Roundup: The first Trump 2.0 salvo

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And so it begins. Donald Trump went on this Truth Social to declare that he’s going to impose 25 percent tariffs against Canada until we secure the border and stop letting illegal aliens and fentanyl across, and predictably, everybody lost their gods damned minds.

https://twitter.com/maxfawcett/status/1861241979834900615

Guys, he’s signalling he wants counter offers.Throwing someone under the bus is not an offer Doug/Danielle. He can do that without you. What do you have that he needs? Or, what do you have what ppl he needs/owes need? Hint ON: it’s not auto parts.

— Jennifer Robson (@jrobson.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T02:12:33.298Z

Justin Trudeau had a call with Trump apparently shortly after, and Dominic LeBlanc and Chrystia Freeland put out a bland, vaguely-reassuring statement, while Trudeau also had to call the premiers of the two largest provinces to calm them down (as they had already been demanding an emergency First Ministers’ meeting about Trump’s return). In amidst this, Jagmeet Singh was also being performative about demanding Trudeau fight, and so on.

It took less than three hours before the first of the Elder Pundits started demanding that we capitulate on a number of files to Trump while, delusionally, insisting that he can be bargained with in good faith. Honest to Zeus, you guys.

And here's our first sighting of a capitulationist argument. John advocates that we gather and sit down and negotiate "in good faith" with the incoming administration, and then lists a bunch of things where we should just concede.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T04:47:28.634Z

Well, I see that Alaric has brought a lot of Visigoths with him to the gates of Rome. Maybe we should sit down and negotiate with Good King Alaric in good faith and he will agree to sack only half of Rome.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T04:54:19.405Z

I mean, had this strategy succeeded even once with that guy? "Say what you want about Trump, but he sure does respect and respond to people who come and negotiate in good faith." Haha, no.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T04:57:16.619Z

Once everyone calms down and breathes into a paper bag for a few minutes, we need to be clear-eyed about this, and one of the most important things to be clear-eyed about is that if Trump does this, that means he raises gas prices in the American Midwest overnight. Maybe we need to let him discover some consequences for his actions instead of capitulating? It might be a novel approach, and we might suffer some collateral damage, but it might be less than we think.

What action should we take to a threatened 25% tariff?Some thoughts….www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl…

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T02:14:27.371Z

https://bsky.app/profile/josephpolitano.bsky.social/post/3lbsuq6etic26

I mean seriously if the guy is about to jam a stick in his own damned wheel we don't need to have an emergency Team Canada summit and capitulate our way into offering sacrifices. We should just say…go ahead, and enjoy the pain you're inflicting on yourself.

— Kevin Milligan (@kevinmilligan.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T02:41:01.591Z

You all MOCKED George Lucas and said this was boring or dumb but who’s laughing now???

— Happy Nute Dawn (@nutedawn.bsky.social) 2024-11-26T01:00:33.647Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia once again launched a massive drone assault, targeting Kharkiv, Odesa, and Kyiv, mostly damaging residential buildings. Russian forces are also rapidly advancing toward Kurakhove.

Good reads:

  • At the NATO Parliamentary Association meeting, Justin Trudeau defended the path to 2 percent for defence spending, and denounced the riots on Friday yet again.
  • Unusually, Trudeau released a mandate letter for his National Security Advisor, charging her with developing a new national security strategy.
  • Chrystia Freeland says the GST “holiday” and rebate cheques are meant to help deal with the “vibecession” that people are feeling. (Yes, it’s actually a Thing).
  • Bill Blair says he’s ready to move faster to increase the rate of defence spending.
  • Marc Miller says there won’t be a temporary resettlement programme for Lebanon like there was for Ukraine and Gaza as there are still Canadians in the region.
  • Miller also says that further changes to the immigration and asylum systems will be proposed in the coming weeks.
  • The National Security Advisor has warned that the RCMP’s protective services are facing “unsustainable pressure” as threats against MPs mount.
  • The Chief Electoral Officer has suggested some changes to help discourage the “longest ballot” shenanigans that have cropped up in recent byelections.
  • The Business Council of Canada says we should increase defence spending to 3 percent of GDP by investing in things like AI. (I don’t think that counts, guys).
  • Jagmeet Singh is demanding those $250 cheques to go to seniors, students, and people with disabilities—but he probably won’t block the measures if they don’t.
  • I am shocked—shocked!—to find that Ontario has failed to meet their own legislated targets for long-term care. Whoever could have seen that coming?

Odds and ends:

Need a copy of my book “The Unbroken Machine,” or “Royal Progress,” which I contributed to? Want to give a copy as a gift? Dundurn Press is having a 25% off site wide sale!

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-18T23:53:05.945Z

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One thought on “Roundup: The first Trump 2.0 salvo”

  1. …Trump does this, that means he raises gas prices in the American Midwest overnight

    IIRC, Canada is a net exporter of electricity to the USA, with Québec being a major supplier to New England and possibly other parts of the Eastern Seaboard. OAPS, there goes another price hike.

    BTW, whats the status of the soft wood dispute? Does the US still need Canadian aluminum?

    This reminds me of the Russian sanctions where Washington missed the little details such as the USA importing a small but very important amount of diesel fuel from Russia or that all of Boeing’s tungsten parts were produced in Russia.

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