What is Not a Nation-State, According to Trump?

Nation state as a fundamental unit of man's organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force: International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation-state. Zbigniew Brzezinski

The competitive nation-state system, with all its capacity for good and evil, is spreading in the Third World and is transforming that world. Robert Gilpin

Globally, as the nation-state becomes increasingly less meaningful - a provider of positive goods and more and more just an army and some domestic enforcement - people are withdrawing to shape and support more localised forms of organisation and power. To the extent that it's part of that civilised and localising world, the same is true of the U.S. Rebecca Solnit

Just a political analysis of President Donald Trump's conception of nation-state is characteristically founded on themes of national sovereignty, strong military guarded borders, and cultural identity.

While he never exactly defined "nation-state" in an academic sense, one might argue that he cannot do so, but his words and actions often reflect a preference for nation-states that prioritize themselves, possess well-established borders, and maintain a distinct national identity.

What is a Nation-State, According to Trump?

A nation-state must have established and secure military borders to protect its resources and people.

A nation-state should have a unifying cultural national identity, tied to shared assimilation values, heritage, or language.

A nation-state prefers its own economic interests, typically through practices such as protectionism in trade and domestic manufacturing.

What Is Not a Nation-State, In Trump's Opinion?

Countries that have not defended their borders with soldiers, 24/7, and allow large numbers of legal immigrants are not what Trump imagines as a nation-state.

Countries with a high degree of internal diversity such as multiple languages, cultures, and ethnicities do not pass the model of the traditional nation-state Trump typically idealizes.

Nation-states which rely primarily on other countries shared defense, free equitable and sustainable economic trade support are not nation-states in his opinion.

According to Trump, Canada is an invisible border state, a strong U.S. state identity, and a secure state government. But Canada is also a multinational state with profound cultural and linguistic diversity with English-speaking and French-speaking peoples, and Indigenous peoples.

Trump often bashes Canada as a 51st State, particularly on trade issues that he renegotiated termed as the USMCA, claiming that Canada never prioritizes U.S. hegemony interests when it is theoretically a 51st State of America, but Canada is by international law an independent nation-state.

Trump, Canada is a nation-state, since July 1, 1867 with the British North America Act, achieving full legislative independence and sovereignty from UK in 1982.