122: Elbows Up: Responding to Trump's Media War
The Battle for Narrative Control
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Note: This issue is being written and scheduled to publish before the US State of the Union address on Tuesday night. We have no idea what the POTUS is going to say, yet in this issue we’re trying to set the tone, not just of the speech, but of this moment in North American History.
A call was made at the tail end of this past weekend’s Saturday Night Live by Mike Myers: Elbows Up Canada! Let’s reflect a bit on what that could mean, culturally.
Trump is waging war on Canada, not via the military per se—this is a battle fought through the media, reinforced by economic pressure. His latest barrage of statements, press events, and social media posts have painted Canada as a subservient possession of the United States, exemplifying a new era of coercion. This is not traditional diplomacy; it’s a media war, designed to frame Canada as weak, dependent, and most importantly part of the US—setting the stage for economic ultimatums and political submission.
Trump’s Media War
Trump’s ability to dominate the media cycle is his greatest strategic asset. This past week, he escalated his rhetoric, calling Canadian trade policies "a scam" on Fox News while threatening additional waves of tariffs on key exports, particularly in the auto sector. These are not idle words. Trump understands that in a media-driven landscape, perception shapes reality.
Canada’s challenge is that U.S. narratives are nearly impossible to avoid. American media saturates Canadian airwaves, ensuring that Trump’s framing reaches Canadians unfiltered. This structural imbalance—where Canada consumes American news but the reverse is rarely true—allows Trump to influence public sentiment on both sides of the border, making it harder for Canadian leaders to push back.
Marshall McLuhan would argue that Canada’s vulnerability is rooted in the very nature of the global village. In an age where information flows instantly across borders, traditional sovereignty is eroded. "The medium is the message," he famously wrote, and Trump’s medium of choice—highly visual, emotional, and direct—gives him the upper hand in this war of narratives. Trump’s weaponization of television and social media ensures that his version of events spreads faster, louder, and more effectively than Canada’s attempts at measured rebuttal. In this environment, Canadian responses often feel like mere echoes of the dominant American media apparatus rather than independent assertions of national interest.
Jacques Ellul, in his work on propaganda, warned that modern societies are shaped not just by deliberate falsehoods but by the overwhelming flood of messaging that creates an environment of inevitability. Trump’s barrage of statements, amplified by U.S. media networks, does not need to be factually correct—it only needs to be pervasive. His attacks on Canada aren’t designed for diplomatic debate but rather to shape an emotional reality in which Canada is seen as an economic burden or a possession easily acquired. Repetition breeds acceptance, and before long, even those who disagree with Trump begin framing the issue on his terms. Canadian leaders are already showing signs of this.
Economic Pressure as a Form of Narrative Control
Beyond rhetoric, Trump is backing his media campaign with economic threats. Reports this week suggest his team is exploring aggressive tariffs on Canadian steel, agriculture, and energy exports under the guise of "national security." This is a replay of past tactics: threaten economic hardship while publicly framing Canada as unreasonable, ensuring that any future concessions appear as necessary compromises rather than coerced capitulations.
This is straight from the propaganda playbook. Antonio Gramsci warned that cultural hegemony—control over dominant narratives—is what allows powerful nations to impose economic and political subjugation without military force. The U.S. doesn’t need to annex Canada when it can control the way Canadians think about their own economic position.
Frantz Fanon would recognize Trump’s tactics as psychological warfare. By continuously portraying Canada as economically dependent and at the mercy of U.S. policy, the goal is to instill doubt—among Canadian businesses, political leaders, and citizens—about whether resisting U.S. demands is even possible. The risk is that this kind of repeated framing leads to a form of internalized subjugation, where economic pressure is accepted rather than fought.
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Keeping Our Elbows Up: Breaking the Narrative Control
Just as in hockey, where "elbows up" is a way to protect yourself in the corners, Canada must take an aggressive stance to counter this form of media and economic warfare. But conventional strategies—measured rebuttals, diplomatic complaints, reliance on trade agreements—have failed. What is needed is a radical, unorthodox response.
Hijacking Trump’s Own Media Ecosystem – Canada needs to go where Trump’s base is. Instead of simply countering his claims in Canadian media, Canadian officials and business leaders should infiltrate Trump-friendly platforms—Fox News, right-wing radio, and social media networks—to speak directly to his audience. This would mean adopting their language, using emotional appeals rather than dry policy arguments, and framing Trump’s economic policies as harmful to American workers. In short, fight fire with fire. Digital guerilla tactics when employed strategically.
Leaning Into Pop Culture Warfare – McLuhan’s insights suggest that culture, not policy, is the real battleground. Canada should fund and promote satirical content, TikTok campaigns, and memes that ridicule Trump’s economic arguments. Popular culture has always been a potent weapon in shaping public sentiment, and if the goal is to disrupt Trump’s narrative, ridicule and humor—spread through social media—could be an effective counter-strike. Where are all the Canadian comics and comedians in the US? Could they be our culture warriors behind enemy lines?
Using U.S. Corporations as a Wedge – Many American businesses are more reliant on Canadian trade than they are on Trump’s political protection. Canada should weaponize corporate pressure by engaging U.S. multinationals that depend on cross-border stability and encouraging them to speak out against Trump’s tariffs. This turns economic power against Trump, forcing him into defensive explanations about harming "his own" economy.
Disrupting the Supply Chain to Create Backlash – Canada holds strategic economic leverage in areas such as energy, technology components, and agriculture. Temporary slowdowns or bureaucratic "delays" on key exports (such as oil to red-state refineries) could create economic ripples that pressure Trump’s allies to rethink their support for trade hostilities. Doug Ford is indicating Ontario may do just this.
Information Asymmetry: Controlling What Canada Sees – Since American narratives flood Canada but not vice versa, Ottawa should experiment with disrupting American media dominance within Canada. This could mean stricter content regulations, or more importantly incentivizing alternative Canadian news ecosystems that reduce the reflexive echoing of Trump’s narratives.
Trump’s media war on Canada is strategic, not impulsive. It is a calculated effort to create a perception of economic inevitability that will soften resistance to U.S. dominance. But just as in a hockey game, letting a bully dictate the pace means you’ve already lost. Canada must keep its elbows up—not just defensively, but offensively, meeting Trump’s media and economic attacks with an equally aggressive counter-strategy.
In an era where information is a weapon, waiting for the rules to change is a losing strategy. It’s time to disrupt, infiltrate, and fight asymmetrically. The bully pulpit is powerful, but not unbeatable—so long as we refuse to play by the old rules.
Episode 52 of the Metaviews podcast delved a little bit into the cultural elements of MAGA politics and the role of Boomers in getting us in and now out of this mess.
Trump is a narcissistic idiot. The normal way of obtaining concessions from allies is to do it in private. Strike an agreement behind closed doors, then allow Canadian politicians to come up with a cover story.
What Trump is doing with regard to Canada and elsewhere is counter-productive. Eventually people will realize that he's far from being a genius. His overt narcissism should have been a clue from the get-go.
I appreciate the calls to action in this post.