Close Reading

The United States has become an unreliable world leader and trading partner, which will not put America first. The USMCA trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and America, initially brokered and lauded by Trump as “terrific,” is now being scraped. The stated reason, a national security threat due to fentanyl originating from the Canadian border (approximately 43 pounds in 2024), is bogus. This pretend “security threat,” allows Trump to circumvent congressional oversight and undermine constitutional norms. Canada's historical contributions to the United States are extensive, including WWI, fighting Hitler in WWII for two years before they joined the fight, declaring war against Japan WWII after Pearl Harbour before America did, was 25% of D-Day’s landings, support during the Iranian hostage crisis, after 9/11, in Afghanistan, and during natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and California wildfires. However, Canada is now being treated transactionally, with a lack of respect to a historical friend and ally.

This is ridiculous Trump is turning the United States into a communist regime Americans need to stand with our allies we need them to be strong we do not need to be aligned with Russia !! Americans need Stand up against what Trump is doing

The Mexican President CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM writes to Trump and Musk on behalf of THE REST OF THE WORLD:\n\nSo, you voted to build a wall… Well then, my dear Americans, even if you don’t know much about geography—after all, for you, “America” is your country and not an entire continent—it’s important that before you lay the first stone, you know what you’re locking out with this wall.\n\nOutside, there are 7 billion people; but since the concept of “people” doesn’t seem to interest you much, let’s call them consumers instead.\n\nThere are 7 billion consumers ready to replace the iPhone with a Samsung or Huawei within 42 hours. They can also swap Levi’s for Zara or Massimo Dutti.\n\nQuite comfortably, within six months, we can stop buying Ford or Chevrolet vehicles and switch to Toyota, KIA, Mazda, Honda, Hyundai, Volvo, Subaru, Renault, or BMW, which are technically far superior.\n\nThese 7 billion people could also cancel their Direct TV subscriptions and—even if we wouldn’t like it—stop watching Hollywood movies, opting instead for Latin American or European productions, which are superior in quality, content, and cinematography.\n\nAs incredible as it may sound, we can stop traveling to Disney and instead visit Xcaret in Cancún, Mexico, Canada, or Europe—there are many incredible destinations in South America, Asia, and Europe.\n\nAnd believe it or not: There are even better burgers in Mexico than McDonald’s—with higher nutritional value.\n\nHas anyone ever seen a pyramid in the United States? In Egypt, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Sudan, and many other countries, there are pyramids with fascinating cultures. Take a look at where the wonders of the ancient and modern world are located… None of them are in the U.S. Too bad for Trump—otherwise, he would have bought and resold them!\n\nWe know that Adidas exists, not just Nike, and we can start consuming Mexican sneakers like Panam.\n\nWe know far more than you think; for example, we know that if these 7 billion consumers stop buying your products, unemployment will rise, and your economy will collapse so severely within your racist wall that you’ll beg us to tear it down. We didn’t want anything, but… You wanted a wall? Then you’ll get a wall.\n\nSincerely, \nTHE REST OF THE WORLD. \n\nPlease forward this message to 12 people. If you don’t, nothing will happen—except that many people won’t learn about these realities. \n\nCLAUDIA SHEINBAUM \nPRESIDENT OF MEXICO

As an American and a Trump supporter, I agree with these tariffs, but only equal to the tariffs other countries charge the United States on our imports. I do not agree with imposing this on our brothers and sisters to the north. I’m speaking of the good people of Canada. I have traveled to Canada and crossing the border was just like crossing into another state. Yes, there was a border gate which there should be, but I had absolutely no problem whatsoever. I hope our government can work this out very quickly and stop this foolishness. But to countries like China and Europe the United States should charge a reciprocal tariff as to what you charge us on our import. It’s only fair. Why are we paying an exuberant tariff for our goods entering your country and you expect to pay nothing with your goods entering ours. Most Americans, love Canada and love our Canadian brothers and sisters, we’ve always supported each other in world, wars, and other attacks against our respective countries. I pray this is resolved quickly, and then we can once again live United and in harmony.

