I guess Justin Trudeau needs to follow Mexico’s lead and just tell Trump that Canada will fix our border issues. Trump can then claim victory on the northern front as well.
Canada has a different border worry however. When Trump’s posse starts rounding up illegal immigrants for deportation there may be a mass fleeing of these folks to Canada to escape deportation to their home countries. We would have to hire thousands more Mounties to patrol our 5500 mile border or build a wall.
Sheinbaum has now challenged Trump’s account of what they agreed to on their phone call….
I wonder if Trump will double down now.
She can always release the transcript and make Trump look foolish.
Of course she did, because he made it all up and everyone outside of his cult group of followers who believe whatever he says is always the truth, no matter how blatantly false it is, knows he made it all up.
Trump will say: “who you going to believe: me or your lying eyes?” And Trumpists will believe Him.
Can you imagine ending up in a diplomatic row before they even take office? You really can’t make it up.
Trump had dinner with Trudeau. The head of one nation skipped the head of another and went to a private home to have national discussions. I don’t like Trump but he has basically made Biden irrelevant in this last stretch of the term. Trump has snatched an extra 2 months.
In most other countries (albeit smaller countries), the winner of the election takes office immediately or very shortly after so you don’t really have this lame duck period. There’s not really much sense meeting with Biden because there’s not much future to plan for. If it was an emergency that needed action in the next few days, Biden would definitely be consulted.
I read that one reason for the long delay is the fixed inauguration date. This would allow for scenarios like Bush/Gore to be sorted out or, if there was a third party that was able to get enough electoral votes, a contingent election in the house was required (as happened in 1800 and 1824).
Agree, seems like no big deal to meet/discuss/prepare. A transition agreement is in place. A biggern concern is the team is skipiing out on FBI clearances for members. They are also opting to fund their team privately which sounds like an opportunity for more grifting.
It does appear like a breach of etiquette for the president-elect to basically start doing business as president. I don’t know if the intent of the transition was to have 2 presidents but it does look like that’s what we have now. It’s because Trump is announcing his actions now essentially making Biden irrelevant.
One of the big questions we had during the campaign was maybe the Democrats are too soft. I think this is another example of the democrats being too soft. Trump last time during this period wasn’t giving an inch.
Probably served him leftovers from the Zuckerberg meal. Trump and Trudeau have a terrible relationship.
Imagine if the inauguration date was March 4, like it was before the 20th Amendment.
This actually made me laugh out loud today.
I fail to see the humor. It’s worth a glance at history.
In the height of the Cold War, Kruschev and Nixon had contest to show off the typical American and Russian kitchens. The American kitchen had all the latest conveniences. It showed the difference between Soviet Russia and USA standards of living.
This was part of the foreign policy. Win over the fence sitters with the promise of a better life. Win the Cold War by converting the world to capitalism .
So now we go the exact opposite. Walls at the border, Jan 6 riots, homeless and without basic medical care, all the way to military deportation of non natives. Not exactly the type of world that sells well.
Advantage BRICS.
Its humorous because he clearly has no idea how international finance operates.
Nothing will come of this bluster. He is like the Mad King on steroids.
The only thing he is truly accomplishing is that the BRICS will double down on their efforts to reduce their reliance on the US Dollar.
They do have some legitimate reasons for doing this as they are economically damaged when you have a strong dollar.
But instead of working with them (and improving trade) he does his usual routine of completely unproductive threats.
This bluster, as most of his is, is for domestic consumption.
Normally, I’d say that the bluster was just Trump’s negotiation style – create a crisis to get favorable terms and expedite a deal – but there’s one news report citing “sources” that might call part of that into question:
They are definitely going to do the trade tariffs.
But this is mostly because Trump’s ego is more important than economic reality, and doubly so because he ran on the tariffs are great ticket. He wants to be able to tell his MAGA crowd that he followed through on that electoral promise.
So I do expect them to be enacted.
The real question is how much economic damage will Americans tolerate before Trump (convinced by his advisors) pulls the plug and claims victory.
The US can subsidise some of the domestic damage from the likely counter-tariffs (very likely from Canada and Mexico) but its financial reserves are not unlimited.
The US can be greatly damaged from a global trade war, and if their entire strategy is based on divide and conquer…they are even less competent than I thought.
Disagree. It probably won’t have the effect he desires. But it should affect how people around the globe view the USA. And not in a positive way.
Wars and environmental damage are objectively bad things. The planet needs cooperation. These actions just scream the opposite. That makes me sadge.
There is already a tariff in imported bluster.
For 248 years or so.