President-elect Donald Trump responded to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation announcement on Monday by once again offering to make Canada America’s 51st state.
“Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State. The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned,” Trump wrote on his preferred social media platform, Truth Social.
“If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!” Trump exclaimed.
According to Fox News, Trump offered annexation to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in person when the two met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last month:
The president-elect told the prime minister if Canada cannot fix the border issues and trade deficit, he will levy a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods on day one when he returns to office.
Trudeau told Trump he cannot levy the tariff because it would kill the Canadian economy completely. Trump replied – asking, so your country can’t survive unless it’s ripping off the U.S. to the tune of $100 billion?
Trump then suggested to Trudeau that Canada become the 51st state, which caused the prime minister and others to laugh nervously, sources told Fox News.
Trump went on to tell Trudeau he could keep calling himself “prime minister” even if he was serving as the governor of America’s 51st state, and mused that it might be better to split Canada into two new states, one conservative and the other liberal. Fox News’ sources said there was more laughter during this exchange, but did not specify how nervous the laughter was.
Trump clarified on Tuesday that he would not use military force to annex Canada, but he was still quite taken with the idea of using “economic force” to add a maple leaf to the Stars and Stripes.
“Canada and the United States, that would really be something,” Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. “You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security.”
“We basically protect Canada,” he added, citing a grand total of $200 billion for the value of America’s subsidies to her northern neighbor, without divulging how he arrived at that number.
The most likely candidate to succeed Trudeau as prime minister of Canada, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, has rejected the idea of American statehood.
“I have the strength and the smarts to stand up for this country and my message to incoming President Trump is that first and foremost, Canada will never be the 51st state of the U.S.,” Poilievre declared in a CTV interview in December, after Trump had referred to Trudeau as “governor” instead of “prime minister” a few times on social media.
Poilievre told CTV there was nothing funny about Trump pushing Trudeau around.
“I think it’s an example of how Justin Trudeau is a total joke. He’s lost control of everything,” he said.
As Trump undoubtedly knows, one of the major reasons for Trudeau’s downfall was the growing sense among even his Liberal Party colleagues that he would be no match for Trump in trade and border negotiations.
Trudeau was remarkably hard-pressed to come up with a solid public response to Trump’s 51st State trolling. Trudeau’s public safety minister, Dominic LeBlanc, somewhat exasperatedly told Canadian media in November that it was obviously a bit of “light-hearted” ribbing on Trump’s part, but he might have underestimated the damage Trudeau did to his already dwindling reputation by failing to rib Trump right back. Poilievre, and the other aspirants to Trudeau’s soon-to-be-vacated office, will surely have their snappy comebacks ready.