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President Trump trolled Canadians by suggesting they should elect him as their next leader and become America’s 51st state — as voters in the Great White North headed to the polls for election day.
“Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st State of the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday.
Trump’s renewed needling came as Canadians are set to choose between Prime Minister Mark Carney — the Liberal Party successor to Justin Trudeau — or populist Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, whose brash style has prompted some comparisons to Trump.
The president’s highly unpopular tariff war against Canada, as well as his continued pot-stirring about its sovereignty, has become an albatross around Poilievre and the Conservative Party’s neck.
Carney is a lifelong technocrat — a former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England — who has never held elected office.
Before Trump took office, the Liberals seemed destined for defeat — but polling has considerably narrowed leading up to election day as the US and Canada’s strained relationship has left a sour taste in the mouths of many Canadians.
Poilievre himself hit out at the president in an X post Monday morning, batting down his 51st state rhetoric.
“President Trump, stay out of our election. The only people who will decide the future of Canada are Canadians at the ballot box,” he wrote.
“Canada will always be proud, sovereign and independent and we will NEVER be the 51st state.”
Poilievre had hoped to make the election a referendum on Trudeau, whose popularity plunged in the final years of his decade in power amid surging house and food prices. He stepped down in March, and was succeeded by Carney, who is now looking for a mandate from voters.
But Trump’s escalating trade war and persistent trolling campaign about incorporating Canada as a US state has given Carney a toehold.
“The Americans want to break us so they can own us,” Carney said recently, highlighting the stakes of the election. “Those aren’t just words. That’s what’s at risk.”
More than 75% of Canadian exports wind up in the US, so Trump’s saber-rattling about moving industries like automobile production stateside directly threatens Canada’s economy.
“No more artificially drawn line from many years ago. Look how beautiful this land mass would be. Free access with NO BORDER. ALL POSITIVES WITH NO NEGATIVES. IT WAS MEANT TO BE!” Trump continued in his Canadian Election Day missive.
“America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!”
Trump’s tough talk about Canada — one of America’s biggest trading partners — has angered many Canadians, sparking boycotts of US goods and prompting some to cancel travel plans.
“President Trump has some obsessive ideas, and that is one,” Carney said of Trump’s 51st state threats. “It’s not a joke. It’s his very strong desire to make this happen. It’s one of the reasons why this crisis is so serious.”
Trump said he wasn’t kidding about annexing Canada when asked in a recent Time magazine interview if was “trolling a bit” with the suggestion.
“Actually, no, I’m not,” the president insisted.
Unlike the US, whose constitution requires anyone elected president be born in America, Canada’s constitution has no such provision. Since 1867, when the office was established, four of Canada’s prime ministers have been born outside the country.
English (US)