In addition to providing regular comic relief, President Trump’s eruptions over imagined slights provide opportunities for his advisers to engage in rank, devious manipulation. This may be happening with Trump’s latest tirade against Canada, in which he threatened to block the opening of the long-awaited Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will connect Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, and facilitate cargo transport between the two cities.

It turns out a billionaire Trump ally who owns another bridge linking those locations—which will face competition from the new project—privately met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick this week, according to The New York Times. Lutnick spoke with Trump after the meeting and just before Trump’s threat. Maybe, just maybe, Lutnick whispered to Trump that it would totally own Canada and supercilious Prime Minister Mark Carney if Trump blocked that bridge.

But there’s another angle here that makes this even more absurd: Trump’s threat could actually backfire on him and the GOP. That’s because it will now become a big issue in House and Senate races in Michigan—and those races could help decide control of Congress. This issue clearly favors Democrats—particularly now that with this threat, Trump may be doing a solid for a fellow billionaire.

There are at least three competitive House races in Michigan, and there’s also a Senate contest over the seat of the retiring Democrat Gary Peters. And this battle is well suited for Democrats to seize on. The already-built bridge has broad bipartisan support: Rick Snyder, Michigan’s former Republican governor, points out that the bridge, originally scheduled to open last September, would reduce transport costs and create jobs and that blocking it would hurt Michigan manufacturers while killing jobs and hiking costs for consumers.

Now GOP candidates........

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