U.S. President Donald Trump still wants to make Canada the 51st state, promising Sunday to address it with Mark Carney when they meet in Washington this week, but he said making it happen by military force is “highly unlikely.”
In the middle of
a broad interview on NBC’s Meet the Press
, shot last week after Carney and the Liberals’ election win, Trump said he will “always talk about” annexing Canada and sounded off again about the purported $200 billion trade deficit and other grievances.
“We don’t need their cars, we don’t need their lumber, we don’t need their energy, we don’t need anything. We do very little business with Canada; they do all of their business, practically, with us,” Trump told host Kristen Welker.
“They need us, we don’t need them.”
President Trump states he will discuss annexing Canada with Canadian PM Mark Carney. pic.twitter.com/ucafcPktz0
— Intel Tower (@inteltower) May 4, 2025
Fentanyl crossing the border into the U.S., which was one of Trump’s chief catalysts for starting the trade war with Canada, was not mentioned.
Carney and a Canadian cohort are scheduled to visit with Trump and his administration at the White House on Tuesday.
Near the beginning of his 51st state rhetoric, Trump said he would take Canada using
“economic force.”
When asked Sunday if he would deploy the U.S. military to achieve his goal, he all but ruled it out.
“I think we’re not going to ever get to that point. Something could happen with Greenland, I’ll be honest, we need that for national and international security,” he said, reiterating his appetite for the U.S. to obtain the semi-autonomous Danish island.
“But I think it’s highly unlikely. I don’t see it with Canada. I have to be honest.”
He then went on to erroneously state that Canada spends less on its military “than practically any nation in the world” and is the lowest paying contributor to NATO.
Canada contributed 1.37 per cent of its national GDP to defence spending in 2024,
according to NATO
, placing it fifth from the bottom of the list of nations. Only Belgium (1.30), Slovenia (1.29), Luxembourg (1.29), and Spain (1.28) are investing less.
The U.S. contributed 3.38 per cent, third most behind Estonia (3.43) and Poland (4.12).
“They think we are going to protect them, and really, we are, but the truth is they don’t carry their full share, and it’s unfair to the United States and our taxpayers.”
Trump called Carney the day after the federal election to offer congratulations and said the two agreed to meet in person soon.
Trump tells Canadians to ‘elect the man’ who will let Canada become the 51st state
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying the leaders agreed that the two “independent, sovereign nations” needed to work together toward “mutual betterment.”
A day later in the Oval Office, Trump said he expected “a great relationship” with Canada.
If Trump follows through and raises the 51st state topic this Tuesday, it will be at least the second time he’s done so with Carney.
After winning the Liberal leadership in March, Carney said the president acknowledged Canada’s sovereignty during a congratulatory call. Near the end of the election campaign, however, Carney confirmed that
Trump did bring it up during that initial conversation, but downplayed the significance.
“Look, the president says lots of things, but the essence of the discussion and where we moved the conversation to was exactly what I said,” he told reporters at the time.
“We talked about lots of things, okay? And what’s important is the conclusions of the call, the results of the call, and those are exactly the same on the American side and the Canadian side… And those were that it was very constructive.”
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