Despite President Donald Trump’s interest in Canada becoming the 51st state, Canada isn’t for sale – ever, according to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Trump regularly has said he wants Canada to become a U.S. state, and has discussed acquiring Greenland and the Panama Canal for security purposes. However, the matter of Canada isn’t open to negotiation, Carney said.
‘Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign the last several months, it’s not for sale,’ Carney said at the White House Tuesday. ‘Won’t be for sale ever, but the opportunity is in the partnership and what we can build together. We have done that in the past, and part of that, as the president just said, is with respect to our security and my government is committed for a step change in our investment in Canadian security and our partnership.’
While Trump acknowledged that Canada was stepping up its investment in military security, Trump said ‘never say never’ in response to Canada becoming another state.
‘I’ve had many, many things that were not doable, and they ended up being doable,’ Trump said.
Later, Carney said Canada’s stance on the issue wouldn’t alter.
‘Respectfully, Canadians’ view on this is not going to change on the 51st state,’ Carney said.
The interaction comes after Trump told Time magazine in an April interview that he wasn’t ‘trolling’ when discussing the possibility of Canada becoming part of the U.S. Trump told Time’s Eric Cortellessa that the U.S. is ‘losing’ money supporting Canada, and the only solution on the table is for it to become a state.
‘We’re taking care of their military,’ Trump told the magazine. ‘We’re taking care of every aspect of their lives, and we don’t need them to make cars for us. In fact, we don’t want them to make cars for us. We want to make our own cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything from Canada. And I say the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state.’
Still, Trump will continue pushing for Canada to become a state, though he cast doubt on whether he’d use military force to achieve such ends, he told NBC’s Kristen Welker in an interview that aired Sunday.
‘Well, I think we’re not going to ever get to that point,’ Trump said. ‘It could happen.’
In the same interview, Trump doubled down on how significant Greenland is for the U.S. in terms of national security. Although Greenland has asserted it is seeking independence from Denmark and isn’t interested in joining the U.S., Trump has regularly expressed a strong interest in securing Greenland – particularly given an increase in Russian and Chinese presence in the Arctic.
‘Something could happen with Greenland,’ Trump told NBC. ‘I’ll be honest, we need that for national and international security.’