‘NOT OUR ENEMY’

Trump Gets Knifed by His MAGA Senate Pick Over Canada Feud

Mike Rogers is the latest MAGA candidate to openly distance themselves from Trump’s policies.

A MAGA candidate running in a tough race has broken with President Donald Trump on one of his key fixations.

Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers released a new advertisement in which he criticized Trump’s trade war with Canada while drinking a Canadian beer brewed just across Michigan’s border.

“Drinking a Labatt and watching the Red Wings, man, it just doesn’t get any more Michigan than that,” Rogers said in the ad.

“And here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy. We need to end this tariff war now,” he added, before launching a criticism at his opponent, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.

Michigan has a close relationship with Canada, given that the state’s largest city and economic hub, Detroit, shares a border with the country. The state and the country engage in trade that is valued at tens of billions of dollars annually.

Additionally, Canada is Michigan’s top export market.

Trade negotiations between the U.S. and Canada collapsed in August, which Canadian leaders said was due to unreasonable demands from Trump’s erratic trade policy, often raising or lowering his arbitrary tariffs via Truth Social posts whenever he pleases.

After the talks fell apart, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that his country would have to rethink its overall relationship with the U.S., especially given how Trump has repeatedly threatened to take over Canada, repeatedly calling it the 51st state and insulting its leaders. While some conservatives act as though the president’s threats to the ally are nothing more than a joke, Canadians do not view them as such.

“We’ve recognized from the start that America has changed,” he said in an address to the country in August. “We recognize that sometimes, its signature is written in pencil.”

Trump, rather than try to re-enter trade talks with the country’s largest trading partner, has taken a more petty route, attempting to rename Lake Ontario to his preferred “Lake America.”

Rogers has previously broken with Trump, as he has spoken out against his war with Iran, calling for it to end ASAP to get gas prices down.

He is a part of a growing list of Republicans distancing themselves from Trump’s increasingly unpopular policies ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

An analysis from Reuters found that 41 of 62 Republican candidates in competitive House and Senate races have distanced themselves from the president in some fashion.

The list includes Republicans who have voted against or spoken about Trump’s policies, including his war with Iran, his data center obsession, or scrubbing all mentions of their association with the president from their campaign websites entirely.

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Annabella RosciglioneReporter

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