Donald Trump threatens ‘economic force’ to make Canada 51st state: Takeaways

Donald Trump added that the US absorbing Canada “would really be something”, addressing his concerns over US military assistance and trade deficits with its northern neighbour.

“We’ve been good neighbours, but we can’t do it forever,” Trump said.

When asked if he could rule out a military confrontation to secure US control over Greenland or the Panama Canal, Donald Trump said he was “not going to commit to that”.

“I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this, we need them for economic security,” Trump said at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

In response to Trump’s suggestion, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on X, “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.”

Trump hints at pressuring Canada to meet US demands

• Donald Trump said he would apply “economic force” to pressure Canada into becoming the 51st state of the US, an idea he has mentioned multiple times recently.
• Trump argued that the US subsidizes Canada and can do without its products, such as cars and milk.
• “Canada, don’t take our cars, our farm products, anything, so we won’t take their products either. We basically protect Canada. We are spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. We lose in trade deficits,” Trump said.
• During the press conference, the incoming president criticised Mexico, accusing the country of exploiting the US in trade and being plagued by significant issues, particularly violence tied to drug gangs.
• “We have a massive deficit with Mexico, and we help Mexico a lot. They’re essentially run by the cartels, and we can’t let that happen,” Trump said.
• “Mexico is really in trouble, a lot of trouble, very dangerous place, and we’re going to be announcing a future date. Pretty soon we’re going to change because we do most of the work there, and it’s ours,” he added.
• Trump has vowed to take a tougher stance against Mexico and Canada in his second term, threatening the countries with new tariffs if they do not do more to stem the flow of migrants and illegal drugs across US borders.

With Bloomberg inputs