It is greatly painful to wade into the political arena, even as a bystander, but sometimes it can’t be avoided. The way it is these days, simply approving (or disapproving) of anything one of the leaders says is enough to send some slice of the population into howling outrage, and they will banish you forever (or vice versa). But just like a doctor visit for the annual “digit”-al physical exam, we can’t always avoid the unpleasant things in life. Delving into politics has a great deal in common with the indignities of the annual physical. It’s like looking into the same thing. But it can’t really be avoided since, well, who can avoid the political gong shows going on all around us?
In Canada, our government has in effect run away and hung up the “Back in two months” sign on the door before locking it, and in one sense their behaviour is rational in a fight-or-flight sense – I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be facing Donald Trump after years of bashing him (“That was some four years hey, now that that guy’s gone and Biden’s in place we can cut loose and screw that NATO commitment and who cares if we’re uncompetitive because so is everyone else…what did you say? He won again? OMG OMG OMG I quit I quit I quit hey you can’t quit too who’s gonna –“).
So now Canada is completely over a barrel, and a certain resurrected President knows that all too well (the whole world is going to be watching Canada on April 1, the day the carbon tax is set to increase again automatically, and in theory a brand new Liberal leader is going to have to paste on a grin and stride right up to the mic to remind everyone how great an idea that tax is, or, they will not hike it and backpedal on everything they stood for during the last decade…if anyone is looking for the most exquisitely perfect example of a “no win situation”, you will find nothing better.).
Now that Trump is so comfortable that he is toying with Canada’s leaders like a cat does with a mouse, let’s look beyond those antics to try to imagine what the bigger game plan is here, beyond torturing JT’s tattered remains of a government. Don’t be one of the poor mugs that is taking all of Trump’s bombast at face value; there is no situation in which Canada becomes a US state, for example (in our present state, we’d be lucky if anyone lets us in their house, never mind marries us. We are, as a nation, about to sit on the couch surrounded by loved ones that are going to ship us off to rehab whether we want it or not.). No matter what you think of Trump, he does understand the game he is playing, and is sure to recognize that cajoling Canada to become a state is going to do little but galvanize Canadians to come together (as a prevailing sentiment, there will be pockets that will think it a great idea).
So Trump is doing some extraordinary things, that, believe it or not, can make sense if viewed in a certain way…ok that’s not a great way to put it because I’m not sure any of us can view the world the way DJT does. But he does give us clues aplenty, which makes it a bit easier.29dk2902lhttps://boereport.com/29dk2902l.html
First of all, we’ve seen him in political action before, 8 years ago, when he threw out so many screwball proposals that the world’s totalitarian regimes were paralyzed; they had no clue which way he would go next. Most of it was smoke and mirrors and arm-flapping, but it was foreseeable. We know this because Trump wrote a book, a long time ago, called ‘The Art of the Deal’ in which he laid a lot of this out. (Full disclosure: I’ve never actually read the book, and often when you hear people quoting books without having read them it is good reason to turn up your nose at them a bit, but I plead mercy in this instance because hey we’re not exactly talking about War and Peace here. I really should read it though, because it might have some useful investing advice, and I am the world’s worst investor. I can wipe out major companies just by buying their shares. You think Musk is powerful? Wait til SpaceX goes public. I can, if I want to, drop 500 bucks on their shares and they’ll be out of business in a week.)
But anyway thanks to people willing to do the dirty work, it is not hard to find synopses of the book, and we can find there between the covers some worthwhile tidbits that help explain what seems to be the workings of a lunatic.
Here is an article that lays out the bigger principles of the book, some of which provide ‘aha’ moments. First off, Trump advises to Think Big. That’s not a stretch to envision that as one of his guiding principles. Suggesting that a G7 country become another state certainly is that, as is musing publicly that he will annex Greenland (‘without ruling out military force’), or slapping 100 percent tariffs on BRICS countries.
Another maxim of the book is to Maximize the Options: “I keep a lot of balls in the air, because most deals fall out, no matter how promising they are at first.” Well, he’s certainly done that – most countries are milling about in consternation in case DJT actually carries through on one of his threats, on one form or another.
