Canada’s parochial panic about Trump’s America is ridiculous

In his recent address before Congress, President Trump delivered a clear and unflinching message: The U.S. will no longer squander its power on utopian projects or endless commitments to a fading rules-based international order.

Instead, his administration will focus on hard-nosed realism, prioritizing national interests, blunting the ambitions of revisionist powers and shoring up America’s defenses.

This is not a vision for a new Cold War but a pivot to a grand strategy of restraint — a shift long overdue and one that will inevitably reshape the contours of global power.

There is a growing, almost hysterical, strain of thought in Canadian foreign policy commentary that insists that America has abandoned the respect and goodwill that defines the Canada-U.S. relationship — that the U.S. has given up on the world we have long known and that Canada and its allies may ultimately even have to “defend” themselves against it.

This argument is not just wrong — it is a caricature of serious strategic thinking. It reflects an astonishing degree of parochialism, a simplistic reading of world affairs and an anachronistic understanding of both the actual international order and U.S. foreign policy discourse.

At the heart of these arguments is a belief that the U.S. is not only stepping back from its role as the world’s democratic leader but is actively becoming a destabilizing force. The fear is that Washington’s foreign policy is becoming transactional, unreliable and even hostile to traditional allies. Proponents of this view cite growing U.S. skepticism toward NATO, tensions in trade relationships and Trump’s rhetorical flourishes as evidence that America can no longer be trusted.

This line of reasoning is detached from reality. It conflates strategic recalibration with abandonment. It ignores the actual debates taking place in U.S. policy circles and assumes that Canada can somehow wish away the need to take responsibility for its own defense and strategic posture. Worse still, it betrays an intellectual laziness that has long plagued a certain camp within the Canadian media and intelligentsia — a reflexive anti-Americanism masquerading as serious analysis.

This sense of panic is not new. It is part of a long-standing trend in Canadian media, where the U.S. is often viewed with a combination of admiration, anxiety and resentment. This leads to an intellectually contradictory stance. On one hand, commentators insist that Canada should forge its own path, independent of Washington; on the other, they demand that America provide the leadership and stability in which Canada itself refuses to invest.

This is not serious strategic thinking but a juvenile form of geopolitical dependency.

No, the U.S. is not disengaging from the world. It is reassessing its commitments in light of shifting power dynamics. For decades, U.S. foreign policy was animated by an expansive liberal internationalist vision that assumed American leadership was essential for global stability. The post-Cold War unipolar moment reinforced this mindset. But as multipolarity emerges, Washington is necessarily adapting its strategy.

This does not mean the U.S. is retreating into isolationism. Rather, it is prioritizing its core interests — great power competition with China, deterrence of Russia, securing its homeland and maintaining its technological and military edge. Yes, this recalibration means less tolerance for free-riding allies. It places more pressure on countries like Canada to contribute meaningfully to their own defense. But that is not abandonment — it is a rational adjustment to a changed world.

Unfortunately, too many Canadian commentators mistake this shift for betrayal. They see America’s push for allied burden-sharing as a sign that Washington is turning inward when, in reality, it is a reflection of strategic realism. The world is no longer one where the U.S. can indefinitely underwrite the security of allies who refuse to take their own defense obligations seriously.

Much of the alarmist rhetoric in Canada stems from a fundamental failure to grasp the evolution of U.S. strategic thought. A “sovereigntist” turn in American foreign policy — where Washington prioritizes national interests over ideological crusading — does not mean the U.S. is turning its back on allies. It means the U.S. is demanding that those allies step up.

Instead of engaging seriously with this shift, too many Canadian commentators retreat into familiar, outdated narratives about the supposed dangers of American “unpredictability” and the “madman theory” as its applies to Trump. Again, this is a willful misreading of the moment. Americans across the political spectrum — yes, including many in Washington’s foreign policy establishment — are asking why their country should continue to subsidize the security of wealthy allies who refuse to meet even minimal defense obligations.

This is not some fringe Trumpian impulse; it is increasingly the mainstream view among U.S. policymakers. Canada's media and intellectual classes recoil at this shift because they have long relied on a passive model of security — outsourcing hard power to the U.S. while enjoying the benefits of a rules-based order sustained by American military and economic dominance. The realization that this status quo may no longer be tenable has triggered a moral panic rather than a serious conversation about how Canada should adapt.

One of the most absurd claims circulating in Canadian commentary is that the democratic world may have to “defend itself” from America. This is not just hyperbolic — it is utterly unserious.

The U.S. remains the backbone of NATO, the principal deterrent against Russian aggression and the only power with the capability to maintain global sea lanes and nuclear stability. If Canada truly believed America is becoming an adversary, it would need to make drastic shifts in its defense policy — including a radical increase in military spending and the development of independent deterrent capabilities. Some in Ottawa are proposing this, but not much is actually being done. That alone should tell you how little even Canada’s own foreign policy commentators believe their own rhetoric.

Instead of indulging in fantasies about a world where Canada “defends itself” against the U.S., the Canadian establishment should acknowledge that a sovereign and interest-driven America is not a threat but a reality that requires strategic adaptation. The era of assuming America will always act as Canada’s strategic benefactor is over.

But that does not mean the U.S. is turning against its allies. It means it expects them to act like real partners. The sooner Canada accepts this, the better.

Trump’s speech was a reality-check for America’s allies. For Canada, it is not a moment to panic but an opportunity to finally embrace a strategic posture grounded in realism, maturity and genuine self-reliance. The era of hiding behind a veneer of moral superiority and rhetorical commitments is over. It is time for Canada — and indeed all of America’s allies — to stop lamenting the changes in U.S. policy and start adapting to them.

Andrew Latham is a professor of international relations at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minn., a senior fellow at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy, and a non-resident fellow at Defense Priorities in Washington, D.C.

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