VIDEO: The New Red Cold War
Interview with U.S. Global Investors now posted
The second inauguration of Donald Trump yesterday has ushered in a new era of U.S. foreign policy. Or has it?
As the esteemed British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston once declared: in international relations there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interests.
America’s interest in Greenland didn’t start with Trump. Declassified documents released after the end of the Cold War revealed a U.S. offer made to the Danish government in 1946 of $100 million-worth of gold bars for Greenland. In 1947 TIME magazine, clearly tipped off about the Greenland bid, wrote the following:
“Washington military men thought this might be as good a time as any to buy Greenland, if they could.”
TIME magazine - January 27, 1947
TIME also published this map of Greenland, betraying better than any spy could American interest in the territory.
Clearly the U.S. has been eyeing Greenland for some time. And maybe Trump is just the president America needs to extract that territory from Danish hands? He most certainly is the American leader who will finally bring Canada back to living in the world the way it is, as opposed to the way Canada’s Laurentian elites wish it could be.
Canada is undergoing major domestic challenges. 1 in 4 Canadians are living in poverty; more than half of Canadians are $200 away from not being able to pay their bills; productivity growth is the second-worst of the G7; the entire federal debt has doubled under Trudeau; and social cohesion is being called into question due to an immigration system that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself declared back in November has allowed too many newcomers into the country ("We made some mistakes.”).
All of this while Canada has yet to reach the U.S./NATO expectation of spending at least 2% of GDP on its military and an alarming increase in potential terrorists encountered at the U.S.-Canada border. Back in November CBS reported the following:
Border Patrol data states that 358 suspects on the terror watchlist were arrested on the northern border at ports of entry in fiscal year 2024. Three suspects were encountered between ports of entry. On the southern border, a total of 155 suspects were encountered in fiscal year 2024.
CBS News - November 11, 2024
Then there are the concerns of foreign interference at the highest levels of Canada’s political system by China and India. And I didn’t even mention the real-life impact of Canada’s reputation as the destination of choice to launder money; namely ever-growing real estate prices.
No wonder Trump and his national security team have their eye on Canada.
A few days ago long-time friend Frank Holmes reached out to me. Frank is the CEO/CIO of U.S. Global Investors, a Texas-based boutique investment management firm with $1.5 billion under management. He had just launched the U.S. Global Technology and Aerospace & Defense ETF (NYSE: WAR). Frank wanted to discuss the growing trend of what he is describing as the New Red Cold War: China and Russia’s efforts to expand control over strategic minerals like lithium, cobalt and nickel. Our conversation is above/below. Enjoy!
Finally, as inauguration festivities wrap up in Washington DC I cannot help but pass along the following short 45-second video I cut yesterday. It highlights the differences between what I personally experienced during Trump’s 2017 inauguration versus what transpired yesterday. Click the image below to visit X and view it.
