{"id":15278,"date":"2025-02-06T09:26:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T09:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/02\/06\/trumps-plan-for-hemispheric-control-steve-bannon-on-why-tariffs-may-only-be-the-start-national\/"},"modified":"2025-02-06T09:26:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T09:26:43","slug":"trumps-plan-for-hemispheric-control-steve-bannon-on-why-tariffs-may-only-be-the-start-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/02\/06\/trumps-plan-for-hemispheric-control-steve-bannon-on-why-tariffs-may-only-be-the-start-national\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s plan for \u2018hemispheric control\u2019: Steve Bannon on why tariffs may only be the start – National"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Sitting in the depths of Steve Bannon<\/a>\u2018s chaotic War Room, Global News has an important question for the right-wing media mogul: How seriously should we be taking the president\u2019s insistence that Canada should become the 51st state?<\/p>\n

Very, apparently.<\/p>\n

Bannon, a former top aide to U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a>, says he knows exactly what\u2019s going on. Dramatically shaking his rumpled grey hair, he tells me that we, Canadians, are \u201cmisreading the situation\u201d before crossing his arms and launching into a spiel that he seems to have been waiting his whole life for \u2014 drawing from his experience serving in the navy, in the Pentagon and his master\u2019s degree in national security studies.<\/p>\n

He is unequivocal in his belief that Trump\u2019s interest in Canada is strategic and geopolitical and that we\u2019re missing the point by being fixated on tariffs and trolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world is now coming to Canada, and it\u2019s coming in a big way,\u201d Bannon says with a prophet\u2019s conviction.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were isolated before. You\u2019re not isolated now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tSteve Bannon tells Global News from his War Room that Trump\u2019s plans for Canada go beyond tariffs.\t\t\t\t<\/span>
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\n\t\t\t\t\tAshleigh Stewart\t\t\t\t<\/cite>
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That\u2019s because, Bannon says, the Arctic is going to be the \u201cnew game of the 21st century\u201d and a military weakness that he calls Canada\u2019s \u201csoft underbelly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melting polar ice caps are making the far north more accessible to countries like Russia and China, meaning Canada has to do more to protect its vulnerable northern frontier \u2014 and, in turn, protect the U.S. And if Canada refuses, Bannon says, Trump will force us to.<\/a> By annexing Greenland, retaking the Panama Canal and securing Canada\u2019s northern border, Trump is apparently trying to establish a north-south economic and military corridor.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about \u201chemispheric control,\u201d Bannon says.<\/p>\n

Since asking Trump himself offers varying results<\/a>, Global News sought out those with insight into how he thinks.<\/p>\n

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Even after Prime Minister<\/a> Justin Trudeau was offered a reprieve from a looming trade war<\/a>, Trump continued to suggest Canada should just give up its sovereignty<\/a> anyway. It\u2019s clearly still on his mind.<\/p>\n

So, all those jibes about \u201cGovernor Trudeau\u201d and Canada as the \u201c51st state\u201d? Global News asks.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not trolling, Bannon counters. He\u2019s \u201creally thought this through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be brutally frank. Geo-strategically, you don\u2019t really have an option [but to join us] if you want your sovereignty because from the north, from the Arctic, it\u2019s going to get encroached in a great power competition that you don\u2019t have the ability to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bannon does not speak on behalf of the U.S. president. In fact, the two have a tangled history. Trump fired him<\/a> from his role as White House chief strategist in 2018, after which Bannon went on to reinvent himself as the host of his War Room podcast and as one of the top evangelists of the MAGA movement.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tU.S. President Donald Trump embraces Stephen Bannon during the swearing-in of senior staff in the White House on Jan. 22, 2017, in Washington, D.C.\t\t\t\t<\/span>
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But this populist and nationalist MAGA school of thought is closely aligned with Trump\u2019s thinking \u2014 and it considers Trump its leader. The White House\u2019s recent torrent of executive orders \u2014 cutting down on federal bureaucracy, waging a war on immigration and promoting economic nationalism \u2014 reflect Bannon\u2019s guiding principles.<\/p>\n

