Though he's previously painted Donald Trump's comments on annexing Canada as a distraction, outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shared a much more dire warning behind closed doors this week.
While speaking to a group of business leaders on Friday, Trudeau said that Trump is not bluffing about his plans to turn Canada into "the 51st state."
“I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,” he shared. “They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have, and they very much want to be able to benefit from those. But Mr. Trump has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country. And it is a real thing.”
Trudeau's comments came after the media had been ushered out of the room. They were heard by gathered journalists because the prime minister did not realize he was still speaking into a hot mic. The comment saying Trump's threat to annex the Great North being a "real thing" was the last thing overheard by reporters before his mic was cut.
In prior interviews, Trudeau had brushed off Trump's statements as a negotiation tactic.
“President Trump, who is a very skillful negotiator, is getting people to be somewhat distracted by that, by that conversation, to take away from the conversation around 25% tariffs on oil and gas and electricity and steel and aluminum and lumber and concrete,” Trudeau told CNN.
Trump has floated annexing Canada multiple times in the last year, including it in an expansionist plan that also includes wresting control of Greenland and the Panama Canal.
Trump paused his planned 25% tariffs on Canadian imports for 30 days earlier this month, but the uncertainty around looming tariffs — and duties that were implemented on Chinese goods — have shaken the market. The president shared on Friday that he would seek "reciprocal" tariffs on as-yet-unnamed countries in the coming week.
Shares