U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he again told some unnamed Canadian official that the country should consider joining the U.S. as the 51st state — returning to the annexationist rhetoric he used earlier in the year and subsequently dropped after Prime Minister Mark Carney was elected.
Speaking to senior military officials at an event in Virginia, Trump said the U.S. is developing the Golden Dome missile defence system and Canada could be covered by it if the country becomes part of the States.
“Canada called me a couple of weeks ago. They want to be part of it. To which I said, well, why don’t you just join our country? Become 51, become the 51st state and you get it for free,” Trump said.
Trump said he doesn’t know if his pitch “made a big impact,” but he said, to him, joining the two countries together “makes a lot of sense.”
He said Canada is “having a hard time” after being hit by tariffs, claiming his trade policy is shifting trillions of dollars worth of investments to the U.S.
Trump’s comments come only days after Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, said it’s Canadians who are fixated on the 51st state talk, and that sort of rhetoric is now in the past.
“That came out of a time when there was a certain kind of relationship between the president and a prime minister. You guys can talk about it. I’m not. I’m focused on delivering results,” Hoekstra told reporters during a stop in New Brunswick.
“You know, I’ve got no direction to, you know, continue a dialogue on the 51st state. It hasn’t been in play for months,” he said.
