Trump says he's holding Canada responsible for wildfire smoke and threatens higher tariffs

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Politics

PUBLISHED Jul 17, 2026, 4:49 PM ET


President Donald Trump said Friday he’s holding Canada responsible for wildfire smoke hovering over much of the Midwestern and eastern United States and vowed to call Prime Minister Mark Carney, suggesting that the “cost of this pollution” could be added to tariffs Canada is already paying.

“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!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

More than 100 million people in 18 states and the District of Columbia are under air quality alerts. “Very unhealthy” and “hazardous” air quality stretches from northeast Minnesota to southeast Virginia. “I will call the Prime Minister during the day to find out what they are going to do about it,” Trump continued.

“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,” he added. Tensions are already thick between the two countries. After the Supreme Court ruled that Trump could not use emergency powers to levy tariffs, the president has resorted to using other statutes that require investigations and public comment periods.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/17/politics/trump-canada-wildfire-smoke-tariffs

[Roy Rolling]

1. It's an Invasion!

Chinese air pollution invading the west coast.
Canadian wildfire smoke from the north!

Someone tell him a 50-foot wall will stop all the bad air down at ground level where people live. Raise the wall!

[Dunc]

3. I never knew Canada can control the wind.

[A Badger]

5. It won't be long

...before Trump threatens to take away Canada's keys to the jet [stream].

[Dunc]

6. Hopefully Canada trying to sage America will work.

[DivByZero]

23. It's Canada's cleansing smudge stick lol n/t

[SergeStorms]

33. Driving evil out of the U.S. government.

They're going to have to set the entire country on fire, I fear.

[CuriousSavage]

34. It takes a lot to make me chuckle

these days but you did it. Thank you. I was outside in the smoke all week at scout camp.That mental image is perfect for our situation.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. They don't call them "Alberta Clippers" for nothing!

Of course Alberta province is trying to break away from the rest of Canada thanks to their RW loon provincial government.

[Captain Zero]

30. Oregon, California & Minnesota have wildfires

In progress. Oh. Colorado too. It has 4 fires.
So if DOGE hadn't decimated government responses to all kinds of things, like including the measles, maybe the kiddie fucker could be responding and putting out the fires in the US.

Maybe he should Google more and see if he needs to cover his own ass first. One article said there are Canadian firefighters working the fires in Colorado too.

[SergeStorms]

32. Not just the wind.

Those wily Canadians control all the weather!

They're the reason we have winters.
They control the tilt of the planet on its axis.
They control the jet stream.

They're decades ahead of the U.S. in weather control, and I fear we may never catch up to them.

And everyone thinks they're so likeable with their free health-care, gun control, maple syrup and beavers.

They're obviously out for total world domination, and they're bloodthirsty war mongers.

Is this really necessary?

[Ol Janx Spirit]

45. I thought the U.S. government controlled the weather--even creating and steering a hurricane...

...right on top of those poor conservatives in North Carolina to influence the election in 2024.

I mean, it is "ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done."
https://web.archive.org/web/20241004145737/https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/marjorie-taylor-greene-hurricane-helene-conspiracy-1235124836/

How will MAGA ever recover from this shattering of their belief system?

[SergeStorms]

56. Well, there's the obvious....

Antifa weather control, but we're still behind the Canadians. Those folks know weather!

[C Moon]

2. Remember when the dumb$hit said California should rake their forests to prevent forest fires?

Conservatives. Meh.

[KS Toronado]

9. I was hoping he'd accuse Canada of not raking

[Attilatheblond]

28. Ignorance is SO much easier than actual science

I reckon bone spurs causes intellectual failure. RFKjr should get on that.

[mahina]

4. Jesus Mary and Joseph. Just stop. What a shame.

[twodogsbarking]

7. What took him so long? Seeing owls?

[ashredux]

10. Hey Canada, you need a bigger rake😀

The Idiocracy we see from the White House is horribly embarrassing

[QueerDuck]

11. OMG... he's such a fucking idiot.

[Doodles]

14. Old man yelling at clouds. NT

[Jarqui]

12. I wonder what Canada's counter claim for

climate and environmental change caused by Trump's US would look like?

[LaMouffette]

17. Sue Trump for gutting the Clean Air Act! See my post below with excerpts about this.

[Botany]

13. Trump, "global warming is a hoax."

Last edited Sat Jul 18, 2026, 10:42 AM - Edit history (6)

Those boreal forests in Canada, Minnesota, Russia, and Scandinavia that are now burning in a large part it is because the bottom layers of those forests are drying out they used to be covered in snow* for 4 to 6+ months of the year plus there was lots of water in wetlands, streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds, along with the forest floors is made of wet stuff such as; mosses, ferns, rotting timber, blueberries, lichens, fungi, and moose poop.

