Trump’s Canada and Texas Insurance policies May Price Him the Senate

The crude venality of the Trump administration blew up commerce talks with Canada and are triggering a backlash with rural Texans that would price the GOP management of the US Senate.

Notice: I completed this publish quarter-hour late so hit refresh in case you began promptly.

Trump’s workforce blew it dangerous with Canada final week.

Mark Carney Calls BS

It was trying just like the Trump 2.0 regime and Canada had been about to finalize a commerce deal — one thing they’d been engaged on since Trump declared “Liberation Day” in April 2025 and declared a commerce struggle on all the planet.

The Canadians apparently thought a deal was practically completed after which it wasn’t, per Fox Information:

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney accused the USA on Saturday of constructing a last-minute “energy play” by making an attempt to limit Canada’s capacity to strike commerce offers with different international locations, providing new particulars about what he mentioned induced negotiations between the 2 sides to break down.

Carney mentioned the U.S. launched new calls for within the remaining hours of negotiations involving Canada’s different buying and selling relationships, its auto sector and protections for Canadian tradition and the French language.

“The U.S. launched on the final hours, within the final hour, efforts to limit our capacity to produce other commerce offers,” Carney advised reporters.

Requested what he believed the U.S. was making an attempt to perform, Carney responded, “It’s an influence play. It’s an influence play and, you already know, [it] turns into a query of sovereignty.”

Listed below are Carney’s full remarks that are effectively value watching as a result of that is world-historic stuff and for all of Carney’s limitations, he has been the only real chief govt of a US ally/NATO member/5 eyes state to essentially stand as much as Trump:

That is going to get very attention-grabbing for Mainers, particularly US Senator Susan Collins who’s going through a re-election.

Canadian Troubles Hit Maine Near Residence

Verify these numbers:

Senator Collins has been opposing Trump on these things for a very long time, to no impact from a tweet in January 2025:

The Maine economic system is built-in with Canada, our most necessary buying and selling associate. Sure tariffs will impose a big burden on many households, producers, the forest merchandise trade, small companies, lobstermen, and agricultural producers.

For instance, 95 p.c of the heating oil utilized by most Mainers to warmth their properties comes from refineries in Canada. The Air Nationwide Guard Base in Bangor relies upon fully on jet gas and diesel from Canada. From fisheries to potato farmers to paper mills, these tariffs could have a big impression on Maine’s economic system and danger rising prices for our residents.

I’m working with the Trump Administration to assist its officers higher perceive the potential ramifications of sure tariffs on Maine and to seek out out extra about their implementation, scope, period, and different necessary data, together with any exemptions they might make for northern border states, sure industries, agricultural producers, and others who depend on commerce with Canada.

That “I’m working with the Trump administration” half on the finish is an actual kicker, ain’t it?

By April 2025, she was begging carve outs so Maine may purchase hearth vehicles:

U.S. Senator Susan Collins despatched a letter to Division of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Commerce Consultant Jamieson Greer, urging the Administration to handle the hardship that tariffs will impose on hearth departments and companies in Maine, notably the tariffs imposed on Canadian metals. She is particularly requesting an exemption for hearth truck orders that had been below contract between Maine hearth departments and a Maine producer previous to President Trump’s February 10, 2025, announcement of Canadian tariffs.

By August 2026, Sen. Collins was asking the Trump administration to “contemplate impression of Canadian tariffs” per The Hill:

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) pushed the Trump administration to “contemplate the adverse impression” that partaking in a tariff struggle with Canada might have on American constituents, straying away from a few of her GOP friends.
…
Collins, a frequent critic of Trump administration coverage, mentioned in a Saturday assertion posted to social media that she needs “each side to return to the negotiating desk.” The Maine lawmaker mentioned she expects the transfer will enhance prices for her state’s residents and urged the neighboring international locations to achieve a “honest settlement.”

“Ever because the tariffs had been first introduced, I’ve heard from many companies, farmers, and lobstermen involved about the price of navigating the tariffs, the dearth of home provide chains, and the doubtless imposition of retaliatory tariffs by Canada,” she wrote.

