Trump Reiterates 51st State Comments About Canada

President Donald Trump doubled down on his longshot hope of Canada becoming part of the United States.

While speaking ahead of his tour of North Carolina and the damage done by Hurricane Helene, President Trump took questions from the press and was asked about his comments on Canada becoming a U.S. state. The president argued Canadians would see a big tax cut and “better health coverage.”

He said Canada was trying to be part of a Coast Guard deal but he only likes dealing with Canada “if they’re a state” rather than a nation.

Trump said:

We are going to order 40 Coast Guard — big ice breakers, big ones, and all of a sudden Canada wants a piece of the deal. I said why are we doing that? I like doing that if they are a state, but I don’t like doing that if they are a nation.

And they’re very nasty to us on trade. Historically, Canada has been very bad, very unfair to us on trade. We’ll see how it all works out.

I would love to see Canada be the 51st state. The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a big tax cut, tremendous tax cut, because they’re very highly taxed. You wouldn’t have to worry about military, you wouldn’t have to worry about many of the things, you would have better health coverage, you would have much better health coverage.

So I think the people of Canada would like it, you know, if it’s explained. But just to start off, they’d have a massive tax cut and they’d have a lot more business because then we’d let business go to Canada routinely and there’d be no tariffs.

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of Canada giving up being an independent country since his election victory.

“The United States can no longer suffer the massive Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew this, and resigned,” he wrote on Truth Social this month. “If Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who announced his resignation this month, said there’s “not a snowball’s chance in hell” Canada would become part of the United States.