When we visit the War Room, a new intern (the granddaughter of his assistant of 40 years) has arrived to replace six producers who, he says, are all going to work for the new Trump administration.<\/p>\n

As Bannon continues laying out Trump\u2019s grand plan, he doesn\u2019t attempt to conceal his pride that his underlings are going to work for his former boss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a major geostrategic job \u2026 Look at your northern border. You\u2019re totally, completely exposed \u2026 it used to be your greatest defence. Now it\u2019s your biggest vulnerability,\u201d Bannon says.<\/p>\n

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Canada itself has long recognized the problem: Leaders have called beefing up security in the Arctic<\/a> as the \u201cmost urgent and important task\u201d facing the Canadian Forces amid a changing geopolitical and physical landscape, thanks to climate change. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith<\/strong><\/a>, too, has called for a joint Canada-U.S. NORAD base in Northern Canada to bolster Arctic security.<\/p>\n

Both Trump detractors and disciples can see the rationale behind Trump\u2019s supposed continental aspirations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a joke,\u201d says Elliott Abrams, the longtime State Department official and Trump, Bush and Reagan administration veteran.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecurity experts here are talking a lot more about the Arctic than they were 10 years ago. That is the kind of thing that can be resolved by saying, \u2018We have common interests, we\u2019re going to work together closely \u2026 there is an escape hatch from this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t‘Canada is getting it all wrong’\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Bannon\u2019s War Room occupies the first floor of a stately red brick semi-detached near Capitol Hill in central Washington D.C., in the shadow of the Supreme Court of the United States. It seems an ironic location for Bannon\u2019s command post, surrounded by the very institutions his anti-establishment, populist and nationalist movement rails against.<\/p>\n

Even Trump is considered \u201ca moderate\u201d figure in the movement these days, Bannon says, compared to right-wing compatriots like himself, a convicted felon<\/a> currently awaiting trial on charges that he duped donors who have money<\/a> to build a wall along the southern U.S. border. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the furthest right before you leave into the fever swamps,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Bannon also oversaw the Breitbart News website \u2014 a voice for the alt-right movement ranging from white supremacists, neo-Nazis and anti-Semites \u2014 before joining the 2016 Trump campaign. He\u2019s been vocal of his frustrations and distrust of the \u201cmainstream media.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just had a sweeping victory and nobody can define populism here \u2026 the media looks at us as exotic animals in a zoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s no doubt he\u2019s an influential figure, but his enduring influence on the U.S. president is unclear. When asked how often he speaks to his former boss, he says, \u201cDon\u2019t you worry about that,\u201d before conceding he has interviewed Trump only once in five years. When asked why so seldom, he says: \u201cI don\u2019t need to interview him.\u201d<\/p>\n

They do seemingly share a playbook, however. Trump\u2019s unrelenting flow of executive orders and initiatives in the early days of his administration was famously described by Bannon in 2018 as \u201cFlood[ing] the zone with sh*t.\u201d\u00a0They\u2019re both guided by the same populist, nationalist beliefs.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s eager to share his insight. First, on tariffs and why \u201cCanada is getting it all wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis isn\u2019t a punitive tariff on a valve coming from Canada to Detroit. This is something very different,\u201d Bannon says from behind a table with a podcast mic angled towards him, his lower half obscured behind a stack of paper and books.<\/p>\n

A life-sized photograph of Bannon, surveying the horizon with a steely gaze, leans against a vast War Room flag, facing the space at a cluttered table where Bannon himself sits, wearing his real-life steely gaze. Behind him, placards of his quotes \u2014 \u201cThere are no conspiracies, but there are no coincidences\u201d \u2014 and religious paraphernalia jostle for space.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Trump\u2019s] saying, \u2018Hey, America is the best market in the world, it\u2019s a golden door. If you want to come in here, either ship your business here to manufacture, or you\u2019re going to pay a big total tax. But if you\u2019re inside the golden door, there\u2019s no tariff.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But, from Bannon\u2019s perspective, it remains unclear whether those tariffs are a tool of economic force being exerted over Canada to bend to Trump\u2019s Arctic empire-building exercise or if it\u2019s a way for Canada to buy into the protection the U.S. will offer from encroachments.<\/p>\n

