Trump’s Canada meltdown is becoming a nightmare for the GOP

Vox’s Zack Beauchamp has walked through the bizarre history of President Donald Trump’s obsession with tariffs and how the U.S. got to the point where there's now a major trade war with Canada.

Speaking to The New Republic's Greg Sargent for the Thursday "Daily Blast," Beauchamp explained that there are normal trade disputes between countries, but what Trump has done with Canada smells like something different.

"To Trump, the mere fact that we’re trading with Canada is itself an inherently disastrous and bad thing," Sargent said.

Beauchamp said that it appears Trump appears to completely misunderstand basic information about global trade.

"Like he thinks that when you’re importing from a country, you’re giving them money," he said. "You’re just giving them money, right? And then that money doesn’t come back to you in any way, it doesn’t benefit the people in your country from getting those goods. They aren’t helping anything."

But the reality, he explained, is like saying when one goes to the grocery store they're leaving $200 behind. Like trade, that's not how grocery stores work. You're buying things with that $200. "They are giving you stuff," he said.

"Whereas Trump sees it as a form of extraction. He seems to think that trade deficits mean you’re losing, which is also not how it works," said Beauchamp.

Trade is nothing more than what is a domestic economy, but on a global scale, he said. People are exchanging goods and services for money.

"I think, that the American public does not want what Trump is doing with trade policy. What they take from that, right — just sticking with the specific issue of trade, rather than the sort of broader ideological narrative around MAGA — that is a very open question, right?" Beauchamp said.

The lesson, he explained, "is certainly not that the right thing to do all along was to follow Trump’s impulse on these issues. I think the evidence is weak that this was ever an especially important issue in Trump’s wheelhouse that caused him to win a lot. It’s very weak, I think."

Meanwhile, the trade war is creating a lot of problems for Republicans who don't need another battle a little over 50 days before an election.

Trump's tariffs on Canada began on Tuesday, prompting several Republicans to speak out against Trump publicly. These exposed Republicans are now being forced to defend Trump while his policy threatens jobs in their states. Sen. Roger Marshall (R) in Kansas, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) are both trying to keep jobs in their respective states. Trump's trade war with Canada prompted him to target a Canadian manufacturing plant in Kansas, which employs 1,500 people. Losing those jobs would make it clear that Marshall's fidelity to Trump hasn't benefited residents. The same is true in Maine, which relies heavily on Canada for tourism.

GOP strategists have warned that tariffs on Canadian goods is already hitting Americans. CNN polling cited in the interview found that 64 percent of Michigan voters and 70 percent of Maine voters believe the tariffs are bad for their states. Working-class voters in both states also opposed the tariffs by large margins.

Ultimately, the trade war continues to show that the "America First" promises to his MAGA base are collapsing under the weight of his trade war. Sargent claims it's because all of these decisions are based on the president's personal whims, not on facts.

Both suggest that these conflicts could ultimately create an opening for Democrats to tout the benefits of economic interdependence and challenge Trump's zero-sum worldview. Beauchamp said that the key will be good storytellers who can connect these dots.