Knee-jerk outrage isn’t a winning strategy when dealing with Trump

Reflexive Canadian anger offers cheap emotional satisfaction but masks our deep economic vulnerability to Washington

In politics, trolling is psychological warfare. The formula is simple: provoke your opponent, make them angry, and get them focused on responding to you instead of doing whatever they should be doing.

Donald Trump understands this better than most politicians. Say something outrageous, wait for the reaction, then enjoy the show.

Canada rarely disappoints him.

Trump floats the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state. Canadian politicians denounce him. Commentators debate what it means. Social media erupts. Canadians solemnly defend their sovereignty. Trump has successfully changed the subject, and the mistake Canadians make is assuming every Trump statement should be treated as a serious policy declaration requiring an equally serious response.

Sometimes Trump is negotiating. Sometimes he’s campaigning. Sometimes he’s performing for his supporters. And sometimes he’s just trolling. Whether Trump’s provocations are carefully calculated or driven by political instinct, they work.

His opponents repeatedly make the mistake of believing they can defeat him by responding to every insult, exaggeration and provocation. They can’t. Attention is Trump’s oxygen, outrage is his renewable energy source, and Canada has become a remarkably dependable supplier of both.

Think about the psychology involved. If someone discovers that saying three words can make you angry for three days, who controls the relationship?

Not you.

Yet Canadian politicians routinely respond to Trump’s provocations as though national honour requires it. Political leaders rush before microphones, commentators dissect his words, and social media fills with patriotic indignation. Trump doesn’t even have to do anything more. Canadians do the work for him.

The media are part of the problem because Trump’s provocations generate audience. The result is a remarkably effective feedback loop: Trump provokes Canada, politicians react, media amplify the reaction, Canadians get angry and Trump gets more attention. Then the cycle begins again.

It’s like watching a golden retriever chase every tennis ball thrown into the bushes. At some point, you have to wonder whether the problem is the person throwing the ball or the dog that keeps chasing it.

This isn’t an argument for ignoring Trump. Tariffs aren’t trolling. Trade barriers aren’t jokes. Measures affecting Canadian energy, manufacturing, agriculture or cross-border supply chains require serious responses. That’s precisely why Canadians need to distinguish between what matters and what doesn’t.

The better approach is straightforward. State Canada’s position. Defend Canadian interests. Negotiate hard. Respond to policies that hurt Canada. Then stop performing for the cameras.

Every hour politicians spend reacting to Trump’s provocations is an hour they aren’t talking about Canada’s real economic vulnerabilities. Trump has talked about tariffs, bringing manufacturing back to the United States and putting American economic interests first for years. Canada has had plenty of warning. Yet the United States still accounted for nearly 72 per cent of Canadian merchandise exports in 2025, making decisions in Washington enormously consequential to Canadian businesses and workers.

So instead of asking why Trump keeps saying nasty things about us, Canadians should ask a more useful question: Why are we still so vulnerable to what one American president decides to do?

That is where Canadian attention belongs. Build relationships with American governors, lawmakers and business leaders whose interests depend on Canadian energy, agriculture, minerals and manufacturing. Find additional customers for Canadian products. Remove barriers to trade within Canada. Build infrastructure that gives Canadian resources access to more markets.

The objective shouldn’t be to turn away from the United States. It should be to build a Canada that can remain a close neighbour and trading partner without having its economic future determined in Washington.

None of that generates the emotional satisfaction of firing back at Trump. It does something better: it reduces his leverage.

The strangest part is how easily we confuse reacting with accomplishing something. Posting “Buy Canadian” on an American-owned social media platform may feel patriotic. Getting angry about something Trump said may feel like standing up for Canada. Watching politicians fire insults across the border may feel satisfying.

But feelings aren’t a trade strategy. Neither is outrage.

Canadians spend an extraordinary amount of time worrying about what Americans think of us. Americans seem considerably less burdened by the question. The United States will remain Canada’s neighbour and most important trading partner. But Canadians need to become less psychologically and economically dependent on what happens south of the border.

The relationship has changed. Rather than endlessly mourning what it used to be, Canadians need to accept what it has become.

Think of it as a breakup. Your ex has moved on. You can spend the next five years staring out the window, eating cookie dough ice cream and analyzing everything your ex posts online, or you can get on with your life.

Canada should put the ice cream back in the freezer.

Trump will keep throwing out provocations as long as they produce results. Whether that’s calculated strategy or political instinct isn’t the point. We can’t control what he says, but we can control whether every taunt dictates our political conversation.

The question isn’t why Trump keeps throwing the tennis ball.

It’s why we keep chasing it.

Nick Kossovan is a syndicated columnist and career expert with over 20 years of experience in the corporate hiring landscape. He specializes in providing pragmatic, unsweetened advice on career navigation, workplace dynamics, and professional growth. Nick Kossovan decodes the psychological impact of AI and social media, helping us make sense of our evolving digital landscape.