“This is Willful Negligence .. “ Gee Donny a lot of the Canadian bush is 50 to 250 miles from the nearest road.

*

[chouchou]

15. Next up is those disgusting Mexicans with that A Neenyo. *Ah... Donald, ..It's spelled El Nino"

El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, a recurring climate pattern characterized by unusually warm ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific.

[Botany]

55. Muy Bueno

You found the tilda key. Das ist zerh gut!

[chouchou]

59. My French is not-so-good

[Botany]

61. It is all European

English, French, German, Slovak, Italian and Espanol all the same to me. Welsh doesn’t count
that is one weird language.

[LaMouffette]

16. In response, Canada should sue Trump for gutting the Clean Air Act in 2025. Remember acid rain???

From a 2005 Nature article:

Acid rain is caused largely by sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen emitted by industrial activities such as coal burning. The gases dissolve in rainwater to form acids. Much of this industry is based in the United States, but the weather exports pollution north of the border. Between 50% and 70% of Canada's acid rain comes from the United States, while only 2-10% of America's pollution in this area comes from Canada.

https://www.nature.com/news/2005/050808/full/news050808-10.html

From an Earth Justice article:

July 18, 2025

Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump signed four separate proclamations granting blanket exemptions to over 100 facilities, including chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, commercial sterilizers, and taconite mills, allowing them to ignore clean air standards and release more toxic air pollution in most of the country, or over at least 30 states and U.S. territories.

The orders Trump signed Thursday evening are unprecedented and let facilities put off using better technology or even turn off the systems that filter out some of the most potent cancer-causing chemicals the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates, including ethylene oxide, benzene, chloroprene, and formaldehyde. . . .
Now, more than 50 chemical facilities can turn off pollution controls or dodge recently strengthened emission limits, including those under the Hazardous Organic National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (HON) standards. Factories processing taconite iron ore, manufacturing chemical polymers and resins, and facilities using ethylene oxide, are also getting similar free passes to pollute, even though pollution controls are available.

EPA is also exempting over 30 commercial sterilization facilities. These include over half of the facilities that EPA has already found to pose an exceptional cancer risk to their surrounding communities. Some facilities have cancer risk rates over 80 times EPA’s unacceptable cancer risk rate, and are capable of causing a new cancer diagnosis every month and a half.

Neighborhoods next to chemical plants, power plants, commercial sterilizers, and metal processing sites in Texas, California, Utah, Louisiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, and West Virginia will face the worst of this continuing pollution, as these states are home to major facilities. Some of the protections being delayed, like the HON standards, prevent over 6,000 tons of toxic emissions each year and help protect more than 7 million people, many of them children, from breathing chemicals linked to cancer, asthma, and birth defects.

https://earthjustice.org/press/2025/trump-halts-clean-air-laws-for-most-of-the-country

[kimbutgar]

18. So basically he's holding Mother Nature responsible for the wild fires in Canada?

Just when you think he goes lower he’s getting into Marianna Trench level!

[popsdenver]

19. LOL

If he follows thru on this, he would open the door to everyone around him suing him when he farts or poops his pants.......as
they gag and wretch.......

Of course, anyone who has to be around Mr. Poopy Pants, should have the brains to carry a small vial of Vicks Vapo Rub in their pocket....

This asshole gets loonier every single fucking day that passes......

[dalton99a]

20. .

[EuterpeThelo]

21. Would someone

please explain to me like I'm three HOW he keeps levying more tariffs after even this corrupt So-Reamed Court ruled that his use of them was illegal!?! I mean, I know he doesn't follow the law generally, but his maladministration has been issuing refunds based on that ruling, right? At least to companies?

[cstanleytech]

22. Probably expects them to rake their forests.

[Attilatheblond]

31. Spoiled ignorant brat who lives among estates tended by serfs and golf courses manicured by immigrants

has NO idea what the world is actually like.

My idea for a new 'reality show': Take the top tier of US income, give them each a loin cloth, a stick, and a pouch of pemmican then drop them into an actual western North American wilderness. The show will be a short season summer series.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

46. I'd watch that show!

I'd like to hear Sir David Attenborough narrating the moment that Elon Musk panics and runs from a brown bear straight into a colony of hornets that sting him millions of times and cause him to stumble into a den of rattlesnakes.

[Attilatheblond]

57. LOL

We could all enjoy THAT episode!

[OnlinePoker]

53. It kind of worked for Logan Lake, BC during the horrible year of 2021

It wasn't just cleaning up the surrounding forest before the fire began, but also Firesmarting the entire community itself. This is a good documentary about what they did to prepare and the results:

[Bayard]

24. Small minded little man waving his tiny hands and screaming

He doesn't understand, or care, about climate change and the disasters it is causing. It would do him good to see Mar-a-lardo knee deep in sea water.

I hope Carney tells him to fuck off.

