CHARBONNEAU – Donald Trump has no grand plan to take Canada’s resources
New Afton site. (Image: New Gold Inc.)
IT SEEMS LIKE President Trump must have a plan to take our resources.
He doesn’t. He doesn’t have to.
Mining is already globalized – one country regularly mines in other countries.
But why else would he start a trade war with his former closest friend and neighbour?
Doug Saunders wonders why and concludes:
“We have ascribed a plan to the U.S. President that he isn’t capable of seeing through. One popular theory about Donald Trump’s seemingly random acts of economic punishment and threats of imperialistic conquest is that they’re part of a calculated resource grab (Globe and Mail, March 14, 2025).”
Why else would he be interested in resource-rich countries like Greenland, Canada and Ukraine? Why would he withdraw military aid from Ukraine until President Zelensky was willing to sign a “minerals deal” that would give the U.S. exclusive rights to exploit his country’s reserves of critical minerals?
It would seem that this is part of a larger plan to take control of critical minerals in order to achieve resource dominance over China and the OPEC countries. The plan may seem rational.
“However evil it may be, at least it sounds reassuringly logical,” says Saunders. “It’s also definitely not true.”
It’s untrue because Trump has never shown himself to be able to sustain any long-term plan. The showman likes to stir things up with his daily rants but his vision for America, if he ever had any, remains as obscure.
There is nothing to be gained for U.S. mining and drilling companies by annexing other countries – nothing that they don’t already have the right to do.
U.S. companies already have about as much access as they ever needed. Americans already have access to the mineral and petroleum reserves of Canada and Greenland.
Greenland grants mining licences to foreign firms because it’s in their best interest to do so.
American mining companies already operate in Canada, as do Canadian mining companies in America.
For example, Chicago-based Coeur Mining owns the Silvertip mine in B.C. which produces silver, zinc, and lead. Centerra Gold, based in Toronto, operates the Thompson Creek molybdenum mine in Idaho.
The so-called deal maker Trump likes to depict a swap for critical minerals in Ukraine for U.S. military protection for the Russian invaders as a clever move.
In fact, American companies were already mining in the Donbas region of Ukraine before the invasion in 2022.
Trump doesn’t seem to understand that Ukraine would welcome a return of mining by U.S. companies because of the royalties and jobs it would bring. If anyone is being cagy in deal making, it’s President Zelensky.
What motivates President Trump seems mysterious until you realize why he went into politics in the first place.
His motive to run for president in 2016 was basically self-aggrandizement. He wanted to advance his image as a businessman. The carnival man wanted to elevate his brand.
Other than strutting around and expecting people to grovel before him, he has no grand plan.
David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Trump has been acting as a conductor and people are playing along. Musk is an example of a patsy who is doing Trumps dirty work and it is pathetic. Imagine feeling sorry for a billionare wannabe fascist who wonders why people are burning his products.
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Another swing and a miss from Mr. Charbonneau.
If one had been paying attention, Trump has consistently espoused his view of tarrifs and the notion that America is being taken advantage of. This has been a recurring theme for decades. It’s not about minerals. It’s not about annexation. Those pieces are from the Trump “kick and scream” playbook certainly. But this entirely misses the point.
The key piece missing in your wanting analysis is Trump advisor Stephen Miran. Read his paper and you’ll have a better grasp of “the plan” behind this.
Unfortunately, that would take a bit of effort over the constant proselytizing from a position of near full conjecture.
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Bruce, Trump became president in a decadent American society dominated by a mindless celebrity culture in which there was no longer an educated elite or an educated public; in which liberal values and basic notions of decency had collapsed completely; and in which politics had descended into complete irrationality and become an unedifying and brutal spectacle akin to a celebrity-based television show or film that is a propaganda piece, pornography, or someone killing someone else. Imports from UK excluded.
Mindless comedy shows that thrive on celebrity fluff and let you just sit, eat, and soak in the bamboozle, there’s plenty to gorge on, some pure junk, others dressed up as smart but still nonsense at heart. Celebrity Big Brother locks faded stars in a house to squabble, perfect for zoning out with a snack haul, Dancing with the Stars tosses B-listers into sparkly stumbles, and has half nude famous faces pure brain-off fodder other than Jeopardy which thrive on trivia that everyone seems to know but ask a history or geography question they mix up Austria with Australia.
Comedy hosts like Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, slicing politics with wit but softening it with goofy bits and celeb love-fests, or Bill Maher on Real Time, ranting smugly with vulgar punchlines that slide down easy for fans. The View mixes loud, semi-smart debate with cackling chaos and gossip, and Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show keeps it puppy-dog silly with games and softballs, clever folks, sure, but they wrap their smarts in fluffy nonsense that keeps you stuffed and happily unthinking, just swallowing the laughs whole.
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Even Alberta’s oil is widely owned by US firms and investors. I do concur with DC’s sentiments on Trump. However there are things that in principle have merit, like DOGE or stop alienating Russia.
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