“Stop pretending, name reality.”--Canadian PM Mark Carney.

 

“Stop pretending, name reality.”--Canadian PM Mark Carney. January 21, 2026 Robert B. Hubbell Jan 21 “The powerful have their power. But we have something too — the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together.” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in remarks delivered at Davos, Switzerland. It’s not your imagination. The chaos caused by the Mad King has reached new heights—and we are only one year into his prescribed four-year term. It will likely get worse before it gets better. But we can survive and prevail if enough of us continue to resist on behalf of all of us. The good news is that our efforts are succeeding. Indeed, the increasing madness of the Mad King is a sign of desperation and weakness, not strength. To succeed, we must simultaneously be and do many things successfully. One of them is to be unflinchingly honest about the challenge we face and the effort it will take to prevail. In the words of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, we must “stop pretending and name reality” if we are to stand up to the Mad King. We must be honest about the peril we face and the causes of our predicament. We face a difficult fight ahead that will test our resolve and our reserves. Victory will not come easily, but it will come so long as we do not surrender. We must not hold out false promises of guaranteed success; we are being called to do mighty things without the support of the institutional guardrails of democracy that have failed us. And when we regain control of the three branches of government in 2029, we must be steadfast in holding to account the people, institutions, and structural infirmities that allowed one Mad King to inflict major damage in such a short time. No special pleading; no “free passes” for “nice guys” or “friends” who chose to facilitate the Mad King’s lawless agenda in the pursuit of profit, power, or self-preservation. We are not alone in facing an uncertain and changing landscape. In the last two weeks, most of the industrialized world has awakened to the reality that the Mad King’s fevered and ignorant mind is an instrument of chaos, a random number generator in a world economy that runs by numbers. Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, gave a widely acclaimed speech at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The full speech is linked here and should be read in its entirety: Read Mark Carney’s full speech on middle powers navigating a rapidly changing world | CBC News PM Carney emphasized the need for honesty in addressing the rapidly changing global order caused by Trump’s increasingly bizarre and unpredictable behavior. Carney described the perils facing so-called “middle powers” like Canada while asserting their ability to shape global economics and security by “acting together.” Carney also noted the need to “stop pretending” that the Mad King can be appeased: Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition. Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration. But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited. [¶¶] The powerful have their power. But we have something too — the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home and to act together. That is Canada’s path. We choose it openly and confidently. And it is a path wide open to any country willing to take it with us. As the Mad King attempts to “burn it all down” in America, most of the institutions that serve as guardrails of democracy continue to pretend as though it is “politics as usual.” Congress, the media, law firms, universities, business leaders, and the Supreme Court discuss Trump’s policies and actions as if they have some underlying theme or purpose explainable within the parameters of partisan politics and democratic norms. They do not. America has been facing a full-blown crisis for more than a year. It is time for every person and institution that cares about democracy to “stop pretending, to name reality.” If they were to do so, Trump’s enablers would have risen to remove him from office—including the Cabinet, Congress, and the Supreme Court. The only group that has fully recognized the dire national emergency is the people, who stand in sub-freezing temperatures every day to raise their voices against the Mad King. They are showing the way forward: Stop pretending, name reality. It is a path that is open to every American willing to take it with us. Our democracy can and will survive if enough of us continue resist on behalf of all of us. Keep up the good work, everyone. We are winning; the Mad King’s increasing desperation tells us so. Looking through the chaos, we can see that Trump is losing his grip. Tuesday was a wild day in the news as Trump roiled politics at home and abroad. At one level, he is succeeding at his game—causing chaos to distract attention from the Epstein files and the failing economy. At another level, Tuesday was a cascading series of failures framed by a year-long dive in his favorability ratings. Trump’s failures do not ensure our success, but much of the media is reporting on Trump as though his unhinged actions are signs of his power and strength as president. Let’s take a deeper look. Trump’s “net favorability sinks to new low. The Economist and YouGov conducted a poll that shows Trump at his lowest “net favorability” rating in 2026, and as compared to Trump’s first-term first year and Biden’s first year. See The Economist, 366 days into Donald Trump’s term. (Gift article; accessible to all.) Per The Economist, At the beginning of Mr Trump’s second term his net approval rating was 2. It has now fallen to -19, the lowest it has been this term. A week into Mr Trump’s second term, 37% of Americans thought the country was headed in the right direction while 50% thought it was on the wrong track. Those numbers are now 31% and 61% respectively. The Economist article contains several charts that show the scale and depth of Trump’s unfavorability ratings by issue and geography. It is a bleak picture for Trump. Polls aren’t elections, so we can take no comfort from the results—except to the extent that they confirm what we feel and believe in our hearts: Trump has lost control of the narrative and most Americans side with us as we protest against his policies. The polling does not mean that Republicans will lose the midterms; it does mean that their leader—and by extension, all Republicans—are weak and vulnerable. See Raw Story, ‘Huge drop!’ CNN data stunned as GOP enthusiasm collapses. As also noted in the Economist article, Democrats have a 5-point “enthusiasm” advantage in the motivation of voters to turn out in 2026. But among those voters “extremely motivated” to show up at the polls, Democrats have a 16-point advantage. We must use this historic opportunity to press our advantage in the 2026 midterms. The good polling news for Democrats means that we must work more diligently to ensure Democratic success in retaking Congress by a wide margin. Trump’s DOJ suffered a humiliating defeat on Tuesday as Lindsey Halligan resigned after a federal judge told her that continuing to call herself the “US Attorney for the Eastern District” was an act of contempt that would result in disciplinary proceedings against her. See ABC News, Lindsey Halligan steps down as US attorney after judge’s rebuke. Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche signed a brief with Lindsey Halligan that asserted that federal judges had no authority to remove Halligan. The rebuke by US District Judge David Novak against Halligan, Bondi, and Blanche was stinging—especially so because Judge Novak was appointed by Donald Trump! Judge Novak wrote, [Halligan’s defense] “contains a level of vitriol more appropriate for a cable news talk show and falls far beneath the level of advocacy expected from litigants in this Court, particularly the Department of Justice. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariff threats are causing problems in the stock and bond markets. US stock exchanges fell sharply on Tuesday. See Reuters, Wall Street posts biggest daily drop in three months, Trump Greenland tariff threat triggers wide selloff. And a major Danish pension fund decided to unload $100 million in US Treasury bonds. Although the pension fund manager cited “poor US finances” as the reason for the decision, the decision to dump its entire position in US Treasury bonds during a crisis between Denmark and the US cannot be a coincidence. As Yogi Berra said, “It’s too coincidental to be a coincidence.” See CNBC, Danish pension fund to sell $100 million in U.S. Treasurys. CNBC connected the broader decline in US Treasury bond prices and the dollar to diplomatic and economic uncertainty over Trump’s effort to acquire Greenland. See CNBC, ‘This is sell America’ — U.S. dollar, Treasury prices tumble and gold spikes as globe flees U.S. assets. A strong majority of Americans oppose invasion of Greenland. As stock, bond, and currency traders express doubt over Trump’s desire to conquer Greenland, most Americans oppose an invasion of Greenland. See The Economist, Most Americans oppose intervention in Greenland. (Gift article, accessible to all.) Trump has increasingly teased the prospect of a military intervention to take control of Greenland. See The Guardian, ‘You’ll find out’: Trump refuses to say how far he would go to seize Greenland. Military intervention is overwhelmingly unpopular among Americans. Per The Economist, Just 9% of respondents approved of military intervention in Greenland; 72% were against it. Even among Republicans just 22% were in favour while 52% were opposed. Trump marked the end of first year in office with a bizarre news conference. Trump marked the anniversary of his first year in office with a bizarre press conference that was marred by long stretches of rambling incoherence and racist rants directed at the Somali community in Minnesota. See Talking Points Memo, Trump Marks First Year In Office With Unhinged Racist Rant Targeting ‘Very Low IQ’ Somalis. Notably, Trump was on the defensive about the “public relations” disaster emerging from the ICE reign of terror in Minnesota. Trump said, “Maybe I have bad public relations people, but we’re not getting it across.” Trump waved photos of people he claimed have been deported and said, “They make our Hell’s Angels look like the sweetest people on Earth,” Trump said. “The Hell’s Angels are now considered a nice high quality person. I like the Hell’s Angels. They voted for me,” Trump continued, adding, “But they make our criminals look like babies. These are some of the most vicious people anywhere in the world. They came from the Congo.” As Trump tried to change the conversation about immigration, he was getting hammered about greed. Trump has been desperately trying to make himself out as the “affordability” president without quite understanding what ‘affordability” means. The NYTimes published a damning feature article on Tuesday showing that Trump has used the Office of the President to increase his wealth by $1.4 billion. See Mediate, Trump pocketed at least $1.4 billion in the past year — shocking NY Times editorial reveals. If that weren’t bad enough, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Davos interview with Fox that the US was trying to stop big hedge funds from buying up homes. But Bessent assured Fox that the US wouldn’t stop “grandma and grandpa” from buying a dozen houses for their retirement portfolio. See Washington Examiner, Bessent under fire for suggesting Americans purchased multiple homes for retirement. Per the Examiner, Bessent said, Someone — maybe your parents — for their retirement, have bought five, 10, 12 homes so we don’t want to push the mom and pops out, we just want to push everyone else out. Trump’s millionaire lackeys are completely out of touch with the American people and the struggles they face. Someone who has purchased a dozen homes for their retirement portfolio is not a “mom and pop” investor and Bessent was clueless to suggest they were. Someone on the Democratic side better make a clip of that interview for inclusion in every Democrat running for Congress in 2026. Concluding Thoughts The above stories do not capture the full extent of the backlash against Trump over his threats to invade Greenland, nor do they address the increasingly dire situation in Minnesota. More on those stories in tomorrow’s newsletter, but both are driving people away from Trump every day. The horrific scenes coming out of Minnesota are shocking the American conscience in ways not experienced since the Civil Rights era. Trump’s DOJ served subpoenas on a half-dozen state and local officials in Minnesota, suggesting they are the subject of criminal investigations. The subpoenas and any related criminal investigations are for show. No jury would ever convict any official in Minnesota for their conduct or statements regarding the unlawful ICE reign of terror. Indeed, the opposite is true. When Democrats take control of Congress and the presidency, it is likely that those involved in issuing those subpoenas will be investigated for misuse of process. I expect that many DOJ lawyers will be disbarred or disciplined over their participation in blatantly bad-faith investigations. In the meantime, perspective will help us understand that America has heft and momentum that cannot be stopped or reversed by the anti-democratic forces assaulting the Constitution and the rule of law. If we rise above the two-hour news cycle, we can see that our efforts are succeeding and that we will make substantial headway in restoring democracy over the next three to four election cycles. While that feels like a long time from the perspective of the “breaking news” culture that has engulfed the media, it is the blink of an eye in the history of our nation. We are winning. Donald Trump’s increasingly desperate actions tell us so. Talk to you tomorrow!