U.S. President Donald Trump has no plans to invade Canada but believes that many Canadians would be happy to be part of the United States “with no tariffs and lower taxes,” Trump’s national security adviser said Sunday, APA reports citing Toronto Star.
During an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Mike Waltz brushed off claims made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a closed-door meeting with business leaders that the Trump administration is serious about “absorbing us and making us the 51st state” over Canada’s rich mineral resources.
“The Canadian people, many of them, would love to join the United States with no tariffs, with lower taxes,” said Waltz, a former military colonel and Congressional representative from Florida.
“I have all kinds of neighbours down in Florida that are Canadians that are escaping many of the liberal policies and have moved in.”
Last week, the Star first broke the news that Trudeau told a group of nearly 200 business, industry and union leaders that Trump’s statements about annexing Canada are not a joke, and are driven in part by his desire to benefit from Canada’s critical minerals.
Trudeau revealed to the attendees his phone conversation with Trump just hours before Washington agreed to delay for 30 days the plan to impose a 25 per cent tariff against Canadian imports as of last Tuesday.
The economic summit with Canadian leaders was meant to share information and plot tactics and strategy for the weeks ahead in response to the U.S trade threats.
“I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state,” Trudeau told the audience.
“But Mr. Trump has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country, and it is a real thing.”
Pressed by NBC host Kristen Welker if Trump is serious about annexing Canada to make it the 51st state, Waltz said he didn’t “think there’s any plans to invade Canada.”
From expressing American interests in controlling Greenland in the Arctic and the Panama Canal, a key shipping waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Waltz said it’s all about a “reassertion of American leadership” in the Western hemisphere.
“There is a lot of people that like what we have in the United States and do not like the last ten years of liberal progressive governance in Trudeau,” he explained during the wide-ranging interview that also touched on gutting USAID, the agency responsible for foreign aid and development, as well as Trump’s plan to take over Gaza.
“America has avoided our own hemisphere, where we have the energy, the food, and the critical minerals for way too long. And you’re seeing a reassertion of President Trump’s leadership.”
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