Letters from an American
· collected 2026-08-26 · by Heather Cox Richardson
commentary
Canadian officials announced today that they will begin imposing tariffs of up to 50% on approximately $20 billion worth of US products, including steel, aluminum, chain saws, appliances, cheese, and clams, starting September 8 in retaliation for Trump's tariffs on Canada. This comes as Trump suggested renaming Lake Ontario to "Lake America" on social media, which was also promoted by the Republicans' X account. Economist Paul Krugman predicts that China will supply Iran with what it needs despite US threats to strangle its economy, and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian has rejected the administration's call for isolating Iran economically. The article highlights how the US is losing influence in the Middle East due to its war with Iran, with analyst Barry R. McCaffrey predicting that the US may have permanently lost access to 15 Persian Gulf bases.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-26,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Trump started the morning on social media saying: “The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to [be] doing much business with Ontario any longer.”
asserted
we → start → Ontario
On X, the account of the Republicans pushed the idea of renaming the lake.
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account → push → lake
In contrast to MAGA’s performative nonsense, Canadian officials announced today that on September 8 they will begin to impose tariffs of up to 50% on about 700 products worth about $20 billion in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs on Canada.
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they → announce → Canada
Those products include U.S. steel, aluminum, chain saws, appliances, processed cheese, and clams.
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products → include → steel
Paul Vieira of the Wall Street Journal noted that the tariffs appear targeted toward plants in Republican-held congressional districts.
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tariffs → note → districts
Canada will also invest about 7.5 billion in Canadian dollars ($5.4 billion U.S.) in Canadian firms and workers hit by the trade war.
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Canada → invest → war
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s threat of yesterday that the U.S. intends to strangle Iran’s economy isn’t faring much better than Trump’s attempt to rename Lake Ontario.
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U.S. → intend → Ontario
As economist Paul Krugman pointed out in his newsletter today, China can supply much of what Iran needs and has incentive to do so as Trump’s “self-inflicted quagmire in Iran” saps U.S. strength and respect.
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quagmire → point → strength
Krugman warned that Bessent’s threat “reeks of desperation,” a scent China would surely smell.
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China → warn → desperation
Krugman concluded with a prediction: “I can safely predict that the Chinese will make sure that the Iranian regime survives, and that they will thoroughly enjoy watching Trump slowly twist in the wind over the Strait of Hormuz.”
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Trump → conclude → Hormuz
Indeed, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian today rejected the administration’s call for isolating Iran economically.
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Jian → reject → Iran
“Cooperation between China and Iran has always been conducted within the framework of international law and should not be interfered with or disrupted,” Lin said.
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Lin → conduct → law
“China has already stated many times that it firmly opposes illegal unilateral sanctions.…
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it → state → sanctions
China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests.
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China → take → rights
As Krugman pointed out, the Iran war has forced the U.S. to abandon many of its Middle East bases—that’s why the USS Lincoln couldn’t be resupplied—and it has little prospect of reclaiming them now that Iran has been emboldened to attack the troops there.
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Iran → point → troops
MS NOW national security analyst Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired Army general, posted Saturday: “In my judgement, the US Armed Forces have probably permanently lost access to 15 Persian Gulf bases.
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Forces → post → bases
Iran now poised to control access [to] the Gulf States.
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Iran → poise → States
US will have to negotiate new access in western Saudi Arabia, Israel, southern Europe.”
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US → have → Arabia
On Sunday, in The Atlantic, Robert Kagan noted that the Iran war has reconfigured the Middle East.
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war → note → East
For years, Iran was on the ropes, with the U.S. dominating the region alongside countries aligned with the U.S., including Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
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U.S. → dominate → Israel
Now Iran has withstood six months of attacks from the U.S. and Israel.
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Iran → withstand → U.S.
Its survival has reconfigured the power structure of the region, with Iran emerging as the area’s dominant power as it has demonstrated its ability to damage the oil and gas infrastructure of its neighbors.
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it → reconfigure → neighbors
It is plain, Kagan wrote, that “Washington fears escalation more than Iran does,” limiting what the U.S. can do as Iran not only exercises the right to collect tolls on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz but also decides who can use the strait.
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who → write → strait
That control, Kagan notes, gives Iran “leverage every day, over dozens of countries.”
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Kagan → note → countries
It can “reward friends, punish enemies, extract revenue, force the loosening of sanctions, and make governments think twice before opposing Iranian policies…without firing a shot.”
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governments → reward → shot
The policy of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to bring a “warrior” ethos to the Pentagon by putting it “on offense, not just on defense” using “maximum lethality, not tepid legality,” and having “violent effect, not politically correct,” has given the U.S. a tremendous loss in Iran.
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policy → bring → Iran
And a report today from Megan Rose and Hannah Allam of ProPublica suggests that officers in U.S. Central Command recognized the dangers of Hegseth’s approach to warfare.
uncertain
officers → suggest → warfare
Rose and Allam report that when Hegseth polled top commanders about cutting the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program instituted after civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan hardened opposition to the U.S., they universally objected.
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they → report → U.S.
Current and former defense officials told the journalists that Hegseth apparently thought senior officers would agree with him that focusing on civilian security was “woke” and would hamper “maximum lethality.”
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focusing → tell → lethality
Instead, they uniformly disagreed, warning that scaling back the effort to protect civilians would “result in decreased efficiency of U.S. lethal operations due to an increased risk of target misidentification and reduced battlespace awareness.”
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scaling → disagree → misidentification
Hegseth gutted the program anyway, and U.S. strikes have killed hundreds of civilians.
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strikes → gutte → civilians
Now it appears the administration is considering rebuilding the program.
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administration → appear → program
Social media this morning picked up that a U.S. Air Force transport aircraft that had taken off from Joint Base Andrews near Washington, D.C., landed in Moscow.
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that → pick → Moscow
Later reports said the U.S. official traveling to Moscow was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe.
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official → say → Agency
There’s been lots of speculation about the purpose of his trip to Moscow, but so far it’s all guesses.
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it → ’ → Moscow
Journalist Greg Sargent notes that Trump’s trade war with Canada will hit the Midwest right before the midterms.
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war → note → midterms
Josh Turek, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Iowa and a leading voice for a new prairie populism that works for farmers, told Sargent, “It’s a really dangerous time to be a farmer in the Midwest.”
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It → work → Midwest
“You talk to farmers, and they’ll tell you it’s one gut punch after another,” Turek said.
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Turek → talk → another
Iowans tell him they feel betrayed.
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they → tell → him
Michigan’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, said that “Trump is escalating a trade war with Canada for his own vanity” and that his Republican opponent, former representative Mike Rogers, is a “rubber stamp” for Trump’s plans.
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opponent → say → plans
…and 10 more, not listed.