Bravo Canada - as an American I stand against all bullies and my president is not a leader but he is a bully. I have no respect for him or anyone in his administration. He is a puppet of the Russian Federation because he is hostage to V. Putin. My supposed leader is a coward. He instead of helping a country at war with a vicious enemy and helping that country he betrays them and cuts aid and forgets the very foundation of this country that fought a vicious enemy to be free and independent. Fight for all you are worth Canada. Most people in the United States Stand With You - those who don't are supporters of a corrupt criminal posing as president.

Well said. This president should be throughly investigated. Trump is no material for president of the United States. Who is he working for? Not the American people in my view.

The USA president Trump wants everything to be manufactured and sourced locally from the United States of America. He knows what happened during COVID-19 and what problems the world experienced because of a global supply chain. Now while it doesn't really make sense with Canada who is right next door the Canadians were given the opportunity to integrate into the USA so there could be some motive in that. And why wouldn't they want that anyway? Just remove the Canadian border and everyone becomes the USA. Why not?

Please Prime Minister it is not the United States. IT IS ONE MAN. DONALD KRAZNOV TRUMP.

Trump is a Russian Spy trump is not American he is Russian born in the USA I quess next he will change Americas name to Russian United States and Congress will probably allow him to do the Supreme Court Judges and Congress oath of office is to Trump not the We the People

Mr. Trudeau, like Mr. Zelinsky are strong caring smart men who are showing us as citizens of The United States what a weak dangerous bully narcissistic leadership we have! This will hurt us not only with buying things, but alienating our country when there is a time of great need, like an, God forbid, attack!..People....WAKE UP before it's too late! Do you think putin isn't waiting for our country to become vulnerable??? so he can turn on us too!! WAKE UP

Trump's Import Tariffs Are To Combat a Non-Existing Problem \n \nThe import tariffs that US President Donald Trump has imposed on Mexico, Canada and China are meant to combat a non-existent problem, economics editor Jonathan Witteman recently analysed. Trump sees the structural trade deficit (the difference between the export and import of goods and services) that the United States has with almost all of its trading partners as a sign of weakness. Contrary to almost all political left-wing and also right-wing economists, he believes that a trade deficit is bad for a country's economy and believes that the US is being cheated by countries that export more to the US than they import. \n \n'I have said that the EU must make up for its enormous deficit with the US by purchasing our oil and gas on a large scale. If not, punitive tariffs will follow', Trump said last December, for example, about the trade balance between the US and the European Union. \n \nA connection between a bad economy and having a trade deficit cannot be found, political economy professor Andres Freytag concludes in the analysis. There are many countries in the world, such as Germany, with a trade surplus but a poorly performing economy. The opposite is more likely to be true: in countries with a trade surplus, more people are unemployed. This was shown by the Peterson Institute. \n \nTrump's tariffs are more dangerous for the economy, because they reduce imports and exports, partly because other countries in turn impose punitive tariffs in response. Trump's announced import tariffs during his first term even led to a larger trade deficit and to 7.2 billion dollars in welfare losses in the US.

Canada, we love and respect you all.\nThe United States did not place these ridiculous tariffs on Canada. Donald Trump and his red capped followers are responsible for this. The majority of Americans are opposed to the tariffs and Donald trump. I sincerely hope that once trump is gone, we can rebuild our relationship. I deeply apologize for what this criminal has done to you all.

The United states has very quickly lost the respect and TRUST of the entire World. With so much going on in the World right now this makes absolutely no sense. There is literally NO reason for this except to punish Canada. Everyone is already struggling just to make ends meet these days after C0vid and this will RUIN lives. The lives of your once best friend and ally. Canada and the World will not forget this. This is a direct attack on the people of Canada. Disgusting state of affairs . Americans , you better start standing up against this fool before your once amazing country is destroyed from within. Things are already out of hand and only going to get worse. Its very sad.

Wrong …. Not the United States . I think he should say the government of the United States which is different ….

Anyone with any intelligence, in the intelligence community, knows Russian asset behavior when they see it. It is quite obvious that the President of the United States is compromised and working directly for the Russians now. I believe Putin has very damning video and audio of terrible sins that Trump committed while in Russia for the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant. His so-called friends, the Alagarovs set him up, but Putin and the FSB were behind the entire operation, to be sure. There is no evil or traitorous action Trump will not take to save his own ass. Guaranteed.

