Close Reading

Business ethics 101: 'You can't spend your way back to prosperity.'

Trumps own words, “Vote for me, you will never have to vote again!” \nThis one is showing up on several pages. Make up your own mind. \nThere is something rancid in America, a slow, creeping rot that smells like cold McDonald’s fries, aerosol hairspray, and the unmistakable musk of a country too sedated to recognize its own hostage situation. For years, the idea that Donald Trump was compromised by Russia was dismissed as paranoid fantasy—just another wild-eyed conspiracy theory, another overblown headline in the endless saga of American political dysfunction. \nBut now, two former Soviet intelligence officers—Alnur Mussayev and Yuri Shvets—are saying it outright: Trump was recruited by the KGB in 1987, groomed as an asset, and remains under Russian control to this day. \nAnd the worst part? He’s already back in the White House. \nThat’s right, America. You did it. You walked face-first into the banana peel of history, slipped, and fell straight into the arms of Vladimir Putin. Trump was kicked out in 2020, spent four years plotting his comeback, and now he’s returned, like a bloated, orange cockroach that just won’t die. The Kremlin’s favorite stooge is running the country again, and this time, he knows exactly how to stay in power. \nIf you think this is just another round of the Trump Show, you’re not paying attention. This isn’t politics anymore. This is treason. This is foreign subversion. This is a God forsaken coup in slow motion. \nLet’s break it down, nice and simple. \nAlnur Mussayev isn’t some Twitter conspiracy theorist with a tinfoil hat and a podcast. He’s the former head of Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee, which means he knows exactly how Russian intelligence works—because he was part of the system. And what he’s saying should make every American’s blood run cold. \nAccording to Mussayev, Trump was identified, recruited, and compromised by the KGB in 1987 during his first trip to Moscow. They saw him for what he was: a narcissistic, greedy, attention-starved buffoon who could be easily manipulated. The KGB flattered him, promised him business deals, and planted the seeds of political ambition in his empty little head. And from that moment on, he was their man. \nBut Mussayev isn’t alone. Former KGB major Yuri Shvets said the exact same thing in 2021: Trump was cultivated by Soviet intelligence because he was an easy mark—too stupid to realize he was being played, too egotistical to care. They saw him as a useful idiot—a man who could one day be nudged into power, a walking, talking Trojan Horse for Russian interests. \nAnd now? The plan has worked. Trump spent four years in office weakening America from within, got booted out, and now he’s back for round two. \nIf you had told the American public in 1962 that a Soviet-backed asset would one day sit in the White House, they would have burned Washington to the ground before letting it happen. But today? Nobody seems to care. \nThe media treats this like just another wacky subplot in the never-ending Trump reality show. Congress is too busy fighting over meaningless culture war nonsense to do anything about it. And the American public? Exhausted. Numb. Checked out. Years of scandals—Russia collusion, Ukraine blackmail, classified documents, tax fraud, sexual assault, an attempted coup—have fried the country’s brain like an overcooked steak at Mar-a-Lago. \nTrump has done the impossible. He has committed so many crimes, so openly, so brazenly, that none of them matter anymore. \nAnd now, with Mussayev’s revelation that Trump is an active foreign asset, we have finally reached the point where the biggest political scandal in American history is met with a collective shrug. \nThis is how democracy dies—not with a bang, but with a goddamn eye-roll. \nThis is the part where the skeptics start clutching their pearls. “Oh, come on,” they say. “If Trump were really a Russian asset, wouldn’t there be more proof?” \nTo which I say: Are you blind, or just willfully stupid? \nLet’s go through the evidence, shall we? \nTrump spent his entire first term doing exactly what Russia wanted. He attacked NATO, calling it “obsolete” and threatening to pull the U.S. out. He tried to blackmail Ukraine into manufacturing dirt on Joe Biden, because weakening Ukraine helps one man and one man only: Vladimir Putin. He pulled U.S. troops out of Syria, handing power over to Russian forces. He picked fights with Canada and Europe while cozying up to dictators. \nEven now, in his second term, he is more openly pro-Putin than ever. He has made it clear that he will not protect NATO allies from Russian aggression. He is actively dismantling America’s alliances, just as Russia planned. And while Americans scream at each other over whether Target should sell rainbow t-shirts, Trump is quietly selling the country to the Kremlin. \nAt some point, you have to stop calling it a coincidence and start calling it what it is: treason. \nThe United States is running out of time. If Trump serves out this term without being removed, America as a functioning democracy is finished. \nThe media needs to wake up. Enough with the “Trump fatigue” excuse. This is not just another scandal—this is the single greatest infiltration of American power in history. Journalists need to dig into Mussayev’s claims, demand declassification of intelligence files, and treat this like the national emergency that it is. \nCongress needs to subpoena Mussayev immediately. His testimony must be public, and every document he has should be reviewed. If there is proof that Trump has been compromised since the 1980s, the American people need to know. \nThe Justice Department needs to stop pretending that Trump is just another politician. If there is evidence that the sitting president of the United States is working in Russia’s interests, he must be removed from office and prosecuted for espionage. \nAnd the American public? You have one last chance. This is not about Republican vs. Democrat. This is not about taxes, gas prices, or whatever nonsense outrage is dominating the news today. This is about whether the United States remains a sovereign nation, or if we spend the rest of the century as a Russian client state with a golf course. \nThe sheer volume of Trump's corruption, the blatant nature of his crimes, the mountain of evidence that should have ended his political career a hundred times over—none of it mattered. He survived it all, not because he was innocent, but because he drowned the country in so much scandal that nothing stuck. \nBut this time, it’s different. If Mussayev and Shvets are right, this isn’t just another chapter in the endless Trump circus. This is the culmination of a decades-long Russian intelligence operation to install an asset in the White House. \nThere is no coming back from this. If America lets Trump serve out this term without removing him, then the United States as a democratic republic is finished. The country won’t collapse overnight. There won’t be tanks in the streets. Instead, the destruction of democracy will happen in slow motion—buried under lawsuits, propaganda, and corruption so blatant that people stop caring. \nIf America lets this happen—if Trump is allowed to complete his mission—then Putin wins. The West crumbles. And the people who could have stopped it will look back, years from now, and wonder how they let it happen. \nGood night, and good luck. Because if people don’t wake up, America is going to sleepwalk straight into its own funeral.

