Former President George W. Bush was an oilman. Former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden were lawyers. President Donald J. Trump is an entertainer. And the first two weeks of his second term have been entertaining.
On Sunday, Trump ordered 25 percent tariffs on Canada, demanding that Canadians surrender their sovereignty to become "our Cherished 51st State." He suspended the tariff order the next day, after Canada announced it was stepping up border security. The Canadian government, of course, was mostly rehashing a border security plan that it had already announced in December 2024.
So it has gone in a lot of other countries. Trump threatened economic sanctions on Colombia after it refused to take U.S. military flights carrying deportees, then claimed Colombia had backed down when it sent its own military to pick them up. Trump threatened to take back the Panama Canal, and the Trump camp claimed victory when Panama announced that it would let its Belt and Road Initiative economic agreement with China expire.
