Trump doubles down on annexation threat, says Canada would be ‘cherished state’
Trump doubles down on annexation threat, says Canada would be ‘cherished state’
U.S. President Donald Trump doubled down on his desire for Canada to become the 51st state Sunday, while also threatening new tariffs on steel and aluminum products.
Summary
Donald Trump reiterated his claim that Canada would be better as the U.S.’s 51st state, citing trade imbalances and lower taxes.
He also announced new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada, despite a recent 30-day reprieve.
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau has not formally responded, but a government source said they await official confirmation.
Trump criticized Canada’s defense spending and border security, despite recent Canadian commitments.
Canada previously retaliated against similar tariffs in 2018 before a 2019 trade deal resolved the dispute.
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Most of us would rather die than ever become an American. Want a good example of the mood in Canada summed up against our 'ally to the south' as of late? Well let me just personally put it this way. You, the United States, are a fucking joke.
To quote an author, Stephen Marche, who spoke on the CBC here in Canada recently... The bold is mine but the emphasis really should be placed there anyway.
They've [The US] come off of 70 years of failed wars of occuption. One thing you have to understand about these comments is that they come from a profound weakness that America is really unfamiliar with. And Canada is unfamiliar with America being this weak. They can't hold Baghdad, I'm not sure why they think they can hold Montreal. But they're also being kicked out of Niger and you know they are weaker than they've ever been in a lot of ways. They are extremely fragile as a country. They have absolutely no solidarity, they have absolutely no unity. They are in the middle of dismantling their administrative state and war is a is a test, fundamentally, of the strength of the administrative state. So I think you should take this about as seriously as you would take the ramblings of a crack addict on the subway. I.e, you pay attention to it and get out of the way and you do what you can but, you know, this is not something to be treated like an actual... this is not something to be thought about. It's just the ramblings of lunacy.
[...]
I think he's [Trump] actually managed to make Canadians patriotic for the first time since I can remember. You have to say, he's the president of the United States but the United States is crumbling. Institutions are falling apart and 'Who the United States is at this moment'... that's not a meaningful phrase. You have to ask yourself which America are you talking about, which institutions are you talking about, because they are not under the guidance of anyone, right?
[...]
All he [Trump] can do is destroy. The American stock market is falling, even the threat of this [tarrifs on Canadian goods] has caused inflation to raise it's head. The American people fired everyone who has caused gas prices to rise almost immediately. They can tolerate almost anything from their political class. War crimes, whatever, but increase gas prices they go crazy for. So it's just very important to understand that this is spoken from a position of profound weakness.
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America has never been an uglier place to become a part of. <laughs> I mean who would wanna be American at this point in history. They're about to start killing each other. There is no question that there is a Canadian rejection of American values, the American government and Amreica itself. Why wouldn't you reject these people? They're awful.
What a deservedly scathing review of the US of A.
And of most of the people. That "Why wouldn't you reject these people. They're awful." line is based on the fact that a majority of Americans allowed Trump to become elected. Either through actively voting for him or whatever excuse they want to use for not voting at all against outright fascism. First time he was elected an argument could be made that the people who didn't vote or who voted for him were misled. At this point? It just became abundantly clear that our neighbors to the south genuinely don't seem to care about anything or harbor a deep amount of hatred or ignorance within themselves.
Review should have gone a bit harder in my opinion. It isn't just the government or the country itself that is an embarassment. Most of the people are too.
And let me be abundantly clear. If whoever is reading this voted for anyone other than Kamala, or did not vote at all, yes. You're the awful people we're talking about. You should really hate yourself as much as we hate you.
As George Carlin said, selfish ignorant people elect selfish ignorant leaders.
Personally, talking to anyone about politics here is unnerving. Most people are in this fog where current events are only an ephemeral storyline that they tune into periodically like it's a TV drama. Never a big deal, never anything that could affect them or those they care for. It's a position of privilege, frankly. Maybe some of them are just that dumb. I think a lot of people, though, are scared, either of their ignorance or their powerlessness, so they simply avoid being involved or educated out of discomfort. That's probably the nicest interpretation I have for my countrymen's behavior.
Otherwise you are spot on. The uniquely tasteless brand of brash American chauvinism that we were globally lampooned for during the Invasion of Iraq has metastasized. We are long overdue for being knocked down a peg. I wish I could say the fallout from this painful reckoning would stay within our borders, but it most likely won't. We have a very uncertain year ahead of us, let alone the next five years.
About half of America would join Canada in fighting this tyranny. I think it would be a grave mistake for Trump’s presidency to follow through on these threats.
No they fucking wouldn't. They would sit at home and watch the Superbowl and clap along like they are right now.
I think you greatly underestimate how many Americans are angry about what’s going on and like our neighbors to the North.
"being angry" is like "thoughts and prayers"... it really means nothing.
Only a minuscule part of Americans are actually <insert emotion here> to motivate them to do anything about it... half of those are not even doing anything useful...
I think I know exactly how many Americans are protesting right now.
That’s cynical. Americans generally love Canadians outside Trump’s bullshit echo chamber. It’s horrifying to watch him shit all over Canada, and only strengthens our shared enemies, which is his goal. Many of us are standing up, contacting our representatives, and saying NO.