I’m a Canadian and no fan of Prime Minister Trudeau. It’s unfortunate the best speech he ever gave was after he resigned as Prime Minister. What he has said in this speech is absolutely true, despite the fact, I think Trump is doing some good things for the USA. This Terrif war with your neighbour is stupid. Unfortunately for us in Canada our Prime Minister has not given us the tools and freedom to grow economically and prosper the way we should have. Canadians should be living like Kings, but unfortunately are living paycheque to paycheque because of the stranglehold that our Prime Minister has put on businesses and its citizens. Now Canada has very little leverage, I believe to fight this Terrif war. Canada has become a pure Cradic nightmare, like the previous administration in the United States were overtaxed over regulated and spend money like drunken sailors on stupid things that don’t help us grow and prosper.

AS A CANADIAN ! BRING IT ON....THIS FAMILY WILL NEVER SPEND A DIME ON AMERICAN MADE PRODUCT OR PRODUCE AGAIN....ILL DO WITHOUT 1ST

As a ex Marine, I do not agree with this move by our government . I did not vote for this dumb move . I have family and freinds in Canada. I grew up spending much of my younger days in Canada , camping and exploring. I do not agree with this move at all! Sorry Canada!

The tariffs are on all countries importing into the U.S. \nYou either build in the U.S. or have higher tariffs, it’s a strategy to build more business and jobs in the U.S. \nFixing the U.S. economy that is $36 TRILLION in Debt, while cutting off foolish spending in USAID. Do you have a problem with that?\n\nThe decision to befriend Russia is not cause Trump is pro-Putin, but to end a war Zelenskyy wants to continue for years, an utterly unnecessary war where thousands are dying for no reason, and billions spent on war when you can spend it on building up the economy (we already gave Zelensky 300 BILLION of our taxpayer money and Ukraine isn’t winning). The goal is to end unnecessary dying and to prevent WW3 nukes flying. Only complete fools think playing games with NUKES is a good idea, pointing a finger at you NATO!\n\nWhen NUKES fly, we are literally f…..ed!!!!

