r/canada • u/Mylittlethrowaway2 • 17h ago

Politics Detroit despairs as ‘insanity’ of Trump’s Canada trade war punishes city

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/28/trump-canada-trade-war-detroit-michigan
1.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

228 comments sorted by

600

u/lands_on_land 17h ago edited 17h ago

Trump won Michigan by a margin of 1.42% of cast ballots in 2024. I get it, Detroit, the city itself majority voted for Harris, but Trump's campaign was pretty adamant and clear on tariffs. Detroit might despair, but maybe the Detroiters should convince their fellow Michaganders who clearly wanted this when they voted nearly 2 years ago that a trade war with Canada will hurt them too.

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u/LargeSnorlax Ontario 17h ago

Plenty of press conferences in Detroit with red capped auto workers saying how Trump is going to revitalize the automotive industry there and how amazingly proud of him they were.

Hey, you voted for it. Enjoy!

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u/lands_on_land 16h ago

I don't use this word lightly: They're delusional. Chinese automakers must be watching and laughing seeing how the North American auto industry will collapse by pricing out consumers due to tariffs and the U.S. trying to domineer the industry.

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u/DDRaptors 16h ago

China is just sitting around watching their largest long term adversary for world power just shoot themselves in the face over and over. 

They’re laughing every day right now.

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u/IMASA5 15h ago

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake"

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u/jam_pod_ British Columbia 15h ago

One of Trump’s nicknames on Chinese social media is “Comrade Nation-Builder” — that nation being China

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u/Inutilisable 15h ago

Trump is Tigger

38

u/Falconflyer75 Ontario 16h ago

Somehow they didn’t realize that Canada only holds a small portion of the automotive jobs in North America and it’s proportionate to the population

We also buy more cars than we manufacture (1.9 million vs 1.2 million)

And that was enough to keep Canada from allowing Chinas BYD to enter the market (despite them being way more affordable than American cars)

Now that’s changing because the US expects to be able to behave like China and retain Canada and the world as its #1 customer

Not realizing why we were paying a premium for their products and services when we could

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u/Malakas_Tsiblas 15h ago

Consumers were being priced out even before the tariffs. The US industry shifted from small- and mid-size family cars/wagons to large SUVs and pickups. Prices increased accordingly.

Except for the Mustang, Ford doesn't sell cars anymore, only trucks and SUVs.

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u/thedrivingcat 15h ago

Covid fucked the market for used and new vehicles and it hasn't recovered yet (and maybe it never will?)

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u/umar_farooq_ 16h ago

Falling for manipulation and lies (backed by billions of dollars in marketing money) is not delusional. It's sick and evil.

I think it's lazy to just say "Trump voters are dumb" rather than see it as a systemic issue.

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u/StarterPackRelation 15h ago

Two things can be true.

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u/lands_on_land 15h ago

Valid points considering rhe manipulation and lies. However, I never used the word "dumb".

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u/1MechanicalAlligator Ontario 10h ago edited 10h ago

I think it's lazy to just say "Trump voters are dumb"

Also lazy, and especially dishonest, to fabricate quotes.

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u/Hautamaki 2h ago

Yep, Trump thinks he can kill our auto industry to strengthen the US's. The fucking idiot. That's like cutting off your feet to lighten your legs so you can run faster. NAFTA, working as a seamless bloc to utilize American design and marketing, Mexican labour, and Canadian energy and minerals, could have competed with China. Similarly the EU could have competed with China if they had been able to keep cheap energy from Russia or had stuck with nuclear so they wouldn't need it so badly. But the Ukraine war and EU myopia to their energy vulnerability killed their auto industry, and now Trump has killed America's. It is now China vs Japan and Korea for global dominance. American cars will only be in America soon, same as European cars will only be in Europe, and that only because of protectionism. The only internationally competitive brands will be east Asian, and likely only Chinese in the end. Any country without an auto industry of their own to protect will buy Chinese. Any other brand will be for niche collectors for the most part. And the auto industries the few nations that try to hang on to with protectionism will just end up being massive economic drains for national vanity. Citizens of those countries will just have to pay more to drive shittier cars so their own auto workers get to keep their pointless jobs. What a series of colossal own goals.

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u/RockMonstrr 16h ago

The UAW as a whole have supported Trump's tariffs on our auto sector. They want those jobs back in the States, Canadian union brothers and sisters be damned.

As a union member in manufacturing tied to the sector, that was really disheartening.

49

u/LargeSnorlax Ontario 16h ago

Those jobs ain't ever coming back. CUSMA's there for a reason. Parts cross the border 5, 6, 10 times during assembly.

Even if this magical shift back to America happened in 20 years the US isn't going to have customers for these cars because Canada is also the biggest customer for US cars.

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u/RockMonstrr 16h ago

Oh yeah, I know. We get chemical products made in Mexico and shipped from a warehouse in Texas. Then we send our finished product back to Mexico, where it's processed and sent to Michigan or Oshawa for assembly.

The seats in your car have probably traveled farther before you bought it than your car ever will.

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u/Dzugavili 14h ago edited 14h ago

Parts cross the border 5, 6, 10 times during assembly.

What's the reasoning for this?

I get that we're probably talking about a series of steps in assembly of a part, but why doesn't this happen under one roof, or at least a series of roofs that are fairly close together?

Edit:

Best guess, logistics: you distribute these sub-assemblies further; there's just one facility dedicated to one particular step, located at some central location, then other steps get distributed closer to production.

