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First, President-elect Donald Trump tweaked Canada’s far-left Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about becoming governor of the 51st state of the United States of America. Then he said that the Panama Canal should once again come under American control. Make that the 52nd state. And now, are you ready for a 53rd state? On Sunday, Trump renewed a call he made during his first term: that the United States should buy Greenland from Denmark. Could the man possibly be serious?
Maybe not. The left’s propaganda arm, also known as the mainstream media, loves to portray Trump and his supporters as angry, bitter, ignorant people lashing out against the people who know better what’s good for them. Trump has never gotten credit for his sense of humor, despite the fact that he is easily the funniest man to occupy the White House since Ronald Reagan, and may even surpass the Gipper.
Much of Trump’s humor goes entirely unnoticed. Few have taken any note of the fact that his new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, recalls the Doge Internet meme that Elon Musk briefly made Twitter’s logo in 2023. And Trump’s teasing of “Governor” Trudeau went so far over the head of MSNBC that the far-left garbage machine actually put out an article ascribing the gibe to Trump’s “confusion.”
On the other hand, there was nothing funny about Trump’s statement that the U.S. should resume control of the Panama Canal. “Has anyone ever heard of the Panama Canal?” Trump asked the crowd at AmericaFest. “Because we’re being ripped off at the Panama Canal like we’re being ripped off everywhere else.”
Trump went on to explain that the Panama Canal “was given to Panama and to the people of Panama,” “but it has provisions, you gotta treat us fairly and they haven’t treated us fairly. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full, quickly, and without question.”
Trump wasn’t being funny about Greenland, either. “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World,” he wrote Sunday, “the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” This got the same reception that it got during Trump’s first term. Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede said haughtily on Monday that “Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland. We are not for sale and we will not be for sale.” He doesn’t seem to have mentioned that Greenland is not an independent state but is Danish territory.
Even in floating the idea, however, along with his statements about the Panama Canal, Trump has become the most forthrightly expansionist president since William McKinley. Is this all about personal vainglory, as the left contends, or is there more substance to it? The answer is clear: Trump is once again being true to his America-First convictions.
His question to Trudeau was pointed, and remains unanswered: “So your country can’t survive unless it’s ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion?” Trump asked Trudeau this question when the Canadian prime minister complained that the tariff Trump threatened to levy if Canada continued to do nothing to control its long border with the U.S. would destroy Canada. That’s where the Canada-as-the-51st-state gibe originated; it’s really all about Trump protecting American interests.
With the canal, it’s the same situation. Trump contends that we’re not being treated fairly. Politico reported that he “also said he would not let the canal fall into the ‘wrong hands,’ warning of potential Chinese influence in Panama.” Regarding Greenland, it’s once again the same story. Harvard International Review noted in an Aug. 2024 article that “while Greenland remains closely linked to Scandinavia as an autonomous region of Denmark, global powers such as the United States, China, and Russia are racing to extend military and economic influence in the region as it becomes more habitable.”
There’s the bottom line: if the United States doesn’t control the Panama Canal and Greenland, China or Russia likely will, and the consequences could be severe both for the American economy and for national security. So while the leftist intelligentsia laughs at Trump’s revival of the Manifest Destiny imperative, there is, as is so often the case, a method to his madness. Trump is playing the great power game at a time when the left wants nothing more than for America to stand down and let China be the world’s great power. It’s yet another reason why leftists hate him so passionately.
Make Trudeau Squirm around a lot in his Seat for a a while
“So your country can’t survive unless it’s ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion?”
Someone needs to explain to Trump how real world economics work. A trade deficit is not “ripping us off”.
Trade deficits are completely meaningless. We don’t “lose” 100 billion a year when we run a trade deficit with Canada. The money always comes back and balances out usually in various forms of investments.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not defending that commie Trudeau, just trying to clarify some economic fallacies.
He’s simplifying it for non economically minded folks.
If Canada didn’t sell that 100billion to the US , what would it cost them?.
