Donald Trump threatens to use economic force to make Canada 51st US State, PM Justin Trudeau rejects

US President-elect Donald Trump, who will take charge of the office for the second term on January 20, said on Tuesday that he could use “economic force” to turn Canada into America’s 51st state. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, however, rejected the claim.

“You get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like — and it would also be much better for national security,” Trump, who registered a thumping victory in the US polls late last year, was quoted as saying by CNN while addressing a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

He also shared a distorted map of Canada on Truth Social which showed it as a part of the USA.

Sharing the map, he wrote: “Oh Canada!”

Justin Trudeau dismisses Trump’s suggestion

Trudeau dismissed Trump’s suggestion with a rebuttal on X. “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” the Canadian PM tweeted.

“Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner,” Trudeau, who resigned as the leader of his Liberal Party of Canada amid rising dissent, wrote.

Canada’s foreign minister, Mélanie Joly, reacted to Trump’s comment and said the President-elect’s remark shows a complete lack of understanding of what makes ‘Canada a strong country’.

“Our economy is strong. Our people are strong. We will never back down in the face of threats,” she wrote in her strong reply to Trump’s remark.

Meanwhile, Trump has threatened to impose 25 percent tariff on imports from Canada.

Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who is seen as a front-runner in replacing Trudeau after the general polls later this year, wrote on X, “Canada will never be the 51st state. Period.”

“We are the best friend to the U.S. We spent billions of dollars and hundreds of lives helping Americans retaliate against Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks. We supply the U.S. with billions of dollars of high-quality and totally reliable energy well below market prices. We buy hundreds of billions of dollars of American goods,” he said. “Our weak and pathetic NDP-Liberal government has failed to make these obvious points. I will fight for Canada,” he said.  
Trump had earlier mocked Trudeau, calling him the Governor of Canada, after the president-elect registered a landslide win in the US presidential elections.

Trudeau, who resigned as the leader of his Liberal Party of Canada on Monday, 

will continue as Canada’s Prime Minister until the party picks his successor.
The decision effectively ended his nine-year-long tenure as the country’s Prime Minister.

Trump and Greenland expansion plan

Since his election, Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.

Trump said he would not rule out a military option to take control over the region.

Greenland is a self-governing part of Denmark.

When asked whether he was ruling out using “military or economic coercion” to see through his goal of gaining those territories, Trump, reflecting his expansionist agenda, was quoted as saying by CNN: “No, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this: We need them for economic security.”