A U.S. president must work hard to rupture a relationship with a neighboring country that has been America\u2019s closest economic, security, and people-to-people partner for decades.<\/p>\n
Leave it to President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
He has just started a new trade war<\/a> with Canada that will hurt the U.S. economy, batter our auto industry, and undermine American farmers over his irrational love of tariffs and obsession with turning the Great White North into the 51st state.<\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal called the president\u2019s first round of tariffs last year against Canada \u201cthe dumbest trade war in history,\u201d and opined that \u201cit got dumber\u201d<\/a> recently as the administration escalated with new tariffs.<\/p>\n However, Trump has not been able to cow<\/a> a defiant Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a>. \u201cWe recognized from the start that America has changed<\/a>,\u201d Carney said. \u201cWe recognize that sometimes, its signature is written in pencil.\u201d A reference to the White House tactic of adding conditions at the last minute to documents already agreed to, or in some cases, deals that have already been signed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were not prepared to compromise our sovereignty,\u201d the Canadian leader added. \u201cYou\u2019re at war when you\u2019re attacked, and we got attacked.\u201d Americans should be asking how in the hell Trump has managed to turn America\u2019s closest friend into a reluctant enemy<\/a>.<\/p>\n A major part of the problem is Trump\u2019s constant stream of insults. Rather than rethink serious responses after the talks broke down, Trump spewed out slurs against Canadian officials and the Canadian military.<\/p>\n Then the peevish POTUS signed an executive order Thursday to change the name of Lake Ontario<\/a> to \u201cLake America,\u201d one more childish follow-up to continued White House insistence that Canada should officially accede to the USA. (In the same vein, Vice President JD Vance recently called Canada a \u201cstate,\u201d and then referred to his gaffe as a \u201cFreudian slip.\u201d)<\/p>\n But the punch line that laid bare Trump\u2019s imperial attitude toward our neighbors \u2014 as he has made so clear in his threats to occupy Greenland \u2014 was a post declaring, \u201cWE DON\u2019T NEED CANADA<\/a>, THEY NEED US!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is demonstrably not true,\u201d said the former U.S. ambassador to Canada, and Philadelphian, David Cohen. After Mexico, Canada is our second-largest trading partner, and the things Canada provides are hard to obtain elsewhere.<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States absolutely needs Canadian aluminum. Canada is the No. 1 source of imported energy to the U.S. by a wide margin, in particular oil, which Canada sells at a discount,\u201d Cohen said.<\/p>\n Sixty-three percent of American crude oil imports come from Canada. Midwestern U.S. refineries are designed to handle Canadian heavy crude, according to the U.S. government, and couldn\u2019t easily switch to other sources.<\/p>\n Canada is a key exporter of electricity<\/a> to New York and the Northeast. Carney has not yet threatened to cut off energy exports, although Quebec\u2019s premier has said everything \u201cis on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, contrary to Trump\u2019s insistence that the Canadians are cheating us, if you eliminate Canada\u2019s energy exports, the U.S. has a trade surplus with our northern neighbor. \u201cIt would be more expensive and inconvenient to buy elsewhere,\u201d Cohen told me, \u201cand cost U.S. jobs. The U.S. benefits massively (from these exports).\u201d<\/p>\n Thirty-seven U.S. states, including Pennsylvania, have Canada as their largest export destination.<\/p>\n Then there is potash<\/a>, a mineral that is essential for fertilizer. \u201cThe U.S. has very limited reserves,\u201d said Cohen, \u201cand U.S. farmers need potash.\u201d He added that potash exports are critical to the agricultural economy in Pennsylvania. Canada is one of the three largest potash producers in the world, the other two being Russia and Belarus. Does Trump want to rely on Vladimir Putin for this essential mineral?<\/p>\n The key here, Cohen explained, is the symbiotic relationship between Canada, the U.S. \u2014 and Mexico. The car industries are totally intertwined<\/a>, for example, with parts moving back and forth across borders several times. Trump\u2019s tariffs will be brutal for Detroit\u2019s auto industry<\/a>, and likely cost many U.S. jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe North American economy functions more productively as a combined presence than if it were just separate,\u201d Cohen noted. \u201cTrying to find replacements for Canadian goods would be worse for American businesses, jobs, and GDP.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, there is a critical military relationship between Canada and the U.S. (even as Trump keeps grossly insulting the Canadian military, ignoring the many lives Canadians lost supporting the U.S. in Afghanistan).<\/p>\n Although Canada has underinvested in its defense spending and is only now stepping up, \u201cCanada is the most important partner we have in growing our continental defense against Russia and China,\u201d Cohen said. Canadian partnership is critical for defense in the Arctic<\/a> given Canada\u2019s vast Arctic territorial spread.<\/p>\n So Trump\u2019s approach to our northern NATO ally is disastrous, unnecessarily alienating a population that is intimately bound with ours<\/a>, and acting against U.S. economic interests for no reason. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that already exists, known as the USMCA, can be updated to handle new concerns, but Trump\u2019s attempts to lord it over Canadians are an egocentric blunder with grave long-term risk.<\/p>\n Cohen believes the relationship could be rebuilt under a new administration, \u201cbut you would have to pay respect to Canadian sovereignty.\u201d He said a new president in 2028 should make his first phone call and first foreign trip to Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing wrong with apologizing when (our leadership) has done something which is not in the best interest of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n