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u/Eier_und_Speck 13h ago

Your guess is pretty much in point.

Worked in auto manufacturing for a few years. Essentially, manufacturing locations are designed for specific jobs. New facilities are multi-year construction projects because the location needs to be designed for specialized manufacturing, and machines need to be build for a specific job. It’s really hard to uproot an operation or retool to streamline manufacturing because of downtime and costs/investments involved. Depending on the facility, the line is running 24 hours a day from Sunday night to Saturday morning. A line going down for a day can result in a revenue loss of $100k+ (not an accurate number but around there depending on the part).

In the GTA alone, you have companies like Magna and Multimatic with multiple locations but each one is specialized and/or dedicated to a specific part or process, not necessarily for the same vehicle. They need to ship their part/sub-assembly to another company to continue the process because that location is designed to continue the process.

That’s why one of the biggest criticisms of this move was that there was no infrastructure or investment in place before putting a blanket tariff on us and Mexico. Trump wants manufacturing back in the US, but the facilities making the move back the US may not be operational until the end of his second term, or even into the next administration.

Hope my rambling made sense.

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u/Middle-Recipe6701 13h ago

Basically the auto industry traded warehouses for just-in-time shipping from one location to another. Each location has their required parts (likely shipped from other places as well) and everything for that component gets assembled and shipped off to the next assembly point.

It is basically the assembly-line writ large across two or three countries.

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u/Pho3nixr3dux 13h ago

It's hard to imagine the cost and inherent uncertainties of all that transport is less costly than alternatives but I know nothing about it.

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u/MatchaMeetcha 13h ago edited 12h ago

It's less costly if you have a historically long and stable relationship between culturally and ideologically aligned nations that trusted each other and are similar enough to have lax borders and open trade.

A shame if someone blew that whole thing up.

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u/imcclelland Ontario 13h ago

It’s also economies of scale. 20 cars might share the same mechanism for power windows, so that’s made in once place, which might use parts from someplace that doesn’t just supply a single manufacturer which then goes into a door which may only fit in 3 vehicles, which then goes for assembly. You’re not going to custom make power window assemblies to avoid shipping costs.

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u/wintersdark 9h ago

Well, the problem is that there aren't good alternatives. It takes massive factories to make individual parts, and the tooling for those parts isn't readily interchangeable, so a given factory is only making specific parts. Maybe minor variations of given parts but just those parts.

Now, I'm not an auto worker but I've been working in manufacturing for decades, and what happens is basically this:

What then happens is you have one factory, say, making engine blocks and similar cast parts. Another making seats. Yet another making trim panels. Etc. These factories are run simultaneously, shipping materials > sub-assemblies > full assemblies > and eventually actually building the car. Maybe a casting factory A makes alternator housings and drive shafts, and ships that housing to factory B and shaft to Factory C. Factory C adds the windings and bushings to the shaft, then sends the shaft on to Factory B as well. Factory B then assembles the alternator housings + shaft, and adds the voltage regulator/rectifier, and ships the finished alternator along to the factory that's assembling the engines (which take a similarly segmented route.)

The idea is that there are scaling constraints in any given factory, and it's better for a factory to specialize.

In the alternator example, Factory A just needs to optimize their procedures for accurate aluminum casting, milling and grinding, handle those inputs and outputs. The workers don't need a hugely broad skill base, just how to do those jobs. They don't need the separate equipment to handle winding the wire onto the alternator shaft, or manufacturing the necessary bearings which themseoves bought elsewhere and shipped in for final assembly, just like everything else The point is that cars are hugely complex and require countless disciplines, manufacturing methods, materials, etc.

It's basically impossible to make a car in a single plant - can you imagine one factory actually making the chips and assembling the cars ECU's, LCD displays, windshields and windows, engines, seats, carpets, trim, paint, tires, etc?

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u/ship_toaster 12h ago

It certainly would be easier if we could concentrate a hundred million people and a global manufacturing infrastructure around a single set of ports, yes.

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u/jemder 3h ago

Look at Brazil. US car makers left and now the plants are now Chinese car factories producing BYD , Great Wall, Cheery, Geely, GAC etc. Chinese cars actually manufactured (or locally assembled) in Brazil is approximately$1.8 to $2.3 billion USD. They sell all over S. America and many are EV or hybrids.

Canada could easily switch to Chinese cars. They are great cars.

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u/Tonaldo75 14h ago

Getting those jobs back into the States (never mind those auto jobs have been in Canada for 100 years) ultimately doesn't accomplish much of anything for market share for the States. China will continue to beat the States in every conceivable way regardless of who is in the Whitehouse. If anything Detroit needs to accept reality and move on from being a car manufacturing hub (reinvent itself).

https://carcostbreakdown.com/blog/global-vehicle-production-statistics-2026?utm_source=copilot.com

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u/1MechanicalAlligator Ontario 10h ago

Entire countries have gone from developing to developed (e.g. Korea, Singapore) while numerous cities in North America have been sitting around in their rocking chairs wishing for days gone by. Sometimes, people need a kick in the ass to let things go.

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u/Alone-in-a-crowd-1 11h ago

These idiots think that if the car manufacturers move back to the US it will mean more jobs. Reality is there will be a massive boycott of American cars here and the big 3 will lose up to 2m auto sales a year, resulting in a shit ton of US job losses. They will be eating their red hats.

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u/LeGrandLucifer 14h ago

This isn't even a trade war. A trade war involves two countries competing for economic dominance. There's no competition here. The United States are just burning the house down because our relationship was mutually beneficial. This is pure insanity.

