President Trump on Saturday threatened to impose 100% tariffs on “all Canadian goods and products” if America’s neighbor to the north strikes a trade deal with China.
Using a belittling term to address Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the U.S. president took to his social media platform to lash out at the leader of one of the nation’s closest allies.
“If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday morning. “China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric and general way of life.”
Trump calling Carney “Governor” appeared to be a reference to his repeated suggestions that Canada be absorbed by the United States as a 51st state. He used the same nickname for Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, but Saturday marked the first time he used it towards Carney.
Saturday’s threat came just days after Trump told a reporter that signing an agreement with China, which would lower tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in return for lower import taxes on Canadian farm products, was a “good thing” for Carney to do.
But then, in a dramatic shift in stance, Trump wrote that Canada would “immediately be hit with a 100% tariff” if Carney does the very thing the president said he “should be doing.”
Trump reiterated his point in a follow-up message about two hours later, saying, “The last thing the world needs is to have China take over Canada. It’s NOT going to happen, or even come close to happening!”
As of Saturday afternoon, Carney hadn’t commented on Trump’s statements, which came amid an escalating war of words between the two world leaders.
During his much-fact-checked speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump angered Carney for saying “Canada lives because of the United States.”
The prime minister later took aim at Trump during his address to the nation in Quebec City, saying “Canada doesn’t live because of the United States, Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”
On Friday, Trump revoked Carney’s invitation to join the president’s “Board of Peace,” a panel he’s forming to address global conflicts.
“Dear Prime Minister Carney,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.”
Carney has emerged as a rising voice in the pushback to Trump’s new world order. Speaking in Davos before the president, Carney warned about coercion by great powers — but without directly mentioning Trump’s name.
The president’s latest tariff threats to a close ally come a week after he announced he would impose a 10% import tax on all goods from countries that didn’t support his bid to take control of Greenland, a threat he walked back four days later, saying he had reached the “framework of a future deal” with NATO over Arctic security.
With News Wire Services