Is that the same half that rose up to fight it at home? Because I must have missed that part.
And America would lose. Violently. They may successfully annex the country but they would never win.
If America invades Canada then the only thing that has happened is guaranteed your own demise. You have a border with us that isn't defensible and we look exactly like you. We sound exactly like you. We are taught the same things as you are and because of your loud as shit TV, we're plugged into the same pop culture. We can pass every single test to come off as an American.
America invades Canada and guerilla warfare becomes instaneous. You would have to literally kill every single Canadian who has a problem with the invasion because otherwise the extreme Anti-American hatred will only grow and foster until the United States is constantly being bombarded by "domestic terrorists" from a nation that never wanted to be a part of your shitheap in the first place.
People keep thinking about war with drones and tanks and soldiers. If you're going to another country and trying to pound them into submission like the Americans or Russians? Sure. But it is a very different thing entirely when a fishing vessel packed with fertilizer detonates inside of a port or harbor or when multiple explosives are set off devastating your insanely aging and woefully unprotected bridges and railways. Or those pipelines that go on forever with massive areas of nothing and no one in between. Cause an ecological spill you can't recover from. Maybe even the power grid that your states have idiotically decided to seperate? We could cripple Texas with a bunch of Albertans. Or we could just go through your farming states spreading weeds everywhere. Start planting Kudzu everywhere across the US. Start burning forests that prevent your dustbowl from reoccuring. You are so fucking easy to destroy.
You guys protect all the wrong things and you do not need to be a terrorist to realize how insanely inadequate the protections would be from attacks within.
Americans like to think of themselves as heroes, fighting for what's right, upholding the constitution etc. But if you look at history Americans again and again chose to simply do nothing. You reached late Roman decadence.
Here a candidate voted with the far right and a week later, one million people were on the streets. Population adjusted that would be 5 million Americans. That was a small protest for us. And that's nothing compared to the French. I looked at the biggest American demonstrations and this one demo, a regular Sunday for us, would have been the third biggest in the US, population adjusted, or the seventh biggest, not adjusted.
All these talks of civil war.. You cannot even move your ass to go to a demo. You think regular Americans are actually going to look at a Bradley, who can kill all the inhabitants of a house with one shot, and go like "yep, time to strap on the suicide vest!"
Even those militia types.. Look at them. How far do you think they can run on average? How far with a backpack? They are just LARPing. 80% will stay home, 4% will go back home after the beer runs out, 15% will rat the others out to the Gestapo.
Agree with you but I'll also throw out- protests do fuck all here. Those in power ignore and then we move on with life. It's just the truth.
Until you threaten their money or lives it won't do shit and plenty of people are happy enough to hold signs and pat themselves on the back saying they made a difference.
I don't think that many would involve themselves in this war. Luckily, you don't need that many when your are shitting on neighbors, partners, and other military and trade hegemonies.
Really looking forward to the day the orange buffoon drops
To be fair, Bagdad is half a world away. The logistics of maintaining something there is astronomically higher than in the same hemisphere, let alone our next door neighbor.
That being said I'm on team annexation... of Minnesota. Please take us!
First we take Wisconsin... Then we take Mich-i-gaaaan
Surprisingly I don't think I've seen comments from people who live in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont on the subject online. I never realized just how close those states are to Montreal.
I disagree with only one point there: while America as a political entity is like a crazy crackhead, it's like a very heavily armed crazy crackhead. Treat the prospect of being invaded by the US the same way Ukrainians treated the prospect of being invaded by Russia. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst, because the US military is really good at wrecking whole countries even if it sucks at occupying them.
And are they just going to start shooting normal people at random? Canadians look exactly and sound exactly like America. The US Military is really good at wrecking a country but who cares when we can cross a border you can't defend, mingle perfectly and start guerilla attacks against major infrastructure?
This war is not just tanks vs planes and ships vs submarines. This would end violently for America.
You seem to be under the impression that I'm defending the idea of the US invading Canada. I am not. It's a horrific thing to even contemplate and insane on many levels. My point is that the US might do it anyway, so Canada needs to be prepared. You really don't want to be the next Vietnam or Iraq.
You seem to be under the impression that I’m defending the idea of the US invading Canada.
No? I just missed a step in my text a bit. My point was that while the US military is strong and could outright invade Canada with tanks and planes and guns... that isn't how the war would actually be fought. It would instantly turn to guerilla warfare as normal citizens started weaponizing themselves, crossing into the United States, and being able to carry out attacks on American infrastructure while looking and sounding the same as Americans.
Canada can't prepare a ton more than it already has but America can't prepare at all. The infrastructure in America is way too vulnerable and any war with Canada would mean a destruction of American infrastructure carried out by people wearing not uniforms but a smile.
Excuse the naive question please, but how will Canadians know each other?
That doesn't matter at all when you're actively attacking infrastructure and not people.
Thanks for the link and transcript
I typed that bitch out manually because I knew I was just gonna end up sending it to someone else in the future.
I already have.
That's a lot of work, I appreciate it.
😘
Beautiful reference and mention of an insightful writer and author .... now I have some more reading to do. Thanks!