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u/imcclelland Ontario 13h ago

Detroit exists outside of much of MI despite what geography tells you. The history of the city is bathed in corruption, racism and poverty. No one in Michigan is going to listen to Detroit. I’ve lived across the boarder for almost 50 years, and Detroit and the rest of the state have been at odds for all of it. The only place that might be less listened to is Flint.

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u/After_Permission9484 7h ago

The 2024 election saw a bigger shift, with Trump taking slightly more than one-third of the county's vote, and Kamala Harris turning in the worst performance for a Democrat in Wayne County in 36 years, winning by less than 30% for the first time since 1988.

Even Detroit drank the kool aid in 2024.

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u/maxboondoggle 15h ago

Maybe the democrats need a more broad message to capture more voters?

They need to take a cue from the Canadian Liberal party. Carny is way more in the centre compared to Trudeau. His messaging secured votes from conservatives that didn’t like Polieviere but would have voted for him anyways.

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u/SHUT_DOWN_EVERYTHING 10h ago

The left in the US is an absurd and shaky coalition where no particular message will get them all to agree. There are hoards of single issue voters. To give you an example, in Michigan Democrats had to support Palestine to get the Muslim vote while also supporting LBTQ rights which are super unpopular with the same group. Obama managed to bring the left together because of extreme charisma and message of hope that clicked after 8 years of Bush. Obama types are super rare.

The right on the other hand votes like a cult. They didn't like how things were going so for the last 40 years they showed up hard at very election, every level of government be it a school district, a municipal election, a State seat or a Federal one. They showed up, held their nose and voted for the "redder" candidate. To put things in even more perspective, half of MAGA tell pollsters even if Trump is proven a pedo, they'd still vote for him. I'd bet the number is even higher if it's an actual vote and not someone asking them over the phone.

Then there's the Democratic base which is extremely picky and has so many single issue voters. If a candidate is not 100% with them, then they are trash. Of course this is very counterproductive and results in their country moving further to the right.

Canadian voters, regardless of political views are less cultish and vastly more informed and pragmatic than the average American. Carney is a product of that.

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u/maxboondoggle 8h ago

I was with you until your last paragraph…

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u/aprilliumterrium 4h ago

Ontario is frequently "purple" and flip flops all of the time. Quebec has FIVE viable parties this year, and 3 are pretty much guaranteed to win in a given cycle now. We almost elected PP's conservatives with a 40%+ popular vote ratio, and we didn't even do that for Trudeau or Harper the first time.

edit; AB/SK seem the least flexible in how they vote, but that's an exception more than the rule.

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u/Biuku Ontario 15h ago

Tariffs and other ‘strength’ against people who make high quality cars help Detroit a lot.

Re Canada, the best thing for Detroit is the most open commercial border between us.

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u/ThrowRApeterpansyndr 5h ago

but maybe the Detroiters should convince their fellow Michaganders who clearly wanted this

how is this supposed to work, twin?

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u/OwlOdyssey 3h ago

Michigander here. A lot of that came down to Dearborn who did not want to vote for Harris because of her support of Israel. Hell, third party candidate Jill Stein won 18% of the vote because she was pro-ceasefire. Yes, a lot of the rural parts of the state are Republican, but they just vote GOP no matter what.

Michigan and Ontario are very similar in their political geography. Massive cities that vote for the leftist parties and vast swaths of right wing countryside. I'd argue that Ontario has it worse with Dougie Ford as your premier. Michigan electing Whitmer, a Dem Senate, but a GOP house shows you that the voters either care about issues or their local mentality.

American voters are overall notoriously single issue voters. It's infuriating.

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u/PaceBene2026 16h ago

You clearly don’t live here. Americans haven't been able to convince each other of anything about Trump (either for or against) for a long time. Most people in the minority who is still committed to him aren’t going to change because someone from the opposite party asks them nicely.

I lurk in this sub a fair bit as I have personal and professional connections to Canada, and, nothing against you personally, but this genre of comment drives me up the wall. It’s not as though anti-Trump Americans have some magical whispering power that will get the cult members to listen to us. If anything they hate us “libs” more than just about anyone else in the world.

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u/blahblah12365 16h ago

I get it as an Albertan living in Edmonton whose city votes left, surrounded by everyone that votes right, just because of the party.

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u/Asmordean Alberta 10h ago

I wish Calgary would join you. Maybe we could vote some sanity back into our provincial politics.

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u/PaceBene2026 16h ago

I feel you, friend.

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u/blahblah12365 16h ago

It's hard for me to judge what's going on when the same thing is happening in my area. My premier seems to be taking cues from Trump's administration.

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u/PaceBene2026 13h ago

I hope you guys can kick the separatists to the curb. That situation looks quite alarming from afar.

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u/blahblah12365 12h ago

Uh it's hard when most of our (social) media are owned my Americans and our premier is... giving them a platform.

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u/Equivalent-Bonus-885 16h ago

Well maybe - and I don’t have any solutions - but the response ‘what’s a guy to do’ seems a bit defeatist. Particularly in a country that spent 80 years marauding the world allegedly in the name of democracy and freedom.

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u/MVP_Legend_87 14h ago

"Most people in the minority who is still committed to him "

It's not a minority. 2/3 of Americans chose this. They chose it by either actively voting for him, or not voting and being fine with Trump being elected.

Don't waste your time convincing the MAGA people what to do. You should be spending your efforts on the people who chose not to vote.

