Trudeau says no chance Canada joins U.S. as Trump floats ‘economic force’ – National

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that there is “not a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States” after the US president is elected Donald Trump threatened to force a merger through “economic force.”

Trump said in a widely publicized news conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with less than two weeks to go before he takes office, “we don’t need anything” that Canada trades with the U.S., repeating comments about making Canada an American state

Trudeau’s statement, which announced on Monday that he will step down as Prime Minister after a new Liberal leader has been elected marks his strongest pushback yet against Trump, who has repeatedly called Trudeau a “governor.”

Trump’s comments Tuesday, meanwhile, were the latest in his recent threats against longstanding U.S. allies, renewing questions and concerns about plans to use trade as a cudgel, and went beyond similar comments he has made about making Canada a part of the USA

Trump told reporters he would not rule out using military action to take back control of the Panama Canal and gain Danish-controlled Greenland, which he said the US needed for economic and security reasons.

Asked if he considered “annexing and acquiring Canada,” Trump replied, “No — economic power.”

“Canada and the United States, that would really be something,” he said. “You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security.”

“There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” Trudeau later wrote on X.

“Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s largest trade and security partner,” he added.

Trump has repeatedly stated that the US “subsidizes” Canada to the tune of US$200 billion in trade and spends billions more on continental defense programs such as NORAD than Canada, which he said “has essentially no military.”

“We don’t need their cars, we don’t need their wood,” he continued. “We don’t need anything they have. We don’t need their dairy products.

“We don’t need anything. So why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada?

Canada and the US are each other’s top trading partners, with more than $3.6 billion worth of goods and services crossing the border daily. The US Trade Representative’s office says the US trade deficit with Canada – which is other than a subsidy – was US$53.5 billion in 2022.

Trump first raised the idea of ​​Canada becoming the 51st state of the United States when he hosted Trudeau and other Canadian officials at Mar-a-Lago in November, shortly after Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on all products from Canada and Mexico.

Although the Canadians then said Trump was jokingthe US president-elect repeated the comment multiple times on social media, calling Trudeau a “governor”.

Trump said Tuesday because of all the money the U.S. spends on Canada, “they should be a state.”

“We do it because of habit, and we do it because we like our neighbors and we have been good neighbors, but we can’t do it forever,” he said.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said in December that Canada will “never” be the 51st US state.

“We are a proud nation with a heroic past and a brilliant future,” he told reporters at the time.

Trump said on Tuesday “I don’t care” about Poilievre’s comments, whose Conservative Party is firmly in the majority of government territory. according to Ipsos polling done for Global News last month.

Trump suggested he plans to follow through on his threat of tariffs on Canada, despite initially linking it to demands for increased border security, which Ottawa has tried to address.

He said tariffs would “offset” the “record numbers” of migrants and drugs flowing into the US from Canada and Mexico.

“We want to get along with everyone, but you know, it takes two to tango,” he said.

Trump’s comments about Canada came hours after US President Joe Biden praised Trudeau strengthening relations between the United States and Canada as prime minister.

Trump also said he wants to see NATO members spend at least five percent of their GDP on defense. The military alliance has set a spending target of two percent, which Canada is currently not meeting.

“If you’re going to have a country and a regular military, you’re at four percent,” Trump said. The US currently spends 3.38 percent on defense.

“They can afford it all, but they should be five percent, not two percent.”

Canada, which currently spends 1.37 percent of GDP on defense, currently projects to reach 1.76 percent by 2030. The government says it is on a “clear path” to hit two percent by 2032, although the parliamentary budget officer has raised doubts about the spending plan.

NATO allies, including the U.S. under the Biden administration and in Trump’s first term, have criticized Canada for years for failing to meet the two percent target.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has suggested that the NATO spending target should be increased to three percent, given the increased threat posed by Russia and other foreign adversaries.

Trump on Tuesday repeated his oft-told story of refusing to agree to help NATO members who do not meet the spending target if attacked, but said that threat was what led to more members increasing their defense spending.

“I took a lot of heat from the media (for making that threat),” Trump said. “And you know what happened? The money started flowing in. That’s why NATO has money.”

Biden has taken credit for 23 members now reaching the goal, up from just six in 2021, by leading efforts to rally Western allies to support Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion.