Trump Says Recession Unfortunate But Necessary Step To Get to Depression / The Onion

"[If Canada does not reverse its retaliation and] immediately [remove its dairy tariffs, he would] significantly [increase tariffs on cars coming from Canada to the U.S. on April 2.]"

"[That would] permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada."

"Can you imagine Canada stooping so low as to use electricity, that so affects the life of innocent people, as a bargaining chip and threat? They will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come."

"I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S. to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada."

U.S. President Donald Trump, Truth Social 

Donald Trump has halted a plan to double US tariffs on Canadian steel and metal imports to 50%, just hours after first threatening them.Tariffs of 25% still went ahead and took effect on Wednesday. Getty Images

"[President Trump's latest tariffs] are an attack on Canadian workers, families, and businesses. [I will keep Canada's tariffs on] until  the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade."

"My government will ensure our response has maximum impact in the U.S. and minimal impact here in Canada, while supporting the workers impacted."

Canadian Prime Minister-Designate Mark Carney

 

"Trump is moving very fast toward making this outcome [autoarky] inevitable -- swinging his baseball bat at everything in the shop, determined to wreck as much of the U.S. economy as he can in order to prepare the way for a utopia that he will never be able to build."

"And now, he's proven that he doesn't care about the stock market or recessions or anything else that might suffer in the name of his ideology."

"If he isn't stopped, it will just keep getting worse."

Economist Noah Smith

 

The S&P 500 fell 7.5 percent in the past month for a loss of $4.5 Trillion, and fell another 1.44 percent on Tuesday.  America's corporate community is in as much disarray over uncertainties relating to their new president's on-off statements as are their counterparts in Canada in the wake of President Trump's campaign to beggar the Canadian economy, in a bid to force his northern neighbour to suspend resisting the Trump administration's intent to absorb Canada into the U.S. as its  51st state. 

Canadian provincial premiers are in as much shock as their federal counterparts. Provincial delegations have been campaigning through visits to Washington in hopes of convincing its government that no good can come of Mr. Trump's aggressive hostility toward his North American trading partners. The promised 25 percent across-the-board tariffs imposed on all Canadian and Mexican goods entering the United States, despite the robust trade relationship between the three North American countries took everyone by surprise; a continental friendship of government-to-government, trade, tourism, and civil engagement suddenly evaporated.

 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford's intention was to impose a 25 percent electricity surcharge on the United States. Effectively countering Donald Trump's 25 percent tariff on all Canadian goods entering his country. Like Mr. Trump's on-again, off-again threats, Premier Ford has temporarily suspended the surcharge, agreeing to meet with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The formal Washington meeting "alongside the United States Trade Representative to discuss a renewed USMCA ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariff deadline."

 

A worker cuts a piece of steel for a customer at North York Iron, a steel supplier in Toronto. Cole Burston / AFP via Getty Images 

U.S. President Donald Trump's latest announcement to impose 50 percent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, increased from the original threat of 25 percent, was  his way of acquainting Canada with the Trump formula of negotiation; when Canada returned the original tariff imposition by a similar one of its own imposed on U.S. goods entering Canada, he threatened to double the original tariffs. He was obviously of the opinion that only he had the right to take hostile trade actions against other countries, none of which had the right to retaliate, in his world view of 'negotiating the Trump way'.

 

Some 1.5 million homes and businesses in Michigan, Minnesota and New York were scheduled to suffer a surcharge on electricity exports from Ontario. The cost would be an additional $400,000 daily. An equal exchange in response to Trump's overall 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods. Mr. Trump has made it abundantly plain that his intention is to destroy the Canadian economy. That in the process hundreds of thousands of workers would be out of a job, seemed not to faze him the least bit. His final intention was baldly stated by the president; in pursuing the first goal of a ruined Canadian economy, the country would presumably be amenable to foregoing its sovereignty to become part of the United States.

 

"Canadians are infuriated", Premier Ford informed CNN, by repeated comments of the president about Canada becoming a U.S. state. Trump, Mr. Ford stated, should address trade concerns with Canada by renegotiating the free trade deal currently relied upon between the United States, Canada and Mexico. The original North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in place since the early 1990s, had been renegotiated to Mr. Trump's satisfaction during his first stint as U.S. President.

 

Former U.S. ambassador to Canada James Blanchard appears for an interview on the trade war on CNN.

"I am calling on the government to immediately bring in retaliatory tariffs to respond to this unjust act and to protect Canadian steel and aluminum workers. [Canada ] must hit back with 50 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported from the United States." 

"These tariffs cannot in any way be justified and are yet another betrayal by the President of the long friendship between Canada."

Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre 

"If I were Carney, I wouldn't visit Trump or shame myself with a stupid stale buttered roll at Mar-a-Lago while trying to impress him. That is not going to work."

"My message is that this cannot last. Is the best strategy to ignore Trump? I do believe that."

"Fortify your own country and speak out against him, so he can galvanize your own nation."

"He didn't campaign on Canada being the 51st state."

Anthony Scaramucci, The Rest is Politics 

Steel coils at the ArcelorMittal Dofasco steel production facility in Hamilton, Ont., on Monday, February 10, 2025. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Iwanyshyn)