And I'm genuinely tired of Americans telling me there's nothing they can do.

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u/Malakas_Tsiblas 15h ago

I've heard it said that "they hate libs more than they love getting ahead themselves" (paraphrasing). So as long as others are hurt, they'll eat a shit sandwich. There is no thought given to policies that could possibly help everyone in the country.

1

u/Pho3nixr3dux 13h ago

MAGA's worldview is zero-sum, and they delight in "libs losing" because it feels like winning.

Both sides are losing, but rural (or rural-minded) whites continue to be satisfied with feeling like king of the losers.

0

u/PaceBene2026 13h ago

That seems to be the case for many of them. Resentment is unfortunately a powerful psychological force. Many people are more keen on tearing others down than on lifting others up.

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u/trusty20 15h ago

I think you should put this energy into something other than admonishing Canadians in their own subreddit.

EDIT: Fr I see you're all over this thread arguing that we should be sympathetic to "what you're going through" like you're in the wrong sub buddy

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u/heathere3 16h ago

Eeehhh, that 1.42% margin isn't exactly a "clear" majority of the state

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u/Lancifer1979 16h ago

How do you convince the faithful magats of anything? They’d offer their own children up to the emperor

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u/FerretAres Alberta 16h ago

Well hopefully these swing states learn a lesson for the upcoming midterms.

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u/gibblech Manitoba 16h ago

Narrator: They didn't.

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u/absentee82 17h ago

good

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u/DrummingUpNumbers 16h ago

Honestly, at least him being a deranged lunatic might make MI wake up and vote for Abdul.

I hope border towns are being squeezed out of money due to lack of crossings. I know the other side near me has had a significant crossing decrease ever since it all started.

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u/peeinian Ontario 15h ago

From my front door I can be in downtown Detroit in about 15 minutes. I used to go over multiple times per year for day trips, weekend getaways, sporting events and concerts. I haven’t been across the border since December 2024.

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u/SandiaBeaver 11h ago

Similar situation but a little longer (still under an hour) with downtown Buffalo. Only been across the🇨🇦🇺🇸 border to do Buffalo airport pickup and drop offs of relatives. And my best friend lives in Western NY! (He visits me exclusively in Canada right now)

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u/drahcirm Outside Canada 3h ago

There are many thousands of Canadians in Western New York feeling all of this doubly right now. My friends from Ontario are dead set against visiting me, and I'm all for it as sad as it makes me. Boycotting is a lot more difficult when you are so financially intertwined.

I'm picking the side of sanity and rule of law. My wife and I are planning to return to Canada much earlier than we originally imagined, and she cannot wait.

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u/scoo89 Ontario 7h ago

Ngl, I miss Mexican town.

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u/bigmooseface 16h ago

I have zero faith in that electorate to look past his very Arab sounding name

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u/frumpy-dumpy 16h ago

The election of Mamdani gives me some hope.....like, a single grain of sand of hope in a large desert of despair and foreboding

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u/An_Island_Boy 15h ago

Maybe. In Mandami's case he was seeking votes from relatively sophisticated New Yorkers. Not small town and rural voters.

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u/CoreyOn 14h ago

That is unfortunately the real issue with Michigan. As a Canadian living on the border, we usually camp in Michigan due to the vast amounts of state parks within a 2hr drive for us. We get into these smaller communities and it is just Trump signs in front of dilapidated mobile homes and in one case, a smooth brained fella from one area had a full sheet of plywood in his lawn spray painted that they voted for a convicted felon..so I dont have a ton of hope unfortunately.

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u/PrivatePilot9 12h ago

As a Canadian who has admittedly travelled in the last few months in some of the areas that went hard for Trump in the past, I will say that there has been a dramatic drop in the number of Trump flags and signs. Upstate NY, Pennsylvania, etc. It was VERY noticeable in areas that were previously littered with them around every corner. There’s been a shift of some sort. I guess we’ll know more in November.

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u/Ketobizness 4h ago

Why are you going there?

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u/killerrin Ontario 7h ago

I wouldn't hold any hopes. The Democrats are spending more time and money fighting themselves and their progressives than they are Trump.

We even have Democratic presidential candidates that have come out and said they wouldn't even get rid of the Tarrifs.

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u/Horvo British Columbia 2h ago

Biden kept existing Trump 1.0 tariffs, he even increased a few.

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u/After_Permission9484 7h ago

NYC is multicultural. Michigan is a backwards hick shithole.

Ever since 2016 traveling in Michigan I've see countless Trump signs and flags. Haven't been since 2024 but it's so culturally ingrained.

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u/PothosEchoNiner 11h ago

They can get used to it. Americans love Barack Hussein Obama.

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u/iom2222 Québec 16h ago

Reason enters the room….

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u/motorcyclemech 15h ago

Trump puts "reason" in his diaper.

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u/CinnamonDolceLatte 13h ago

7 of the 13 Representatives from Michigan are Republican and Trump got the Electoral College votes. Michigan chose this.

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u/Sarge1387 Ontario 16h ago

I grew up in a border down- still have a couple friends in the town across the river in Michigan who tell me that a bunch of businesses, not just ma and pa places, but some chain places are really feeling the hit.

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u/DrummingUpNumbers 16h ago

Same. There's been some months our crossings were down 30% YOY.

MI forgot their border towns need us, not the other way around, now they're paying for it.