That’s his point, I believe
While what you say is accurate in the sense that, if we stopped all trade with Canada, we both would take a loss including Canada, I don’t think Trump see’s it that way.
Trump has made it clear in numerous past speeches and interviews that he thinks a trade deficit is a loss for our country. Trump has been out spoken against trade deficits his whole life.
So threatening Canada with tariffs or ending trade with them may work as leverage, just speaking from an economic angle, he falsely thinks, like many do , that trade deficits are a loss.
You are correct, Canada is not ripping off the US. The difference is primarily in oil & gas being purchased by the US and several states are recipients of Canadian energy supplies. Otherwise the US is the beneficiary of trade between the two countries. Trump comments appeal to low level unintelligent followers.
You have convinced me with your logic.
I had written these short snorts of Trump off as being mere opening gambits for his negotiations with these countries and their governments.
Thank you for pointing out that these countries are willing to sell out to China, and that Trump has to factor this into his posturings.
“Thank you for pointing out that these countries are willing to sell out to China, and that Trump has to factor this into his posturings.”
Any worries that Obama, Biden et al haven’t sold America to the ChiComs, Iran, etc far more than Trudeau has sold Canada?
China is dependent on trade to western nations and western nations have become dependent on Chinese goods. it is not a sellout , it is business . China is also a huge customer of US goods so don`t buy Chinese goods and don`t sell them US goods if you don`t like the arrangement.
I do not buy China goods and I do not sell to them. If you do not buy China goods and there is a demand then the USA and other countrys will take up the slack.
CHINA IS OUR ENEMY!
You are justifying imperialism and colonialism by Trump which goes against human rights.
Did you miss this sentence: “There’s the bottom line: if the United States doesn’t control the Panama Canal and Greenland, China or Russia likely will.”?
Actually, I get the feeling that you didn’t read the article at all.
He has major short circuits in his synaptic processes he’s a liberal. Oops, I repeat myself, sorry.
Well, now we know who and what you really are. The funny thing is the Left only cares about imperialism and “human rights” when the conservatives do it, not when the Left does it.
All human rights originate in the barrel of a gun.
DERP.
You know you’re going to Hell, right? Where you will eat turds for eternity. Bon appetite, bitch.
Human rights originate in the rule of law, respect for human digmity, amd the belief that we arr endowed ny our Creator with certain unalienable rights. Human rights have got to be backed up by a government and a government has got to be backed up by guns
If I were to ask you where does water come from, what is the nature of water, and why do we need water and you were to answer water comes from God, we are endowed with water because God wills it, that answer would explain nothing whatsoever about water, its nature, or why we need water.
“The source of man’s rights is not divine law or congressional law, but the law of identity. A is A—and Man is Man. Rights are conditions of existence required by man’s nature for his proper survival. If man is to live on earth, it is right for him to use his mind, it is right to act on his own free judgment, it is right to work for his values and to keep the product of his work. If life on earth is his purpose, he has a right to live as a rational being: nature forbids him the irrational. Any group, any gang, any nation that attempts to negate man’s rights, is wrong, which means: is evil, which means: is anti-life.” – Ayn Rand
Water comes from beer.
The more beer, the more water.
Stagnation, tribalism, collectivism, slavery, and tyranny are not human rights. A higher civilization has the right to invade and conquer a savage society. The Europeans had the moral right to invade and conquer the savage Indians. The North had the moral right to invade, conquer, and free the pro-slavery South. Israel has the moral right to invade and conquer Gaza and the West Bank.
“The right of a nation to determine its own form of government does not include the right to establish a slave society (that is, to legalize the enslavement of some men by others). There is no such thing as “the right to enslave.” A nation can do it, just as a man can become a criminal—but neither can do it by right.
It does not matter, in this context, whether a nation was enslaved by force, like Soviet Russia, or by vote, like Nazi Germany. Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual). Whether a slave society was conquered or chose to be enslaved, it can claim no national rights and no recognition of such “rights” by civilized countries . . . .
