There were at least three significant events in the United States this past week that could have serious consequences in the years to come.
In my view, United States President Donald Trump hit a new low a few days ago when he called for the execution of six Democratic members of Congress because they took part in a video directed at America’s military, urging them not to obey illegal orders.
Certainly, the video was unusual, but we live in unusual times. The video was not a seditious act. United States law requires service members to refuse unlawful commands, and the U.S. Constitution is the source of that legal structure.
Donald Trump, however, described the video as “seditious behavior from Traitors,” called for them to be locked up, and implied that they should face execution. Some folks will applaud that, but we all need to think about it.
This is a man holding one of the highest political offices in the entire world, calling for the death of six elected members of Congress, all veterans of the armed forces, including former astronaut Mark Kelly. One can whitewash it if it makes them feel better and they can say that was just Trump’s style and he really didn’t mean it.
The fact remains, however, that it came out of the mouth of the President of the United States and that, also in fact, means a great deal. There are plenty of nuts out there who will take the President at his word.
Mark Kelly, an American hero and now a United States Senator responded to Donald Trump’s threats saying, “I never expected after serving 25 years in the Navy, flying combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait, flying the space shuttle, that now I’ve got to worry about my personal safety and that of my wife, Gabby Giffords who was already nearly assassinated because of something the President said.”
President Trump has demonstrated pretty effectively that the rule of law means very little to him, unless of course, he can use it to destroy his perceived enemies.
In relation to military matters, the President has authorized attacks on Venezuelan ships in international waters believed to be carrying drugs to the United States. He is now threatening to actually attack Venezuela. There is no evidence that due process has been followed, and these attacks amount to an act of war on another country, which requires the approval of Congress.
The legality of deploying United States troops on U.S. soil for domestic law enforcement is also questionable and currently before the courts.
The problem that not only the United States faces, but also many other parts of the world, especially Canada, is that Donald Trump believes in his heart he can do whatever he wants and that court orders and any other opposition to what he wants to do are simply minor inconveniences.
That is why the constitutional requirements of Congress to provide oversight of the Executive Branch of government are so important. It is sad indeed when the majority of these members sit on their duffs because either they are too frightened or too amply rewarded to curb the excessive use of power exercised by Donald Trump.
Donald Trump’s call for the execution of sitting members of Congress, on top of his penchant for revenge politics, actively using his position in an attempt to put his perceived enemies in jail, are by themselves, enough to recognize that he defies democracy and leans toward despotic leadership.
To top that off, another bombshell came this past week when the president presented a proposal to Ukraine to end the war against Russia. It came with an ultimatum from Trump that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy must accept the proposal by this coming Thursday.
The so-called peace settlement, supposedly drafted by the United States, could well have been produced in Moscow. It heavily favours Russia, ceding a large portion of Ukrainian land to them and imposing serious restrictions on what is left of Ukraine related to their security and ultimately their sovereignty. It completely ignores the fact that Russia started this war, was the aggressor and defied international law.
So, after paying lip service to Ukraine, why has Trump turned the tables on them so dramatically? There are two reasons, I believe.
No matter what comes out of his mouth from time to time, Donald Trump will eventually do what Russia tells him to. Whether the relationship is formal or informal, in my view, you can count on it. As well, the way Donald Trump thinks, if Russia is allowed to invade and occupy part of a neighboring country, that leaves a precedent and a door open that he himself may someday want to go through. Canadians should be very concerned about that.
It is also interesting to note that a couple of cracks appeared in the MAGA organization last week.
Donald Trump effectively booted Marjorie Taylor-Greene out of the MAGA movement by withdrawing his endorsement of her and threatening a primary challenge before the next House election in November. Greene then one-upped him by announcing she would resign from Congress in January.
In an instant, Marjorie Taylor-Green went from hero to zero among the MAGA crowd, where she was known as a ferocious pit bull not only for Donald Trump but also for their movement.
It will be interesting to see where this goes. From Trump’s perspective, because Taylor-Greene became outspoken about areas where she disagreed with him, it may be that he believes he is sending a message to every Republican in Congress, that this is what happens when you oppose him.
On the other hand, while I doubt that Marjorie Greene-Taylor has had an epiphany, it will be interesting to see what she will do next. Will she run for president in 2028? Will she take on Trump and the MAGA machine? One thing I am pretty certain of: she won’t be sitting at home working on a ball of wool.
