Matt Gurney: Stay scared shitless, Canada
Let's borrow a strategy from JFK to deal with Trump: Ignore the new reprieve. Accept the earlier threat.
By: Matt Gurney
On Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced via tweet that Canada had made — re-announced, in a bunch of cases — enough commitments on the border to satisfy U.S. President Donald Trump. Temporarily. The U.S. tariffs that had been set to kick in last night at midnight are now on pause for 30 days. (Unless Trump changes his mind again, which is probably as good a guess as anything else these days.) There had been hope for such an announcement after the Mexican government announced its own 30-day pause earlier on Monday. It took Canada a bit longer, but we got the same deal.
So! An extra month. The 30-day pause is good, and I offer my gratitude to the Canadian government for securing it. An extra month is an extra month. I tip my hat to the PM and his team. Thank you.
The question now, of course, is what we do with those 30 days. And I have a proposal that's going to sound bizarre, but is rooted firmly in history. U.S. presidential history, somewhat ironically.
We should, in a lot of ways, pretend the 30-day extension didn't happen. Ignore it. And accept Trump's announcement of tariffs.
If you’re confused, I don’t blame you. What I’m proposing is a bit obscure. Let me explain.