Justin Trudeau shuts down Trump’s ‘51st state’ threats: ‘Not going to happen’

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Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated on Sunday that his country would not give up sovereignty and join the United States, the latest surreal example of a world leader being forced to respond seriously to the unserious stated aspirations of the incoming president and his allies.

“That’s not going to happen. It’s just a non-starter,” he told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Sunday. “Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian.”

During his interview with Joe Biden’s former White House press secretary, Trudeau was asked about the newest wrinkle in U.S.-Canada relations stemming from Trump’s election; he has also tangled with the incoming president on the issue of tariffs.

Trump, in a social media post after his election victory in November, used the moniker of the “51st state” to refer to Canada — seemingly meant as a personal barb aimed at Trudeau, a liberal and Trump’s imagined political rival.

But he also reportedly made the jab to the prime minister’s face during a Mar-a-Lago meeting with Trudeau.

Trump’s allies have embraced the idea in memes and across right-wing media, entertaining the idea of an aggressively expansionist United States.

When Psaki asked him whether the traded vitriol meant that world leaders should not take the president-elect’s territorial ambitions seriously, Trudeau replied: “No, no, I think we definitely need to take that seriously.”

“My focus has to be not on something he’s talking about that will not ever happen, but more on something that might well happen, that if he does choose to go forward with tariffs,” said the prime minister, pledging a “robust response” to any measures slapped on Canadian imports by the second Trump administration.

“As we did last time, we are ready to respond with tariffs as necessary,” Trudeau said. “We are the number one export partner of about 35 different U.S. states.”

CNN separately reported on Sunday that Canadian officials are preparing measures to impose tariffs on U.S. exports of steel, liquor, ceramics, and other goods.

Trump famously picked a tit-for-tat tariff fight with China beginning in 2018. The two countries traded politically-charged measures aimed at stifling individual sectors of the economy — everything from agricultural imports to minerals and manufactured goods. Biden, upon taking office in 2021, left some of those measures in place; Trump, during his third bid for office, then proposed a flat 60 percent tariff on all goods imported from China.

The incoming president is now threatening a similar fight with the country’s two main North American partners: Mexico and Canada. Trump is eager to renegotiate the trade deal signed with the two nations under his first term, targeting the auto industry, and says he plans to notify the two countries of his intention to begin negotiations.

But his territorial ambitions are new. The president-elect, since winning the November election, has also threatened to used force to retake the Panama Canal and has expressed interest in annexing the territory of Greenland, currently part of Denmark.

Trump’s strained relationship with Trudeau shares several characteristics with the on-and-off rivalry between the incoming president and Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, with whom Trump is known for embracing in tight, white-knuckle tests of manliness instead of a normal handshake.

He’s not due to continue that relationship much longer, however, given that Trudeau recently announced his resignation. The Canadian prime minister will remain in office until his party selects a new leader to replace him.