Canada is, quite literally, America’s closest ally. It is also our second-largest trade partner. Little wonder, then, that for as long as anyone can remember, U.S. presidents have been praising our northern neighbor.
Trump’s bullying is turning Canada from friend to foe
In fantasizing about Canada as the 51st state, Trump’s is doing needless real-world damage.
March 21, 2025 The Washington Post
But Trump has also long harbored grievances over Canada’s supposedly unfair trade practices. (Not surprisingly, most of his claims aren’t accurate.) Nowadays, the president’s references to Canada are invariably belittling — and usually combined with threats that Canada had better become the 51st state, or else. Trump, in fact, speaks more positively about Russia than he does Canada.
“I deal with every country, indirectly or directly. One of the nastiest countries to deal with is Canada,” Trump told Fox News this week, adding, “Canada doesn’t pay for military. They give us nothing. And they are the worst people to negotiate with of everybody. ... They cheat.” This month, Trump complained to reporters: “Canada has been ripping us off for years on tariffs for lumber and for dairy products.” The next week, Trump said: “Canada only works as a state. We don’t need anything they have. … They need us. We don’t really need them.”
Trump has imposed tariffs as high as 25 percent on many Canadian imports, with Canada retaliating against U.S. exports. By one estimate, Trump’s trade war (which isn’t limited to Canada) will cost Canada $40 billion this year and the United States $58 billion — and it’s just getting started.
Canadians are understandably confused about why Trump is imposing all these tariffs because, contrary to what Trump often says, Canada is clearly not a major source of either undocumented migrants or fentanyl into the U.S. Nor is it true, as Trump claims, that Canada is “ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.” In 2022, Canada actually had lower tariffs than the U.S.
Many in the Great White North have concluded that Trump isn’t just trolling when he talks about annexing Canada — and that he’s using tariffs to achieve that objective. For evidence, they can point to Trump’s own words: “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” the president wrote on social media. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.”
What in the name of Tim Hortons is going on? Why is Trump bullying one of the nicest countries in the world?
Most explanations center on Trump’s disdain for Trudeau, whom Trump took to demeaning as “Governor Trudeau.” The two men had a falling out at the 2018 Group of Seven summit in Canada. But Trudeau is now gone — replaced as prime minister by fellow Liberal Mark Carney — and there is no warming in the frosty U.S.-Canadian relations.
My own theory is that Trump looks at the world like the real estate speculator he is. Canada is a huge hunk of lightly defended territory with lots of natural resources (it is, in fact, the second-largest country in the world by total land area), and Trump would clearly love to pick it up for cheap. Greenland and the Panama Canal — other places the president covets — are penny-ante targets by comparison.
It’s not for nothing that Trump has hung in the Oval Office a portrait of James K. Polk, the president who started the Mexican War and acquired Texas, California, the Oregon Territory and the Southwest. Trump talks about Canada much the way that Vladimir Putin talks about Ukraine — as a wayward province that isn’t really a country in its own right. “If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line right through it, between Canada and the U.S.,” Trump told reporters last week. “Just a straight, artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago. Makes no sense. It’s so perfect as a great and cherished state.” The Toronto Star reports that Trump told Trudeau that the 1908 treaty demarcating the border between Canada and the United States isn’t valid and needs to be revised.
Mercifully, there is no indication that Trump is planning to invade Canada. Eliot Cohen, writing for the Atlantic, reminds us that Americans tried that in the past — during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 — and it didn’t work out well. Even if it isn’t a precursor to a shooting war, however, Trump’s bullying is damaging what had been one of the closest alliances in the world. Canadian troops fought alongside U.S. forces from D-Day to Kandahar; Canadian and U.S. intelligence agencies cooperate closely in the “five eyes” alliance; their militaries are allied in NATO; and their air defenses are integrated in the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
But now, 1 in 4 Canadians view the United States as an enemy. Only 39 percent have a favorable view of their southern neighbor. Canadians are boycotting U.S. goods and canceling trips to the United States. The Canadian government is considering canceling a $19 billion order for F-35 fighter jets and buying from a European aircraft maker instead.
To what end has Trump so provoked Canadians? It is hard to think of a foreign policy move more futile or self-defeating. Barring a military blitzkrieg to seize Ottawa, the chances of Canada becoming the 51st state are approximately zero. Canadian law stipulates that dissolving the country would require the unanimous support of the Canadian Senate, the House of Commons and every provincial legislature. That’s a nonstarter, when 90 percent of Canadians oppose becoming a U.S. state.
The one thing Trump has achieved in attacking Canada is reviving the Liberal Party’s electoral prospects: Once facing seemingly certain electoral defeat, the party has recently surged in polling and overtaken the Conservatives. (An April 28 election is expected.)
Trump is now discovering one of the problems with his America First agenda: Rather than causing other countries to back down, his threats can engender a nationalist backlash. Even in Canada, eh?