And finally, the week ended with an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office between President Trump and the far-left socialist and Israel opponent, the Mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani. What was expected to be fireworks turned out to be a lovefest. I wonder how that went over with the MAGA folks?
Bottom line here is that it is almost impossible to guess what Donald Trump will do next. One minute he loves you, the next minute you could be the scum of the earth. He is unreliable and unpredictable. He will say one thing and do another. He appears to believe that loyalty to him is more important than loyalty to the Constitution. He kowtows to dictatorial regimes like Russia and China. He thrives on revenge politics and cares little about the safety of the people he publicly attacks. He is a bully who loves to threaten, and Canada is one of his targets.
This is the person whom, for their own reasons, Americans have elected as their president. I respect that, but I can’t help wondering when they will say, ‘Enough is enough.’
Perhaps the mid-term elections, less than a year from now, will give us a hint about that.
Hugh Mackenzie
Hugh Mackenzie has held elected office as a trustee on the Muskoka Board of Education, a Huntsville councillor, a District councillor, and mayor of Huntsville. He has also served as chairman of the District of Muskoka and as chief of staff to former premier of Ontario, Frank Miller.
Hugh has also served on a number of provincial, federal and local boards, including chair of the Ontario Health Disciplines Board, vice-chair of the Ontario Family Health Network, vice-chair of the Ontario Election Finance Commission, and board member of Roy Thomson Hall, the National Theatre School of Canada, and the Anglican Church of Canada. Locally, he has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club, chair of Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, chair of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, president of Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and board member of Community Living Huntsville.
In business, Hugh Mackenzie has a background in radio and newspaper publishing. He was also a founding partner and CEO of Enterprise Canada, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm established in 1986.
Currently, Hugh is president of C3 Digital Media Inc., the parent company of Doppler Online, and he enjoys writing commentary for Huntsville Doppler.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
Kathryn Henderson; hello. The focus on Trump is because he is mentally ill, and mentally unfit for the office he holds.
Mr. Rob Adams; Trump not only suffers from malignant narcissism (a very serious personality disorder for which, as I understand, he has never sought treatment) but is cognitively impaired and physically challenged. To imagine his personality disorder, which includes delusional thinking, as anything close to normal is misguided. These conditions affect him emotionally, impulsively, and also his ability to make rational cognitive decisions. Those around him in his administration do not seem to have a clue as to how to operationalize policy choices – hence the continued, unplanned, resulting chaos.
I disagree somewhat with your perspective concerning COVID pandemic. The governments of the day responded in the only way they could have under the circumstances – pandemics do occur. Public Health measures were important in dealing with the little known and evolving virus.
To all who followed the rules, discerned that mass vaccination was essential – I Thank You! In all seriousness, you helped to save my life.
Mr. Rob Adams,
As you are definitely a Russian troll, I as a proud Canadian will happily contribute towards your one-way ticket to live in either Moscow or Washington. Good luck to you sir!
Donald Trump is undoubtedly an easy target in opinion columns in part because of his dysfunctional personality. He’s an arrogant bully, full of his own self-importance, and certainly not a person that people warm to. Perhaps because of this, many narratives about him have become biased, in my opinion, and those in the Doppler are no exception.
While there are some valid points made in the commentary, there are examples of these biases too. For example, it says that Trump thrives on revenge politics. This is not a trait unique to Trump. In Canada, not too long ago, our Liberal government was challenged for their harsh covid mandates. This took the form of a trucker convoy. As a result, those taking part in the trucker convoy had nuisance charges brought against them. It was, for the most part, a peaceful protest. Their ‘crimes’ were not serious. However, as a result of challenging our Liberal government, those people had their bank accounts frozen, they incurred a disproportionate amount of jail time and are now, many years later, still under house arrest. We have hardened criminals that do not get punished so severely. They are being punished harshly because they challenged the Liberal government. That was Trudeau, supported behind the scenes by Carney. This is our Canadian government and this should concern us far more than Trump’s antics. Yet no mention of this by the Doppler.
That wasn’t the only time the Liberal government used revenge politics. Remember Jody Wilson-Raybould? After that, no Liberal MP dared challenge Liberal policy for fear of being expelled from the party.
