Donald Trump is nuts.

I realize I’m not really breaking new ground here, but just the other day at the “Super Bowl” interview, he said that he was “serious” about making Canada the 51st state.

Oh boy.

He’s also said that he wants to “buy” Greenland and have the United States take “ownership” of the Gaza Strip so that he can redevelop it.

Oh boy oh boy.

If Joe Biden had said any of these things, we’d be getting him ready for a nursing home, or at least for an assisted living facility. Let’s look at these in turn.

Greenland

Of all of Trump’s proposals, this one is the least verkackt. The problem with buying Greenland is, of course, that Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. It has significant self-governing powers but not (yet) full independence. It’s not even clear whom one would have to buy Greenland from.

With very significant natural resources — the reason that Trump wants it — Greenland also has no reason to want to be sold. We’d be much better off forming alliances with Greenland and offering them assistance in extracting those natural resources (although that might create various environmental concerns) than offering to buy it.

The Gaza Strip

The Gaza Strip is a disputed and complex territory with no widely recognized sovereign government, and is currently part of the Palestinian territories. It can be considered both “occupied” or “blockaded,” depending on which international law theory one applies. There is no mechanism for the United States to take “ownership” of the Gaza Strip. Russia and, for that matter, China would have just as much right to take “ownership” of the Gaza Strip as the United States.

Trump wants to ship all the displaced Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan. However, they don’t want them. And Trump can’t force them to accept them.

Most significantly, the Gaza Strip has been the source of a 75 year blood feud, and Trump wants to deposit the United States in the middle of it. So that he can develop a “riviera” on the Mediterranean coast. (Btw, Lebanon used to be the Mediterranean “Riviera” before its civil war, and we can see how that worked out.)

Canada

Of all the things that Trump has proposed, this one is the most ridiculous. Canada is a parliamentary democracy that is still part of the Commonwealth of Nations. The United States is technically a federal republic with a presidential system of government (where the president serves as both head of state and head of government). This is completely different from Canada. Also, with its ten provinces, Canada would be unlikely to become the “51st” state, but more likely the 51st through 61st states. In order for Canada to become one or more states, the following would have to happen:

1. Canada Would Have to Seek Statehood

• The Canadian government (or its provinces individually) would need to initiate the process, likely through a national plebiscite and a vote in its Parliament.
• The Canadian Constitution would need to be amended to allow such a move, which would require approval from both the House of Commons and the Senate, plus the consent of the individual provinces.

2. U.S. Congress Would Have to Approve Statehood

• Canada’s government (or each individual province) would have to petition Congress to become a state.
• Congress would have to pass an Enabling Act, which would authorize Canada or individual provinces to draft a state constitution. Each province seeking admission would have to hold a constitutional convention.
• The U.S. Congress would have to pass a joint resolution approving Canada’s admission (majority vote required in both the House and the Senate).
• The President of the United States would have to sign the resolution, officially admitting the new state or states.

You can imagine how long this would take. Under the best of circumstances, this would take much longer than Trump’s presidency would last. There’s a good chance that Trump would be six feet under before something like this could ever be finalized.

But now consider the motivations:  why would Canada want to become part of the United States? They have a completely different political culture, and they would gain nothing through a union like this.

And why would the United States want to merge with Canada? We have a completely different political culture, and adding 10 new states (provinces) would shift our national politics significantly to the left. Certainly Republicans don’t want that.

The entire rationale for Canada becoming the “51st state” is that Trump doesn’t like the fact that we’re running a trade deficit with Canada, and he covets their natural resources (just like with Greenland).

So, either Trump really is a complete moron, or this is more of his “flooding the zone” bullshit. But any American who believes that this is a serious proposal should be ashamed of themselves for falling asleep through all three years of their social studies classes in high school.