The view from a very angry Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (right) and Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-US trade, arrive at a press conference in Ottawa, Ontario on August 22, 2026. | Dave Chan/AFP via Getty Images This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day.

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President Donald Trump is putting the “war” in “trade war.” Or so his senior officials really want you to believe.

“At dawn begins an economic D-Day,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote Sunday night, previewing the latest round of sanctions against Iran.

“It’s a country that doesn’t have a military,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said , incorrectly, of Canada over the weekend.

“To think that they’re going to go to war with Donald Trump and actually win that war…is foolish.” The war with Iran is literal, of course.

The war with Canada, slightly less so.

But in both cases, the Trump administration is trying to weaponize America’s economic might to get its way in otherwise stalled negotiations.

Iran and the US have been locked in on-again, off-again talks for almost the entire six months since the US-Israeli strikes began.

And last week, trade negotiations between the US and Canada collapsed amid disputes over tariffs on key Canadian industries, as well as US demands that Canada weaken protections for its culture and the French language .

Now, both countries are promising steep retaliatory tariffs on goods ranging from cars and steel to anoraks.

Trump is betting that economic pain will produce the concessions diplomacy hasn’t.

But Americans also suffer the fallout from these kinds of tactics.

Go a little deeper View Link I am one such American.