President Trump didn’t mince words when he blasted Canada this week, warning on Truth Social that Ottawa’s pivot toward Beijing risks being “eaten up” by China if it turns away from American security cooperation. His blunt message reflects a growing frustration in Washington that some allied capitals treat U.S. protection as a bottomless freebie while cozying up to the very strategic rival that threatens Western liberty.
At the heart of the firestorm is Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile-defense plan, a high-tech shield he says would protect North America by leveraging Greenland’s strategic position. The plan is ambitious and expensive, and critics call it impractical, but the question is simple: do you want an America-led defense umbrella or a continent nudged into Beijing’s orbit?
Canada’s recent outreach to China and public skepticism toward the Golden Dome has provoked a diplomatic rupture, with even invitations being revoked after sharp exchanges at Davos. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s insistence on independent policy choices is understandable on paper, but when those choices include deeper ties to an authoritarian power, they become choices that weaken the entire North American defense posture.
Conservative patriots should applaud Trump for calling this out instead of whispering about it in private. The old playbook of hoping friendly elites will quietly do the right thing has failed; blunt talk can be the only language that wakes up complacent allies and forces a reckoning over where their long-term interests truly lie.
Make no mistake: China is playing a long game, buying influence and leverage through trade and investment while quietly expanding military reach. If Ottawa wants to remain genuinely sovereign and prosperous, it needs to stop treating economic deals as moral equivalence to strategic alignment and start recognizing that security partnerships have real value that can’t be outsourced.
Washington should keep the pressure on but also offer a clear, generous alternative: real security guarantees, trade terms that reward alignment, and coalition-building that excludes bad actors. The choice facing Canada and other middle powers is stark — stand with the free world and reap the benefits, or drift toward authoritarian patronage and pay the price. America’s job is to lead, call out hypocrisy, and protect our hemisphere; that is exactly what President Trump is doing.