[33taw]

25. So, when Montana and Idaho have wild fires that spread into Canada - do we get charged?

[Attilatheblond]

35. Last time I was in Butte was 14 years ago. The forest on the west facing slope of the divide was 1/3 dead by then

Bark beetles haven't been culled by long, seriously cold winters for a few decades and have been killing massive stretched of western US and Canadian forests. One lightening strike plus the rugged western terrain (that can't be traversed by golf carts, so Trump and his golfer class have no clue, tho some have built summer homes with golf courses there) and POOF! fires that often cannot be stopped until the first good winter snow fall, if that comes at all.

It's a beautiful world... well, it was

[The Madcap]

26. T**** could just turn the windmills facing north

and blow the smoke back using the windmills as giant fans...

Honestly, I could foresee him saying such a thing. "We can add big motors to every windmill...motors bigger than any ever seen before...and blow the smoke back where it came from...back to the 51st state. If they don't like it, well, tariffs..."

[Ol Janx Spirit]

47. I guess it is better than his idea to nuke a hurricane....

[lonely bird]

27. Um...

It has come to the point where I have nothing.

If this were a movie I would leave, burn down the theatre and destroy any existing copies of it no matter the media.

[Raven123]

29. Nonsense. Trump's Thursday speech caused more air pollution.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

36. How about we Americans BLAME Trump for Air Pollution every time he FARTS??

[Blumancru]

37. Oh those invading nonwhite smoke molecules!

Sneaking across the border. Next they will be registering to vote.

[Midnight Writer]

38. I say we build a wall to block the smoke and make Canada pay for it!

[cbabe]

39. It's the plot of Canadian Louise Penny's latest novel:

The Black Wolf
2025

Terrorists. Burning forests and smoke as a weapon. Political corruption at the highest level.

Prophetic.

[sakabatou]

40. *facepalm*

[BWdem4life]

41. A good president would be offerring to help fight the fires.

A sane president would do the opposite of everything Donny does.

[Diamond_Dog]

42. Why doesn't he do the neighborly thing and send them some help instead of bitching about it.

Oh yeah, I forgot, we barely have enough firefighters to control our own fires, budget cuts dictate we need a ballroom for Whiny Baby instead of firefighters.

[relogic]

43. Take your sharpie, fool

and just place Canada’s 3,855,000 square miles below Florida. Even, I, not a PhD figured that out by myself. So, who’s the genius now dtrump?

[ChicagoTeamster]

44. He's just trying to rile up the shit brained MAGA base like idiot MAGA Sen Moreno in Ohio proposing bill to sanction

Canadian officials over the wildfire smoke

No answers to high prices, social security, medical costs, an end to Iran war. More 2020 election sour grapes and bash Canada for something they have no control over.

They keep pushing the assholish grievance politics.

[Justice matters.]

58. AND Charge the US consumers more for importing goods from Canada.

THAT ignorant unstable corrupt-to-the-core genius* hasn't raised inflation enough already.

*no offense to all savvy real-world geniuses

Yeah, raising tariffs that Canada pays will make THEM peons poorer.

Another convenient new daily distraction from the Trump-Epstein Files(tm).

[Warpy]

48. What the fuck does he expect them to do, put up a WALL

that extends up to the stratosphere?

JFC on a trailer, what a witless overgrown toddler that man is.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

49. Shut the fuck up Donny

[Festivito]

50. I wondered if cnn is quoting the onion these days.

There was another republican representative going along with this idea.

I still contend, our biggest problem in this world is the republican party.

[DemocracyForever]

51. Burning fossil fuels is causing the Canadian wildfires,

the 1,000 year flooding in Texas and the historic heat dome in Europe. We have someone in the White House who refuses to face this irrefutable reality and who is doing his best to make it worse.

[ImNotGod]

52. Did the orange hitler mention the US fire that spread into Canada and wiped out an indigenous community a few days ago?

[NewLarry]

54. Can't he just take a Sharpie

and re-direct the wind out to China or Iran or somewhere?

[wolfie001]

60. What a stupid tub of rancid lard

[Chellee]

62. I can't tell, and I hate that.

I really hate the fact that I can never tell anymore at first glance whether something is the Onion. This is not. This is CNN. But it could've been the Onion. It should've been the Onion.

Sorry Canada.

[malthaussen]

63. Papa's in the back yard, cussing out the wind.

My only regret is that I won't be around in fifty years to find out how historians handle the first quarter of the 21st century. [Yes, many assumptions there, I know]

-- Mal

[Beartracks]

64. Gee, maybe if the Trump administration hadn't DOGE'd the GeoXO satellite monitoring program...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221385080

Of course, holding citizens and other countries hostage for solutions to costly problems that could have been mitigated, rather than actually mitigating the problems to begin with like responsible leaders would have, is par for the course for the mobster grift mentality of the Trump administration.

=====================