In late October, months of trade talks between the United States and Canada came to an abrupt halt for the dumbest of reasons: Officials in a Canadian province aired a television ad that hurt Donald Trump’s feelings.
The commercial wasn’t especially provocative — it noted Ronald Reagan’s concerns about trade tariffs — but it apparently triggered the incumbent American president, who falsely accused our neighbors to the north of launching a “fraudulent” and “illegal” scheme to sway Supreme Court justices.
None of this made any sense at all, but in the days that followed, the Republican kept the offensive going. “They cheated on a commercial,” he said, referring to the Canadians, adding, “I guess it was AI or something. They cheated badly. Canada got caught cheating on a commercial, can you believe it?” (Canada had not cheated, and the ad did not rely on AI.)
On Saturday, Oct. 24, Trump took his whining to a new level, announcing that he would punish Canada with an additional 10% tariff on its goods as punishment for airing the ad he didn’t like.
But in the weeks that followed, a funny thing happened. Politico reported:
Trump’s announcement had Canadian exporters preparing for a worst-case scenario: a sweeping levy layered on top of existing double-digit duties, which would have been particularly painful for industries like autos, where components cross the border multiple times before reaching their final form. But to date, the Trump administration hasn’t sent any official documentation ordering U.S. Customs and Border Protection to enforce the new, higher duty, and U.S. importers have not received any new regulatory guidance.
Flavio Volpe, the president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, told Politico, “We monitor the federal registry and follow executive order activity on a regular basis and haven’t seen any changes.”
The same report added, “The White House did not say whether it still plans to impose the tariff when asked for comment.”
In case this isn’t obvious, when the president first made his announcement, he declared via his social media platform, “Because of their serious misrepresentation of the facts, and hostile act, I am increasing the Tariff on Canada by 10% over and above what they are paying now. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
It wasn’t presented as a threat or a mere possibility. Trump, manufacturing an offense for reasons unknown, told the world in writing that he was imposing this economic penalty.
And then he didn’t. We were, after all, paying attention in this matter.
Let this be a reminder to all of us (including me, who foolishly assumed that the presidential announcement was legitimate): Watch what Trump does, not what he says.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
