Donald Trump said he was serious about wanting Canada to become the 51st state of the United States in an interview broadcast on Sunday during the pre-Super Bowl show. “Yes, that’s right,” the president told Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier when asked whether his talk of annexing the northern neighbor is “a real thing”.
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"I think Canada would be much better off as the 51st state, because we lose 200 billion dollars a year with Canada. And I'm not going to allow that to happen," he declared. "Why are we paying 200 billion dollars a year, essentially a subsidy to Canada?"
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Why does Trump want to annex Canada?
Trump has repeatedly hinted that Canada would be better off if it accepted becoming the 51st state of the United States, a perspective that is deeply unpopular among Canadians.
The current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday during a closed-door session with business and labor leaders that Trump's idea of making Canada the 51st state of the United States is "real" and is linked to his desire to access the country's natural resources.
"Mr. Trump has in mind that the easiest way to do it is by absorbing our country, and it is true," Trudeau declared, according to CBC, Canada's public broadcaster. "They are very aware of our resources, of what we have, and they really want to be able to benefit from them."
The United States is not subsidizing Canada. Americans purchase products from the resource-rich nation, including raw materials such as oil. Although the trade deficit in goods has increased in recent years to $72 billion in 2023, it largely reflects US imports of Canadian energy.
In the interview with Fox News, which was pre-recorded over the weekend in Florida, Trump also said that he has not seen enough action from Canada and Mexico to prevent the tariffs he has threatened to impose on the country's two biggest trading partners.
Last week, Trump agreed to a 30-day pause in his plan to impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico and Canada, except for Canadian oil, natural gas, and electricity, which would be taxed at 10%, after the countries took steps to address his concerns about border security and drug trafficking.
While traveling on Sunday aboard Air Force One to New Orleans for the Super Bowl, Trump said that on Monday he would announce tariffs of 25% on all steel and aluminum imports received by the United States, including those from Canada and Mexico, and a plan to implement reciprocal tariffs later in the week.
"The Gulf of America"
During the flight to New Orleans, Trump signed a proclamation declaring February 9th as the “first Gulf of America Day” as Air Force One flew over the body of water he renamed the Gulf of Mexico.
In the interview, Trump also defended the work of billionaire Elon Musk, whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been causing deep concern among Democrats as he mobilizes to shut down entire government agencies and lay off large sectors of the federal workforce in order to eradicate waste and inefficiency.
Musk, Trump said, has "been fabulous," and will now focus on his work in the Department of Education and the armed forces.
“We are going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud and embezzlement,” Trump predicted. “I campaigned on this.”