A couple other pillars of DJT’s deal-thinking are related: Know Your Market, and Use Your Leverage. Trump is a master of knowing where he can push, and where he can’t. He will throw down the gauntlet to virtually any country on earth, yet, for example, capitulated completely to the longshoreman’s union – he is well aware that a dockworkers strike would cripple the US economy at exactly the same time he needs it to soar. He walked away from that fight without a glance. It is far different on the international stage; Trump knows full well what his leverage is – the US military, access to the world’s biggest market, access to the world’s deepest equity markets, etc. Now, he probably knows that his leverage doesn’t include going through with all threats, but who knows which ones he will push hardest on? All part of the schtick. No one gets more respect than a completely unpredictable person.
Here’s another one that we should have seen coming, because he’s said he would do it for decades: Fight Back. “I’m very good to people who are good tome. But when people treat me badly, or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard.” Does anyone remember the words spoken against DJT by, say, pretty much everyone, including and especially progressive western leaders? Well, I think he remembers every one of them. Every insult has been catalogued.
OK, let’s start putting it all together then, using another of Trump’s maxims: Protect The Downside. From a global perspective, Trump can see that a large slice of the world’s population is in favour of “multi-polarity”, one that is not led/dominated by the United States. In some ways that is beneficial for the US (let them fight their own wars) but in other ways not, particularly as the world’s reserve currency. There is little he can do to prevent BRICS from developing, but he can sense the threat of it and therefore moves to “protect the downside” for the US. First, he announced those 100 percent tariffs on any BRICS country that moves to create a currency that rivals the US dollar. “The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” he wrote on his social media feed, adding that these nations could “say goodbye” to selling into the US economy.
Then, consider the aggressive geopolitical moves Trump is making. In the past few weeks, he has settled down into sort of a pattern (it does seem odd to consider that “stable” but bizarrely a few weeks on the same topic are exactly that) of going after Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. This is a truly weird combo, if viewed in terms of trading partners, or even trade deficits. It seems even more strange since his fixation excludes Mexico, and he’s singled Mexico (and Canada) out for extra punishment for allowing illegal immigrants and drugs to enter the US.
So why is he ignoring Mexico in this latest barrage? Well, look at what he could be stitching together by pursuing those others: An antidote to BRICS. If the US controlled Greenland, Canada (in one form or another), and the Panama Canal, the US would control a significant chunk of the globe, including artic shipping routes that flow into both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, right down to Panama, with direct ocean access to Asia and Europe. This block would also include unbelievable amounts of raw materials, from metals to minerals to lumber to oil to gas to water to agriculture to you name it. It would be a massive counterpoint to BRICS, wealthy beyond belief in capital and resources, able to defend itself relatively easily without engaging all over the world militarily, etc.
And…his strategies work. Insulting? Sure. Abrasive? Absolutely? Effective? Yep. As of this past weekend, Axios did some quality reporting to suss out that Denmark had sent private messages to Trump’s team to express willingness to discuss an increased US military presence on the island. Greenland’s leader said he was open to talking to Trump as well, and pointed out that “Greenland is for the Greenlandic people. We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic.” Which is where this will all come to rest, as with Canada…it is very unlikely Trump would do anything forceful to Greenland or Canada, but he doesn’t have to to get them to see the world his way, and to advance his agenda.
Greenland’s message is no doubt what we will hear from Canadians; it is inconceivable that a democratic vote would have Canada sacrifice its independence, no matter what the view is from certain circles. And Trump surely knows this as well. But look what he will accomplish. He has Denmark and Greenland discussing increased cooperation, he has Canada scrambling to reduce immigration and secure borders, he has reopened the Panama Canal discussions. And he’s not even president yet.
The rise of BRICS – Indonesia just joined here in 2025 – shows that the Russian/Chinese/Indian block is growing rapidly in influence, and as it gains strength in membership, GDP, internal markets, and resources, is fading away from the west. In that light, Trump’s strategy makes sense. Europe is not much of a geopolitical ally so long as it continues on its path of economic self-immolation via truly insane energy policies. So, Trump is taking the bull by the horns, and no one should be surprised.