President Donald Trump continued to say that Canada should become the 51st state in a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, even as his counterpart insisted it would never happen.
“There are some places that are never for sale,” said Carney, who promised in his campaign to push back on Trump. “Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign the last several months, it’s not for sale. It won’t be for sale ever.”
Trump responded: “Time will tell, it’s only time. But I say never say never. I’ve had many, many things that were not doable, and they ended up being doable in a very friendly way. But if it’s to everybody’s benefit — you know Canada loves us and we love Canada. That’s, I think, the number one thing that’s important. But we’ll see. I mean, over time. We’ll see what happens.”
Trump and the new Canadian prime minister are meeting at a time of great tension between the U.S. and Canada, which have historically been strong allies — a relationship that has eroded in recent months. While the Oval Office appearance was mostly friendly, Carney was firm that Canada would remain its own nation.
Canada was one of the earliest subjects of Trump’s tariff-forward trade policy, something he mentioned frequently on the campaign trail. Just two weeks into his second term, he had announced and paused a 25% tariff on products from Canada. Canada responded with its own tariff on American goods. Both are currently in effect.
Trump’s actions have not been met kindly by Canadian officials, province leaders or Canadians. Polling suggests that a lot of goodwill has been eroded.
Trump’s unpopularity was enough to significantly turn the tide in Canada’s elections, delivering a win for liberals and Carney.
In an interview with “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Trump said that he thought Carney was “a very nice man” but repeated his desire to annex Canada and make the country a U.S. state. He said it’s “highly unlikely” that he’d use military force to achieve that.
On Tuesday, Trump said “there would be a lot of advantages” for Canadians should they join the U.S., but added that it wasn’t a planned topic for discussion at his meeting with Carney.
“I do feel it’s much better for Canada,” he said. “But we’re not going to be discussing that unless someone wants to discuss it. … It would really be a wonderful marriage, because it’s two places that get along very well.”
Lawmakers have often written off Trump’s comments about Canada as jest — “He was mostly trolling Trudeau,” Sen. Ted Cruz told NOTUS in March. Most said that it was up to Canada in the end.
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.