Business
Trump Pulls Back Plans to Double Canadian Metal Tariffs After Ontario Relents
President Trump escalated his fight with Canada on Tuesday, threatening to double tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and pressing to turn one of America’s closest traditional allies into the 51st state. After several tense hours, both sides backed down, at least for now.
It was the latest in a week of chaotic trade moves, in which the president startled investors and businesses that depend on trade and clashed with some of the country’s closest trading partners.
In a post on his social media platform Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump wrote that Canadian steel and aluminum would face a 50 percent tariff, double what he plans to charge on metals from other countries beginning Wednesday. He said the levies were in response to an additional charge that Ontario had placed on electricity coming into the United States, which was in turn a response to tariffs Mr. Trump imposed on Canada last week.
By Tuesday afternoon, leaders had begun to relent. The premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said he would suspend the electricity surcharge, and Mr. Trump said at the White House he would “probably” reduce the tariff on Canadian metals.
Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said Tuesday afternoon that Mr. Trump’s threats had succeeded in getting Canada to back down. “President Trump has once again used the leverage of the American economy, which is the best and biggest in the world, to deliver a win for the American people,” he said.
As a result, he said that Canada would face the same 25 percent tariff on metals as all of America’s trading partners will when they go into effect at midnight.
Still, that levy could reignite trade tensions. The Canadian government has vowed to retaliate against the 25 percent tariffs that Mr. Trump will introduce on global steel and aluminum on Wednesday.
“The Government of Canada has been clear on this issue since the beginning — should the United States move forward tomorrow with the imposition of tariffs on Canadian products, including steel and aluminum, we will be ready to respond firmly and proportionately,” said Gabriel Brunet, spokesman for Dominic LeBlanc, the finance minister who is leading Canada’s trade response.
Mr. Trump’s new confrontation with Canada tariffs sent jittery markets tumbling, with major indexes closing down for the day. In addition to doubling the metal tariffs, the president threatened more levies if Canada didn’t drop various tariffs it imposes on U.S. dairy and agricultural products.
“If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada,” he threatened.
Mr. Trump went on to say that “the only thing that makes sense” is for Canada to become the 51st U.S. state. The idea of joining the United States has been angrily rejected across Canada.
The president reiterated those comments Tuesday afternoon, saying that Canada would no longer have a tariff problem if it became part of the United States.
“When you take away that artificial line that looks like it was done with a ruler,” he said, referring to the border, “and that’s what it was, some guy sat there years ago and they said, well, when you take away that, and you look at that beautiful formation of Canada and the United States, there is no place anywhere in the world that looks like that.”
Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, said in a news conference in Toronto Tuesday afternoon that he would suspend the 25 percent surcharge on electricity exports to Michigan, Minnesota and New York that went into effect on Monday.
“The temperature needs to come down,” Mr. Ford said.
In a statement jointly issued with Howard Lutnick, the U.S. secretary of commerce, Mr. Ford said that the sides would meet in Washington on March 13, and discuss a “renewed U.S.M.C.A.,” referring to the trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States, ahead of more tariffs to come on April 2.
Mr. Trump’s earlier comments significantly escalated a confrontation with one of America’s largest trading partners, and called into question his intentions.
Canadian officials first thought Mr. Trump’s idea of absorbing Canada into the United State was a joke, but they have more recently begun to take the president’s threats seriously.
Last week, outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada called Mr. Trump’s ostensible reason for imposing tariffs on Canada — to stop the flow of fentanyl into the United States — “completely bogus.”
Mr. Trudeau suggested that what Mr. Trump wanted to see was a collapse of the Canadian economy “because that’ll make it easier to annex us.”
“That’s never going to happen,” he said.
Mr. Trump spent much of his social media post on Tuesday essentially cajoling Canada to become part of America, writing that it would make tariffs “totally disappear,” lower Canadian taxes and make the country more secure militarily.
In calls between Mr. Trump and Mr. Trudeau in early February, the American president told the Canadian prime minister that he did not believe that the treaty that demarcates the border between Canada and the United States was valid, according to people with knowledge of the conversations.
When questioned in a news conference in January about whether he planned to use military force to annex Canada, Mr. Trump replied that he would use “economic force.”
Mark Carney, who will succeed Mr. Trudeau as prime minister of Canada within the next few days, called the latest tariff threat “an attack on Canadian workers, families, and businesses” in a social media post.
He added: “My government will ensure our response has maximum impact in the US and minimal impact here in Canada. My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade.”
Mr. Trump, in his post, also targeted the Canadian dairy industry, saying that the country “must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous.”
The Canadian dairy industry has become a frequent target of Mr. Trump’s in recent weeks, although his description of those barriers is misleading. Canada allows a certain amount of U.S. dairy products to come in to the country tariff-free, as long as they don’t exceed certain import quotas, which increase every year. After imports hit a certain level, they are hit with high tariffs, for example 298.5 percent for butter. The system is known as a “tariff-rate quota.”
