Donald Trump has changed America … for at least four years, and maybe forever.
Gone is the US that championed democracy; defended freedom; promoted justice; projected integrity; and whose leaders so often tried to confront/oppose dictators, autocrats and warmongers.
Republicans and Democrats have supported differing principles/ideas/policies and voiced disagreements over the intentions of America’s founding fathers … but they at least stood firm and agreed about America’s primary ethical/moral/military role in establishing/cementing and respecting alliances and safeguarding the free world.
Remember, the US is the country that played a vital role in defeating Nazism, that stood up to Stalin’s aggression against democracy, that helped liberate Eastern Europe from the iron grip of the Soviets … and has stood, as Ronald Regan said, as “a shining city on the hill” as a beacon of freedom.
Not under the Mad Hatter.
The United States is now the world’s largest privately-run corrupted corporation, where money counts most: employees (even long term and veterans are totally expendable en masse, without cause); services are being cut/curtailed/eliminated to save money, despite human impacts; but tax cuts, favouring the wealthiest, are on the books.
Internationally, long-time allies and client states are to be swallowed up or forced into submission or bankruptcy if necessary to force submission; and the world will now just be a ‘market”, to be divided up by formerly fierce competitors … even those with long records of operating unethically, with coercion and even violence.
It’s the world … a-la-organized crime gangs … each with its own turf to exploit.
And lying, distortion, intimidation, threats are now all part of America’s new “foreign policy”.
In fact, Trump used ALL FOUR of those tactics last week in an attempt to bring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to his knees and sign a deal that would see the US extort a sizeable portion of Ukraine’s mineral resources … without ANY guarantee Ukraine would regain ANY lands seized by the war-mongering Russia or ANY guarantee of even a Security Deal to protect/prevent further Ukraine land seizures.
Trump has lied repeatedly by claiming the US has spent $350 BILLION on helping defend Ukraine during the three-year war. The actual total amount of funding approved by Congress since Putin invaded is actually $174 Billion …and not all of that has yet been spent.
What Trump also fails to explain is that MUCH of the money allocated by the US for Ukraine aid is actually spent inside the US … on military equipment, armaments, ammunition and all kinds of other American-produced supplies shipped overseas … supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs!
Yet Trump wants Ukraine to “repay”. That’s where Ukraine’s mineral resources “shakedown” comes in … a sizeable portion to be turned over the US in “repayment” for services (assistance) rendered.
Well, since that’s the NEW American standard: Canada should send out a bill …. to the US for at least $25 BILLION …. for services WE have rendered to the US, above and beyond formal trade/defence agreements.
Like the $18 Billion Canada spent on the Afghan War to back up the US war effort there.
We also lost 181 Canadians during our support for America’s war there and more than 2,000 Canadians were injured. That should be worth a few hundred million dollars in repayment. We should send them a bill.
What about the millions Canadians spent playing host/hiding those US diplomats inside our embassy housing in Tehran in 1978-79 in very precarious circumstances? If it were a Trump Hotel where they hid … they would have received a HUGE bill!
Then, there were the thousands of American passengers/crew and aircraft Canada took in after 911 … housed them, fed them … even entertained them! Under Trump’s NEW AMERICAN philosophy, Canada clearly deserves to be paid back.
I’m sure readers could come up with many more instances where, under Trump’s value system, Canada deserves repayment.
And we want cash! We don’t need their resources (we have plenty of our own to sell to others if they don’t want them) and we don’t want cheap US products for payment, like their crappy beer, chemical infused maple syrup, dumped apples, over-produced lettuce, beef, pork, corn.
Maybe Canada should also cancel plans to spend $70 BILLION on US F-35 Fighter Aircraft: better to source new planes from a friendlier, more trustworthy ally like France, Germany, Britain.
I know, it’s disappointing to have to think this way … but get used to it … it’s the new reality of the Age of Donald Trump!
It will be ALL business.
Principles, ethics, alliances, integrity and democratic values now count for nothing south of the border.
Of course, there are millions of Americans …Republicans as well as Democrats … who are embarrassed and don’t like the NEW Trump Age.
But those in power in the Congress are too intimidated to speak up or stand up: they only repeat the Mad Hatter’s talking points and applaud when told to …. just like their counterparts in Russia’s Duma, China’s People’s Congress and North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly.
How sad … and scary!
Canada must adapt: so we should send America a bill for all the EXTRA services we’ve rendered … in the mistaken belief we were supporting good neighbours.
Now, we want to be repaid … just like Trump!
Slava Ukrainie!
Harv Oberfeld
(Follow @harveyoberfeld on “X” for FREE Alerts to new blog postings.)