This is no joke
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, thinks Donald Trump is joking. When Trump recently, ah, “quipped,” that he thought “maybe Canada should become the 51st state,” the head of government of the world’s second largest country (by area) didn’t take it seriously. I haven’t yet heard what Canada’s head of state had to say about it, who happens to be the monarch of the world’s 78th largest country, the country I live in, but I suspect he (Charles III) also thinks Trump is joking.
I’m not so sure. Consider what Michael Cohen has to say about it. Former lawyer and Trump fixer Michael Cohen at one time knew Trump better than anybody, and he paid the usual price that former Trump confidants often pay, disbarment and time in prison. Cohen reminds us that Donald Trump’s biggest hero is Vladimir Putin. Trump admires Putin above everyone else because Putin is vastly rich, possibly even the richest man in the world, and he can have anyone he doesn’t like murdered. Trump dreams of having that kind of wealth and that kind of power.
Cohen believes that Trump is going to order the military to attack Canada. Before you scoff at the idea, consider where we are right now. If I’d told you, say, nearly four years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, that Trump would come back in four years, avoid prison, secure the Republican nomination and get re-elected president, your scoff then would be even bigger than your scoff now, don’t you think?
So let’s stop scoffing and start preparing for plausible scenarios that could turn into actual eventualities. Donald Trump just might invade Canada for the same reason that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Because it’s there, and he’s offended by its existence. Of course, Trump might also invade Mexico for similar reasons.
There are historical precedents for this kind of madness. Before Abraham Lincoln permanently put him in his place, Secretary of State William Seward entertained dreams of empire through an “Albany Plan” to annex Canada. Seward wanted to let the seceding southern states go and instead look to the north and the west for expansion. Thankfully, Lincoln was determined to hang on to the Union as it already existed. As a one-term Congressman, Lincoln was also opposed to president James K Polk’s invasion of Mexico.
Adolf Hitler, another Trump idol, ordered prisoners murdered and had their corpses dressed up as Polish soldiers cosplaying attacking Germany as a pretext for his unprovoked invasion of Poland. Trump already has a prefabricated grudge against Canada and Mexico. Trump claims, falsely, that both countries have been remiss in their control of their respective borders. This is demonstrably false, but when Trump repeats it, MAGA believes it.
Recently Fox News demonstrated just how low it could go by hosting the “Fox Nation’s Patriot of the Year” award show. It was all just an absurd excuse to cozy up to Trump by artificially awarding him the night’s top honour as America’s greatest “patriot.” During his acceptance speech Trump belittled the leaders of Canada and Mexico. The audience responded by chanting “51” over and over, presumably their wish that Trump add at least one of those countries as America’s 51st state.
Whatever Trump decides to do once he regains the Oval Office, you can bet it’s going to be perfectly awful. Attempts to annex Canada or Mexico might be the least of it. But whatever he does, we all know in advance of his contempt for America’s allies and his positive adoration for America’s enemies. That dangerous position has infected MAGA, including MAGA members of Congress and Trump’s mentally sick incoming administration. Those are deadly dangerous positions to have.
We should imagine the worst and be prepared for it. Our preparation can take the form of protests and civil actions. We can write, we can speak out, we can vote and some of us can run for Congress. We must never be complacent. We represent the Will of the People, and tyrants have historically lived in terror of that Will when it becomes organised into a huge mass of opposition. Above all, brothers and sisters, take care of yourselves, and if you can, take care of someone else too.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.