I believe Donald Trump
Twelve days into 2025 and I have already broken what amounted to my one and only New Year’s resolution.
Every time Donald Trump posts an insult-filled tweet or bombastic statement, I swear I won’t give in to the easy temptation to write about it. Unless, of course, I use spell check.
After the US president-elect takes the oath of office later this month, I figured there would be plenty of time for him to devote himself to his manic meanderings.
To protect myself from the undeniable psychological harm he has caused to the world’s wounded psyche was a part of the selfishness of the promise that I would try to avoid, if possible, having to examine the meaning and implications of Trump’s signature spasms of absurdity.
Trump has been largely dominated by his announcement to run for president in 2016. Every depressing day since has been a slew of lunatic cacophonies that have had a severe impact on the mind, spirit, and soul.
But escaping Trump has become impossible. He is cloaked in enormous power, and he continues to burnish his insatiable narcissism and ego, giving us a bitter taste of the coming carnival of chaos.
On Tuesday, Trump held a rambling news conference at his gilded ode to himself in Florida – Mar-a-Lago.
Among the countless examples of Trump’s stream-of-consciousness inanity were his musings about the “drip, drip, drip” of faucets and gas heaters.
“]A] gas heater is much less expensive”, Trump said. “It’s a much better heat and, as the expression goes, you don’t itch. Does anyone have a heater nearby where you can scratch while you are there?
The muddled synapses of the incoming president of the United States are at work, ladies and gentlemen.
Ridicule aside, it would be a grave mistake to confuse Trump’s stumbling incoherence with a lack of iron-clad conviction.
As I have written , earlier , and , often, Trump is, in my view, a bona fide fascist. Fascists don’t bluster. Fascists don’t joke. Fascists don’t josh around.
Trump has a plan – saturated in authoritarian means and rhetoric – to realise what he described as a “golden age” where years of “weakness” will be replaced by a return to America’s rightful greatness, the jarring sequel.
Trump has assembled a obedient administration in order to fulfill his grand ambitions for America, with little to no opposition from the Republican-controlled Congress, the Supreme Court, or the prostrate billionaire owners of large swaths of corporate media seeking his favor.
So, when Trump insists, again and again, that he will use military force, if necessary, to impose America’s hegemony over Greenland and the Panama Canal, for “vital” national security reasons, I believe him.
Trump was asked if he could “assure the world” that he would not, as president, use “economic or military coercion” to achieve his territorial aims. His quick reply was: “No”.
I believe him because, as history has confirmed, that is precisely what fascists are inclined to do.
As a Canadian, I also believe Trump when he warned that he would use America’s singular economic might, in effect, to compel Canada to become the 51st state.
I did not laugh. Instead, I was alarmed when Trump was questioned about “considering using military force to annex and acquire Canada.”
The question was as remarkable as Trump’s response. “No, economic force”, he said, “because Canada and the United States, that would really be something”.
Fascists don’t “float ideas” involving seizing land, canals, or annexing sovereign nations. Once born, these “ideas” take tangible shape and form and, inevitably, blueprints are drawn up to turn them into reality.
In consequence, I do not see Trump’s promised aggression against NATO allies as a “negotiating ploy” or a well-known tool to “distract” from the burdensome costs of the incoming president’s proposed across-the-board tariffs on Canadian imports into the US.
I’m convinced that a Trump-backed effort will be made to bring about America’s “golden age” by upholding international law, territorial integrity, and Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that any armed attack on a NATO member constitutes an assault on all members.
It is time to dispense finally with the jejune reasoning that Trump is “kidding” when he makes “outlandish” comments such as possibly declaring war – economic or otherwise – on Greenland, Panama, or Canada.
Look, Trump believes every fantastical word he utters. Canadians, among others, have to admit it and confront a fascist bully – bluntly, plainly, and loudly.
A host of federal politicians rushing to social media to post missives scoffing at Trump’s “hysterical” schemes will not suffice.
Andrew Furey, the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, understood what was and how to say.
“]Trump’s] history has been to create chaos in an attempt, in a confusion with humour. But frequently those turn into reality and become policy statements. So, to dismiss it as a joke is, in my opinion, not the right thing to do”, Furey , said.
Canada, he added, is a “strong and sovereign country and it will always be a strong and sovereign country”.
Trump’s threats to Canada’s sovereignty were, the premier said, “completely unacceptable”.
Then, Furey, to his credit, issued a stark forewarning of his own directed at Trump.
“Sovereignty comes at an incredible price, a price paid by blood by Canadians, Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans, and to try to take that away is going to come at a significant cost”.
Hear, hear, Sir. Hear, hear.
Source: Aljazeera
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