"If they remain a separate, but unequal, nation,” the buy-in on missile defence would be $61 billion.

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Donald Trump’s at it again. Wednesday, he resumed his insults to Canadian sovereignty by offering us missile defence at such a high price that he thinks we might intimidate us to give up our independence — to become America’s 51st state — just to get under his Golden Dome.

It was less than three weeks ago that U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, said Trump’s taunts were “behind us.” Hoekstra told the National Post, “It’s done. From my standpoint, from the president’s standpoint, 51st state’s not coming back.”

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At the time, I wrote, “I’ll believe it when I don’t hear it.”

I was right to be skeptical.

Wednesday in his own social media platform, Truth, Trump said, “if they remain a separate, but unequal, nation,” the buy-in on missile defence would be $61 billion. But being protected would cost nothing, “if they become our cherished 51st state.”

But it’s just possible that the influence of the blowhard-in-chief is coming to an end. Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade said what others in the U.S. Congress should have been saying all along — the U.S. president doesn’t have the constitutional authority to impose broad tariffs unilaterally.

The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the exclusive power to levy taxes, including tariffs.

In a 1977 law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), Congress delegated a limited amount of its authority to the White House in times of emergency.

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