Trump Slams Canada Dollar; Ottawa Pulls Minerals
Trump Slams Canada Dollar; Ottawa Pulls Minerals
The News
President Trump escalated his trade fight with Canada on Sunday, declaring on Truth Social that the Canadian dollar's "imbalance" with the U.S. is "unacceptable" — two days before Canadian tariffs are set to hit a slate of American goods.
"Canada's (currency) Dollar imbalance with the U.S. is unacceptable," Trump wrote. "It has been that way for years — but no longer!"
He did not say what he intends to do about it. Ottawa, meanwhile, has already found its own pressure point: Canada will no longer discuss sharing critical minerals with the United States, Politico reported Saturday.
Timeline
Trump says he could shut off trade with Canada entirely. "Canada would be in a heap of trouble," he said. "If I say, 'We're not going to trade,' that means 95 percent of their trade gets wiped out." Critics fact-checked the claim, arguing he was misstating how trade deficits work.
Politico reports Canada is taking critical minerals off the negotiating table and turning them into leverage. Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson: "I don't get mad. I get even."
Trump posts that Canada's currency imbalance with the U.S. is "unacceptable," without outlining any specific policy measure.
Canada's retaliation is scheduled to take effect, a "dollar for dollar" match of U.S. trade actions.
Reactions
Hodgson's threat was aimed at the North Coast Transmission Line, a project slated to go live by 2032 that would double electricity capacity in British Columbia and power new critical mineral mines near the Alaskan border, according to Politico's report.
"Nothing would make me happier than just saying, 'You know what, we're going to use all our electricity here,'" Hodgson said. "We're going to build new mines, new processing facilities."
Canadian officials reject Trump's framing that trade favors Ottawa at the expense of American workers, and say Washington's policies undermine Canada's economic sovereignty.
Politico noted that despite Trump's insistence otherwise, the U.S. leans heavily on Canadian resources, and Washington has viewed Canada's stockpiles as a hedge against Chinese dominance of the critical minerals market.
Newsweek said it contacted the White House and Prime Minister Mark Carney's office for comment Sunday.
What's Next
Canada's retaliatory tariffs land Tuesday. Neither the White House nor Canadian officials have detailed any new action tied to Trump's Sunday post, but the message points to more tariff increases or trade restrictions if talks stay frozen.
Ottawa has pledged to match any new U.S. penalties dollar for dollar.
More
Both countries have already imposed steep tariffs on billions of dollars in cross-border commerce, concentrated in autos, steel, aluminum and dairy. The friction threatens integrated supply chains in energy, autos, agriculture and manufacturing across a relationship that generates hundreds of billions of dollars in trade a year.
Why Minerals Are the Lever
Critical minerals feed defense systems, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and effectively every piece of modern tech. That is what makes Canada's refusal to discuss them a real threat rather than a rhetorical one.
The dispute has spilled beyond economics. The Trump administration recently backed renaming Lake Ontario as "Lake America," a move Google Maps and Apple Maps reflected for U.S. users and Canadian officials condemned.
Poll
Who has the stronger hand in the U.S.–Canada trade fight?
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