Hard to overstate how betrayed Canadians feel. Best friends for generations, a wholly integrated economy, and now the US govt is going to lay waste to our economy, and for what?
All the same, sending sympathy and affection to all our true friends among Americans. We hope for better days.
Yes it was a vote taken away from someone beating trump, so thanks for the shit show were in now. Life was never guaranteed to fair to give a 2 perfect choices, so sometimes the better of two bad alternatives is better than the worst one coming true
tRump had approximately 77 million votes. Harris had approximately 74 million. 90 million eligible voters chose to ignore the "participatory" part of "participatory democracy" and did not vote. Those numbers don't say anything good about who we are as a people.
Plenty of evidence that tabulation machines in the swing states flipped votes to trump, WHICH HE ACTUALLY SAID OUT LOUD later, boasting about his win. Add widespread voter suppression and interference, and many votes for Harris were blocked or rejected.
Look. You will find good non-conspiratorial discussion of both of these here on Substack.
I agree with pretty much everything you said here, except I have to question the tabulation machine theory - just as I did when that accusation was leveled - without a shred of evidence - in 2020.
Stop the steal is for baby losers. He won under the rules in place and considering 15M people voted for Biden in 2020 didn't bother to show up, no one to blame. So man/women up and deal with it and figure out a way to overwhelm the fuckers next time
Will you people stop that shit? Do you realize that this is how democracy works? The world only sees US POLICY, and doesn't give a damn that some nice lady in Louisiana voted for Harris?
Our fellow Americans are a mortal threat to our livelihoods. Stupid people voted in a stupid man. It’s one thing to be a low information voter, it’s another to enable the destruction of our democracy. I hope we finally take this serious enough to actually do something to stop it. Now would be the time to do something.
good comment. How many people spend 3+ hours every Sunday during football season or hours and hours watch the latest "dancing with someone famous", or the "masked singer" but then complain they don't have time for "politics". I personally feel that the one debt, besides our gratitude, we owe to all men/women who have served this country, especially those who have given their "full measure of devotion", is for us to spend the time needed in our busy lives to be informed and education citizens. Until more people feel that way and spend the time needed to get involved to paraphrase Bill "Hoosier" Smith, "we are truly fucked now".
Most votes have minimal clue what they voted for. They got a bunch single issue voters with the abortion law, and the propaganda around all that. once they vote, they need cognitive disconence to regulate themself, justify up to a point the actions, and what a well oil machine the Trump administration has to talk to his base.
Here’s a question: this is the second time Trump has been elected. Even if the next president is a chill free trade loving smart guy, how can Canada trust that y’all won’t just elect another moron who blows things up again in the future? Trump has completely destroyed the US’s reputation, and the damage might be permanent.
Because trusting the free trade guy is easy, and we Canadians always prefer the easy way. We’ve had decades upon decades to expand our markets, but we’re lazy, shortsighted navel gazers.
For people outside the US, it doesn't matter whether you voted for him or not: he is your president, he acts on your behalf, he threatens us with tariffs or war. We must defend ourselves. If we are lucky by reducing trade with the US to the bare minimum.
Trump is the Three Stooges, wrapped up into one idiotic man, elected by one idiotic country under the rules established by one idiotic Constitution. But Nice Try, “Founding Fathers” (who were the fathers of slaves, both literally and figuratively)
Only 30 something percent of eligible voters voted for Felon #45, and he won by 1.5 percent. 10% voted for a third party candidate, 30 something for Kamala Harris and 30 something percent didn’t vote at all. Those numbers certainly don’t equal “most Americans.”
And then there’s a highly likely scenario where he messed with ballots and machines. He has almost stated as much — besides the fact that he always accuses others of what he himself does.
Speaking of Musk, check out the Reuters reports on what has been going on at the Treasury Department and federal Office of Personnel Management. His minions are doing exactly what he did with Twitter when he took over, but this time it’s our entire fiscal system on the line.
Me too and all of my friends, but you and I and them don’t comprise a representative sample of white voters. Anyone who voted for the felon is a person the world would be better off without, and that cohort of 76 million includes a substantial majority of white voters.
You are certainly not responsible for anyone’s vote but yours. But the white voters who vote for Republicans (which is now, and has been for many decades, most white voters) are responsible for the mess we’re in now. It’s for sure getting old. It went stale in 1968 and has been stinking up the planet since then.
It does not matter to Canadians who you voted for! The fact is that Americans are imposing 25% tariffs on Canada with treats for more! Canadians didn’t start this trade war but were not taking the betrayal without a fight. We are angry! The American anthem at a hockey game in Ottawa was soundly booed - and there’s lots more anti Americanism on the way along with retaliatory tariffs.
57% of white voters voted for Felon47. That’s most white voters by a 14-point margin. Among white working-class voters it was a 40-point margin. It was a 60-point margin for white evangelical voters. Nobody knows the preferences of non-voters, but it’s reasonable to assume that the distribution of potential votes by those citizens would be about the same as for those who did vote.
Me too, except for the shock part. I’ve been fighting these bastards since 1963 and feel like I understand them well. They are willfully ignorant, stingy, mean, and vicious. And nearly all white.
Yeah - we are pretty likely the dumbest people in the world. We get corruption, stupid policies, and planes falling from the sky, but at least we managed to avoid the brown lady with the laugh…
Carol You can’t just sit back and hope that the courts handle this. Americans need to “take back” control. Take constructive actions: write to your representatives, ask your friends on Facebook,etc…
I don't think that most Americans are. I am particularly disgusted by latinos in the US! I remember some informal conversations I had with Cuban Americans while visiting Miami! All I could think was how fortunate FOR CUBA those angry and retrograde people no longer lived on the island. Apparently that latino anger has spread. On your last elections they behaved like the selfish folks they've ever been. Once IN, they want everybody else OUT and the hell with friends, the environment, regulatory agencies....everything that matters! They are ohh so pious and ohhh so SELFISH at the same time. And yes, I am a latino too but thanks to their mightly God, I live far, far away from the USA!
Sadly, the damage is done. Not just reputationally but Canada is losing companies and foreign investment just through the threats of tariffs. We will lose GDP, not just while the threat hangs over us, but for long after Trump is gone (if he leaves). The US has not only ceased to be a trusted partner and friend, they are predatory, destructive and Canada's biggest threat. One man created it but the American people voted for it in majority.
Nice comment, thank you. By the time this is over, Trump will take every means to destroy Canada's economy. Ostensibly to force Canada into an economic and political takeover of Canada. We will defeat you.
Friends, we will never again be. Trust me on that! We will never forget the experience.
BTW, Canada's assets are valued at US$17 trillion, more than the value of US assets. I can't wait for the deal XI or the EU will offer us for our energy assets. Eamon
As an American I hope your Country defeats the rise of the fascist right but just so you know there is a massive propaganda situation that allowed the apathy of 89 million eligible voters to sit this election out and of the other 152 million almost half voted against Trump. Only 14% of the population is hardcore MAGA! Of the people that voted for Trump they voted for him because he promised to lower the price of groceries, gasoline, insurance and provide affordable housing… all lies of course but the media is controlled by Billionaires, foreign adversaries and self interested social media personalities who have a personal interest in seeing Trump back in office. Don’t be so mad at all of us Americans because unfortunately your Country could fall into the same black whole. Many of us are just trying to resist, educate and find a path out of this mess!
Not sure how long you plan to wait for those energy deals, but you should plan to wait even longer for the pipelines they’ll need to get their product.
An attack on Canada, be it through tariffs or any other means, is an attack on Americans, too. Trump’s tariffs are part of his civil war against Americans. I”m sorry your nation is getting caught up in it.
Trump can’t be convinced of anything. Not even Mr. Krugman could convince him of, for example, the idiocy of tariffs. The point of our conversations, as best I can gather, is try to discuss an opposition strategy amongst our comparatively helpless selves.
Business likes stability and that is a word not in our imbecile FOTUS vocabulary. We are stuck with him. The chance that his party would vote in the Senate to impeach him is vanishingly small. The 25th amendment is unworkable. We are in a bad place and he likely will cause a depression.
Really,this regimes wants to destroy the US. Canada and Mexico, Greenland,.. may go down with it. But the US was dumbed down for 40 years by Murdock, Fox, and a vast right wing, what is the word?
Yes I fear it will be much worse before it is better. How can Republicans even stand this craziness? Trump is going to destroy the economy. Nothing he does is conservative or make any sense.
Because the Republican (I call them rethuglicans, now) are not conservative. They are daily charged-up reactionaries with a strong streak of burn it all down.
