Guest Column
Reviving the American System: A Conversation with Susan Kokinda on Trump, Sovereignty, and Hope
In the heart of Southeast Michigan's Downriver Detroit—a classic blue-collar community—podcast host Shaun Newman sat down with Susan Kokinda for a wide-ranging discussion that moved from hockey nostalgia to the deeper forces reshaping geopolitics and economies. Newman, a Canadian on a year-long road trip with his family, emphasized the rarity of meeting people like Kokinda in person. “One of the things I really wanted to do was interact with some of the people that I never would ever run into normally,” he said, noting he had driven intensely busy roads to reach her home while his kids were in camp.
Kokinda, a longtime political organizer with Promethean Action, welcomed the visit. She described her area as “at the spear point of changing this country by returning to the real Republican party of Donald Trump.” Locals sometimes fail to recognize her even at street fairs, she noted, until her voice gives her away from YouTube appearances.
Before diving into policy, Newman presented Kokinda with a 1-ounce silver coin, a selective gift from his limited supply sponsored by Silver Gold Bull. “It really means a lot for me for you to allow me into your house,” he explained. Kokinda accepted with a laugh, saying her coin-collector brother would be jealous. The conversation then turned briefly to the massive Gordie Howe Bridge Newman had just crossed. Kokinda, a lifelong Detroit Red Wings fan who once slept overnight on the sidewalk at the old Olympia Stadium for Stanley Cup tickets, shared fond memories of watching Gordie Howe and called Stevie Y her generation's epitome of a hockey player. Her heart, she admitted, remains with the old stadiums rather than the new ones.
Beyond the Narrative: Trump and the Fight Between Systems
Newman observed that Trump is widely hated in Canada and much of the world, yet Kokinda sees his policies differently. The problem, she argued, is that most people view Trump through a one-dimensional media lens of right versus left or big government versus small. “What people don't understand is that Donald Trump and his administration are reviving the actual American policies that have essentially been written out of our history and taken away from us for over a hundred years.”
At the core is sovereignty and real economic growth—measured not in financial metrics but in good-paying jobs where one income can support a family, restored supply chains, and a world in which other nations can also be sovereign rather than trapped in supranational structures. Trump is carrying out a revolution against what Kokinda calls the modern-day British imperial system, often labeled “globalists.”
This is no overnight fix. As JD Vance has said, it is like turning an aircraft carrier around. Kokinda started with economic policy, pointing to Detroit's history: in 1960 it had the highest per capita standard of living in the country, built by blue-collar workers at Ford, GM, and Chrysler who raised large families, owned homes, and expected their children to do better. That world was gutted by deliberate policies beginning with the 1971 removal of the dollar from the gold reserve standard, culminating in NAFTA in the 1990s. Everything was financialized. Secretary Bessent's observation that the Democratic strategy is to “compensate the loser” captures the result: most of the population turned into economic losers then pacified with transfers.
Younger generations, hit by NAFTA and the 2008 crisis that bailed out Wall Street while families lost homes, correctly see a broken system and are drawn to socialism's pied pipers. Older generations remember a system that worked. Promethean Action focuses on restoring the American System—production-driven growth rooted in Alexander Hamilton's ideas—as the alternative to both failed globalism and socialism. The administration is becoming more explicit about this, with Bessent noting that the “invisible hand doesn't work.”
Newman, from a younger generation, noted society's demand for instant results while government change is more like moving Mount Everest. Kokinda agreed that people must locate themselves in history rather than the immediate “now.” The British imperial system—rooted in central banking, zero-growth environmentalism, and treating people as sources of extraction—has shaped the modern world for centuries. Free trade is a milder form of that extraction.
She cited Marco Rubio's statement in Munich that de-industrialization was a conscious policy, and JD Vance's earlier warning that European civilization is dying. Michigan's blue-collar shift, especially in Wayne County, helped deliver Trump the state in 2024 because workers saw a future of hard work and better lives for their children. “This is a fight between two systems,” Kokinda said. “You've been denied the knowledge of the American system for 125 years.”