The commentary mentions the Ukraine/Russia conflict and how Trump appears to favor Russia in the proposed peace agreement, while ignoring the fact that Russia started the war. Russia did start the conflict but the Doppler ignores some important facts. When the Berlin wall came down, promises were made to Russia that NATO would not advance any further east towards the Russian border. Those promises have been repeatedly broken by successive US Presidents and NATO. As a result, several former eastern bloc countries have joined NATO. When this happened US missiles were moved closer to the Russian border. When Ukraine rose to the top of the NATO wish-list, after the western puppet Zelensky was installed, Putin drew a line in the sand and proactively put a stop to that. Most world powers, especially the US, would have done the same. If we add to that the growing number of bio-labs being set up in Ukraine, the corruption, the human trafficking and the brutal victimization of Russian speaking Ukrainians, I think it’s understandable that Putin made a stand. I don’t think Putin is a good guy, but his actions are completely understandable in my opinion. Let’s face it, the US and the UK have done worse, the war in Iraq for example, but the media have conveniently forgotten about that. The Ukraine conflict has escalated due to NATO funding, including billions of dollars from Canadian tax-payers, an absolute waste of our money in my opinion. It was all intended to destabilize Russia. The Liberal government in Canada never once took the initiative to broker any form of peace agreement. They took us from peacekeepers to war-mongers and ran up massive debts in the process. Yet now we criticize Putin for taking a stand against broken promises, and we criticize Trump for trying to bring peace to that region. If Ukraine cede any territory as a result it should serve as a lesson to the west that they can’t just do whatever they want without consequences. Our Liberal government has been right in the middle of this conflict stirring up trouble.
The commentary says that Trump is unpredictable. which seems to draw further criticism. But being unpredictable isn’t necessarily right or wrong, it simple means we don’t understand how he thinks. He doesn’t do what we think he should do and he’s criticized for that. In a lot of ways that’s far better than the politics being practiced in Canada where promises are made and then constantly broken – deliberately. It seems to be the new western style of governing. Promise to do one thing, then do the opposite. We see it with the current government in the UK and we’ve seen it in spades over the last 10 years with our Liberal government. Yet, the ones that should be holding our government accountable, the Canadian media, including the Doppler, are all predictably mute.
I can’t help but wonder when Canadians will say ‘Enough is Enough!’.
I just read some other comments and in no way is Carney helping negotiate with other countries. He flew all over and came back with nothing. He is a joke. By the time Canadians finally figure out that Carney looks after Carney and not us Canadians. Its only a conspiracy theory if it doesn’t come true. Too many people are not paying attention to what Carney is doing. He.pretended he was building houses for the poor and in the background the house fronts were just props. More lies.
Why is it that Canadians are so focused on Trump.. take a look at what the liberals have done to our country. They have done nothing got Canadians or Canada for 10 years and Mark Carney is following the same pattern. He gives away out tax dollars to other countries when we in Canada are suffering with high prices and unaffordable housing. Trump did NOT do this to Canada. The liberals did. Carney moved two plants to the USA and put hundreds of Canadians out of work. Liberals are making our world smaller with the control they are using on us and no plans to stop. Let’s think about what the liberals have done for us and not done for us but promised at election time. Trump is looking after the USA not like out liberals.
For anyone who can’t find ‘the donald’s’ comment on ‘seditious’ Democrats urging US troops to refuse illegal orders should face death, Reuters, Nov. 20, 2025. And reported on KTLA 5 “accused half a dozen lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH! Look anywhere.
The man never said so and so should die. But we all know the so and so he was referring to and what DEATH means. We don’t need to see the trigger pulled and hear the bullet crash. This is also the mental midget who defended those who chanted for his vice president Pence to be hanged. Commenting that “their anger was common sense”. The man is a danger.
And if you are worried that your comments here on Doppler might be monitored by the fool and his minions, too late to start back peddling now. Maybe the drone strike is already on the way.
But just in case. There is no cocaine in my shed. The bags stored there contains sunflower oil seed. For the birds.
To Dave Wilkin, I agree with you on one key point: Canada needs to stay focused and unified as the U.S. heads into another volatile year. But we shouldn’t pretend the solutions all run through more oil exports or through rewriting the past decade.
Carney is delivering action — diversifying trade, strengthening alliances, expanding industrial capacity, rebuilding our diplomatic credibility, and reducing overreliance on the U.S. energy corridor. That’s how you build resilience in a turbulent global economy.
The idea that Canada’s future depends on doubling down on pipelines or reliving old talking points misses the bigger picture. Stability, diversification, and strong institutions are what will protect Canadians — not trying to fight yesterday’s political battles.
