When U.S. President Donald Trump first prompt Canada must grow to be the 51st American state, the government brushed aside it as only a shaggy dog story. Finance Minister Dominic Leblanc insisted it was once “in no way a serious comment.”
An identical skepticism was once expressed by means of political leaders internationally when Trump mentioned seizing Greenland and the Panama Canal in early January, by means of army drive if important, to buttress U.S. nationwide safety. He additionally floated the speculation of taking on Gaza to develop into it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Now that Trump has carried thru on his competitive financial threats — launching a business battle with China and elevating the potential for equivalent conflicts with Canada, Mexico and the Ecu Union — his imperialist expansionism is in simple sight.
Canadian leaders have come to appreciate that Trump’s movements will not be a short lived or minor irritant, however fairly an assault on Canadian sovereignty itself.
The failure to take Trump’s phrases severely is harking back to British High Minister Neville Chamberlain’s skepticism in 1938 that Hitler would in truth chance international battle in spite of the latter’s competitive rhetoric, annexation of Austria and threats to Czechoslovakia and Poland.
What, then, had been the indicators of Trump’s expansionist dispositions? American financial and armed forces would possibly, albeit declining relative to rising powers like China and India, nonetheless supplies a forged foundation for the projection of U.S. supremacy. However there also are two new key parts at play.
A billionaire-corporate management
The Trump management seems to function with a distinctly company mindset, treating the country like a trade empire. Trump has stacked his management with non-public sector leaders and company billionaires akin to Elon Musk, Doug Burgum and Howard Lutnick.
Like different billionaires, their immense trade good fortune has been based no longer on mainstay aggressive marketplace practices like productiveness or cost-cutting, however on predatory and cannibalistic ones.
President Donald Trump speaks with journalists as Elon Musk listens within the Oval Administrative center on the White Area on Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
(Picture/Alex Brandon)
Those come with controlling sources like oil, gold, diamonds and coltan to safe manufacturing inputs; purchasing out competition to monopolize markets and patents; and intentionally breaking apart and destroying corporations thru mergers and acquisitions with little regard for the ensuing activity losses.
It’s inside this framework that Trump’s allegations about purchasing Greenland and Gaza, annexing Canada thru “economic force” and taking pictures the Panama Canal want to be noticed.
Below the guise of nationwide safety, the speculation isn’t merely to safeguard borders, however to interact in financial expansionism and actual property construction, aided by means of the U.S. army when wanted. Taking keep an eye on of land, waterways and mineral wealth is important to development “America’s Golden Age” of company capitalism.
This manner appears to be a basically trade one, with little worry for the social prices (recession, unemployment, violence) produced by means of such imperialistic ventures. Consistent with his notorious guide, The Artwork of the Deal, Trump seems to view overseas countries and home warring parties alike as stumbling blocks to be callously bullied, degraded, manipulated, exploited and in any case vanquished.
American nationalist populism
The Trump management’s imperial ambitions lie within the nationalist populism that propelled Trump and his allies into energy for the second one time.
Trump’s populism has effectively tapped into standard anxieties amongst American citizens — activity lack of confidence, meals costs, the housing disaster — by means of promising to assuage their worries in the course of the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) schedule.
Like different right-wing populist actions all over the world — Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s in Turkey, Viktor Orbán’s in Hungary and the Brexit marketing campaign within the U.Okay. — the MAGA motion has sought to unify the U.S. by means of figuring out and concentrated on perceived nationwide enemies. Those come with so-called “illegal” migrants, transgender other people and the rustic’s greatest buying and selling opponents: Mexico, Canada and China.
Through blaming those teams, particularly the ones noticed as contributing to The united states’s financial decline, MAGA whips up nationalist sentiment within the type of suspicion, aggression and vengeance. The result’s a deeply polarized nationalist discourse wherein one is both a faithful supporter or an enemy; a believer or a “woke” liberal.
A deadly imperial set-up
The mix of U.S. world energy, nationalist populism and the Trump management’s corporate-driven, predatory manner makes for a deadly dynamic.
This mixture is fuelling a type of financial expansionism this is now starting to present itself. The upcoming business wars, attainable dismantling of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Business Settlement (which Trump initiated in 2018 to steer clear of unilateral business strikes by means of its signatories) and the brazen omit for the socioeconomic penalties of overseas territorial keep an eye on, such because the compelled displacement of Palestinians, are all indicators of this.
High Minister Justin Trudeau delivers a observation as he stands with Ecu Fee President Ursula von der Leyen, left, and Ecu Council President Antonio Costa, correct, as they come to the EU-Canada leaders assembly on the Ecu Council development in Brussels on Feb. 12, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Whilst many assumed Trump’s management can be protectionist and isolationist, a extra troubling and nefarious fact is rising. His management seems to be intent on securing The united states’s commercial dominance thru business wars whilst increasing it thru hawkish financial imperialism.
There’s a transparent ruthlessness to this manner, with a willingness to drive no longer simplest The united states’s perceived enemies but in addition its allies. “America First” is beginning to seems like “America Above All Others” as Trump makes an attempt to bully U.S. opponents into subordination, with stressful echoes of previous authoritarians.
Unravelling American imperial designs
Many stumbling blocks may save you Trump’s competitive expansionism from absolutely taking form. Whilst the important thing elements would possibly already be there, and a few have begun to be deployed, that doesn’t imply they’ll come to fruition.
The Trump management’s policymaking procedure is frequently chaotic and theatrical, prioritizing non permanent political positive factors over long-term technique. This instability undermines any constant efforts at growth.
There could also be the danger that Trump’s business wars will backfire. They might finally end up inflicting hardship to U.S. corporations and customers thru upper meals and effort costs, activity losses in key industries like agriculture and auto production, and higher inventory marketplace instability. Such penalties may negatively impact Trump’s company allies.
In the meantime, Trump’s financial and armed forces opponents may forge new alliances to problem his makes an attempt at world supremacy. High Minister Justin Trudeau, for example, just lately met with the top of NATO and different Ecu allies to fortify business and safety ties.
Step one to any countermoves by means of Trump’s overseas adversaries will probably be seeing his regime’s designs for what they’re: chaotic, possibly, however critical expansionist ones.
