During his presidency, Donald Trump championed an “America First” trade agenda, positioning tariffs as a tool to revive domestic industries and correct perceived trade imbalances. However, his aggressive tariff policies—particularly targeting Canada, the United States’ second-largest trading partner—unleashed a cascade of economic, diplomatic, and consumer consequences. By disrupting a deeply integrated trade relationship, these tariffs not only failed to deliver on their promises but also imposed significant costs on American households, businesses, and strategic interests. This article explores how Trump’s tariffs on Canada backfired, undermining U.S. energy security, inflating consumer prices, and fracturing a critical alliance.

Donald Trump, the brash New York property developer who rose to international fame as a television personality and then as president, once claimed he had built his fortune from a mere “small loan of a million dollars.” In truth, Mr Trump benefited from tens—if not hundreds—of millions of dollars passed on by his father, Fred Trump. A comprehensive assessment of Mr Trump’s record reveals a business career sustained largely by inherited wealth, aggressive debt financing and ceaseless self-promotion—an image later parlayed into political fundraising that has further blurred the lines between public office, personal profit and brand-building.

In a startling move that has rattled government observers and outraged federal employees, Elon Musk—high-profile tech magnate and owner of X (formerly Twitter)—recently posted a tweet declaring that any federal workers who fail to respond to a forthcoming email on their weekly progress will be treated as having “voluntarily resigned.” Citing instructions from “President @realDonaldTrump,” Musk’s statement, if taken at face value, threatens to upend standard federal employment procedures and sow widespread confusion within the public sector.

JD Vance’s tweet is an attempt to frame Trump’s approach to the Ukraine war as pragmatic and rooted in realism, while dismissing opposing views as moralistic and historically irrelevant. However, his argument is flawed on multiple levels, including its reliance on unverified counterfactuals, selective use of facts, misrepresentation of history, and an oversimplified understanding of geopolitics.

It started innocently enough: Canada’s Public Safety Minister stood before reporters and declared that less than 1% of the United States’ illicit fentanyl supply and its unauthorized immigrant population comes from Canada. It was meant to reassure Canadians and Americans alike that the Great White North is not the major culprit some make it out to be.

Fracking. It's a word that sparks heated debates, conjuring images of both economic prosperity and environmental concern. Understanding the true impact of hydraulic fracturing in the United States is no easy task. It requires sifting through mountains of data, making accurate economic predictions, and carefully weighing the environmental consequences. But what if we had some help?

Oh, Canada! Our friendly neighbor to the north, land of maple syrup, politeness, and... a potential trade war? The mere thought sends shivers down the spines of economists and diplomats alike. Recent rumblings suggest a trade dispute brewing, and the weapon of choice appears to be the dreaded tariff. But before we start hoarding poutine in anticipation, let's take a whimsical journey through the annals of history to see if a trade war with Canada would actually be a good thing for the US of A.