Canadians do not have the same freedom of speech as we do, gun laws, and they do not spend the money we do in defense of other countries as we do so don't give me that shit.

Canada has done nothing but put out propaganda. Canada is a Liberal country that interferes with our elections. Now if I want to know how to adjust my fake eyebrows or how to talk tough while having a small population and only one neighbor that happens to be an ally and the world's super power then I'll ask Trudeau and the Canadians for their input. In the meantime, their people don't work and the Canadians depend on us for their rights to the sea since they don't spend much on defense. America will win. Canada won't exist without America.

Apple, Taiwan, Japan, and honda already invested billions of dollars to America just to avoid tariffs. Like trump said, everything will be built in US soil, from steel, cars, technology chips, etc. In addition, America is the biggest consumer in commerce. These countries need the US dollar. It's either invested in America now and built your products in America or pay the tariffs. Your choice... oh, and for eggs, the US spends $110 million (2023) in eggs from China... Good time for the american farmer to thrive, don't you think?

We don't need spending money for Ukraine Trudeau spending money without limits when Canada have big problems economy inflation double homeless and emigration problems we must be realistic what is good also for AS County \nCANADA FIRST ?? ? ?? ? ?? \nCANADA ALWAYS ?? ? ?? ? ??

American Gorverment thinks Canada is easy to bully, even if it is easy to bully, so you are not going to bully your closest friends and long-term allies. Do you know how much our regular people go shopping and spend money in the US each day ?

At least the Canadian government spends their money on their citizens unlike our traitors like Biden and Trump who put Israel even before the God they worship its mental illness

This is about more than the fentanyl. This is about Canada not pulling their own weight when it comes to defensive spending, this is about getting them to allow Us manufacturered cars into their markets, this is about convincing Canadian companies to build factories in the US… etc Trumps tariffs are creating hundreds of billions, soon to be trillions of dollars worth of investments into our market. We hold the largest market in the world. We hold the power here, not Canada. And bitching about relations with our allies isn’t going to sway conservative voters come the next election. When we win this “trade war” something tells me CNN will whine about how we won it instead of giving credit to the current administration for doing better by our citizens.

as a Canadian, i would like to thank Donald and Elon for their plans to implement the most innovative degrowth agenda imaginable. why dance around the edges like Canada has with its consumer carbon tax that rebated more money to most citizens than they spent on carbon taxes ? no, the DOGE solution to addressing climate change is much better .. just cripple the three north american economies with tariffs, put hundreds of thousands of citizens out of work, and make the Trump tax cuts permanent so that the federal government is broke as well. no more money means no more spending or consuming .. it's a win for the entire planet !!

An excellent speech, truthful, powerful and to the point. As for the fentynol, well, not matter what you do, and no matter how much you spend, the CIA will still find a way to sneak it into the States just like they did with the cocaine epidemic THEY started in the 80s.

This has nothing to do with Canada or the Canadian people. This is a pure transactional move because that is how Trump sees things. He needs the money to finance his agenda and he has been told that the money does not exist in terms of what the US Congress can provide. They won't cut military spending and they wouldn't dare touch SS or Medicare. Therefore, Trump is resorting to the only available option which is to have the American people pay for it all and that is what he is doing with these tariffs. He doesn't need to worry about reelection so he couldn't care less how much pain he is inflicting on the very people who voted for him. Elections have consequences.

You have got to be kidding right? Trudy looks like what he/she is. Weak. Clueless. Worthless. When he got fired did he accept that or did he keep spending Kanadian money on useless projects? He went on a celeberety tour instead of working with the US to address the problems he created. He played around, posturing and looking like a total I D I O T and then when he FAILS to meet the requirements to avoid tariffs, and he gets hit with them, he does this kind of worthless crap? This is NOT a leader.

