U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Monday.Alex Brandon/The Associated Press

Munir Sheikh is a research professor at Carleton University, former chief statistician of Canada, and author of 2047: The Story of an American Revolution, a novel grounded in the dynamics of irrationality.

Canada faces a dangerous moment in its history thanks to the new United States. Our instinctive response has been familiar: explain that their new policies would hurt them, too; mobilize sympathetic Americans; retaliate; hope that rational arguments prevail.

This approach rests on a faulty assumption – that we are dealing with rational actors.

Decades ago, Daniel Kahneman proved that all of us misjudge reality, even when calm. Emotions – pride, fear, nostalgia, resentment, bias and, especially in the U.S., a sense of superiority – overwhelm reason. Dr. Kahneman, a psychologist who died in 2024, was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics – and then the world promptly forgot about his wisdom and its implications.

The next logical step in Dr. Kahneman’s diagnosis was straightforward: If individuals behave irrationally, then entire countries can, too, when millions share the same emotional triggers at the same time. The modern world has provided exactly those new triggers.

Andrew Coyne: Donald Trump –........

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