Vice President JD Vance Jokes About Tariffs Going Up If Canada Doesn't Win 4 Nations

Team USA and Team Canada will hit the ice in the 4 Nations Face-Off Championship game on Thursday night, after days of intense build-up with barbs being thrown from both sides and even politicians chiming in.

President Donald Trump spoke to Team USA ahead of the game — something that ruffled the feathers of people who don't seem to recognize the difference between injecting politics into sports and a politician wishing a national team good luck — but he wasn't the only one.

Vice President JD Vance talked a bit about the game while he was at the Conservative Political Action Committee, or CPAC, conference.

Interview Benny Johnson mentioned that in the preliminary round meeting between the two nations, the Canadian fans in Montreal booed the US anthem and then "got their asses kicked."

The US played a more complete game without a doubt, but I'm not sure the game rose to the level of an ass-kicking.

Anyway, I digress…

Vance was asked to offer some words of encouragement for Team USA and he delivered.

"Well, we’d like you to kick Canada’s asses again because you don’t boo the United States of America," Vance said. "And, to Canada, if you don’t win, the tariffs are going even higher!"

I think that sounds fair. If we win, tariffs aren't going up. If you win, boom, let's raise the roof on those tariffs.

Of course, Vance said he was kidding — though he did note that all the tariff decisions were up to the president — but still, I'm sure that line will go over real well with the folks in the Great White North.

Still, this tournament has been great for hockey across the board and it's wild to see what is an exhibition tournament becoming something that the President and Vice President of the United States are talking about.