This is the very beginning of the United States fall. this seems like Tyler Perry TV show the oval. Trump is trying to enslave the American people by disassociating other countries so the American people won’t have anywhere to run. He’s trying to be like Putin a dictator. Trump has to go. He’s not a smart businessman. He’s not for the American people.?????

It is not the people of the United States who are doing this outrageous betrayal to our good friends in Canada. It is the evil people in control of our nation.

It is not the United States that wants a Trade War with Canada, it is Donald Trump!~

Good on Canada. Trump is a traitor, as is Vance and the entire Administration. Americans are deeply embarrassed by the harm Trump is doing to the United States and the world. We do NOT stand with Trump and never, ever will.

Canada and Mexico are not responsible for the people in the US who chose to use drugs. In fact, it's the United States job to keep illegal drugs and immigrants out of the US and they are doing a poor job of it and need someone else to blame. Mexico could retaliate in a way that could flood the US with illegal drugs and immigrants and refuse to repatriate its citizens back into Mexico. The rest of Central and South America could do the same in support of Mexico. They need to get Trump out of office before he ruins America.\nI remember the press conference with the USA (Trump), Canada and Mexico when signing the new trade agreement during Trump last time in office. Trump proudly stated that this is the greatest agreement in the history of the United States. Last week he wanted to know who in the US agreed to the terrible trade agreement. He is losing his mind and cognitive function is deteriorating at a rapid rate. Re-negotiating contracts after the work is complete is how Trump ran his businesses. He has bankrupted many small businesses by not paying them knowing that they do not have the money to go to court. He is only rich because of daddy's money otherwise he would have never survived his many bankruptcies. Thats why no one will loan him money. I can't wait until he screws over the government of Saudi Arabia with one of his shady business deals. Anyone remember what happened to Khashoggi for just authoring a bad article on Saudi's Leaders. What do you think will happen to Trump for monetarily screwing them over?

???????? here,If there’s one thing I learned in university as a political science graduate, and I did take a US government course was part of my degree. I thought that there were so many checks and balances on the president of the United States, but seeing his actions, I am very confused at how he is not being questioned for his mental stability and his actual ability to lead your country I mean to what degree is the definition of treason not applied I don’t understand how the president of the United States can now align himself with Russia and destroy allegiances with friends and allies This is not seen as treason?\nTo my American readers… just remember the United States knows no better friend than Canada….. so does any of this make sense? How is it that we are the enemy now and your president wants to support Russia is he a Russian operative? How are you not removing this guy from power where are all these checks and balances that you always bragged about through my entire life ?

Mr Trump is a criminal, who is destroying the United States of American. I love Canada and Canadian people . Washington state loves Canada. We are trying to stop Mr Trump and Mr Musk. This is not America, ????✌?

IT'S NOT THE UNITED STATES BABOSO. IT'S TRUMP, VANCE AND MUSK! TRUMP IS NOT A SMART MAN! IT'S ALL ABOUT HIM AND NOT EVEN HIS FOLLOWERS. IT'S JUST HIM. KISS THE RING! I'M TRYING TO SAVE UP FOR MY RETIREMENT. IT WILL ALL BE GONE, GONE. MY NEST EGG GONE.! MAGA, MAKE AMERICA GARBAGE AGAIN!

The sooner we Americans accept that Donald Trump is essentially batshit crazy and proceed to impeach the Orange Menace, the better off everyone in the world will be. Except of course, Russia. The more pressure great democracies as Canada exert upon Trump internationally, the more the U.S. economy (and Americans ourselves) will suffer. The more we Americans suffer, the more pressure will be exerted upon Trump domestically, and the more the U.S. Congress will bilaterally be pressured to impeach Trump. A lot of Canadians might not agree with me, but the Prime Minister is among the greatest democratic leaders of our time in contrast with the USA's new dictator-in-waiting. May God bless Canada and may God deliver the United States.

Wait a second, just a few weeks ago CNN was saying that Canada had outfoxed the US/Trump and they were not doing anything more than what they had decided to do well before Trump's election when it comes to stopping illegal immigration and the transport of fentanyl into the US? Now they are trying to convince us that Canada is very understanding and accommodating of US needs and is doing a lot!!!! Fake News Network! True Americans should stand with United States of America and not Canada. LOL

As an American, I don’t watch CNN clips and believe what politicians say on either side to get my news. However, it’s absolutely true that EU, and China places tariffs on the US. It is also true that United States provide most of the security for all the free nations. At what point do we say enough? I do not know if Mexico or Canada has tariffs on US goods before this. But if they did, they have become quite entitled, haven’t they.