Oh no! We're becoming another Ukraine that was so unwise to pick a fight against a strong closest neighbor ?‍♀️ On top of heavily sponsoring a war that we have nothing to do with. Thats not even on the same side of the globe. How can we stop our tax money spent on something that has no relevance to us? We pay taxes for the government to spend them on us, not some hypothetical threats and not so hypothetical ambitions of the politicians. Why is it more important to stand against Putin in Ukraine than to work out partnership with the closest neighbor? Wouldnt it be more reasonable to get to the table and work out a consensus.

Maybe you don't understand Justin... He spent an entire term killing his own people last time. There's no reason to believe he won't spend the next 4 years doing it again.

It's about time for the Snowbirds to go home but they will be back next winter spending money

UK here. This year was going to spend a lot of money on Apple products and a Gibson guitar. Now the idea of buying anything American makes me feel sick. Cheers Donald!

This makes me want to go spend my American dollars in Canada.

“We will stand up for Canadians” by spending lots of Canadians taxes.

Alberta, Canada: I just returned from shopping and I am happy to say that I managed to spend CAD $450 on groceries without spending a single cent on American products! I buy a lot of organic items and many of them come from California. But putting in the time today at the store and reading labels, I realized that there is a Canadian/Mexican/European equivalent for everything I need ; )

As a Canadian my personal politics may not always be in line with other citizens of the world, however I can respectfully agree to disagree, allowing more dialogue and discussion to continue in order to reach an agreeable compromise to find the best winning formula for all concerned. \nI have watched and listened to many American politicians from John F Kennedy to Joe Bidden, to leaders like Marin Luther King, Malcolm X, Bernie Saunders, all have something in common, respect, decorum, world knowledge, integrity, truth, honesty, honour, and heart. \nStrength is when you are able to reach out to lift someone up not to knock them down. Even the greatest professional boxers know the difference of being humble and kind when there advisory is in trouble. \nFor the first time in the history of your country you have a bully, narcissist and pathological liar, who is vulgar and unpolished as a man, father and as the President of your nation.\nI have seen our own Canadian leaders, make mistakes, stumble and fail, however they displayed grace and admitted to their shortcomings.\nI have never seen a world leader be obsessed with things such as plastic straws, pennies, flushing toilets, Hannibal Lecter, Arnold Palmer's manhood, a leader who's completely obsessed with selling souvenir and bubbles while his citizens are homeless, hungry, jobless, with runaway inflation so that something as simple as a dozen eggs are now a luxury item. \n\nYou have a president who spends millions of dollars so that he can play golf at one of his own properties, meanwhile his country is neglected. \nA brief look at his past record the pandemic under his watchful eye would have you drink bleach as a cure as many died and billionaires increased their combined wealth by trillions of dollars while the middle class and poor suffered. \nThe opioid crisis was settled under his watch which let Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family avoid jail time for committing the death and destruction of millions of lives in America. Yet Donald Trump is obsessed with the drug cartels in other countries yet he overlooks those terrorist in his own country. Is it because they are billionaires and potential cronies of his?\nRather than be completely obsessed with tariffs and creating the next disaster with his Trump Gaza Holocaust Resort, Your leader could be looking at fixing the country's infrastructure of roads, brides, tunnels, ensuring a healthy supply of drinking water, rail, housing for the homeless, affordable health care, affordable education, etc.\n\nDonald Trump is surrounded by his clowns is not just making a mockery of your country but is leading you into a very dark hole. \nThe shame and humiliation that Donald Trump has brought to your country since his inauguration will take years to correct if he is stopped now. If you the American people wait four years, WW Three will be here and it will take centuries to recover. \nTHE FUTURE IS NOW, NOT IN FOUR YEARS. AS AMERICANS YOU MUST BE WILLING TO ENSURE A TOMORROW FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS.... UNDER THE CURRENT REGIME YOU ARE HEADED TO A DEAD END.

I dont get it why the Americans think that we should even have to spend as much as they do on military...the whole world literally despises them and is actively trying to think of a way to attack them, but it is a much different story when it comes to Canada. Im pretty sure 911 was an attack on United States, an event that Canada did not have to involve itself with, but guess what? We did. We lost our own brave countrymen and women in order to come to the aid of the United States. Maybe the next time they want help they should look elsewhere. We were also there fighting in world war 2 way before the Americans decided to show up as well.

