Raising Taxes on Americans Will Surely Help with the Smoke from the Canadian Wildfires

July 18, 2026

Donald Trump, in his infinite wisdom is now threatening tariffs on Canada because of the wildfires that are making the air in the northeastern United States quite unhealthy.

Donald Trump posting on Truth Social: We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable! I will call the Prime Minister during the day to find out what they are going to do about it. The cost is incalculable! Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal, knowing that such refusal will lead to exactly this result. This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Let's make a few things quite clear here. I sincerely hope anyone in harms way are able to safely evacuate. I also sincerely hope that those battling the fires can get the fires under control and then extinguished safely. I hope and pray they get home safely to their friends, family, and loved ones. Human life is far more important than political bickering right now.

With that said, tariffs are a tax on the American people. We pay them through higher prices on the goods we buy from whatever country they're levied on, in this case, Canada. What Trump is threatening, makes absolutely no sense. We pay the taxes to the US government, and somehow, the wildfire issue is solved. Sadly though, too many don't seem to grasp the fact that China, Canada, or whatever country he's threatening don't pay the tariffs. They can still get hurt by the tariffs, but they don't pay them, we do. Companies have been trying to eat the costs, but that won't last forever as they're going to eventually have to pass those costs on.

This whole bone-headed idea is just going to be another drag on the economy. Businesses like certainty. Obviously things can never be completely certain, but when you have a mad king just randomly throwing tariffs on whatever or whoever, removing them, adding them back on, lowering them...well, it's hard to plan. And when the country you're doing this to is the US' second largest trading partner, well, that's going to hurt even more. Businesses are going to struggle to figure out what their costs are going to be, how many people to hire, how much to produce, basically everything they need to do to stay in business. All because Trump thinks tariffs are the solution to every problem. I'm surprised he hasn't threatened Iran with tariffs to end the war.

All of this is to say putting tariffs on Canada over the wildfires, smoke, and poor air quality is a resoundingly stupid idea.

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