{"id":395885,"date":"2026-01-08T10:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T10:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/395885\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T10:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T10:19:07","slug":"in-trumps-predatory-world-canada-now-swims-in-a-shark-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/395885\/","title":{"rendered":"In Trump\u2019s predatory world, Canada now swims in a shark tank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy retreat in Washington on Tuesday.Evan Vucci\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

If it came in isolation, one might look at the toothless debates over the legality of the U.S. abduction of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> and chalk it up as another American intervention in Latin America. But the context is not the same.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just that U.S. President Donald Trump warned Colombian President Gustavo Petro that he could be next. He left the rest of Mr. Maduro\u2019s repressive regime in power, under threat, and, according to his social-media post on Tuesday, extracted a payoff of US$2-billion in Venezuelan oil. Then he told reporters he still doesn\u2019t rule out taking Greenland from Denmark by force<\/a> \u2013 not for the benefit of Greenlanders, but because the United States wants it.<\/p>\n

No one should shed a tear for Mr. Maduro. But so far, there is no sign of a U.S. intention to free Venezuelans from tyranny. There is certainly no need to liberate Greenlanders from the Danes. There is no pretense of nation-building or even much of a globo-cop claim to the cause of justice. <\/p>\n

Lawrence Martin: If it\u2019s any consolation, Canada is far down on Trump\u2019s takeover list<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Trump has effectively declared the United States to be a predator nation. And the U.S. Congress and the rest of the American polity aren\u2019t standing in the way.<\/p>\n

This is no longer a world where there is a \u201cWest\u201d led by a United States that, however imperfectly, sees itself as acting for the greater good of the world. Now we are in a shark tank. <\/p>\n

There are predators \u2013 China, Russia and now the U.S. \u2013 and others, such as Canada, trying to swim safely.<\/p>\n

Look at the reports that European leaders, meeting in Paris over peace proposals for Ukraine, would work together to try to figure out ways to respond should the U.S. act on its threats to take Greenland. <\/p>\n

Konrad Yakabuski: U.S. Secretary of State charts Trump\u2019s surprisingly hawkish foreign policy<\/a><\/p>\n

What they have come up with so far is a joint statement from leaders<\/a> of a half-dozen European nations that declared the future of Greenland would be decided by Denmark and Greenland, \u201cand them only.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet there wasn\u2019t much direct criticism of Mr. Trump for threatening to invade a democracy and a NATO ally. They fear the punitive response of a volatile president.<\/p>\n

That was clearly the case for Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a>, too. He voiced backing for Denmark\u2019s sovereignty over Greenland and asserted that NATO could protect it \u2013 but he didn\u2019t dare point the finger at the President threatening to send his military to invade a democracy.<\/p>\n

Would a Canadian prime minister seeking to extend a vital trade agreement with the U.S. take the risk of poking Mr. Trump? What about European leaders whose countries depend on the U.S. for security? How do smaller non-predators conduct foreign policy in a shark tank?<\/p>\n

Mr. Carney has already turned toward Europe. Canada and NATO allies have pledged to build their militaries, but it will take time. Mr. Carney travels to China next week<\/a> \u2013 to be followed by Britain\u2019s Keir Starmer and Germany\u2019s Friedrich Merz \u2013 as part of efforts to diversify trade ties. But in geopolitical terms, it\u2019s dangerous to balance one predator with another. Is there a kind of diplomacy that can contain Mr. Trump?<\/p>\n

Even if it still seems unthinkable that the U.S. President would follow through on taking Greenland by force, his threats are changing international relations.<\/p>\n

What’s happening in Venezuela? Submit your questions here<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew Coyne: When it comes to Trump\u2019s behaviour, the most plausible explanation is the stupidest<\/a><\/p>\n

The U.S. no longer claims exceptionalism, a role as a global policeman that supposedly justified its breaches of the sovereignty of others, in wars, and interventions such as the invasion of Panama to abduct strongman Manuel Noriega 36 years ago. Mr. Trump just doesn\u2019t accept the sovereignty of other countries except as asserted by power.<\/p>\n

His deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, insisted that Denmark has no \u201cclaim\u201d to Greenland, in much the same way that Vladimir Putin insisted that Ukraine is not a real country.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s unsettling to the world\u2019s democracies \u2013 particularly Denmark, of course. But Canadians might also be a little perturbed to note that Mr. Trump claims the U.S. needs to own Greenland, rather than leaving it in the hands of a NATO ally, because of its strategic polar location at a crossroads with Russian and Chinese ambitions. The thing strategically located between Greenland and the U.S. state of Alaska is Canada\u2019s Far North.<\/p>\n

It still really is unthinkable that the U.S. would invade Canada. But it\u2019s getting easier to imagine Mr. Trump employing heavy-handed tactics to coerce Canada, or contest its Arctic sovereignty, or cause a rupture in the security alliances that have been foundations of this country\u2019s foreign policy for 80 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to House Republican lawmakers during their annual policy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,15147,48,15148,44,1008,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-395885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-campbell-clark","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-canadian-politics","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pleasemod","14":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}