The smile begins to form on Joseph Redmon’s face, and there is even a small giggle, at the first mention that Canada becomes the 51st state.
“It’s a joke,” he says over and over again.
“It would never happen. It can’t happen. It will not happen,” he definitely says before he even hears the full question.
“He only does this to get under the skin of the people and to annoy them, that’s just a kind of mantra,” says Redmon. He is aware that the Canadians are largely against annexation, and from a practical point of view he believes that the Republicans would violate this in the long run, since Canada’s relatively left -wing politics.
The Canadians should consider it a compliment, he says: “Every time you hear it, you should just smile.”
With CBC News, the retired Major of the US Army, together with five other Republican voters in rural Kentucky, consisted of power about the return of President Donald Trump. The state voted in the last three elections for Trump and Meade County, where CBC News obtained with the voters, Trump won 75 percent.
Despite the introduction of his tariffs, which cause a large counter -reaction abroad – especially in Canada, several Trump voters who spoke to CBC News stated that they still support him or even released his latest rhetoric as a joke or distraction tactics.
Joke? Danger? Or maybe an international trolling? Republican voters in Brandenburg, Ky., Say that they do not take us seriously to the repeated comments of US President Donald Trump via Canada for the “51st state” – and not the Canadians either.
“It’s a distraction”
This includes Ginny Delano, 72, a pensioner who thinks that Trump tries to mock Canadian.
“I only think it is funny if there are many people with TDS, Trump of the Angement Syndrome,” she says, referring to the derogatory term with which negative reactions to Trump are described, which are considered irrational.
“Your heads explode and I think it’s funny when he says this kind of things and comes out of them.”
Her husband Gale Delano, 85, agrees with the Canadian frustration.
“I can understand that Canadian is upset because that is her country,” he says.
“And if it is America, we will fight for America and the Canadians will fight for their country.”
Some say Trump’s Annexation jump is not serious.
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“I think it – again – it is a distraction,” says Mark Burnett, chairman of the Republican party Meade County.
“If the people in Canada wanted to be a 51st state, it would be something we would all talk about. But of course it’s not as if we’re pretending – it is not as if the USA is in Canada.
“You often get this type of rhetoric from the media. It’s like we’re not doing it.”
Break up tariffs
But according to Trump’s tariff plan, many of the voters who spoke to CBC News said that this would cause at least short -term economic instability.
“It will have an impact on employment and jobs, but sometimes you have to repair what is really broken, they have to let a little pain in the pain,” said John Clauer, another pensioner who voted for Trump.
The tariff agenda of the on-a-off tariff has already influenced negatively on the stock exchange and has made the USA a goal for retaliation. Canada has Published tariffs to $ 10 billion in US goodsWhile some provinces pulled American products, including alcoholFrom shop shelves.
Clauer, who is deeply concerned about the US deficit, supports Trump’s efforts to contain expenses. He considers tariffs available as another instrument.
“I only think that people in other countries have to recognize the position in which we are. And understand that his tariffs are used to try to rebuild the United States economy and to bring the deficit under control.”
Several Trump supporters who spoke to CBC News share this concern.
US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomed their first call as “very productive” and “warmly”, but while Trump, when he described Canada as the 51st state, waited that the automotive dell will be as planned next week.
“I think it is … a starting point to say that we have to do something else,” says Burnett from Meade County’s GOP.
“Of course it is a little scary,” he admitted, but he says that the measures are necessary.
“I think American companies are addicted to cheap work abroad, and obviously doesn’t have that much to do with Canada, but it is still a way of thinking we have to deal with.”
The support for Trump remains intact
For these voters, Trump’s return to the White House and his first two months in office are a success.
“I think it’s a bright figure,” says Ginny Delano.
Her husband Gale Delano informs this sense of optimism via Trump.
“He is just going to go with break-neck. He does everything he promised. It is difficult to say about a politician.”
Doug Cornett, 81, a retired teacher and school administrator, is not sure what to think about Trump’s tariffs, but he is ready to give the President the advantage of doubt.
“At the moment it may be a bit rough, but I think it will smooth out at some point and things will be great.”
And while Trump’s dull, aggressive style is not necessarily something that all of his voters like, he is bearable.
“He does things in his own way. I am glad that I don’t work for him, but I support him in trying to heal the US economy,” says Clauer, the pensioner who deals with the deficit.
Joseph Redmon sees Trump as the right leader for this moment.
“He is a disruptor.
“We commissioned him to do this, we need it, America is in trouble.”
