For Canadians Visiting Myrtle Beach, Trump Policies Make the Vibe Chillier

ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Canadians have long flocked to the South Carolina beach town. This year, many are offended by the president and threatening to stay away.

WHY WE’RE HERE

We’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. At one popular South Carolina beach town, locals are hoping that Southern charm can offset hard feelings among Canadian tourists.

March 15, 2025

The Southerners at the Myrtle Beach Welcome Center had brewed Tim Hortons coffee for their northern guests. They were giving away cookies adorned with maple leaves, and lapel pins featuring the twinned flags of Canada and South Carolina.

It was Monday morning at the kickoff party for Can-Am Days, the annual ritual that honors the Canadians who have long bolstered the city’s tourist economy in the winter months. For more than 60 years, it had been the most easygoing of international summits: The local Lions Club would welcome Lions from Canada. There were garden tours and golf tournaments. In pre-internet days, the local paper would print the Canadian news.

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Now it had gotten complicated and weird, a result of the trade war being waged against Canada by a capricious American president whose image is all over the Myrtle Beach T-shirt shops, his famous fist pump as popular as sea gulls and sunsets.

Along with brandishing ever-changing tariff policies — threatening, imposing, rescinding them — President Trump has repeatedly asserted that he wants to make Canada the 51st state, leaving many Canadians astonished and furious. Some have canceled plans to visit conservative Myrtle Beach, part of a broader grass-roots travel boycott that is threatening to put a dent in the $20.5 billion that Canadian visitors spend in the United States each year.