Dictatorship nations are outlaws. Any free nation had the right to invade Nazi Germany and, today, has the right to invade Soviet Russia, Cuba or any other slave pen. Whether a free nation chooses to do so or not is a matter of its own self-interest, not of respect for the non-existent “rights” of gang rulers. It is not a free nation’s duty to liberate other nations at the price of self-sacrifice, but a free nation has the right to do it, when and if it so chooses.
This right, however, is conditional. Just as the suppression of crimes does not give a policeman the right to engage in criminal activities, so the invasion and destruction of a dictatorship does not give the invader the right to establish another variant of a slave society in the conquered country.” – Ayn Rand
“he is easily the funniest man to occupy the White House since Ronald Reagan”
I think everyone in between had zero sense of humor (except 0bama, who had negative.)
Either Freedom or Tyranny will win in the quest for “empire”….
And as always, your enemy gets a vote.
That’s why tyrants hate voting.
I don’t believe Trump would annex Canada. Millions of Democratic voters? One should be careful of making facetious remarks around fools. He may well be right about taking back Panama, if it can be done without bloodshed. THE CANADIANS should vote out Justin Trudeau
You’re making the mistake of painting Canada with one single broad brush. Just like in the USA where you have a conflict between Red states and Blue states and Conservatives and Liberals so too in Canada. We should annex Alberta it would be like annexing another Texas.
“Alberta: Our 51st state?” by Peter Skurkiss
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/01/alberta_our_51st_state.html
That was a very helpful, level headed comemt. I still don’t thimk we should annec Canada
Trudeau is on life support -dead governor walking!
“I don’t believe Trump would annex Canada. Millions of Democratic voters?”
You are just one more victim of your confirmation biases and prejudices, in this instance, about Canadians supposedly all being like Democrats.
I don’t thinl they’re all like that. The truckdrivers certainly weren’t
We have clearly moved into an era of great power competition and this has nothing to do with ideology. Having said that, there are people like Samson with Delilah who have a self-hatred because they know they can’t achieve the things that previous people accomplished and just want to pull down the pillars around them. (most minorities and newly arrived people). Or the decadent old aristocrats who have injected self-hatred out of guilt into their veins – the new junkies. So beware of these liberal retards who prefer drowning in their own guilt. Nothing delusional about protecting our global interests and Greenland, Antarctica, the Arctic, the Panama Canal and even Canada are part of them. Better to do it now when we have a slight military advantage over China and Russia. Everything going on right now is very similar to the ‘Great Game’ : 19th century competition between Russia and England with the rising Germany thrown into the equuation.
Also, it’s quite clear that the U.S. cultural fabric is divided down the middle: what was once the ‘avant-garde’ has devolved into a celebration of perversity (while castigating heterosexual freedom w/ neo puritanical prohibitions for it – esp white ones), minority chauvinism, betrayal by the intelligentsia which is a masked desire for self-annhhilation. Read James Burnham’s ‘Suicide of the West’ (he was an ex-Trotskyite who saw the light and became an arch-conservative)..
Artistic Director
The Great American Play Series
I’ll leave the indignance and outrage for simple minds to dither..
Trump is a master negotiator, the likes of which none of us will likely ever come close to personally experiencing, much less participating. I suspect that what he was really saying was “We possibly could if we wanted to.” It’s his subtle reminder to the world that we’re still the alpha dog, and he’s the head canine. A bit of theatrical posturing to be sure, but keep in mind that Russia, China, and the Middle East are nipping at our heels, and would love nothing better than to come out on top of a global dogfight.
“Trump is a master negotiator”
And as a master negotiator, there’s no better way to negotiate with Trudeau – or his almost certain successor in the next few weeks/months – than sophomorically blathering “Governor Trudeau”?
This was far, far better than… oh… making some personal and private phone calls to those Canadian leaders?
Not even a word of mention of the almost certain incoming next Prime Minister, whose political record is far more conservative than Trumps and whose concern for their national debt and excessive government spending and power overreach is far better than Trump’s
Playing the clown makes him look sober and judicious to Canadians? Americans, particularly the independents and Democrats who decided to give him a second shot?