Canada Caught in the Middle
From the Canadian side, Newman described Mark Carney's rise amid Trump's comments and the “elbows up” campaign, noting Canada's deep ties to the British system. Kokinda called Carney the anointed head of globalism 2.0—the only person to lead both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. She argued his elevation was inevitable regardless of Trump's rhetoric. Carney acknowledges the post-war free-trade order is over because the United States no longer participates, yet he seeks to reconfigure it with the same free-trade, green, open-border policies under new packaging of “middle powers.”
Meanwhile, sovereign powers are responding differently. Recent defense arrangements among countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey reflect nations looking after their own interests rather than serving as pawns. Russia and China largely stayed back as the United States addressed the IRGC. The rules-based order, as a Chatham House figure noted, only works if the United States enforces it—and Trump is not.
Kokinda referenced Chatham House's historical role in shaping U.S. elites through Rhodes Scholarships and recalled a recent seminar discussing William McKinley's tariffs and the idea that aggressive duties on Canada could push it toward joining the United States. Rather than remaining an outpost of British imperialism—where the King remains sovereign—Canada could become truly sovereign or, historically, align more closely with the United States to develop the region's resources for its people.
Newman shared observations from his Canadian tour: underdeveloped potential in places like Manitoba's north, the absurdity of climate narratives when driving 20 minutes north of Toronto reveals endless trees, and a widespread sense that Canada needs its spirit back. Kokinda traced environmentalism to British royal influence in the early 20th century, grounded in the idea that humans are no better than animals with fixed carrying capacity. Humans uniquely harness fire, fossil fuels, nuclear power, and potentially fusion or matter-antimatter energy by discovering principles embedded in the universe. Imperial and environmental doctrines deny that creative potential.
Blue-Collar Reality and the Midterms
In her community, Kokinda finds that conversations about skilled trades and good jobs resonate strongly—more so than pure Trump branding with some audiences. Auto workers on picket lines in 2023 already showed about 60 percent support for Trump across racial and ethnic lines because they live in the real world of assembly lines, where wrong opinions have immediate consequences. A recent local story of a Black Detroit city councilwoman having breakfast with Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers and publicly praising his focus on skilled trades marked a political shift. Rogers himself has evolved toward emphasizing trades after earlier free-market messaging.
The midterms are critical. Loss of both houses would likely lead to impeachment by a “batshit crazy” Democratic Party. Kokinda sees Michigan's Senate race as winnable for Rogers after Abdul El-Sayed's primary victory, which blue-collar and Black voters largely rejected. Trump plans a midterm convention in Dallas as a “big pep rally” for jobs, trades, space, and the future.
On social media critics who claim Trump is “uni-party” or has led the country into war, Kokinda urged grounding in the systemic fight. Actions in Venezuela were a brief operation against a drug-trafficking node followed by stabilization rather than classic regime change. The approach to Iran is more complex due to the entrenched IRGC but aims at the same outcome: remove the threat and allow evolution, not perpetual war or top-down globalist control.
She acknowledged occasional puzzlement at Trump's tactics—such as certain tweets or endorsements—but after reflection sees strategic purpose. This is the first president in her long political life who understands the need for systemic change rather than isolated policy fights.
Hope, Pride, and the Road Ahead
Asked about Alberta's upcoming referendum process, Kokinda said the MAGA movement understands the desire to escape an imperial stranglehold, though Carney's globalist assignment will make it difficult. Whatever the outcome, it could advance Canada's ability to develop itself.
Newman closed by asking for a favorite road-trip memory. Kokinda chose crossing the Mackinac Bridge into Michigan's Upper Peninsula: “You're breathing UP air... you're in God's country.”
Both reflected on rising American friendliness and pride. Kokinda attributed any shift in part to Trump giving people permission to be proud of the country and hopeful about a glorious future. Newman recalled the Freedom Convoy's pride in the Canadian flag amid official condemnation. Trump's disruptor style—saying the emperor has no clothes—breaks the social-control dynamics that enforce beliefs in the patently false.
“Once you feel your mind start to move as opposed to just being stuck,” Kokinda said, “it's hard to put that back in the box.” The conversation ended with mutual appreciation for the in-person meeting, far from cameras, in a place of relative solitude.