assuming power was to declare a national 
emergency and cut out the House of 
Representatives and the Senate from 
the decision making for the country. He 
assumed this role on a unilateral basis 
through a long list of Executive Orders. 
“He is continuing in his second term 
to use his tactics from his first term of 
‘asking for the moon’ and negotiating to 
the actual objective he desires,” says TCA 
president and CEO John Mollenhauer. 
This led to trade, international and 
domestic issues that are now showing 
cracks in his administration. For example, 
though the U.S. is prospering in the 
manufacturing of computer chips (which 
was a result of the Biden administration), 
many economic experts do not believe 
that the U.S. can bring manufacturing 
back to the country, which is one of 
Trump’s objectives.
Take the example of Chinese 
manufacturing, as Alex Carrick, formerly 
of ConstructConnect, states, “The 
Chinese are using tens of thousands 
of robots in their manufacturing. North 
America cannot compete with this use of 
robotics in manufacturing.”
The “big stick” Trump is wielding is tariffs. 
The U.S. Supreme Court just recently 
decided that this was unconstitutional 
under the International Emergency 
Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and that 
he needs consent from Congress to do 
this. The U.S. has collected more than 
$300 billion from these illegal tariffs, 
and companies like Costco are now 
taking the federal government to court to 
recover their money. But the real question 
is: how do you get money back to the 
U.S. citizens who paid for the tariffs in 
their purchases? In the minds of some 
experts, “this is the biggest screwup by a 
government body in the history  
of trading.”
Many other concerns are finally “coming 
home to roost,” including Trump’s use 
of the national guard and ICE in various 
cities and states in the U.S., his handling 
of the Epstein files, his treatment of 
Canada and how he seems to be filling 
his own pockets with money as the 
country suffers through rising prices 
and curtailed government assistance. 
“His biggest problem is the growing 
resentment from the U.S. public to the 
rising costs of living,” says Mollenhauer. 
“The U.S. economy is strong currently. 
However, this could change if the public 
stops spending.”
SPARKING THE REAL IDENTITY 
OF CANADA
Trump’s comments about Canada 
being the 51st state and his tariffs 
on Canadian imports to the U.S. were 
actually a blessing in disguise. Carrick 
notes, “Canadians simply woke up 
and galvanized together to respond 
to what was seen as an attack on our 
sovereignty.” He went on to say that it 
could not have come at a better time, and 
suddenly, Canadians are looking at ways 
to prosper without the U.S.
Prime Minister Carney was thrown into 
this international affairs issue, and used 
his expertise to chart a new strategic plan 
for the country that hinged on putting 
Canada first, diversifying Canada’s trading 
partners and reducing its dependence on 
the U.S. His experience with the Bank of 
Canada and the Bank of England is what 
our country needed to fend off Trump. 
“From my perspective, Carney is doing 
everything he can do to deal with the 
U.S. trade issues, including eliminating 
the barriers to freer trade between the 
provinces and looking for new Canadians 
markets,” says Mollenhauer. “Time will tell 
how long it will take to get the Canadian 
economy moving again.” 
unchanged from March 2025, shortly 
after he took office for the second time.”
According to Associated Press, the 
new poll “does show subtle signs of 
vulnerability for the Republican president. 
Trump hasn’t convinced Americans 
that the economy is in good shape, 
and many question whether he has the 
right priorities when he’s increasingly 
focused on foreign intervention. His 
approval rating on immigration, one of his 
signature issues, has also slipped since 
he took office.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney 
has quickly recognized that the country’s 
historic dependence on U.S. trade is 
becoming a “too many eggs in one 
basket” issue that is not good for Canada 
as a sovereign nation. In his recent 
speech to the World Economic Council, 
Carney says, “The world order of the 
post-Cold War era, enabled by American 
hegemony, has experienced a rupture, not 
a transition, and [I] call on middle powers 
to unite against economic coercion from 
great powers.”
Carney is meeting with a number of 
countries and regions about trade 
agreements, including the European 
Union, Great Britain and China, in an 
effort to diversify its trading partners and 
move away from its dependence on the 
U.S. In fact, it is the U.S. industry who 
daily depends on Canadian resources 
such as wood, energy, metals and 
agricultural products. The impact on the 
construction industry in Canada because 
of tariffs, global trade uncertainty and 
the search for new Canadian markets is a 
serious concern.
TRUMP’S FIRST YEAR 
Some experts looking at Trump’s first 
year in office describe it as “destructive 
and self-defeating.” His first action after 
“CANADIANS SIMPLY WOKE UP AND GALVANIZED TOGETHER TO RESPOND TO WHAT 
WAS SEEN AS AN ATTACK ON OUR SOVEREIGNTY.”
- ALEX CARRICK
32   Quarter 1  2026   BUILDERSDIGEST 
THE CANADIAN ECONOMY AND CONSTRUCTION PART 3

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