Late in April 2023, prime-time broadcaster Tucker Carlson was set to air, on Fox News, a documentary he had prepared advocating that the United States invade Canada to free the country from the tyranny of the Justin Trudeau government. The documentary was cancelled after the popular MAGA—“Make America great again”—mouthpiece was fired for sending a racist text message during litigation over false voting system allegations.
Carlson had long been an enthusiastic supporter of the so-called Freedom Convoy that had occupied Ottawa in February 2022. By January 2023, he was asking why the US government hadn’t yet acted in response to Canada’s vaccine mandates—most of which were relaxed by the time he spoke. “Why are we not sending an armed force north to liberate Canada from Trudeau?” Carlson insisted that he meant this, though later he chuckled and said, “I’m just talking myself into a frenzy here.”
