Trump said that Canada would be better off being a U.S. state.
President Donald Trump said in a new interview that he’s serious when he talks of wanting Canada to be a part of the United States.
Trump was asked by Fox News host Bret Baier in an interview that aired ahead of the Super Bowl on Feb. 9 about comments made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the issue on Feb. 7. In remarks caught on a hot mic, Trudeau told attendees at the Canada–U.S. Economic Summit in Toronto that Trump’s wish for Canada to become a part of the United States “is a real thing.”
Baier asked Trump if it is indeed a “real thing” as Trudeau suggested, to which the president responded, “Yeah, it is.”
“I think Canada would be much better off being the 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen,” Trump said. “Why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially a subsidy to Canada?”
Trump appeared to be referring to how the United States buys more products from Canada than Canada buys from the United States, according to remarks that he made earlier on Feb. 9. The trade deficit in goods with Canada was $63.3 billion in 2024, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has said in recent weeks that Canada would be better off being a U.S. state rather than its own country, in part because it would be more secure from a military standpoint. He has said that merging the countries, if it happens, would take place through “economic force” rather than military force.
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Canadian officials have reacted negatively to Trump’s comments.
“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” Trudeau wrote on social media platform X at one point.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has also said that Canada would never be a U.S. state.
About one-third of Canadians and one-fifth of Americans polled in January said they think that Trump is serious about his talk of taking Canada into the United States. Some Canadians said they think Trump might resort to military force to annex Canada.
Trump told reporters as he traveled to New Orleans for the Super Bowl on Feb. 9 that Canada’s relatively low military spending levels are because of the country’s leaders’ assumption that the United States is going to protect them. Compared with U.S. spending of about 3.4 percent of its gross domestic product on its military, Canada spends about 1.3 percent of its gross domestic product on its military.
“That’s not an assumption they can make, because why are we protecting another country?” Trump said. “I love the people of Canada, we have a great relationship; but, if they became our 51st state, it would be the greatest thing they could ever do; it would be unbelievable. It would be a cherished state. And think about how beautiful that country would be without that artificial line.”
Trump also said the United States subsidizes Canada because it allows it to make vehicles and other goods sold in the United States.
“If we stop allowing them” to do that, through tariffs and other measures, “they’re not viable as a country,” he said.
Trump has vowed to impose additional tariffs on steel and aluminum. Canada is the largest exporter of steel and aluminum to the United States.
Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.
