Reporters questioned President-elect Donald Trump (R) about his willingness to acquire Canada during his upcoming presidency. When asked if he would take it via military force, he said he could do so through "economic force."
President-elect Trump was also asked about the opinion of Canadian conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who said America's northern neighbor would "never be the 51st state." Trump responded by saying that perhaps Poilievre won't assume the role of prime minister and that he doesn't care either way.
Watch below:
President Trump says he is prepared to use economic pressure to force Canada to become part of the United States
I REPEAT. TRUMP IS SERIOUS. WOW! pic.twitter.com/98zrWoW3QX
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"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 much better for national security. Don't forget, we basically protect Canada. But 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," said Trump.
The 45th and 47th president continued, citing what he believes is the unfair economic relationship between the two countries, favoring Canada.
"We lose in trade deficits, we're losing mass - we don't need their cars. You know, they make 20% of our cars. We don't need that. I'd rather make them in Detroit. We don't need the cars. We don't need their lumber. We have massive fields of lumber. We don't need their lumber," said Trump. "We have to unrestrict them, because stupid people put, you know, restrictions on - but I can do that with an executive order. We don't need anything they have. We don't need their dairy products. We have more than they have. We don't need anything. So why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada?"
Finally, Trump once again referred to the former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "Governor Trudeau" and referenced the economic support the U.S. provides the north.
"And I said that to, as I called him, Governor Trudeau, I said, Listen, what would happen if we didn't subsidize you? Because we give them a lot of money, we help them, as an example, we're buying icebreakers and Canada wants to join us in the buying of icebreakers I said you know, we don't really want to have a partner in the buying of icebreakers, we don't need a partner."
With Trump's son, Don Jr. in Greenland, it appears the Trump administration is dead-set on acquiring new land for the United States.
