Canadians and Republicans alike are confounded as President Donald Trump increasingly links a trade war to his push to annex America's northern neighbor.

Summary

Donald Trump’s push to annex Canada as the 51st U.S. state is confusing due to its sudden and unexplained emergence.

Initially praising Canada as an ally, Trump now aggressively seeks annexation, imposing tariffs, criticizing trade deficits, and challenging established borders and treaties.

Former officials and congressional Republicans express bewilderment, stating they have “no clue” about Trump’s motivation.

Canadian leaders and the U.S. business community strongly oppose the move, citing sovereignty and economic harm.

Republicans also question Trump’s strategy, noting annexation would add millions of liberal-leaning voters and complicate American politics.

  • thefluffiest@feddit.nl
    26·
    10 hours ago

    This is his (stupid and selfdefeating) way to tackle four problems:

    1. US industry, especially those close to him, needs rare earth minerals. Canada and especially Greenland might provide those.
    2. Climate change will render large parts of the US uninhabitable in a few decades time. The US therefore needs Lebensraum. Now that’s a word he and his right-arm-raising friends love.
    3. Combining 2 and 1, the Arctic is melting. Exposing all sorts of new mineable goodies, and opening up new waterways. That will provide new economic opportunities as well as create new military threats. Owning Canada and Greenland would go a long way towards mitigating that.
    4. Trump sees a future in which a few large power blocks control the world. Currently, the US is one of the smallest of those: only 350 million where China and India are over 1 billion each, Europe is more than 500 million, etc. So the US needs to expand and grow its population size.
    • NotLemming@lemm.eeEnglish
      17·
      9 hours ago

      He’s much too stupid for any of this, so I assume we’re talking about the architects of project 2025 and/or putin?

      • thefluffiest@feddit.nl
        1·
        1 hour ago

        Point 1 will be underscored regularly by his oligarch cronies, like Musk, Bezos and Brin - those that want to build rockets, electronics and batteries. They would love for the US to become totally independent of China, in minerals but also production capacity and price levels.

        Point 3 will be mostly military talking points, and although it’s not in the media much, the race for the Arctic has been on for a while.

        Points 2 and 4 are about raw power on the world stage, and that’s something Trump does understand. He doesn’t believe in cultural, diplomatic or economic power - only military. It also rhymes with nazi ideology about Lebensraum, a homeland for the ‘pure race’ that derives its global power from its purity. It might also involve a breeding ideology.

      • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        81·
        7 hours ago

        100%. T rump is just a tool that they put in place to do their bidding and to be a fall guy when the people finally get off their asses.

        • NotLemming@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          6 hours ago

          I think that’s why they have musk around. Not only is he doing a lot of the controversial stuff but he’s loaded