U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS)

"[European allies risk] civilizational erasure [as a result of their migration and free speech policies]."

"[Economic stagnation in Europe] is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure."

"[Ending the war in Ukraine is a core U.S. interest to] reestablish strategic stability with Russia." 

"[Europe is enfeebled by its immigration policies, declining birthrates], censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition [along with a] loss of national identities and self-confidence."

"Should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies. Many of these nations are currently doubling down on their present path. We want Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence." 

"[As for the Middle East], America's misguided experiment with hectoring [countries in the Middle East, especially monarchies in the Gulf, about their traditions and forms of government]."

"[The Arab nations are] emerging as a place of partnership, friendship, and investment. We should encourage and applaud reform when and where it emerges organically, without trying to impose it."

"[The U..S. strategy] is motivated above all by what works for America -- or, in two words, 'America First'."

U.S. National Security Strategy 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at an event in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. Trump's new national security strategy was welcomed by Moscow, according to a Kremlin spokesperson on Sunday. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/The Associated Press)

 

"The adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision."

"[The current U.S. administration is] fundamentally different from the previous ones." 

"President Trump is currently strong in terms of domestic political positions. And this gives him the opportunity to adjust the concept to suit his vision."  

Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin Spokesman  

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, left, speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.(Sergei Ilnitsky/The Associated Press)

 

"This NSS is a real, painful, shocking wake-up call for Europe. It is a moment of cavernous divergence between Europe’s view of itself and Trump’s vision for Europe."

"If Europe had any doubt that the Trump administration is fully committed to a tough love strategy, it now knows for sure. The administration is asking—demanding, really—that Europe polices its own part of the world and, most importantly, pays for it itself."

"The most worrying parts of the strategy are the ones that chastise Europe for losing its European character. The sentiment behind the words seems to stoke fear of migrants and an adherence to an idealized, old-world Europe that is questionable at best. Modern Europe is vibrant, evolving, and—largely—pretty happy."

"The majority of Europe’s reaction to this NSS is likely to be the same aghast shock as met Vice President JD Vance’s Munich speech."

Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) 

Released on Friday, the Trump administration's new national security strategy will give no comfort whatever to its heretofore allies in Europe, while Russia has already expressed its cautious pleasure, and China will be satisfied to an extent; Latin America has more to puzzle over, and the Middle East will feel somewhat gratified and no little relieved, for the most part. America's erstwhile partners in Europe stand to wallow in discomfort and uncertainty, not quite recognizing its place in this new America First reality imposed upon the world.

 

A disconcerting pivot from the role of controlling, stabilization empire of the globe to a new hands-off policy which allows other nations the pleasure of going it alone when it comes to stability and self-defense. With the second election/administration of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States of America a new world order came into effect. On the other hand, Mr. Trump remains dedicated to 'peace' and peace-making, still counting on the Nobel Committee to come to its senses in 2026 -- which hasn't given it pause in striking 'terrorist' boats in the Caribbean Sea trafficking drugs to the U.S.

 

This is a document required by law that the administration must release; and it presents a break from former president Joe Biden's Democratic administration's course of intent which implemented a campaign to reverse Mr. Trump's first administration's trajectories. In brokering an end to the four-year-stagnant conflict in Ukraine, the first shock was the virtual abandonment of Ukraine's sovereign rights and a surprise embrace of Moscow's territorial imperative. An end to the war is not designed to liberate Ukraine but rather to consolidate a rapprochement with Russia.

 

As for America's European allies, their intransigence in supporting Ukraine and expecting the United States to continue the previous administration's commitment to that end, has left those expectations adrift and discombobulated. Trump's position in a drive to "reestablish strategic stability with Russia", when Europe's concerns are the Kremlin's yearning to restore the Soviet bloc to its former glory and NATO is stuck in a position of unease when its member-states are forced to cope with mysterious drones flying over their airports and military bases, flounders with its most powerful ally scorning its utility.

 

Jewish population of greater New York reaches 1.4 million. JNS

 

The United States, of course, faces no issues of immigration/migrant/refugee instability where Congress is faced with elected Representatives from Somalia and 'Palestine' backgrounds along with other Muslim Arab-Americans whose loyalties to the United States are not always evident. The U.S. 'melting pot' has installed imams in mosques whose Friday sermons don't exactly praise democracy and love of their fellow-man. New York electing an avowed Socialist, Muslim extremist whose contempt for America's ally in the Middle East has him broadcasting his intention to 'arrest' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he come to New York City, the major home of Jewish-Americans.

