Trump still believes that U.S. unilateral action can force others to capitulate and submit to American terms.
He is dead wrong.
Kori Schake, in Foreign Affairs, July/August 2025, states;
“Trump cannot envision a future in which other countries opt out of the existing U.S.-led international order or construct a new one that would be antagonistic to American interests. Yet those are precisely the outcomes the Trump administration is hastening.”
In relation to Canada, that is definitively true. As Mark Carney, Canada’s Prime Minister has stated publicly, “The old relationship is dead.” Canada has begun to charter a new path. One where American leverage will no longer hold sway over Canada. And, it isn’t just Canada. The EU and its 27 states have clearly signalled that they too no longer trust the United States and will chart a new course for the European Union.
Trump and his misguided advisors believed that nations would simply capitulate, as if they have no choice. What are the alternatives? A closer relationship with China?
And, this is exactly where the wheels fall off for the United States, because countries like Canada and Mexico truly do not trust America anymore. “Trump has threatened the sovereignty of allies and publicly berated their leaders, all while lavishing praise on the dictators and thugs who threaten them…As the country’s friends have looked on in horror and its rivals have watched with glee, the United States has gone from indispensable to insufferable.”
Since Trump believes that Canada and the EU are a burden, Trump is willing to play a zero-sum game of chicken, and by so doing, they, collectively are willing to go it alone. According to an EU survey in the journal Le Grand Continent, more than half of Europeans see the United States as an enemy. As of October, 2025, 51% of Canadians now consider the U.S. either an enemy or potential threat.
Speculation is rife that, “countries might choose not to invest in U.S. Treasuries or might buy them only at higher interest rates, importing higher costs on Washington for servicing the national debt. If the western world considers the U.S. dollar to ‘not be a safe haven’, tariffs and the budget will push U.S. debt levels to unprecedented heights.
Already, the EU, Canada, Japan and Korea are creating new supply chains that avoid American-made components. Trump is succeeding where China alone could not, as Korea and Japan are beginning to bypass the United States and deal with other nations without American involvement or input.
America’s ability to project power may well become compromised if Trump continues to act like a dictator. American military power depends on cooperation and collaboration with other nations. If America refuses to support the EU and its partners in Europe, then, “A Europe consumed with such insecurity wouldn’t be particularly keen to help Washington deal with Chinese military and commercial aggression or to help constrain the Iranian nuclear program.”
As Kori Schake stated in Foreign Affairs, “If the United States itself abandons those rules and the system they created, it will become wholly expendable.”
As it is, Canada and the EU, are moving on. They have no intention of waiting to see if Trump’s irrationality worsens or becomes more threatening.
Faith and trust have been irreparably damaged and we, Canadians, want no part of the United States. That includes trade, travel or commerce of any kind.
Leave a Reply