Readers Write: Trump threatens Canada (again), public health

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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I am frustrated watching Americans apologize for President Donald Trump’s calls to invade Canada, Greenland, Mexico and Panama, then get upset when citizens of these nations refuse to forgive them.

To those seeking forgiveness, I have this to say. I grew up in the South before seeking higher education here in Minnesota. People have made all kinds of wrong and hurtful assumptions about my values because of my background. By far the best way to silence these judgments was through action. I demonstrated my character by consistently supporting antiracist causes and working to dismantle white supremacy culture the best I could.

Make no mistake; regardless of whether you voted for him, Trump is all of white America’s responsibility, and cheeky ripostes about our joining Canada instead to save face are in poor taste. If this is truly the battle (among so many others) you choose, stop apologizing and do something. Demand our state representatives never permit Minnesota be used as a staging ground for invasion, and call on our congressional representatives to support the No Invading Allies Act. If you have family or friends in the armed forces, talk to them about refusing to comply with unconstitutional orders.

Minnesota has a unique opportunity to rise to this moment. Our shame offers us no absolution. Only our actions do.

Colleen Apostle, Roseville

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The reason for all Trump’s pressure on Canada is eerily similar to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s campaign to annex Ukraine and Crimea (“Trump ramps up taunts of ‘51st state,’ ” March 12). If we absorbed Canada, we’d no longer have that long, troubling border and could rely primarily on the ocean for our security. Trump has an almost personal insecurity when it comes to envisioning borders. He’s obsessed with the physicality of security. Case in point: He thinks that constructing a physical border with Mexico will keep “us” safe (Mexicans out and Americans in). Since the Canadian border is so vast, the only way to physically secure it is to subsume Canadian sovereignty into our own. It’s a way to consolidate land and secure power — very similar to Putin’s reasoning for invading Ukraine.

Connie Clabots, Brooklyn Center

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When it comes to Canada, Trump is Putin in different garb. Putin wanted and wants Ukraine, so he created an image of Ukraine as a threat, amassed his military, invaded and has waged war for three years. Trump wants Canada, so he claims our neighbor has ripped us off for years and is now amassing tariffs to wage an economic war. Both want to annex another nation to increase their wealth and prove their power and “greatness.” Putin established the model and Trump, an admiring acolyte, is following suit.

Van Anderson, Minneapolis

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Annex Canada? Make it the 51st state? Doesn’t he realize how crazy this sounds — even more so than his Gaza idea? I don’t know where you can draw the line between fantasy and reality from the inane vaporings of this president of the United States, arguably the most powerful person on the planet.

His rhetoric is largely crude, like you might hear in a working class bar — he’s never far from his roots in the Queens borough of New York. Of course, speaking from the heart, much as President Harry Truman did, is refreshing, and I will allow Trump sometimes displays a common-man charm when he wants. But words matter, and I can just imagine how foolish many of his wilder ideas appear to everybody else, including Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping, who no doubt would be all for such an idea given where they are with Ukraine and Taiwan.

Michael Alan Mayer, Lakeville

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I see Canadians have started a “Buy Canadian” movement in reaction to Trump’s rhetoric against their country’s sovereignty. I’m sure many American citizens, out of shame for this treatment of our neighbor, are wondering how go about buying Canadian themselves.

Jerilyn Jackson, Stillwater

In a recent interview on Fox News, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asserted that the recent deaths from measles in west Texas and New Mexico were probably due to poor nutrition as this area of the country is “somewhat of a food desert.”

While there is evidence that children with protein and calorie malnutrition and vitamin A deficiency are at higher risk of complications from measles, there is no reason to believe that the affected communities fall into this category. In fact, the Mennonite community in which the outbreak is centered has a diet and lifestyle that more aligns with what Kennedy would consider healthy. They live in tight-knit communities and many of them farm, so their diet consists of what they grow themselves — no Twinkies there! They either abstain from alcohol or drink moderately. They do not seek conventional medical care routinely and have very low vaccination rates, preferring natural remedies that Kennedy would approve of.

As a physician who practices integrative medicine, I am well aware of the failings of the American medical system. I am also aware of the impact of diet and lifestyle on disease, especially chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. However, a major accomplishment of modern medicine was the eradication of infectious diseases that killed millions of previously healthy children. I didn’t think I’d see a resurgence of measles in my lifetime, let alone hear a government functionary ignore the science and fail to promote the one thing that will stop its spread.

Laurie Radovsky, St. Paul

The writer is a family physician.

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I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is going to study whether there is a link between autism and vaccines (“CDC plans to study autism, vaccines” front page, March 8). Avowed anti-vaccine advocate and now Secretary of Health and Human Services Kennedy is in charge of the CDC. He is already pushing untested and only vaguely helpful solutions on the public. Vitamin A is good for immune response, but it won’t prevent measles infection (already in the hundreds) or deaths (two so far).

I can’t think of a worse situation, except perhaps putting an egomaniacal, chainsaw-wielding billionaire in charge of government efficiency.

There are two almost-certain corruptions of this study ahead. I anticipate either confirmation bias or a politically charged finding. And I expect politicians (Trump, Elon Musk and Kennedy) will lean heavily on the scientists to get the “right” answer — i.e., the one they like. To keep their jobs, the scientists will give in to confirmation bias: a condition where responses are sought to confirm the hypothesis despite the existence of better data that refutes it.

The Trump administration is doing its best to destroy science in the United States. They have fired, sidelined, pressured and outright threatened anyone who disagrees with their positions. They have elevated the risks to those people through petty actions like removing security details. The federal agencies that provide grants have been given political mandates to refuse or withdraw those funds from research.

God help us all when the next plague hits, because the current administration will recommend blood sacrifices instead of medicine.

Daniel Beckfield, New Brighton

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If Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is really looking for fraud, inefficiency and waste in federal programs, why are they not taking an immediate look at and defunding any study of vaccines related to autism? As the article points out, there are numerous studies, even international ones, that have already settled this issue in favor of the vaccines.

Duane Dana White, Edina