How did we end accepting a lunatic in the white house? Someone who plays with the lives of humankind like it is another of his failed enterprises, it's really scary to think in the future considering not even the United States is safe with this person in power. We are definitely in a new era where super rich and not government rule but also when political correctness have gone forever.

Bro just focus on canada....lmao...I don't think foreign leaders should be speaking for Americans. You're not Americans. We both know why this is happening,,,you're country censors speech,,The Trumps administration do not like that one bit. As long as Canada is led by a liberal (meaning liberal/communist/marxist/woke policies being passed),,it's a threat to national security to the United States (If a republican is President). It just beats the logic of being an American.

Canada is not a friend of the United States, not with you in charge, Justin Trudeau??? step down resign Justin you fascist dictator

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine had the world's third largest nuclear arsenal. Ukrainians were prepared to eliminate that arsenal to transfer the warheads to Russia, but the Ukrainians asked for security assurances that the United States and Russia would respect Ukraine's independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, that there would be no use of force or threat of force against Ukraine. \n The 1994 Budapest Memorandum of Security Assurances was the document that reflects those commitments by the United States, Russia also joined by Great Britain to extend to Ukraine those assurances, including respect for its territorial integrity. \n it's very clear that Russia is in violation of its commitments, not only to the Budapest Memorandum, but also commitments that it's made as a member of the United Nations and also as a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Did you see the clip with Keir Starmer and Donald Trump in the Oval Office Starmer gives Trump a letter from King Charles Trump opens it supposedly reading it then shows it to the camera and then requests Starmer to read a section. What the hell why didn't Trump read it himself what reading is beneath him. The question here is can Donald Trump read I think not this is why he has never read any history books which leads me to my next question. How can an illierate man become the President of the United States? Mind boggling and this is why he dances at Maralago he is saying to himself I can't read and these fools made me President!!!

The United States did not start a trade war. Donald Trump started it. Millions of Americans do not believe that tariffs or economic sanctions are necessary or a good idea. On behalf of all decent Americans who believe that our government is in the wrong, we apologize for our president’s behavior.

As a Canadian I stand proudly on guard for my amazing sovereign country ❤ ?? ❤\nWe must protect ourselves from this extremely old, dumb Liar ,bully. Puppet Master want to be dictator, convicted felon, sexual predator and supporter of the war criminal killer, lying and bully Putin and Russia. \n\nI see what's happening to the American people, your constitution and bill of Rights because of trumps and his bunch of thugs administration and this will hurt both Canadian's and every single American, the United States is in great danger because of this deranged very old orange child bully who is in love with dictators. Youre country has been in decline and no longer the great coountry that the United States were. Believe me trump cares nothing for the American people. God bless you as both our countries, Mexico, and all countries are being hurt by trump/ Vance administration. As they support the dictator \nPutin the war criminal and lying bully.\nTrump / Vance are not Peace MAKERS and the war criminal and brutal dictator putin will never stop the war.\nThe world is that much closer to world war 3 because of trump bromance with putin.

Please PM Trudeau, it's not the United States who wants to Trade War, It's Trump and his incompetency. Trump is not thinking about the wellbeing of the Americans......

If Trump is a friend of a criminal dictator like Putin, he should not be president of the United States. He is dealing with the enemy and betraying American values.

Trump is dissolving our alliances that are not in line with Russia. I believe that Putin and trump are going to combine Russia and the united states as one monarchy and work to destabilize china as a superpower. There will be no freedom. Every headline we see is a distraction from every chiseled piece of our rights slowly being pulled away from us as US citizens. We will become complicit servants to a broken fascist system where our biggest rewards for being alive will be bread crumbs.

