U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended President Donald Trump‘s repeated suggestions and interest in annexing Canada during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press.
Newsweek reached out to the White House and State Department via email on Sunday for comment.
Why It Matters
Trump has publicly called for Canada to become the 51st U.S. state multiple times throughout his 2024 campaign and since taking office on January 20. The comments have escalated tensions between the longtime allies, particularly as they come alongside new tariffs on Canadian imports.
What To Know
The origin of Trump’s Canada annexation comments appears to trace back to conversations with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
When pushed by host Kristen Welker on whether the U.S. still wants to make Canada the 51st state, Rubio replied, “I think the president has stated repeatedly he thinks Canada would be better off as a state,” adding that these comments stemmed from what “the previous prime minister” told Trump about Canada’s trade relationship with the United States.
According to Rubio, Trudeau suggested Canada “couldn’t survive as a nation-state” if the U.S. imposed tariffs on Canadian imports, to which Trump reportedly responded that Canada “should become a state.”
Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports, plus the 10 percent tariff on Canadian energy imports, began in early March. On March 12, Trump then implemented 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminum under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
The Trump Administration on April 5 imposed a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports to the U.S., invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to address the national emergency posed by the persistent trade deficit.
In a February Fox News interview, host Bret Baier asked Trump if his statements about annexing Canada were “a real thing.”
“I think Canada would be much better off being the 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen,” Trump said in the interview.
Federal statistics show the 2024 deficit with Canada in goods and services trade was $35.7 billion, CNN reported.
Prior to the Fox News interview, Trudeau was caught commenting on tariffs on a hot mic. Canadian public broadcasting outlet CBC reported that Trudeau made the comments while speaking to business and labor leaders in a closed-door session, but his remarks were accidentally aired on a loudspeaker.
Trudeau reportedly said that Trump wants to access Canada’s mineral reserves and that he “has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is by absorbing our country and it is a real thing.”
Canada’s current Prime Minister Mark Carney has dismissed Trump’s remarks about annexing Canada. Speaking at a campaign press conference in April, Carney said: “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.”
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump wrote in a March Truth Social post: “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. 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, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters in March that Trump must stop making “disrespectful” comments about Canada’s sovereignty before the two countries are able to “sit down and have a conversation about our broader partnership with the United States,” Reuters reported.
Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair spoke out about Trump’s offer during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group: “One of the things I think we need to be very clear to everyone, including Mr. Trump, is that Canadians will always stand up for our nation, our country.”
He added: “We’re prepared to defend ourselves as required, and that always sometimes requires sacrifice.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday’s Meet the Press: “They’ll have their elections this week. They’re going to have a new leader, and we’ll deal with a new leadership of Canada. There are many things we work with cooperatively on Canada on, but we actually don’t like the way they treated us when it comes to trade, and the president has made that point when he responded to the previous prime minister in regards to this.”
Lana Payne, the national president of Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, previously told Newsweek: “There is palpable anger over the multiple tariff threats and threats against our very sovereignty with the repeated assertation that Canada should become the 51st state. Canadians are coming together and fighting back in ways they can, and the easiest way to do that is to support the buying of things made in Canada.”
What Happens Next
Canadians head to the polls tomorrow in an election that has been dramatically reshaped by Trump’s trade policies and annexation comments.
The post Rubio Defends Trump’s Canada as 51st State Comments Amid Trade Tensions appeared first on Newsweek.
