Trump Isn’t Kidding About Canada
A border crossing between the U.S. and Canada. Image taken from the NPR website.
Well, he’s doing it. After repeatedly going back and forth on when he would implement these horrendous policies, United States President Donald Trump (yuck, I hate saying those words again) has begun his series of tariffs on Canada and Europe.
Canada and the EU have, of course, retaliated, as they have every right to. And I greatly oppose Trump’s action, not just because it’s going to make things more expensive for the average American. It reinforces to me that the U.S. had no right to elect Donald Trump due to our oversize impact on other countries.
But as horrific as the tariffs are, as disgusting as this betrayal may be, I want to bring your attention to a post Trump put on Truth Social the other day. Now, I’m not going to link to that post - we shouldn’t give him our traffic. However, embedded in that Truth Social post was a claim that the only solution for the tariffs is for Canada to join as the “51st state.”
For some, it may be trivial to dismiss that as a joke. That Trump’s just bluffing, and he isn’t brave enough to actually follow through on that threat of annexation. However, this is far from the first time he’s asked for Canada to join the U.S. - he’s been saying this nonstop since he was elected again this past November.
Yes, Trump lies about a lot of things, and some might say that this echoes his plans during his first term to “build the wall and make Mexico pay for it.” Never mind the fact that U.S.-Canada relations are unlikely to ever recover after Trump leaves, if he ever leaves. But that’s beside the point for now.
In his Truth Social post, Donald Trump stated that the border between America and Canada was “artificially drawn.” If this doesn’t send a chill down your spine, I don’t know what will. And there’s only one reason for that:
He sounds just like Putin.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin during their infamous 2018 summit in Helsinki, Finland. Image taken from NBC News.
Prior to launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that has killed countless civilians and turned entire cities to rubble, Vladimir Putin constantly referred to Ukraine as an illegitimate state. In his speech announcing the start of his “special military operation”, he claimed that he wanted to “de-Nazify” the country. He published this essay arguing that Russians and Ukrainians were “one people.”
It’s also no secret that Trump wants to be just like Putin. Look how many dictators he admires. Remember when Xi Jinping removed his own term limit and Trump said that “we should try President For Life someday”? Well, I do.
As horrific as the war in Ukraine is, a conflict between the United States and Canada would be even worse. Canada is in NATO, meaning that in theory, the rest of the alliance would need to help defend them if it were invaded. And I believe that America’s former NATO allies would fulfill their obligations under Article 5, since their security depends on it.
I won’t come close to naming all the horrors that would occur if America invaded Canada. It’s entirely possible - maybe even inevitable - that nuclear weapons would be used by one or both sides. That’s to say nothing of the domestic resistance in the United States. While I cannot speak for every liberal, I know that I would like to defect to Canada if the U.S. launches a full-scale invasion of its former ally. The real question is whether or not they’d have me.
The conflict would be truly worthy of the title World War III, and it would be the end of the United States, as well as possibly the end of the world.
The question then becomes: Who would stop Trump?
I don’t think there’s any way Trump will be talked down from giving the order if he’s truly determined. He has no conscience to begin with, especially since he doesn’t need to run for reelection - he’ll either be out in four years, dictator for life, or dead. Either way, he’s President right now, and his second term is all about revenge. Trump is going to invade Canada if he thinks doing so will “own the libs” who voted him out in 2020.
So, again, who will stop him?
The generals? I doubt it. He nominated Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense not because Hegseth was qualified (he isn’t), but because Trump was confident he would remain loyal. Project 2025 called for purging the military of generals who would refuse to follow orders, and that purge is already taking place. If the generals defy his order to invade Canada, he can just fire them until he reaches someone who is that insane.
There were adults in the room last time. There are far fewer this time.
Congress? No way. Even after Trump incited a mob to personally kill all members of Congress and overthrow the government on January 6, 2021, the Republicans in both chambers still remain loyal. There is no red line for them. They care about kissing the ring more than they care about their own lives, so they’ll never turn on Big Don.
January 6 Capitol attack. Image taken from Britannica.
The people? Leaving aside the fact that half of “the people” keep supporting Trump no matter what he does, it’s unlikely that the protests would be massive enough to be noticed by those in power. It’s not like the media’s been covering them very much. Besides, as I’ve written about just the other day, our cities aren’t designed for protests.
And let’s be honest: You know as well as I do that even if the protests were as enormous as the George Floyd BLM protests in the summer of 2020, they wouldn’t do shit. Those protests certainly didn’t accomplish anything progressive; if anything this country’s gotten more racist since 2020.
Even in spite of the annexation threats, however, I remain envious of Canadians.
It’s not just that they have free health insurance, or that there are a lot fewer mass shootings (and those that do occur can be blamed on American guns). It’s not just that women in Canada still have the right to bodily autonomy. It’s not just that they have better protections for the environment and LGBTQ+ rights, and it’s not just that they keep supporting Ukraine even as America has pivoted to supporting Russia.
It’s that, unlike how it is in America, I would be proud to be Canadian.
It’s often said that Americans who don’t want to be associated with Trump pretend to be Canadian when they travel abroad; this practice is sometimes referred to as flag-jacking. Come to think of it, I might do that next time. But there’s a reason why the sane Americans do this - Canada has a far better reputation abroad than the U.S. does.
After all, when 9/11 resulted in the closure of U.S. airspace, Canada took in stranded American passengers. When Europe needed help defeating fascism in World War II, Canada joined because it was the right thing to do - we only joined after we were attacked ourselves. Don’t even get me started on the unjustified wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the former of which some Americans fled to Canada in order to avoid being drafted into.
When the Canadian hockey fans booed the U.S. national anthem a few weeks ago, I wanted to join them. The nation of Canada reflects my values far more than this hellhole - the great white north has all the natural beauty (and more) with none of the political insanity. As Reddit will frequently tell you, politics don’t run peoples’ lives in Canada the way it does down here.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford (a Conservative) strategizing with Canadian Prime Minister-designate Mark Carney (a Liberal). Such a scene would be unthinkable between a Republican and Democrat in the States. Image taken from the Toronto Star.
Here is my stance on the invasion, which I fervently hope does not happen:
I’m not going to apologize, because to apologize means to expect forgiveness, and I don’t expect that. I just want to make clear, in the strongest possible terms, that I do not support any of these atrocities, even if they’re committed in my name.
If you’re a fellow sane American, the best thing you can do is call your Congressperson and tell them to back Seth Magaziner’s (D-RI) bill, HR 1936, which is literally called the “No Invading Allies Act”. There should be no invading allies. Period.
Trump might be bluffing. I sure hope he is. But counting on his threats being a bluff would be an even dumber decision than Biden running for reelection. We need to act as if Trump might actually invade Canada, because it sure looks like it.
