Trump wants to impose tariffs on Canada in retaliation for wildfire smoke
President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose tariffs on Canada in retaliation for wildfire smoke, but it was not clear that he has the legal authority to impose such a levy.
“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!” he wrote on Truth Social.
The White House did not specify what law Trump would use to implement the tariffs. Spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that the president has “numerous tariff powers at his disposal” and is committed to leveraging them. He did not respond to a question about how the administration would calculate the tariff rate, after Trump called the cost of the pollution “incalculable.”
Trump added in his post that he planned to call Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to discuss the fires, amid economic tensions between the United States and its northern neighbor.
Canada and China were the only two countries that implemented retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s “Liberation Day” levies last year, and formal negotiations between the United States and Canada have not started over the future of a crucial North American trade pact.
Trump has a history of threatening tariffs in response to grievances and not following through. Last year, he repeatedly threatened a 100 percent tariff on foreign films; it never materialized.
He asserted that imported films posed “a National Security threat” of “messaging and propaganda.”
The Supreme Court this year also significantly constrained Trump’s ability to implement tariffs when it ruled that he could not use emergency powers to enact levies.
This stripped the president of a key instrument he had used to try to coerce foreign leaders and reshape world order in his second term.
Following the court’s ruling, Trump implemented a global 10 percent tariff under a different trade law, but that levy is scheduled to expire next week.
The northern communist smoke is blowing down. It’s blowing right into our great American cities. And you know who’s responsible? Canadian China. They are not our friend, folks. They are taking advantage of us like everybody else. But we’re going to tariff the crap out of that illegal alien smoke crossing the border.


