Trump's War On Canada Escalates ...

... and so does Trump's obsession with seizing Greenland.

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to become a paid subscriber, you can sign up here.

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A couple of days ago, Fox News’ Laura Ingraham interviewed President Trump. She asked about the US trade war with Canada, which went as expected.

“Here’s my problem with Canada. Canada was meant to be the 51st state, because we subsidized Canada by $200 billion a year. We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their lumber … We don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything.”

“And if you look at dairy products, what they’ve done to our farmers. I’d go up to Iowa, I’d go up to different places, Nebraska, and they would always complain about Canada, how they get ripped off. Do you know that Canada has a 250 per cent tariff? Two hundred and fifty, nobody knows that. They charge us numbers that are crazy.”

It’s important to point out that none of this is true (or coherent).

• Annually, the US imports about a quarter of its lumber, and 90 percent of that wood comes from Canada.

• More than sixty percent of the oil America consumes comes from Canada.

• The US automotive industry is deeply reliant on automotive parts produced in Canada.

• While Canada has a 200% tariff (not 250%) on dairy products, those tariffs only kick in after the US surpasses a certain level of tariff-free dairy sales… and the US is not surpassing that level in any category of dairy products. Moreover, Canada is the second largest export market for US dairy products and all US agricultural products.

When Ingraham asked if Trump was being tougher on Canada than on actual American adversaries, Trump said, “Only because it’s meant to be our 51st state.”

Trump went on to say:

“I deal with every country, indirectly or directly. One of the nastiest countries to deal with is Canada.”

“Good old Justin — I call him Governor Trudeau — his people were nasty, and they weren’t telling the truth. They never told the truth. You know they’d say, ‘Well, we don’t charge.’ Well they do. They charge tremendous.”

“They give us nothing and they are the worst people to negotiate with, of everybody.”

Canada? Nasty!?! Seriously, I could see North Korea or Russia being the nastiest country. But Canada? According to one global survey, Canada is ranked number one as the world’s “nicest country.”

Finally, Trump said this when Ingraham asked him to define his end game with Canada.

“My end game is I don’t want to have a big deficit,” Trump said. “I don’t want to see the United States of America … pay 60 or 200 billion dollars to a country that if they were a state, think of this, would be our biggest, most beautiful — it would be great, this state.”

Trump earlier complained about the “very big [trade] deficit with Canada,” which Ingraham said was $60 billion, and Trump said was “much more.” You’ll be shocked to learn Ingraham is correct — it’s $60 billion. It’s worth noting here that this passage restates one of Trump’s more idiotic beliefs: that anytime a country has a trade deficit with the US, America is being ripped off.

Like many of you, I’d like to return to a time when Americans could safely ignore Canada (I’m joking … mostly), but we don’t have that luxury. If anything, we’re not paying enough attention to this story. The president of the United States is obsessed with the idea of annexing Canada and making it the 51st state. In this interview, he mentions it twice while also deriding former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau.”

I can find no evidence that annexing Canada has popular support (either in Canada or the United States), is backed by members of his party, or that even members of his administration think it is a good idea.

(Interesting, in a new Quinnipiac poll, Trump rates lower on his handling of the trade war with Canada than any other foreign policy issue.)

Yet, none of that is stopping Trump. To achieve his unachievable goal of annexing Canada, Trump has launched a disastrous trade war that is affecting millions of people, hurting countless businesses, and roiling Canadian politics. Make no mistake, if this continues, Trump has the potential to do catastrophic damage to the Canadian economy. And it seems that few people want to talk about it, and no one in a position of influence inside the Trump administration or Congress wants to walk Trump off the ledge. Call me crazy, but this seems like a significant problem and one that is hard to avoid when you have a cult-like leader as president and a political party incapable of standing up to him.

One More Thing

• Will Saletan makes the case that Trump views Canada the same way that Putin views Ukraine.

Don’t Sleep on Greenland

Last week, Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Thursday and, during a joint press conference, was asked about annexing Greenland or making it the 51st state. Trump’s answer was notable.