President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian/Flickr)
U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war with Canada took a dramatic new turn this week when he threatened America's northern neighbor with new 50 percent tariffs and Canada promptly responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own, some of which could be as high as 50 percent. Now, according to Daily Beast reporter Janna Brancolini, Trump is looking high and low for new ways to hurt Canada.
"Donald Trump is scrambling to figure out new ways to punish Canada after his crushing import tariffs sparked a spiraling trade war with America's second-largest trading partner," Brancolini explains in the Daily Beast. "After long-running trade talks broke down on Friday, the U.S. imposed a 50-percent tariff on about $20 billion in Canadian goods under a never-before-used provision of the Depression-era Tariff Act of 1930. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney retaliated on Tuesday by doubling existing counter-tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum — and by imposing new duties on American-produced milk, furniture, clothing, and electronics — resulting in 50-percent levies on about $20 billion in annual U.S. exports."
Bloomberg News' Jeff Mason reported that according to a Trump White House official interviewed on condition of anonymity, Trump could escalate his trade war against Canada by imposing even higher tariffs. And Trump is also threatening to change Lake Ontario's name to "Lake America."
On his Truth Social platform, Trump posted, " The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don't expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP."
Brancolini notes, "The president has already promised to double tariffs on Canadian auto parts to 50 percent, but additional countermeasures are expected, the official told Bloomberg…. The duties are a type of import tax paid by American companies, which must either eat the additional costs or pass them on to consumers.
The Daily Beast reporter points out that "counter-tariffs" from Canada "appear to target products made in hotly contested Republican-held congressional districts that will help determine which party controls Congress after November's midterm elections."
"For example, the duties target nearly 200 seafood products from Maine, where Republican Sen. Susan Collins faces a tough reelection campaign against progressive Troy Jackson," according to Brancolini. "The opinion editors of the Rupert Murdoch-owned (Wall Street) Journal warned Monday that a trade war with Canada makes 'no economic or political sense,' and called the Canadian duties Trump's 'dumbest' tariff plan to date. The levies — which are deeply unpopular among voters — could further exacerbate a cost-of-living crisis that has already hit tens of millions of Americans."
