COLD SHOULDER

Trump Costs America Billions as Canadians Snub the U.S.

Canadian visitors spent $2.3 billion less in the U.S. in 2025.

President Donald Trump is costing America billions as Canadians increasingly turn their backs on the U.S., according to new data.

A report released by the Canadian government last week shows that Canadian visitors spent $2.3 billion less in the U.S. in 2025 as travel across the border plunged.

According to the report, total spending by Canadians on U.S. trips dropped to C$18.8 billion ($12.8 billion), down from C$22.1 billion ($15.6 billion) the year before, as Canadian travel to the U.S. dropped by 25 percent.

The decline in Canadian travel to the U.S. marked an unprecedented shift, with return trips falling year over year for 11 straight months in 2025—the longest sustained drop outside the pandemic era since records began in 1972.

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That is a huge blow for the Trump administration, with Canada traditionally sending the most tourists to the U.S.

But Trump’s recent antics have upset his closest neighbors, according to the report.

So now Canadians are opting to travel domestically or to go to other countries outside of the U.S, taking roughly 5 million more domestic trips within Canada and 1.3 million additional trips overseas.

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It comes after Trump slapped tariffs on Canadian-made goods, ramped up immigration enforcement, and repeatedly threatened to swallow Canada as America’s “51st state.”

“Following the change in the U.S. administration in early 2025 and the implementation of America First policies, Canadian travel sentiment shifted abruptly,” the report says.

Similar research by the University of Toronto from May also found that visits by Canadians to major U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Houston and Grand Rapids, have crashed by a staggering 42 percent during Trump’s second term.

The president’s trade war with Canada has also been blamed for a sharp drop in Canadian tourism to Las Vegas, a city where Canadian visitors typically make up a major share of international travel.

After Trump imposed tariffs on Canada last year, visits from Canadians fell by 17 percent, contributing to a 7.5 percent overall decline in tourism, Politico reported.

But it’s not just Canadians who are snubbing the U.S.

A CNN report from May showed that the U.S. had roughly 4 million fewer international visitors in 2025 than the year before, marking a 5.5 percent decline in overseas tourism, with foreign visitor spending falling by more than $8 billion.

Visitor numbers declined from several countries, including Germany, India, France, Australia, Chile, and China, but the largest drop came from Canada.

Aside from the collapse in travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, it represents the sharpest annual drop in international tourism in roughly 20 years.

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The decline in U.S. tourism stands out globally. International travel increased sharply globally in 2025, with roughly 80 million more people traveling abroad than the year before.

But people are opting to travel elsewhere other than the U.S.

And that is a concerning trend, according to Juliette Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School.

“We used to be a country that others wanted to emulate. That narrative no longer exists,” Kayyem told CNN.

“The long-term harm is that the world will not know America… the narrative of the United States is now a country that is at best, not to be respected, and at worst, a democracy that is floundering.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

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