It's not just an economic depression that worries me, it's all the other controls & blatant nastiness that we will all be subjected to by his goons on all of us who have not just 'joined' the trump cult ! They are now trying to get control of the SSec funds etc - and why do we think that might be ? Most likely there will be punishing decisions made regarding our rightful payments if they decide they do not like us ! With people who have zero regard for rights or norms or standard procedures there is no bottom to what they could try to do - what the Law says has zero impact on them ! The Republicans have just sat there & given way on every move trump & his gang have now already done even if the Law was not in agreement !
You have a lot of friends. Many of us dream of joining Canada---California, Oregon, Washington, and the New England states. I'm afraid the whole world is going to have to disengage from the US. It's clear that a plurality of our voters are too stupid and venal for us to remain a great nation.
Pay no mind to the gaslighters. What you are feeling right now is valid. America is dying and Canada needs to come to terms with this fact and ensure its own independent security.
The US is definitely in turmoil but I'm not buying the dying side. Way too much Celtic blood in this lad to just pack it in and go quietly "into the night" as the saying goes. We've been through this BS in different ways before and came out the "other side" still chuggin' along. Trump is doing his best to screw up as quickly as possible and yes there will be "suckage" for most if not all. Right now as I see it the fight is to do everything possible to counter the orange menace and his minions in government until the 2026 mid-terms. Trump "screwed the pooch" in 2017-2018 and the R's got sufficiently tossed from Congress in the 2018 mid-terms that Trump was largely neutralized. Defeatism accomplishes nada.
To Donald Trumphuk — We will remember your attempt to subvert and pervert the Constitution and our democracy. Your insane tariffs and your idiotic Executive Orders all drummed up by your Project 2025 bro-Nazis will be your undoing. You’ve unleashed the Kraken—and it’s us. We won’t rest until you and your weasel (not vermin) MAGAmaniacs are ousted. We’re just getting started!
My point was rather that Trump was chosen by the collective will of the nation and thus Canada would be right to consider us hostile to its existence, just as we are hostile to our own existence…
It wasn't collective will. It wasn't even 50%. Most people didn't vote for imposing 25% tariffs on Canada. They voted to lower inflation. They are stupid and uninformed because media doesn't inform
The people are wholly discredited, such a stupid people in control of the most powerful country on earth is a fucking threat to the free world and that is my whole point. Stop rationalizing, people knew what a fucking creep Trump is, he is what they wanted. They subliminally knew how retarded his policies would be because he did the same shit last time. It is not a defense of these people that they have the memory of a fucking goldfish.
Understand your point but again the collective to which you refer is really not the majority of the US voting public nor even close. I have to believe we are going to see a lot of "buyer's remorse" in the very near future once quite a few red state folks in particular start to realize that are "welfare recipients" in a general sense that those states largely take in more Federal dollars than they pay out in taxes and the programs that are being targeted make cuts regardless of where you live. Likewise a lot of youngsters apparently stayed home over the Gaza issue as we see the significant difference in the totals for Harris vs. Biden and Trump certainly didn't get difference in his slight gains.
Trump is buffoon in many a way but he's an excellent con man who's been practicing his whole life starting with having to deal with a sadistic, sociopathic father. History shows us that these megalomaniacs tend to destroy themselves in short order once they reach what they believe is their zenith of power. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Hitler, etc.. Hubris in time leads to their own ruin. I'm half old Virginian on my mother's side and the state motto rings true for me. Sic Semper Tyrannis.
As to Canada, having been across the entirety of that wonderful country a number of times, I'm quite sure they will be just fine, eh? Now if PEI quits sending us the best potatoes for potato chips I will consider that an act of war! :)
The phrase rings hollow without a Brutus. Rationalize the outcome of the election however you like, it is a testament to the intellectual degradation of the American electorate, the trivial ease of their manipulation by Russian narratives surrounding geopolitical crises, the grotesque big money poisoning our platforms of discourse. I am in no mood to hear that the people will sour on their decision. It is immaterial because they are too infantile to do anything about it. Go prove me wrong.
I get your dour mood but it accomplishes nothing in my take on the world. If you want to call looking at the facts rationalizing that is also certainly your prerogative. Your points are certainly valid regarding Russian interference, big money control (Citizens United) etc. No one of us is going to prove anyone wrong but collective action just might at least mitigate the worst. The biggest difference from myself and some others is I'm real bad a spelling "surrender." Anyone that has a bit of Celtic ancestry (Scot, Welsh & Irish) will understand perfectly. On the other side of that coin humor me and tell just what your "mood" will accomplish as I'm sure as hell not seeing it.
Canada just received a big wake-up call. For too long, we have become an indolent nation that leaves the table to go to the washroom when the check arrives. We have not pulled our weight in NATO or the defence of North America, in the security of our border, and in China using Canada as a transit point for the transport of drugs to the US. But that is all fixable. It does not require a trade war or the takeover of a neighboring country. Eamon
As Paul notes, there is very little fentanyl flowing from Canada to the US. Indeed some of if flows from the US into Canada. Nor is illegal immigration a significant problem on the 49th parallel.
You are wrong the Premier of Alberta suggested yesterday NORAD needs a significant overhaul. An overhaul is to be undertaken jointly by US and Canada. She stressed the threat from Russaia and China to be of prime concern. Eamon
Back atcha, Chad! That said, much as I am dismayed by Trump and much as I enjoy visiting Canada, I have no plans to leave the US. Someone has to stick around and keep on bitchin'!
Most of us here in New England still want to be friends! And I’m guessing a sizable chunk of the West coast and Upper Midwest do as well. Maybe it’s time we ask our leaders to form a new union with our saner Canadian cousins?
Thank you for your magnanimity, Chad. This is not what the pathetic 69.3 million turnout for Harris voted for. I hope that Canada and Mexico steel themselves and give Trump et al the “finger” they deserve. Yes, I will suffer for it, but gladly so to see all those who didn’t vote or had the bad judgement to vote for Trump pay for this in their pocket book and well being.
Please know that many Americans are furious about everything he's doing, and we're casting about for guidance on how to DO something -- anything -- to slow his destructiveness.
And please remember that even though the 30% of eligible voters who sat out the election are, in a way, to blame for his victory, it's also true that some % of them don't support him and are regretting their decision. In other words, I think the % of the US population that *isn't* appalling is slightly larger than the % that is.
With apologies for all that this deranged monster is doing to your lovely nation and to Mexico.
He’s everything Trump could never be! Melania has the hots for Trudeau, and that demented, sick old man is jealous, so Canada is on demento’s revenge list! Wonder what Mexico’s Madame President’s reaction will be to the Toddler-in-Chief? How soon do you think ppl will be resigning from Demento’s WH staff?
I’ll tell you why tariffs are a big deal for Trump — rich oligarchs don’t like paying taxes, and since Republicans have failed in replacing income taxes with highly regressive sales taxes, they’ve now shifted to another type of consumption taxes, tariffs. The motivation hasn’t changed from lowering taxes for rich people.
I understand the impulse to seek some rationale, but with a malignant narcissist like scum-p, destructive behavior is simply inevitable. He's full of rage, and he has to direct it somewhere in order to have temporary relief -- like a release valve. Problem is, it builds up again instantly.
I agree that scum probably *is* nursing a grudge for Trudeau's laughter, and for the pic of melania gazing appreciatively at Trudeau, but the bottom line is that scum would do this to Canada and Mexico regardless of who's in office there. All leaders are fair game, with the exception of putin, orban, and a few other maniacs.
I’d like to meet the person who thought that someone who went bankrupt six times—and one of those with a casino, wtf?—would be good for business. Seriously.
I don’t like it when Trump says a bunch of BS, half-truths, misrepresents things, and lies. And he does it all the time. But the answer is not for us to do similarly.
We should strive for accuracy and precision. As far as I know, most Americans would read your comment as saying Trump has personally declared bankruptcy 6 times. As far as I know, he has never declared bankruptcy as an individual. So we should be more cautious in our phrasing so as not to imply that.
I don’t understand why you call the fact that Trump Inc declared bankruptcy 6 times to be a half-truth. Trump’s business, solely owned and managed by Trump, went bankrupt. 6 times. Not to mention the bank fraud, tax fraud, screwing of contractors, hiring of illegal immigrants, fines for cheating his customers, etc. His voters think he is a masterful businessman. His business record is one of fraud and failure. Those are the facts.
