Donald Trump "is not to be trusted whatsoever." That is not a Democrat talking

Donald Trump "is not to be trusted whatsoever." That is not a Democrat talking. That is Doug Ford, the populist conservative premier of Ontario, describing the president of the United States on Saturday. Ford is no natural ally of the American left. He said it anyway.

Here is what set him off. Late Friday night, after three days of talks, Canada walked away from a trade deal with the Trump administration. On Saturday, Trump slapped 50 percent tariffs on about $20 billion of Canadian goods, everything from dairy and cement to wine, fishing rods, and hockey sticks.

Prime Minister Mark Carney did not fold. He called the tariffs "a miscalculation," said the Americans "asked too much and offered too little," and announced Canada will hit back dollar for dollar starting September 8.

Carney explained why he walked. The U.S., he said, was trying to restrict Canada's ability to make trade deals with other countries and to weaken its protections for the French language. "It's a power play," he said, "and it becomes a question of sovereignty."

Which is the whole story. For months Trump has taunted that Canada should become the "51st state." According to British Columbia's premier, the actual American demands at the table would have reduced Canada to roughly that, a country that takes orders from Washington.

So Trump tried to bully an ally into submission and did the one thing guaranteed to backfire. He united them.

Look at who lined up behind walking away. Ford, a conservative. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, a conservative, who said "the old status quo is not possible." Former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, a conservative, who said Canada was "not cravenly surrendering."

The head of Canada's largest private-sector union. And Carney's Liberal government. Left, right, and center, in a country Trump keeps insulting, closed ranks against him in an afternoon.

Ford put it the way a guy at a hockey rink would. Trump, he said, is "the type of person that would steal your lunch money the first day," and "the toque off your head the second day."

None of this is free for Canada. A trade war cuts both ways, and Canadians will pay for some of it too. But Trump wanted a 51st state. What he got was an entire country, from its conservatives to its socialists, agreeing on exactly one thing: the American president's word is worthless.