Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on May 21 that the country was in talks with the U.S. about taking part in President Donald Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense system. Asked how much Canada was willing to shell out for the project that is expected to cost upwards of hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars, Carney said he was not going to “put a price tag” on it, but added: “We are conscious that we have an ability, if we so choose, to complete the Golden Dome with investments and partnership.”
But Trump said Tuesday, May 27, that Canada could join for free—with a catch.
“I told Canada, which very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System, that it will cost $61 Billion Dollars if they remain a separate, but unequal, Nation, but will cost ZERO DOLLARS if they become our cherished 51st State,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “They are considering the offer!”
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Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire for Canada to become a U.S. state—a position that’s deeply unpopular among Canadians. In an Oval Office meeting on May 6, Carney, whose election in late April was seen as a rebuke to Trump, insisted to the U.S. President that his northern neighbor is “not for sale” and “won’t be for sale, ever.” Trump responded that “time will tell” and “never say never.”
The U.S. and Canada already have a joint air defense system called the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Canada said in 2022 it would invest some $28 billion over the next two decades for its modernization.
Trump’s plan for a “Golden Dome,” envisioned as a network of interceptors, satellites, and sensors capable of thwarting missile attacks and modeled after Israel’s “Iron Dome,” would cost significantly more. The President said last week, when announcing plans for the “Golden Dome” to be operational by the end of his term, that the project would cost $175 billion overall, and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost to develop and operate such a system could rise as high as $831 billion over 20 years—and that’s just to protect the United States.
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