As an American teenager who developed a sense of political awareness during George W. Bush’s War on Terror, I distinctly recall how the post-9/11 era eroded our political culture and our sense of decency in ways we’ve yet to overcome. One memory that stands out is the widespread frenzy among many Americans over Iranians chanting a “Death To America” slogan.
Even now, many in the U.S. media and political elite continue to see bombing Iran as a sensible approach. Imagine if, back in 2002, Iranian leaders had openly expressed intentions to annex substantial portions of American land, effectively placing millions of us under their control.
How do you think our nation would have reacted to that implausible threat? Would we have shown any patience to anyone advising us not to worry?
Today, millions of our neighbors to the north are hearing similar threats from our current president, Donald Trump, and they aren’t taking it lightly.
Of course, Iran is across the Atlantic Ocean and is significantly less powerful than the U.S. In contrast, Canada shares a border with us and is presently under threat from a remarkably imperialistic leader who continues to impose crippling tariffs on their economy for absurd reasons and who commands the world’s most formidable military — all while suggesting he would like to treat Canada as “the 51st state.”
“The rationale he is giving for these tariffs regarding fentanyl is utterly baseless, completely unjustified, and entirely false,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted Tuesday, in response to Trump’s latest ridiculous actions in his trade war against Mexico and Canada. “What he desires is a total collapse of the Canadian economy, as that would facilitate annexation.”
When I question senior Trump advisers, other officials, and Republican insiders about the president’s threats towards Canada, I often hear that it’s just Trump being himself or that I’m being an overzealous leftist. Alternatively, I’m told the president is merely engaging in his Art Of The Deal diplomacy, suggesting there’s method in his chaotic approach. Occasionally, the focus shifts to how Canada’s prime minister is to blame and that being offended by Trump’s statements is an exercise in futility.
Sometimes, I receive a moment of honesty that reveals a larger agenda, even if said with some irony.
“Donald Trump should not view Canada as the 51st state; it clearly should be classified as a territory,” remarks one official from the Trump administration, who argues that making Canada a state would likely introduce “too many liberal voters,” risking an Electoral College shift toward the Democratic Party. (U.S. territories like Puerto Rico don’t get electoral votes for the presidency.)
There are myriad reasons why Trump and his administration’s ceaseless chatter about converting Canada into the “51st state” should not be dismissed as mere posturing or MAGA trolling. A report from last month in the New York Times indicated that during a private call, Trump “informed Mr. Trudeau that he questioned the validity of the treaty defining the border between our countries and expressed a desire to negotiate a revision of the boundary, without offering any further details.”
Recently, Trump — a person who would never engage in an act historically significant enough to undermine democracy in America — has publicly declared his desire to govern Canada, a crucial ally of the U.S. This isn’t merely Trump’s blurted notion; it has been adopted as a stance by the United States federal government, with both his White House press secretary and Homeland Security secretary now labeling Canada as “the 51st state.”
“Canada could enhance its efforts. Canada has been overtaken, Bret, by Mexican cartels,” said top Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro rather absurdly during an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier on Wednesday as he attempted to rationalize Trump’s tariffs. (At least Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt nearly confirmed that these tariffs aim to facilitate Canada’s annexation.)
While addressing our northern neighbor, the implications of referencing the U.S. fentanyl crisis and violent Mexican drug lords as justifications for these reckless economic decisions create potential disastrous consequences for our southern neighbors.
For years, Trump and numerous prominent figures within the Republican Party — at think tanks, in Congress, and now within the highest levels of his second administration — have shifted the conversation around invading and bombing Mexico from the edges of radical right-wing fantasy into the mainstream of the GOP. Legislation has been proposed, policy papers circulated, and Trump campaigned on this during his successful re-election bid.
“President Trump aims to designate them a terrorist organization and use the full strength of U.S. special operations forces to eliminate them,” stated Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar” and architect of immigration crackdowns, in November.
Whether or not Trump ultimately sends in troops or conducts a drone strike on Mexican soil within the coming years, it would be irresponsibly naïve for the Mexican government to regard this rhetoric as idle. The Republican Party, not just its bombastic leader, has made it crystal clear they believe they can violate Mexican sovereignty in brutally violent ways whenever they choose, justified by the drug cartels and fentanyl crisis.
How can the average Canadian rationalize the fact that the Trump administration is employing those exact same justifications when discussing economic warfare against Canada and its aspiration to annex their nation? The fact that the U.S. federal government is loudly, irritatingly proclaiming — in your name and mine, and at the expense of our taxpayers — its intention to obliterate the national sovereignty of our longstanding friend and ally to the north is a scandal in itself.
Not a joke, not a prank, not mere bravado — a scandal.
Since Trump’s ascension in 2015 — over a political career that has only escalated in its fascistic and lawless tendencies — it has become commonplace for many within the elite segments of media and politics to dismiss various Trump outbursts or actions as nothing more than “distractions” from more pressing issues. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, pundits and politicians maintaining that the president’s recent claim to be “THE KING” is a trivial distraction, even as Trump and his aides have employed every tool at their disposal to bestow upon him the powers of one.
Indeed, it would be simpler to dismiss Trump’s theatrical imperialist rhetoric about conquering Canada, home to approximately 40 million people, if this weren’t happening against the backdrop of an administration trying to impose its perverse MAGA version of American imperialism on a war-torn European nation.
Over the past decade, one of the main tenets of Trumpist propaganda has been the portrayal of Trump as a new kind of Republican in foreign policy: He’s no neocon, doesn’t mirror Bush or Cheney, and wishes to “end endless war,” striving for his interpretation of “peace through strength.” That narrative has always been misleading and became even more evident during his first term when he escalated the war in Afghanistan and did not terminate it, contrary to President Joe Biden’s eventual actions.
The second term of “Donald The Dove” has intensified this contradiction, as Trump and his administration seek to coerce the Ukrainian government into relinquishing access to invaluable fossil fuels and mineral assets while the nation endures a brutal Russian invasion. This represents a uniquely despicable shakedown and indicates that Trump’s main interest in the Russia-Ukraine war is to collaborate with Vladimir Putin in a joint mission to divide the spoils of conflict.
For Canadians, this is all visible on the evening news. Will U.S. Marines be advancing on Quebec next week? Probably not.
Yet, the damage is already inflicted. Canadians are facing the same tactics of extortion and intimidation that Trump has unleashed on Ukraine.
It is, or at the very least should be, a troubling mark on our national conscience, and the typical aggrieved Canadian is responding in a rational manner. If anything, it is the American public that ought to take Trump’s transgressions more seriously. We enabled this situation.
