U.S. president Donald Trump has been called all manner of things lately, from a “maniac” who’s displaying “crazy, bonkers behaviour” (N.L. premier Andrew Furey), a man who’s living in a “disinformation bubble” (Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy) and a man who’s “shock and awful” (American talk-show host Stephen Colbert).
Trump bullies everybody – countries, cities, states, the media, and domestic and foreign leaders. And just when everybody thought Trump ran out of tricks to pull from his “shock and awful” close-up bag, they were compelled to watch a few more blood-curdling skits last week after Trump met with U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer and Zelenskyy.
After he gushed about Starmer’s accent and acknowledged an invitation to tea with King Charles III, Trump told Starmer – during a live broadcast in the Oval Office – to, essentially, shut up about Canada, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to make his 51st state.
Not that Starmer was defending Canada’s sovereignty. Quite the contrary. It was generally agreed by pundits that Starmer threw Canada “under the bus” in order to appease the self-proclaimed king in the Oval Office rather than his own king, who also happens to be Canada’s king. Starmer could have made a general statement about recognizing the sovereignty of other countries, but he instead reached into Trump’s magic bag and turned a reporter into a toad.
REPORTER: “And for the prime minister [Starmer], did you discuss with president Trump his repeated statements of desire to annex Canada, and has the king [Charles III] expressed any concern over the president’s apparent desire to remove one of his realms from his control?”
STARMER: “Look, we had a really good discussion, a productive discussion, a good discussion as a result of which our teams are going to be working together on an economic deal, our team is going to be working together on security in Ukraine. You mentioned Canada. I think you’re trying to find a divide between us [Britain and USA] that doesn’t exist. We’re the closest of nations and we had very good discussions today but we didn’t.”
TRUMP: “That’s enough. Thank you.”
STARMER: “-discuss Canada.”
Then came more shock and awful last Friday with Ukraine’s president who did not disrespect Trump and U.S. vice president JD Vance when he rejected a U.S. cease fire agreement. Zelenskyy did something far worse: he spoke truth to power.
That inflamed the Americans and their index fingers began to chop air. They belittled Zelenskyy, repeatedly interrupted and spoke over him, and demanded “respect” and a show of obsequiousness as though Zelenskyy were vassal to Trump’s feudal lord.
Commentators in Canada, Europe and America said this unrelenting attack on a leader of another nation was “unprecedented” in American history, something they’ve never witnessed before from an American president. Russia expert Keir Giles of Chatham House told the CBC that what Trump and Vance subjected Zelenskyy to was “ritualized humiliation” and the “language of gangsters.”
American congressman Seth Moulton (Democrat, Mass.) was among those who condemned Trump, telling a Canadian media outlet that Trump doesn’t represent American values, many in Congress are appalled by his behaviour, and Trump – vis-à-vis the Russian invasion of Ukraine – is selling out to a communist dictator [Vladimir Putin].
Canadian and European leaders trod more delicately, making statements supporting Ukraine but failing to take Trump to task for his bullying behaviour.
And refraining from telling a bully he or she is a bully is a “normal” way of dealing with it, according to Gimli residents Sherry Benson-Podolchuk and David Podolchuk.
They’re keeping a close eye on the action down south and globally and the way Canadian politicians are responding to Trump. They’re also attuned to the way many people in the community and across the country feel about Trump’s threats to make Canada his own.
“Trump is an anomaly. Politicians – other than Putin and dictators – don’t behave this way,” said Benson-Podolchuk last Thursday, with specific reference to Trump’s silencing Starmer. “Oftentimes when you’re dealing with a bully, you’ll find people are afraid to say something because they don’t want to rock the boat … they don’t want to make it worse for themselves. It’s better to be swimming with the sharks than with the minnows. You can see this in Canada, with our politicians going down to the States to make nicey-nicey with Trump.”
Benson-Podolchuk has lots of experience with bullies. She’s a retired RCMP officer who dealt with 20 years of bullying, violence, threats and sexual harassment from her own police colleagues. She said she has finely tuned “bully meter” and Trump is off the charts.
She characterizes Trump as “insecure,” as most bullies are. He’s jealous of Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau, a “good-looking guy,” smart, a gentleman, can speak French, made Trump’s wife and daughter go “goo-goo” over him and “is everything Trump is not.”
She thinks Trump muzzled Starmer because the topic of Canada is “very touchy” right now as Trump’s losing faith in his ability to bully Canadians.
“He truly thought we’d roll over and say, ‘Welcome to Canada. We’d be so happy to be American,’” she said. “This is best thing he’s done for us. The majority of Canadians – across religions, across cultures and across political affiliations – are united against him.”
That’s borne out by recent polls showing a majority of everyday Canadians disliking Trump, and sadly – given a century of close partnership with the U.S. – a good percentage are starting to view the U.S. as an enemy country.
