Over the last few days, President-elect Donald Trump has discussed our neighbors to the north on social media. The posts ranged from criticism of Canada’s leaders to personal attacks, tariff threats and the nation potentially becoming a state.
On Tuesday night, Trump continued to have Canada on his mind as he floated the idea of the United States absorbing Canada.
“No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year?” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Makes no sense! Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State. They would save massively on Taxes and military protection.”
Trump had earlier shared on Truth Social that Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s behaviors have been “totally toxic,” arguing that Freeland was detrimental to the country’s deal-making with the U.S. Trump’s remarks came after she resigned from her post.
“The Great State of Canada is stunned as the Finance Minister resigns, or was fired, from her position by Governor Justin Trudeau,” Trump wrote on Monday.
He continued, saying, “Her behavior was totally toxic and not at all conducive to making deals which are good for the very unhappy citizens of Canada. She will not be missed!!!”
Freeland cited Trump in her resignation letter to Trudeau on Monday, mentioning his threat to impose a 25% tariff on Canada if the flow of migrants and drugs into America isn’t addressed. Freeland warned that Canada needs to “take that threat extremely seriously” and push back against Trump’s “America first’ economic nationalism.”
“Our country today faces a grave challenge,” Freeland wrote. “The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25% tariffs.”
“We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” she wrote. “That means keeping our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war. That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”
In his post, Trump referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “governor,” an insult that isn’t new for the president-elect, as he’s been taking shots at Trudeau since he criticized Trump’s threat to impose tariffs.
Trudeau and Trump met at Mar-a-Lago this month to discuss the threat of tariffs. According to Fox News, Trump became animated during the talks when it came to the US trade deficit with Canada, which is estimated to be more than $100 billion.
Fox News also reported that during the discussion, Trump floated Canada becoming the 51st state to Trudeau if the tariffs would truly kill the nation’s economy.