'What the actual f--- are we doing?' Gavin Newsom slams $20B of tariffs on Canadian goods, calls Canada 'our closest ally'

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s blistering response to the tariffs, for one, was unfiltered to say the least.

On Aug. 22, Newson made a post on social media platform X that said, “Our closest ally. Our critical trading partner. And Trump is hitting Canada with 50% tariffs. What the actual f— are we doing?”

Tariff standoff

The trade war with Canada began as President Donald Trump started his second term, with Trump stating on his first day in office that he planned to levy 25% tariffs on Canada.

Since then, the U.S. has levied tariffs on goods that aren’t compliant with the U.S.-Mexico Canada Agreement, as well as on imports such as steel and aluminum, and Canada has responded with counter-tariffs.

The most recent trade talks, which collapsed on Aug. 21, had been to “stave off punishing new tariffs by the Trump administration on Canadian goods,” the New York Times reported.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said he ceased the talks after the U.S. introduced terms at the last-minute that he said were “unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal,” the Times report says.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told reporters that “Canada declined to finalize the trade deal under the terms agreed earlier this week, despite the U.S. offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market,” according to the Times.

“New demands and walk backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days,” Greer said.

Escalating threats

President Trump has, since the trade standoff began in 2025, made remarks threatening Canada’s sovereignty, referring to it as “the 51st state,” and repeatedly referring to the prime minister as “governor.”

On August 24, Trump said on social media that Canadian leaders should “fall in line” or face consequences “far WORSE!” He went on to claim in the post that Canada’s unemployment rate “is now at 10%, and rapidly rising,” when in fact it currently sits at 6.4%, and has fallen by 0.5% since April.

The New York Times reported that Trump’s latest tariffs “drew significant opposition, including in Washington, where congressional Democrats attacked the Trump administration — and even some Republicans — expressed alarm that the duties could cause domestic costs to rise.”

Maine Senator Susan Collins said in a statement, “Ever since the tariffs were first announced, I have heard from many businesses, farmers, and lobstermen concerned about the cost of navigating the tariffs, the lack of domestic supply chains, and the likely imposition of retaliatory tariffs by Canada,” the Times reported.

The Times noted that Collins has “clashed at times with the administration” and had said she was not expected to attend a rally in her state Monday with Vice President JD Vance.