‘Devour them alive’: Trump threatens Canada with 100% tariffs over possible China deal
The US president derides Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as ‘governor’, says China will ‘eat Canada alive’; expert says ‘irony is dead’
US President Donald Trump escalated trade tensions with Canada, Washington’s closest ally and second-largest trading partner, on Saturday by threatening to impose 100 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods entering the United States.
Canada fired back quickly, stressing that there is no pursuit of a free-trade agreement with China, framing recent moves as steps to resolve tariff disputes and bolster the Canadian economy, which was “under threat from abroad”.
In a series of social media posts, Trump warned that if Canada proceeds with a trade deal with China, it would “immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A.”
He further claimed that China would “eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life,” and accused Ottawa of potentially becoming a “drop-off port” for Chinese goods to circumvent US tariffs.
Trump followed up by insisting that “the last thing the world needs is China taking over Canada. It simply will not happen.”
The latest warning comes in response to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s newly announced “strategic partnership” with Beijing, under which Canada would admit 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles at a sharply reduced tariff of 6.1 per cent, down from 100 per cent, from March 1, 2026, in return for lower Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola and lobster.