https://edition.cnn.com/2026/08/25/politics/fact-check-trump-canada
Throughout his on-again, off-again trade war with Canada, which has erupted again this week, Trump’s criticism of the US neighbor has been filled with lies – a remarkable variety of assertions that either wildly distort a kernel of truth or are just plain made up.
Among other things, the president has falsely claimed that the Canadian public likes the idea of becoming the 51st US state, which is overwhelmingly unpopular with the Canadian public; that Canada is one of the world’s highest-tariff countries, though it is actually low in world rankings; that Canada prohibits US banks from operating there, though more than a dozen US banks operate in Canada; that Canada doesn’t accept US agricultural exports, though Canada is the world’s second-largest purchaser of those exports; that Chinese and Russian ships are “constantly surrounding” Canada, though that never happened; and that “they don’t, essentially, have a military,” though Canada’s very-much-existent military jointly operates the North American Aerospace Defense Command with the US and fought alongside the US in Afghanistan, against ISIS in the Middle East and in various prior wars.
There’s no doubt that the Canadian economy is heavily reliant on the US, but there’s no apparent basis for Trump’s “95%” figure. In 2025, about 72% of Canadian merchandise exports went to the US – down from about 76% in 2024 and the lowest percentage since the early 1980s. Even 72% is a very large number, of course, but it’s far from the one Trump used. And the percentage fell below 70% in the first half of 2026.
Some of it's true.
ReplyDeleteUS Banks operate here but under very limited conditions and mostly for the purpose of coordinating with US businesses that have branches here. The average Canadians doesn't have access to these banks on a non-business basis and frankly I wouldn't know where to find such a bank. Maybe in downtown Toronto or Ottawa but nowhere else.
Yes, we love our tarriffs but we hypocritically declare them necessary to protect certain sectors that would crumble if they actually had to compete on the open market.
Yes, we essentially don't have a military. The NYPD is larger than the Canada's army (when you exclude the reserves) Our planes are out of date and rarely invited to participate in joint actions that matter. Our sub's are all in dry dock. Our officers carry WW2 pistols. The biggest military activity in recent years was CoVID deployments to assist in nursing homes. The army is a joke.
And our economy is intimately intertwined with the US and cannot be detached from it.