A Leger poll conducted from Feb. 21-25 of senior Canadian business leaders showed 84 per cent of respondents worried about Trump’s tariff threats against Canada, 79 per cent fearing that inflation could rise “significantly” here over the next six months and 51 per cent intending to decrease their investments in the U.S.
Benson-Podolchuk said bullying in the workplace gives rise to a culture of fear, where everyone shuts up and shuts down when they see someone else being bullied. That psychology is at work in the U.S. administration with all the “yes people” Trump has installed, and on the world stage where politicians feel it’s too risky to tell Trump his bullying won’t be tolerated.
“If you see something, say something. But workplace culture in the U.S. government is led by someone who’s a bully and has toxic views. And nobody wants to say anything because they want to keep their jobs. Then there are the career politicians who’ll do whatever they need to do to keep their jobs. I understand that,” she said. “But there comes a point when you have to decide, ‘What’s the moral and ethical thing to do for my country?’ To say nothing is to allow Trump to ruin democracy in America and harm the most vulnerable people. And it allows him to say things such as it’s Ukraine’s fault for the Russian invasion – I almost blew a gasket at that.”
Bullies also typically overwhelm people to the point where they stop thinking clearly because they’re “under all this pressure and fear,” she said. Bullies want to destabilize, confuse and paralyse people. In Trump’s case, he “moves so quicky that you’re almost punch-drunk” and can’t figure out “what the hell’s happening.” Trump has done this through a flurry of executive orders, his saying one thing then reversing course, demonizing people and countries, and through unpredictable, toxic comments.
And like some ancient Roman emperors (Caligula springs to mind) there’s also Trump’s state of mind to consider.
“I think the president might have a mental-health disorder and could be losing his mind. When he has a hate on for somebody, he has a hate on. He doesn’t forgive and forget and move on. He said before he became president that he would go after those who don’t like him,” said Benson-Podolchuk.
Many Canadians are feeling anxious living next to a country that has a powerful military and a hostile president, who they think could become vexed to the point of having American tanks mow down custom’s agents at the Canada-U.S. border on their way north.
When did America last invade Canada? If we’re talking physically, it was 1812, and on a smaller scale in 1866 with the first of the Fenian raids. It we’re talking non-physically, well, the Americans are already here via Amazon, Facebook, McDonald’s and a steady stream of movies steeped in values like guns, extreme violence, eye-for-an-eye righteousness and lack-of-accountability narratives. That Trump is so far out of touch with how to be a leader of a democratic country, and appears to be living in a Hollywood movie, is evident by an AI-generated video called “Trump Gaza” that Trump co-opted and shared on social media.
It features a giant golden statue of Trump, belly-dancers, money falling from the heavens and Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sipping cocktails and lounging shirtless on a beach in Gaza – a place Trump said he wants to “clean out” of its 2 million residents and turn in to a seaside resort. The video was a satire, its L.A.-based creators told media outlets, and they didn’t want it to be used as fodder for Trump’s “propaganda machine.”
Benson-Podolchuk said it’s “normal to panic” given the mayhem that’s playing out daily down south and in the geopolitical sphere.
“Frightened is a good way to describe how many Canadians are feeling; ‘Oh my gosh, we’re only 40 million here and there’s almost 400 million in the U.S. What could happen? Could Trump order the military to invade us?’” said Benson-Podolchuk. “He can say he can invade us, but they’re not going to stream across the border and take us over. But we, nevertheless, have to stand up and show Trump we’re not interested in joining America. We’ve never been interested, just like Denmark isn’t interested in having Trump take over Greenland. And it’s good to understand that the person who’s talking about taking over countries is likely a lunatic.”
David Podolchuk said that because Canada is a NATO member (as is the USA), NATO countries would be obliged to come to Canada’s defence should America invade us. That would happen through the triggering of NATO’s Article 5, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
NATO invoked Article 5 only once in its history, he said, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the U.S. that saw hijacked airliners hitting the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York.
“People should pay attention to Trump’s actions rather than his words. He never said he would militarily invade Canada; he said he’d try to economically annex us. One of his campaign platforms was to get America out of foreign wars and I don’t think he’ll start one,” said Podolchuk. “It looks like he’s given up on Greenland. Gaza said it doesn’t want to be America’s 51st state. What does he have left? Puerto Rico? It’s already an American territory and I don’t know if he and the Republicans even want it.”
Benson-Podolchuk has some sound advice for people feeling unnerved about living next-door to an unstable neighbour.
“The idea is to stand back, take a deep breath and focus on a few things at time and analyze those. Then stand back again, analyze a few more things and wait for the dust to settle. He’s going to keep saying stupid things every day,” she said. “What you can do instead is take part in non-violent protests, send letters and emails [to Canada’s political leaders] and support local and non-U.S. businesses by buying Canadian and European products. And speak up when you see bullying.”
There are 1,419 days left (as of March 2) of Trump 2.0 and it looks as though we’ll be speaking up on a daily basis.
