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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 14, 2026 at 12:11 am
The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself.
–“Waterloo,” by Abba
To understand what is happening in the United States today, it’s necessary to realize this:
- Its decent, democracy-cherishing citizens find themselves in the same position as decent, democracy-cherishing citizens of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.
- And just as Germany’s government became a ruthless dictatorship, so has that of the United States.
- And just as ordinary, peace-loving Germans hoped for a powerful, democratic outsider to remove the menace of Adolf Hitler, so do ordinary, peace-loving Americans hope the same will happen to Donald Trump.
Adolf Hitler
From 1939 to 1945, those democracy-cherishing outsiders consisted of Canada, England and the United States. (The Soviet Union reluctantly joined this alliance only after it became yet another victim of Adolf Hitler’s aggression.)
In the case of the United States, that solution can only be achieved economically—by pressuring Right-wing Republican members of Congress in Red states to end their support for Trump’s dictatorial agenda.
And the only democratic countries with the power to do this are Mexico and Canada, America’s foremost trading partners.
The 2024 elections gave Republicans not only the White House but control of the House and Senate.
Donald Trump
Republicans don’t care that Trump has trashed the institutions that Americans have cherished for more than 200 years. Institutions like an independent judiciary, a free press, and an incorruptible Justice Department.
He has viciously attacked all of these—and Republicans have either said nothing or rushed to his defense.
What Republicans truly fear about Donald Trump is that if they dare to hold him accountable for his lifetime of criminality, his Fascistic base will turn on them—and turn them out of Congress.
If they are conflicted—whether to continue supporting Trump or desert him—the reason is the same: How can I hold onto my power and all the privileges that go with it?
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, President of Mexico
Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
Lea-Kim, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Republicans—with Trump as their Fuhrer—are utilizing the same my-way-or-else “negotiating” strategy as Nazi Germany’s Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler.
And Democrats—out of cowardice and/or ignorance of history—are, as usual, refusing to publicly make this comparison.
Thus, America’s rescue from Trump can only come from outside the United States.
Donald Trump has proven his affinity for dictators and dictatorships—lavishing praise on Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.
There are two reasons for this—and his hostile behavior toward democratic leaders:
- Trump admires dictators, desires to become one himself, and is now stocking essential federal agencies—such as the Pentagon, FBI and Department of Homeland Security—with his political hacks to make this a reality.
- He knows that compared to the dictatorships of Russia and China, democracies such as those of Canada, Mexico and Ukraine are comparatively weak militarily.
At a November 30, 2024 dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Florida, he told then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canada could become the 51st state of the United States.
Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the dinner, insisted that Trump was joking.
But on December 2, Trump threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the United States from Canada and Mexico unless they stopped the flow of drugs and illegal aliens.
And on December 3, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform an AI-generated image of himself standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag beside him. Its caption: “Oh Canada!”
Trudeau had requested the Mar-a-Lago meeting to convince Trump that the northern border is completely different from the southern one with Mexico.
Canadian flag
“Less than one percent of migrants coming into the United States irregularly come from Canada and 0.2 percent of the fentanyl coming into the United States comes from Canada,” Trudeau said in Parliament.
During 2023-2024, American customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia.
As with Adolf Hitler, attempting to reason with Trump will prove fruitless. He respects only superior force.
But he has blinked when confronted with serious opposition.
Thus, on February 1, 2025, he threatened to hit Mexico and Canada with 25% tariffs, accusing them of injecting huge amounts of fentanyl and huge numbers of illegal aliens into the United States. This allowed him to look tough to his legions of uneducated, Fascistic voters.
But then Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney threatened to retaliate with their own 25% tariffs on American goods.
And the financially conservative Wall Street Journal-–whose target audience includes business leaders, investors, and affluent consumers—called Trump’s threat “the dumbest trade war in history.”
Suddenly, Trump found a way to declare victory, claiming that Mexico and Canada would vastly increase border security to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal aliens.
And dropping his threat of a trade war.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 10, 2026 at 1:37 am
Upon his return to the Presidency in 2025, Donald Trump turned his “artistic” gifts on the White House.
On June 9, 2025, contractors began paving over the grass of the White House Rose Garden with stone tiles to create a patio.
This had been a special project of then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. In 1962 she and designer Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon created a classic, symmetrical space for official state functions and press events.
They installed a central open lawn surrounded by formal flower beds, seasonal plantings, and flowering crabapple trees.
The destruction of the rose garden ignited a firestorm of criticism. But Trump insisted that the paving go on anyway.
Like Adolf Hitler, Trump believes that “bigger is better” in architecture.
On July 31, 2025, the Trump administration announced that a 90,000 square feet addition would be made to the White House to incorporate a 650-person capacity ballroom.
In October, 2025, Trump ordered the demolition of the White House’s historic East Wing to clear space for it. It’s the most expensive project in Trump’s roster, with an $800 million estimated price tag, according to New York.
American taxpayers are expected to foot more than half the bill, despite Trump’s repeated denials of this. In March, 2026, he told reporters that construction on the ballroom “is taxpayer-free. We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents.”
Demolition of the East Wing of the White House
Trump intends this to be a monument to himself: By October, 2025, senior officials within the Trump administration were using the title, “The President Donald J. Trump Ballroom.”
On August 31, the Supreme Court—packed with six Right-wing Justices—granted Trump approval to continue construction on his ballroom. This had been halted after a lower court issued a temporary block on the project earlier that month.