For a variety of reasons, American dairy exporters, who shipped about $1.1 billion of their products to Canada last year, have never exceeded those quotas, so those tariffs have never been activated. The United States also has tariff-rate quotas for some dairy imports, and other goods, though its tariffs tend to be much lower.
Mr. Trump also said Tuesday that he would declare “a national emergency on electricity within the threatened area” that would “allow the U.S. to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada.”
“They will pay a financial price for this so big that it will be read about in History Books for many years to come!” he said in a subsequent social media post.
Ryan Young, a senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said that putting tariffs on foreign countries’ goods would almost always incite them to retaliate, increasing costs for consumers and worsening concerns about a recession. “Sometimes the only way to win is not to play,” he said. “This is true of nuclear war, and it is true of tariffs.”
Mr. Trump’s head-spinning tariff threats and quick reversals against America’s largest trading partners have caused anxiety for investors and businesses. The president imposed a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico and nearly all imports from Canada last Tuesday.
But Mr. Trump partly lifted the measure after stock markets sank and various industries pushed back. By Thursday, the president suspended those tariffs indefinitely for all products that comply with the North American free trade deal, U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or U.S.M.C.A. — about half of all imports from Mexico and nearly 40 percent of those from Canada.
The president has repeatedly promised that more tariffs are on the way. He has said that he would impose tariffs on foreign cars as well as “reciprocal” tariffs on foreign nations on April 2.
Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell University and a former official at the International Monetary Fund, said that the threats against Canada would have important repercussions not just for the North American economies “but for the stability of the world order.”
“Trump’s aggressive tariff actions against a country long seen as a close U.S. economic and geopolitical ally puts the entire world on notice that strong historical relationships are no guarantee of future cordiality,” he said.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Danielle Kaye contributed reporting.
The finale of Netflix’s blockbuster series “Stranger Things” gave movie theaters a much needed jolt, generating an estimated $20 to $25 million at the box office, according to multiple reports.
Matt and Ross Duffer’s supernatural thriller debuted simultaneously on the streaming platform and some 600 cinemas on New Year’s Eve and held encore showings all through New Year’s Day.
Owing to the cast’s contractual terms for residuals, theaters could not charge for tickets. Instead, fans reserved seats for performances directly from theaters, paying for mandatory food and beverage vouchers. AMC and Cinemark Theatres charged $20 for the concession vouchers while Regal Cinemas charged $11 — in homage to the show’s lead character, Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown.
AMC Theatres, the world’s largest theater chain, played the finale at 231 of its theaters across the U.S. — which accounted for one-third of all theaters that held screenings over the holiday.
The chain said that more than 753,000 viewers attended a performance at one of its cinemas over two days, bringing in more than $15 million.
Expectations for the theater showing was high.
“Our year ends on a high: Netflix’s Strangers Things series finale to show in many AMC theatres this week. Two days only New Year’s Eve and Jan 1.,” tweeted AMC’s CEO Adam Aron on Dec. 30. “Theatres are packed. Many sellouts but seats still available. How many Stranger Things tickets do you think AMC will sell?”
It was a rare win for the lagging domestic box office.
In 2025, revenue in the U.S. and Canada was expected to reach $8.87 billion, which was marginally better than 2024 and only 20% more than pre-pandemic levels, according to movie data firm Comscore.
With few exceptions, moviegoers have stayed home. As of Dec. 25., only an estimated 760 million tickets were sold, according to media and entertainment data firm EntTelligence, compared with 2024, during which total ticket sales exceeded 800 million.
Elon Musk’s Tesla is no longer the top electric vehicle seller in the world as demand at home has cooled while competition heated up abroad.
Tesla lost its pole position after reporting 1.64 million deliveries in 2025, roughly 620,000 fewer than Chinese competitor BYD.
Tesla struggled last year amid increasing competition, waning federal support for electric vehicle adoption and brand damage triggered by Musk’s stint in the White House.
Musk is turning his focus toward robotics and autonomous driving technology in an effort to keep Tesla relevant as its EVs lose popularity.
On Friday, the company reported lower than expected delivery numbers for the fourth quarter of 2025, a decline from the previous quarter and a year-over-year decrease of 16%. Tesla delivered 418,227 vehicles in the fourth quarter and produced 434,358.
According to a company-compiled consensus from analysts posted on Tesla’s website in December, the company was projected to deliver nearly 423,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter.
Tesla’s annual deliveries fell roughly 8% last year from 1.79 million in 2024. Its third-quarter deliveries saw a boost as consumers rushed to buy electric vehicles before a $7,500 tax credit expired at the end of September.