It’s by no means acceptable to heckle somebody’s habits once they’re being held hostage by a psychopath….besides when that particular person is elected to signify the pursuits of her state within the nominally strongest legislative physique on this planet.

I’m unsure impotence is the precise time period to make use of to explain a 70-something outdated wealthy woman who’s been in Washington, D.C. because the Nineties, however that’s the most effective I’ve bought. Mainers would possibly use completely different verbiage.

As I’ve coated right here beforehand, the Democratic misleadership within the US Senate — Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of the Democratic Senatorial Marketing campaign Committee — pressured Graham Platner out of the race by chopping off his entry to funds and institutional assist following a really thinly sourced Politico story alleging he’d dedicated sexual assault in opposition to a lady he’d been relationship.

This overruled the report 156,000 Maine Democrats who had voted for Platner regardless of listening to months of comparable (and a few worse IMO) accusations in regards to the man.

However Schumer and Gillibrand work for AIPAC, not Mainers or American pursuits so that they took Planter out.

Now we’ll see if former state senator Troy Jackson can decide up the ball that Trump dropped in the long run zone and rating a win over the clearly ineffective and sclerotic Collins (to not point out corrupt, each personally and publicly).

Some say Jackson is best positioned than Platner to capitalize on this GOP own-goal as a result of he’s a logger from the northern border, however IMO it comes right down to communications abilities and Platner had ’em — he might not have had good judgement, however there was a cause he scared the Democratic institution and the MSM sufficient to set off an unimaginable quantity of scrutiny that has not been utilized to another candidate this cycle.

Regardless, the race continues to be very shut in response to polls and Trump’s blow-up with Carney ain’t serving to.

In spite of everything, Maine’s essentially the most house heating oil dependent state within the nation, New England is anticipated to see increased gasoline costs first, the lobster trade is anticipated to endure, and untangling Maine and Canada’s logging industries is anticipated to be an unpleasant and costly divorce.

This isn’t even to say the fact that Canadians have already stopped coming to the states, particularly Maine to vacationer and trip.

Now let’s go down south, down Tex-Mexico means.

There Are So Many Backlashes In opposition to Trump in Texas

Verify this out:

The Dem senate nominee James Talarico thinks the info heart revolt goes to assist him out, per MS Now:

For Talarico, the numbers provide a chance to compete on a difficulty the place the state’s acquainted partisan loyalties are much less entrenched. And he has moved shortly to say it, particularly as Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton has remained principally silent.

At a roundtable on knowledge facilities in ruby-red Abilene on Thursday, Talarico heard from 11 residents from throughout the political spectrum who say knowledge facilities within the space — together with the most costly facility within the nation, the Stargate Venture — have spurred a housing scarcity. That comes after he referred to as in July for tighter guardrails on amenities and giving native communities authority to approve and reject growth of their cities — calls he reiterated to MS NOW.

“We will begin to rein in these firms,” Talarico advised MS NOW. “We will begin to make sure that they’re assembly our calls for, that Texans are getting a say and a share on this AI future. It’s why we’d like a senator who’s going to battle for Texans, not huge knowledge heart firms.”

Talarico’s path to victory in Texas, a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide workplace since 1994, hinges on a marketing campaign constructed on bottom-up points, like affordability and opposition to knowledge facilities. It’s a unique technique than former Democratic Senate and gubernatorial nominee Beto O’Rourke took throughout his campaigns in 2018 and 2020, when he centered on complete gun management, defending reproductive rights and reforming immigration insurance policies.

“Texans are struggling,” Talarico mentioned. “It’s not like we’re spending our cash on the fundamentals. These are issues that we have to survive. That is prescribed drugs, it’s housing, it’s groceries, and in case you add on to that cost-of-living disaster, these knowledge heart firms are jacking up our utility payments and jacking up our rents.”

After which there’s the Trump Regime’s completely pointless rape of Huge Bend Nationwide Park (and the close by Huge Huge Ranch State Park.

Sorry for utilizing the r-word, however there’s no different solution to describe what’s been occurring.

