The US in 2026 lacks the leverage (trade and military-industrial) to control China. China is obviously too powerful now. Maybe 10-15 years ago it was possible but that moment has passed. It looks like the current US strategy is to apply leverage to smaller countries to form an economic and military industrial bloc which, together, does have the leverage to control China. For me, this is the best explanation of this Canada-US trade war (and other recent US-led international events). Chinese cars are banned in the US. Canada just started taking them in. This is a major economic, military industrial, AND political issue for the United States, and must be addressed. That may be why the US insists on controlling Canadian trade policy with other nations. Canada wants to be able to trade with China because its economy is otherwise dominated by US trade and because high resource low population Canada complements China (the opposite). In my humble opinion, the US is doing too much right now. We should be focusing on a smaller geographic area, and putting money and attention into reducing crime/drug use and improving education domestically for at least 10 years before we reassert ourselves. We do not have to control China. We can simply cooperate (or not) and compete (or not) with self-respect. *************** Some notes: These words and opinions are mine but were heavily influenced by the work of @ektrit and @TheMichaelEvery I wrote military industrial when referring to the differential between US and China, not military. I’m not qualified to speak on military alone. That said, we’re clearly both better off if it never comes to that.