After the ruling, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “We are living in the Golden Age of America, and this Building will be one of the Greatest ever constructed in Washington, D.C. When completed in the Summer of 2028, the magnificent Ballroom and Military Complex will be something that the entire Country is very proud of.”
In a rare burst of candor, Trump told New York Magazine that his construction projects are essentially monuments to himself: “Nobody will do it once I’m gone. When I leave here, nobody will.”
For Trump, there can’t be too many monuments to his memory. Among these:
- Like a Roman emperor, Trump has put his face on a new commemorative gold-finished $1 coin issued by the U.S. Mint—allegedly to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.
- He has mused about changing the name of the Strait of Hormuz to “Trump Strait.” How he would get the Iranians to accept that name remains unclear.
- In May, 2005, the US Department of Agriculture was decorated with a banner featuring Trump’s face. Since then, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Labor have sported similar banners.
Achieving immortality—at least in how people remember them long after they’ve passed on—has long been a desire of tyrants. But once they’re dead, they no longer have control over the lives of their once-subject peoples.
So the way they’re remembered can prove vastly different from how they wanted to be regarded.
Alexander the Great thirsted be remembered as the world’s greatest conqueror, bringing Greek civilization to the nations he ravished.
Alexander the Great
Modern historians view him as a brilliant military leader—but also as a ruthless and megalomanic tyrant who slaughtered whole peoples and caused widespread destruction. Moreover, his empire collapsed quickly after his death.
Leon Trotsky—the Russian revolutionary and bitter foe of Joseph Stalin—wrote: “Nero, too, was a product of his epoch. Yet after he perished his statues were smashed and his name was scraped off everything.
“The vengeance of history is more terrible than the vengeance of the most powerful General Secretary. I venture to think that this is consoling.”
By the time he died in 1953, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had an estimated 6,000 statues of himself erected across the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, holding the world record for the most statues raised to a living person.
After his death and the start of de-Stalinization under Nikita Khrushchev, the vast majority of these statues were quietly removed, demolished, or melted down.
Finally, there is this classic poetic commentary on the uncertainty of immortality, courtesy of Percy Bysshe Shelley:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 9, 2026 at 12:10 am
With his popularity rating hovering at 33% to 39%, President Donald Trump desperately fears a third impeachment action against him if Democrats retake the House of Representatives in the fast-approaching midterm elections scheduled for November 3.
Thus, his almost crazed lust to be remembered forever. And for all his slim grasp of history, he knows that presidents and kings (of which he thinks himself the latter) are remembered for the wars they’ve won and the monuments they’ve left behind.
Easily won wars, of course, are the best. And on January 3, 2026, Trump got just that.
American forces bombed military facilities and infrastructure in the capital city of Caracas and across northern Venezuela. And they captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Both were flown to New York City to face federal drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges.
Flag of Venezuela
Savoring that triumph, Trump conspired with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to overturn the leadership of Israel’s mortal enemy and America’s longtime antagonist: Iran.
Trump predicted several times that the war would be over in four to six weeks—the same timetable Adolf Hitler gave for the completion of his victory over the Soviet Union in 1941.
And just as “Operation Barbarossa” proved a fatal mistake, so Trump’s latest stab at playing Generalissimo has proven a total disaster. Six months into his war, he still has no plan for winning it or withdrawing from it without losing face.
Then there is his mania for monuments.
Upon his return to the Presidency in 2025, he turned his “artistic” gifts on the White House. On June 9, 2025, contractors began paving over the grass of the White House Rose Garden to create a patio.
This had been a special project of then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. In 1962 she and designer Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon created a classic, symmetrical space for official state functions and press events.
They installed a central open lawn surrounded by formal flower beds, seasonal plantings, and flowering crabapple trees.
By September, 2026 his administration had altered over 100 structures in Washington, D.C., alone, according to New York, which reported that the projects have collectively cost over a billion dollars.
On December 18, 2025, The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts became The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
Not, of course, by an act of Congress. That happened in January, 1964, two months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law legislation renaming the Center as a “living memorial” in his honor: The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.
In Trump’s case, getting his name added to the Center was much simpler. First, he fired the longstanding board that had overseen the Center, and put his own handpicked board members on it.
Then his chosen thralls declared: “We’re adding Trump’s name to this building.”
No doubt to his amazement, there were serious objections to this—and lawsuits backing up those objections.
On May 29, 2026, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., ruled that Trump’s name was illegally added to the Center:
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
And he ordered that Trump’s name be removed from the building within two weeks—by June 12, two days before Trump’s 80th birthday.
Trump has, predictably, appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.
He thus joined the ranks of arts-obsessed tyrants like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. For 12 years, Hitler served as the arbiter of culture in Nazi Germany. Stalin held that role for almost 30.
Hitler considered himself an unappreciated artist. At 18, he had applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, but was rejected twice. If he had a friend, it was the architect Albert Speer, with whom he felt an artistic kinship.
Even as the Third Reich collapsed, he found time to pore over architectural models he intended to turn into gigantic buildings.
In Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics, author Frederic Spotts argues that Hitler saw the world corrupted by “evils” he must first destroy so he could re-create it to conform to his artistic ideals.
Like Hitler, Trump sees himself as an unrecognized artist through his erection of buildings. And, again like Hitler, he believes that he has a mission to replace ugliness with beauty.
But he’s clearly more focused on the demolition process than on the creation of beauty.
On October 20, 2025, demolitions crews—on his orders—gutted the East Wing of the White House to create a massive, 90,000 square feet, 650-person capacity ballroom.
And he has threatened to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts if his name is not added to it.
