What percentage of Trump voters are reliant on the overseas tourist industry? I guess not a huge percentage. But anyway…
My (Australian) FB feed had a post by United Airlines extolling the virtues of a US vacation. There were two positive comments. Every other comment as far down as I bothered scrolling (100+ posts) was a variation on “not for the next four years” or far more negative than that. I expected to see a bit of blowback in the comments but not to the extent and consistency on display.
I imagine that Australians are a near-insignificant percentage of the US’s foreign tourist market, but if the rest of the world feels similarly (and I suspect they do), the impact on that market is going to be signficant.
Are there any countries that don’t hate US? I’ll be beyond surprised if the tourist market doesn’t take a gigantic hit. Hell, Floriduh’s only reason for existing is tourism. That, and snow birds from Canada. Too bad, so sad.
I’m pretty sure that Canadians make up a significant percentage of the US’s tourist market, but many of my friends have either cancelled their vacations to the US, or are seriously rethinking their plans for later in the year.
I guess some tourist destinations in the US are not desperate—yet—but I think they are getting worried. Recently, Disney World put a number of commercials on Canadian TV, touting their “Canadians Only” special. Something like a three-day park pass, and a few nights at one of their resorts for half or two-thirds of the regular price.
I wouldn’t say “hate” is really the issue. Many of the comments were quite sympathetic and along the idea of “I like the USA [or at least I like many people from the USA] but I’m not travelling to the US while the crazyguy is in charge” or “I have no desire to have a ringside seat for the USA’s re-run of 1930’s Germany” or similar.
I’m one of those, by the way, and should have added that earlier. I was thinking of Las Vegas or San Francisco this year, but it might be time for a drive to revisit Vancouver, via AB and BC Highway 3. Or—dare I disturb the universe?—drive to Halifax, catching up with friends in Regina, Thunder Bay, Toronto, and Halifax along the way. No Customs checkpoints, no different currency than I typically use, and gas prices that are not inflated due to tariffs. Buying Canadian all the way. Hmmm …
Speaking as someone who flies back and forth to the US regularly, my current concern is the status of airline safety. I need some reassurance that ATC is still properly functional before I book my next flight.
This is great. Yesterday Hegseth announced that Fort Liberty was once again Fort Bragg. Yay for the white nationalists. Only they didn’t change it back to the name of the Confederate general Bragg, they named it after a WW2 hero who just happened to also be named Bragg. MAGA is not going to be happy to hear that. Did they really think no one would notice?
Trump wants to return American auto manufacturing to Michigan. But what cars are actually manufactured in the US? (I’m ignoring my Chevy Tahoe, which was manufactured in Arlington, Texas—in the US, but not in Michigan, so I guess the Arlington GM plant loses out under Trump’s plans to Make Michigan Great Again). Anyway, here are cars that are only manufactured in Canada, and shipped to the US:
Dodge Charger
Dodge Challenger
Dodge Caravan
Chrysler 300
Chrysler Pacifica
Chrysler Grand Caravan
Chevrolet Equinox
Lincoln Nautilus
Ford Edge
Ford GT
Toyota RAV4
Lexus RX
Honda Civic Sedan
Honda Civic Coupe
Honda CR-V
Source:
Good luck getting that American-made Chevy Equinox or Dodge Caravan, soccer mom. Or that American-made Dodge Charger, you mid-life crisis guy. Or that Honda CR-V. No, it’s not made in Japan. It’s made right here in Canada, and you’re gonna have to pay for it. At 25% more than MSRP now! And all of the above are made no where elsewhere in North America. And there’s no time to retool Michigan factories to produce these models, before Ford, GM, and Chrysler (or whatever name Chrysler is going under this week) go broke. Or beg Trump for a break. Or something.
My 2012 Chevy Tahoe was assembled in the GM plant in Arlington, Texas. How would those Arlington, Texas GM workers like it if their jobs were transferred to Detroit, just so Trump can proclaim that auto manufacturing is back in Michigan? I bet not much.
The county in which Seattle is located did something similar about 20 years ago. It used to be called King County, after former Alabama senator William King, who had been vice president when the county was incepted. Since he was a notoriously pro-slavery Southern senator who never actually set foot in the US during his time as veep (he was sworn in while staying in Cuba and died there 45 days later) it was decided that he was no longer an appropriate namesake, and so the decision was made to rename King County to King County, now named after Martin Luther King Jr.
I typically cross the border for two comicons a year, Detroit and Columbus. I haven’t decided if I will this year. Sadly, I can’t really do any long-distance travel this year for cost reasons, but I guess I’ll keep an eye on Europe for 2026. But yeah, not exactly looking to spend any money south of the 49th for a while.
As a Canadian, that’s pretty much my position. I was in the US for his first inauguration, a Vegas trip I had scheduled and paid for when we all thought Clinton was going to win. The vibe on that trip was so weird, I decided I didn’t want to travel to the US again until shit had calmed down.
Well, we all remember how well that worked out!
Finally, after four years of Trump, and the last years of the pandemic, I did start travelling again, but now I’m done again. It’s even worse than the last time around.
And this sucks, because probably 90% of the easy vacation destinations from Canada at least touch on the US. My two big vacation things have been Vegas, and cruises. Most of the cruises I can afford go out of and return to Florida, which is not just the US, it’s mainstreet MAGAland. Ugh.
So it looks like the next several years will be some mixture of low-cost driving trips around here, while saving up for more expensive trips outside North America. But even there, I’m limited because so many flight options assume a connection in the US.
TO BE FAIR, there is fraud in Medicare/Medicaid; there is a lot of… suspicious claims to SSDI. I doubt there is much fraud in regular Social Security (outside of the occasional "Oh, mom died. Let’s hide the body so we can continue getting her benefits).
THAT BEING SAID, you know his solution will be very ham-handed, and how many millions of legitimate claims are going to be denied / delayed / prosecuted, causing untold hardship? It sounds good in theory, but the reality will be a clusterfuck.