Trump Blasts His Own Trade Deal With Canada: ‘Who Made These Decisions?’
“Why would our Country allow another Country to supply us with electricity, even for a small area? Trump asked.
Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS
Donald Trump raged against a U.S.-Canada trade agreement Tuesday morning—apparently unaware that he was the one who made the deal in the first place.
“Why would our Country allow another Country to supply us with electricity, even for a small area? Who made these decisions, and why?” Trump fumed on Truth Social.
The answer? Donald J. Trump.
During his first term, Trump negotiated for the free exchange of electricity in North America in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), including the zero-tariff trade of energy products.
In 2019, he bragged on an X post that the agreement, his replacement for NAFTA, “will be the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA. Good for everybody – Farmers, Manufacturers, Energy, Unions – tremendous support.”
America’s great USMCA Trade Bill is looking good. It will be the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA. Good for everybody - Farmers, Manufacturers, Energy, Unions - tremendous support. Importantly, we will finally end our Country’s worst Trade Deal, NAFTA!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019
Trump might have forgotten that he was the mastermind behind that deal while being in a fit of rage against Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who slapped a 25% tariff on electricity exports to Minnesota, New York, and Michigan Tuesday morning.
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Ford, for his part, didn’t let Trump’s amnesia slide as he announced the tariffs.
“Believe me when I say I do not want to do this. I feel terrible for the American people who didn’t start this trade war. It’s one person who is responsible, it’s President Trump,” he said.
In retaliation to Ontario’s new tariffs, Trump announced that he was doubling the tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum imported from Canada on Truth Social, even as he comes under growing pressure to walk back his trade chaos, as fears of a “Trump Recession” mount.
Instead of explaining his economic strategy, he once again resorted to daydreaming about annexing Canada.
“The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear,” Trump declared, taking a hard pivot into fantasyland. “Your brilliant anthem, ‘O Canada,’ will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”
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