Meanwhile, he intends to close the Center for two years, to hide the embarrassing truth that artists and audiences no longer want to go there while he runs it.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 8, 2026 at 12:10 am
All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.
–T.E. Lawrence
Donald Trump’s first love has always been himself. And for all of his adult life he’s tried to promote himself as the smartest, the handsomest, the richest, the most popular man in the United States—if not the world.
Trump’s egomania is literally stamped on his properties. Of the estimated 515 entities he owns, 268 of them—52%—bear his last name. He often refers to his properties as “the swankiest,” “the most beautiful.”
Among the references he’s made to himself:
- “My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well documented, are various other parts of my body.”
- “I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.”
- “My IQ is one of the highest––and you all know it.”
- “I did a lot of great deals and I did them early and young, and now I’m building all over the world….”
- “So I have a total net worth, and now with the increase, it’ll be well-over $10 billion.”
On October 7, 2016, Trump unknowingly—on a hot mike—outlined his approach to women he found attractive:
“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Even when he did not score with a woman of his desires, he left no doubt that—at least in his own mind—he could have. Just months after Princess Diana’s death in August 1997, radio host Howard Stern asked Trump if he could have “nailed” her.
Trump replied, “I think I could have.”
Donald Trump
But now Trump is an 80-year-old, easily distracted man who repeatedly falls asleep in public events—such as during White House meetings or a World Cup game. During press conferences and on his website, Truth Social, he often explodes in angry, insulting tirades against a legion of perceived enemies—particularly female journalists.
He avoids exercise—except for golf—believing that a human is born with only a finite amount of energy, which is depleted by physical activity. His diet is famously heavy on fast food, sweets and Diet Coke.
A well-known order from McDonald’s includes two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, and a chocolate shake or malted.
As a result, his diet poses several medical risks. Meals centered on cheeseburgers, well-done steaks, and French fries are dense in saturated fats and sodium.
Over time, excessive sodium and trans fats elevate “bad” LDL cholesterol, damage blood vessels, and spike blood pressure, significantly accelerating the risk of heart attacks, stroke, and chronic hypertension.
Moving from the personal to the political: He’s launched a losing war on Iran, repeatedly predicted it would be over in four to six weeks, and has seen it spiral into six months with no end in sight.
Instead of taking responsibility for his decision to provoke a needless war, he repeatedly blames others for his failure to win it. On September 4, he posted on Truth Social:
“The Radical Left Lunatics, Dumocrats, and Communists would rather have us LOSE the War in Iran, than have President Donald J. Trump WIN the War for America, In other words, they’d rather have us LOSE than have us WIN!”
Meanwhile, Iran continues to control the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 million barrels of oil used to pass each day. That flow has been reduced to between two million and six million barrels each day.
Strait of Hormuz
This has created a worldwide spiral in oil prices—and fueled inflation in the United States and other nations. But as prices for housing, energy and food soar in the United States, Trump claims that “affordability” is a “Democratic hoax.”
Like Adolf Hitler contemplating architectural models while Nazi Germany neared destruction, Trump focuses on vanity projects like a 90,000 square foot White House ballroom and a towering “Victory Arch” literally overshadowing Arlington Cemetery.
When Trump—a five-time Vietnam war draft dodger—was asked in 2025 who the 250-foot arch was for, he replied, “Me.”
As much as he fears and loathes to admit it, he has to realize he can’t live forever—and that he’ll be lucky to live another 10 years, if not a far shorter span.
And with his popularity rating hovering at 33% to 39%, he desperately fears a third impeachment action against him if Democrats retake the House of Representatives in the fast-approaching midterm elections scheduled for November 3.
Thus, his almost crazed lust to be remembered forever. And for all his slim grasp of history, he knows that presidents and kings (of which he thinks himself the latter) are remembered for the wars they’ve won and the monuments they’ve left behind.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 7, 2026 at 12:10 am
The CIA, FBI and National Security Agency (which cracks codes and listens to the telephone conversation of foreign leaders) unanimously agree: Russian trolls and Intelligence agents played a major role in subverting the 2016 Presidential election.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller III, assigned in May, 2017, to investigate charges of Russian interference, believed there was collusion. He indicted or obtained guilty pleas from 34 people and three companies.
Robert Mueller
And about 58% of Americans believe that President Donald Trump tried to obstruct the investigation.
Apparently, most Americans don’t like having their elections subverted by enemy nations.
Subverting the governments of other countries is a right that Americans have long reserved for themselves. Among those regimes that have been toppled:
- Between 1898 and 1934, the United States repeatedly intervened with military force in Central America and the Caribbean.
- Americans staged invasions of Honduras in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925 to defend U.S. interests. These were defined as Standard Oil and the United Fruit Company.
- The United States occupied Nicaragua almost continuously from 1912 to 1933. Its legacy was the imposition of the tyrannical Somoza family, which ruled from 1936 to 1979.
- The United States occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. American banks had lent money to Haiti and requested American government intervention.
- In 1918, 13,000 American soldiers joined armies from Europe and Japan to overthrow the new Soviet government and restore the previous Czarist regime. By 1920, the invading forces proved unsuccessful and withdrew.
Allied troops parading in Vladivostok, 1918
- From 1946 to 1949, the United States provided military, logistical and other aid to the Right-wing Chinese Nationalist Party of Chiang Kai-shek. Its opponent: Communist forces led by Mao Tse-Tung, who ultimately proved victorious.
