By Anthony Joseph
As we watch the unfolding political drama in the US from the vantage level of Canada, it’s usually tempting to view the American presidency by means of the lens of company governance, significantly when a candidate manufacturers himself as a profitable businessman. For years, Donald Trump has flaunted his standing as a rich entrepreneur, leveraging his title and legacy to promote a picture of competence, management, and monetary mastery. But, because the 2024 U.S. election looms, it turns into clear that this business-oriented veneer is starting to crack, and Mark Cuban—a fellow billionaire and arguably America’s most recognizable enterprise tycoon—appears decided to tear down the phantasm altogether.
Cuban’s pointed critiques of Trump’s insurance policies, significantly his reckless tariff selections, paint a stark image of how an absence of financial understanding can have far-reaching penalties for each Americans and their neighbors. For these of us in Canada, the financial interdependence between our two nations means we should pay shut consideration to such insurance policies, as they ripple throughout the border and have an effect on our personal markets.
Some of the baffling elements of Trump’s financial coverage is his reliance on tariffs, which he presents as a magic bullet to “shield” American jobs and industries. The truth, as Cuban factors out, is that tariffs are successfully a tax on American customers. Trump’s proposed 200% tariff on John Deere—a significant agricultural equipment producer—serves as a obtrusive instance of how ill-considered these insurance policies are. By threatening a beloved American firm with such a crippling tariff, Trump will not be solely undermining the home trade he claims to guard, but additionally making it simpler for Chinese language rivals to swoop in and seize the market. That is the definition of counterproductive financial coverage.
From a Canadian perspective, the implications of those tariffs are regarding. Commerce between Canada and the U.S. is among the most vital financial relationships on the earth, with tens of millions of jobs and billions of {dollars} in income tied to the sleek circulation of products throughout our border. When Trump imposes broad tariffs—significantly people who goal key industries like agriculture, manufacturing, and cars—Canadian companies additionally really feel the impression. Costs on all the things from groceries to automobiles may rise, with customers on each side of the border shouldering the burden.
Cuban’s critique of Trump doesn’t finish with tariffs. He contrasts Trump’s erratic policymaking with Kamala Harris’s thorough, data-driven strategy. Cuban admires Harris’s means to current well-vetted, rigorously thought of insurance policies, noting that she doesn’t depend on impulsive, crowd-pleasing soundbites. Harris, he says, can clarify her concepts with no need a workforce of advisors to stroll again or make clear her statements. In distinction, Trump’s public statements are sometimes complicated, contradictory, and depart his workforce scrambling to interpret his that means.
This distinction in management model is critical. Canadian observers would possibly keep in mind the challenges posed by the North American Free Commerce Settlement (NAFTA) renegotiations throughout Trump’s first time period. His erratic strategy to commerce offers left Canadian officers on edge, not sure of whether or not the world’s largest free-trade zone would survive. The eventual substitute, the United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement (USMCA), was way more advanced and fraught than it wanted to be, largely due to Trump’s unpredictable and infrequently uninformed management.
For Canadian companies and policymakers, predictability and readability in U.S. governance are important. A candidate like Kamala Harris, who prioritizes meticulous planning and a transparent presentation of her insurance policies, provides a degree of stability that Trump merely can not. As Cuban highlights, Harris doesn’t depart room for guesswork or sudden modifications in course—a stark distinction to Trump, whose selections usually appear dictated by the whims of the second.
Some of the alarming elements of Trump’s presidency was his obsession with presenting himself as a profitable businessman, regardless of a litany of failed ventures. From Trump Airways to Trump Vodka, and the notorious Trump College, the previous president’s enterprise document is plagued by bankruptcies and lawsuits. Cuban, as some of the revered entrepreneurs within the U.S. has referred to as out these failures, warning that Trump’s enterprise acumen is extra of a advertising and marketing ploy than a actuality.
As Canadians, we should acknowledge that Trump’s model of financial nationalism—fueled by tariffs and protectionism—harms not solely the U.S. but additionally its commerce companions, together with Canada. His simplistic view of commerce as a zero-sum recreation, the place one nation’s achieve is one other’s loss, ignores the complexities of world provide chains and the mutual advantages of free commerce. The elevated prices from tariffs don’t simply have an effect on U.S. customers; they trickle all the way down to Canadian companies and customers, elevating costs and disrupting industries.
Cuban’s endorsement of Harris is especially vital on this context. He sees in her a frontrunner who understands the nuances of coverage and has the foresight to keep away from the sort of financial blunders Trump routinely makes. Cuban’s endorsement isn’t primarily based on partisan loyalty or ideological alignment; it’s rooted in a sensible, business-minded evaluation of who is healthier suited to steer. And for Canada, having a reliable, secure, and predictable U.S. president is invaluable.
As we proceed to look at the U.S. election unfold, Canadians should stay vigilant concerning the financial insurance policies being proposed south of the border. A second Trump time period may deliver additional disruption to commerce relations, extra damaging tariffs, and an unpredictable financial surroundings. Mark Cuban’s critiques remind us that the U.S. presidency will not be a job that may be stuffed by somebody who fails to understand primary financial rules. As one of many world’s largest economies, the choices made by the U.S. president have a profound impression past their borders, and Canadians have a vested curiosity in guaranteeing that the chief of our largest buying and selling associate is somebody with a gradual hand and a transparent imaginative and prescient.
The attract of Trump’s businessman persona could have carried him by means of one election, however as Mark Cuban so clearly outlines, that phantasm is crumbling. From reckless tariffs to impulsive insurance policies, Trump’s strategy to management is something however enterprise savvy. For Canadians, who rely closely on secure and predictable commerce relations with the U.S., the stakes are excessive. We’d like a U.S. president who understands the significance of considerate, well-vetted insurance policies—and as Cuban has identified, Kamala Harris provides that in spades.
Anthony Joseph is the writer of the Caribbean Digital camera
These views are his and never that of the newspaper.
