Easy for people in the U.S. to say. When it’s the head of state of a country with a long history of engaging in military intervention under spurious pretexts making these threats, you can bet that Canadians, Panamanians, and Europeans will take it seriously. Both Canada and Panama have been on the receiving end of U.S. military intervention, after all. It’s also being echoed by members of the majority party in the lawmaking body of that country, who have the right to declare war. This is the international relations version of yelling “fire” in a crowded movie theater, whether falsely or not.

Regardless of whether the convicted felon makes good on his threats, this is going to screw up international relations for decades to come. International relations are built on trust, and that trust is being eroded. 

And to the surprise of absolutely no one, right wingers all the way up to Trump are politicizing the wildfires in Los Angeles County. That idiot James Woods has been active on X. 

Alright, but "taking it seriously" has different levels.  At the lowest, you'll have people laughing but still thinking that Trump is an asshole for ssaying that.  The next hypothetical level would be politicians making speeches over this.  And finally, you'll have the military getting ready for war.  I'm just curious as to whether this has happened or not.  If not, then the remarks should be be dismissed.  

And Ryuu was quite correct, that the remarks will bring some amount of discord and make the United States look very irresponsible.  But I don't care about any of that.  All that concerns me is just how seriously these comments were taken.  In the 80's, Reagan was referring the USSR when he said that the "bombing will begin in 5 minutes."   But everybody knew that he was just being an asshole and i'm fine with that.  It was a bit irresponsible but nothing happened so no big deal.  

Canadian MP Annihilates Trump In Brutal And Epic Fashion



We invite California and other 'blue' states to join Canada as counter ;)

There's a big difference between what Reagan said and what Trump says. Everybody knew that attacking Russia would be tantamout to suicide and global destruction. Canada, Panama, and Greenland are entirely different matters. Trump sees them as smaller, weaker targets in "his" backyard. He does see them as strategic assets and like it or not, at least two of them could be easily taken by the United States military if Trump or some other president saw fit to do so. Trump would be counting on the EU to capitulate on Greenland. There's nobody that's going to run to Panama's defense. Canada could at least put up a fight, and the outcry over a large, well-respected nation being invaded by its much larger neighbor might well be enough to deter Trump. But if Trump really pushed it, Canada would fall, albeit it would be a pyrrhic victory. 

There's also the fact that Trump does whatever he can get away with, and we saw this time and again in his first presidency. If it hadn't been for Mark Milley and Mark Esper, there's a good chance we would have seen a scenario in June 2020 where American troops opened up on American citizens with live ammo in the nation's capital. If they hadn't been there to run interference, it would have been down to the rank and file soldiers to disobey the Commander-in-Chief. And Republicans were calling for Milley to be arrested for disobeying a direct order from the President. Service members supposedly have a duty to refuse to carry out unlawful orders, but they have to be ready to tell a judge why they thought that order was unlawful according to the judge's interpretation of the Constitution. Their oath of service states that they "will obey the orders of the President of the United States and those appointed over me."  

And this time, we don't even have a Democratic majority in either house of Congress. There are no guard rails here. Trump is limited only by what just 38 men and women are willing to forgive him for in an impeachment trial. If Lindsey Graham is any indication of the caliber of the Senate, we've got a big problem.

Finally, there are a scary number of American citizens who would love for the US to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, and wouldn't mind Canada being brought under US control. These people have a seething hatred for an American state, California. What makes you think they're going to care any more about Panamanians, Canadians, or Greenlanders/Danes?

This large amount of discussion that Trump generated is rediculous and much more than the comment was worth.  Everybody, including yourself is trying to come up with a nuanced viewpoint over something that frikkin Trump said.  He's drooling over his upcoming self-importance and laughing at how people are shocked at his comments.  Meanwhile, there are actual issues to be looked at within the sphere of american politics.  How can  we make America better and brighter?  That should be the real concern, not the dribble out of Trump's mouth.  

Canada's response:  Send in the 147th Mechanized beaver brigade

I didn't say anything about this being taken seriously. 

For a lot of people it doesn't matter. If a coworker makes a threat towards you, it doesn't matter if it was intended to be a joke or not. For a lot of people, that's just not something to joke about. 

The whole "he's just joking" argument is just garbage. You can throw it at literally anything. You can argue literally anything is a joke until something actually materializes. That lonely guy at school was just kidding about shooting up the school. You can dismiss anything bad.

Personally I would happily give someone more leniency if they were deserving of that. If my best friend who would never hurt a fly made a terrible joke, I can understand it was intended as a joke. Trump has lost any kind of leniency he would have had. You can't keep dismissing the things that he's said, while he's literally doing a lot of these things. 

In a lot of cases, one person's joke is someone else's reality. There are evil politicians out there. Just like I am not going to give leniency to a bully who makes more threats, I am not giving politicians that level of trust. Even if they have no intent on acting out those deeds, someone else very well might think it's an idea. 

Frankly, I'm exhausted at people treating politics like a joke. These things affect people's livelihoods, and their actual lives.

I don't view Elon Musk as a potential violent threat, the way I view Donald Trump. But I still want him to shut up; this rhetoric is still hurting people. 

Holy Trump lol