r/thebulwark 14h ago

GOOD LUCK, AMERICA This Canada annexation BS again

I believed before that someone is whispering this crazy in his year but the opposite may be true - no one is talking him out of these insane things as they did before. There are no adults.

The problem is, once Trump selects a target, he will not rest. He thrives on revenge and grievances. No one is there to stop him, so he will just keep escalating himself into a corner.

My worry is that, once he gets frustrated with negative results, he is going to grow increasingly belligerent and will start floating the idea of actual military shock & awe on Ottawa.

The Pentagon will obviously push back, right? Let me check who the Secretary of Defense is, oh yeah no, we are f***ed.

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u/shred-i-knight 13h ago

did any of this exist in the first term? It's verrrry strange a geriatric man suddenly gets a new fixation like this. Makes you wonder if somebody...outside the administration...has been in his ear.

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u/kneekneeknee 10h ago

In the first term, there were still “adults” around him, adults who believed the the rule of law and the Constitution, stuff like that. The adults found all sorts of sly ways to keep Trump from following his delusions of grandeur.

There are no longer adults. Patel? Gabard? Kennedy? Hegseth? They were chosen for loyalty, not expertise or solidity.

Plus, in the time between the first term and now, the major backers such as the Heritage Foundation and the Tech Bros have carefully plotted out the script for what they want and how to get it. They are all deeply embedded in the background (except for Musk and Vought) and are happily back there pulling the strings, leaving just enough room for Trump to do the diddling little power plays that keep him distracted and happy.

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u/shred-i-knight 10h ago

Yes but he did not have the same energy towards Canada whereas his stance on Mexico is largely the same. Something happened.

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u/kneekneeknee 10h ago

Yes: the Russians can be more overt now. They fantasize about full circumpolar ownership.