Following threats to use “economic force” against Canada to annex it, turning it into the 51st US state, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shut down any talk of annexation.
“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” he said in a post on X. “Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.”
During a press conference Tuesday, Trump ruled out the use of military force against Canada in a bid to annex the sovereign nation. A recent poll found that Canadians are overwhelmingly against the idea of merging with the United States, with only 13% of those surveyed supporting annexation.
When responding to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre saying “under no circumstances” would Canada become the 51st state, Trump said he doesn’t care what Poilievre said.
Alternatively, Trump has said he’s willing to use both military and economic force to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal, citing national security reasons.
“Canada and the United States, that would really be something. 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,” he said.
“Don’t forget, we basically protect Canada. But here’s the problem with Canada. So many friends up there. I love the Canadian people. They’re great, But we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it.”
President-elect Donald Trump dismisses the idea of annexing Canada by military force, but does not rule out “economic force” as a means to more closely integrate the two nations.
— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) January 7, 2025
He states that the U.S. does not need Canadian products and questions why the U.S. subsidizes… pic.twitter.com/jl4oKKl8UW
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly similarly came out against the threats of economic sanctions to take over Canada.
President-elect Trump’s comments show a complete lack of understanding of what makes Canada a strong country.
— Mélanie Joly (@melaniejoly) January 7, 2025
Our economy is strong.
Our people are strong.
We will never back down in the face of threats.
Trump said America spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year to “take care of Canada,” and that the US doesn’t need Canada’s exports.
“(Canada) makes 20% of our cars, we don’t need that. I’d rather make them in Detroit,” he said. “We don’t need the cars, we don’t need their lumber, we have massive fields of lumber.”
He said he could use an executive order to unrestrict the American lumber industry, which he claims would remove US reliance on Canadian lumber. He also named dairy as another Canadian export, which he doesn’t think Americans need as they “have more” than Canada.
Trump didn’t mention oil as a Canadian import, however.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, Canada accounted for 60% of America’s gross crude oil imports and 52% of its gross total petroleum imports in 2022.
He said he intends to take the US away from its current commitment to “losing $200 billion a year or more” in defending Canada, citing that the US already has a $36 trillion debt he seeks to eliminate.
This comes as Canada stares down the barrel of a proposed 25% tariff on all Canadian imports on “day one” of Trump’s administration. At the time Trump said the levy would remain in place until Canada secures its border against illegal immigration and drug smuggling.
Trump said that in a conversation he had with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago on Thanksgiving, which began his relentless mocking of Trudeau as “governor of the state of Canada,” Trudeau told him that refusing imports to the US from Canada would “dissolve” Canada.
When Trudeau announced his resignation on Monday, Trump again mentioned Canada as the 51st state as he bid him farewell.
Trump’s response was that the US only trades and “subsidizes” Canada “because of habit.”
“We’re doing it because we like our neighbours, and we’ve been good neighbours, but we can’t do it forever, and it’s a tremendous amount of money,” he said.
“And why should we have a $200 billion deficit and add on to that many, many other things that we give them in terms of subsidy? That’s okay to have if you’re a state, but if you’re another country, we don’t want to have it.”
Poilievre did not respond to True North’s requests to comment.