He has bankrupted six companies. How’s that? Including a casino. He was personally protected. He stiffs contractors. He rips off his supporters. He’s a grifter and a con man. Found guilty in civil court of sexual abuse. He’s a felon. He ripped off charitable foundations. Trump University. Truth Social. Trump Steaks. Trump Vodka. Trump Sneakers. Trump Bibles. If anyone thinks he has a clue about business, I’d like to meet that person. Paul Krugman and others have documented that if he had just taken the money his father left him and put it into indexed funds, he’d be far wealthier now than he is. Though maybe not, with all the recent grifts.
Ah, yes, something else Trump has upended, old enough to recall hyperventilating panic over Bill Clinton and a blowjob, now someone in govt - Trump, Hegseth - cheat on their wife/mistress/girlfriend who just delivered a baby and... nothing. One wife, two wives, three wives, affairs, hush money payouts, nothing truly matters.
A bankruptcy is a failure! Six of them is a huge failure, and the NYT, no less, proved in an 18 month investigation of Trump’s career, that he USED the bankruptcies to evade paying taxes for decades! It was part of his half a trillion dollar tax evasion scheme! Look up their in-depth reporting on it!
A few things to remember—he started at Fordham and transferred to UPenn with family help. He never made Dean’s List, one of his professor’s called him the dumbest student he’d ever taught. No extracurricular activities. As with today, he had no friends. How did he get a BA in Economics? Who knows? It certainly hasn’t helped him at all in understanding much. Consider, for example, tariffs.
I haven't even read the article. Did it mention the fact that Harris mentioned on the campaign trail (they never did, throughout the entire campaign season), namely that the Biden/Harris administration cut the fentanyl import in HALF, through smart diplomacy with Mexico and China (where its main ingredients come from)? Result: for the first time in years, an 18% drop in fentanyl casualties. Also, did the article mention that Harris's VERY detailed border security policy proposal included THE solution needed now to stop the other 50%, namely giving border patrol agents the tech devices that allow them to catch it, knowing that most of it enters the US through LEGAL entry points, hidden in cars driven by Americans?
That's how SIMPLE the solution actually is. Trump instead will launch trade wars which will cause an inflation (THE thing he promised to end - after Biden/Harris ended it already) and massively hurt the American people, with NO guarantee that it will lower drug import or casualties at all...
Unfortunately the previous administration just wasn’t very good at getting the word out as to their very impressive results. Hmm, and it could be mainstream media and the far right media just ignored or lied about everything they accomplished.
There was a concerted effort to be hypercritical of Biden and Kamala and downplay any negative thing that Trump said or did. Basically MSM Corporate Billionaires wanted Trump back in office for their own bottom line! Not to mention mass propaganda from foreign adversaries all over social media.
I think the press sec said the amount could. Of course, If we ingested crude oil, we could likely kill every American with a day's worth of imports. The irony here is that a whole lot of assault weapons flow south from the US as we have no controls. In theory a single assault weapon could kill thousands. So arguably Mexico should be imposing tariffs to keep death producing products out.
Guns manufactured in the USA are illegally shipped to Canada and sold to CDN criminals. Unlike the USA, few CDNs own guns. Those that do are licensed hunters. Our society shuns gun ownership except for bunters. It is a long-established, well-founded, traditional CDN value. Canada does not have a gun culture. Eamon
I've read that many Canadians have guns, though I suspect as you say they're hunting rifles, not semi-autos and handguns. In the US many folks in rural areas (like mine, VT), have guns as they hunt and sometimes need to deal with critters damaging crops and farm animals. Many folks here carry pistols all the time, which I'm sure is very rare in Canada. What is clear is that it's easy to buy any sort of gun in the US, and it's not very difficult to smuggle them out of the country.
Many Canadians, including me, think that the deafening silence from American businesses and politicians (and cabinet members) is much worse than last time. Very scary.
Yep, I've only seen one former German minister come out in support of Canada and also mention that we should join the EU. Nothing from the Brits including the King. The monarch doesn't traditionally get involved in politics but this should be the exception considering they are threatening our sovereignty.
The British media has been silent too. Several op/ed pieces in recent weeks regarding Greenland, which is fine and very important, but almost nothing about Canada. I wrote a letter to the Times of London last week about their silence.
Someone told me that for the monarchy to speak out, the British government would have to request it.
As a Canadian my perspective isn't focussed on the economic consequences. By electing your current president twice the US electorate has signalled to us and Mexico that the US government cannot be trusted. It seems to me that we would be foolish to rely on American good will or even an absence of ill will going forward and we should be making other plans. Reagan, Mulroney and Salinas reset North American relations for forty odd years but that's history now. Some will hope the problem goes away in four years but hope isn't a strategy.
The immediate problem might go into abeyance in four years, but the long-term problem isn’t that Trump is president, it’s that the US has shown itself to be the sort of country that can elect Trump president.
Trump is the metastasizing cancer cell that is now spreading to every organ of our body politic. If the cancer is not killed now, the body will surely die.
I hope that's not true. If we can continue to have free and fair elections...even if the outcome is sometimes a major source of shame, we can make changes and clean things up when the majority of voters recognize that the stench is coming from our own house.
Without democracy all that is left is armed revolution which usually fails.
except that so much of what he is doing is illegal or outright unconstitutional.
Biden got the country through the pandemic and got inflation down to reasonable rates without provoking a recession. Just about no economists back in 2021 or 2022 thought that could be done.
And he brought manufacturing back to the US big time.,
And he (and Harris) made a comprehensive deal with a lot of Latin American countries to take in hundreds of thousands of refugee/migrants from failing states, resettling them - which helped reduce the pressure on the US southern border. (There is NO significant flow of illegal immigrants from Canada.)
So he did a bunch of stuff he promised to do.
As for the folks who think he was complicit in the Israeli genocide in Gaza - how are they feelling about Trump's suggestion of emptying out Gaza entirely? Or his ambassador to Israel's denial of any legal existence of the West Bank, which he calls Judea and Samaria, like the religoius nuts in Israel. That's sure a good reason to have refused to vote for Harris, who spoke often of the need for a two-state solution...
Apparently, Rexii, a politician who delivers on his promise to destroy government is more trustworthy than someone who tries to protect it, and fails...?
You are making the argument that because one party is acting within the parameters political parties have been operating under since WW2, that it's okay for a guy like Trump to come in and answer with mendacity and malfeasance on a scale unseen in modern American history. That's about as an insane an argument as can be made.
If you want leftist policy, vote for leftists who run for local office. Build a bench. It's not even leftist to say that things like American Middle East policy is completely broken. It's common sense. But it doesn't get corrected by imposing a right wing autocrat on people who don't have the slightest sense of historical perspective.
He has violated several laws in the short time he's been in office this second time. These are well documented by many people, but you can start with Joyce Vance.
The "democracy" part is only alive and well when Ds run the government and supervise the election. Trump is going to kill his base -- including you -- via cuts to healthcare, Social Security, Medicare, truth, airline safety, justice, etc. etc. The tariffs (illegal; not in response to a real crisis; without any possibility of achieving the stated aim) will affect everyone. And I'm sure the retribution tariffs will be focused on products that are sold overseas by those who voted for Trump.
Rexii "Refreshing" only in the sense that it is completely abnormal behavior for any sane person...but of course, that is self-explanatory. I gather you don't approve of Joe Biden...I guess you must be very proud that we got someone else instead even if it happens to be Trump.
Genocide Joe? Joe had flaws, serious ones, but WTAF! This is the attitude that brought to the end of democracy. And there are no good guys in leadership in the Middle East. Just war mongers fighting for power at the expense of their own people. Idiot.
I think that is a reach and false equivalence. The Jews did not attack the Nazis and kill and kidnap them. I absolutely agree that Biden and Co. did not do enough to stop Netanyahu, but if anyone would have killed and kidnapped the same percentage of the US population that Hamas (who have also tortured and killed their own people) did to Israelis on October 7, the US response would likely have been similar or even worse.
Over 90% of fentanyl is smuggled in by Americans in vehicles through manned checkpoints. None comes in with immigrants. When Trump vetoed the border bill (twice) it stopped the budget to intercept it, there's not enough to man the X-ray machines still sitting in crates.
Intro had mein tears and the book only gets better. He's the magic. We met him in Lancaster, Pa were he called out a room full of treatment professionals. They ignored him and stared at their phones. No wonder we are in the thick of it 💥
Canada has significant retaliatory options, not the least of which relates to its role in controlling the St Lawrence seaway and Great Lakes shipping. Canadian excessive fees or limitations would be a significant hardship on farmers, steel producers, and bulk commodity producers who export from Great Lakes ports. A good summary of this at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighooper/2025/01/30/canada-tariff-biggest-threat-to-great-lakes-since-war-of-1812/
Trump has the attention span of a gnat and the intelligence of, maybe, a money. But this time he's surrouned by thoroughly evii people who are not stupid and who pay attention.
