Trump Intensifies ‘51st State’ Threats in Attack on Canada

Trump Intensifies Statehood Threats in Attack on Canada

The U.S. president on Tuesday reiterated his claims on Canada’s territory as he increased tariffs, threatening to bring the country’s economy to its knees.

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By Matina Stevis-Gridneff

Reporting from Ottawa

The fresh attacks President Trump aimed at Canada on Tuesday extended beyond imposing more tariffs on America’s neighbor and NATO ally, and laid out in the clearest terms yet his vision for annexing Canada and making it part of the United States.

Mr. Trump has made repeated comments about Canada becoming America’s 51st state since winning the election in November, and last month specifically told the country’s departing prime minister, Justin Trudeau, that he did not believe that the border treaty between the two nations was valid, The New York Times reported last week.

On Tuesday, as he announced his intention to double his planned tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, Mr. Trump publicly detailed much of his thinking.

“The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem.”

Echoing his private comments to Mr. Trudeau in their February phone call, he said about the border: “The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear.’’

He also said “O Canada,” the national anthem, “will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!”

Much of the world has been seeing Mr. Trump’s fixation with annexing Canada as a joke, or merely bluster to push for concessions on trade and other forms of economic integration. It’s been regarded as the least realistic and plausible of Mr. Trump’s territorial ambitions, which also include annexing Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, and wanting to reclaim the Panama Canal.

But Canadian political leaders, and Canadians at large, have been taking Mr. Trump deadly seriously.

Mr. Trump has complained that the existing free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico — which he negotiated and signed — does not sufficiently protect U.S. economic interests and grant American companies free access to Canadian markets.

He has already put in place some tariffs on Canadian goods, and Canada is also affected by certain tariffs Mr. Trump has put on global imports.

The metal tariffs he announced against Canada on Tuesday would be a in addition to those he plans to enact on metal imports from other countries on Wednesday.

Mr. Trump said the new tariffs on Tuesday were in response to a decision by Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, to impose a 25 percent surcharge on electricity exports from the province to the United States.

But Mr. Ford abruptly canceled the surcharge and announced that he would meet with Trump officials on Thursday to discuss trade issues. And later, the White House reversed course. Canada will face the same 25 percent tariff as other nations starting on Wednesday.

The Canada-specific tariffs — which mirrored those aimed at Mexico and were suspended for 30 days last week — were enacted on the basis of an executive order that claims Canada is responsible for a large number of undocumented migrants and a significant amount of fentanyl coming into the United States.

Neither claim is supported by fact.

Some 23,000 people crossed the Northern border illegally into the United States in 2024, just 1 percent of the number of people who crossed in from the southern border with Mexico. And only 1 percent of the fentanyl found in the U.S. seems to have originated in Canada — with some evidence suggesting the volume is even lower.

Mr. Trudeau, who is in his last days in office, reached an agreement with Mr. Trump for a reprieve on tariffs by promising to redouble border efforts, leading a plunge in the number of migrant crossings. He also appointed a fentanyl czar and committed fresh funds in U.S.-Canada cooperation to fight organized crime gangs that are responsible for its trade.

The crisis in the relationship between the two nations has upended Canadian politics. Mr. Trudeau and his Liberal Party, which had grown deeply unpopular, experienced a reversal of fortunes. On Sunday, the party picked Mark Carney, a former central banker and investor, to replace Mr. Trudeau ahead of a federal election in the near future.

Calling the increased tariffs “an attack on Canadian workers, families, and businesses,” in a social media post, Mr. Carney wrote that “my government will ensure our response has maximum impact in the U.S. and minimal impact here in Canada.”

He added: “My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect and make credible, reliable commitments to free and fair trade.”

Canada previously imposed tariffs valued at just under $21 billion on American goods. It has also said that it will impose an additional $86 billion in tariffs.

And the Conservative Party has joined the Liberals in treating Mr. Trump’s threats to Canada’s economy and sovereignty as a profound crisis, highlighting the galvanizing effect of Mr. Trump’s actions and rhetoric.

On a social level, Canadians have rallied around the flag. A movement to boycott U.S. goods is gathering steam with “Buy Canadian” signs popping up in stores and many homes putting on displays of newly energized patriotism.

Canadian political leaders have sought to stress just how different the United States and Canada are, and have been defiant in their resistance to Mr. Trump’s attacks.

“This is a nation-defining moment,” Mr. Trudeau said Sunday evening at his party’s convention in Ottawa. “Democracy is not a given. Freedom, it’s not a given. Canada is not a given. None of those happen by accident. None of them will continue without effort.”

Ian Austen contributed reporting from Ottawa and Vjosa Isai from Toronto.

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