Most importantly the majority of Americans in the lower 50% of incomes will be fundamentally hurt more then those in the same boat in Canada. Our social safety net and general attitude about helping people in need is stronger here. Americans who get hit hard it can really put them in trouble much quicker, and we will hear from them. The only good thing about Trump's policies is they are so pervasive and absurd that they'll not last long because the impact will be dramatic. Canada needs to strengthen it's trading with Asia and the EU. We built a pipeline to BC that is in use now. Initially a lot of the product was going to the US west coast but the intention is to sell more in the lucrative Asian market. Tariffs will push this transition along and once that kind of change is done it'll stick for many years. We've sold energy to the US at a discount for many years because it was convenient and in some ways our industry leaders were complacent. Americans are stuck in this boat until they dump Trump in some fashion. Trade policies first. He's not a rational man.
More US jobs for who? We're basically at full employment (that will change, tbf), the citizens don't want the work being reshored, and the imported labor who would do the work is being cast out. As for future exports, why is a country going to buy relatively expensive US products when they can be sourced elsewhere for less? Comparative advantage?
Plus the American consumer is going balk at paying the higher prices coming there way unless it's something they need badly. This in itself could tank their economy. Who on earth is going to buy a car if the price went up $5K overnight ? Tesla is screwed one of the biggest blunders in history as Musk's hubris got him. What companies are going to drill new wells or build new car factories when their markets and supply chains are a mess ? Or will Trump spend taxpayers money to try to hide the damage of his trade policies, and can that really work ? Seems to me the end result will be Trump as a lame duck President after midterms with a growing federal deficit.
Yep, the Trump supporters really did a number on themselves. Trump supporters will bear the brunt of tariffs, 30% of U.S. families could go bankrupt https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/04/04/trump-supporters-will-bear-the-brunt-of-tariffs-ceo.html
Let’s be honest here, no one in America is a tariff expert. It’s been almost 100 years since across the board, large scales tariffs have been used. And, no, the guy who bankrupted 3 casinos isn’t a tariff expert either.
His approval rating is still way too high, only just underwater. A narrative weaponized to turn disillusionment into loyalty, and belief into identity is still rolling. There will be a turnaround and even if it doesn't last, he can just blame others for not believing in him enough. 1. The long con begins with a story, not a lie. A myth of betrayal and salvation: America has been wronged, the system is rigged, and only Trump can fix it. This story gives people clarity, enemies, and belonging. 2. Once belief becomes identity, truth becomes irrelevant. To doubt Trump is to doubt oneself. Facts don't matter; loyalty does. Support becomes self-reinforcing. 3. Failure is reframed as persecution. Every broken promise (the wall, draining the swamp) becomes evidence of how righteous and embattled the cause must be. The con thrives on moving goalposts. 4. The political grift masks a deeper, material one. Trump’s chaos (e.g., trade wars) isn’t accidental, it enables “accumulation by dispossession”: using crisis to enrich insiders while hollowing out public systems. 5. This isn’t just a populist spectacle, it’s the dismantling of democracy. Institutions become props. The goal isn’t to govern, it’s to extract, leaving behind a functioning shell that no longer serves the people. 6. The only end to a con is when the mark walks away. Not when the lie is exposed, but when the believer admits they were duped. And that’s the hardest part. If enough people can’t or won’t break the spell, the damage won’t stop at them. The entire republic is at risk, not just misled, but gutted, it’s a psychological and systemic unravelling of existential proportion.
Great Depression was pretty compelling evidence. Also, Trump tinkered with tariffs in term one most of his efforts failed one way or another. Not that his cult even noticed ( he reduced manufacturing jobs, hurt the construction industry with lumber tariffs, and had to bail out the farmers with taxpayer money lots of it ). It is amazing really how easily these Trumper types will choose to believe emotionally in what he says and ignore hard data. We see it here all the time.
The Depression began with a market collapse, was deepened by banking failures and deflation, and prolonged by bad policy. It was a complex systemic failure, not just a single bad decision. Then came Smoot-Hawley (1930) Raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods. Sparked global retaliation. Caused international trade to collapse by two-thirds between 1929 and 1934. This was a global trade collapse cause by a chain reaction of anti-dumping tariffs and other beggar-thy-neighbor policies (like devaluing currency).