Trump laments lack of US aluminum amid trade row with Canada
US President Donald Trump, who has argued that the US does not need Canada, lamented Monday that his northern neighbor did have something he wants: aluminum.
“This country desperately needs aluminum,” Trump said during a telephone rally for Mike Mazzei, a Republican candidate for governor in Oklahoma. “Selfishly, we need aluminum in this country. We don’t have it. We get it all from Canada for the most part, and we need it badly.”
In a social media post later Monday, Trump also pitched a “desperately needed” aluminum plant in Inola, Oklahoma while endorsing Mazzei. “You can’t get Aluminum in the United States, and this Plant will go elsewhere if it’s not approved,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s comments come in the middle of a frenzied trade fight between the US and Canada, in which the president’s 50% metals duties have loomed large.
More than half of the aluminum that Americans consume each year is produced in Canada, making the country essential for multiple products including automobiles and washing machines manufactured in Michigan — a key political battleground state.
The US and Canada were on the verge of a deal last week that would have halved the aluminum levy. But the Trump administration faced pushback from the US steel and aluminum sectors, which urged it to avoid ceding too much to the Canadian market.
Trump’s repeated criticisms, tariffs and musings about US statehood for Canada have angered Canadians and strengthened support for Prime Minister Mark Carney and his Liberal Party.
(By Jeff Mason and Josh Wingrove)
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