Trump’s Canada and Texas Policies Could Cost Him the Senate

The crude venality of the Trump administration blew up trade talks with Canada and are triggering a backlash with rural Texans that could cost the GOP control of the US Senate.

Note: I finished this post 15 minutes late so hit refresh if you started promptly.

Trump’s team blew it bad with Canada last week.

Mark Carney Calls BS

It was looking like the Trump 2.0 regime and Canada were about to finalize a trade deal — something they’d been working on since Trump declared “Liberation Day” in April 2025 and declared a trade war on the entire planet.

The Canadians apparently thought a deal was nearly done and then it wasn’t, per Fox News:

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney accused the United States on Saturday of making a last-minute “power play” by trying to restrict Canada’s ability to strike trade deals with other countries, offering new details about what he said caused negotiations between the two sides to collapse.

Carney said the U.S. introduced new demands in the final hours of negotiations involving Canada’s other trading relationships, its auto sector and protections for Canadian culture and the French language.

“The U.S. introduced at the last hours, in the last hour, efforts to restrict our ability to have other trade deals,” Carney told reporters.

Asked what he believed the U.S. was trying to accomplish, Carney responded, “It’s a power play. It’s a power play and, you know, [it] becomes a question of sovereignty.”

Here are Carney’s full remarks which are well worth watching because this is world-historic stuff and for all of Carney’s limitations, he has been the sole chief executive of a US ally/NATO member/5 eyes state to really stand up to Trump:

This is going to get very interesting for Mainers, especially US Senator Susan Collins who is facing a re-election.

Canadian Troubles Hit Maine Close to Home

Check these numbers:

Senator Collins has been opposing Trump on this stuff for a long time, to no effect from a tweet in January 2025:

The Maine economy is integrated with Canada, our most important trading partner. Certain tariffs will impose a significant burden on many families, manufacturers, the forest products industry, small businesses, lobstermen, and agricultural producers.

For example, 95 percent of the heating oil used by most Mainers to heat their homes comes from refineries in Canada. The Air National Guard Base in Bangor depends completely on jet fuel and diesel from Canada. From fisheries to potato farmers to paper mills, these tariffs will have a significant impact on Maine’s economy and risk increasing costs for our residents.

I am working with the Trump Administration to help its officials better understand the potential ramifications of certain tariffs on Maine and to find out more about their implementation, scope, duration, and other important information, including any exemptions they may make for northern border states, certain industries, agricultural producers, and others who rely on trade with Canada.

That “I am working with the Trump administration” part at the end is a real kicker, ain’t it?

By April 2025, she was begging carve outs so Maine could buy fire trucks:

U.S. Senator Susan Collins sent a letter to Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, urging the Administration to address the hardship that tariffs will impose on fire departments and businesses in Maine, particularly the tariffs imposed on Canadian metals. She is specifically requesting an exemption for fire truck orders that were under contract between Maine fire departments and a Maine manufacturer prior to President Trump’s February 10, 2025, announcement of Canadian tariffs.

By August 2026, Sen. Collins was asking the Trump administration to “consider impact of Canadian tariffs” per The Hill:

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) pushed the Trump administration to “consider the negative impact” that engaging in a tariff war with Canada may have on American constituents, straying away from some of her GOP peers.
…
Collins, a frequent critic of Trump administration policy, said in a Saturday statement posted to social media that she wants “both sides to return to the negotiating table.” The Maine lawmaker said she expects the move will increase costs for her state’s residents and urged the neighboring countries to reach a “fair agreement.”

“Ever since the tariffs were first announced, I have heard from many businesses, farmers, and lobstermen concerned about the cost of navigating the tariffs, the lack of domestic supply chains, and the likely imposition of retaliatory tariffs by Canada,” she wrote.

It’s never appropriate to heckle someone’s behavior when they’re being held hostage by a psychopath….except when that person is elected to represent the interests of her state in the nominally most powerful legislative body in the world.

I’m not sure impotence is the right term to use to describe a 70-something old rich lady who’s been in Washington, D.C. since the 1990s, but that’s the best I’ve got. Mainers might use different verbiage.

As I’ve covered here previously, the Democratic misleadership in the US Senate — Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — forced Graham Platner out of the race by cutting off his access to funds and institutional support following a very thinly sourced Politico story alleging he’d committed sexual assault against a woman he’d been dating.

This overruled the record 156,000 Maine Democrats who had voted for Platner despite hearing months of similar (and some worse IMO) accusations about the man.

But Schumer and Gillibrand work for AIPAC, not Mainers or American interests so they took Planter out.

Now we’ll see if former state senator Troy Jackson can pick up the ball that Trump dropped in the end zone and score a win over the obviously useless and sclerotic Collins (not to mention corrupt, both personally and publicly).

Some say Jackson is better positioned than Platner to capitalize on this GOP own-goal because he’s a logger from the northern border, but IMO it comes down to communications skills and Platner had ’em — he may not have had good judgement, but there was a reason he scared the Democratic establishment and the MSM enough to trigger an incredible amount of scrutiny that has not been applied to any other candidate this cycle.

Regardless, the race is still very close according to polls and Trump’s blow-up with Carney ain’t helping.

After all, Maine’s the most home heating oil dependent state in the country, New England is expected to see higher gasoline prices first, the lobster industry is expected to suffer, and untangling Maine and Canada’s logging industries is expected to be an ugly and expensive divorce.

This isn’t even to mention the reality that Canadians have already stopped coming to the states, especially Maine to tourist and vacation.

Now let’s go down south, down Tex-Mexico way.