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That is at its core, he says, behind several of Trump\u2019s current obsessions. Having control over the Panama Canal means shipping routes are secured from the south. Building an \u201cIron Dome\u201d \u2014 the U.S.-funded air defence system in Israel, which borrows, in part, from the Reagan administration\u2019s ill-fated \u201cStar Wars\u201d initiative \u2014 secures the skies.<\/p>\n

Annexing Greenland means a U.S. submarine base can be built to block the Russian navy from its bases in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. Then, the Northwest Passage \u2014 a network of waterways that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago \u2014 \u201cchanges the economics of trade with Asia, with Japan and East Asia and with that part of Russia,\u201d Bannon says.<\/p>\n

Renegotiating the CUSMA could make Mexico, the United States and Canada \u201cone super economic entity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in that regard, that\u2019s a game changer for Canada. President Trump gets a partnership with Greenland, secures the Panama Canal, and makes sure that they\u2019re robust democracies like Bolsonaro in Brazil and Milei in Argentina. Then we\u2019ve almost completed hemispheric defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, experts say, he has a point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Abrams is not in Trump\u2019s inner circle. But he has held senior positions in three Republican administrations \u2014 Reagan, Bush and Trump. It was a controversial run; Abrams was reportedly up for Trump\u2019s deputy secretary of state role but was denied for criticizing him. He was also convicted for lying to Congress over the Iran-Contra affair in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

These days, Abrams can be found at the Washington-based think-tank and deep establishment group, the Council on Foreign Relations, where he speaks to Global News.<\/p>\n

Abrams is skeptical that Trump has a well-considered grand plan, the way Bannon believes. But he can see why the Arctic would be a big priority for the U.S. president.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are not going to be invaded by Russia. You might be,\u201d he said, referring to Canada. \u201cSo how is it possible that you spend a smaller amount in the region?\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s federal government announced late last year<\/a> that it was committing $34.7 million up front and $7 million ongoing over a total of five years to a new Arctic policy. That pales in comparison to Denmark\u2019s recent pledge of $2B and a 2016 pledge from the U.S. for $5.2B<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Abrams questions why no one has been tapped to oversee Trump\u2019s Iran policy, which may signal shifting priorities. He doesn\u2019t know where all this is going but cautions Canada from disregarding Trump\u2019s threats \u2014 tariffs or a play for its sovereignty \u2014 out of hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not take the view that it\u2019s nothing, that it\u2019s all smoke and mirrors \u2026 because that outcome would be a defeat for him.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>Trump\u2019s got to have something.\u201d<\/p>\n

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And as is often the case with Trump, his demands are shorthand for something else.<\/p>\n

The U.S. president\u2019s social media posts give a glimpse into his list of wants beyond what he\u2019s saying out loud. On Sunday, he said billions were being spent to \u201csubsidize Canada\u201d and that \u201cCanada should become our cherished 51st state.\u201d That subsidy appears to be referencing the reported trade deficit of about $60 billion (not $250B as Trump repeatedly asserts).<\/p>\n

A day later, he led a tweet about speaking with Trudeau, with incredulity, that \u201cCanada doesn\u2019t even allow U.S. banks to open or do business there,\u201d before referencing fentanyl again.<\/p>\n

Canadian officials have repeatedly said less than one per cent of fentanyl entering the U.S. comes from Canada.<\/a><\/p>\n

But this scattershot approach is anything but improvised, says a former influential figure on foreign policy in the first Trump administration, who asked not to be named as he is advising this administration. Because, he says, Trump\u2019s new foreign policy is incredibly well thought-out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Trump\u2019s 2016 foreign policy team was \u201cinexperienced and very ill-prepared on foreign policy,\u201d the influential official says. He\u2019d focused on North Korea and Iran and \u201cmade a lot of mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis foreign policy is very, very different. It\u2019s much broader and more sophisticated. There\u2019s been substantial planning by his people and many think tanks, including ours,\u201d the official said. But he does believe Canada has been \u201ccaught in the crosshairs\u201d of Trump\u2019s fixation on the southern border.<\/p>\n

