The last significant invasion of Canadian territories was more than two hundred years ago, and no US president has since publicly and repeatedly discussed making the northern neighbor a state of America.
That is, until Trump began to float the idea of making Canada America’s 51st state in January.
A few weeks before Trump’s inauguration, he was asked if he was considering using military force to acquire Canada during a press briefing in Mar-a-Lago.
“No, economic force,” he said. “Because Canada and the United States, that would really be something.”
He went on to tell reporters the US-Canadian border is an “artificially drawn line” and said he would impose a 25% tariff on the neighbor.
Trump’s idea received swift backlash from Canadians and the then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who posted on X that “there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.”
The rebuff did not deter Trump from reiterating his suggestion in subsequent press appearances and interviews.
