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It's all so petty. Trump wants Trudeau to bend the knee. Trudeau sees #resist as a strategy to improve his own popularity, and if average Canadians get fucked all the better. That's been his MO from day one.
In the end, we have two vain leaders peacocking for their respective audiences.
Trudeau already negotiated a deal with Trump last time around.
And then Trump shows back up treating Trudeau as a domestic partisan enemy because ??
Like, I don't think this is a "both sides" thing: Trudeau/the Liberals would probably love to head this off again but nobody is sure what's going on with Trump (who chose to be obnoxious even by Trump standards) which cause a backlash within the population any leader would have to be wary about meeting head on.
Like, the perception of hesitation alone has caused the only blip in what should otherwise have been a cakewalk for the CPC into power.
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Increasingly, personal vanity seems to be the explanation that makes the most sense for most of what Trump is doing. After decades of the left talking about the "American Empire," Trump is embracing that view and demanding fealty from his vassals.
Fealty would make more sense. It seems that a lot of this is driven by basically projecting domestic cultural battles and petty resentments out into international politics.
Trudeau (who worked with Trump on the renegotiation of NAFTA) is seen as a pretty-boy theater kid and the Europeans as censorious bureaucrats. Quelle surprise, Trump and Vance decide to try to humiliate them both. Coincidence?
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