Gavin Newsom slams $20B of tariffs on Canadian goods, calls Canada 'our closest ally'

The Canada-U.S. trade war has heated up again, after negotiations fell apart on Aug. 21, shortly before a deadline that established new, 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian exports.

Reactions to the new tariffs have been fiery on both sides of the border.

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California Governor Gavin Newsom's blistering response to the tariffs, for one, was unfiltered to say the least.

On Aug. 22, Newson made a post on social media platform X that said, "Our closest ally. Our critical trading partner. And Trump is hitting Canada with 50% tariffs. What the actual f— are we doing ?"

The trade war with Canada began as President Donald Trump started his second term, with Trump stating on his first day in office that he planned to levy 25% tariffs on Canada .

Since then, the U.S. has levied tariffs on goods that aren't compliant with the U.S.-Mexico Canada Agreement, as well as on imports such as steel and aluminum, and Canada has responded with counter-tariffs.

The most recent trade talks, which collapsed on Aug. 21, had been to "stave off punishing new tariffs by the Trump administration on Canadian goods," the New York Times reported .

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said he ceased the talks after the U.S. introduced terms at the last-minute that he said were "unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal," the Times report says.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters that "Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week, despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market," according to the Times.

"New demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days," Greer said.

President Trump has, since the trade standoff began in 2025, made remarks threatening Canada's sovereignty, referring to it as " the 51st state ," and repeatedly referring to the prime minister as " governor ."