptionalism, let me offer a more well-informed MAGA response to your "fake news". According to "your claims" the U.S. slapped 50% tariffs on Canadian goods and tossed North American manufacturing into “a no man’s land,” noting that “the business community’s trust in the Trump administration has basically evaporated completely” and that industrial construction has dropped every month but one. But from the MAGA perspective, this isn’t chaos — it’s 4D freedom chess, the kind only a true economic visionary could play. Why settle for stable supply chains when you can heroically bulldoze them, rebuild them out of pure patriotic adrenaline, and declare victory before the concrete dries? Why fear 8,500 tariff changes when you can celebrate them as 8,500 spontaneous acts of freedom-fueled economic curveballs? And thank goodness for Howard Lutnick, America’s unofficial Trade Paladin, who swooped in to rescue us from Jamison Greer’s dangerously polite negotiations with Canada. While Greer was out there offering “mutual benefit” and “cooperation,” Lutnick rewrote the entire playbook with a tougher stance so intense it reportedly made a Canadian goose file a noise complaint. I think I speak for all of us American patriots when I say how grateful I am for the iron‑fisted negotiating genius of Howard “Tariff‑Wrangler” Lutnick. And as you warn that agriculture and automotive manufacturing are getting pummeled — noting that “the average part… crosses the border 5 or 6 times” and that Canada plans reciprocal tariffs — we’ll reinterpret this as Trump’s bold attempt to teach Canada a lesson in tough love economics. If Canada wants to retaliate, great — that just proves the tariffs are working, like a fitness program where the soreness means you’re getting stronger. And if the beef industry is “screaming bloody murder,” well, that’s simply the sound of capitalism hitting its high notes. In this revival, Trump isn’t destabilizing trade; he’s liberating America from the tyranny of predictable commerce, one tariff at a time, while Canada clings nervously to its 75% export dependence like a polite moose afraid to cross the road. Good day, sir and enjoy your backpacking trip to Yosemite, soon to be renamed DJT National Park!
🤣
Peter, can you come up with a report card on how President Trump is supporting, making America "great"? Sadly, I think it would be all failing grades.
TLDR: Tempus fugit. We are wasting valuable time as regionalization/protectionism in global trade kicks in. We ain't building the things we need and we are picking quarrels with our closest allies/neighbors that we need to build them with. Like it or not the US needs Canada and Mexico to supply the raw materials and the labor for reindustrialization.
The Supreme Court struck down Trumps previous excuse to apply tariffs. So he switched to other excuses to be able to levy tariffs. I think there pending Court cases over that. So these new tariffs will likely go away as well. Though I expect Trump will come up with some other justification to levy tariffs as the Republican held congress sits back and does nothing. Hopefully the Dems take back control of the house and senate at the midterms (debateable if they will), at which point maybe the tariff thing goes away?
Gil Bernal: Even if Dems achieve post-January majority in both chambers, veto-proof supermajority is extremely unlikely, especially in the Senate, where (by design) only 33 seats are up for challenge; 67 aren't. So, there's a limit to what (possible) watershed shifts in Congress can do to counter rogue Presidents, especially lame ducks, without supermajority resolve. We could hope for bipartisan action, but I'll believe that when I see it.
Well it was always going to be a messy business, the re-industrialization of the US! Trump appears to be more of the hammer side!
Trumpstein is a Russian asset doing everything he can to destroy our country. I've never counted the days to a midterm before. America needs Regime Change.
In related news, the Donald is considering renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America. That’ll teach’em! Just when you thought things couldn’t get anymore ridiculous, they do. I feel like I’m living in a universe where the Onion Headline News instantly becomes fact.
I literally have no idea what in your post above is Onion fodder and what is real, which is exactly your point, of course ...
That was a cop-out. Carney just committed economical suicide over cheese, trade with China, and French words on bags of Doritos. Hopefully we will get some real analysis after the mid terms on the topic.
No, he didn't commit suicide. Its short term pain until this blows over. Its very strategic by Carney to leverage the midterms. The US economy is already heading to a very bad place; and this will send it even further. Most US states have Canada as their #1 customer; and all will be hurting. There are a lot of swing voters that will be tired of this too. The house is going to flip big time and then the leverage is in Canada's hands. End of the day, it will suck for both nations until Trump leaves office. His tarrif plays worked for him early in his administration but now it is a massive detriment, nobody in business trusts the US right now, and he has backed himself into a very bad corner with no way out (same as with Iran). Just the way it is.
So any truth to the rumor that the deal broke down on Canada insistence on allowing Chinese manufactured goods as Canadian for transshipment?
I thought the US added a "you can't trade with other countries, especially China" clause, at which point Carney said "NOPE, not agreeing to that."
After seeing the list of demands the Epstein class within the trump administration demanded of Canada, I do not blame them at all for rejecting any American terms. They need to demand King Charles III place ICBMs within Canadian borders and have them pointed directly at the United States, Trump and others who participated in Little Saint James are an existential threat to life on this planet.
