Trump Turns Canadian Election Into Weird Plea for Control

On Canada’s Election Day, the leader of the United States urged the nation’s neighbors to vote for an especially odd third option: choosing Donald J. Trump as their leader.

“Good luck to the Great people of Canada. Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st State of the United States of America,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday.

“No more artificially drawn line from many years ago,” he continued, apparently referring to borders—an issue that he used in three elections to divide Americans while scapegoating immigration as the root cause of America’s social disorder. “Look how beautiful this land mass would be. Free access with NO BORDER. ALL POSITIVES WITH NO NEGATIVES. IT WAS MEANT TO BE!”

“America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!” he added.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Mexico’s and Canada’s trade deficits with the United States are “subsidies,” rather than indicators that America’s neighbors are purchasing more of its goods than they were selling in return. In 2023, that differential—or deficit—was nearly $41 billion with Canada and $162 billion with Mexico, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The president has also vastly overinflated the reality of the deficits, wrongly asserting that the U.S. is “subsidizing” its neighbors to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars each. The obvious solution to that problem, per Trump, is to take Canada and its independence, folding it into his increasingly centralized government.

But if Canada did enter the United States (hypothetically), it likely would not bode well for Trump’s ongoing quest for power. An analysis by legal experts who spoke with The Washington Post found that the introduction of Canada into the U.S. government would be a “nightmare” for Trump, adding an additional 53 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives—the vast majority of which would identify as Democrats.

But the likelihood that Canada would allow itself to be annexed as an afterthought to U.S. dominance is practically zilch. Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that his country’s cozy relationship with the U.S. had come to an end, and that they would wean themselves off American products and services “at speeds we haven’t seen in generations.”

“Our old relationship of steadily deepening integration with the United States is over,” Carney said, shortly after replacing former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Canada’s leader. “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect, and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over.”

Carney is facing off against conservative lawmaker Pierre Poilievre, who appears to have modeled himself on Trump, for the prime minister’s office.