F**king Mondays: Did Canada Just Bully Trump? Clinton Torches Dumb MAGA, and America's Third Term Nightmare

Canada shows the world how to deal with Trump.

Welcome to another edition of F**king Mondays, the ultimate roundup to start your week off!:

Canada told Trump to fuck off, and it worked

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken a novel approach to dealing with Donald Trump. Rather than kissing the ring and playing along with the US president’s invasion threats, Carney is doing the diplomatic version of telling Trump to fuck off.

In a press conference in Ottawa last Thursday, Carney told reporters that “The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over.”

“It’s clear the US is no longer a reliable partner,” he went on. “It is possible that with comprehensive negotiations, we could reestablish an element of confidence but there will be no going backwards.”

When speaking about his first international trip as prime minister, Carney said he wouldn’t be going to America.

“There’s even more to do,” he said. “And that’s why I chose to go to France and the United Kingdom, two long-standing and reliable partners, friends and allies of Canada.”

Carney has made clear he will respond to US tariffs in kind and won’t be bullied into submission under any circumstance. While JD Vance has been trotting around the world telling anyone who will listen that “they [Canada] just don’t have the cards for a trade war,” it appears that they just might. In the first phone call the pair have had since Carney became Prime Minister took office on March 14th, Trump’s tone suddenly changed. This from the BBC:

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says US President Donald Trump "respected Canada's sovereignty" in the first call between the pair, who spoke amid an ongoing trade war between the two neighbours.

Trump has repeatedly suggested that Canada should become the 51st US state - an idea that has sparked widespread backlash among Canadians.

Carney, currently in the midst of an election campaign, described the call as "very constructive", while Trump said the call was "extremely productive".

Trump's planned 25% tariff on vehicle imports is due to come into effect on 2 April, which could prove devastating for the Canadian car industry.

Like all bullies, Trump backed down when someone stood up to him. Carney understood that that while the US would certainly “win” a trade war, the pain would be so enormous that the political cost wasn’t worth it. Trump has already spooked the stock market and pushed the economy towards recession, so Canada’s ability to hurt the US, especially by targeting U.S. agriculture and food exports, would add serious economic uncertainty. Trump now knows Canada is willing to go all the way in a trade war if pushed, so he relented.

The lesson for the rest of the world is simple: stand up to Trump, because it works.

Hillary Clinton torches MAGA idiocy

Hillary Clinton might have lost to Donald Trump in 2016 and come to symbolize, for many, everything they dislike about the Democratic Party (an elitist/woke/globalist etc), but no one can question her intelligence. People who’ve worked closely with her over the years consistently describe her as a sharp, disciplined political operator who inspired deep loyalty from her team. Her command of foreign policy and diplomacy, in particular, helped repair America’s global reputation after eight bruising years under George W. Bush. Clinton remains highly respected on the world stage, and her voice still carries weight in political circles.

So when Hillary Clinton speaks, people across the spectrum listen. Here’s what she had to say in the New York Times about Trump’s foreign policy:

In a dangerous and complex world, it’s not enough to be strong. You must also be smart. As secretary of state during the Obama administration, I argued for smart power, integrating the hard power of our military with the soft power of our diplomacy, development assistance, economic might and cultural influence. None of those tools can do the job alone. Together, they make America a superpower. The Trump approach is dumb power. Instead of a strong America using all our strengths to lead the world and confront our adversaries, Mr. Trump’s America will be increasingly blind and blundering, feeble and friendless.

Let’s start with the military, because that’s what he claims to care about. Don’t let the swagger fool you. Mr. Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (of group chat fame) are apparently more focused on performative fights over wokeness than preparing for real fights with America’s adversaries. Does anyone really think deleting tributes to the Tuskegee Airmen makes us more safe? The Trump Pentagon purged images of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb that ended World War II because its name is the Enola Gay. Dumb.

It is important that prominent figures like Clinton keep hitting Trump publicly like this. Not just because she brings experience and credibility, but because it helps destabilize him. When someone with her stature exposes the weakness behind Trump’s bravado, it helps puncture the illusion of strength he is so desperate to project. The more people call out that the emperor has no clothes, the harder it is for him to keep the act going.

Trump wants a third term

Had President Obama declared he wanted to serve a third term after his victory over Mitt Romney in 2012, Republicans would have taken to the streets and demanded his removal from office. Conservative media would have labeled him a dictator and called for the military to remove him. We know this because prominent conservative activists threatened all of that for the grand crime of having a foreign-sounding name.

So what happens when Trump tells the media that he is “not joking” about seeking an unconstitutional third term? From NBC News:

“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump said in a Sunday-morning phone call with NBC News, referring to his allies. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”

“I’m focused on the current,” Trump added, in some of his most extensive comments to date about serving a third term.

When asked whether he wanted another term, the president responded, “I like working.”

“I’m not joking,” Trump said, when asked to clarify. “But I’m not — it is far too early to think about it.”

When asked whether he has been presented with plans to allow him to seek a third term, Trump said, “There are methods which you could do it.”

It took a full 24 hours for the story to reach mainstream institutions like the New York Times and the Washington Post, and outside of liberal bubbles on X, the story barely registered.

I must sound like a broken record here, but this really is an emergency. Trump is literally telling the public he doesn’t plan on leaving office, and no one is sounding the alarm. His administration hasn’t said anything to the contrary, and his closest allies are publicly egging him on:

The media reported the story, but it was not a headline anywhere.

My worry is that it is now too late to stop this. Trump’s control over the GOP, the courts, and the media is so deep that Democrats don’t have the means to fight back. Republicans have laid the foundations to subvert future elections, and Trump’s ability to shift the boundaries of debate is truly frightening. The institutions of government and the media are dutifully following along as if this is all normal, and what was once a joke is fast becoming a reality.

Historically only a highly organized mass movements of resistance have any chance of overthrowing strongman governments. Maybe it’s time to start building one?

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