From Salon:

For over a technology, Texas Republicans have owned the politics of the southern border. Now the Trump administration’s newest border venture has them cornered, caught between constituents outraged over federal plans to carve roads and limitations by Huge Bend and a president none of them need to cross.

Even Ken Paxton is selecting his phrases fastidiously. The Republican Senate nominee, a dependable ally of President Donald Trump, mentioned in a press release that the administration’s plan “is just not sensible border safety,” representing a uncommon break from the White Home.
…
“Texans know this stretch of our border higher than anybody in Washington. Destroying one in all our state’s biggest pure treasures with pointless roads and limitations is just not sensible border safety. We should all the time put Texans first. Meaning efficient enforcement that protects our communities and helps our regulation enforcement whereas respecting the distinctive character of locations like Huge Bend and leaving our pure assets undisturbed for future generations,” Paxton mentioned.

Essentially the most sickening a part of the rattling factor is the one cause seems to be straight graft — some building grifter paid off Trump within the seven digits and stands to “earn” within the 9 or ten digits for destroying Texas’ most beloved nationwide park.

The $1.7B Huge Bend award went to Southwest Valley Constructors, a Kiewit subsidiary created two months after the inauguration. The bigger sample: Barnard Building, run by a Trump megadonor, plus Fisher Sand & Gravel, have taken the overwhelming majority of border wall cash.

Per Newsweek:

The contractor behind the Huge Bend border wall venture in Texas is a Montana heavy-civil building agency headed by a serious donor to President Donald Trump.

Barnard Building Firm has been awarded billions of {dollars} in federal border barrier contracts, together with practically $2 billion linked on to the Huge Bend area in West Texas.

Newsweek contacted Barnard Building, Customs and Border Safety (CBP), the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) and the Texas Basic Land Workplace for remark.
…
Firm chairman Tim Barnard and his spouse donated $1 million to a Trump marketing campaign joint fundraising committee in 2024 and to a Trump political motion committee, in response to Federal Election Fee (FEC) data reviewed by Newsweek.

Government management and affiliated entities at Barnard Building have contributed greater than $1 million to political committees backing Trump and conservative campaigns, in response to marketing campaign finance databases and the Middle for Western Priorities.
…
Barnard Building and its associates have obtained greater than $5.6 billion in border building contracts throughout Trump’s second time period, in response to federal spending knowledge compiled on USAspending.gov and reported by Excessive Nation Information.

DHS awarded a $960,423,540 supply order to Barnard Building Firm, Inc. for the “BBT-3 Border Barrier Building Venture,” in response to USAspending.gov data. The March 5, 2026 contract covers building in Terlingua, Texas, spanning the Rio Grande from the Hudspeth-Jeff Davis County line to Ruidosa in Presidio County, in response to The Huge Bend Sentinel.

On the identical day, Barnard secured further border barrier contracts, together with roughly $1 billion in Hudspeth County and $600 million close to Del Rio, in response to procurement logs.

A spokesperson for CBP advised Newsweek, “CBP has awarded two contracts within the U.S. Border Patrol’s Huge Bend Sector to Barnard Building Firm, Inc. for the Huge Bend 1 and the Huge Bend 3 Wall Tasks. The Huge Bend 1 Wall Venture was awarded for about $1.1B to assemble roughly 47 miles of major border wall system. This venture is positioned in Hudspeth County in Texas and likewise contains the set up of detection know-how.

The Huge Bend 3 Wall Venture was awarded for about $940M to assemble roughly 56 miles of major border wall system. This venture is positioned in Presidio County in Texas and likewise contains the set up of detection know-how. These initiatives had been competitively bid by CBP’s Indefinite Supply/Indefinite Amount (IDIQ) multi-award car. Contract awards are primarily based on the contractor’s {qualifications} to carry out the work in a well timed method and at costs deemed honest and cheap.”

There’s a particular place in hell for scum like this, and sadly for them, hell is simple to seek out in Texas, typically served up by the inhabitants to unwelcome friends.

It’s a convention that goes again no less than to the mighty and brutal Comanche Empire of the Summer season Moon, Texas voters have been handing the keys to the GOP with out requiring sobriety or sanity checks because the Nineties, this is likely to be the start of the top of that reign.

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