‘I don’t want Canadian anything’: Trump ramps up trade war with America’s neighbor — here’s what it may cost US families

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President Donald Trump has a question for Americans about his increasingly bitter trade fight with the country's northern neighbor.

"Why should we be subsidizing Canada?" Trump said during an Aug. 31 interview with Fox News host Trey Gowdy (1).

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Trump claimed Canada has been "ripping" the U.S. off to the tune of $60 billion a year and accused the country of acting as though it deserves special treatment from Washington.

"They think they're a state, but they're not a state," Trump said.

The comments capped a week in which Trump dramatically escalated political pressure against one of America's largest trading partners — first through new tariffs then through increasingly combative rhetoric.

On Sunday, Trump took that message even further. "I don't want Canadian cars, I don't want Canadian parts, I don't want Canadian anything," Trump ⁠⁠wrote on Truth Social (2), accusing Canada of "ripping us off for decades."

He then called on Canadian companies doing business in the U.S. to move their operations south of the border "immediately," arguing they could avoid tariffs by relocating to America.

The latest confrontation follows the collapse of trade negotiations between Washington and Ottawa. After the two sides failed to reach an agreement, Trump imposed new 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian imports on Aug. 22.

Canada responded three days later with retaliatory tariffs on roughly $20 billion of annual U.S. imports, matching Trump's latest tariffs dollar for dollar. Those counter-tariffs are scheduled to take effect Sept. 8, ⁠⁠according to Reuters (3).

But Trump isn't stopping there. He has also announced another 50% tariff on Canadian autos and parts beginning Jan. 1, further raising the stakes for two countries whose auto industries are closely intertwined.

"I had a deal, that was a pretty good deal," Trump ⁠⁠said in an Aug. 26 interview (4).

Trump argued that Canada doesn't have "anything that we have to have," acknowledging that replacing some Canadian imports could be "a little inconvenient" but insisting the U.S. could source them elsewhere.