Watching from abroad I see a USA disintegrating. You have an executive that is incompetent & criminal, a legislature that is impotent & polluted, and a judiciary that is both corrupted & inadequate. What could possibly go right. And all the major tenures of office are likely to be held by idiots.
I'm Canadian. I'm not heading to the US for the next 4 plus years at all. Certainly not buying Teslas. And I'm double checking my groceries that everything is Made in Canada. We're going to cancel Prime and try our hardest to buy Canadian made goods.
Yes, like 50% tariffs on oil. How far do the pipelines extend from Texas and Lousiana north? The orange one can think that people will just buy North Dakota oil in the Midwest? There's a reason they're importing from Canada.
The price of gasoline is going to go up. So much for low inflation.
Yes, he talked about exempting Canadian oil from his tariffs, but he does not seem to have done so. The US gets a LOT of oil and gas from Canada - its biggest foreign source for both.
4 million barrels a day. 80% of Koch’s Midwest refinery is Alberta oil. If oil is carved out there’s a chance our federal government will slap an export tax on it.
Going after the social media oligarchs who brought Trump down on us would be sweet karma. SM brainwashing is a national security threat to all democracies. Sitting around and waiting for Musk & Zuck to subvert your country is not too bright.
The plan is to selectively target red state industries that export a great deal to Canada with 25% tariffs. Orange juice from Florida is on Canada’s list, bourbon and other alcohol as well.
Go after Trump’s business and its assets in Canada, then reduce the tariff on Chinese electric cars to zilch, and provide tools to jailbreak every VIN lock for machinery repairs.
Once that happens, turn off the oil and electricity “valves”, but give a great deal of notice to citizens impacted so they can pressure their politicians about the impending doom.
It's easy to say that, but big time retaliation will hurt Canada more than us. However, there is no going back from our traitorous behavior. We have no friends. Under Trump there are only suckers to be used.
Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia would not be far behind. And a very good thing that would be.
I am a 73-year-old retired professor living off of social security, a 401(k), and a small VA disability pension for breaking my back in the army. I am terrified that Trump and his policies are going to ruin my golden years.
You are not alone in your fear. Our retirement money is almost completely distributed by the Treasury, between SS, my husband’s federal pension, and our retirement savings program account. If Musk decides we don’t need or deserve that money, who’s going to stop him now?
Hard to overstate how betrayed Canadians feel. Best friends for generations, a wholly integrated economy, and now the US govt is going to lay waste to our economy, and for what?
All the same, sending sympathy and affection to all our true friends among Americans. We hope for better days.
Yes. It’s not us, the US. It’s Trump and his minions who have taken power and are abusing it. I’m very sorry for all of us. You and us both, Chad.
tRump & his minions are only in office as a result of the votes of Americans. We ARE to blame.
The ones who voted for him , the ones who voted third party & the ones who didn’t vote are the ones I blame.
The $%^&* Dems who couldn't bother to turn out and vote in the most consequential election in my loooong life. GRRRRRRR!
👆🎯
Voting third party is not a vote for Trump. It's merely a vote against the oligarchical status quo.
Yes it was a vote taken away from someone beating trump, so thanks for the shit show were in now. Life was never guaranteed to fair to give a 2 perfect choices, so sometimes the better of two bad alternatives is better than the worst one coming true
And how's that working out for us?
WE didn’t vote for him. Less than half the voting country did.
tRump had approximately 77 million votes. Harris had approximately 74 million. 90 million eligible voters chose to ignore the "participatory" part of "participatory democracy" and did not vote. Those numbers don't say anything good about who we are as a people.
Plenty of evidence that tabulation machines in the swing states flipped votes to trump, WHICH HE ACTUALLY SAID OUT LOUD later, boasting about his win. Add widespread voter suppression and interference, and many votes for Harris were blocked or rejected.
Look. You will find good non-conspiratorial discussion of both of these here on Substack.
Repeat: Trump is not the people’s choice.
I agree with pretty much everything you said here, except I have to question the tabulation machine theory - just as I did when that accusation was leveled - without a shred of evidence - in 2020.
Stop the steal is for baby losers. He won under the rules in place and considering 15M people voted for Biden in 2020 didn't bother to show up, no one to blame. So man/women up and deal with it and figure out a way to overwhelm the fuckers next time
"Those numbers don't say anything good about who we are as a people."
That's true as far as that goes, but let me ask you this:
Did >you< vote for Trump? Did you stay home on election day? Do you feel personally responsible for his ascension?
Me neither.
I believe that Muskrat did something with the votes in Pa. We know that happened because Trumpanzee bragged that thanks to Musk they won.
This. Times 90 million.
Will you people stop that shit? Do you realize that this is how democracy works? The world only sees US POLICY, and doesn't give a damn that some nice lady in Louisiana voted for Harris?
If you count the 30+ % who didn't vote at all, and could have, it's higher.
Our fellow Americans are a mortal threat to our livelihoods. Stupid people voted in a stupid man. It’s one thing to be a low information voter, it’s another to enable the destruction of our democracy. I hope we finally take this serious enough to actually do something to stop it. Now would be the time to do something.
good comment. How many people spend 3+ hours every Sunday during football season or hours and hours watch the latest "dancing with someone famous", or the "masked singer" but then complain they don't have time for "politics". I personally feel that the one debt, besides our gratitude, we owe to all men/women who have served this country, especially those who have given their "full measure of devotion", is for us to spend the time needed in our busy lives to be informed and education citizens. Until more people feel that way and spend the time needed to get involved to paraphrase Bill "Hoosier" Smith, "we are truly fucked now".
The morons wouldn't listen to our warnings. We can't compete against decades of brainwashing from billionaire propaganda.
Speak for yourself and the assholes who didn’t vote.
I didn’t vote for that bastard. NOT my president
Trump’s favorability is sinking. It’s lower than that of any president’s first month polls. Trump’s favorability 47%, same period Joe Biden 57%, Obama 66% George W. 59%. See poll details for earlier presidents. Source :https://news.gallup.com/poll/203198/presidential-approval-ratings-donald-trump.aspx
Most votes have minimal clue what they voted for. They got a bunch single issue voters with the abortion law, and the propaganda around all that. once they vote, they need cognitive disconence to regulate themself, justify up to a point the actions, and what a well oil machine the Trump administration has to talk to his base.
Thank you!
https://hartmannreport.com/p/trump-lost-vote-suppression-won-c6f
Here’s a question: this is the second time Trump has been elected. Even if the next president is a chill free trade loving smart guy, how can Canada trust that y’all won’t just elect another moron who blows things up again in the future? Trump has completely destroyed the US’s reputation, and the damage might be permanent.
Pretty sure no one will trust the US leadership again for many decades — if ever. People generally have short memories, but not for betrayal.
Because trusting the free trade guy is easy, and we Canadians always prefer the easy way. We’ve had decades upon decades to expand our markets, but we’re lazy, shortsighted navel gazers.
For people outside the US, it doesn't matter whether you voted for him or not: he is your president, he acts on your behalf, he threatens us with tariffs or war. We must defend ourselves. If we are lucky by reducing trade with the US to the bare minimum.
No, he definitely does not act on our behalf.
He only acts on his own behalf but I understand what you are saying
I dont like the implied 3rd option when it comes to a made-up claim about Canadian crisis. https://x.com/JDVance/status/1886146976498020747?t=tc3YbEcjpImvyCr4F_-_iQ&s=19
Now I’ll ever find my sweety bells.
Trump is the Three Stooges, wrapped up into one idiotic man, elected by one idiotic country under the rules established by one idiotic Constitution. But Nice Try, “Founding Fathers” (who were the fathers of slaves, both literally and figuratively)
Most Americans are with you and regret the betrayal of a great partner nation. Hopefully, this will fail in our courts, sooner rather than later.
Most Americans? Maybe, just barely, but not most white Americans. Most white Americans voted for Felon47.
Only 30 something percent of eligible voters voted for Felon #45, and he won by 1.5 percent. 10% voted for a third party candidate, 30 something for Kamala Harris and 30 something percent didn’t vote at all. Those numbers certainly don’t equal “most Americans.”
And then there’s a highly likely scenario where he messed with ballots and machines. He has almost stated as much — besides the fact that he always accuses others of what he himself does.
Yes, he and Elonia.
Speaking of Musk, check out the Reuters reports on what has been going on at the Treasury Department and federal Office of Personnel Management. His minions are doing exactly what he did with Twitter when he took over, but this time it’s our entire fiscal system on the line.
