President-Elect Trump Vows ‘Very Serious Tariffs’ on Canada: Why Are We Losing Billions to Protect Them?

President-elect Donald Trump is promising “very serious tariffs” on Canada, as well as Mexico, as part of a broader economic nationalist agenda to recoup losses from trade deficits.

“We’re going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada,” Trump said during a press conference on Tuesday. “… substantial tariffs. We want to get along with everybody, but it takes two to tango.”

Trump said he would use “economic force” against Canada, suggesting he would support making Canada the nation’s 51st state, because “it would also be much better for national security.”

“Don’t forget, we basically protect Canada. But here’s the problem with Canada … we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it, we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada,” Trump said:

We lose, in trade deficits, we’re losing massive … we don’t need their cars. You know they make our cars, we don’t need that. I’d rather make them in Detroit. We don’t need the cars. We don’t need their lumber. We have massive fields of lumber. We don’t need their lumber … we don’t need anything they have. We don’t need their dairy products, we have more than they have. We don’t need anything. So why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada? [Emphasis added]

Here’s what we have, we have a right not to help them with their financial difficulties because we owe $36 trillion … why are we supporting a country $200 billion-plus a year, our military is at their disposal, all of these other things, they should be a state. [Emphasis added]

Trump said for too long, American taxpayers have supported Canada out of mere “habit” by politicians in Washington, DC.

“We’re doing it because we like our neighbors, but we can’t do it forever and it’s a tremendous amount of money,” Trump said. “Why should we have a $200 billion deficit and add onto that many, many other things we give them in terms of subsidies … that’s okay to have if you’re a state. But if you’re another country, we don’t want to have it, we’re not going to have it with the European Union either.”