Residents of a charming Alaskan town have been losing friendships and suffering business losses after Donald Trump imposed hefty import taxes and threatened Canada’s sovereignty. 

Skagway, a former Gold Rush city situated on the Alaskan Panhandle in the state’s southeast portion, is home to just over 1,200 residents. 

Its economy is heavily driven by tourism and Canadians are the most prominent group of visitors, accounting for about a fifth of local sales during Skagway’s peak tourism season from June to August. 

The historically rich area has long maintained close ties with Canada’s Yukon Territory, which is just over the region’s Skagway-Fraser Border Crossing. 

The South Klondike Highway connects Skagway with Whitehorse, the capital of the northwest Canadian territory, allowing for strong personal and economic bonds between Alaska and Canada. 

Each year, Alaska exports $600 million in goods across the border into Canada, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative. 

But between Trump’s tariff crackdowns and his assertions that Canada should become America’s 51st state, the people of Skagway have noticed tensions rising between them and their Canadian counterparts. 

‘We are seeing very real effects here in Skagway,’ Skagway Vice-Mayor Deb Potter said at an Alaskan House Resources Committee meeting in the state’s capital, Juneau, on March 14, KHNS reported.

Skagway, a former Gold Rush city situated on the Alaskan Panhandle in the state’s southeast portion, is home to just over 1,200 residents

Skagway Vice-Mayor Deb Potter warned that the city has seen a drastic decrease in Canadian visitors

‘One of our local restaurants…received some calls from folks in Whitehorse expressing that because of actions that are being taken in Washington, DC, they will be boycotting and no longer supporting our locally owned restaurant.’

Skagway has already noticed a decline in Canadian visitors, with one Whitehorse citizen, Karen McColl, writing to the city’s mayor she is ‘breaking up with Alaska.’

‘I don’t want to punish individuals and small businesses, but right now, it’s more important for Canadians to make our voices heard,’ she wrote, according to The Wall Street Journal.

‘Why would I want to visit a country that’s acting so aggressively towards my own?’

Mike Healy, a Skagway business owner, said he has noticed a 75 percent drop in sales since Canadians have turned their backs on the picturesque town tucked underneath a glacier. 

‘My biggest fear is losing relationships,’ he told the WSJ.  

During his second presidential term, Trump has been particularly vocal about his plans to absorb Canada as an American state.

‘I would love to see Canada be the 51st state. The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a very big tax cut, tremendous tax cut, because they’re very highly taxed,’ Trump said in January.  

Skagway’s economy is heavily driven by tourism and Canadians are the most prominent group of visitors

Skagway Assemblyman Orion Hanson has been fighting to uphold a $28 million port project with the Yukon Territory and to keep Canadians from turning their backs on Alaska

The president’s bold idea has not sat well with Canadian leaders and citizens, who have no interest in being incorporated into the US.

‘How about, if we buy Alaska, and we’ll throw in Minnesota and Minneapolis at the same time? It’s not realistic,’ Ontario Premier Doug Ford, head of Canada’s most populous province, responded the idea in February.

Trump added fuel to the fire when he slapped hefty import taxes on Canada in March. 

He imposed 25 percent tariffs on nearly all Canadian and Mexican  imports to the US.

The president claimed Canada and Mexico were not doing enough to stop the flow of fentanyl from flowing into the US, but only a small fraction of the drugs come across the northern border. 

On Wednesday, Trump declared that foreign trade and economic practices have sparked a national emergency.

During his address in the White House Rose Garden, the president announced all nations will be faced with at least 10 percent tariffs on all US imports, which started on Saturday.

But Canada and Mexico were exempt from the 10 percent baseline tax because of the pre-existing import taxes he hit the countries with. 

The historically rich area has long maintained close ties with Canada ‘s Yukon Territory, which is just over the region’s Skagway-Fraser Border Crossing

On ‘Liberation Day’, Trump declared that foreign trade and economic practices have sparked a national emergency

He also announced Wednesday more than 90 countries will be hit with additional reciprocal tariffs in order to make the US ‘wealthy again’ on April 9. 

Even with the new tariffs announced Wednesday, the rates on Canada would remain at 25 percent, according to the White House. 

In response to Trump’s taxation efforts, Canada imposed 25 percent import tariffs on US goods at the start of March. 

This back-and-forth between the US and Canada has trickled down into the local affairs of Skagway and the Yukon Territory. 

Skagway Assemblyman Orion Hanson has been fighting to uphold a $28 million port project with the Yukon Territory and to keep Canadians from giving Alaska the cold shoulder. 

‘I’m going to be very blunt, It’s going to be a personal decision that people are making.’ Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai told Hanson, the WSJ  reported. 

Alaskans who sympathize with Canada have even reached out on America’s behalf, in hopes of preserving their friendship despite the rocky political climate. 

Residents in Port Roberts, Washington (pictured) have been caught in the crossfire of the ongoing trade wars between the two countries ever since President Donald Trump threatened to implement hefty tariffs on a long list of goods imported from Canada

Hana Schindler of Skagway said that despite her heartfelt apologizes, her Canadian friend offered her a cold response. 

‘She said, “We understand that but we’re not going to Skagway,”‘ she recalled to the WSJ.

Local officials newest goal is to preserve their long-standing ties with Canada, setting themselves apart from Trump’s stances. 

‘We need our Canadian neighbors. We need each other,’ assemblyman Orion Hanson said at the March 14 committee meeting. 

Residents in Port Roberts, Washington have found themselves in a similar dilemma with Canada. 

Locals who live in the small exclave, or part of a state that is geographically separated from the mainland by another territory, are feeling the direct effects of the tariff mayhem – specifically at their three restaurants and singular grocery store. 

More than 70 percent of properties are owned by Canadians, and more than 50 percent of an estimated 1,200 residents have dual citizenship, Wayne Lyle, the President of Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce, told the Canadian Press.

The few local businesses and popular tourist attractions, including beaches, hiking trails and a golf course, have been suffering economically as many Canadians have boycotted the area amid Trump’s threats.