Thank you!
Exactly.
We didn't vote for the idiot, we voted for VP Harris and Gov. Walz. We're boomers and despise the orange moron.
Me too and all of my friends, but you and I and them don’t comprise a representative sample of white voters. Anyone who voted for the felon is a person the world would be better off without, and that cohort of 76 million includes a substantial majority of white voters.
And? Am I responsible for what white voters generally do because we share a skin color?
This nonsense is getting really old. If you think so, say it squarely.
You are certainly not responsible for anyone’s vote but yours. But the white voters who vote for Republicans (which is now, and has been for many decades, most white voters) are responsible for the mess we’re in now. It’s for sure getting old. It went stale in 1968 and has been stinking up the planet since then.
Do you understand what a democracy is? The winner makes the policy.
It does not matter to Canadians who you voted for! The fact is that Americans are imposing 25% tariffs on Canada with treats for more! Canadians didn’t start this trade war but were not taking the betrayal without a fight. We are angry! The American anthem at a hockey game in Ottawa was soundly booed - and there’s lots more anti Americanism on the way along with retaliatory tariffs.
I'm gen X and also absolutely despise this pos
MOST Americans voted for Harris+others, not for Trump. And many Americans simply didn’t vote.
57% of white voters voted for Felon47. That’s most white voters by a 14-point margin. Among white working-class voters it was a 40-point margin. It was a 60-point margin for white evangelical voters. Nobody knows the preferences of non-voters, but it’s reasonable to assume that the distribution of potential votes by those citizens would be about the same as for those who did vote.
But how many of those were voting for something something DEI? The thing is that most of them are more stupid than evil.
I don’t think they’re stupid. Willfully ignorant, yes, but not stupid. They knew what they were voting for, and they got what they wanted.
Other than "white" voters have a vote equal to the vote of "white" voters. You sound like you don't feel that way, but it's a fact.
This white American absolutely did NOT vote for this pos.
Oh, because white Americans count for more.
The buck stops with....the American voter.
As the quote says....“If there is an idiot in power, it is because those who elected him are well represented”
Mahathma Gandhi
Yep. 77 million of them. I don't know about others, but I'm still in a state of shock over this.
Me too, except for the shock part. I’ve been fighting these bastards since 1963 and feel like I understand them well. They are willfully ignorant, stingy, mean, and vicious. And nearly all white.
Barry Goldwater! Yikes, what an indoctrination.
Spot on. Not said enough by the media. The ultimate rot is US voters: angry, bitter and ignorant
Yeah - we are pretty likely the dumbest people in the world. We get corruption, stupid policies, and planes falling from the sky, but at least we managed to avoid the brown lady with the laugh…
It's the second time an incredibly qualified woman lost to the same con-man. There's nothing wrong with Clinton or Harris...it's us
And I was so much looking forward to having that wonderful laugh as prez !!!
I was looking forward to her picking an AG who'd put the Orange Puffalo behind bars until his last days.
Absolutely!
It will be shot down in court, as Trump’s many illegal/unconstitutional attempts have done!
This Supreme Court takes bribes too.
The only way they can keep their lifetime (Oh, goodness!) appointments is to continue to shore up the charade that passes for “justice”.
Please, oh please! 🤞🙏🤞🙏🤞🙏
I fear not.
Carol You can’t just sit back and hope that the courts handle this. Americans need to “take back” control. Take constructive actions: write to your representatives, ask your friends on Facebook,etc…
I don't think that most Americans are. I am particularly disgusted by latinos in the US! I remember some informal conversations I had with Cuban Americans while visiting Miami! All I could think was how fortunate FOR CUBA those angry and retrograde people no longer lived on the island. Apparently that latino anger has spread. On your last elections they behaved like the selfish folks they've ever been. Once IN, they want everybody else OUT and the hell with friends, the environment, regulatory agencies....everything that matters! They are ohh so pious and ohhh so SELFISH at the same time. And yes, I am a latino too but thanks to their mightly God, I live far, far away from the USA!
Sadly, the damage is done. Not just reputationally but Canada is losing companies and foreign investment just through the threats of tariffs. We will lose GDP, not just while the threat hangs over us, but for long after Trump is gone (if he leaves). The US has not only ceased to be a trusted partner and friend, they are predatory, destructive and Canada's biggest threat. One man created it but the American people voted for it in majority.
I stand with Canada.
Thank you, sir.
Nice comment, thank you. By the time this is over, Trump will take every means to destroy Canada's economy. Ostensibly to force Canada into an economic and political takeover of Canada. We will defeat you.
Friends, we will never again be. Trust me on that! We will never forget the experience.
BTW, Canada's assets are valued at US$17 trillion, more than the value of US assets. I can't wait for the deal XI or the EU will offer us for our energy assets. Eamon
As an American I hope your Country defeats the rise of the fascist right but just so you know there is a massive propaganda situation that allowed the apathy of 89 million eligible voters to sit this election out and of the other 152 million almost half voted against Trump. Only 14% of the population is hardcore MAGA! Of the people that voted for Trump they voted for him because he promised to lower the price of groceries, gasoline, insurance and provide affordable housing… all lies of course but the media is controlled by Billionaires, foreign adversaries and self interested social media personalities who have a personal interest in seeing Trump back in office. Don’t be so mad at all of us Americans because unfortunately your Country could fall into the same black whole. Many of us are just trying to resist, educate and find a path out of this mess!
Not sure how long you plan to wait for those energy deals, but you should plan to wait even longer for the pipelines they’ll need to get their product.
I stand with America, Canada and Mexico, a new alliance to resist Trump and his brainwashed TV addicted fascists.
Americans need to do this themselves. They created the problem themselves.
And we appreciate the support of our American friends.
An attack on Canada, be it through tariffs or any other means, is an attack on Americans, too. Trump’s tariffs are part of his civil war against Americans. I”m sorry your nation is getting caught up in it.
It’s all so sad and frightening, for Canadians, Americans, and the rest of the world too.
How?
I see lots of complaints re possible price increases but nothing else.
How what? I don't understand your question.
Nice of you to post here but doubt trump reads this thread.
Trump can’t be convinced of anything. Not even Mr. Krugman could convince him of, for example, the idiocy of tariffs. The point of our conversations, as best I can gather, is try to discuss an opposition strategy amongst our comparatively helpless selves.
As a Canadian I stand with you Chad. Tariffs will hurt both economies, all for a petulant ego.
Business likes stability and that is a word not in our imbecile FOTUS vocabulary. We are stuck with him. The chance that his party would vote in the Senate to impeach him is vanishingly small. The 25th amendment is unworkable. We are in a bad place and he likely will cause a depression.
And blame it on absolutely anything and anyone else.
DEI, woke, Black people & women seem to be his favored targets.
Agency - without consequences.
Really,this regimes wants to destroy the US. Canada and Mexico, Greenland,.. may go down with it. But the US was dumbed down for 40 years by Murdock, Fox, and a vast right wing, what is the word?
Propagandized and brain washed, Fox often quotes Russian propaganda.
Yes I fear it will be much worse before it is better. How can Republicans even stand this craziness? Trump is going to destroy the economy. Nothing he does is conservative or make any sense.
Because the Republican (I call them rethuglicans, now) are not conservative. They are daily charged-up reactionaries with a strong streak of burn it all down.
It's not just an economic depression that worries me, it's all the other controls & blatant nastiness that we will all be subjected to by his goons on all of us who have not just 'joined' the trump cult ! They are now trying to get control of the SSec funds etc - and why do we think that might be ? Most likely there will be punishing decisions made regarding our rightful payments if they decide they do not like us ! With people who have zero regard for rights or norms or standard procedures there is no bottom to what they could try to do - what the Law says has zero impact on them ! The Republicans have just sat there & given way on every move trump & his gang have now already done even if the Law was not in agreement !
You have a lot of friends. Many of us dream of joining Canada---California, Oregon, Washington, and the New England states. I'm afraid the whole world is going to have to disengage from the US. It's clear that a plurality of our voters are too stupid and venal for us to remain a great nation.
Trust me, those of us who didn’t vote for him feel betrayed, too.
Pay no mind to the gaslighters. What you are feeling right now is valid. America is dying and Canada needs to come to terms with this fact and ensure its own independent security.
The US is definitely in turmoil but I'm not buying the dying side. Way too much Celtic blood in this lad to just pack it in and go quietly "into the night" as the saying goes. We've been through this BS in different ways before and came out the "other side" still chuggin' along. Trump is doing his best to screw up as quickly as possible and yes there will be "suckage" for most if not all. Right now as I see it the fight is to do everything possible to counter the orange menace and his minions in government until the 2026 mid-terms. Trump "screwed the pooch" in 2017-2018 and the R's got sufficiently tossed from Congress in the 2018 mid-terms that Trump was largely neutralized. Defeatism accomplishes nada.
