The U.S. President is utilizing rampant falsehoods to generate anti-Canadian sentiment in the U.S. and ‘justify’ his despicable annexation threats. It remains imperative to push back against those lies as rapidly as possible.
At the present moment, there is very little support in the United States for any kind of aggression toward Canada.
Six in ten Americans oppose tariffs on Canada.
According to a recent Angus Reid poll, 60% of Americans have no interest in Canada becoming a U.S. State, 32% are interested only if Canadians want it, 6% want to see America annex Canada using economic pressure, and just 2% want to see America annex Canada using military force.
So, one could be forgiven for assuming that there was no threat from the United States toward Canada. After all, polling options with 2% support rarely become public policy.
Unfortunately, there is another dynamic at play here.
U.S. President Donald Trump exerts significant control over the Republican Party base.
He has managed to turn the Republican Party from the Western world’s most stalwart opponent of Russian aggression into a party that is at best neutral toward Russia, and at worst actively pro-Russia.
He has done this despite public opinion polls showing that Russia remains deeply unpopular in the United States.
Because of Trump’s control over the Republican Party base, he can advance unpopular positions within the party, elevate people within the party who hold those unpopular positions (JD Vance & Tulsi Gabbard’s pro-Russia stance, for example) make those people popular through his imprimatur, and then polarize public opinion by fighting against the Democrats when as his officials advance those unpopular views.
Basically, Trump can turn a viewpoint with almost 0% public support into something that has 50% support within the Republican Party simply by expressing his approval of it, and then use his control over the base and willingness to threaten others to silence traditional Republican opposition.
Trump also recognizes that conflict deepens partisan divides and generates more aggressive feelings. So, the more he threatens Canada, the more Canadians respond, which leads to online disputes that spill out into the real world and thus generate animosity towards Canada from Americans who are unaware that Trump initiated the animosity between our two nations in the first place. We already saw this with the many Americans who were angry and bewildered that Canadians were booing the American national anthem, blissfully unaware that Trump has repeatedly threatened to wreck the Canadian economy and deprive us of our status as a sovereign nation.
Thus, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Trump could turn support for using economic force & military force against Canada into a position that gains the approval of 50% of Republicans, and then intimidate the other 50% into quiet acquiescence, thus turning aggression against Canada into a majority opinion within the Republican Party.
Such a thought is so disturbing that many people just assume it can’t happen. But that’s often how we ended up sleepwalking into some of the worst moments of human history. Believing something can’t happen stops us from taking steps to prevent it from happening.
And this is why having the courage and willingness to speak the truth is so important.
Because Donald Trump’s case against Canada is based on rampant falsehoods, it is essential to counter those falsehoods as soon as possible, before false narratives take root. Even in our cynical and easily-distracted era, the truth still matters, and many people still want the truth to prevail.
Confronting Donald Trump’s lies about Canada
With that in mind, the newly-released Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community is quite notable.
Notable, because it doesn’t mention Canada once, as U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich pointed out:
“good line of questioning here from Heinrich underlining how despite Trump’s rhetoric, Canada isn’t mentioned a single time in the intelligence community’s threats assessment“
Canada not being mentioned in the report, which you can read at the link above – is telling. In fact, the section on Fentanyl specifically mentions Mexico, Colombia, and China, but not Canada.
For all of Trump’s claims about our country, it remains a fact that more illicit substances and guns cross the border from the U.S. into Canada than from Canada into the U.S.
While border security remains an important challenge for both nations, the Canada-U.S. border is already relatively well-managed.
But those facts don’t fit with Donald Trump’s agenda. To abrogate the NAFTA 2.0 he signed himself and once bragged about, Trump needs to declare a national emergency. Claiming Canada was a massive source of fentanyl coming into the United States was key to him being able to do so.
Yet, the U.S. intelligence community is not backing up those claims.
Instead, the omission of Canada from the Annual Threat Assessment further indicates the extent to which Trump is spreading lies about Canada.
As noted by CNN in a report issued amid Trump’s latest ‘on-again, off-again’ imposition of tariffs, Trump’s claim that the U.S. trade deficit with Canada amounts to a $200 billion subsidy is false:
“Trump, who on Tuesday imposed 25% tariffs on almost all imports from Canada (10% on energy), has repeatedly said this year that the US has a “$200 billion” trade deficit with Canada – sometimes making the claim explicitly and sometimes using vaguer language about a supposed $200 billion subsidy or loss to Canada.
Trump’s number is not even close to correct. The new federal statistics show the 2024 deficit with Canada in goods and services trade was $35.7 billion, down from $40.6 billion in 2023.
Even if you only count trade in goods and ignore the services trade at which the US excels, the 2024 deficit with Canada was $70.6 billion. It was $72.3 billion in 2023.”
So, not only is Trump lying about the size of the trade deficit, he’s lying about the trade deficit representing a subsidy.
With Trump, it’s lies all the way down.
Alongside Trump’s repeated annexation threats, this is a key reason why Canadians have such a negative view of the Trump Administration. He’s not negotiating in good faith because he’s not telling the truth. How can you negotiate when the other side flat-out lies about what is being negotiated?
The current U.S. Administration represents a profoundly anti-truth mindset, and it’s a mindset we need to counter, not surrender to.
Ultimately, the truth is all we have to tether us to reality. The truth may be difficult to hear. It may not be convenient. It may not always be popular. But acknowledging the truth and responding to the truth is the only way that we as Canadians and as human beings more broadly can prosper in the long-run.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – Twitter
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