Yesterday Trump just threatened 50% tariffs on Canadian cars, trucks and parts and explicitly urged Canadian industry to move to America. (Reuters)
Elizabeth and I were watching the latest escalation of Trump’s tariff war against Canada when she said something that stopped me.
“This isn’t just about tariffs.”
Elizabeth spent 17 years in the military, including work around Special Forces, PSYOP and Civil Affairs. So when she sees political messaging repeated over and over, she tends to look past the message and ask what behavior the message is trying to create.
Her question was simple:
Why does Trump need Americans to think of Canada as an enemy?
Think about how strange that is.
Canada.
Our neighbor. Our ally. Our trading partner. A country whose factories, energy systems and supply chains have been intertwined with ours for generations.
Yet Trump has repeatedly portrayed Canada as taking advantage of America, questioned its economic viability, talked about it becoming our 51st state and steadily escalated economic pressure against it. Now, after the latest trade negotiations collapsed, his administration has imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods, with Trump threatening 50% tariffs on Canadian automobiles, trucks and parts.
The official explanation is that America is defending itself against unfair Canadian trade practices.
Maybe that’s what Trump believes.
But Elizabeth and I see another possible layer.
Canada may be useful as a demonstration.
If you want Americans to accept the idea that overwhelming economic power should be used to force another democratic country to submit to your demands, Canada makes an extraordinary test case.
You don’t begin with tanks.
You begin with language.
They’re ripping us off.
They’re unfair.
They’re taking our jobs.
They’re hurting America.
They’re the problem.
Then comes economic punishment.
Then comes the offer:
You can make the pain disappear if you do what we want. Anything and everything America wants.
And here is the part Elizabeth finds particularly interesting.
Trump isn’t simply telling Canadian companies that America offers a better business environment. He is openly telling them to move their industries into the United States to escape his tariffs.
That changes the psychological character of the exercise.
Create the pressure.
Blame the target for the pressure.
You know, like blaming Boomers for all the problems the billionaires are causing Gen Z? Hogging all that wealth that really is being hogged by billionaires of all ages. Divide and conquer, baby. Never fails.
SOS’s question is: If Americans become comfortable attempting to conquer another democracy via trade, do we become more comfortable when the same method is used against we the people?
Governors.
Universities.
Law firms.
Media companies.
Corporations.
Cities.
States.
Institutions.
Do what the federal government wants and the pressure disappears.
Resist, and the pressure increases.
That’s why we think the Canada story deserves more attention than another distracting argument about whether tariffs are good or bad economics. Duh.
The deeper issue may be the normalization of coercion as governance.
And there is a wonderfully sneaky trap hidden inside the whole strategy.
Canada has to cooperate for it to work.
Instead, Canadians appear to be doing something authoritarian strategists frequently underestimate.
They’re getting pissed off. And rightly so. What gives Trump the nerve to abuse our neighbor’s like this. If we hear a neighbor abusing another have we not the right to say, “Knock it off before I call the cops!” or in this case vote every Republican out who backs Trump’s abuse of Canada?
Trump’s threats have strengthened Canadian nationalism. Political leaders from different parties are finding common cause. Canada is retaliating economically, looking for new trading partners and discussing how to become less dependent on the United States.
In other words, trying to weaken Canada may be teaching Canada how to live without us.
And there is an even bigger problem.
The United States and Canada don’t merely trade finished products with each other. We make things together. Movies, oil, steel, lumber, cars. etc.
A vehicle can cross the border repeatedly while being manufactured. American automakers depend on Canadian plants, materials and parts. A tariff intended to hurt Canada can therefore travel through that integrated system and come right back around to hurt American manufacturers, workers and consumers.
That’s the trap. And even if SCOTUS says tariffs are illegal AGAIN, only the corporations, not we the people, will ever see a tariff refund.
When your neighbor’s house is connected to yours, setting his porch on fire isn’t a particularly clever way to negotiate the property line.
Maybe there is no secret master plan behind any of this.
But you don’t need a secret conspiracy to recognize a psychological pattern.
First create an enemy. Then justify extraordinary power because of the enemy. Then make submission look like common sense.
Elizabeth and I have lived long enough to know that Canada isn’t our enemy.
Canadians are our friends
Elizabeth has Canadian family. And I have a Canadian friend who was my producing partner for my very first TV show that aired on PBS (also under Trump attack).
Both of us are ashamed of our president, who we did everything we could to sound the warning on to our New Age fan base for our meditation films. Perhaps one of the healthiest things Americans can do right now is refuse the invitation to hate people we have absolutely no reason to hate. I’m talking about the most psy op attacked people on earth, MAGA, those not so lost to racism, there is hope for reuniting with them. Never say never. We owe our brothers and sisters on the right more than that.
To close. What does Trump want from Canada?
We think it’s more than meets the eye. Agendas within agenda. Never underestimate who low Trump will go to hold power.,
— Ken Sheetz
Seniors on Soapboxes
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