Yes, I was thinking of Vichy France, or Czechoslovakia after the Russian invasion of 1968. A puppet state with a collaborationist government.
And the subsequent stripping of resources.
Well, yes, although the birthright citizenship issue is far from settled. But surely you, as well as US Congress members and the whole world, can see that a military invason of Canada represents a major new level of sheer insanity that would not be tolerated. Trump is only an elected president, he isn’t omnipotent or immune from restraint by rational lawmakers. The only way this could happen is if he has obviously and completely lost his mind, and that has consequences even in a country where the rule of law has been substantially weakened – but not yet obliterated.
Trump, Netanyahu and Putin, see themselves as the world decision makers and power brokers. The UN and NATO are not relevant. There are no rational lawmakers, only those in power. Trump needs to prove that he is the holder of all power in the US. He took a big step yesterday. He called the entire military power structure into a room and told them he is changing the rules. Order, civility, equality and posse comitatus are out. Harshness and tyranny are in. The military exists to project Trumps’ power domestically and internationally. They did not hang around and organize a coup. They saluted and said ‘yes sir’.
It appears that the Republican Congress is only calculating personal gain. If they bet on Trump what’s in it for them, not the US. Trump would let Quebec go, probably with US aid. The remainder yields the largest country in the world. The future beneficiary of global warming. A new frontier for exploitation.
A quick Google shows the US is ~60% against invading Canada. So, that is 40% in favor of. And a large number of people who are in favor of combining if the Canadians agree. With even modest propaganda that can be turned into support. 20% to 40% of Canadians favor some form of merger.
As absurd as it is, I believe Trump will do it. And there’s a good chance of success.
No, they did not. They appeared to be gazing at the idiot in a kind of stunned silence. If you read the reports, the entire room was very, very silent, giving Trump and Hegseth some unexpected difficulties when they were expecting wild applause.
There is zero chance of success, if only for the major reasons I already cited – the prevailing sentiment of Canadians, the provincially segregated systems of government in Canada, the sheer unfathomable idiocy of such a scheme, and the predictable violent opposition at least from Quebec, a place that got so wrapped up in French separatism during the 1970 October Crisis that the emergency War Measures Act was invoked and Army tanks rolled through the streets of Montreal.
The liberation of Quebec may be Trumps’ cause.
Don’t compare this to rationality. Compare it to the Trump record.
But rationality (reality) will determine the enterprise’s eventual success or failure.
@Frodo - What reality? Have you seen Trumps presentation of yesterday? Do you believe DC is a peaceful Utopia because the military cleaned it up? Do you believe Trump has stopped 7 wars? Do you believe Trump has revitalized a failing military?
Trump believes it and acts accordingly. Now the government is shut down which presents new opportunities.
I’m not talking about Trump decisions, I’m talking about the result of those decisions.
You say “Trump will invade Canada”, I think it unlikely but possible because Trump, as you correctly surmise is not restrained by rationality.
But you add “And it may very well succeed” and that’s were rationality intrudes, the success or failure of the invasion will rest not on Trump delusions but in cold hard facts.
Ah, the fallacy of the false dichotomy.
I want to be clear that I don’t think there’s any bottom to Trump’s depravity or insanity, but the likelihood of him championing the cause of Quebec nationalism is no greater than the likelihood of him fluently addressing the Assemblée nationale du Québec in their preferred language. He is no more psychologically capable of supporting a movement whose entire purpose is to resist anglophone culture’s impingement on Quebec’s distinct society than he is capable of speaking unaccented français québécois.
Trump’s health is ruined.
He is a sick, physically sick, man.
Trump shall, beyond any reasonable doubt, be dead in 5 years.
Overwhelming likely to be dead in three years.
Very likely to be dead in two years, or less.
That’s pretty clearly the likely path.
An invasion of Canada would be much likelier not only after that, but after a significant economic downturn.
Canada is more capable of fighting back but is also rather easier to invade… initially. It’s next door.
The AFTERMATH would be the catastrophe.
They have no way of stopping such an invasion EXCEPT nuclear weapons, and they’re not going to destroy civilization over it.
Man, if this happens, where does a 50-year-old Michigan dude sign up to fight for Canada?
They’ll probably just focus on the Ontario Peninsula - a.k.a. Canada’s Crimea.
Trump is not supporting anything. Trump is an opportunist that will clutch at any available straw. Quebec liberation is better than most. He is showered with derision for all of his foibles. He just claims victory and marches on.
Sure, but Trump would never see Vive Quebec Livre! as a straw available to be clutched at rather than an enemy to be squashed.
If regional liberation is to be a pretext, it will be Alberta not Quebec.
I doubt more than a few hundred troops would be necessary on the ground. Just enough to capture those in power and the TV stations in the main cities. Suppress any air cover with air attack and support the troops in place with drones. The border is non-existent for air borne units.
Apropos of nothing whatsoever, I was just thinking about …
This whole discussion of military invasion is ludicrous. I don’t think even Trump is crazy enough to order an invasion of Canada. Or that the U.S. is so far gone that such orders would be obeyed.
For one thing, Americans overwhelmingly like Canada. Multiple polls conducted in 2024 and early 2025 indicate that the percentage of Americans who have a favorable view of Canada is between 76% and 87%. This is considerably more than the percentage of Americans who currently have a favorable view of the United States.
Trump may covet Canada and hope for a Canadian Anschluss, but even he would only try it by persuasion (which is also never going to work), not militarily.
Exactly. The number of Americans who would fight on Canada’s behalf would be significant, I think—enough to result in a full-blown civil war within the U.S.
I assume you are correct, but that would be up to the military strategists. My point was that Trump will use anything available.