Donald Trump says tariff ‘pain’ for consumers will be worth it for future US greatness

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem sought to blame US trading partners for any increase in the cost of living. “If prices go up, it’s because of other people’s reactions to America’s laws,” she told NBC’s Meet the Press. “Canada can help us, or they can get in the way, and then they’ll face the consequences.”

Trump mused again on Sunday (Monday AEDT) that Canada should become the US’s 51st state, asserting the northern neighbour would “cease to exist as a viable country” without hundreds of billions of dollars worth of trade with the US, which he portrayed as a subsidy. “We don’t need anything they have,” he said.

But the response from Canada was uncompromising and bipartisan. Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, the man expected to become prime minister when elections are held later this year, gave his full support to the retaliatory measures announced by Trudeau, calling for dollar-for-dollar tariffs that would do the most damage to American companies while protecting Canada’s.

“There is no justification whatsoever for these [Trump’s] tariffs, or this treatment,” Poilievre said. “Canada will never be the 51st state.”

Michael R. Strain, director of economic policy studies at the free market American Enterprise Institute, said Trump had laid bare his deep and long-standing mercantilist views by asserting the US should not import any goods it could make at home.

Contrary to the White House’s claims, Strain said tariffs during Trump’s first term, and the ensuing trade war, increased consumer prices, reduced employment in manufacturing and failed to reduce the trade deficit. “The second trade war is likely to more severely increase prices and reduce employment and competitiveness.”

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