Simanaitis Says

On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff

O Canada/Ô Canada—Quelle Merde De Trump! Part 1

ONCE AGAIN, TRUMP’S INEPT DEAL-MAKING transforms him and his sycophants into an embarrassment in the world community. The Supreme Court has already ruled that his diplomacy-by-tariff exceeds statutory authority, even when imposed by Trump’s so-called “emergency” conditions. But this hasn’t stopped the Republicans’ chosen savior against DEI, Woke, and mail-in-ballots from again going after our best friend and neighbor to the north, Canada.

Here in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow are sourced summaries of this Trumpian mess.

Another Trump Disaster. His idiocy and those of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s have created a Western-Hemisphere equivalent of the Trump/Iran disaster, with the Detroit/Windsor tunnel and bridges replacing the Strait of Hormuz. 

Lutnik’s last-minute fiddling has complicated existing agreements on auto, heavy truck, and aluminum tariffs. Bessent figuratively added gasoline to the blaze with cheap shots against Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Capo di tutti capi Trump displayed his preadolescence by calling Carney “Governor.”

Diplomacy Versus Mob Extortion. Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Ana Swanson describe “From ‘Fortress North America’ to All-Out Trade War: How the U.S.-Canada Talks Collapsed,” The New York Times, August 26, 2026. Of Lutnik, the Times reporters note, “For Canadians, Mr. Lutnick was already something of a villain. Though he is friendly enough to exchange text messages with Mr. Carney, he has offended many Canadians, including intervening to block the opening of a new Canada-U.S. bridge and saying that Canadian officials ‘suck’ during an event in Washington in April.”

I would suggest to Mr. Lutnik that such language may be typical of the hard-charging bond-broker world, but it hardly seems appropriate in diplomatic circles.

Also I would question Lutnik’s wisdom that the U.S. is no longer interested in buying Canadian-made cars or trucks. Perhaps he might ask drivers of GM Silverados or Ford F-350s or F-450s, which are produced in Canada. 

This and the following image from cars.com.

Also, see Patrick Masterson’s “Which Cars Are Made Outside the U.S.?,” cars.com, June 23, 2026. A related tidbit: Roughly 65 percent of the vehicles are produced by foreign automakers, while domestic legacy brands (“The Detroit Three”) account for about one-third. 

Indeed, the world’s auto industry is a highly complex set of international agreements: Euro and Japanese automakers with U.S. plants; U.S. automakers with plants in Mexico, Canada, South Korea, and China.

Ha. Here’s a funny story of my “Canadian” Ford Pinto when I lived on St.Thomas. 

Here’s a sibling, even to its trick alloy wheels. This image from Barn Finds.

Tomorrow in Part 2, we’ll begin with Trump FULL-CAPS and proceed downhill from there. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026

One comment on “O Canada/Ô Canada—Quelle Merde De Trump! Part 1

  1. sabresoftware
    August 29, 2026
    sabresoftware's avatar

    The Gordie-Howe bridge was financed by Canada and will be 50% owned by the Canadian government and 50% by the State of Michigan. The deal was that the private consortium that designed, built and will maintain and operate the bridge for the next 30 years will pay off the bonds used to finance the project with toll revenues, with any surplus paid to the owners. Trump/Lutnick strode into the deal and strong armed revenues (to the US government I believe, not Michigan) that could put the project in risk of not being able to pay its debt obligations, putting potential financial risk consequences on Canadian and Michigan tax payers.

    And on a lighter note, as the province of Ontario (previously known as Upper Canada) was actually named after the lake (it had been named long before either the US or Canada were countries), with Mr. Trump’s renaming of the lake, the province might just have to change its name to America.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.