President Donald Trump said he is “really not trolling” about making Canada the 51st state in a wide-ranging interview published on Friday.
Sitting down with Time to discuss his first 100 days since returning to office, Trump once again revisited his desire to expand the American empire by acquiring Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal.
When asked if he was “trolling” with his repeated mentions of annexing Canada and making it part of the United States, the president replied: “No, I’m not actually.”
“I think Canada, what you said that, ‘Well, that one, I might be trolling.’ But I’m really not trolling,” he said.
In a rambling answer, Trump repeated his claims that the U.S. loses $250 billion a year in trade deficits with Canada, and said he told “Governor Trudeau” that it was unfair that the U.S. had to spend so much to “take care” of its northern neighbor.
“We’re taking care of their military. We’re taking care of every aspect of their lives, and we don’t need them to make cars for us. In fact, we don’t want them to make cars for us,” said Trump. “
“We want to make our own cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything from Canada. And I say the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state.”
Trump also said he thinks Greenland would be “very well off” if it became part of the U.S, which he claimed was “important for national security and even international security.”
When asked if he wanted to be remembered as a president who expanded American territory, Trump responded bluntly: “Wouldn’t mind.”
Trump has repeatedly mentioned making Canada the 51st state since his re-election, even bringing the issue up with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on more than one occasion, the Liberal Party leader admitted on Thursday.
“The president brings this up all the time. He brought it up yesterday. He brought it up before,” Carney told reporters following a phone call with Trump this week. “He has these things in his mind. This is not news.”
He added: “To be clear, as I’ve said to anyone who’s raised this issue in private or in public, including the president, it will never happen,” the BBC reported.
“The president has certain things in his mind, that he reverts back to all the time,” Carney said. “We had discussions as sovereign nations. We agreed as sovereign nations that these negotiations will begin after the election on Monday.”
Trump commented on his meeting with Carney on Wednesday, in which he referred to the prime minister as “very nice” but added: “I have to be honest, as a state it works great. Ninety-five per cent of what they do is they buy from us and they sell to us.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week the president’s position on Canada had not changed, and that Trump “believes that Canadians would benefit greatly from becoming the 51st state of the United States of America.”
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