The Brits have no ICBMs, only SLBMs, and those are on boats that can barely put to sea, and the SLBMs are American built and maintained, anyway...
OMG, can our country survive 28 more months of this utter stupidity? This is Trump's version of Manifest Destiny…, in reverse.
I Trump is so bad for business why are corporations donating so much money to the Republicians?
Because Democrat candidates keep flirting with socialism. All the Republicans have to do is start throwing out the bogeyman of socialism and large corporations will continue to support the Republican party. The Democrats should romp in the next few elections after the disaster of Trump but I'm afraid they will blow it by offering terrible candidates. The reason we had two cycles of Trump is because he ran against such weak opponents.
Can we trade leaders with Canada? I'd like to have a calm, rational leader for a change instead of one constantly bloviating on social media.
THE PRECIOUS IS MIIIIIIIIINE!
Elbows up 😂🤷♂️😅
As Rex Tillerson, Trump's then Secretary of State first time around said, the man's an effing moron.
Peter. Can I suggest you take a look at Susan Kokinda's Facebook reel on this topic. Very interesting perspective on why Carney is doing what he's doing, and the relationship to globalism. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1H6F5xbKSS/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Tom McMath: I want some of what she's smoking. I see she was a long-term Lyndon LaRouche apparatchik, but lately buried herself into the Michigan GOP as some sort of "organizer", and, inevitably, host and commentator on far-right media -- where, always, her biggest thing is globalism = evil along with seeing the British Empire behind every tree. I note in passing that the referenced reel gives TrumpCo a pat on the back for achieving industrial revival, which -- um -- it definitely isn't. But it's nice to view briefly someone who sees a different, LaRouchean sky entirely. I remember those guys from college. I took a detour to walk around them.
And after all of this. All of it. The lowest rating of potus is 30% or so. Meaning one of three still supports him. Absolutely staggering. Neglecting good education, decent healthcare, heathy community bonds, jobs that pay to allow an adult somewhat dignified life, non stop continuous, non stop steaming stream of bs from the screens , that are ever bigger and bigger in our living rooms, as we are trying to fill human bond with it and give some meaning on evening hours - I guess payed him off at the end. Good job.
Cui bono?
I just hope we see a huge failure of small farms and ranches across the USA. Those guys voted for this and they deserve everything they asked for.
So you want to exacerbate the problems with affordability and add food shortages to the mix? Just to spite your political enemies. You're as dumb and petty as Trump is.
Is there a source for the 8500+ tariff adjustments. How is the lame' duck still proposing tariffs when SCOTUS ruled them illegal?
Hes announced tariffs on the entire world numerous times; and they have to make adjusments in the systems to every class of good this affects before his deadlines come; then adjust them back when he changes his mind. So yeah, its going to be some huge number like that by now. It must absolutely suck to be in the department in the US that has to calculate and charge all of this to the American importers. There are several ways for the Executive to impose tariffs. Losing on one ground to SCOTUS will just send him finding another method. Trump dug something out from the 1930s to use as justification for this current round against Canada. He does what he wants until someone challenges it in court; and he wins some and loses some. This will all pass once he is out of office; Canada and Mexico and the US will normalize things again. But the long term damage to US is something every American should be deeply concerned about. He is about to leave the nation just like he leaves most of his businesses, in shambles with his pockets full and him moving onto the next business venture.
If beef is such a problem, why come I keep getting BOGO offers at Five Guys? I feel like I’m either part of the problem, financing a crime or it’s not beef… it’s Soylent Green.
But we’ll have a ballroom
nope only the mad orange ape will have one, you lost the wh
Canada is making arrangements where our exports to the US are going to be headed to other countries at better prices. Canada's economy is growing and we're severing the connections to the US at every stupid attempt by the US junta to try to control or take anything from us. Not happening. Eventually, with some painful adjustment, Canada will integrate more deeply with the rest of the world and we will thrive as the US withers and dies under the yoke of the billionaires who've usurped the govt there. Have the day you voted for. #elbowsup #FDJT
Good luck with that
You are always such a cheerful way to start the morning. Pardon me whole I go scream and throw some chairs for awhile.
Just make sure they are not wooden chairs… Canadian hardwood… ya know..
As a Canadian, I don't want our government to apply any tariffs since it will only cost us more in the near future.
that money won't be destroyed - it will instead be recycled into support for those sector and households most affected by this.
It’s all intentional.
Blue November
If there is an election!
Does anyone have any details on the supposed last minute changes that are being touted as the cause for the trade talks breakdown? Both sides are playing Spider man finger pointing memes right now so it’s hard to say what caused the deal to fall apart.
Black man, spy, the second hour of yesterday’s episode was all about Canada. It is well worth watching. It was an attempt by the United States to turn Canada into an American province. No one, and I mean no one in Canada would have agreed to these conditions.
Net worth scott bessent
You should really look at Carney's. 91% invested in the US and only .5% in Canada.