A roundup of the most outrageous, dictator-adjacent things Donald Trump did and said yesterday – most of them while he was sat next to the Director General of Nato, who said absolutely nothing.
Bernie Sanders often talks about Donald Trump leading America “towards authoritarianism.”
This week alone he’s tweeted about Trump’s “advances towards authoritarianism” and about how the “American people will not allow Trump to take us into Authoritarianism”.
And on Wednesday he tweeted: “Throwing protesters in jail is yet another step on the path to authoritarianism”.
It’s always in the future tense. Always warnings about the threat of where the country is travelling towards under Trump.
I hate to be the one to break it to you, Bernie, ol’ pal. But the sat nav beeped a while ago. You’ve reached your destination.
Here’s a roundup of the most outrageous, dictator-adjacent things Donald Trump did and said yesterday – most of them while he was sat next to the Director General of Nato, who said absolutely nothing.
1. Talked about Canada like Putin talks about Ukraine
” I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia ,” Vladimir Putin wrote in his lengthy, bonkers essay justifying the invasion in 2021.
He went on to claim: “modern Ukraine was entirely created by … communist Russia “.
In doing this, he said, Lenin transferred “to the newly, often arbitrarily formed administrative units — the union republics — vast territories that had nothing to do with them”.
Fast forward to yesterday, when Donald Trump said this about Canada in the Oval Office: “To be honest with you, Canada only works as a state .”
He added: “If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it . Somebody did it a long time ago, many many decades ago. And it makes no sense.”
As noted above, Mark Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO was sitting next to him at the time, and said nothing.
2. ‘Joked’ about sending troops to Greenland
“We really need Greenland for national security. It’s very important,” he said during the same impromptu Oval Office presser.
“You know, we have a couple bases on Greenland already. We have quite a few soldiers there.
“Maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers go there, I don’t know.”
He turned to his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth and added: “What do you think about that, Pete? Don’t answer that, Pete.”
Once again, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, in charge of making sure allies are defended from illegal attack or invasion, said nothing.
3. Defended Putin’s last two invasions, blaming them on other people.
“Crimea was given by Obama,” Trump claimed about the 2014 invasion. He added: “Biden gave ’em the whole thing and Bush gave ’em Georgia.”
He also quietly suggested Putin wouldn’t have to give back any territory he has invaded since 2021.
4. Threatened a 200% tariff on Guinness the week before St Patrick’s day
…as well as on all other European booze – wine, champagne, the lot. But seriously, your timing could be better, Donald.
Why?
Because, according to Trump’s Truth Social post: “The European Union, one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World, which was formed for the sole purpose of taking advantage of the United States, has just put a nasty 50% Tariff on Whisky.”
He added: “This will be great for the Wine
and Champagne businesses in the US.”
As someone who has drunk a fair amount of American wine, it will not be great for the wine and champagne business in the US.
5. Oh and he wasn’t done with the EU
He accused the “globalist Wall Street Journal” of being “owned by the polluted thinking of the European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of “screwing” the United States of America.”
Yikes.
6. He still doesn’t understand how NATO works
So part of the basis of NATO membership is that countries should try to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defence.
That money doesn’t go *to* NATO. It’s just what the member states spend on defending their country, the idea being that nobody gets a free ride – everyone pays to defend themselves and everyone else.
After four years in office the first time, another four trying to return to office, and a couple of months back with his feet under the resolute desk – Trump still doesn’t understand this basic concept.
He’s BEEN to NATO. Twice. He’s had endless discussions with secretaries general and leaders of other member states about exactly this issue.
But he still clearly believes that the issue with NATO member states was that they weren’t paying their fare share *into* NATO. Like it was some kind of thermonuclear kitty.
Here’s what he said on this yesterday: “When I first went to NATO…I noticed that very few people were paying – and if they were, they weren’t paying their fare share.
“I was able to raise hundreds of billions of dollars. The money started pouring in and NATO became much stronger because of my actions.”
Not only did he say this nonsense out loud on television, but the White House clipped it, transcribed it and sent it out as a tweet.