A Canadian New York Times investigative reporter said that Canadians she's spoken to don't expect the trade war from President Donald Trump to be the end game.
Trump has been all over the map with his proposed tariffs against Mexico and Canada.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Friday, reporter Susanne Craig said the trade war has nothing to do with fentanyl coming over the border, as Trump claimed.
"I think a lot of people in Canada — and I really feel it — do think there's some sort of potential annexation game here or a mineral agreement where he can extract some sort of mineral agreement out of Canada. But I don't think that this is just about tariffs and about trade," she said.
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Jason Furman, who served on the White House counsel of Economic advisers under President Barack Obama, characterized Trump's trade war as: "...announce 25% tariffs, then take them off for a month, then put them back on, then partly take them off, then further, partly take them off, then say they're putting them back on."
Craig thinks the tariffs are a "hammer" — just a tool he has available to get what he really wants.
"I think this is going to play out in a really unsettling and awful way," Craig continued, saying that as a Canadian it's "awful" to watch. "But to understand this, to truly just feel it, you have to talk to Canadians and be there. It is all they are talking about. And it's just been an incredible rallying cry for everybody. Everybody I talked to, they're phoning. They're like, what can I do?"
"I haven't talked to one person who thinks this is a trade war. I mean, they think that he's after either an agreement on mineral rights, and he's going to try and economically devastate Canada through the tariffs and then come in and extract some sort of agreement on mineral rights," Craig said. "Or, I think a lot of people think this 51st state thing is real, and I don't know what that looks like."
Canadians are acting out against the U.S. in any way they can, Craig said.
She explained that most are buying Canadian products and boycotting America entirely. Other anti-U.S. sentiment involves the coffee beverage known as an "Americano," a diluted espresso. It is now named after Canada instead. She also said a choir in British Columbia removed songs that refer to America, such as "Walking in Memphis."
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