A panel of CNN guests agreed that President Donald Trump’s hostility toward the United States’s mild-mannered neighbor to the north has gone beyond parody.
“The war with Canada … it boggles the mind,” co-host Abby Phillip said on Saturday morning’s broadcast of CNN’s Table for Five.
“It’s a South Park idea!” journalist and TV personality Touré quipped. “To go to war with CANADA?! This is NOT a serious concept!”
Conceding that Trump’s recent geopolitical escapades could have been ripped from the famously-filthy animated series—which featured a war between the U.S. and Canada in a 1999 movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut—Phillip stressed that many in Canada have taken the president’s latest threats seriously.
“The Canadians, you know there was some reporting this week that they believe Trump really is actually trying to destroy and take over their country,” she said. “For real, not in a South Park episode but in real life in 2025.”
Trump has repeatedly said he would like to annex Canada as the 51st state and referred to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor.” Under pressure from Canadian leaders, Trudeau asked King Charles to stress Canada’s sovereignty to the American president in a meeting earlier this week.
“This is something so profoundly screwed up that it’s gonna have blowback for all of us for a really long time,” former CNN political analyst John Avalon fumed.
Fellow commentator S.E. Cupp followed up by remarking that “the Canadian people are just so nice.”
“And no offense to the Canadians, they’re also irrelevant to us, really,” she said. “They mind their business. They never threaten us!”
