From old grievances to new allies: Trump's history with tariffs

A long time ago, well before the name Donald Trump elicited triumphant cheers or the angry gnashing of teeth, the man who would become president of the United States was selling economic nationalism as the country's best path forward. 

"If the United States were a corporation, it would be bankrupt. It's losing $200 billion a year. For years now, it's been losing that," Trump said during an episode of CNN's Larry King Live show in 1987, using an argument for tariffs he would repeat, nearly verbatim, 40 years later. 

Then, as now, Trump saw trade deficits as a critical financial crisis that was the result of the United States being taken advantage of on the international stage.

"I believe it's very important that we have free trade," Trump told a caller from Canada during that Larry King show. 

"But we don't have free trade right now because if you want to go to Japan or you want to go to Saudi Arabia or various other countries, it's virtually impossible for an American to do business in those countries. Virtually impossible."

Trump's bellicose views on trade, tariffs and international relationships did not emerge out of the blue. Rather they are in keeping with ideas he has expressed since at least the 1980s, and are now buttressed by a cadre of allies and supporters who share his view. 

A decade after that appearance on Larry King's show, Trump had not changed his tune.

"You try and sell an American car in Japan," Trump said to NBC's Tim Russert in 1999. "The boat is sitting there 40 weeks as they're trying to get the first car off the boat. I mean, they're just ripping us and they're ripping us big league."

At that point, Trump's wrath was aimed at Japan. Canada, he said, was a great friend of the United States. 

"I support anything having to do with Canada because I think they've been one hell of a good ally," Trump told a Canadian caller, who asked if the billionaire would support the deal that would become the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"The Canadian people are wonderful people, and they're with us 100 per cent, as opposed to many other people in the world."

Trump's view of Canada changed when he first became president in 2016. Calling NAFTA "a nightmare," his administration pushed for a renegotiation of the deal in 2018.

Today, as president of the United States for the second time, Trump has Canada squarely in his crosshairs. 

In Trump's version of events, Canada is taking advantage of the U.S. through an unfair trade deal — the one Trump himself negotiated in 2018 — and he is threatening a trade war using high tariffs as his primary weapon.