Trump Claims US Needs Nothing From Canada as They Bail Out Los Angeles
Donald Trump gloated that the Americans “don’t need anything” from Canada, even as the Canadian government sent firefighters and supplies in response to the devastating wildfires in California.
“Canada is mobilizing to help fight the wildfires in southern California. Canadian water bombers are already in action. 250 firefighters are ready to deploy,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote in a post on X Thursday.
“To our American neighbours: Canada’s here to help.”
But that same day, Trump had a very different perspective on the relationship between neighbors: “We don’t need anything,” he said during a press conference in Palm Beach, Florida, not speaking about the wildfires specifically but just generally complaining because that’s what he does.
“We don’t need their fuel, we don’t need their energy, we don’t need their oil and gas. We don’t need anything that they have,” Trump continued.
“And I said to Trudeau, I said, ‘Why are, why are we subsidizing you 200 a—250 billion dollars a year? And he said, ‘I really don’t know.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t know either.’ I said, ‘What would happen to Canada if we didn’t?’ He said, ‘Canada would be obliterated.’ I said, ‘Well, then Canada should be a fifty-first state.’”
Trump on Canada: We don't need their fuel or energy or oil and gas we don't need anything that they have. pic.twitter.com/8xLaIQq1Or
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 10, 2025
Canada has actually been helping fight the fires all week through the use of water bombers operating around Los Angeles. One Canadian “Super Scooper” aircraft, two of which are loaned annually to the U.S., was grounded Thursday after colliding with a civilian drone—resulting in a loss of more than 1,500 gallons of ocean water per flight that could have been dropped on active fires.
But Trump doesn’t think we need any help at all. Take lumber, for example, an industry of which Trump clearly has a highly technical understanding: “We don’t need Canada for lumber ’cause we have big forests, that we have, you know, not utilized. In some cases they’re protected, which I can take that protection off. And you can take down that tree and grow a better tree. And you know that’s pretty common.”