And this is why you don’t negotiate with Trump. This is why you don’t capitulate to Trump. You don’t appease him. You don’t even act polite about it. He sees those things as weaknesses that he can exploit and will believe that whatever he’s after is now his by divine birthright, and your capitulation to him is a subtle acknowledgement that you know he’s right.

This started as Canada responding to Trump’s original threats by committing $1.3 billion to a fentanyl problem that didn’t actually exist in order to appease him and shut him up. And they were rewarded for their appeasement by Trump increasingly turning up the rhetoric ever since. Because that’s what Trump does. That’s all he does.

A response to Trump needs to be immediate, forceful, unambiguous, and aggressive. Anything else is perceived as weakness. The first thing Canada should have done (and the same thing every other country should be doing) is responding accordingly. “Canada is a soverign nation that will under no circumstances be joining the United States under any conditions, and we resent the implication that we will just give up our position as a free and independent nation or will just roll over to the United States on Mr. Trump’s say so. We demand that Mr. Trump make no further implications that Canada ever has or ever will consider becoming a part of the United States. Further statements on this subject risk doing severe and permanent harm to the diplomatic relations between our two countries. We will also be launching investigations into Trump and Trump-affiliated properties in Canada as we cannot and will not allow the leader of a foreign nation to set up shop in Canada and use the profits generated from those businesses to fund actions that will be harmful to our country and its sovereignty.”