The United States has enjoyed a long-standing partnership with Canada, a relationship that extends into the realm of professional sports. Major U.S. sports leagues feature Canadian teams, with the NBA and MLB each hosting one franchise, while the NHL and MLS boast several based in Canada. However, recent rhetoric, proposals, and threats from Donald Trump could drastically alter this relationship.
Trump has been adamant in his desire to see Canada become the 51st state of the United States. In a recent speech, he even went so far as to issue economic threats aimed at pressuring Canada into compliance.
Earlier this week, Pierre Poilievre, leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, stated firmly that Canada would never join the U.S. as its 51st state. Trump, however, appeared unfazed by this declaration.
“I don’t care what he says,” Trump remarked during an interview.
When asked whether he intended to use military force to achieve this goal, Trump dismissed the idea but delivered a pointed warning. He emphasized that the U.S. would rely on “economic force” to encourage Canada to join.
“Economic force,” Trump reiterated. “Because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like… And it would also be better for national security. Don’t forget, we basically protect Canada,” he said.
Trump continued, expressing mixed sentiments about Canada: “Here’s the problem with Canada. So many friends up there, I love the Canadian people, they’re great. But we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it, we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. In trade deficits, we’re losing massively.”
He further argued that the U.S. does not need Canada as a trade partner nearly as much as Canada relies on the U.S.
“We don’t need their cars. You know, they make 20 percent of our cars. We don’t need that – I’d rather make them in Detroit. We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their lumber. We have massive fields of lumber. We don’t need their lumber,” Trump stated.
“We don’t need anything they have,” he continued. “We don’t need anything. So why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada?”
Needless to say, this is a rather shocking threat from Trump toward Canada, and it led to a lot of reactions on social media as a result.
“Trump has officially lost it,” one person wrote on X.
“We are in the worst version of the timeline,” someone else added.
“America has fallen to crazy people. At best, they are knowing destabilisers who don’t have a care in the world,” another person wrote.
“Seriously can’t believe we’re at this stage of the game,” someone else said.
“Annexing Canada is just mass immigration at the greatest scale. No one should be for this. I hope this is just a larp so in order to make his Greenland acquisition seem reasonable,” another person added.
“He certainly must have lost it! What a disgraceful way to talk and to act,” someone else said.
While the likelihood of Canada becoming part of the United States remains exceedingly slim, Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and aggressive stance could significantly strain the historically strong relationship between the two allies in the years to come.