 

The world at large is extremely well aware of the presence of Donald J. Trump in the White House. It is still reeling from the economic blows of trading with the United States where former free-trade agreements have been swept into the dust heap of the past as economy-crippling tariffs have taken their place. The sovereignty of nations called into question when U.S. national security under Mr. Trump eyes Greenland and Canada as potential extensions of the United States. It's Mr. Trump's very own version of How to Win Friends and Influence People.  

J.D. Vance and Donald Trump   Getty Images

"That strategic clarity is entirely missing from the new NSS, which is more polemic than policy. The north star of great power competition with China and Russia—around which the first Trump administration built bipartisan consensus—is gone."

"Rather than describing the scope and scale of China’s systemic challenge to the United States and our allies and partners, the 2025 NSS makes clear that economics are “the ultimate stakes.” The new paramount objective of Washington’s China policy is a “mutually advantageous economic relationship with Beijing.” 

"The discussion of Russia is mealymouthed at best: The document declines to characterize the threat Moscow poses to U.S. interests. It instead opts for the bizarre formulation, “many Europeans regard Russia as an existential threat.” 

"And while the 2017 NSS highlighted Iran and North Korea as second-tier threats, the new NSS does not mention North Korea at all and downplays the danger posed by Iran after Operation Midnight Hammer."

"Vance’s speech in Munich could have been interpreted back in February as the ideological views of just the vice president and parts of the radical MAGA base. But now, these views have become the administration’s official policy, which will only accelerate Europe’s efforts to hedge against the United States and to build up its own autonomy."

Council on Foreign Relations  

The Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, seen from the air in Washington, DC. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images)

  

U.S. Scuttling Traditional Trade Relations

"The United States will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions."

"[The statement included ensuring safe navigation in the Black Se, a ban on strikes against energy infrastructure in Russia and Ukraine, and President Donald Trump’s imperative that] the killing on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict must stop."

White House statement

 

WHAT DOES RUSSIA SAY IT WILL GET?

* The lifting of restrictions on state agricultural bank Rosselkhozbank "and other financial organizations involved in ensuring international trade in food (including fish products) and fertilisers, their connection to SWIFT, and the opening of necessary correspondent accounts".

* The removal of curbs on trade finance operations.

* The removal of sanctions and restrictions on companies producing and exporting food (including fish products) and fertilisers.

* The removal of sanctions and restrictions on insurance companies dealing cargoes of food (including fish products) and fertilisers. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov specifically mentioned the Lloyd’s of London insurance market.

Reuters

 

"This is the most disturbing action that I think we've seen from [U.S. President Donald Trump] since his election."

"In essence, what he is doing is funding [Russian President] Vladimir Putin's regime ... and funding the death of Ukrainians."

"We do need to become less dependent, unfortunately, on the United States of America."

"It's a sad thing for us to say."

"[Saskatchewan may change how it responds to Trump's threats]."

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe

Cargo ships are seen from a patrol boat of Ukraine’s coast guard as they sail in the Black Sea, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, February 7, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/

 A plan by the United States to restore the Russian agricultural sector's position is, according to Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, a backchannel funding Ukrainian death and suffering. The White House statement carrying news of the United States plan to help Russia expand its markets following talks between American and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia is disturbing in its ramifications. The intention is to also lower maritime insurance costs and according to the Trump administration, enhance Russian access to shipping ports.

 

"This latest announcement from Donald Trump isn't just a betrayal of Ukraine, where people will continue to be killed and occupied under Putin's illegal invasion", added the province's NDP leader Carla Beck, responding to President Trump's threats as they apply to onerous tariffs to be imposed on Canada and Mexico for a full range of products entering the United States, along with extended similar threats to Europe, Japan and South Korea, even as the Trump administration is open to trade dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a stunning reversal of traditional U.S. trade policy and politics.

