Jim Sciutto (https://x.com/jimsciutto)
@jimsciutto (https://x.com/jimsciutto)
New: In a phone call with me after U.S.-Canada trade negotiations collapsed, President Trump suggested the US had added conditions late during talks.
“That sounds like me,” Trump responded, when asked about Canadian officials' assertion about US late-stage demands.
When I pressed, “So you don't deny it?”
The president replied, “No, no, I don't deny anything. So no, they have to pay a fair amount. And if they don't pay a fair amount, we won't make a deal. That's fine.“
More on the broader effects of tariffs here: cnn.com/2026/08/25/bus… (https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/25/business/canada-us-tariffs-american-consumers?cid=ios_app)
How Canada’s retaliation could hurt American businesses and consumers | CNN Business
From cnn.com (https://t.co/lIJwVSpYkD)
4:32 PM · Aug 25, 2026 (https://m.x.com/jimsciutto/status/2092349337934209159?launch_app_store=true&ct=engagement_view_post)1.3M
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It's common strategy for predator-businesspeople:
1) The Big Fish sets an artificial deadline for the Little Fish to comply or be eaten;
2) Little Fish negotiates feverishly in good faith, obeying Big Fish's artificial deadline;
3) Big Fish announces "DEAL!" but for "details";
4) at 11th hour Big Fish makes new demands betting that Little Fish will fall prey to momentum and bite off the new demands to not miss out on the whole feast;
5) Little Fish is eaten by Big Fish.
The first four steps in this common predator strategy occurred in the Toilet Nation-True North trade negotiations. But at step five the Little Fish, seeing the common predator strategy at work, swam away, not without a bite out of his tail, and not without a nibble of his own out on bloated Big Fish. Now Big Fish has set a new artificial deadline, conveniently after, switching life form metaphors from fish to fowl, Big Fish, already a Lame Duck, could suffer a Quack Attack, with a bigger, much bigger, chomp out of Little Fish as punishment for further disobediance o. To switch fowl metaphors, it is now a game of Chicken. Will Big Fish Lame Duck become a TACO consumed by Little Fish?