The United States has no president Trump is no longer the president of the United States he is going to be charged for high treason the United States citizens do not recognize Trump as president they do not recognize JD Vance the world must see and know this the American people do not do not recognize Trump as our leader he is a traitor to America and works for Russia do not trade with Trump any country that trades with Trump will be ripped off robbed or stolen from and their money will go straight to Russia

Trump did,not the majority of the United States, trump is the worse president we have had in decades. please do not blame all the American people. We don't want this either. I am so sorry this happened to you and Canada.

The United States is a friend to Canada but Donald is not a friend of Trudeau. He is a friend of Putin and every move he makes is toward that friendship. Congrats Republicans, this is your fault.

As a Canadian a citizen ,I am more than angry ,I am ashamed and embarrassed at the Trudeau government ! All the liberals needed to do is fix borders and take care of the devastation safe supply sites which Canadian citizens have been calling for ,for years !! Disgusting ! United States have been friends and neighbours throughout most of Canadian history and this selfish greedy corrupted PM just destroyed all of it for nothing but to impose himself on the seat since we are going to war ! Detestable! Trudeau is the threat to Canadians not Trump ! ??????❤️and remember this clown Trudeau is suppose to be stepping down in the coming days ! Think about how selfish and careless these liberals are !

As a European having lived in both Canada and the United States for prolonged times, my view is this: Canadians are basically the same as Americans but with Health Care. They have a common heritage and history and this is like a brother turning evil and hurting its siblings. Trump is smart? I don't think so, he comes across as a low IQ individual born with privileges, heck he has been bankrupt what is it four times? Right now he thinks he is making America Great again but instead he is on a path to bankrupt even the US Economy. These kind of things in history often have caused actual physical War and he talks about Zelenski is toying with a 3rd world war. Wouldn't it be funny (and not in a comical sense) if in fact Trump causes the 3rd world war with his actions instead?

I'm sorry, Canada. I don't have much, but tell me where I can help. We are the closest allies, and should be best of friends. Canda is beautiful, and the people are awesome, friendly and polite. I mean, Molson is not so good, but y'all are awesome. GOD BLESS CANADA. GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES.

Russia is not the problem, the United States terrorists are.

UNITED STATES DOES NOT NEED TRUDEAU TO TELL US WHAT THE TARIFFS WILL DO TO US BECAUSE THAT IS NOT HIS BUSINESS. HE IS JUST TRYING TO USE A SCARE TACTIC SO THAT CITIZENS WILL PUT PRESSURE ON PRES. TRUMP TO STOP!! MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS TRUDEAU!!

I find it so disturbing that I’m gonna say this if JD Vance little man JD Vance, the guy who called himself he was in the battlefield, but he wasn’t in no battle. He was just in the battlefield cleaning boots and you know making sure his gun work and you know cleaning his helmet, but he never went outside. He never went outside and what kills me. Is people who talk like they real veterans but they did no vet. They did no vet you ain’t no vet you talked about, the guy who is running with Kamala make it seem like he lied but she was in Afghanistan or I mean Iraq or whatever you call yourself you was in a compound. I know that for fact, JD Vance was in a compound awaiting instructions to see if you were able to go out there battle you didn’t go battle you watch the convoy go in and out. You are the same people you watch in mash mash the show when everybody go outside those same people sitting inside just cleaning boots and walking around that’s what he was doing, if this guy think that you guys could do whatever is dumb let everybody know mega is dumb. I don’t care what mega wanna say you put them in front of a scoreboard and you give them testes they going to show you their dumb most mega is dumb. They’re uneducated. That’s a fact There’s no going around it uneducated OK you can see from the terrorist that’s being put in. They’re uneducated because I don’t know who that’s why when people telling you they want to bring back religion you need to bring back economics in school bro economics in school. You need to bring what really matters not not you. Let a guy who duck the army twice with foot with phony letters, I don’t know how that’s not Fraud if I was supposed to go to the army army twice wouldn’t that call for me to be investigated and be charged for fraud on phone phones shouldn’t be charged for that but you guys run around here calling out veterans and fire and veterans and JD Van saying he’s a veteran and watching the veterans go down this is why I say you put them boys back on the battlefield. I guarantee you veterans will probably put them in the back put them in the back. Yeah they probably send them out to clean the mind as you know, they used to do to the black, servicemen back in the days they used to send them off the plane knowing they was gonna die. They used to send them off the plane to clean mines knowing that they’re gonna die. They used to send them off the planes and shot them while they’re getting shot by the opposition, tell me America if I’m lying about that didn’t you do that to the black serviceman you let them jump off the plane you shot at them but those same black servicemen help us win the war it wasn’t just American white blood they died just like everybody else they died and coward faster the black servicemen help us win the war from air and ground Those Jews, the Jews they help us war to so many races that they’re not telling you that helped you win this war World War I and two America is lying to you guys and that’s what’s been the problem for decades. America is lying to the people and they won’t take acceptability But JD Von he’s gonna get the president of United States. I’d rather vote for pence I’d rather vote for the same guy you say you wanted to vote for him for president then JD Vance if we had to put vice president up there and you had a choice out of say the Democrats loss and you had a choice out of JD Vance or pence I had to choose pence, I would choose Cristi. I would choose them near my feet. It doesn’t have a name to go into. I choose my feet. I would choose somebody else’s feet then put a despicable guy like JD vans a couch hump like JD vans AAA I can’t find a white bread American apple pie woman to marry but I had to go out and use my catalog to buy a woman from out-of-state pregnant her and give her a green card JD vans hell fuck fuck noyou will never get my vote even when you die. You won’t get my vote even when they died you won’t get my vote. Good luck, sir.