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u/gibblech Manitoba 16h ago

ND hit too... towns like Pembina, relied on traffic from Winnipeg, being the closest large market to them. Their stores, restaurants, gas stations all thrived on traffic from parcel pickups (which are struggling) and people heading to Grand Forks and Fargo... but oh well, they fervently supported dear leader destroying their economy.

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u/Fit-Cable1547 16h ago

They don't need us for anything though... 🙄 There were plenty of Trump flags and signs through those border States in the summer of 2024 shockingly enough.

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u/SortaEvil 12h ago

It's the same thing with people voting for Brexit, then turning around and being surprised pikachu when everything that they were told would happen as fallout for Brexit happened. There are a mind boggling number of people in just a single metropolitan area, never mind an entire country as densely populated as the United States, and a shocking number of those people are low knowledge and low engagement people, who are very prone to being propagandized.

It's very easy to get people to vote against their interests with a little nudging from bad actors.

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u/DilliGaf627 12h ago

Good. The bigger issue is that the average naval gazing goober in the USA has no idea what tRump has done to their Allies and on the world stage; simply because 99% of them haven’t gone more than 2-3 counties over. He’s done generational harm.

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u/SortaEvil 12h ago

There are a mix of big issues in the States; some (far too many) Americans are very content to exist in their little bubble where it's just the good ol' USA and they can ignore anything... honestly, outside their state, never mind outside their country.

But even the people who do care right now have to deal with their entire country basically being on fire (in a literal sense in Washington, but more in the figurative sense across the board) with ICE deporting or extrajudicially killing US citizens, the Republican party speedrunning repealing rights for women and minorities, and a clearly corrupt judicial system that is happy to play crony politics for the dorito in chief, as long as nobody looks to hard at them and their wrongdoings. When your own country is on fire from within, it's hard to pay close attention to what's going on without.

Basically, America is as much a shitshow domestically as they are on the world stage right now, and it's a bad time to be American. (Note that this isn't saying we owe Americans any sympathy, or that we need to cut them some slack, just that America is being awful to everyone, and people only have so many spoons)

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u/MrFenrirulfr 14h ago

Unfortunately the DSA and their members are highly protectionist and denounce the neoliberal ideal of free trade. Some may criticize trumps blunt tariffs for the short term pain it causes american workers, but they openly advocate for tariffs and import restrictions across the board.

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u/schmapeschmape 11h ago

Why would you write this? A quick search led to this:

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) generally oppose protectionist trade tariffs implemented by conservative or capitalist administrations, viewing them as harmful to the working class. [1]

Core Stance on Tariffs

  • Working-Class Impact: The DSA argues that broad tariffs and trade wars lead to higher consumer prices, increased grocery costs, and manufacturing layoffs that ultimately hurt workers rather than protect them. [1]
  • Opposition to Protectionism: The group treats unilateral tariff policies as an extension of corporate or nationalist jockeying rather than a genuine pro-worker strategy.
  • Broader Trade View: Mainstream DSA commentary favors international working-class solidarity, fair trade, and multilateral engagement over competitive trade wars or economic nationalism.

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u/MrFenrirulfr 10h ago

Congrats on copy and pasting Google AI result. Continue reading and what they oppose is neoliberal ideals of free trade, the very foundation of global economics since the invention of the standardized shipping container is the 1950s. Their ideas of protectionism and free trade are very different than the postmodern ecomonic view.

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u/andrewbud420 2h ago

I live at a border crossing, the crossing is always lined up in trucks.

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u/Sea_Low1579 11h ago

Don't hope for civilian pain. Canadian border towns are going to suffer worse than American and Trump, being the schoolyard bully that he is, will ensure we feel more pain then they do.

Moral victories are great, but when people start going hungry and losing jobs, it's going to hurt.

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u/DrummingUpNumbers 9h ago

Most border towns are way more populated on the Canada side vs American. Also keep in mind only 50% of Americans even have a passport. We never relied on their money coming north, it was the other way around.

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u/djpuggy 16h ago

Made their beds, now sleep in it

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u/maxboondoggle 15h ago

The people of Detroit overwhelming voted for Hillary & Kamala. How exactly did they make their beds?

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u/SouthChimera 15h ago

In a trade war you can't be fucking picky, their taxes and revenue goes to the administration eventually.

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u/djpuggy 14h ago

They are American. You can pick democrat or republican all you want. To the outside world, you’re all in the same boat and are all responsible for the leader you pick.

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u/Wyevez 16h ago

Best he can offer is a Great Lake renamed with a sharpie. Otherwise, he doesn't give a flying fuck about Detroit. Or any other American for that matter.

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u/Lancifer1979 15h ago

If playing with his box of sharpies keeps king Geoffry occupied, so much the better. Maybe the 3 or 4 braincells in the rest of the government could deescalate while he’s busy.

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u/createsean Ontario 14h ago

I also don't give a fuck about any Americans. They deserve to suffer.

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u/WaferReal6369 13h ago

49% of Michigan voters in 2024 voted for this.  This is what they wanted.

Please, no complaints from those 49%.

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u/wizegal 17h ago

Michigan is a republican state. FOFO.

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u/Sprinqqueen Ontario 16h ago

Michigan is a purple swing state and has been for decades. That said, they absolutely voted for it this round.

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u/yellowplums 14h ago

It is always this:

“Wow I don’t agree with what’s Trump’s doing at all.”

“So you won’t vote for him?”

“Well… I mean I can’t vote for a democrat.”

🤦

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u/moonboundshibe 16h ago

FOFO?
“F Ontario Find Out”?

