Amid heated debates and rising tension, their friendship becomes a fragile battlefield where loyalty and conviction clash. This is not just a story about politics, but about the heartache of watching someone you care about support a path that could bring harm to both their country and yours.
I (20F) am a Canadian attending university in the United States. One of my friends (20F) in university here is a decently large Trump fan. I’m not going to lie and say it hasn’t put a bit of a strain on our friendship, but it has never been anything that detrimental.
Well, today we were talking about Trump’s tariffs. I from the beginning made it clear it was a moronic idea and will only end poorly for Americans – even before the election I said there was no universe that Trump wasn’t going to make the prices go up and honestly probably cause a recession.
She maintained that he only has Americans’ best interests at heart, and that he has a team of experts helping him, and wouldn’t do anything that wouldn’t benefit the economy. I mentioned once how the tariffs could hurt our (the Canadian) economy and my concern that a lot of people in Canada are struggling financially already, and how it was ludicrous Trump would try and hurt his closest allies like that while basically threatening Trudeau to do the job of the presidency for him (stopping illegal immigration to the states) and she said “well, that sucks, but we have to put our people first”.
Um, sure. I would just say, sure, maybe you’re right and this will all end great, we will have to just wait and see.
She is here on a full ride. I know she has been struggling financially a lot, and is from the NE. Well today we met up for lunch and I saw the news that my premier, Doug Ford, threatened to cut off power to millions of Americans in retaliation to the tariff threat.
I laughed when I saw the post, and she asked me what was funny. I explained Ford’s plan to cut off energy to America, and that Canada provides the USA with *a lot* of energy, and how I was shocked Ford of all people was someone I was now rooting for.
She got very upset, because she would be someone who, if this happens, will have a skyrocketing power bill, which she says would force her to move somewhere else because she’s already counting pennies basically and can barely afford where she lives.
I told her that that is probably not going to end up happening because Trump is spineless and will most likely back down, but also that this is exactly what she fucking voted for, and her fault.
She kind of muttered like “how could you not care about millions losing power” and I basically quoted her and said “well, *we* have to put *our* people first.” She got angry, and left, but later texted me that I was being a heartless, insensitive friend.
I haven’t responded yet, because maybe I did push things too far, and was being insensitive when I laughed upon seeing the news.
Conclusion
The original poster (OP) found themselves in a difficult situation where a strong political disagreement with a friend escalated into a personal conflict. The OP expressed satisfaction when a retaliatory political action, which they had previously discussed as a potential negative outcome of their friend’s preferred politics, seemed imminent. This led the friend to feel attacked and accuse the OP of being heartless, highlighting the clash between the OP’s desire to validate their political predictions and their role as a supportive friend.
Given the OP’s use of the friend’s own words against them during a moment of genuine distress over a potential personal crisis, the central question becomes: Does holding a friend accountable for the logical consequences of their political choices outweigh the immediate need for empathy and support when those consequences appear to materialize?
Here’s how people reacted:
NTA for your schadenfreude. Trump emboldens the worst in people, not only in his own country, not only in voters. There are plenty of politicians and citizens in my own European country who don’t hesitate to announce they want to emulate him.
I honestly STILL can’t comprehend why ANY woman would vote for him based on his own words and actions.
Canada can’t do anything to us that we couldn’t fix. On the other hand, we could kick you out, and every other flappy head. We could decimate your economy even further. We could outright annex you.
Things will be fine under Trump, or at least better than under Sleepy or Miss Thang.
Stay salty!
Do stupid things, earn stupid prizes, we say.
NTA
*’I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.*
Ask her what she calls it when *she* does it. NTA.
NTA