‘This deranged buffoon’: Trump’s Truth Social posts are becoming more concerning
President-elect Donald Trump’s latest social media tirade of unmitigated nonsense suggests an increasingly unhinged approach to diplomacy with America’s closest ally.
In a bizarre Christmas Day post, Trump declared he urged hockey legend Wayne Gretzky to “run for Prime Minister of Canada, soon to be known as the Governor of Canada.” A tweet from Republicans against Trump said, “I can’t believe 77 million Americans voted for this deranged buffoon.”
The statement reveals Trump’s latest incredibly dumb fixation on absorbing Canada as “the 51st state,” a notion he first floated during a recent Mar-a-Lago dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. What started as apparent trolling has evolved into repeated public statements about annexing America’s northern neighbor.
For context, or if you aren’t a sports fan, Gretzky isn’t just another celebrity — he’s arguably Canada’s most revered sports figure. Indisputably, the greatest hockey player of all time, the Hockey Hall-of-Famer holds 61 NHL records and was briefly in a Saturday morning cartoon called ProStars, starting alongside animated versions of Micheal Jordan and Bo Jackson as crime fighters.
The “Great One” has waded into Conservative politics before, endorsing former Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2015 as “one of the greatest prime ministers ever.” While Gretzky did show up at Trump’s 2024 victory shin-dig at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s claim that he “would win easily” simply because he’s popular ignores Canada’s complex political landscape.
Trump’s commentary intersects with real political turmoil in Ottawa. Long a controversial figure, Trudeau faces a potential no-confidence vote in January, while polling shows that his Liberal Party is trailing significantly behind the Conservatives ahead of next year’s mandated federal election. Canada is in the midst of a housing crisis and inflation. Trump’s “governor” rhetoric emerged after Trudeau’s urgent Florida visit to discuss Trump’s threat of imposing a 25% tariff on Canadian imports. Rather than addressing Trudeau’s concerns about economic devastation, Trump countered by suggesting—get this—Canada’s absorption into the United States would cut their taxes “by more than 60%.”
Canadian officials—not Trump’s own advisors—have attempted to downplay Trump’s provocations. “The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us,” insisted Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc. But Trump’s persistence in pushing the statehood narrative, coupled with very real threats of punitive tariffs, signals something more calculated than mere jokes, though the math ain’t mathing.
This stupifying Gretzky gambit adds another layer of unnecessary complexity. The hockey icon, a dual US-Canadian citizen who has spoken forcefully about banning Russia from international sports over the Ukraine invasion, apparently showed no interest in Trump’s proposal. “He had no interest,” Trump admitted before calling for a “DRAFT WAYNE GRETZKY Movement.”
As Trump prepares to retake office in January 2025, his new fixation on Canada’s sovereignty and deployment of Gretzky as a political prop underlines an increasingly capricious approach to international relations—where he already has problems. What began as social media trolling has morphed into a concerning pattern of diplomatic antagonism toward one of America’s most crucial allies.
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