To Donald Trumphuk — We will remember your attempt to subvert and pervert the Constitution and our democracy. Your insane tariffs and your idiotic Executive Orders all drummed up by your Project 2025 bro-Nazis will be your undoing. You’ve unleashed the Kraken—and it’s us. We won’t rest until you and your weasel (not vermin) MAGAmaniacs are ousted. We’re just getting started!
Now that's my kind of talk! :)
My point was rather that Trump was chosen by the collective will of the nation and thus Canada would be right to consider us hostile to its existence, just as we are hostile to our own existence…
It wasn't collective will. It wasn't even 50%. Most people didn't vote for imposing 25% tariffs on Canada. They voted to lower inflation. They are stupid and uninformed because media doesn't inform
The people are wholly discredited, such a stupid people in control of the most powerful country on earth is a fucking threat to the free world and that is my whole point. Stop rationalizing, people knew what a fucking creep Trump is, he is what they wanted. They subliminally knew how retarded his policies would be because he did the same shit last time. It is not a defense of these people that they have the memory of a fucking goldfish.
Do you understand democracy and policy?
Understand your point but again the collective to which you refer is really not the majority of the US voting public nor even close. I have to believe we are going to see a lot of "buyer's remorse" in the very near future once quite a few red state folks in particular start to realize that are "welfare recipients" in a general sense that those states largely take in more Federal dollars than they pay out in taxes and the programs that are being targeted make cuts regardless of where you live. Likewise a lot of youngsters apparently stayed home over the Gaza issue as we see the significant difference in the totals for Harris vs. Biden and Trump certainly didn't get difference in his slight gains.
Trump is buffoon in many a way but he's an excellent con man who's been practicing his whole life starting with having to deal with a sadistic, sociopathic father. History shows us that these megalomaniacs tend to destroy themselves in short order once they reach what they believe is their zenith of power. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Hitler, etc.. Hubris in time leads to their own ruin. I'm half old Virginian on my mother's side and the state motto rings true for me. Sic Semper Tyrannis.
As to Canada, having been across the entirety of that wonderful country a number of times, I'm quite sure they will be just fine, eh? Now if PEI quits sending us the best potatoes for potato chips I will consider that an act of war! :)
The phrase rings hollow without a Brutus. Rationalize the outcome of the election however you like, it is a testament to the intellectual degradation of the American electorate, the trivial ease of their manipulation by Russian narratives surrounding geopolitical crises, the grotesque big money poisoning our platforms of discourse. I am in no mood to hear that the people will sour on their decision. It is immaterial because they are too infantile to do anything about it. Go prove me wrong.
I get your dour mood but it accomplishes nothing in my take on the world. If you want to call looking at the facts rationalizing that is also certainly your prerogative. Your points are certainly valid regarding Russian interference, big money control (Citizens United) etc. No one of us is going to prove anyone wrong but collective action just might at least mitigate the worst. The biggest difference from myself and some others is I'm real bad a spelling "surrender." Anyone that has a bit of Celtic ancestry (Scot, Welsh & Irish) will understand perfectly. On the other side of that coin humor me and tell just what your "mood" will accomplish as I'm sure as hell not seeing it.
Canada just received a big wake-up call. For too long, we have become an indolent nation that leaves the table to go to the washroom when the check arrives. We have not pulled our weight in NATO or the defence of North America, in the security of our border, and in China using Canada as a transit point for the transport of drugs to the US. But that is all fixable. It does not require a trade war or the takeover of a neighboring country. Eamon
As Paul notes, there is very little fentanyl flowing from Canada to the US. Indeed some of if flows from the US into Canada. Nor is illegal immigration a significant problem on the 49th parallel.
This should also be the end of NORAD, just no one has acknowledged it yet…
The humor writer in me wants to make a comment about Santa's very bad day, but it's harder to be funny these days.
US not a reliable partner
You are wrong the Premier of Alberta suggested yesterday NORAD needs a significant overhaul. An overhaul is to be undertaken jointly by US and Canada. She stressed the threat from Russaia and China to be of prime concern. Eamon
The Premier does not make decisions about the military so her comments are her opinion only.
She’s talking about capitulating to whatever they demand (funded by Ottawa, but don’t dare touch oil revenue to do it) not ending it…
Back atcha, Chad! That said, much as I am dismayed by Trump and much as I enjoy visiting Canada, I have no plans to leave the US. Someone has to stick around and keep on bitchin'!
Most of us here in New England still want to be friends! And I’m guessing a sizable chunk of the West coast and Upper Midwest do as well. Maybe it’s time we ask our leaders to form a new union with our saner Canadian cousins?
Thank you for your magnanimity, Chad. This is not what the pathetic 69.3 million turnout for Harris voted for. I hope that Canada and Mexico steel themselves and give Trump et al the “finger” they deserve. Yes, I will suffer for it, but gladly so to see all those who didn’t vote or had the bad judgement to vote for Trump pay for this in their pocket book and well being.
I always admired Trudeau Sr's vision for Canada: closer integration with Europe. Time to look across the Atlantic...and Pacific.
It is not us. We love Canada. We feel sick.
This is one US citizen that is appalled and ashamed. I add my apology to all of the others. We are in the thrall of a moron. Better days indeed, Chad.
The rest of the planet - at least the non-autocratic part - is pretty screwed as well.
Please know that many Americans are furious about everything he's doing, and we're casting about for guidance on how to DO something -- anything -- to slow his destructiveness.
And please remember that even though the 30% of eligible voters who sat out the election are, in a way, to blame for his victory, it's also true that some % of them don't support him and are regretting their decision. In other words, I think the % of the US population that *isn't* appalling is slightly larger than the % that is.
With apologies for all that this deranged monster is doing to your lovely nation and to Mexico.
Trudeau laughed at Trump a few years back.
Must be the reason for the tariffs as nothing else makes sense.
Whatever Trudeau 's political flaws are, he's younger, more intelligent and has a better he's of hair than Der Trumpfer. That has to burn Donnie.
Also, his base of intellectual operations consists of more than a brain stem.
🤣🤣🤣
🤣🤣🤣
He’s everything Trump could never be! Melania has the hots for Trudeau, and that demented, sick old man is jealous, so Canada is on demento’s revenge list! Wonder what Mexico’s Madame President’s reaction will be to the Toddler-in-Chief? How soon do you think ppl will be resigning from Demento’s WH staff?
I think Claudia has aptly shown the world how she plans to deal with Trump. Now let's see what happens as we get down to brass tacks.
Mexico has a LOT of leverage points.
That, and Melania flirted with Trudeau. Dump is getting his revenge for both.
Good a reason as any, for His MAGAsty, whether it happened or not...
I’ll tell you why tariffs are a big deal for Trump — rich oligarchs don’t like paying taxes, and since Republicans have failed in replacing income taxes with highly regressive sales taxes, they’ve now shifted to another type of consumption taxes, tariffs. The motivation hasn’t changed from lowering taxes for rich people.
I understand the impulse to seek some rationale, but with a malignant narcissist like scum-p, destructive behavior is simply inevitable. He's full of rage, and he has to direct it somewhere in order to have temporary relief -- like a release valve. Problem is, it builds up again instantly.
I agree that scum probably *is* nursing a grudge for Trudeau's laughter, and for the pic of melania gazing appreciatively at Trudeau, but the bottom line is that scum would do this to Canada and Mexico regardless of who's in office there. All leaders are fair game, with the exception of putin, orban, and a few other maniacs.
It wasn't Melania looking at Trudeau it was Trump's other wife, Ivanka.
I’d like to meet the person who thought that someone who went bankrupt six times—and one of those with a casino, wtf?—would be good for business. Seriously.
His supporters don't know that person. They only know the myth of The Apprentice.
We became a society focused on entertainment. The Hollywoodization is the new bread and circuses.
two casino bankruptcies, in an industry where 'the house always wins'....
Tired of winning? I know he thinks all of us are.
I don’t like it when Trump says a bunch of BS, half-truths, misrepresents things, and lies. And he does it all the time. But the answer is not for us to do similarly.
We should strive for accuracy and precision. As far as I know, most Americans would read your comment as saying Trump has personally declared bankruptcy 6 times. As far as I know, he has never declared bankruptcy as an individual. So we should be more cautious in our phrasing so as not to imply that.
Of course I may be wrong and if so, I apologize.
