What Washington doesn't understand is that it is not about who screams the loudest, it's about who the world can't function without. Canada has built themselves into the one country American can't cut out regardless of how reckless Trump behaves. They have total infrastructure integration, your iPhone uses Canadian hydroelectric power, your home is built with superior Canadian lumber, your car runs on Canadian oil, you can't replace all of that overnight. There is no surge capacity to replace Canadian imports, even analysts on Fox Business admitted it could take a decade to rebuild domestic production. And even if rebuilt, will it be competitive? So instead of protecting American jobs, tariffs will do the opposite, they will make lumber unaffordable in the middle of a housing crisis, and while America is having a political meltdown, Canada was having a strategy meeting. Trump expected the usual script, retaliation, angry press conferences, maybe a new round of tariffs. Instead Canada did something no one saw coming, no shouting, no threats, no photo ops with fingerpointing, politicians stepped up to a podium and announced a 1 billion dollar support program for Canadian lumber companies. Every company taking the money had to commit to Canada's new 25 billion dollar domestic housing program, in other words America just gave us our own lumber back and we're going to use it to fuel a big housing bill. Thanks for the favor Trump! If Canada, America's closest ally with the longest undefended border could openly defy US pressure, then the question becames avoidable for the rest of the world. What's stopping us from doing the same? Maybe we don't need American approval, China took notice, the EU took notice, so did Mexico. Many other countries did too. Trump is too dim to understand that Canada has infrastructure indispensability, you can't sanction a country when you run on their oil, you can't bully a partner when you run in their electricity. Canada won't beat America by force, they'll beat America with integration. America's grid was built using cheap Canadian electricity and America just proved it's willing to hurt its own people to make a political point. American can no longer be counted upon for reliability and that's not a trade war, that is a trade crisis. America has a superpower credibility crisis. There's a moment during every empire is history when the mirror doesn't recognize the face staring back. August 1st was America's mirror moment, Trump thought he was teaching a lesson, instead Canada gave America a master class in independence. While America was busy building walls Canada was busy building bridges to Mexico, to Europe, and to Asia. America barked demand for loyalty, Canada quietly earned reliability. Every new home or skyscraper you see, you're looking at Canadian lumber. Here's what the next decade looks like if nothing changes. America drifts into self-imposed isolation as one partner after another quietly diversifies away from US dependence. The EU, Canada and China step into the vacuum, as the predictable hub of trade, dealing with whoever treats them fairly and the US continues its March into irrelevance, and it's economy starts to shrink, inflation skyrockets, and joblessness becomes a major problem. The guiding principle that Trump not only ignores but has a complete lack of understanding about, is that America became the greatest economy on the planet due to a lack of tariffs, due to very low import taxes. You don't tax your way out of a deficit, the deficit is there for a reason, ignoring the reason for that deficit and simply focusing on the symptoms is a recipe for disaster. We'll have to call it the Trump economy, we will have to call it the Trump depression, and we will have to call Trump the worst and most destructive president America has ever seen.
