# Predict the outcome of Trump's Canada obsession **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [March 19, 2025, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820 "2025-03-19T14:33:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/141 "2025-03-22T16:16:48Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Is he going to give up and quit talking about it? That doesn’t seem like him… No, that sounds exactly like him. Trump will bloviate on about Canada until his attention wanders. He’ll then give a speech in which he’ll announce Canada has done everything he wanted so he won. This will have no connection with whatever reality is at that moment but his followers will believe him. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/142 "2025-03-23T12:45:24Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Trump will bloviate on about Canada until his attention wanders. He’ll then give a speech in which he’ll announce Canada has done everything he wanted so he won. This will have no connection with whatever reality is at that moment but his followers will believe him. The problem with this optimistic outlook is that we have plenty of reports that Trump isn’t just like this in public. He is serious about this off camera, too, and has made demands that are not just generic threats but specific demands regarding taking specific Canadian territory. He sounds an awful lot like Vladimir Putin. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/143 "2025-03-23T14:35:32Z")
I have no problems believing Trump acts the same way in private that he acts in public. I don’t consider his inability to focus and the way he wanders from one obsession to another to be an optimistic outlook. It indicates he lacks an important ability that a leader needs. Although I acknowledge there’s a strong counter-argument here. Some people say that Trump’s inability to focus is actually a good thing because the things he wants to do are usually bad. So his inability to focus acts as a brake which prevents him from turning his bad ideas into a bad reality. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/144 "2025-03-23T19:12:00Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > So his inability to focus acts as a brake which prevents him from turning his bad ideas into a bad reality. Unfortunate he has subordinates who can do that for him. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/145 "2025-03-24T00:11:41Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I don’t consider his inability to focus and the way he wanders from one obsession to another to be an optimistic outlook. It indicates he lacks an important ability that a leader needs. Well, keep up to speed on the increasing pressure on Greenland. He’s very focused on this stuff. Greenland and Panama are the warmups. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/146 "2025-03-24T00:26:55Z")
He is obsessed with McKinley who was the last president to add to the US territory. That’s a bad sign. I can only hope he loses interest since it’s taking so long. The election campaign is going to be over who is more anti-Trump. ---
**Author:** ![BayLeaves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@BayLeaves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BayLeaves)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/147 "2025-03-24T00:54:03Z")
Trump thinks he has a mandate to do anything he wants to. His mandate is restricted to providing lower income withes with better economic numbers. I do not see how a war with Canada can do that. The Canadian resistance will be significant and expensive. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/148 "2025-03-24T01:05:16Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > He sounds an awful lot like Vladimir Putin. Yes, but as dangerous and destructive as Trump is, he’s still a “wannabe” dictator. One single individual of weak mental ability and growing dementia, despite the unfortunately outsized power of the US presidency, cannot easily overturn two and a half centuries of Constitutional principles. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/149 "2025-03-24T01:15:55Z")
> [@BayLeaves](#): > > Trump thinks he has a mandate to do anything he wants to. His mandate is restricted to providing lower income withes with better economic numbers. No; what the people who supported him want no longer matters. That’s what happens when you elect dictators. They are just your classic “useful idiots”, working against their own interests. His “mandate” is “Trump is God King, and all must submit to his will”. Because that’s what _he_ wants, and what he wants is all that matters to him. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/150 "2025-03-24T01:22:12Z")
Trump will simply issue an executive order declaring Canada is a US state. It is a meaningless gesture, like renaming the Gulf of America. “So let it be written, so let it be done!” says the god-king. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/151 "2025-03-24T01:33:11Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > One single individual of weak mental ability and growing dementia, despite the unfortunately outsized power of the US presidency, cannot easily overturn two and a half centuries of Constitutional principles. Oh, I suspect it’s easier than you think. Remember, a Constitution’s words don’t matter as much as whether the people think it matters. A lot of Americans right now don’t care about things like rule of law and democracy. Who is in charge of the Department of Defense? National intelligence? The FBI? The Justice Department? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/152 "2025-03-24T01:54:34Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Remember, a Constitution’s words don’t matter as much as whether the people think it matters. A lot of Americans right now don’t care about things like rule of law and democracy. Exactly this. The law and the Constitution aren’t alive and have no will or ability to act on their own. If enough people in the right position are willing to ignore them then they effectively don’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/153 "2025-03-24T03:37:32Z")