Never get a boy to do a man's job especially a narcissistic drama queen like Trudeau...loves WEF and Soros globalist plan for 4th Reich apparently ! More money to Zelensky who can't account for $69 billion dollars from America ? Zelensky's wife spends 10's of millions on shopping spree buys a $6.4 million dollar Bugatti and a $1.2 million dollar necklace while begging for money ? NUTS

This is something Trudeau was looking forward to. He gets to tax Canadians for all his spending and then blame someone else.\nTrudeau just promised Zelenskyy billions of dollars and now he gets to take the Canadian taxpayers hides to pay for his reckless spending spree.

There were two things that Canada had to do to avoid Trump's tariffs. Increase our Defense spending and stop the flow of drugs and illegal aliens entering the US thru Canada. Trudeau only talked about the drug issue. If Trudeau cancels the $ 40 Billion unsolicited contract to SNC Lavalin, and instead gives that $ 40 Billion to Canada's military to buy new weapons and train more soldiers Trump will, I am positive, immediately drop the tariffs against Canada!

The next holidays 2025 my family is not going to spend in US, as done before the years, but we will visit Canada, first time of our life. Best decision ever. Greetings from Austria ??.

So sorry, World, for this American president’s stupidity ! As soon as I can I’m coming to Canada and spend the day apologizing for his stupidity ! Thank you for staying strong against an ignorant bully named trump ! He doesn’t even know what a tariff is and the GOP is afraid to tell him Americans Pay for it ! ????‍♀️ I hate trump ! ?

Our dumb PM Trudeau is punishing Canadians by adding tarrifs to US products they need for their businesses and not given them time to find alternative canadian sources. He is not as smart as premier Doug Ford who is just adding surtaxes to products sold to US from Canada. He doesn't care if he did he would end poroguing of parliament and increase spending on military and border protection on all sides of our country he says that Trump is going to cause a recession in Canada we already have on caused by 9 years of Liberal federal government backed by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.

I probably have a bias because the Scottish part of my family came from the Isle of Mull to PEI. That said, \n\nI'm super happy that groups of us have places in Canada and we intend to spend as much time up in the Great White North as possible and spend all of our US dollars there.\n\nA Mari Usque Ad Mare

justin you are a petty man and it shows with the way you disrespect the President of the United States by calling him donald instead of the respect the position deserves. The fact is Canada needs the US trade more than the US needs Canada. The US should completely close the border and we should be making all the products we get from Canada here in the US as we need the jobs more than the trade from Canada.And as an added bonus the US can save all the money we spend defending Canada with our military, let Canada foot the bill for their own defense. So ESBFGGC

Just curious why so many support Canada as Americans? If you look at the spending and trade throughout the world, America and Americans have been footing the bill for a long time. What exactly is wrong with America putting America first and getting a fair deal with the rest of the world we do business with? It's our taxpayer dollars that fund this and we have been overpaying for decades now. Honest question.

Trudeau is an idiot.. be a partner as you claim to be! Stop the fentanyl, watch the border for aliens , and spend 2% of GDP on military.. all good INVESTMENTS in Canada!!

Watching in Hungary/Slovakia: Amazing speech - hope it's understandable also to many Americans. They need to understand it before they feel the impact of Trump's trade war w/ his frm allies. I'm so proud I got an opportunity to spend few months learning English in Canada - lovely country and lovely people w/ great leaders.

I’ve talked with a lot of Swedes the last weeks and large majority of them are done with the US. People are finding alternatives to mAmerican products and services and one family told me that they won’t proceed with their plans to spend this summer in Florida. Sweden supports Canada and we would love to increase trade and other kinds of exchange with you as we are permanently leaving the totally unreliable and morally corrupted rough state USA.