I’m not offended or indignant at pointless stupidity, even if only attempting to get applause for a lame comedy show from the acolytes. I just hope somebody can explain why this is more of that underwater four dimensional chess we’re always told about.
I think I may have insulted a Canadian. That or there’s some personal problem with 4D underwater chess.
Ooohhh… “you may be a Canadian”. I suppose I could just respond in the same vein by saying you may be a useful idiot. How helpful!
Or, I think I may have tweaked the mangina of somebody here wearing their Trump Beer Goggles following the Primary Directive of Trump: thou shalt not ever utter or countenance a single word of criticism of Trump.
He. Is. Perfect.
Doing so as they order me to believe in Trump Underwater Four Dimensional Chess.
Explain to your admirers how we should all believe that Trump repeatedly signing, rather than vetoing, every single pork laden spending bill placed on his desk during his first term was one long, winning game of 4D underwater chess.
Remember the initial gambit in that game of underwater chess? When Trump promised that if elected he would eliminate the federal debt in eight years?
I do. And I remember he didn’t get a single dollar towards that promised goal in a single budget gill he willingly signed his name to.
Good times Chris!
You can vote for him and hope he delivers meaningful results in his second term as I do without kissing his Third Point Of Contact on your way to kiss the ring.
I hope for the best of results from Trump when president again, although those hopes are very tempered with doubt. Pointless crap like ‘Governor Trudeau” is an example of why my hopes are tempered.
I’m supposed to believe that’s ‘negotiating’ – and somehow or other better than a private personal phone call to Trudeau? Or more rational yet, a phone call to Trudeau’s almost certain successor as Prime Minister in the next few weeks/months, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilliver?
While the author preferred to call trolling that A-hole Trudeau “Governor Trudeau” in his words heard around the world as being “humorous”, I have yet to see a rational argument that junior high school trolling like that advances the groundwork for his presidency one iota.
For all his intelligence and ability, Trump often can’t stop himself from pulling his dick out of his pocket and throwing it on the ground so he can step on it while shooting himself through that foot at the same time.
Stuff like that, tiny and large, is why my hopes for Trump are tempered by seeing him still making forced errors like he was doing in his first term as president.
“Trump is playing the great power game at a time when the left wants nothing more than for America to stand down and let China be the world’s great power. It’s yet another reason why leftists hate him so passionately.”
Robert, you have hit the nail precisely on the head with this profound statement. The Left hate Trump, because he fights for America, and he therefore stands in the way of their desire to destroy America, or more precisely, to checkmate America into a position of greatly-reduced influence in the world.
Joking apart, no joking without seriousness. Little Rocket Man may still laugh of Trump’s bold joking but a million artillery shells of his is rolling to the Ukranian battlefields, and wagons of howitzers. Justin Trudeau may be a great jester at parties but overkilled the truckers and their contributors, and is losing his country for lack of seriousness. Greenland as another Cuba with hostile missile installations pointing SW is no joke but Danes joked about the idea of selling Greenland. Besides, we can make anything into a joke, remember. International shipping is serious business that drives the world. Egypt provoked a war by nationalising the Suez Canal 1956, and Iran is provoking in the Hormuz Strait, and by Houti proxy in the Red Sea, making a joke of world powers.
Mr. Trump is demanding the implementation of fair and universal trade policies because US manufacturing, commerce and economic security have been adversely affected due to an imbalance of international trade regulatory policies.
Panama has openly and flagrantly violated the natural zone stipulations of the 1999 Panama Canal Treaty, allowing China to build and operate port facilities and fly its flag in exclusive canal “neutral zone” entry and exit points. The Panamanian government also charges US commercial shipping at a higher tonnage rate for canal transit than Chinese shipping! Congress should hold hearings to revoke the US governments ratification of Panama Canal Treaty because Panama has not acted in good faith to uphold its statutory obligations under this treaty.
The Panamanian government also charges US commercial shipping at a higher tonnage rate for canal transit than Chinese shipping!
Is that true????? Just asking. Please show me a source