The main reason I don’t think that Trump has any plans to invade Canada is that he isn’t really laying the groundwork rhetorically. As @Smapti [said](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/97), he hasn’t really come out and said that he wants to invade just that he thinks that Canada would make a great 51st state. He also hasn’t even attempted to demonize the population. In order to get the country behind the idea of invading, they need to be convinced that the other side is evil, yet there is no talk from Trumps about Canada being filled with child molesters and atheists. His followers hate Canadians to a certain level, basically because Canada is what America would look like if they weren’t in it, and overall seems like a more happy and decent place to live, than the US. So they like Trump talking smack against them to take them down a peg, but by and large they don’t actually wish them dead which is what you would need for an invasion. ---
**Author:** ![BayLeaves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@BayLeaves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BayLeaves)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/154 "2025-03-24T08:13:17Z")
The American people are too individualistic for fascism. If Trump oversteps his mandate he will go down. The Republican party will go down with him. ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/155 "2025-03-24T08:39:02Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > He is serious about this off camera, too, and has made demands that are not just generic threats but specific demands regarding taking specific Canadian territory. I’m curious – what specific demands did he make, on what specific Canadian territory? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/156 "2025-03-24T09:50:03Z")
> [@BayLeaves](#): > > The American people are too individualistic for fascism. If Trump oversteps his mandate he will go down. The Republican party will go down with him. Ha! American culture has leaned fascist since before fascism actually existed; the Nazis were actually largely inspired by the US. And individualists are helpless to actually _do_ much of anything which is why it’s encouraged. ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/157 "2025-03-24T13:04:20Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > He also hasn’t even attempted to demonize the population. In order to get the country behind the idea of invading, they need to be convinced that the other side is evil, yet there is no talk from Trumps about Canada being filled with child molesters and atheists. He did recently say Canada is one is the “nastiest countries to deal with” and was “meant to be the 51st state”. > **['One of the nastiest countries': What Donald Trump said about Canada to Laura...](https://nationalpost.com/news/one-of-the-nastiest-countries-what-donald-trump-said-about-canada-to-laura-ingraham)** > > Interview included statements about the 51st state, "Governor Trudeau" and the Conservative who is "stupidly, no friend of mine." Sounds like the beginning of rhetorical cover, at least at the trial balloon stage. I don’t think such cover would demonize the Canadian populace, but the opposite— the Canadian people are fantastic, and they **want** to be part of the US. It’s the Communist-Socialist-Fascist government that’s stopping them. It’s an acquisition for liberation, not conquest. He’s said similar about Greenland. That’s what Putin did with Ukraine, and there’s nothing trump wants more than to be like Putin. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/158 "2025-03-24T13:08:31Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > I’m curious – what specific demands did he make, on what specific Canadian territory? He rejects the 1908 border treaty specifically, and wants more control over shared waters like the Great Lakes. > [@BayLeaves](#): > > The American people are too individualistic for fascism. If Trump oversteps his mandate he will go down. The Republican party will go down with him. That’s preposterous. The American people are as ovine as any other, and Trump’s fascism has a lot of affirmative support. If your argument is “American exceptionalism!” it’s likely not a good argument. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/159 "2025-03-24T20:07:26Z")
More threats against Greenland. JD Vance has now just flat out said Trump is entitled to take Greenland over if he figures it’s beneficial to do so. Guys, if you think they’re going to stop at Greenland, you aren’t paying attention. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820/160 "2025-03-24T20:20:07Z")
Based on today’s security leak, our adversaries would get plenty of advance notice of any action we plan to take. [https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03/24/us/trump-news?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03/24/us/trump-news?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predict-the-outcome-of-trumps-canada-obsession/1015820.md?page=9)