I am somewhat convinced the reason Trump was asking Trudeau when the Canadian election is happening during their tariff negotiation phone call is because he was hoping to delay the tariffs to avoid harming the US until closer to Canadian elections & then use them as leverage to help Conservatives. - ThreadSky

purplechrain.bsky.social • 13 hours ago

I am somewhat convinced the reason Trump was asking Trudeau when the Canadian election is happening during their tariff negotiation phone call is because he was hoping to delay the tariffs to avoid harming the US until closer to Canadian elections & then use them as leverage to help Conservatives.

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purplechrain.bsky.social•13 hours ago

Asking about elections in the context of the tariffs and an offer to delay the start of the tariffs means he could wait to enforce/increase tariffs until just before the election to minimize harm to the US economy & then say they’ll only be lifted if we elect someone Trump likes.

purplechrain.bsky.social•13 hours ago

Of course the tariffs are already in place now, and Trump is already trying to back away from or delay some of them because it’s bad for him politically with parts of his US voter base - if the Canadian election isn’t until October, this becomes harder for him.

purplechrain.bsky.social•13 hours ago

If we have early elections in April or May, as many people expect, then Trump can more easily swallow a month or two of economic hardship if he thinks he can extort Canadians into electing a MAGA North ally more amenable to Trump’s interests.

purplechrain.bsky.social•13 hours ago

Trump hates uncertainty and hates not having control, so asking Trudeau when the election is and not getting a concrete answer drove him nuts.

purplechrain.bsky.social•12 hours ago

Regardless, it will never work because Trump only understands politics as transactionalism and dominance, but if he tries to use tariffs as leverage to extort Canadians into voting for Poilievre, people will tell him to fuck off and do the opposite just out of stubbornness and spite.

chrisedelson.bsky.social•13 hours ago

doubtful that trump understands non-US systems that don't have fixed election dates

purplechrain.bsky.social•13 hours ago

He doesn’t! But the reason it seems to be pissing him off & the reason he asked about it *specifically as a part of tariff negotiations* is because his brain seems to associate the timing/delay of tariffs with our upcoming election. For some reason.

chrisedelson.bsky.social•13 hours ago

thankfully, it doesn't look like it's going very well for trump in that regard. Perhaps early elections would help thwart trump's plans.

purplechrain.bsky.social•13 hours ago

I mean, I don’t think it will make a difference either way, but right now he’s keeping his demands vague/opaque in negotiations with Trudeau while constantly denigrating Trudeau & specific potential Liberal successors in a recent interview. He wants the tariffs to be blamed on our current government

purplechrain.bsky.social•13 hours ago

Early elections won’t thwart the use of tariffs as leverage because all Trump needs to do is have the tariffs in place until election day. That way he can tell Canadians “I’ll lift the tariffs if you elect a conservative”.

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