Trump treats democracies as enemies, and dictators as friends: Canada

A nation could not ask for a better neighbor than Canada.

Canada and the United States have closely cooperated on defense and security issues for decades.

Canadian military forces fought alongside U.S. forces in World War II, the Korean War, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Kosovo War, and the 2001-2021 war in Afghanistan.
In 1958 the United States and Canada formed the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) to coordinate their air defenses. Initially it was primarily intended to defend the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command (SAC) bases against a surprise attack by the Soviet Union. Its missions have been expanded over the years. Among other things they now include counter-drug operations, and defending potential military and civilian targets against 9/11 style attacks in addition to more conventional forms of air attack.
Canada is one of the 12 founding members of NATO.
Following Iran's November 1979 siezure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Canada sheltered six U.S. diplomats. It also played a key role in their January 1980 escape from Iran.
Canada assisted the United States during and after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

On 11 September 2001 Canada allowed international airline flights heading for the United States to divert to Canadian airports. This was done to prevent any additional hijacked flights from reaching U.S. airspace. Canada closed its airspace to all other aircraft except for military, police, and humanitarian (medevac, etc.) flights. Approximately 238 U.S. bound flights carrying over 33,000 passengers landed at Canadian airports. Canada screened the passengers to insure they were not additional hijackers; and provided food and shelter to the diverted passengers until they could be sent to their ultimate destinations.
In some cases ordinarly Canadians accomodated stranded passengers in their homes.
The United States invoked NATO's Article 5 collective defense provision following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack.
In response Canana and 12 other NATO countries sent seven NATO E-3 Sentry early warning aircraft (also known as AWACS). They patrolled the United States between 9 October 2001 and 16 May 2002 as Operation Eagle Assist .
The Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2), a special forces unit of the Canadian Armed Forces, deployed to Afghanistan in December 2001.
JTF2 was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2004, for its role in combat operations with Task Force K-Bar.
Deployment of regular Canadian Armed Forces units to Afghanistan began in January 2002. In March the 3rd battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment fought alongide batallions of the U.S. Army's 31st Infantry Regiment and 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division during Operation Anaconda (also known as the Battle of Shah-i-Kot).

Canadian military forces later operated mainly in Kandahar Province as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kandahar. They also operated the joint military/civilian Kandahar Provincian Reconstruction Team (PRT).
They led the 2006 Operation Medusa which, after two weeks of intense combat, defeated Taliban forces operating in Kandahar Province. They participated in numerous other battles prior to the end of the ISAF mission in 2014.

Canadian military forces remained in Afghanistan until March 2014. During that time 159 Canadian soldiers were killed - more than all but the USA and the UK - and over 2000 were injured.
Canadian Special Operations Forces redeployed to Afghanistan in August 2021 to evacuate Canadian citizens, and to support the U.S. Kabul airlift following the disasterous U.S. withdrawal negotiated by President Donald Trump in 2020.

Canada is the second largest market for U.S. exports, behind only Mexico. So far this year roughly 14% of all U.S. exports went to Canada, compared to about 7% for China (inluding Hong Kong) and about 18% for the entire EU.
It's worth pointing out that the EU's population is roughly 10 times Canada's, and that China's population is well over 30 times Canada's.

Despite this Trump often falsely claims that Canada is taking unfair economic advantage of the United States. The White House press release of 25 August 2026, where Trump claims Canada has been ripping off the United States for decades, is unfortunately fairly typical.

Trump complains loudly about Canadian tariffs on U.S. products, but fails to mention that most of these were only imposed in retaliation for tariffs Trump on Canadian products in violation of the 2018 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) - an agreement Trump negotiated during his first term as President. During a 2024 campaign speech in Minnesota Trump proclaimed that the USMCA was … the best trade deal ever made. It's a fantastic, giant win for Minnesota farmers and dairy producers

Under the USMCA the vast majority of U.S. products exported to Canada were not tariffed at all.

Trump also falsely claims Canadian tariffs and trade barriers on block U.S. agricultural exports. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's web page on trade with Canada refutes this:

"From 1989 to 1998, CUSTA and NAFTA dismantled virtually all tariff and quota barriers to Canada-U.S. agricultural trade, with a few notable exceptions, including: U.S. imports of dairy products, peanuts, peanut butter, cotton, sugar, and sugar-containing products—as well as Canadian imports of dairy products, poultry, eggs, and margarine.
"In November 2018, the Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. Governments signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to replace NAFTA. The entry-into-force date for USMCA was July 1, 2020. In general, USMCA continues NAFTA’s provisions for tariff- and quota-free trade for almost all agricultural products traded between the United States and Canada, while offering broader market opportunities for U.S. exports to Canada of dairy, poultry, and egg products."

Canada's dairy products quotas that are permitted by the USMCA are often the target of Trump's complaints. The 25 August 2026 press release on trede with Canada again provides an example: Canada locks out U.S. dairy with tariff-rate quotas … plus over-quota tariffs of nearly 300% — rates so extreme they function as a near-total ban

Trump fails to mention that there is no tariff on U.S. dairy exports until they reach the quotas permitted by Trump's USMCA, and U.S. dairy exports to Canada have never even approached the quota limit. So far this year U.S. dairy exports to Canada are only about 22% of the quota limit.
We must also point out that the United States has similar quotas on some imports from Canada.

Trump has nevertheless imposed 50% tariffs on some Canadian imports to the United States, in respnse to alleged Canadian discrimination against U.S. commerce that doesn't actually exist.

Meanwhile U.S. tariffs on imports from the People's Republic of China - a country that openly subsidizes its export industries to eliminate competitors, and is notorious for stealing U.S. intellectual property - are just 15%.