So Canada gave in.
Caving to a bully only encourages them
Trudeau announced that Trump had agreed to a 30 day pause in Tariffs in exchange for Canada spending $1.3 billion to secure the border, and appointing a “Fentanyl Czar” despite the fact that only 40 or so pounds was found in the whole last year. Trudeau’s announcement was nice and gracious and he went out of his way to compliment Trump and to make it sound like all of Trump’s concerns were legitimate. And in exchange for all of that he won a pause for … 30 days.
The threat to the Canadian economy was real. That cannot be ignored. So too was the expectation that Trump would go further.
When faced with a bully demanding that you suck up to them to them and literally “become the 51st state” giving in with a smile only makes the bully stronger.
It does not matter whether this represents new spending or just doing things Trudeau already planned. What matters is that Trump got to stage a show where he beat a white liberal and a mexican woman into submission and come away looking “respected”. 30 days from now he will be back, demanding more, and with this first show of polite submission, Trudeau has ensured that more extreme demands will follow.
I would say that I sincerely hope Canada and Mexico are going to spend 30 days preparing to resist in the future. But at this point I am not sure.
EXACTLY!!! GAH!
Canada and Mexico didn’t ’give in’. Both committed to do what they had already been doing. Mexico already had 15,000 troops at the border and Canada just reiterated that it would maintain the agreement on border security it had committed to last December. Trump needed a way out that would look like a win. Especially since he was getting pressure from business organizations and even the Murdoch run Wall Street Journal had headlines stating that the trade war was a really dumb idea.