Trump officials unwilling to say Canada won’t be annexed after conversation with premiers

Senior Trump administration officials met with the 13 premiers of Canada’s provinces and territories Wednesday, telling them they won’t back down on making Canada the 51st state.

Source: Facebook

Author: Noah Jarvis

Senior Trump administration officials met with the 13 premiers of Canada’s provinces and territories Wednesday, telling them they won’t back down on making Canada the 51st state and to take President Donald Trump’s words seriously.

Canada’s premiers traveled to Washington D.C. on short notice to speak with the White House to dissuade the administration from imposing 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.

British Columbia Premier David Eby confirmed the premiers met with two White House officials, deputy chief of staff James Blair and director of the Presidential Personnel Office Sergio Gor, despite Ontario Premier Doug Ford claiming he was “not at liberty” to share who they met with.

Eby said Blair and Gor told the premiers they ought to take Trump’s words literally, especially when talking about border security and fentanyl.

“It was a good conversation, I thought it was constructive, there were some very frank moments across the table and they urged us to take the president at his word, and so we will certainly do that,” said Eby.

“We had frank conversations about the 51st state comment where we underlined that that was a non-starter, that was obviously consistent among all the premiers,” said Eby.

Eby said that Blair and Gor committed to passing the premiers’ message to Trump.

But Trump’s deputy chief of staff said the two parties did not agree that Canada will not become the 51st state.

“To be clear, we never agreed that Canada would not be the 51st state. We only agreed to share Premier Eby’s comments,” said Blair. “Further, we said the best way to understand President Trump’s position is to take what he says at face value.”

Since winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump has repeatedly said Canada should become the United States’ 51st state.

It was first reported that Trump joked with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago that if Canada wanted to avoid tariffs, they should join the United States.

Trump began to repeat the idea in the lead-up to his inauguration and has continued to argue that Canada should be annexed by the United States, a move that he says is popular with the Canadian public.

Trump has also threatened massive tariffs up to 100 per cent on Canada’s automotive industry, arguing that Canada “stole” the industry away from the United States.

The premiers also stressed that obtaining a last-minute meeting with senior White House officials is an accomplishment, especially during a day when President Trump had talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainian government.

“People don’t get last minute meetings like this so we’re very grateful. And that just shows the relationship that we have and the respect they have for Canada and regarding Canada,” said Ford.

Ford said the premiers will continue to negotiate with the Trump administration once his cabinet secretaries are sworn in.