WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump mentioned he’s severe about wanting Canada to develop into the 51st state in an interview that aired Sunday through the Tremendous Bowl preshow.
“I think Canada would be much better off being the 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let that happen,” he mentioned. “Why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially a subsidy to Canada?”
The U.S. isn’t subsidizing Canada. The U.S. buys merchandise from the pure resource-rich nation, together with commodities like oil. Whereas the commerce hole in items has ballooned lately to $72 billion in 2023, the deficit largely displays America’s imports of Canadian power.
Trump has repeatedly recommended that Canada could be higher off if it agreed to develop into the 51st U.S. state — a prospect that’s deeply unpopular amongst Canadians.
Trudeau mentioned Friday throughout a closed-door session with enterprise and labor leaders that Trump’s discuss of constructing Canada the 51st U.S. state was “a real thing” and tied to want for entry to the nation’s pure sources.
“Mr. Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country and it is a real thing. In my conversations with him on …,” Trudeau mentioned, in accordance with CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster. “They’re very aware of our resources of what we have, and they very much want to be able to benefit from those.”
Chatting with reporters aboard Air Drive One on Sunday as he traveled to the Tremendous Bowl sport in New Orleans, Trump continued to threaten a rustic that has lengthy been one of many U.S.’s closest allies. He claimed that Canada is “not viable as a country” with out U.S. commerce, and warned that the founding NATO member can now not rely upon the U.S. for navy safety.
“You know, they don’t pay very much for military. And the reason they don’t pay much is they assume that we’re going to protect them,” he mentioned. “That’s not an assumption they can make because — why are we protecting another country?”
Within the Fox interview, which was pre-taped this weekend in Florida, Trump additionally mentioned that he has not seen sufficient motion from Canada and Mexico to stave off the tariffs he has threatened to impose on the nation’s two largest buying and selling companions as soon as a 30-day extension is up.
“No, it’s not good enough,” he mentioned. “Something has to happen. It’s not sustainable. And I’m changing it.”
Trump final week agreed to a 30-day pause on his plan to slap Mexico and Canada with a 25% tariff on all imports aside from Canadian oil, pure gasoline and electrical energy, which might be taxed at 10%, after the international locations took steps to appease his considerations about border safety and drug trafficking.
Aboard Air Drive One, Trump mentioned that he would on Monday announce a 25% tariff on all metal and aluminum imports into the U.S., together with from Canada and Mexico, and unveil a plan for reciprocal tariffs later within the week.
“Very simply it’s if they charge us, we charge them,” he mentioned.
Trump’s participation within the Tremendous Bowl interview marked a return to custom. Presidents have usually granted a sit-down to the community broadcasting the sport, the most-watched tv occasion of the yr. However each Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, had been inconsistent of their participation.
Biden declined to take part final yr — turning down a large viewers in an election yr — and likewise skipped an look in 2023, when efforts by his crew to have Biden converse with a Fox Corp. streaming service as an alternative of the primary community failed. Throughout his first time period, Trump participated three out of 4 years.
Trump was the primary sitting president to attend the Tremendous Bowl in particular person — one thing he informed Baier he was stunned to be taught.
“I thought it would be a good thing for the country to have the president at the game,” he mentioned.
Throughout his flight to New Orleans, Trump signed a proclamation declaring Feb. 9 “the first ever Gulf of America Day” as Air Drive One flew over the physique of water that he renamed by proclamation from the Gulf of Mexico.
Trump within the interview, additionally defended the work of billionaire Elon Musk, whose so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, has been drawing deep concern from Democrats as he strikes to close down entire authorities companies and fireplace giant swaths of the federal workforce within the title of rooting out waste and inefficiency.
Musk, Trump mentioned, has “been terrific,” and can goal the Division of Training and the navy subsequent.
“We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse,” Trump predicted. “I campaigned on this.”
He was additionally requested about his dancing, which has develop into a preferred meme on social media.
“I don’t know what it is,” he mentioned. “I try and walk off sometimes without dancing and I can’t. I have to dance.”