- In 1953, the Eisenhower administration ordered the CIA to overthrew the democratically-elected government of of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. His crime: Nationalizing the Iranian oil industry, which had been under British control since 1913. He was succeeded by Mohammad-Reza Shah Phlavi.
- Whereas Mossadeddgh had ruled as a constitutional monarch, Phlavi was a dictator who depended on United States government support to retain power until he was overthrown in 1979 by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
- In 1954, the CIA overthrew the democratically-elected government of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz. His crime: Installing a series of reforms that expanded the right to vote, allowed workers to organize, legitimized political parties and allowed public debate. Most infuriating to American Right-wingers: His agrarian reform law, which expropriated parts of large land-holdings and redistributed them to agricultural laborers.
- The United Fruit Company lobbied the United States government to overthrow him—and the CIA went into action. Arbenz was replaced by the first of a series of brutal Right-wing dictators.
- From 1959 until 1963, the United States government was obsessed with overthrowing the revolutionary Cuban government of Fidel Castro. Although not democratically elected, Castro was wildly popular in Cuba for overthrowing the dictatorial Fulgencio Batista.
- On April 17, 1961, over 1,400 CIA-trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Cuban military forces crushed the invasion in three days.
- Infuriated with the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion, President John F. Kennedy authorized “Operation Mongoose” to remove Castro through sabotage and assassination. The CIA, wanting to please Kennedy, teamed up with the Mafia, which wanted to resurrect its casinos on the island.
- Among the tactics used: Hiring Cuban gangsters to murder police officials and Soviet technicians; sabotaging mines; using biological and chemical warfare against the Cuban sugar industry. None of these proved successful in assassinating Castro nor overturning his regime.
Ernesto “Che” Guevera
- In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon ordered the CIA to prevent Marxist Salvador Allende from being democratically elected as president of Chile. When that failed, he ordered the CIA to overthrow Allende. Allende’s crime: A series of liberal reforms, including nationalizing large-scale industries (notably copper mining and banking).
- In 1973, he was overthrown by Chilean army units and national police. He committed suicide rather than be captured. He was followed by Right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet, who slaughtered 3,200 political dissidents, imprisoned 30,000 and forced another 200,000 Chileans into exile.
And how did Americans react to all these attempts—successful and unsuccessful—at regime change?
Through indifference or outright support.
The popular 1960s TV series, “Mission: Impossible,” regularly depicted a CIA-type agency supporting regimes “we” liked or toppling those “we” didn’t.
Americans generally assume their Presidents and Congress know best who is a “friend” and who is an “enemy.” America’s friends usually turn out to be Right-wing dictators like Chiang Kai-Shek, Fulgencio Batista, Augusto Pinochet and Mohammad-Reza Shah Phlavi.
And its enemies often turn out to be liberal reformers like Augusto Sandino, Mohammad Mosaddegh and Salvador Allende.
Americans tend to favor intervention for the flimsiest of reasons. In 2003, President George W. Bush claimed Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein, had plotted 9/11 with Osama bin Laden. There was absolutely no proof to substantiate this, yet Americans overwhelmingly supported Bush’s unprovoked invasion of Iraq.
But now the shoe is on the other foot.
Except for President Donald Trump and his fanatical supporters, Americans became furious that a foreign power dared to install “regime change” on them.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 4, 2026 at 12:10 am
The “negotiating” methods of German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler serve as a useful guide to what domestic and world leaders can expect from trying to reach an agreement with President Donald Trump.
In September, 1938, seven months after seizing Austria, Hitler gave another exhibition of his “negotiating” methods.
This time, the target of his aggression was Czechoslovakia. Once again, he opened “negotiations” with a lie: The Czechoslovak government was trying to exterminate 3.5 million Germans living in the “Sudetenland.”
Then he threatened war: Germany would protect its citizens and halt such “oppression.”
For British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, the thought of another European war erupting less than 20 years after the end of World War I was simply unthinkable.
He quickly sent Hitler a telegram, offering to help resolve the crisis: “I could come to you by air and am ready to leave tomorrow. Please inform me of earliest time you can receive me, and tell me the place of the meeting. I should be grateful for a very early reply.”
[Mistake #1: Showing his willingness to placate a brutal dictator. Such men see any concessions as weakness—leading to only greater demands. Trump, like Hitler, relishes attacking those weaker than himself.]
The two European leaders met in Berchtesgaden, Germany, on September 15, 1938.
Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler
Hitler denied that he had threatened war: “Force? Who speaks of force?“
Then, suddenly, he accused the Czechs of having mobilized their army in May. They had mobilized—in response to the mobilization of the German army.
“I shall not put up with this any longer,” shouted Hitler. “I shall settle this question in one way or another. I shall take matters in my own hands!”
Suddenly, Chamberlain seemed alarmed: “If I understood you right, you are determined to proceed against Czechoslovakia in any case. In the circumstances, it is best for me to return at once. Anything else now seems pointless.”
Hitler, taken aback, softened his tone and said they should consider the Sudetenland according to the principle of self-determination.
Chamberlain agreed to the cession of the Sudetenland. Three days later, French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier did the same. No Czechoslovak representative was invited to these discussions.
[Mistake #2: Instead of conceding to Hitler, which emboldened the dictator, Chamberlain should have pressed his advantage. When Hitler faced an opponent he couldn’t bribe or cow—such as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill or Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin—he raged and sulked.
[When Trump faces an opponent he can’t buy or intimidate—such as Special Counsel Jack Smith or Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei—he does the same.]