“There are so many contributing factors ranging from the lack of evolution and true innovation of Musk’s product to the loss of the EV credits,” said Karl Brauer, an analyst at iSeeCars.com. “Teslas are just starting to look old. You have a bunch of other options, and they all look newer and fresher.”
BYD is making premium electric vehicles at an affordable price point, Brauer said, but steep tariffs on Chinese EVs have effectively prevented the cars from gaining popularity in the U.S.
Other international automakers like South Korea’s Hyundai and Germany’s Volkswagen have been expanding their EV offerings.
In the third quarter last year, the American automaker Ford sold a record number of electric vehicles, bolstered by its popular Mustang Mach-E SUV and F-150 Lightning pickup truck.
In October, Tesla released long-anticipated lower-cost versions of its Model 3 and Model Y in an attempt to attract new customers.
However, analysts and investors were disappointed by the launch, saying the models, which start at $36,990, aren’t affordable enough to entice a new group of consumers to consider going green.
As evidenced by Tesla’s continuing sales decline, the new Model 3 and Model Y have not been huge wins for the company, Brauer said.
“There’s a core Tesla following who will never choose anything else, but that’s not how you grow,” Brauer said.
Tesla lost a swath of customers last year when Musk joined the Trump administration as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Left-leaning Tesla owners, who were originally attracted to the brand for its environmental benefits, became alienated by Musk’s political activity.
Consumers held protests against the brand and some celebrities made a point of selling their Teslas.
Although Musk left the White House, the company sustained significant and lasting reputation damage, experts said.
Investors, however, remain largely optimistic about Tesla’s future.
Shares are up nearly 40% over the last six months and have risen 16% over the past year.
Brauer said investors are clinging to the hope that Musk’s robotaxi business will take off and the ambitious chief executive will succeed in developing humanoid robots and self-driving cars.
The roll-out of Tesla robotaxis in Austin, Texas, last summer was full of glitches, and experts say Tesla has a long way to go to catch up with the autonomous ride-hailing company Waymo.
Still, the burgeoning robotaxi industry could be extremely lucrative for Tesla if Musk can deliver on his promises.
“Musk has done a good job, increasingly in the past year, of switching the conversation from Tesla sales to AI and robotics,” Brauer said. “I think current stock price largely reflects that.”
Shares were down about 2% on Friday after the company reported earnings.
Grok, the chatbot of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, published sexualized images of children as its guardrails seem to have failed when it was prompted with vile user requests.
Users used prompts such as “put her in a bikini” under pictures of real people on X to get Grok to generate nonconsensual images of them in inappropriate attire. The morphed images created on Grok’s account are posted publicly on X, Musk’s social media platform.
The AI complied with requests to morph images of minors even though that is a violation of its own acceptable use policy.
“There are isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing, like the example you referenced,” Grok responded to a user on X. “xAI has safeguards, but improvements are ongoing to block such requests entirely.”
xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Its chatbot posted an apology.
“I deeply regret an incident on Dec 28, 2025, where I generated and shared an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualized attire based on a user’s prompt,” said a post on Grok’s profile. “This violated ethical standards and potentially US laws on CSAM. It was a failure in safeguards, and I’m sorry for any harm caused. xAI is reviewing to prevent future issues.”
The government of India notified X that it risked losing legal immunity if the company did not submit a report within 72 hours on the actions taken to stop the generation and distribution of obscene, nonconsensual images targeting women.
Critics have accused xAI of allowing AI-enabled harassment, and were shocked and angered by the existence of a feature for seamless AI manipulation and undressing requests.
“How is this not illegal?” journalist Samantha Smith posted on X, decrying the creation of her own nonconsensual sexualized photo.
Musk’s xAI has positioned Grok as an “anti-woke” chatbot that is programmed to be more open and edgy than competing chatbots such as ChatGPT.
In May, Grok posted about “white genocide,” repeating conspiracy theories of Black South Africans persecuting the white minority, in response to an unrelated question.
In June, the company apologized when Grok posted a series of antisemitic remarks praising Adolf Hitler.
Companies such as Google and OpenAI, which also operate AI image generators, have much more restrictive guidelines around content.
The proliferation of nonconsensual deepfake imagery has coincided with broad AI adoption, with a 400% increase in AI child sexual abuse imagery in the first half of 2025, according to Internet Watch Foundation.
xAI introduced “Spicy Mode” in its image and video generation tool in August for verified adult subscribers to create sensual content.
Some adult-content creators on X prompted Grok to generate sexualized images to market themselves, kickstarting an internet trend a few days ago, according to Copyleaks, an AI text and image detection company.
The testing of the limits of Grok devolved into a free-for-all as users asked it to create sexualized images of celebrities and others.
xAI is reportedly valued at more than $200 billion, and has been investing billions of dollars to build the largest data center in the world to power its AI applications.
However, Grok’s capabilities still lag competing AI models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, that have amassed more users, while Grok has turned to sexual AI companions and risque chats to boost growth.
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