"We will build a wall. A protective wall." – Joseph Goebbels
With 60 some days into the Trump reign, Canada has clearly become Washington's number one enemy.
Trump has trashed 80-plus years of diplomatic relations in Europe, sold out Ukraine, formed a new Axis of evil with North Korea and Russia, and all the while, he has kept his focus on causing maximum economic damage to his nearest neighbour.
But the on-again-off-again tariff threats are creating havoc on both sides of the border. The relentless attack on Canada has created increasing uncertainty in the American economy.
Economic Chaos on Both Sides
Take agriculture, for instance. Agriculture is a $73 billion integrated industry that delivers quality food at reasonable prices. Given recent shocks from inflation and rising food prices, the American consumer will be very wary of any increased costs at the grocery store.
There is no way Trump can upend this integrated market without causing chaos to the economy and family budgets. And yet he keeps trying.
Same with auto. Same with aluminum.
Trump brags that the United States doesn't need anything from Canada.
Tell that to industries dependent on Canadian critical minerals.
Germanium is one of those metals. It comes from the smelter at Trail, British Columbia and is essential for fibre optics, infrared vision and solar panels. BC Premier David Eby has threatened to cut off the supply of germanium. If this happened, high-tech America would sputter to a halt.
Premier Doug Ford has also threatened to withhold nickel, an essential ingredient in American manufacturing.
Prime Minister Trudeau was blunt with the Canadian people when he explained why Trump is willing to risk such economic chaos:
"The excuse that he's giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified, completely false. What he wants is to see a total collapse of the Canadian economy, because that'll make it easier to annex us."
America First - America Last
We need to look beyond the seeming irrationality of Trump's actions and recognize the underlying road map. Donald Trump is trying to implement an economic agenda known as autarky (Oh-tarky). Don't worry if you have never heard of this economic theory. It's peak fringe. But it has very dark and disturbing roots.
American isolationism is the driving force of MAGA. It's not just about pulling troops out of Europe. It is also about economic isolationism, a response to globalization in an extreme form. Autarky is about cutting off trade and making the United States self-sufficient in all its needs.
But before we start debunking MAGA-economics, let's look at the theory's roots.
If you follow my resistance posts on Substack, you will know that I have analyzed Donald Trump's obsession with Hitler and the Nazis. Ivana Trump says Donald kept a book of Hitler's speeches by his bedside.
Autarky was the guiding principle of Nazi economics. Hitler promoted the vision that Germans could build a wall of tariffs to make their nation self-sufficient from all other trading nations.
In the book The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic, author Benjamin Carter Hett writes:
"Autarky was the idea that the country could cut itself off completely from the world economy and rely on its own resources… Autarky was central to the Nazi's political campaign and the theme of freeing Germany from its dependence on a hostile world struck a chord with voters."
It was extremist and nativist populism turned up to 11.
"Globalization was not a word anyone used in the 1920s or 30s, but people were familiar with its reality. More than anything, the Nazis were a nationalist protest against globalization."
But there was one major problem with autarky: Germany couldn't supply its own national needs, and its industries still needed a market to sell into. This meant taking resources from other nations – oil from Romania and iron from Norway - while creating a living space (Lebensraum) in the "bread basket" of Ukraine.
Much has been written about the racial theories of Lebensraum but less about the economic driver for Hitler's vision of Europe. Carter Hett writes that autarky drove the need for invasion and war. It was a plunder economy.
"Putting autarky at the centre of an economic program meant promoting the perpetuation of war."
Project 2025: Trump’s Economic War
Autarky 2025 may be in a more watered-down form, but it explains Donald Trump's less-than-subtle musings about getting control of Canadian water resources or bringing us under the tariff-free dome of a new continental American empire.
Autarky is a key principle of the Project 2025 movement. It is being championed by the American Foreign Policy Institute (AFPI). And who chairs the AFPI? Linda McMahon.
Yup, the same McMahon who promoted trashy wrestling spectacles with Trump back in the day.
The AFPI has been promoting an extreme response to globalization through a vision of isolationist America cut off from the normal and beneficial nature of trade.
Like trade with Canada.
To make American Autarky real, it is necessary to drive down the American economy, make people more dependent on the oligarchs and simply steal the resources needed from formerly friendly neighbours.
Gangsterism 101
Jonathan Friedland, writing in The Guardian, describes Trump's administration as a mafia nation, albeit with less honour than an actual crime lord. Friedland writes about the attempted destruction of the Canadian economy:
"It's a technique familiar in the darker corners of the New Jersey construction industry: a series of unfortunate fires that only stops when a recalcitrant competitor submits."
But as Friedland points out, Trump isn't all that strong as the Don Corleone of America. He's weak.
Trump oversees a deeply divided nation while driving internal division and chaos even further. Hitler's economic and military project was based on a principle that shoppers and families had to be completely insulated from any economic impact from their increasingly disastrous war aims. Even as the cities were being bombed to rubble, Hitler was obsessing about keeping middle-class mothers content with fair prices. He understood that a restless population would cause his adventurism to fail.
Trump's gang, on the other hand, are thriving on the chaos, uncertainty and fear in America. But the reality is that a deeply divided nation will not put up with the shocks caused by destroying the greatest trade relationship in the world. Even the MAGA voters will start to question the cost of satisfying whack-job ideology. It doesn't bode well for any long-term adventurism.
And they didn’t factor in the determined resistance of the Canadian people.
They thought we would just roll over.
As if.
Canadian economic and political resistance has thrown Trump. He is scrambling to find a way to keep the high ground. But Canadian resistance has only grown stronger.
This political and economic resistance will be key in the coming months and years. That is why the boycott is such an important weapon.
A unified Canada will never be defeated by a nation distracted by its own political chaos and dissension.
It is important for Canadians to see through the fog of disinformation being spun by the MAGA mob. We need to understand what is driving the chaos so we can stay focused on what we must do to fight back and ultimately win.
Elbows up. Stand the gaff. Keep kicking at the darkness until it bleeds daylight.
From FL— The resistance here continues to grow. Yesterday there were protests across the country. Some are organized in advance, others are spontaneous. The bottom line is that the opposition movement is growing! More trump voters are speaking out against him as they suffer the consequences of his terrible policies. Federal workers who’ve lost their jobs, people struggling to make ends meet due to higher costs, people watching their retirement accounts get hammered by his on/off tariff BS killing the market, farmers in red states whose govt contracts have been cancelled due to shuttering USAID, etc.
Threats to Medicaid, Medicare & Social Security have folks fired up.
His bullying of Canada, Mexico & all of our allies, really. Most concerning is his abandonment of Ukraine! Our elected officials are openly accusing him of being a Russian asset.
We will continue! We won’t back down!
In solidarity ✊🏼
I use to post and comment on fb for many years. I stopped reading, posting and commenting on fb. I had no idea how I would deal with something that absorbed so much of my time. Then when Charlie started this site I joined as I have always followed his posts. I will never have fb in my life again. I appreciate the information that this site brings and the people who follow it. It is a breath of fresh air to see so many comments supporting all of humanity for the greater good and not narcissistic and selfish comments like there are on fb.