Hugh lays out what a lot of Canadians are quietly thinking: this isn’t normal disagreements or partisan noise anymore — this is a democratic alarm bell. A sitting U.S. president calling for executions of elected officials, dictating “peace” terms that hand Ukraine to Russia, and treating the rule of law as optional isn’t just an internal American problem. It has real implications for Canada’s safety, sovereignty, and economy.
What matters now is that Canada holds its line — strong institutions, steady leadership, and a foreign policy that doesn’t swing with someone else’s chaos. Whatever Americans decide for themselves, we have to stay anchored in our own democratic values and protect the systems that keep us safe. Leadership grounded in stability, not theatrics, is the only way countries get through moments like this.
The encouraging news is that public support for Trump continues to erode, even in his Republican base. Recent national polling has his support below 40%. Also encouraging, even Republican leaning US Supreme Court justices are looking increasingly skeptical on the legality of Trump’s ever shifting tarrifs.
When the US mid-term cycle begins in ernst next year, pressure on Republican lawmakers to stand up to Trump and reel him in will only grow. The rising cost of living for US families, worstened by Trump’s policies, is now eroding support. PM Carney, provincial and business leaders all need to ramp up the lobbying pressure on US businesses and lawmakers.
Accelerating legislative efforts to remove the barriers to investment in Canadian businesses and industry and to diversify trade is crucial. High on that list is expanding oil and gas exports beyond the US, and to reduce Eastern Canada’s dependency on energy flowing through US-based pipelines.
The lost decade from the Trudeau era economic mismanagement must be addressed. No time to waste on endless committees & studies, government bureaucracy, or long court tie-ups from a few special interest groups or nervous politicians.
It’s time for PM Carney to deliver on his words and promises. It’s time for all political parties to put aside partisan politics and to work together to deliver on what the large majority of Canadians are demanding … action and results on the things that matter most to them. Economic concerns tops that list.
I agree with you Hugh. And, you’re right; Canada should be concerned. That a president implies that these six Democratic members of Congress should be executed is beyond the pale. There doesn’t seem to be any mechanism in place to successfully oust him. He seems to own many judges. Even when a judge rules against him -he doesn’t comply.
It isn’t safe for Canadians to travel to the U.S. as long as that irrational, narcissistic scumbag is in power. He’s a loose canon.
In Hughs defense.
Mr. Spinach, Trump did say put to death.
Hughes article and comments are 100% accurate.
You are 100% correct Hugh. The man, if you want to call him a man, should be in a straight jacket. When I watched him with the mayor of New York, I saw a very intelligent man and a scum bag of a man that can’t put together an intelligent sentence. Yes. We need to be very concerned for our future as long as he is around.
Hugh, well said, if such can be a comment to anything said about Trump.
Trump has very sadly set the USA back a couple of decades in world stature and trust. At one time the USA was looked up to as a beacon of hope and freedom by pretty much the entire World. Now it is feared as a capricious and unreliable neighbor, no longer a “friend” but a neighbor whom you cannot really trust to return your shovel after they borrow it.
This is quite a drop he has achieved in about a year and he still has 3 more to go. Better make sure you have lots more lead in your pencil, you will need it.
Okay, make no mistake about it I hate Donald Trump and the republican party.
But to be clear here, I have searched the internet and have not been able to find a quote from DT calling for execution, hanging, or the death of the congressional members that spoke against him.
What he said is wrong, not needed, and the words of a fool.
But, lets keep it truthful when we report news of any kind or we risk being what we detest.
This is what distorts and misleads.
We know it was a threat against that was uncalled for but please let’s stick to the truth and not sensationalize this.
I think we need to be more concerned not about a loudmouth idiot south of the border and more concerned about the current PM saying so little and not pushing back against this orange fool.
Secretary of State Rubio let slip over the weekend that the terms of Trumps peace agreement were indeed drafted in Moscow., not Washington. Trump is now saying he is open to alternatives. When you put this all together you must conclude that the President has totally lost his marbles. If it weren’t so dangerous it would be funny.
While Trump is busy willing to giving away parts of Ukraine to an evil Russian dictator, much like himself, why not throw in Florida as part of the deal? I’m sure Putin and his ilk will love to come over and warm up during a cold Russian winter. You’re right Hugh, Canada should be concerned.