The official went on to reference Bannon\u2019s blitzkrieg strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201c[All his planning] has enabled him to lay out a lot of initiatives all at once, like flooding the zone with ideas because there\u2019s been so much preparation and so much trial by error from the first administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But if hemispheric defence is Trump\u2019s grand aspiration, he is keeping those cards close to his chest. The official said he hadn\u2019t \u201cwritten any policy papers or talked to any Trump people about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, he admitted, Trump\u2019s 51st state comments had \u201ccaught a lot of us off-guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t think either country wants this to go very far. I think that Trump might move on to other issues \u2026 and as he racks up some initial wins, even small ones, he\u2019s going to use that as momentum to deal with bigger problems like the Middle East and the Ukraine war and dealing with China.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the trade disagreements are a major sticking point for Trump. Canada\u2019s closed markets, such as supply management, are a long-held Trump<\/a> irritant. The behemoth south of the border wants access to Canadian markets for all kinds of goods and services, namely telecoms and banking.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe U.S. has some genuine grievances with Canada. And while the border and fentanyl may be one of the issues \u2026I\u2019m not sure if those are the central issues,\u201d says Christopher Hernandez-Roy, deputy director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

That extends to supply management, the digital services tax, the softwood lumber dispute and the bipartisan defence issue<\/a>, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Biden administration kind of tried to nudge Canada diplomatically, and the Trump administration is going to shock Canada into spending more on defence. It\u2019s a question of making sure the Arctic is secure, making sure that NORAD modernization is on time and on budget. I\u2019m sure they\u2019re having conversations far beyond just fentanyl and migration across the border,\u201d says Hernandez-Roy.<\/p>\n

As for the tariffs, Hernandez-Roy says the move \u201cmakes no sense\u201d because Canada is a bountiful source of critical minerals \u2014 critical for making semiconductors and in a range of defence applications, a market China had previously monopolized.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a self-defeating exercise if what you\u2019re trying to do is make a fortress North America against China and Russia because Canada\u2019s economy is intimately linked with that of the United States. And if you devastate that economy, which is export-dependent, Canada is going to have to look for other markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the only one that will win there is going to be China.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But to the question of whether this punishment would push Canada toward China, Bannon has no coherent answer. It isn\u2019t clear if that means they aren\u2019t worried or haven\u2019t thought about it.<\/p>\n

He says Canada has \u201calready been infiltrated by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]\u201d and that while \u201cCanadians are well-meaning and nice and decent people, you have a hard time facing the hard issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, he wants to be clear: Trump thinks very favourably towards Canadians. He says it as if this might dull the blow of Canada\u2019s current predicament.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Canada] is something we\u2019ve talked about for years, at our first meeting. He holds Canada in very high esteem,\u201d Bannon says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always had a troubled relationship with Trudeau because, let me be blunt, you can quote me, he\u2019s a punk. Yeah, he\u2019s just a punk, and he\u2019s much too close to the CCP.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But he says the western provinces of Canada, and Danielle Smith, most notably, \u201creally get it.\u201d He says he met with many representatives from \u201cCanada\u2019s West,\u201d and they were \u201call over different dinners I went to.\u201d<\/p>\n

He even had some around to the War Room, he says, but he won\u2019t divulge who. But he does say they\u2019re interested in partnering with the U.S. \u2014 even if the rest of the country is not.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, strategically, you didn\u2019t need the United States. They were nice to be an ally of \u2014 now you need us. It\u2019s the only way to stop the great power competition, which you\u2019re going to lose. Tell me how that\u2019s going to play when Russia and China start making physical incursions into northern Canada \u2026 how are you guys going to respond? Are you going to lose northern Canada?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, if you\u2019re partners and\/or part of the United States, you don\u2019t have to worry about that because we\u2019re not going to let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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