Transcript: Trump’s Rage at Canada Darkens as GOPers Admit “Anxiety”

Young: What’s fascinating about and disturbing about this latest trade war, if you want to call it that, [is that] he doesn’t really seem to have any specific demands for what Canada can do. He’s made these nebulous statements about all of this fentanyl, all of these drugs that are supposedly coming in from Canada. And I’ve seen people who are trying to justify this and say, Yeah, there’s a lot of unregulated trucking that may be bringing drugs into the U.S.

As far as I can tell, there is really no evidence that all of this is going on. If there is, he hasn’t said anything specific like, Well, you you’ve got to institute better regulations for trucking and inspect the big trucks heading to the U.S. No, he’s not saying that. He’s just making these completely formless, unhinged statements about Canada being a major drug supplier—which I haven’t seen any evidence for, and he’s certainly not producing any evidence. It really looks like just bullying, really.

Sargent: Yes, the lack of any actual rationale combined with him saying things like, Well, if you want to avoid tariffs, become our fifty-first state, reminds me of the schoolyard bully says something like, What did you say about my mother? Unfortunately, here he’s the president of the United States talking about our relationships with other countries.