European here\nI love Canada ? ?? \nI love some Americans too\nThis year, we choose Canada for holidays, not US\nAnd we are very excited to go and spend our time and money in your beautiful country \nHang on Canada , we all will overcome from this

From Canada: Sorry but we did this to ourselves by not growing our economy as we could have done, by not expanding energy and trade, by being led by a non-leader who panders only to the east and disrespects the west, who spends money like it’s on fire. Trudeau could learn so much from Sen Robert Kennedy about spending money that isn’t his to spend… If eastern Canada would respect the wealth we have in the country, in the ground, we would not be in this position. Canada could be one of the wealthiest countries in the world and Canadians could have a very high standard of living. Instead we are stagnant and woke, dying from terrible drug policies and woke law, and bursting with a terrible “look at me, look at how good I am” immigration policy. We have no investment or tourism in BC, no foreign buyers, almost no airbnb, no fruit, soon to be no wine, but at least we have free drugs and 2000 genders, right Provincial NPD? That will help the bank account. And we have no respect for Alberta’s riches that benefit EVERYONE. All the power is centralized in Quebec, with the Bloc not even a federal GD party but somehow allowed to be a federal party, and Ontario and Atlantic Canada just loving a false sense of moral and intellectual superiority, and don’t forget transfer payments. And we have got ourselves into this Liberal government purgatory (thank God the Federal NPD have been decimated over it…at least there is some justice), so that we write cheques to make us feel good and look good despite that we can’t afford it. And we prevent growth and trade to make ourselves feel good and look good even though we can’t afford it. And here we are now, broke a** with no prospects and no savings. Well done Canada and well done Capitano Trudeau.

Why doesn't Trump spend time to educate Americans on the dangers of drugs? Why are Americans so addicted to drugs that's what should be addressed. All the federal workers fired could help in educating the feeble minded Americans who have to depend on drugs.

Do not blame to Trump for every problem in Canada. Canada was in problem since you became PM. You are the responsible for Loonie devalue, immigration fraud, mortgage fraud in real estate, housing crisis, more govt spending, federal workers are more than doubled.

a 1.3 billion dollar waste of money for extra border security. We did this to appease the unappeasable. He never intended to stop the tariffs, he just wanted us to spend out money. He's trying to bankrupt Canada. STOP SPENDING OUR MONEY ON TRUMPS DESIGNS. Remember WE the public are paying for this, THEY (our governments/the Upper Class) are benefiting. As Trump crashes the markets, who do you think is buying it up, think about it.

Can we just spend the night at your house until our real parents come back? ~ USA

Our current government is deplorable and I want no part of it. This man is not my president. Is destroying my country. I am a disabled American veteran and I did not spend eight years in the military for this. I want to come and live in Canada. This is not right that is not normal it's not legal moral or ethical. I am so glad you're fighting back.

Canada's $63 billion trade imbalance is a bigger issue. your telling trump the last time he was in the white house you would be spending 2% of your GDP on the military by 2024. Now you say you will get to 1.8% by 2027. Open your trade. Like JD Vance said we can keep going up on Tariffs until you balance trade.

Trump is far from a genius. Ukraine president doesn’t want to see his people suffer anymore from a ruthless piece of garbage that invaded his country. Trump and Vance were an embarrassment to our country, low life’s . Then afterwards one goes and plays golf and the other one goes skiing talk about wasteful gov spending and you people are worried about the money we give to our allies just think about how much we spend on security for Trump and his family and his cabinet at the end of the year it will astonishing. It’s not like we will see any of this money he supposedly is making from these deals only he will see it and his rich friends !!

As an American, Canada please let my family in! We don't like this crazy dictator. We are retired, and will not take Canadian jobs, we will only spend our money in Canada. Please open retirement visas!

Germany also has an answer to the USA. An hour ago, it was announced at a press conference that Germany is spending 530 billion dollars on research, innovation and infrastructure. And there is no longer a limit for the defense budget. Thanks to the low national debt. While the US government is making cuts everywhere in these sectors.

canada is not a friend to the US, canada is a leach who takes as much as they can expecting the US to spend on their military so canada will be protected while spending money on their socialist programs. Living in the 51st state I hope this idiot ford and trudeau cause Trump to take over this state sooner than later....