 

Saskatchewan, the world's largest producer of potash, a mineral in use as a crop-growing fertilizer, foresees consequences with Russian potash -- sanctioned since the 2022 invasion by Russia of Ukraine -- anticipating a scenario where Russian fertilizer will flood the market once sanction measure are lifted. This is all part and parcel of a coming global trade war inspired by the Trump administration where 25 per cent tariffs have been imposed on Canadian steel and aluminum, along with a 10 per cent levy on potash if it doesn't comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The traditional trading partners of the United States are reeling in shock at the warnings and threats emanating from the White House. U.S. allies suddenly find themselves estranged and confused in their relations with the new administration whose pronouncements on stiff tariffs -- while warning of  consequences with retaliatory measures their once-trusting trading partners ruminate on imposing and then reconsidering when the U.S. -- warns further that retaliatory measures will only incur the wrath of the U.S. which will then impose even higher tariffs, upending global integrated trading patterns.

International experts on trade negotiations and investments are attempting to make sense of a sudden turn-about in international relations. What they are all certain of, is the conclusion that in alienating traditional trading partners with explosive accusations and punishing tariffs, the United States and American consumers in general will not come away unscathed. The unsettled situation will penalize the U.S. too, albeit not as stringently as its hapless trading partners. As well, a global recession appears to be waiting in the wings. 

A worker at the Mosaic potash mine near Belle Plaine, Sask., holds a few examples of the white, crystalline substance during a tour on April 26, 2024. (Alexander Quon/CBC)

 

 

 

Not The Expansionism of Divine Destiny

"So you have to ask yourself: How are we going to solve that problem, solve our own national security?"

"If that means that we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do, because he doesn't care about what the Europeans scream at us."

U.S. Vice-President JD Vance

 

"The U.S. has a vested security interest in the Arctic region and it should not be a surprise the National Security Adviser and Secretary of Energy are visiting a U.S. Space Base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground."

Brian Hughes, spokesman, National Security Council

 

"[The visit of] the wife of the United States vice-president and the United States president's highest security adviser cannot be seen only as a private visit."

"We can already see now,  how big a mess it's caused."

"[If allied countries] do not speak out loudly about how the USA is treating Greenland, the situation will escalate day by day, and the American aggression will increase."

"[Greenland's allies should show support]; the only purpose [of a trip by Waltz is] a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood."

"We have been treated unacceptably."

Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede

Demonstrators protested at the United States consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, earlier this month. Credit...Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Ritzau Scanpix Foto, via Associated Press

Second lady Usha Vance, it appears, is preparing to travel to the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland even as her husband, the American vice-president, ratchets up U.S. security and "territorial" interests in the Arctic island the new Trump administration has well-ventilated designs on acquiring. The prime minister of Greenland has responded by warning of "American aggression", lamenting a "mess" the upcoming visit has caused, even as JD Vance accused Denmark of "not doing its job" and "not being a good ally".

 

Presumably, a "good ally" would fall into U.S. arms, swooning of its aspiration to become part of the United States. Denmark, for which Greenland has historically been a protectorate, even though Greenlanders themselves have an understandable preference for total sovereignty -- separation and independence from Denmark -- or any other country with designs on the largest island on Earth which the indigenous population considers their very own ancestral gift to themselves, anxious to be shed of the avarice of other countries.

 

The Trump administration may have inadvertently overlooked that Denmark, completely resistant to American overtures to 'sell' Greenland, is, of course, a member of NATO, as is the United States. Member-nations all submit to the leading tenet of membership, that all members are obligated to ensure the security of other members. 

 

Greenlandic news outlet Sermitsiaq posted photos of two U.S. Hercules workhorse military aircraft on the tarmac in Nuuk, the capital, disgorging four bulletproof vehicles awaiting the arrival of the American elite scheduled to visit, and not by invitation. National security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are scheduled to travel to Greenland, along with "the wife of the United States vice-president". 

 

During his first term in office, President Trump had mused over buying Greenland, despite Denmark responding that it wasn't for sale. Since his return to the White House, Mr. Tramp repeatedly states that the U.S. will control Greenland, insisting that it is a requirement for strategic national security purposes, and certainly not because America is fulfilling her divine destiny by expansionism. 

A Greenlandic member of parliament told POLITICO a protest was planned for Vance’s arrival. | Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images

"When foreign dignitaries travel to our country on what are called private visits, it rightly causes concern."

"There is no reason to panic. But there is good reason to stand together and to demand respect."

"I do. And I will continue to do so."

Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Demokraatit, next Greenlandic leader

 

"A lot people from Greenland [would] like to see something happen with respect to their being properly protected and properly taken care of."

