**🚨 JUST NOW: Trump Pushes New Economic Pressure on Canada — Carney Hits Back**
Ottawa / Palm Beach / New York – February 17, 2026 (updated 11:47 AM EST)
Former U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his long-running economic feud with Canada once again this morning, announcing on Truth Social that he would “immediately push for 25% tariffs on ALL Canadian goods” unless Ottawa agrees to “pay back billions in unfair trade subsidies and open your markets completely to American farmers.” The post, published at 9:03 a.m. EST, triggered an almost instantaneous market reaction and set the stage for one of the sharpest diplomatic exchanges of the post-Trump-presidency era.
Less than nine minutes later — at 9:12 a.m. EST — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney appeared on every major national broadcaster in a five-minute live address from the Prime Minister’s Office. His response was calm, measured, and devastatingly direct.
“Canada will not negotiate under the threat of economic coercion,” Carney began. “We are the United States’ largest trading partner, its closest ally, and the most reliable supplier of energy, critical minerals, and agricultural products on the continent. If Washington chooses to impose broad, unilateral tariffs on goods that American families and businesses depend on every day, we will respond immediately, forcefully, and proportionately. Phase 1 countermeasures are already in effect: 25% duties on U.S. corn, soybeans, pork, whiskey, motorcycles, semiconductors, and select consumer goods. Additional phases are ready. We prefer partnership. We will not accept ultimatums.”
The Canadian dollar, which had weakened 0.8% in the first minutes after Trump’s post, reversed course within 14 minutes of Carney’s speech — gaining 2.3% against the U.S. dollar, the largest intraday swing since the Bank of Canada’s emergency rate cut in March 2020. U.S. agricultural futures (corn, soybeans) erased losses and closed the hour up 2.4–4.1%. Frozen-potato processor stocks (Lamb Weston, McCain U.S. units) rebounded 7–10%. The Dow, down 410 points at the open, flipped positive and ended the session up 380 points — a swing of nearly 800 points in a single trading day.
Wall Street analysts described Carney’s countermove as “textbook asymmetric retaliation executed with surgical precision.” Canada supplies only about 18% of total U.S. imports, but the U.S. accounts for 75% of Canada’s exports — giving Ottawa far greater leverage to inflict targeted, consumer-visible pain. By focusing on politically sensitive U.S. farm states and industrial inputs, Carney turned a broad tariff threat into a series of precise political landmines for Republican senators and governors in 2026 battleground states.
Trump’s team appeared caught completely off guard. A follow-up Truth Social post at 10:19 a.m. ET read:
“Carney is bluffing — Canada needs our market way more than we need their potatoes. 25% tariffs stay until they pay up. American fast-food jobs are at stake!!!”
The message, viewed more than 58 million times, triggered immediate pushback from U.S. restaurant lobbyists and farm-state Republicans. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) told reporters: “Soybean growers in Iowa cannot survive another round of retaliation. We need real negotiations, not threats.” Similar statements followed from senators in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Montana — states that flipped narrowly to Trump in 2024 and remain pivotal in 2026.
Acting President JD Vance’s economic team is reportedly divided. Trump-aligned advisors are pushing for immediate Section 232 national-security tariffs on Canadian energy and lumber; pragmatic voices warn that broad duties would spike U.S. gasoline prices by 40–60 cents a gallon and add thousands of dollars to the cost of new single-family homes — outcomes that would be electoral poison ahead of midterms.
The episode has become a defining moment for Carney — the former central banker who became prime minister in late 2025 — and for Trump, who continues to wield enormous influence despite no longer holding executive authority. Many analysts now describe it as the first real test of whether Trump’s second-term foreign-policy instincts can survive contact with reality when he no longer controls the levers of executive power.
What began as a seemingly narrow dispute over potatoes has suddenly become a high-stakes test of leverage, resolve, and economic interdependence. For Trump, the episode is a painful reminder that his policy preferences still command headlines — but his ability to force compliance has been dramatically curtailed since losing executive authority.
As emergency consultations begin this week, the world is watching to see whether North America’s most important economic relationship can be repaired — or whether a single vegetable becomes the spark for a much larger continental fracture.
