Trumps Canada tariff tiff tells Americas friends to get real on defense spending

Donald Trump knows exactly what he’s doing with tariffs.Everyone else is baffled: Why did the president announce heavy taxes on imports from Canada as well as Mexico and China?America has an obvious interest in economically decoupling from China, a great-power rival.And by first imposing, then suspending, tariffs on Mexican imports, Trump was able to bring Mexico’s government to the negotiating table on his terms.That’s won immediate results in the fight against illegal immigration and the trafficking of fentanyl and other drugs into our country: President Claudia Sheinbaum is now sending 10,000 troops to secure Mexico’s side of the border. She has one month to get the job done and strike a bigger, long-lasting deal with the United States — or else tariffs snap back in March.Then there are those Yukon cartels and the Canadian Communist Party, and ..

.wait, what?What trouble could America possibly have with Canada that justifies a 25% tariff on the goods they sell us? Like Mexico, Canada has 30 days to work things out with the US before tariffs come crashing in.And what does Trump want? There are more concerns than just our northern border.He needles Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about turning Canada into our 51st state. It’s hard to imagine tariffs high enough to accomplish what a couple of invasions couldn’t achieve over the last 200-odd years, though.America tried to take Canada by force in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, both times hoping Canadians would spontaneously turn against their government and demand the rights and liberties of American citizens. A core component of Canada’s national identity, however, comes from the pro-British Tories who fled the American colonies rather than join our revolution.Even Canadian conservatives, including the man with the best hope of beating the Liberal Party at the next election, Pierre Poilievre, don’t want to become Americans.They’re patriotically outraged by the tariffs, and they’...