"They're calling us. We're not calling them."

"People from Greenland are asking us to go there. [And] some officials [were among those doing so."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump

Honk If You Hate Teslas

"I don't know that we can attribute this [that Tesla in Canada and elsewhere in the world is now faring more poorly than other EV makers] to any one factor."

"I wasn't surprised by this [the steep drop in price of used Teslas in Canada]. We also look at the market in the U.S. and globally, and we saw this trend."

"Overall, EV sales are going down. EV demand is down, so it's hard to conclude what's happening."

Baris Akyrek, vice-president, insights and intelligence, auto-Trader.ca

The price of a used Tesla dropped 21.9 per cent year-over-year, while all other EVs listed on AutoTrader fell 16.3 per cent. Photo by Stephen Llewellyn/The Daily Gleaner/Postmedia files

 

No one need concern themselves that the wealthiest man in the world, reportedly with a fortune between US$350 and US$500 billion is being beggared by ill fortune. The fact is, the 'ill fortune' is of his very own construction. And his wealth may decline marginally, but he will remain a man of immense wealth. His personal idiosyncrasies are such that many people are affronted by what he does and says, as much as what they think he does and says. Such being the ill fortune of the filthy rich and the resentment a combination of wealth and odd behaviour engenders.

 

As for Mr. Musk himself, contemplating a possibly temporary but steep loss in public regard that has extended itself to the vehicles he manufactures, no doubt rejection stings and stings sharply for someone more accustomed to basking in the soft light of admiration for his business acumen, his proclivity for taking risks, and his larger-than-life ambitions. This is a man not content to sit on his piles of cash, but driven to invest in bold new production adventures.

 

Unfortunately for Elon Musk he has also chosen to invest his name, his reputation and his time in the world of politics. And as some interpret it, extreme measures in politics, aligning himself wholeheartedly with the new American Republican President of the United States of America. To whom he volunteered his advice as a businessman whose ventures have made him as wealthy as Croesus through a keen insight and admirable judgement. Both of which he was prepared to offer to Donald J. Trump in streamlining government services and pay-outs for a leaner, more efficient model.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump and White House Senior Advisor, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk deliver remarks next to a Tesla Model S on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11, 2025 in Washington, DC.  Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Tesla electric vehicles now face the public backlash in protests, vandalization and charging stations set afire. This, just as the pace of adoption to EV technology began to ebb, from its previous flow. So that all vehicles in the EV marketplace have experienced an ownership slowdown, but Tesla far more prominently than others. Leading to a glut of used Teslas in Canada, their prices dropping more swiftly than the aggregate of the market, according to Auto-trader.ca Inc.

 

The number of used Teslas in early March listed on AutoTrader rose 12.5 percent on a year-over-year basis even as the number of all other EVs listed on Auto-Trader declined 3.1 percent. The rising used inventory for Tesla appears even starker measured against used internal combustion engine vehicle inventory whose decline was 14.1 percent in the same time period. A used Tesla dropped in price 21.9 percent in that period in comparison to all other EVs that fell 16.3 percent.

 

Edmunds.com Inc., a California-based market research firm, stated that Tesla experienced its "highest-ever share" of trade-ins for new or used cars from dealerships selling other brands. The Tesla-owning population is suddenly eager to divest itself of the vehicles, generally considered, in reaction to the anger felt toward Elon Musk over his government advisory role, to have an unsavoury odour. Tesla owners are also concerned that their Tesla vehicle will become one of the many that are vandalized. No one wants to own something that no one else wants to own.

 

Tesla reported an eight percent decline in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024; its stock has dropped 39 percent to US$244.29. Without doubt, Mr. Musk could never have envisioned the consequences of his decision to be granted special government status under the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency where he is busy dismantling U.S. federal government agencies to slash spending and diversify government services.

 

Nor has he endeared himself to segments of the population with his spontaneous and often ill-thought-out comments, such as posting on his social-media platform X, a meme comparing former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in 2022. Or in 2023 when he curtailed Ukraine's use of satellite internet service provider Starlink of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of which he is CEO. 

Demonstrators hold anti-Tesla posters during a protest encouraging people to boycott Tesla outside the Tesla Centre Park Royal in London, Britain, March 15, 2025.

Chris J Ratcliffe/Reuters