Chamberlain met Hitler again in Godesberg, Germany, on September 22 to confirm the agreements. But Hitler aimed to use the crisis as a pretext for war.
He now demanded not only the annexation of the Sudetenland but the immediate military occupation of the territories. This would give the Czechoslovak army no time to adapt their defense measures to the new borders.
To achieve a solution, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini suggested a conference of the major powers in Munich.
On September 29, Hitler, Daladier and Chamberlain met and agreed to Mussolini’s proposal. They signed the Munich Agreement, which accepted the immediate occupation of the Sudetenland.
The Czechoslovak government had not been a party to the talks. Nevertheless, it promised to abide by the agreement on September 30.
It actually had no choice. It faced the threat of an immediate German invasion after being deserted by its pledged allies: Britain, France and the Soviet Union.
[Mistake #3: Selling out an ally and making a concession to an insatiable dictator—and believing that Hitler could be trusted to keep his word.
[Just as Chamberlain sold out Czechoslovakia, Trump plans on selling out Ukraine to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. He’s blamed Ukraine for starting the 2022 war—even though Russia invaded Ukraine.
He’s long wanted a Trump Tower in Moscow. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky can’t give him that. Putin can.]
Chamberlain returned to England a hero. Holding aloft a copy of the worthless agreement he had signed with Hitler, he told cheering crowds in London: “I believe it is peace for our time.”
Neville Chamberlain
Hitler—still planning more conquests—knew better. In March, 1939, the German army occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.
Chamberlain would soon be seen as a naive weakling—even before bombs started falling on London.
Believing himself invincible, Hitler turned his attention—and demands—to Poland.
Adolf Hitler and his generals
Believing himself invincible, Trump now threatens violence against Canada, Greenland and Cuba.
Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. To his surprise, France and England honored their pledges to support Poland—triggering World War II. Six years and 50-56 million deaths followed.
On February 28, 2026, Trump—in concert with Israel–attacked Iran without warning. To his surprise, the Iranians closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20-30% of the world’s oil total daily oil supply passes. This has triggered a global oil crisis and severely tightened international energy supplies.
Hitler couldn’t “turn off” the war he had started. He could only lash out as his enemies multiplied.
The same has proven true for Trump.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 3, 2026 at 12:10 am
To understand the “negotiating” style of Donald Trump, it’s essential to study that of Adolf Hitler.
Both men, dictatorial by nature, did/do not believe in compromise. Their idea of “compromise” was/is: “You do what I want—or I’ll destroy you.”
In Hitler’s case, his mania for absolute control began with the Nazi party and eventually extended to Germany. Then it reached to Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, France, Greece, Yugoslavia and Russia. At least 50 million men, women and children perished in the wars he unleashed from 1939 to 1945.
Adolf Hitler
Similarly, Trump’s mania for control started with building a real estate empire. Then it encompassed his “reality TV” show, The Apprentice—and finally politics.
He began dominating the Republican party by winning a series of Presidential primaries—and then the White House. Then came asserting control over the Justice Department and the judiciary—up to the Supreme Court.
Re-elected in 2024, he now seeks to dominate Americans, has asserted but failed to control Iran, attacks Mexico and Canada with trade wars, and threatened Greenland and Panama with invasion.
Much can be learned about Trump’s “negotiating” methods—and what it takes to counter them—by studying those of Germany’s Fuhrer.
Robert Payne, author of the bestselling biography, The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler (1973), described Hitler’s “negotiating” style thus:
“Although Hitler prized his own talents as a negotiator, a man always capable of striking a good bargain, he was totally lacking in finesse.
Donald Trump
“He was incapable of bargaining. He was like a man who goes up to a fruit peddler and threatens to blow his brains out if he does not sell his applies at the lowest possible price.”
What Payne writes about Hitler applies equally well to Trump.
Hitler revealed his “bargaining style” in 1938, when he invited Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg to his mountaintop retreat in Obersalzberg, Germany.
Hitler, an Austrian by birth, intended to annex his native land to Germany. Schuschnigg was aware of this, but felt secure in accepting the invitation. He had been assured that the question of Austrian sovereignty would not arise.
The meeting occurred on February 12, 1938.
Shuschnigg opened the discussion with a friendly compliment. Walking over to a large window, he admired the breathtaking view of the mountains.
HITLER: We haven’t come here to talk about the lovely view or the weather!
Austria has anyway never done anything which was of help to the German Reich….I am resolutely determined to make an end to all this business. The German Reich is a great power. Nobody can and nobody will interfere if it restores order on its frontiers.
[Like Hitler, Trump relies on insults and anger to put his victims on the defense.]
Kurt von Schuschnigg
SCHUSCHNIGG: We simply have to go on living alongside one another, the little state next to the big one. We have no other choice.
And that is why I ask you to tell me what your concrete complaints are. We will do all in our power to sort things out and establish a friendly relationship, as far as it is possible to do so.
HITLER: That’s what you say, Herr Schuschnigg. And I am telling you that I intend to clear up the whole of the so-called Austrian question—one way or another. Do you think I don’t know that you are fortifying Austria’s border with the Reich?
SCHUSCHNIGG: There can be no suggestion at all of that—
HITLER: Ridiculous explosive chambers are being built under bridges and roads—
This was a lie, and Hitler knew it was a lie. But it gave him an excuse to threaten to destroy Austria.
[For Trump, winning—not truth—is all that matters. During his first term as President, he told a documented 30,573 lies.]
HITLER: I have only to give one command and all this comic stuff on the border will be blown to pieces overnight. You don’t seriously think you could hold me up, even for half an hour, do you?
