<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the absence of a coherent political strategy, threaten something ridiculous. Such has been the strategy of the Trump administration in virtually every major foreign policy and economic decision of his second term. As relations with Canada<\/a> \u2014 our northern ally and major trade partner \u2014 collapse into a trade war<\/a> spurred by the American president\u2019s tariff threats, things have once again escalated into the absurd.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOn Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to goad Canada<\/a>, writing that \u201cthe United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don\u2019t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe threat mirrors Trump\u2019s claims that he holds the authority to rename major global geographical features at will. Notably the president has attempted to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico as the \u201cGulf of America,\u201d It\u2019s all a part of a larger imperialist impulse on Trump\u2019s part. The president has floated invading and annexing Greenland, Venezuela, and Canada, claiming he will make each the \u201c51st state.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOver the last 10 years, the United States lost, on average, 60 Billion Dollars a year with Canada. No more,\u201d he added in a subsequent post<\/a> \u2014 which misrepresented the annual import\/export differential between Canada and the United States as a \u201closs\u201d and not an exchange of goods.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAmericans can count the death of North American free trade among the many casualties of the second Trump administration. Earlier this month, Trump threatened to level punishing, 50 percent tariffs on over $20 billion of Canadian imports. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has threatened dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIn recent days, the United States proposed new terms that were uneconomic, unfair, and undermined the net benefits for Canada and called into question the reliability of any deal,\u201d Carney said on Sunday<\/a>. \u201cIn short, they asked too much and they offered too little. You\u2019re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n