Trump’s Northward Gambit: Geopolitics Behind the US–Canada Trade Clash

The Conversation argues that the 2025 US National Security Strategy signals a shift from a rules-based, liberal trade order to a protectionist, geopolitically driven approach, with Trump’s tariffs on Canada framed as tools of economic warfare to secure critical minerals and energy and to assert hemispheric dominance, not merely to advance economics. Canada must respond by diversifying supply chains, boosting domestic energy/mineral production, and strengthening defense and alliance ties to resist U.S. pressure.