Caffeinated Politics

Canada and the United States have spent generations building a relationship that looks less like diplomacy and more like a long, comfortable marriage with shared borders, shared industries, shared cultural shorthand, and the occasional good‑natured ribbing about hockey or health care. The underlying theme is that neighbors who get along tend to prosper. We can now say, with data to prove the point, that Donald Trump taking a sledgehammer to this relationship with economically harmful tariffs and absurd off‑the‑cuff insults about Canada’s government has harmed the United States.

Before I venture forward with the data, I want to underscore how needlessly ridiculous this is, as the U.S.–Canada economic bond isn’t some fragile thing. In other words, it takes a real problem to rupture that relationship.

It is one of the most robust trade relationships on the planet. Millions of jobs on both sides of the border depend on it. Entire industries from automotive, agriculture, to energy are knitted together so tightly that trying to punish Canada economically is like punching yourself in the nose to teach your reflection in the mirror a lesson.

But that is where we are. The report from Axios this afternoon adds substance to the anecdotal stories we have heard for many months from folks in James’ home state of Maine.

Canadian travel to the U.S. fell 25% last year, Axios’ Rebecca Falconer writes from a new report.

• The decline has persisted into 2026, the Canadian government report finds.

The findings offer the clearest look at the pain the U.S. tourism industry is suffering amid trade tensions, tariffs and President Trump’s repeated “51st state” comments.

• Canada is typically the largest source of international visitors to the U.S., making the decline especially painful for tourist towns near the border.

📉 By the numbers: Statistics Canada says that Canadians’ return trips from the U.S. declined year over year for 11 consecutive months in 2025.

• That’s the longest sustained decline since digital records began in 1972, aside from the COVID-19 pandemic.

💸 Canadians’ spending on visits to the U.S. fell to about $13.3 billion in 2025, down from about $15.7 billion in 2024.

• They replaced many U.S. trips with domestic vacations or overseas travel, the report finds.

What is impossible to square with logic is why Trump is treating Canada as though it’s some conniving adversary rather than the country that has stood shoulder‑to‑shoulder with the United States. His rhetoric about “taking advantage” and “bad deals” is just inaccurate. They are lies. For our nation, such behavior is simply self‑defeating.