There Are So Many Backlashes Against Trump in Texas

Check this out:

The Dem senate nominee James Talarico thinks the data center revolt is going to help him out, per MS Now:

For Talarico, the numbers offer an opportunity to compete on an issue where the state’s familiar partisan loyalties are less entrenched. And he has moved quickly to claim it, especially as Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton has remained mostly silent.

At a roundtable on data centers in ruby-red Abilene on Thursday, Talarico heard from 11 residents from across the political spectrum who say data centers in the area — including the most expensive facility in the country, the Stargate Project — have spurred a housing shortage. That comes after he called in July for tighter guardrails on facilities and giving local communities authority to approve and reject development in their towns — calls he reiterated to MS NOW.

“We can start to rein in these companies,” Talarico told MS NOW. “We can start to ensure that they are meeting our demands, that Texans are getting a say and a share in this AI future. It’s why we need a senator who’s going to fight for Texans, not big data center companies.”

Talarico’s path to victory in Texas, a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994, hinges on a campaign built on bottom-up issues, like affordability and opposition to data centers. It’s a different strategy than former Democratic Senate and gubernatorial nominee Beto O’Rourke took during his campaigns in 2018 and 2020, when he focused on comprehensive gun control, protecting reproductive rights and reforming immigration policies.

“Texans are struggling,” Talarico said. “It’s not like we’re spending our money on the basics. These are things that we need to survive. This is prescription drugs, it’s housing, it’s groceries, and if you add on to that cost-of-living crisis, these data center companies are jacking up our utility bills and jacking up our rents.”

And then there’s the Trump Regime’s utterly pointless rape of Big Bend National Park (and the nearby Big Big Ranch State Park.

Sorry for using the r-word, but there’s no other way to describe what’s been going on.

From Salon:

For over a generation, Texas Republicans have owned the politics of the southern border. Now the Trump administration’s latest border project has them cornered, stuck between constituents outraged over federal plans to carve roads and barriers through Big Bend and a president none of them want to cross.

Even Ken Paxton is choosing his words carefully. The Republican Senate nominee, a reliable ally of President Donald Trump, said in a statement that the administration’s plan “is not smart border security,” representing a rare break from the White House.
…
“Texans know this stretch of our border better than anyone in Washington. Destroying one of our state’s greatest natural treasures with unnecessary roads and barriers is not smart border security. We must always put Texans first. That means effective enforcement that protects our communities and supports our law enforcement while respecting the unique character of places like Big Bend and leaving our natural resources undisturbed for future generations,” Paxton said.

The most sickening part of the damn thing is the only reason appears to be straight graft — some construction grifter paid off Trump in the seven digits and stands to “earn” in the nine or ten digits for destroying Texas’ most beloved national park.

The $1.7B Big Bend award went to Southwest Valley Constructors, a Kiewit subsidiary created two months after the inauguration. The larger pattern: Barnard Construction, run by a Trump megadonor, plus Fisher Sand & Gravel, have taken the overwhelming majority of border wall money.

Per Newsweek:

The contractor behind the Big Bend border wall project in Texas is a Montana heavy-civil construction firm headed by a major donor to President Donald Trump.

Barnard Construction Company has been awarded billions of dollars in federal border barrier contracts, including nearly $2 billion linked directly to the Big Bend region in West Texas.

Newsweek contacted Barnard Construction, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Texas General Land Office for comment.
…
Company chairman Tim Barnard and his wife donated $1 million to a Trump campaign joint fundraising committee in 2024 and to a Trump political action committee, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records reviewed by Newsweek.

Executive leadership and affiliated entities at Barnard Construction have contributed more than $1 million to political committees backing Trump and conservative campaigns, according to campaign finance databases and the Center for Western Priorities.
…
Barnard Construction and its affiliates have received more than $5.6 billion in border construction contracts during Trump’s second term, according to federal spending data compiled on USAspending.gov and reported by High Country News.

DHS awarded a $960,423,540 delivery order to Barnard Construction Company, Inc. for the “BBT-3 Border Barrier Construction Project,” according to USAspending.gov records. The March 5, 2026 contract covers construction in Terlingua, Texas, spanning the Rio Grande from the Hudspeth-Jeff Davis County line to Ruidosa in Presidio County, according to The Big Bend Sentinel.

On the same day, Barnard secured additional border barrier contracts, including roughly $1 billion in Hudspeth County and $600 million near Del Rio, according to procurement logs.

A spokesperson for CBP told Newsweek, “CBP has awarded two contracts in the U.S. Border Patrol’s Big Bend Sector to Barnard Construction Company, Inc. for the Big Bend 1 and the Big Bend 3 Wall Projects. The Big Bend 1 Wall Project was awarded for approximately $1.1B to construct approximately 47 miles of primary border wall system. This project is located in Hudspeth County in Texas and also includes the installation of detection technology.

The Big Bend 3 Wall Project was awarded for approximately $940M to construct approximately 56 miles of primary border wall system. This project is located in Presidio County in Texas and also includes the installation of detection technology. These projects were competitively bid through CBP’s Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) multi-award vehicle. Contract awards are based on the contractor’s qualifications to perform the work in a timely manner and at prices deemed fair and reasonable.”

There’s a special place in hell for scum like this, and unfortunately for them, hell is easy to find in Texas, often served up by the inhabitants to unwelcome guests.

It’s a tradition that goes back at least to the mighty and brutal Comanche Empire of the Summer Moon, Texas voters have been handing the keys to the GOP without requiring sobriety or sanity checks since the 1990s, this might be the beginning of the end of that reign.

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