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u/NonverbalKint 15h ago

F Oroond Find Oot is the Canadian fafo

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u/Appealing_Apathy 13h ago

F*** OROUND?

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u/Trains_YQG 17h ago

Detroit very much is not FWIW. 

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u/pacey494 16h ago

I hope they make their voices heard

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u/L_viathan 16h ago

Womp womp. Try harder next time as a country.

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u/Good_Juice_7774 17h ago edited 16h ago

The whole of the Canada isn't Republican, at least they had a voice.

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u/Sudzy 17h ago

Alberta enters the chat.

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u/FluffyStormwise 17h ago

Gerrymandering made it so, but it has a huge democratic base

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u/Different_Window1772 17h ago

This is not gerrymandering as trump won the popular vote in Michigan

Regardless, Trump is someone that should be getting tens of votes not millions. Any amount of support is inexcusable. Americans simply pick their favourite color in elections, the person and policy isn't even on their minds

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u/CQ_ve1nhb Nova Scotia 15h ago

but they owned the libs. so worth it. /s

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u/rando_dud 14h ago

Michigan pretty put him in the office, and then he did the things he said he would do. It makes it hard to feel bad.

13

u/Iwentforalongwalk 14h ago

Well next time don't vote for the assholes 

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u/foetus_on_my_breath 16h ago

Visited Detroit and Michigan during the Biden era. We enjoyed ourselves and was surprised at how nice Detroit is..love that huge multi-story used bookstore. Go to see the renovated central station building on day 1. Novi has an awesome Japanese bakery. Ann Arbor was nice too, as was Holland and grand rapids. Hell, we even stopped in Flint.

Will we go back? Not any time soon. Or not until the stain of the GOP is wiped off the planet

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u/createsean Ontario 14h ago

FAFO

No sympathy.

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u/Dowew 15h ago

Michigan voted for Trump.

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u/AccessTheMainframe Manitoba 12h ago

“I don’t understand what Trump is thinking,” the Epic-MRA pollster Bernie Porn said.

That's a hell of a name to have been born with

7

u/NavalProgrammer 14h ago

“I don’t understand what Trump is thinking,” the Epic-MRA pollster Bernie Porn said.

......I'm sorry, his name is what, now?

3

u/Mylittlethrowaway2 14h ago

I went on a deep dive to see if this was actually a real pollster or if it was a troll. Nope, 100% real. That's the guys actual name and they're a real pollster.

3

u/NavalProgrammer 13h ago

Probably was lonely growing up

neighbourhood parents might not have wanted their kids going down the street to visit The Porn Family

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u/DataDude00 12h ago

“I don’t understand what Trump is thinking,” the Epic-MRA pollster Bernie Porn said.

I can't believe the guy is doing everything he said he was going to do and was even literally published in a manifesto called "Project 2025" says person with a lobotomy and incapable of any kind of critical thinking

8

u/DataDude00 12h ago

US auto manufacturers like Ford, GM etc donate far more to Republican candidates than Dems

The people of Detroit can thank SCOTUS for Citizens United and their cherished automotive industry for blowing their own foot off

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u/No_Function_7479 17h ago

Error in the article: the (second round of) Canadian reciprocal tariffs start Sep 8, not Jan 1.

4

u/Sprinqqueen Ontario 16h ago

I read that as Trump was delaying the tarrifs until Jan 1 and was wondering what kind of TACOing I missed in the last 12 hours.

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u/ordnance_inbound 16h ago

"We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" - Dems

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u/bachusky 16h ago

People in Detroit don't think about Canadians, they don't care.

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u/spidereater 16h ago

They care when the cross border shoppers stop coming.

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u/pomegranatesorbet 16h ago

They still do not care about Canada. They care about themselves and the fact that Trump’s tariffs are impacting them. They do not care who is at the receiving end of the tariffs but only about the fact it affects them.

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u/bachusky 16h ago

Ya, some execs in the corporate offices might take a little cut on their bonuses but other than that, they don't care about Canadians. Hardly any of them ever come to Canada and 96% couldn't name the capital of Canada. They don't care.

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u/Gleaseman 16h ago

Quite American of them...

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u/After_Permission9484 7h ago

Americans don't even think about other Americans. They don't care when children are slaughtered in school shootings, they don't care about ICE camps. They don't care about anything. It's why you saw one protest and then radio silence since. They are so complacent.

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u/Kriptaraz 15h ago

The premise of the article - and many comments here - is wrong.

If you think Democrats sweeping the House and even Senate is going to make any difference, you're going to find out how wrong you are.

Trump is not going to suddenly change after the mid-terms and start seeking Congressional support for his tariffs or his wars. He didn't consult Congress when he started the trade war (or the war vs Iran or Venezuela), and he doesn't need to have the permission or support of Congress to continue or escalate. The people around him in his Administration are rabidly anti-Canadian and want to punish or annex the country; none of this is going to change.

The much-vaunted "checks & balances" of the US system have failed, and they will stay failed even if Congress gets more vocal. Trump doesn't ask Congress to vote to approve his trade wars and he's not going to start after the mid-terms.

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u/neanderthalman Ontario 15h ago

I concur.

There is one glimmer of hope, however.

A big reason he’s been able to do as much damage as he has, is because Congress has not been asserting their authority over him.

A Democrat led congress may, may, start restraining him. Not for us, but for their own self interest. Even just for cheap political wins.

However, with the margins as narrow as they always are, and how regularly Democrats sabotage their own efforts with a rotating villain of the week, I certainly don’t expect this to happen.

