This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.
The week the US and Canada broke up
What Mark Carney said in Switzerland, briefly explained.
Cameron Peters is a staff editor at Vox.
Welcome to The Logoff: President Donald Trump has shattered one of the US’s strongest alliances — maybe for good.
What happened? On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a remarkable speech — one that my colleague Caitlin Dewey described as “declaring the end of the world as you and I have known it.” The speech amounted to a declaration that the US can no longer be trusted as a steward of the international order and that Canada must go its own way. Carney called it a “rupture, not a transition.”
Since then, Trump has continued to prove Carney’s point. On Wednesday, he taunted Carney in his own remarks, saying that “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
And on Thursday, he pulled Canada’s invite to his new “Board of Peace.” (Though, it likely was not one Carney was eager to accept; while the board will feature pariah states like Belarus, traditional US allies like France have not signed on).
What’s the context? Carney’s speech is arguably only the announcement of a change already underway. After Trump returned to office last year threatening to annex Canada as the US’s “51st state” and impose tariffs, Canadian outrage powered Carney to the prime minister’s office, and he declared that “the old relationship we had with the United States…is over.” But Trump’s international conduct since then has only deepened the divide.
What’s the big picture? In the eyes of its closest friends — Canada and Europe — the US now looks like something closer to a threat than an ally. In his speech Tuesday, Carney said that “the middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.” The consequences of that shift for the US will continue well after Trump is out of office.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
My colleague Dylan Scott just recently began a new newsletter: Good Medicine (you can sign up here). Between social media and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running amok through US public health institutions, it can be hard to know where to look for good health advice , but Dylan manages to do it thoughtfully and with aplomb, including in his most recent installment.
P.S.: Thank you to everyone who responded to our Tuesday newsletter asking for feedback! If I haven’t had the chance to reply to you directly, just know it’s truly appreciated. Thanks for reading, have a great — and possibly very snowy — weekend, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!