This is NOT what the United States stands for!

The Executive Branch of the United States is occupied by the biggest f*ing elites on the entire planet, Putin's pet kleptocrat Trump, his foreign oligarch boyfriend Elon and a clown show of a cabinet. The most incompetent US administration of all time. Thanks Mitch McConnell and Merrick Garland. Lindsay Graham. Josh Hawley. Chuck Grassley. Canadian born Ted Cruz, who doesn't even defend his wife, much less the country. Leadership like that does not belong in NATO, it's what NATO was meant to protect us, Canada and the United States, from.

I’ve been predicting this since two years ago, this is my assessment for the near future: Putin’s euphoria about the USA abandoning Ukraine will be short lived. The EU is determined to finish the job in Ukraine. And it has three powerful triumph cards ?: 1. the $300billion Putin’s frozen money 2. The EU has an enormous capacity to build weapons in short time. Germany built 6 liquefied natural gas docking stations in 6 months, a world’s record. Ukraine has demonstrated that Russia is a paper tiger. Its drones have devastated not only the Russian tanks, but the oil refineries. Imagine if the E5 army (Germany, the UK, France, Poland and Italy) start producing weapons? Which they will. But the current weapons are ( the typhoon, grippen, mirage, Rafale ) more sophisticated than the old mig29 or the useless Su57. Russia doesn’t dare to try to dominate the Ukrainian airspace. And Ukraine, without a navy, destroyed 40% of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Even the flagship Moskva!! 3. But the most powerful weapon that the European Union has is the Almighty stable euro. The United States has been printing trillions of dollars and exporting them for years, they’re hiding under the mattresses of Third World countries for a rainy day. If the EU says we no longer will accept dollars, the United States will disappear overnight. The BRICS countries will pile up on the USA, which will be alone in the world. Hyperinflation and poverty will be the result. This ability to weaken the USA economy and currency, By simply saying we want to move away from that currency, will make Wall Street run away from it. The printed trillions that slowly flew out the country will fly back in days, creating a hyperinflation that Zimbabwe and Venezuela wish they had…. Warren Buffet is getting out of the United States stock market to the tune of $350 billion and put that money in the Japanese stock market, this should tell you what is going to happen soon. Either the big guys in Wall Street take control of the guy in the White House, or they will have no country or no money. The EU will preserve democracy and the civilized world. The non proliferation treaty will be history and Russia will never dare to threaten the west anymore. Thank you, Putin. You won, you destroyed the USA, but created a more powerful Europe. Celebrate on May 9. Europe will celebrate when the last Russian is dead in Ukraine

Let us not forget, that there is also a boycott of travel to the United States which means there are billions of dollars that will not be spent on travel, on accommodation, on the purchase of goods while in the States because there is no longer vacation or travel being done by Canada. That is going to be hundreds of billions of dollars lost to US coffers. This is going to hurt America deeply.

United States is not safe because trump ally to dictador socialist Putin north Korea china in the national security is in dangerous