Podcast / The Time of Monsters / Jan 11, 2025

Justin Trudeau’s Exit and Canada’s Rocky Future in the Trump Era

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Nora Loreto on how political disarray in Canada’s political elite in the face of MAGA taunting.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Justin Trudeau’s Exit and Canada’s Rocky Future in the Trump Era | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Jeet Heer and Nora Loreto on how political disarray in Canada’s political elite in the face of MAGA taunting.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, Canada on January 6, 2025.

(Dave Chan / AFP / Getty Images)

Donald Trump has repeatedly talked in the last two months about wanting to annex Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. While this bluster is unlikely to lead to any real territorial expansion, it is having the effect of destabilizing some long-held allies of the United States. In Canada, Trump’s threat of a tariff war and annexation was a precipitating cause of the already-unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation.

While the Canadian political elite has been rattled by Trump, they don’t have any effective response for defending their own sovereignty. In truth, Canada’s national sovereignty has already been weakened by decades of neoliberalism, a point made by Canadian journalist Nora Loreto. For this episode of The Time of Monsters, I talked to Nora about Trump’s threats and Canada’s disarray.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Trump is Using Terrorist Charges to Wage Political War w/ Josh Kovensky | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Kovensky has written an essay on the Trump

administration’s use of anti-terrorism law to target political groups it doesn’t like.

In that piece, Kovensky notes,

"Across the country, federal prosecutors are upgrading what would have been routine

prosecutions into terrorism cases when they involve people President Trump has cast as his

political enemies.

It represents a dramatic departure from how the Justice Department has historically used the

federal material support for terrorism statute. For decades, counterterrorism prosecutors have

largely reserved the statute — 2339A — for the kinds of audacious plots that wreak real, lasting

damage or whose ambition forms the stuff of movie screenplays."

I spoke to Kovensky about his essay and the history and politics of this dangerous legal

innovation.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Subscribe to The Nation to Support all of our podcasts

Jeet Heer

Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.

More from The Nation

Paul Robeson smiles at London Airport, July 11th 1958.

The Collision Between Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson The Collision Between Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson

Howard Bryant joins Edge of Sports to talk about his new book, Kings and Pawns

Dave Zirin

People attend a public memorial service for Renee Good in Powderhorn Park on February 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Battle for Minneapolis, and the Fight for Texas The Battle for Minneapolis, and the Fight for Texas

 John Nichols reports on the resistance in Minnesota, and Steve Phillips analyzes Jasmine Crockett’s strategy in the Texas Senate Democratic primary.

Podcast / Start Making Sense

Trump Is Using Terrorist Charges to Wage Political War

Trump Is Using Terrorist Charges to Wage Political War Trump Is Using Terrorist Charges to Wage Political War

Josh Kovensky on a dangerous politicization of the law.

Jeet Heer

Netflix Buying Warner Would  be a Disaster w/ AS Hamrah

Netflix Buying Warner Would be a Disaster w/ AS Hamrah Netflix Buying Warner Would be a Disaster w/ AS Hamrah

Paris Marx is joined by AS Hamrah to discuss the proposed Netflix-Warner Bros Discovery merger and what it might mean for the state of decline already facing modern cinema.

Paris Marx

US Capitol Police issue arrest warnings with a bullhorn as clergy with Faith in Action conduct civil disobedience in the atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building on January 29.

The Fight to Stop ICE—in Congress, and at the Super Bowl The Fight to Stop ICE—in Congress, and at the Super Bowl

John Nichols comments on Democrats’ work in Congress to limit ICE, and Dave Zirin explains how Bad Bunny will make the Super Bowl halftime show a center of resistance.

Jon Wiener

War Clouds Over Iran

War Clouds Over Iran War Clouds Over Iran

On The Time of Monsters: Amir Handjani on Trump’s new threats.

Jeet Heer

x