The threats to Canadian sovereignty feel very new and the reaction from Canada feels very different this time.
That much is fair to say. The disrespect amped up a thousand percent compared to just threatening tariffs like last time, which explains why the reaction feels so different.
But once again, even though the scale is increased and it might feel new to you and to many Canadians, nothing here should be a surprise. Trump praised Putin on invading Ukraine, he in no uncertain terms threatened the invasion of Venezuela, and floated the idea of bombing Mexico.
Threatening to annex Canada is surprising insofar as being a surprising choice of target. That he’s deranged and bellicose towards other countries, it’s nothing new. So every time he points his enshitification gaze at some other group, Americans voting far-right (or not voting at all) will still be defensive as we tell them: yes, you voted for this shit, exactly this shit, you just didn’t realize you were doing because you didn’t give a fuck.
Now the target is kind of a friend, so a few fucks are given. That’s the only, and very minor, difference. Can I predict which country he’ll threaten next? No. But he will keep at it. Over and over.
Edit to add one last thing: “They elected him based on his campaign” is a cop-out. Electing someone based on what they say (promises) instead of based on what they did (specially to others) is a form of “not giving a fuck”.
Obviously, but irrelevant. Like I said… Electing someone based on what they say (promises) instead of based on what they did (specially to others) is a form of “not giving a fuck”.
Trump will not campaign on being aggressive towards allies. He’ll do it after securing power. During campaign, that’s what the “America First” rhetoric means: vote me to strong-arm everyone I can. People voted him in for this, now we’re seeing it.
There was ample evidence that he would be belligerent against allies.