{"id":42657,"date":"2025-03-21T19:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T15:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=42657"},"modified":"2025-03-21T19:00:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T15:00:31","slug":"trump-is-ignoring-the-power-of-nationalism-at-his-own-peril","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/trump-is-ignoring-the-power-of-nationalism-at-his-own-peril\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump is ignoring the power of nationalism at his own peril"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Trump\u2019s brand of American nationalism ignores the fact other countries also have national aspirations \u2013 and are willing to fight back.<\/span><\/h4>\n

US President Donald Trump has exploited American nationalism as effectively as anyone in living memory. What sets him apart is his use of national humiliation as a political emotion. Any presidential candidate can talk their country up, but Trump knows how to talk his country down.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s consistent message has been that American problems \u2013 trade deficits, job losses, illegal immigration, crime and even drug addiction \u2013 are the result of deliberate acts by other countries. The really humiliating part is that American politicians let it happen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n

Many Americans have welcomed Trump\u2019s message that their country\u2019s problems can be solved by reestablishing international dominance. They see this nationalist approach as an overdue corrective to the \u201cglobalist\u201d foreign policies of the post-second world war era.<\/span><\/p>\n

But people in other countries also have feelings of national pride and aspire to be free from foreign domination. This should be obvious, but so far Trump is ignoring the power of nationalism in other countries even as he harnesses it in his own. This makes his foreign policy job a lot harder.<\/span><\/p>\n

How Canadians have rallied against Trump<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Take the example of Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Trump was elected to his second term in November 2024, it seemed certain there would soon be a Canadian prime minister who was more aligned with him than Justin Trudeau. Trudeau\u2019s unpopularity had dragged the Liberal Party down, and the populist Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre looked set to win this year\u2019s election.<\/span><\/p>\n

As he prepared for a trade war with Canada, Trump could have concentrated his fire on his enemies in the doomed Liberal government. Instead, he spent months insulting Canada\u2019s national identity. He repeatedly said Canada should be the \u201c51st state of the US\u201d, calling Trudeau \u201cgovernor\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Americans can dismiss Trump\u2019s talk of annexing Canada as a joke, but Canadians can\u2019t. Regardless of whether Trump would ever follow through with attempting an annexation, his language is an attack on Canadian sovereignty. No one with any sense of national pride would tolerate it.<\/span><\/p>\n

An Angus Reid poll found the number of people saying they had a \u201cdeep emotional attachment\u201d to Canada rose from 49% to 59% from December 2024 to February 2025. That emotional attachment is visible in everything from \u201cbuy Canadian\u201d campaigns to Canadians booing the US national anthem at hockey games.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Liberals, under new leader Mark Carney, are also experiencing a remarkable bounce-back in the polls.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another Angus Reid poll shows that voting intention for the Liberals has surged from 16% in December to 42% now. They are now leading the Conservatives, who have 37% support. Some are now anticipating a snap election could be called in days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has sometimes been likened to Trump, has also led a ferocious pro-Canadian resistance to American tariffs, getting his own re-election boost.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s defenders often claim his chaotic bluster is simply a negotiating tactic, a way of spooking others into accepting terms more favourable to him. If so, this tactic is backfiring in Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trade wars require sacrifices. Citizens must pay more for the sake of protecting their countries\u2019 industries. Canadians seem a lot more willing to make that sacrifice than Americans, who are mostly confused that their friendly neighbour has suddenly been recast as an enemy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The importance of national identity<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Other countries have shown they will not cave easily, either, as Trump puts their national identity at stake.<\/span><\/p>\n

Demanding to buy another country\u2019s territory, as Trump keeps doing with Greenland, a self-governing territory under Danish control, may be even more insulting than threatening to take it, as he keeps doing with Panama. Each time Greenlanders, Danes and Panamanians refuse Trump, his credibility erodes further.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Trump talks about the territory of other countries in terms of \u201creal estate\u201d, even suggesting the United States should \u201credevelop\u201d Gaza after evicting the Palestinians.<\/span><\/p>\n

But sovereign land is not real estate. In a world of nation-states defined by territory, even sparsely inhabited territory has \u201csacred value\u201d. This is particularly true for peoples seeking statehood on their land.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSacred values\u201d are things people see as non-negotiable because they are linked to their sense of identity and moral order in the world. Researchers warn that offering money in exchange for sacred values is deeply offensive, and likely to harm, rather than help, negotiations.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a reason why governments hardly ever sell their territory to other countries anymore. Empires may have done in this in the past, but not nations. They view their lands, and the people who live on them, as inalienable from the nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump clearly doesn\u2019t understand this concept. He has shown no empathy for Ukraine, a country whose territory actually has been invaded. He accused Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy of wanting to prolong the war so he could \u201ckeep the gravy train going\u201d, as if harvesting US aid dollars was the real reason Ukrainians were fighting for their country\u2019s existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s contempt for Ukraine, Canada, Greenland, Gaza, Denmark and Panama has reverberations far beyond these places. It signals that his brand of American nationalism has no place for anyone else\u2019s national aspirations or sovereignty.<\/span><\/p>\n

This will not promote the deal-making Trump wants because no one trusts an unstable, imperial power to stick to its agreements. It would be painful for many countries to reduce their dependence on the United States, but it would be more painful to give away their national dignity.<\/span><\/p>\n

David Smith<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Associate Professor in American Politics and Foreign Policy, <\/span>
\nUS Studies Centre, University of Sydney<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 21 March 2025<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump\u2019s brand of American nationalism ignores the fact other countries also have national aspirations \u2013 and are willing to fight back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":42658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[4702,95,50339,998,37574,17521,51626,51627],"class_list":["post-42657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-affairs","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-greenland","tag-nationalism","tag-panama","tag-the-conversation","tag-us-foreign-policy","tag-world-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Trump.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-b61","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42659,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42657\/revisions\/42659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}