President Donald Trump said he is serious about his plans to make Canada the 51st state during an interview that aired before Sunday night’s Super Bowl.
“Yeah, it is,” he replied when asked by Fox News host Bret Baier if his “wish” for Canada to join the United States was a “real thing”—as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently warned a group of businessmen.
“I think Canada would be much better off being the 51st state,” he added, before falsely suggesting the United States has a $200 billion trade deficit with its northern neighbor.
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“Why are we paying $200 billion a year essentially in subsidy to Canada?” he complained. “Now, if they’re a 51st state I don’t mind doing it.”
Last year, the U.S. had a $63 billion trade deficit with Canada, down from $64 billion in 2023, according to the Census Bureau.
Excluding oil and gas, the United States ran a $30 billion surplus with Canada on all other goods in 2024, selling massive amounts of consumer goods, crops, and electronics to its neighbor.
Some Canadian officials initially said in December that they viewed Trump’s increasingly brazen overtures—which included ribbing Trudeau as “governor”—as a joke.
But Trudeau was caught on a hot mic by Canadian media last week issuing a stark warning that the president sees annexing Canada as a way of seizing the country’s vast strategic resources.
“Mr. Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country and it is a real thing,” Trudeau said, in audio captured by the CBC. “They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have and they very much want to be able to benefit from those.”
Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the center-left New Democratic Party, went one step further last week, suggesting Trump’s eye on Canada’s resources is about seizing critical minerals for his lieutenant Elon Musk, whose electric car company Tesla depends on resource mining for many key parts of its vehicles.
“This isn’t about the border for Donald Trump,” Singh said in a social media post. “It’s about our water and the critical minerals that Elon Musk needs.”
After making a series of seemingly lighthearted social media posts following the November election claiming he wanted Canada to join the U.S., Trump dramatically escalated his rhetoric last month, telling reporters he would consider using “economic force” to acquire Canada.
That was a muted approach compared to his threats to use military force to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal, or his more recent proposal to move the Palestinians out of Gaza and redevelop the “big real estate site” as a U.S. territory.
On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC News' Meet the Press, Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said he doesn’t think his boss has “any plans to invade Canada.”
But as Trump traveled to the Super Bowl later that day, Trump previewed the latest front in the economic war he plans to unleash on its northern neighbor and other countries.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he will announce 25 percent levies on all steel and aluminum coming into the United States on Monday.
That will include Canada and Mexico, despite his agreement with Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to place a one-month moratorium on previously announced 25 percent tariffs on their two countries.
Leading Canadian officials lamented Trump’s turbulent stream of announcements as a threat to economic stability.
“This is the next four years,” said Ontario Premier Doug Ford, the leader of Canada’s most populous province, in a social media post. “Shifting goalposts and constant chaos, putting our economy at risk.”
Québec Premier François Legault, the leader of the country’s second most populous province, called on Canada to begin renegotiating its free trade agreement with the U.S. as soon as possible.
“We must put an end to this uncertainty,” he said in a social media post.
Legault also asked where Trump expects to get enough aluminum supply for the United States once he implements the metals tariffs on Monday.
“Québec exports 2.9 million tons of aluminum to them, or 60 percent of their needs,” he said. “Would they prefer to source from China?”
François-Philippe Champagne, the industry minister in Trudeau’s federal cabinet, noted that the aluminum and steel trade in North America made the continent “more competitive and secure.”
Yves-François Blanchet, the leader of the Bloc Québécois, addressed the president directly in a social media post: “Mr. Trump, there is no scenario where the U.S. will produce enough aluminum to replace Quebec’s share in your market before the end of your mandate. You are exposing your leading industries to serious inflation.”
During his remarks to reporters on Air Force One, Trump declared that Canada, in his view, is hardly a nation at all: “Without the U.S., Canada really doesn’t have a country.”
“They do almost all of their business with us. And if we say we want our cars to be made in Detroit with a stroke of a pen, I can do that.”