I don’t understand why you call the fact that Trump Inc declared bankruptcy 6 times to be a half-truth. Trump’s business, solely owned and managed by Trump, went bankrupt. 6 times. Not to mention the bank fraud, tax fraud, screwing of contractors, hiring of illegal immigrants, fines for cheating his customers, etc. His voters think he is a masterful businessman. His business record is one of fraud and failure. Those are the facts.
He has bankrupted six companies. How’s that? Including a casino. He was personally protected. He stiffs contractors. He rips off his supporters. He’s a grifter and a con man. Found guilty in civil court of sexual abuse. He’s a felon. He ripped off charitable foundations. Trump University. Truth Social. Trump Steaks. Trump Vodka. Trump Sneakers. Trump Bibles. If anyone thinks he has a clue about business, I’d like to meet that person. Paul Krugman and others have documented that if he had just taken the money his father left him and put it into indexed funds, he’d be far wealthier now than he is. Though maybe not, with all the recent grifts.
Can we count the number of sexual assault accusations instead? FFS.
If you think tariffs are delivering for you, I suggest you listen to the Nobel prize winning economist and take a break from the comments for awhile.
Ah, yes, something else Trump has upended, old enough to recall hyperventilating panic over Bill Clinton and a blowjob, now someone in govt - Trump, Hegseth - cheat on their wife/mistress/girlfriend who just delivered a baby and... nothing. One wife, two wives, three wives, affairs, hush money payouts, nothing truly matters.
Adultery, bankruptcy, scams and grifts, cruelty, ignorance, immorality—these are all requirements to be MAGA.
I’m trying to understand what exactly they think Trump brought them.
A bankruptcy is a failure! Six of them is a huge failure, and the NYT, no less, proved in an 18 month investigation of Trump’s career, that he USED the bankruptcies to evade paying taxes for decades! It was part of his half a trillion dollar tax evasion scheme! Look up their in-depth reporting on it!
Dancing on the head of a pin here while Trump tells us he's going to tariff pharmaceuticals, as if drug prices weren't high enough.
Yeah … the pharkin Dumphuk CEO of enterprises that went bankrupt … ain’t no misrepresentation on what a user/abuser/loser this multi-time criminal is.
No, you don't want to meet them. They are angry, bigoted morons.
Stable genius bankrupts a casino. It’s a Mel Brooks movie.
Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics, how?
A few things to remember—he started at Fordham and transferred to UPenn with family help. He never made Dean’s List, one of his professor’s called him the dumbest student he’d ever taught. No extracurricular activities. As with today, he had no friends. How did he get a BA in Economics? Who knows? It certainly hasn’t helped him at all in understanding much. Consider, for example, tariffs.
Probably paid other students to do his homework and take his exams.
I think his sister said that he got other students to take his exams for him.
No, daddy did. Just like daddy got him out of the draft with his fake bone spurs stunt.
Remember when Trump lied and told us daddy only gave him $1,000,000 and it was actually more like $400 million. And he squandered it all away.
"As with today, he had no friends." Very true.
My kids are sick of me telling them, "To have a friend you need to be a friend."
Trump has no clue on how to be a friend.
He has nominated something like 18 FOX talking heads and former talking heads for the administration.
As bad as Guiliani and many others were, this group is even worse.
Good question! One of his profs stated he’s the dumbest fucking student he’s ever had! He paid ppl to take his tests!
I would assume, as his professor bluntly stated he was the dumbest student, he bought his way out as he bought his way in.
Well he may have graduated, but we know he didn’t do the work!
Where is the fact checking in the NYT article?! Tens of millions of Americans haven’t died from fentanyl. They are just repeating the spin.
I haven't even read the article. Did it mention the fact that Harris mentioned on the campaign trail (they never did, throughout the entire campaign season), namely that the Biden/Harris administration cut the fentanyl import in HALF, through smart diplomacy with Mexico and China (where its main ingredients come from)? Result: for the first time in years, an 18% drop in fentanyl casualties. Also, did the article mention that Harris's VERY detailed border security policy proposal included THE solution needed now to stop the other 50%, namely giving border patrol agents the tech devices that allow them to catch it, knowing that most of it enters the US through LEGAL entry points, hidden in cars driven by Americans?
That's how SIMPLE the solution actually is. Trump instead will launch trade wars which will cause an inflation (THE thing he promised to end - after Biden/Harris ended it already) and massively hurt the American people, with NO guarantee that it will lower drug import or casualties at all...
Unfortunately the previous administration just wasn’t very good at getting the word out as to their very impressive results. Hmm, and it could be mainstream media and the far right media just ignored or lied about everything they accomplished.
There was a concerted effort to be hypercritical of Biden and Kamala and downplay any negative thing that Trump said or did. Basically MSM Corporate Billionaires wanted Trump back in office for their own bottom line! Not to mention mass propaganda from foreign adversaries all over social media.
I think the press sec said the amount could. Of course, If we ingested crude oil, we could likely kill every American with a day's worth of imports. The irony here is that a whole lot of assault weapons flow south from the US as we have no controls. In theory a single assault weapon could kill thousands. So arguably Mexico should be imposing tariffs to keep death producing products out.
Guns manufactured in the USA are illegally shipped to Canada and sold to CDN criminals. Unlike the USA, few CDNs own guns. Those that do are licensed hunters. Our society shuns gun ownership except for bunters. It is a long-established, well-founded, traditional CDN value. Canada does not have a gun culture. Eamon
I've read that many Canadians have guns, though I suspect as you say they're hunting rifles, not semi-autos and handguns. In the US many folks in rural areas (like mine, VT), have guns as they hunt and sometimes need to deal with critters damaging crops and farm animals. Many folks here carry pistols all the time, which I'm sure is very rare in Canada. What is clear is that it's easy to buy any sort of gun in the US, and it's not very difficult to smuggle them out of the country.
Genius idea!
I noticed President Scheinbaum (sp?) of Mexico stated my point exactly today.
The only thing worse than no fact checks from the times is fact checks from the Times.
Plus, the fentanyl is coming in with US citizens.
Being a stenographer for Demento Don is NOT journalism, NYT! Do you still have any subscribers?
Donald Trump is a cancer to this country and the Republicans are complicit in their fealty and silence.
Many Canadians, including me, think that the deafening silence from American businesses and politicians (and cabinet members) is much worse than last time. Very scary.
Thanks for this article
Not to mention European allies, in particular Britain. Being a member of the British Commonwealth doesn’t seem to carry much weight these days.
Yep, I've only seen one former German minister come out in support of Canada and also mention that we should join the EU. Nothing from the Brits including the King. The monarch doesn't traditionally get involved in politics but this should be the exception considering they are threatening our sovereignty.
The British media has been silent too. Several op/ed pieces in recent weeks regarding Greenland, which is fine and very important, but almost nothing about Canada. I wrote a letter to the Times of London last week about their silence.
Someone told me that for the monarchy to speak out, the British government would have to request it.
As a Canadian my perspective isn't focussed on the economic consequences. By electing your current president twice the US electorate has signalled to us and Mexico that the US government cannot be trusted. It seems to me that we would be foolish to rely on American good will or even an absence of ill will going forward and we should be making other plans. Reagan, Mulroney and Salinas reset North American relations for forty odd years but that's history now. Some will hope the problem goes away in four years but hope isn't a strategy.
The immediate problem might go into abeyance in four years, but the long-term problem isn’t that Trump is president, it’s that the US has shown itself to be the sort of country that can elect Trump president.
I agree. We aren't to be trusted. Find other trading partners. Separate yourselves from us as much as possible.
I'm ashamed of what is happening.
This is the fundamental break.
Once is bad luck.
Twice is how things are…
The United States is a dead democracy walking. It’s over— but just doesn’t know it yet.
Only if we allow it to happen. We need to stand FIRM against it. This country belongs to us!
American society /=/ the US govt. It absolutely belongs to the people. Organize with your community
Gale -- Hell, yeah! Preach it!
Don't surrender before the battle is over... just because the Trumpers are being their whiny selves. Never give up!
Possibly true, and if true, that's not good news for the rest of the world, either.
How long before Trump decides to arrest Biden and Obama? (Oh yeah, and Mike Pence, too?)
Then we take it to the courts!
Trump is the metastasizing cancer cell that is now spreading to every organ of our body politic. If the cancer is not killed now, the body will surely die.
I hope that's not true. If we can continue to have free and fair elections...even if the outcome is sometimes a major source of shame, we can make changes and clean things up when the majority of voters recognize that the stench is coming from our own house.
Without democracy all that is left is armed revolution which usually fails.