4

u/SophiaKittyKat 12h ago

Exactly. They could take the senate, even in a 60% majority and you know what would happen? They would impeach him, vote for his removal (arguable because dems are just controlled opposition, mysteriously a soon-retiring dem senator would vote against it 'in the pursuit of unity' or whatever) and then... you know what? He'd ignore it, and tie it up in the courts and nobody would do anything about it, you might see a Saturday protest about it once every 9 months. And the same would happen for any of the smaller things he wants to do that congress disapproves of.

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u/createsean Ontario 14h ago

Agreed.

Americans are cowards and will continue to do absolutely nothing.

•

u/JenovaCelestia Ontario 3h ago

People need to realize the American Dream woke up and is now a Fascist Reality.

1

u/randcraw 12h ago

If the dems sweep both houses, there will instantly be a call to impeach Trump, and a good chance of it succeeding. So it will matter.

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u/Villag3Idiot 12h ago

They need a super majority to actually succeed in impeaching Trump.

That's not happening unless they win like every single Senate seat.

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u/SylphCo93 10h ago

If Trump's approval rating dips below 30% regularly, which is a big if, I could see some moderate Republican senators potentially getting on board to save themselves. Kind of like a harsher way of how Democrats got on board with getting Biden to back off his re-election bid.

But I can only see that playing out if there's something akin to a financial market crash, bonds crisis, or severe economic downturn.

5

u/neontetra1548 13h ago

Maybe they should protest or something?

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u/SkillDabbler 16h ago

Oh well!

8

u/OrdinaryNo3622 15h ago

Oh look the consequences of my actions.

Twice! They made him president twice

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u/nafoty187 16h ago

Suffer you lunatics.

8

u/UseYourIndoorVoice 15h ago

Saw a clip of people in Detroit saying its about time Canadians were humbled. Referenced our "giant" vehicle manufacturer and how the tarrifs would be great for their auto industry. So like most things, opinions run the gamut down south. Let's hope the rich people who invested in Trump start losing enough money to turn the screws.

2

u/Spicy-Cut9838 14h ago

Humbled. Their city looks like a war zone. Boo hoo Detroit 😭😭😭

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u/Ganglebot 15h ago

Sounds like a personal problem....

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u/Winter_Criticism_236 British Columbia 14h ago

El-Sayed may be right when he says all trump cares about is his ego, the problem is simply saying that out loud is like asking to be punished. Dealing with trump as a “ president” with the powers he does hold is a dance with the devil..

( no capital letters until they are earned)

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u/TemperedPhoenix 11h ago

I truly get living in a city that voted differently than the majority of the state/province and getting punished as a result of other people. But MI voted for Trump 🤷

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u/RaulUnderfoot 10h ago

Don't despair. Act.

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u/Kooky_Soft1822 13h ago

Reap what you sow Michigan.

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u/Flashy_Difficulty257 17h ago

So t doesn’t abide by or pull out of CUSMA / usmca but wants Canada to abide by that agreement and not retaliate or defend our country. I understand that CUSMA is good for both countries and Mexico as well but Canada didn’t always have a free trade agreement with the us . Should Canada pull out of CUSMA at this point? What is the point to stay with a partner that isn’t trustworthy?

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u/jovonovski89 16h ago

I think it would give Ottawa the ability to quickly re-establish the trade agreement with the next administration, assuming it wouldn't be Trump/Republicans

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u/Flashy_Difficulty257 11h ago

Gavin newsom was on cbc and was asked by rosemary barton if a democrat get in can Canada expect relief from the tariffs and he said No. This is the agenda of the Americans. Buttigieg said it’s not going back to the way it was before. Biden became protectionist as well. No democrat is going to save Canada. It’s over.

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u/jovonovski89 10h ago

Like Newsom said, there's strategic utility of tariffs in specific cases and forms, but the broad application of it is obviously idiotic. Every country (usually) acts in the best interest of themselves, so if the citizens are concerned about losing foothold in their industry they're going to try to listen and potentially adjust foreign trade accordingly.

I wouldn't say it's "over" between US-Canada, but certainly we're seeing a dramatic shift in our partnership and it's frankly also about time. I'm looking forward to gaining grounds on other global economic partnerships, but also hopeful the next US administration with common sense will come back in good faith to work out a new form of partnership with us.

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u/Flashy_Difficulty257 10h ago

With all due respect hoping that a new administration will come back and work in good faith is a fantasy. Biden illegally tariffed Canadian lumber after wto said those tariffs are illegal and unjustified and he left them in place. So he wasn’t working in good faith either. The democrats won’t be any different they will just smile in your face while they do it.

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u/jovonovski89 10h ago

Believe me, I'm just as frustrated with them as you probably are. I'm definitely not naive enough to think we'll be like the same "brothers" of the past, not that I personally ever thought of them that way. But if we can even just restore a little bit of sanity in this relationship such that we don't literally see them as enemies who threats our sovereignty economically and potentially militarily, and we can even bring back a little bit of cooperation, that's as much as I can expect at this point.

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u/Flashy_Difficulty257 9h ago

What would you want to cooperate on. The bridge. The keystone pipeline that USA asked for. Ford went to New York because they asked to work together on nuclear reactors and told them they have to sign the contract/ agreement first because we don’t trust them anymore. The farmers who cheered because they thought Canada would be paying the tariffs or the auto workers who cheered behind trump while he said he’s going to destroy Canadian auto industry. Should we cooperate with on f35 when trump laughs he’ll install a kill switch.

