Canada’s retaliatory tariffs on American imports have now kicked in and, at the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I’m rooting for our neighbors to the north in this insipid trade war our president started.
The reason is simple. Prime Minister Mark Carney and the staggeringly high percentage of Canadian people who support him in standing up to President Donald Trump’s unprovoked hostility are doing what all Americans should be doing. They’re looking at this administration, recognizing Trump is nuts and saying, emphatically: “We’re not going to put up with that.”
Canadians are confronting the reality of an obviously unhinged president better than the Republican Party, about 30% of Americans and a shockingly large swath of U.S. news organizations.
Canadians know Trump is nuts, so their prime minister is standing up to him
Consider
Trump’s behavior over Labor Day weekend. The 80-year-old president posted dozens of AI-generated videos and images on his Truth Social account on Sept. 6, ranging from an AI photo of him with a bunch of robots and the words “THEY WILL NEVER SLEEP AGAIN” to a post saying the state of New Mexico should be renamed “New America.” He shared a cartoon image of himself as a hockey player standing over a fallen-on-the-ice Carney, and on Sept. 7 posted an image showing a map of Canada and all of North America in red, white and blue, suggesting America had taken over the entire continent.
He also announced on social media, as if by fiat, that Canadian aerospace giant Bombardier can no longer sell its planes in America: “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!”
Setting aside that Trump can’t just do that and that he sounds like an ill-mannered 8-year-old having a temper tantrum, the Canadian company is deeply interwoven in the U.S. economy. CTV News, citing a statement from Bombardier, noted: “Bombardier generates ‘tens of thousands of jobs through our 3,500 direct employees in the U.S and nearly 2,800 U.S.-based suppliers across 47 states,’ along with five U.S. service centers, a parts depot in Chicago and its U.S. headquarters in Wichita.”
'Stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough'
Clearly Carney sees through Trump’s inane gibberish and recognizes that it’s utterly useless to negotiate with a clown. He said recently: “When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade, stop trying to be tough and start being serious about having those discussions — we can have those discussions.”
That’s exactly the right response to Trump, the addled artificial intelligence meme lord of America. And the people of Canada back Carney, big time. A poll conducted for The Globe and Mail found 85% of respondents “said they support or somewhat support Mr. Carney’s rejection” of a proposed trade deal with the Trump administration. And 80% support or somewhat support the retaliatory tariffs.
Those are eye-popping numbers. Good luck getting 85% of Americans to agree on anything.
Canada is exposing just how childish Trump is
Lori Turnbull, a political science professor at Dalhousie University in Canada, told CTV News recently: “Donald Trump is acting the way he’s acting and the prime minister is saying, ‘Look, we’re not going to go the table with somebody who’s participating in this garbage; we’re going to wait until they can put up an adult of some kind.’”
Turnbull advised Carney to continue ignoring Trump’s childishness: “It might actually trigger in the minds of Americans, ‘What is this guy doing? This is not how you conduct a trade relationship or any relationship.’”
That last point is the whole point. What we saw from Trump over the long weekend, what we see from him daily, should make every soul in America wonder what the heck that guy is doing. We are not dealing with a person who has all oars firmly in the water. That’s not an opinion. That is a glaringly obvious fact to anyone paying attention, and anyone still pretending our president is behaving in a way remotely close to normal is deluding themselves.
Treating Trump like he's normal isn't being objective. It's irresponsible.
Why are the journalists who cover this president not constantly asking questions about Trump’s erratic behavior, like starting a ludicrous trade war with our Canadian allies? Why are they not pressing and pressing and pressing administration or GOP officials to explain why the president seems obsessed with posting bizarro-world AI slop on social media? Questions about his abnormal conduct should always be on the tips of journalists' tongues.
Why are there so many people in America still unwilling to recognize what is right in front of their eyes? If my pals in Canada can see it and are willing to endure the economic pain of a trade war to stand up to a bully like Trump, then what the heck are we Americans doing putting up with him?
I don’t want anyone, Canadian or American, hurt economically because of this nonsense Trump stirred up.
But I’ll say this to the remaining Americans, be they politicians or voters or journalists, who think it helps this country to pretend Trump is anything less than a dangerous loon: Look up north for an example of courage and common sense. The Canadians are presently doing patriotism a whole lot better than the lot of you.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Canada understands what we refuse to: Trump is a joke | Opinion
