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Another day, another post. Early Wednesday morning, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump again took to social media to suggest making Canada the 51st state.
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“No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year?” he wrote. “Makes no sense!” (Trump presumably meant $100,000,000,000, or one hundred billion, the figure he has used in the past.)
He continued: “Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State. They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!”
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The post, copied to X from Trump’s Truth Social platform, drew more than 13,000 likes and hundreds of responses, most of them boiling down to “hear hear” or “no way.”
But a more sober second thought came from Norman Spector. The Canadian journalist, former diplomat and one-time chief of staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney replied: “Serious question: Is this about [1] THE ART OF THE DEAL, [2] getting rid of Trudeau, or [3] annexation [in whole or in part]?”
The serious question is getting some serious consideration. This week, writing in the Montreal Gazette, columnist Don Braid noted: “There’s nothing new about U.S. expansionist sentiment. In 1845 an American journalist coined the term Manifest Destiny, the belief that the U.S. has a divine right to expand into all of North America.”
He added: “Canada became a continent-wide Confederation in 1867 in large part to block U.S. ambitions. It worked because the U.S. did not care to tangle again with the British Empire, then the world’s mightiest.”
Trudeau finally addresses Freeland’s shocking resignation. Here’s what Canada’s PM said
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Talk of Canada as the 51st state emerged this month during a dinner attended by Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It was reported at the time that, when Trudeau said high tariffs would kill the Canadian economy, Trump suggested that Canada could instead become America’s 51st state, and that while prime minister is a better title, Trudeau could instead become governor.
Since then, Trump has made numerous such references to Canada in those terms. When Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland stepped down on Monday, Trump responded on social media with a post that read: “The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau.”
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