The S.A. [Hitler’s private army of Stormtroopers] and the [Condor] lLegion [which had bombed much of Spain into rubble during the Spanish Civil War] would come in after the troops and nobody—not even I—could stop them from wreaking vengeance.
Schnuschigg made a cardinal mistake in dealing with Hitler: He showed fear. And this was precisely what the Nazi dictator looked for in an opponent.
[Like Hitler, Trump relies on fear: “Real power is—I don’t even want to use the word—fear,” he said in March 2016 when still only a candidate for President.]
Contrary to popular belief, Hitler did not constantly rage at everyone. He used rage as a weapon, knowing that most people feel intimidated by it.
In the case of Schuschnigg, Hitler opened with insults and threats at the outset of their discussion. Then there was a period of calm, to convince the Austrian chancellor the worst was over.
Finally, he once again attacked—this time with so much fury that Schuschnigg was terrified into submission.
With one stroke of a pen, Austria became a vassal-state to Nazi Germany.
[Like Hitler, Trump threatens only those he feels are weak—thus his threats to use military force against Canada, Greenland and Panama.]
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 2, 2026 at 12:10 am
President Donald Trump is haunted by the fear of a third impeachment action against him if Democrats retake the House of Representatives in the fast-approaching midterm elections scheduled for November 3.
Speaking at a rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to support Senate candidate Darline Graham, sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump warned: “If we lose the midterms, I am going to be impeached. They are going to impeach me. They have no idea why!”
On the contrary: Democrats know well why they want to remove him from office. Among their reasons:
- Starting an unprovoked war with Iran.
- Attacking longtime American allies like Canada, England and Greenland.
- Cozying up to Communist dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-Un.
- Ordering the Justice Department to indict his critics such as New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.
- Flooding Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, with 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who terrorized (and murdered) both American citizens and illegal aliens.
Donald Trump
Trump’s Republican accomplices in Congress fully understand the threat he faces—and what it poses for them. Thanks to his unprovoked war on Iran, oil shipments have been constrained worldwide—and Americans are furious at soaring prices for gas, food and housing.
Meanwhile, Trump arrogantly claims that “affordability” is a “Democratic hoax.” And, like Adolf Hitler contemplating architectural models while Nazi Germany neared destruction, he focuses on vanity projects like a 90,000 square foot White House ballroom and a towering “Victory Arch” overlooking Arlington Cemetery.
As a result, Trump’s current national approval rating hovers between 33% and 38%. And Republicans fear that his unpopularity will spell doom for their own re-election prospects.
On June 26, Mike Johnson (R-LA), Speaker of the House of Representatives, warned his colleagues:
“If we were to lose the midterms, heaven forbid, these Democrats, y’all, impeachment’s not even the biggest concern. They will turn every committee of Congress into an investigative body, and they’ll go after the president’s family, the Cabinet, his donors and friends—half of you in this room will be targeted.”
Mike Johnson
Frederick Wellman, the Democratic congressional candidate for Missouri’s 2nd District, was quick to agree:
“You’re damn right we will investigate crimes and corruption. Who moved $180 million in oil futures 15 minutes before Iran announcements? Who has gotten sole source contracts because of their connections to the Trump family?
“Where did our Social Security data go when DOGE downloaded it into portable hard drives? Where are the rest of the Epstein files? On and on this Congress has chosen covering up crimes instead of stopping them. That ends in November.”
Donald Trump is notorious for being thin-skinned. He has never displayed a sense of humor—nor an ability to laugh at himself. And he cannot abide listening to news that contradicts whatever he wants to do or believe.
The role that Natalie Harp plays in his life cannot be fully understood unless one accepts this fundamental truth: Trump, like Adolf Hitler, believes that if he just thinks positively, reality will bend to meet his wishes.
For this, he needs—and devours—a constant supply of “happy news” that confirms what he wants to believe. “News” that Harp is thrilled to constantly supply.
Thus, six months after launching a war he expected to be over in four to six weeks, Trump could say: “Right now, the situation is so good.”
Trump said this after leading reporters on a tour of the White House’s South Lawn to show off his latest renovations.
Presidents—and tyrants—who substitute “happy news” for hard truth usually come to a bad end. Hitler fired generals like Heinz Guderian—the architect of his sweeping victory over France in 1940—when they told him an offensive could not be continued or that their soldiers were needlessly dying for lack of supplies.
It did not win Hitler his war.
As Donald Trump lurches from one self-manufactured crisis to another, two warnings from Niccolo Machiavelli, the Florentine statesman and father of modern political science, take on special meaning:
“I must not omit an important subject, and mention of a mistake which princes can with difficulty avoid, if they are not very prudent, or if they do not make a good choice. And this is with regard to flatterers, of which courts are full, because men take pleasure in their own things and deceive themselves about them that they can with difficulty guard against this plague.”
And:
“It is an infallible rule that a prince who is not wise himself cannot be well advised, unless by chance he leaves himself entirely in the hands of one man who rules him in everything, and happens to be a very prudent man. In this case, he may doubtless be well governed, but it would not last long, for the governor would in a short time deprive him of the state.”
Noted historian Barbara Tuchman put it even more directly: “A great empire and little minds go ill together.”
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 1, 2026 at 12:10 am
Michael Wolff, a longtime biographer of Donald Trump, recently published letters from White House aide Natalie Harp to the President in The Daily Beast.
Among their revelations:
“If there is anything else I have done to cause you trouble, please forgive me. I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep, and only catching a couple hours at a time).”
And
“I never want to bring you anything but joy. I’m sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don’t want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this life.”
On August 16, Georgia’s Democratic United States Senator, Jon Ossoff, said at a campaign rally in Atlanta:
“He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
A clip of this remark was widely shared on social media.
Jon Ossoff
Ossoff didn’t accuse Trump and Harp of tripping the light fantastic, but the White House immediately and viciously reacted as if he had:
- White House Communications Director Steven Cheung: “Jon Jackoff has to be the biggest cuck loser in politics. Instead of denigrating hard working people serving their country, Jon should look deep into his soul and ask himself why he’s a miserable person who hates this country. It’s because he’s a radical, extremist Dumocrat.” [“Denigrating” actually means “insulting.” The word Cheung meant was “praising.”]
- Trump spokesman Davis Ingle: “A cringeworthy, feminine theatre kid cosplaying as Barack Obama.”
- Right-wing CNN pundit Scott Jennings: “A garbage human.”
- When a CNN reporter asked Trump about Ossoff’s remarks, a White House-run X account attacked her as “a disgraceful, humiliating embarrassment to her alleged profession.”
Even some Democrats feel that Ossoff went too far. One of these was David Axelrod, former advisor to President Barack Obama.
“No one has been more consistently eloquent or incisive in exposing @realDonaldTrump than @Ossoff. The paragraph from his weekend speech that has gotten so much attention was a brutal takedown. But two words in it, ‘with Natalie’ seemed gratuitous and unnecessary,” Axelrod wrote on X.
David Axelrod
This despite the fact that Trump has built his political career on countless brutal insults to both Republicans and Democrats.
The attacks on him haven’t fazed Ossoff: “It’s been amazing to watch this White House melt down over this all week,” he told MS NOW. “These White House staffers are adults, public officials paid by the taxpayer with immense power in positions of public trust.”
Even if there is no affair between the President and his adoring aide, their relationship underscores a fundamental Trumpian dilemma:
On one hand, he craves not simply loyalty but constant adoration. He must be repeatedly told he’s the most handsome, brilliant, powerful, beloved man on the planet.
On the other hand, his flagrant greed, egotism and constant attacks on a seemingly endless number of people—politicians, journalists, celebrities, ordinary Americans—ensure that the hatred he spews is returned in kind. And this makes him all the more desperate to feel adored.
Thus, enter Natalie Harp.
Ossoff’s comment has clearly touched a White House nerve. And it couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Trump.
He’s an 80-year-old, easily distracted man who repeatedly falls asleep in public events—such as during White House meetings or a World Cup game. He launched a losing war on Iran, predicted it would be over in four to six weeks, and has seen it spiral into six months with no end in sight.
Meanwhile, Iran continues to control the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 million barrels of oil used to pass each day. That flow has been reduced to between two million and six million barrels each day.
Strait of Hormuz
This has created a worldwide spiral in oil prices—and fueled inflation in the United States and other nations. But as prices for housing, energy and food soar in the United States, Trump claims that “affordability” is a “Democratic hoax.”
Like Adolf Hitler contemplating architectural models while Nazi Germany neared destruction, Trump focuses on vanity projects like a 90,000 square foot White House ballroom and a towering “Victory Arch” overlooking Arlington Cemetery.
Trump is haunted by the fear of a third impeachment action against him if Democrats retake the House of Representatives in the fast-approaching midterm elections scheduled for November 3.
Speaking at a rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to support Senate candidate Darline Graham, sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump warned: “If we lose the midterms, I am going to be impeached. They are going to impeach me. They have no idea why!”
His Republican accomplices in Congress fully understand this as well. Most of them now hold their positions to his support—or by not daring to cross him in any way.
And they fear that his current unpopularity—at 33% to 39%—will upend their own chances for re-election.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on August 31, 2026 at 12:10 am
Letter #1: “I never want to bring you anything but joy. I’m sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don’t want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this Life.”
Letter #2: “I miss the days when you used to call, during my talkshow days, and we’d talk about everything and nothing. I want to get back to that synergy. We shouldn’t have to talk about work all the time! !
“And please, when I fail, will you tell me? You have the absolute right to cuss me out, if need be, when I deserve it, because no one knows or cares about me more.”
These weren’t the gushings of a starry-eyed high school girl toward a beloved object of affection.
They were the gushings of 35-year-old Natalie Harp, special assistant and executive assistant to the President of the United States since 2025. And the object of her affection is an 80-year-old married man with a notorious history of adultery.
Natalie Harp was born in 1991 and raised in California. She graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2012, and from Liberty University in 2015 with an MBA.
By 2017, Harp began suffering from chronic pain and complications incurred by a medical error involving intravenous therapy for stage II bone cancer.
In 2019, Harp praised then-President Trump for signing a federal right-to-try law which allowed her to access experimental treatments which she credited with saving her life.
Trump invited Harp to speak at the 2020 Republican National Convention She compared Trump to the sympathetic character, George Bailey, of It’s a Wonderful Life.
Trump also asked her to serve as a member of the advisory board for his 2020 Presidential campaign. Harp worked for the Right-wing television channel One America News Network from 2020 to 2022.
She later became an aide to Trump for his 2024 Presidential campaign as a key figure in his communications efforts.
In January 2025, Trump appointed Harp to the position of special assistant to the President and executive assistant to the President, with a government salary of $150,000.
Natalie Harp
She worked intimately with Trump and other national security figures for more than one year minus a security clearance. One national security official warned that this position gave her access to more sensitive information than any other Trump associate.
