Consider the president’s trade war with Canada, one of our closest economic partners. There is no logical reason for this conflict, and it does not serve the interest of people on either side of the border. It is principally a function of Trump’s boundless ego and his monomaniacal obsession with tariffs as the path to national prosperity.
For more than a year, Trump has tried to bully Canada into economic submission with tariffs, threats of tariffs and attacks on Canadian sovereignty, with regular and routine quips about making Canada the 51st state. This carried over into recent trade negotiations, in which the administration pressured Canada both to relinquish control over important aspects of its own trade policy and end support for industries harmed by American tariffs. When Canadian negotiators refused to bend to those demands and talks collapsed, Trump lashed out.
“Canada has been ripping off the United States of America for years,” he raged on Truth Social. “On Trade, and in other ways, also, they are among the worst Nations in the World to deal with. They feel entitled, and yet, WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!” To punish Canada for refusing him, Trump announced new 50 percent tariffs on “all Cars, Trucks, both large and small, Automotive Parts, and steel.”
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And so here we are, locked in a destructive trade war with a neighbor that was once an ally and friend, but that now sees the United States as dangerous and untrustworthy.
The fatal flaw of monarchy is that the strength of the state depends on the personality and capacities of the monarch. It subjects an entire people to the pathologies of that one man or woman: to his dysfunctions, his maladaptations and his twisted sense of self.
Trump was democratically elected. But both his unilateral exercise of authority and his monarchical aspirations are reminders, at the very least, that putting this much power in the hands of one man — in the hands of one ego — is a reliable way to produce disaster.
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