U.S. President Donald Trump with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on May 6, 2025
As President Donald Trump escalates his trade war against Canada, Ontario Premiere Doug Ford has vowed to support retaliatory tariffs that specifically target states whose residents were more likely to have supported the president. A new report reveals that, in at least one case, this retaliation is working.
"Imports from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Texas and Wisconsin should be targeted because they are 'politically significant states to the current administration's base of support,' Ontario Premiere Doug Ford said in a letter penned to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney," reported Newsweek's Emma Marsden on Sunday. "The aim is to make the consequences of the trade dispute an issue for American voters, potentially putting pressure on politicians who could challenge Trump's approach."
When it comes to the traditionally red state of Iowa, Marsden reported that this approach may already be yielding electoral dividends.
"There are already signs that tariffs are becoming an issue for voters in at least one closely watched state," Newsweek reported. "Seven in 10 voters in Iowa are concerned about Canada's retaliatory tariffs, a new poll by Emerson College Polling suggests. The poll also found 58 perfect of those surveyed opposed the U.S. imposing tariffs on Canadian products. The survey was conducted August 31 - September 1, involved 750 likely Iowa voters, and reported a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percent."
Earlier Marsden broke down the larger strategy behind Ford's approach.
"Canada's biggest newspaper has backed Ontario Premier Doug Ford's strategy of targeting U.S. voters over Donald Trump's trade war, arguing retaliatory tariffs could put political pressure on Republicans ahead of November's midterm elections," Marsden wrote.
She added, "The Globe and Mail said the economic case for Canada's tariffs on US goods was 'zilch, nada, zero,' warning that consumers on both sides of the border would face higher prices. But its editorial board said there was “a limited (and time-limited) political case to be made” for the measures and called for American politicians and voters to be made aware of the consequences of Trump's trade war with Canada."
Tariffs are not the sole byproduct of Trump's trade war with Canada that is turning many otherwise-Republican Americans against the administration.
“I don’t think the lake’s name should be changed because it’s history,” Dave Rupp, who operates an Ontario, NY liquidation store and supported Trump in 2024, recently told The Washington Post's Laura Beveridge. “And I don’t like changing history.”
Speaking to AlterNet in July, one economic expert talked about how Trump's tariffs are not ultimately helping either Americans or Canadians.
“They're hoping to get small, individual policy achievements at the expense of a larger-scale increase in costs and loss of stability and predictability,” Progressive Policy Institute’s tariff expert Ed Gresser told AlterNet at the time.
More broadly, Trump's tariffs are increasing inflation, as another economic expert told AlterNet.
"Just this week, Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on our largest trading partner, Canada, which will further increase inflation," Dr. Robert J. Shapiro, who served as Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs under President Bill Clinton, told AlterNet in August.