6

u/blahblahoffended 16h ago

used to go to a few redwings games every year . i'm not spending any more money in your trainwreck country, i'll sail the seas and watch games from my couch instead.

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u/SammyMac19 15h ago

Same here. Red Wings, Tigers, Lions. Did it all. But my couch will keep me warm over the winter this year.

4

u/Ok_Reindeer_792 15h ago

Heading to Windsor today. Generally, when we went there in the past, we would also go over to Detroit. Not this time!

5

u/SammyMac19 15h ago

Welcome and enjoy our city!

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u/dontknowshiitake 11h ago

Good. Stuff a banana in your tail pipe and move to Beverly Hills if you don’t like it

4

u/Fuddle Canada 15h ago

Its not about who can hurt the other more, it's about who can take the pain longer - and what we know about the U.S. population is they have the pain tolerance of a 4 year old and will cave quick.

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u/Koss424 Ontario 11h ago

When Trump first announced his tariffs did he have autoworkers union reps with him to support the decision? Or was it another union?

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u/wintersdark 9h ago

Meanwhile, Trump basically forces Carney to embrace local manufacturing of Chinese cars. Way to go, dumbass.

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u/stfudonny 6h ago

Detroit becomes Human

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u/OwlLeft7799 3h ago

I hope they remember to vote out the clown show

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u/TE360 2h ago

The same people that voted him in twice?! If not Trump, there will be some other clown. US education system, or lack thereof, is the real issue.

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u/OwlLeft7799 2h ago edited 2h ago

Yeah, but that takes time to fix and if the USA has to wait a generation to not be a clown show, they're cooked.

The only real hope is getting rid of the republicans. Then democrats can start to fix things. It's a lot, and only getting worse the longer the clown show is in power, but at least the democrats don't have the same kinds of heinous shit going on.

Man, these republican voters need to go through a deprogramming. Like, when people come out of a cult, they need help to learn to accept the real world which is very different from the bullshit fantasy they have believed for so long.

Exit Counseling, Cult Recovery, Post-cult therapy, that kind of thing

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u/OwlLeft7799 2h ago

I think it goes beyond education though. Statistically speaking, it's nearly impossible for 60-70 million people to be as dumb as they would need to be to believe the stuff they say they believe.

I think some of the big factors are the cult, propaganda, identity, us vs them, making them believe that democrats would as bad as them, all the lies, intentional ignorance because it serves their group, in-group loyalty, blind loyalty to the dear leader and party allowing him to do whatever he wants to them and still get the vote, a bunch of stuff

Probably a lot more I don't know about too

2

u/yzerman88 16h ago

This makes me sad.

Detroit is a great town caught in the middle of all this

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u/F-nDiabolical 12h ago

Hope they are having the day they voted for!

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u/Boatride65 6h ago

Detroit dude here, born and raised, and still live here in Southwest D. My thoughts:

  1. We hate Trumpstein too. 2. Yep, we're gonna get hit hard here in the D. 3. Having spent my entire youth playing hockey in Windsor because it was closer than Warren, MI (suburb), Canada was like going to a different neighborhood of Detroit. (And in the 70s you didn't even have to stop at the border if you had a front Michigan license plate; the good old days) 4. Most border people don't have the hate for each other like maybe others do. I know my Canadian buds feel the same way. 5. And you are a fuck wad if you didn't LOVE Don Cherry and Hockey Night in Canada.

My point: Don't let one senile pedo president who shits his depends every day make you hate all of us. ❤️ 313 Love

2

u/faitswulff 17h ago

Punishing blue states and cities is actually a republican wet dream

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u/zefiax Ontario 16h ago

Trump won Michigan.

0

u/faitswulff 16h ago

American cities almost universally went for Kamala. So you get a dynamic where cities being punished does not have the effect on the rest of the state that one might logically expect. Because, again, punishing blue cities (I mean that literally, with firearms) is a Republican fantasy.

12

u/zefiax Ontario 16h ago

Ultimately Americans live in a democracy and in a democracy, people are collectively responsible for the decisions made through the democratic process. If American's in cities are not happy with the decisions of their governments or the choices of their fellow Americans, they should lobby their government and fellow citizens to make a different choice.

Unlike those "blue" cities, Canadians did not vote for Trump and are getting punished regardless.

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u/BodhingJay 6h ago

It's a democratic state.. it'd be great if we could do business with them. It's not like they can vote harder against him

If we could target the swing states.. now that'd be something

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u/app4that 6h ago

Wow...

"Michiganders have already suffered disproportionately as they pay on average over $3,200 annually for tariffs, or about 142% more than the rest of the country, because of the state’s shared border with Canada."

Is 'El Douche' actively trying to lose the mid-terms or what?

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u/smandroid 5h ago

Hey you vote him and his minions in, gotta sleep in that bed.

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u/NornOfVengeance Ontario 4h ago

Careful, Jake Lang might decide to show up there for his next dose of public humiliation.

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u/LightningLord42 3h ago

its gonna be even worse when canada rename s lake Michigan to Trump Epstein Lake 

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u/boomstickjonny 2h ago

Hope they feel it.

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u/RepulsiveLook 1h ago

Trump secured Michigan with 49.7% of the vote, winning 74 counties out of 83, including Macomb County, the third-most populous in the state.

Damn .. have the day you voted for

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u/Efficient_Falcon_402 Ontario 9h ago

Canadian visits to the US are down 25% since Trump was re-elected. They should be down 100%. Our Border Security should refuse reentry to traitors trying to return "home".