President Donald Trump said he is serious about adding Canada as the 51st state and that he is not “trolling” the U.S.’s northern neighbor.
In an interview with Time magazine published Friday, Trump was asked about his desire of acquiring Greenland, retaking control of the Panama Canal, and making Canada the 51st state. The interviewer stated, “Maybe you’re trolling a little bit on that [last] one.”
“I think Canada, what you said that, ‘Well, that one, I might be trolling,’ but I’m really not trolling,” Trump said. “Canada is an interesting case. We lose $200 [billion] to $250 billion a year supporting Canada.
“And I asked a man who I called Gov. Trudeau [former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau]. I said, ‘Why? Why do you think we’re losing so much money supporting you? Do you think that’s right? Do you think that’s appropriate for another country to make it possible, for a country to sustain?’ And he was unable to give me an answer, but it costs us over $200 billion a year to take care of Canada,” he said.
“We’re taking care of their military. We’re taking care of every aspect of their lives, and we don’t need them to make cars for us. In fact, we don’t want them to make cars for us. We want to make our own cars.
“We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything from Canada. And I say the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state,” Trump said.
Trudeau, who announced his resignation in January amid his unpopularity with Canadians ahead of this year’s parliamentary elections, reportedly told a gathering of company executives and business leaders in Toronto in February that he believed Trump’s desire to annex Canada “is a real thing.”
“I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,” Trudeau said.
“They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have, and they very much want to be able to benefit from those. But Mr. Trump has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country. And it is a real thing.”