longer.blue

From Aaron Parnas: Trump Voters Say Enough: 60,000 NFL fans belted out “O Canada” in a Buffalo stadium, and it infurated Trump’s base: Roughly 60,000 fans packed the Bills’ new $2.1 billion Highmark Stadium for their season opener against Detroit, cheering as the Toronto band Barenaked Ladies performed Canada’s national anthem before an American singer performed the US anthem, with both countries’ flags displayed on the field. The tribute came as Trump has escalated a bitter trade war with Ottawa, slapping tariffs on Canadian goods, repeatedly floating that Canada should become the 51st state, and just this week signing a memorandum targeting Canadian goods in federal procurement and threatening the EU with “very serious tariffs” over a proposal to make Canada an associate member. For a fanbase MAGA world watched embrace Canada this openly, on American soil, in the middle of Trump’s economic pressure campaign, it’s the kind of unscripted moment that undercuts his “Canada needs us more than we need them” line in real time. The Bills lean into their large cross-border following on purpose, with around 10,000 Canadian season-ticket holders and Toronto just two hours away, but the optics land differently this year given how personal Trump has made the feud, right down to renaming Lake Ontario’s shoreline “Lake America.” The Bills beat the Lions 41-31, but it was 60,000 people singing a foreign anthem in defiance of the moment’s politics that stole the night.