"Actually Trump's win suggests democracy is alive and well." I didn't read past that sentence.
Says the reality-challenged Dunning-Kruger Exemplar
Trump's lowering the price of groceries and gas? I must have missed that.
except that so much of what he is doing is illegal or outright unconstitutional.
Biden got the country through the pandemic and got inflation down to reasonable rates without provoking a recession. Just about no economists back in 2021 or 2022 thought that could be done.
And he brought manufacturing back to the US big time.,
And he (and Harris) made a comprehensive deal with a lot of Latin American countries to take in hundreds of thousands of refugee/migrants from failing states, resettling them - which helped reduce the pressure on the US southern border. (There is NO significant flow of illegal immigrants from Canada.)
So he did a bunch of stuff he promised to do.
As for the folks who think he was complicit in the Israeli genocide in Gaza - how are they feelling about Trump's suggestion of emptying out Gaza entirely? Or his ambassador to Israel's denial of any legal existence of the West Bank, which he calls Judea and Samaria, like the religoius nuts in Israel. That's sure a good reason to have refused to vote for Harris, who spoke often of the need for a two-state solution...
and of course Trump denied over and over again that Project 2025 was his agenda - till Jan 20, when he started going full-bore to implement it.
Apparently, Rexii, a politician who delivers on his promise to destroy government is more trustworthy than someone who tries to protect it, and fails...?
You are making the argument that because one party is acting within the parameters political parties have been operating under since WW2, that it's okay for a guy like Trump to come in and answer with mendacity and malfeasance on a scale unseen in modern American history. That's about as an insane an argument as can be made.
If you want leftist policy, vote for leftists who run for local office. Build a bench. It's not even leftist to say that things like American Middle East policy is completely broken. It's common sense. But it doesn't get corrected by imposing a right wing autocrat on people who don't have the slightest sense of historical perspective.
He has violated several laws in the short time he's been in office this second time. These are well documented by many people, but you can start with Joyce Vance.
Which promise does this match?
The "democracy" part is only alive and well when Ds run the government and supervise the election. Trump is going to kill his base -- including you -- via cuts to healthcare, Social Security, Medicare, truth, airline safety, justice, etc. etc. The tariffs (illegal; not in response to a real crisis; without any possibility of achieving the stated aim) will affect everyone. And I'm sure the retribution tariffs will be focused on products that are sold overseas by those who voted for Trump.
Rejoicing Trump’s destruction of the federal government and economy is one take. An amoral sociopathic take, but a take.
Rexii "Refreshing" only in the sense that it is completely abnormal behavior for any sane person...but of course, that is self-explanatory. I gather you don't approve of Joe Biden...I guess you must be very proud that we got someone else instead even if it happens to be Trump.
You and I have very different definitions for “refreshing”.
I think you mean Idiocracy is alive and well.
Genocide Joe? Joe had flaws, serious ones, but WTAF! This is the attitude that brought to the end of democracy. And there are no good guys in leadership in the Middle East. Just war mongers fighting for power at the expense of their own people. Idiot.
I think that is a reach and false equivalence. The Jews did not attack the Nazis and kill and kidnap them. I absolutely agree that Biden and Co. did not do enough to stop Netanyahu, but if anyone would have killed and kidnapped the same percentage of the US population that Hamas (who have also tortured and killed their own people) did to Israelis on October 7, the US response would likely have been similar or even worse.
Oh dude….i have no words. You really are consumed by your hubris. GFY
Shut up, you MAGAt moron!
When you resort to calling names, it indicates that you have nothing more intelligent to say!
You must be joking.
NO! They deleted voters, and manipulated the process, and gerrymandered the swing states. Only 1.5% of the rest wanted him.
That is because they lied. The maga always blame their own faults on the other side!
Over 90% of fentanyl is smuggled in by Americans in vehicles through manned checkpoints. None comes in with immigrants. When Trump vetoed the border bill (twice) it stopped the budget to intercept it, there's not enough to man the X-ray machines still sitting in crates.
First, can’t wait for the MAGAheads to see gasoline pop like 50 cents a gallon over the weekend.
Second, can someone point me in the direction of factual info about the sources of fentanyl? I’ve read that most is domestically produced.
Finally, Congress needs to take the powers of tariffs away from the President. Going to need 290 Congresspeople and 67 Senators… but they should try.
The best journalism covering the topic is a book called Dreamland, by Sam Quinones.
Or also the more recent The Least of Us.
Intro had mein tears and the book only gets better. He's the magic. We met him in Lancaster, Pa were he called out a room full of treatment professionals. They ignored him and stared at their phones. No wonder we are in the thick of it 💥
Canada has significant retaliatory options, not the least of which relates to its role in controlling the St Lawrence seaway and Great Lakes shipping. Canadian excessive fees or limitations would be a significant hardship on farmers, steel producers, and bulk commodity producers who export from Great Lakes ports. A good summary of this at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighooper/2025/01/30/canada-tariff-biggest-threat-to-great-lakes-since-war-of-1812/
I honestly didn’t think even Trump & Co could burn it down THIS fast. I’d start the slow clap but we don’t have time.
Tessa - No one can say we didn't have ample warning ("Project 2025")
Well aware. I was reading that in 2023.
Trump has the attention span of a gnat and the intelligence of, maybe, a money. But this time he's surrouned by thoroughly evii people who are not stupid and who pay attention.
Watching from abroad I see a USA disintegrating. You have an executive that is incompetent & criminal, a legislature that is impotent & polluted, and a judiciary that is both corrupted & inadequate. What could possibly go right. And all the major tenures of office are likely to be held by idiots.
What should Canada and Mexico do to retaliate? Ban Tesla imports and ban Facebook, Xitter, Insta, WhatsApp ...?
Stop tourist visits to the US.
Stop buying US stuff
Export tax on the things the US wants
No one is buying Teslas
I'm Canadian. I'm not heading to the US for the next 4 plus years at all. Certainly not buying Teslas. And I'm double checking my groceries that everything is Made in Canada. We're going to cancel Prime and try our hardest to buy Canadian made goods.
Yes, like 50% tariffs on oil. How far do the pipelines extend from Texas and Lousiana north? The orange one can think that people will just buy North Dakota oil in the Midwest? There's a reason they're importing from Canada.
The price of gasoline is going to go up. So much for low inflation.
Yes, he talked about exempting Canadian oil from his tariffs, but he does not seem to have done so. The US gets a LOT of oil and gas from Canada - its biggest foreign source for both.
4 million barrels a day. 80% of Koch’s Midwest refinery is Alberta oil. If oil is carved out there’s a chance our federal government will slap an export tax on it.
Going after the social media oligarchs who brought Trump down on us would be sweet karma. SM brainwashing is a national security threat to all democracies. Sitting around and waiting for Musk & Zuck to subvert your country is not too bright.
The plan is to selectively target red state industries that export a great deal to Canada with 25% tariffs. Orange juice from Florida is on Canada’s list, bourbon and other alcohol as well.
Go after Trump’s business and its assets in Canada, then reduce the tariff on Chinese electric cars to zilch, and provide tools to jailbreak every VIN lock for machinery repairs.
Once that happens, turn off the oil and electricity “valves”, but give a great deal of notice to citizens impacted so they can pressure their politicians about the impending doom.
Then maybe add a few tariffs to the mix.
It's easy to say that, but big time retaliation will hurt Canada more than us. However, there is no going back from our traitorous behavior. We have no friends. Under Trump there are only suckers to be used.
He has no assets in Canada. Had to sell his hotels because they failed
The trademarks
They could start by deporting all the ex-pats that have emigrated to Mexico.
Tear up the 700 billion dollar contract for F 35’s. I think it is 40 yrs duration.
Boeing would be another rich target. They don't make any planes that Airbus can't substitute.
Boring Boeing…. A failed company with little innovation…. It totally went suckass when it merged with McDumbass.
Publicly start negotiations to acquire California
I think California, Oregon and Washington might simply merge with you!
Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia would not be far behind. And a very good thing that would be.
Excellent essay. Thank you. Unfortunately the people that need to read it won’t.
Please explain what "the 'deplorables' electoral strategy" is supposed to mean. I'm not aware of anything of that sort in 2016.
I am a 73-year-old retired professor living off of social security, a 401(k), and a small VA disability pension for breaking my back in the army. I am terrified that Trump and his policies are going to ruin my golden years.
You are not alone in your fear. Our retirement money is almost completely distributed by the Treasury, between SS, my husband’s federal pension, and our retirement savings program account. If Musk decides we don’t need or deserve that money, who’s going to stop him now?