One White House staff member said that she “plays into the less productive and more troublesome parts of his nature, putting things in front of him that aren’t vetted.”
Dan Scavino, a political advisor and former golf club manager who had handled Trump’s social media accounts, largely gave control of Trump’s Truth Social account to Harp.
She used it to post a racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. She also posted an AI-generated image of Trump as Jesus.
Among her duties: Posting remarks Trump dictates to Truth Social, texting on his behalf, and sporting a portable printer to feed him documents, praise and upbeat news articles. This last task has earned her the nickname: “The human printer.”
No doubt to Trump’s humiliation, Harp has also been dubbed as his “diaper nurse.” Some former associates and critics have claimed or joked that he uses adult diapers due to age or health. But there is no evidence that Harp serves in any nursing, medical or caregiving role.
Still, the rumors persist.
Donald Trump
And Trump appears flattered by her devotion. He calls her “sweetie” and “my Natalie.” And he’s told other aides that “Harp is the only one who loves him as much as his wife and children,” the New York Times reports.
Only recently has her role as Trump’s groupie-turned-government employee become widely known. And the man responsible is Georgia United States Senator Jon Ossoff.
At a campaign rally in Atlanta on August 16, Ossoff, a Democrat, said of Trump: “While the sailors on the [USS Abraham] Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings.
“He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
A clip of this remark was widely shared on social media.
Jon Ossoff
The week before the rally, Harp was among a small group of aides who joined Trump when he switched airplanes in Turkey to thwart a possible Iranian missile attack.
Those who were not allowed to board the decoy plane included:
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio;
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent;
- White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller;
- White House Communications Director Steven Cheung.
Ossoff’s comment immediately brought Harp—and Trump—a burst of thoroughly unwelcome publicity.
Maggie Haberman, a New York Times reporter and the author of Regime Change, a scathing profile of the Trump administration, called her Trump’s “binky…a comfort blanket.”
Natalie’s estranged brother, Preston, laughed on CNN when he learned that his sister had jumped into the trunk of a Trump motorcade SUV when there wasn’t room for her to sit during a trip to court in 2023.
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FAILING AT IRAN, NOW HE WANTS CANADA: PART ONE (OF THREE)
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 14, 2026 at 12:11 amThe history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself.
–“Waterloo,” by Abba
To understand what is happening in the United States today, it’s necessary to realize this:
Adolf Hitler
From 1939 to 1945, those democracy-cherishing outsiders consisted of Canada, England and the United States. (The Soviet Union reluctantly joined this alliance only after it became yet another victim of Adolf Hitler’s aggression.)
In the case of the United States, that solution can only be achieved economically—by pressuring Right-wing Republican members of Congress in Red states to end their support for Trump’s dictatorial agenda.
And the only democratic countries with the power to do this are Mexico and Canada, America’s foremost trading partners.
The 2024 elections gave Republicans not only the White House but control of the House and Senate.
Donald Trump
Republicans don’t care that Trump has trashed the institutions that Americans have cherished for more than 200 years. Institutions like an independent judiciary, a free press, and an incorruptible Justice Department.
He has viciously attacked all of these—and Republicans have either said nothing or rushed to his defense.
What Republicans truly fear about Donald Trump is that if they dare to hold him accountable for his lifetime of criminality, his Fascistic base will turn on them—and turn them out of Congress.
If they are conflicted—whether to continue supporting Trump or desert him—the reason is the same: How can I hold onto my power and all the privileges that go with it?
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, President of Mexico
Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
Lea-Kim, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Republicans—with Trump as their Fuhrer—are utilizing the same my-way-or-else “negotiating” strategy as Nazi Germany’s Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler.
And Democrats—out of cowardice and/or ignorance of history—are, as usual, refusing to publicly make this comparison.
Thus, America’s rescue from Trump can only come from outside the United States.
Donald Trump has proven his affinity for dictators and dictatorships—lavishing praise on Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.
There are two reasons for this—and his hostile behavior toward democratic leaders:
At a November 30, 2024 dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Florida, he told then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canada could become the 51st state of the United States.
Canada’s Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the dinner, insisted that Trump was joking.
But on December 2, Trump threatened to impose a 25% tax on all products entering the United States from Canada and Mexico unless they stopped the flow of drugs and illegal aliens.
And on December 3, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform an AI-generated image of himself standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag beside him. Its caption: “Oh Canada!”
Trudeau had requested the Mar-a-Lago meeting to convince Trump that the northern border is completely different from the southern one with Mexico.
Canadian flag
“Less than one percent of migrants coming into the United States irregularly come from Canada and 0.2 percent of the fentanyl coming into the United States comes from Canada,” Trudeau said in Parliament.
During 2023-2024, American customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.
Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia.
As with Adolf Hitler, attempting to reason with Trump will prove fruitless. He respects only superior force.
But he has blinked when confronted with serious opposition.
Thus, on February 1, 2025, he threatened to hit Mexico and Canada with 25% tariffs, accusing them of injecting huge amounts of fentanyl and huge numbers of illegal aliens into the United States. This allowed him to look tough to his legions of uneducated, Fascistic voters.
But then Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney threatened to retaliate with their own 25% tariffs on American goods.
And the financially conservative Wall Street Journal-–whose target audience includes business leaders, investors, and affluent consumers—called Trump’s threat “the dumbest trade war in history.”
Suddenly, Trump found a way to declare victory, claiming that Mexico and Canada would vastly increase border security to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal aliens.
And dropping his threat of a trade war.
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