Trump says he raised 51st state idea with Canada during Golden Dome talk

During a call with Canadian counterparts, U.S. President Donald Trump said he once again suggested Canada become the 51st state, remarking that Canadians “are having a hard time up there.”

Source: X

During a call with Canadian counterparts, U.S. President Donald Trump said he once again suggested Canada become the 51st state, remarking that Canadians “are having a hard time up there.”

Trump was laying out plans for his ‘Golden Dome’ missile defence system during a speech in Quantico, Virginia on Tuesday when he mentioned that the Carney government had expressed interest in joining, a talking point that has come up before.

“Canada called me a couple of weeks ago, they want to be part of it,” he said.

“Which I said, ‘Well, why don’t you just join our country. Become 51, become the 51st state and you get it for free.’ So I don’t know if that made a big impact, but it makes a lot of sense, because they’re having a hard time up there in Canada.”

The Golden Dome is a land, sea, and space missile defence system similar to the iron dome system utilized by Israel.

While in Alberta earlier this year for the G7 Summit, Trump announced that he would be increasing the price that Canada would have to pay to be included in the proposed military protection program.

The U.S. president hiked Canada’s entry fee by $10 billion USD from what he’d previously announced, bringing the new total to $71 billion USD.

During his speech in Virginia, Trump said his administration’s tariffs meant “everyone is trying” to enter the American market.

“We have more investment than we’ve ever had before, $17 trillion dollars coming in,” he said.

Negotiations between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Trump seemed to have fizzled in recent months, with little achieved on the Canadian side.

While Carney campaigned on his ‘elbows up’ message of being tough on Trump, his government quietly removed a number of countermeasures implemented under former prime minister Justin Trudeau during his first month in office.

Last month, Carney removed nearly all remaining retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports via an order-in-council.

The move eliminated tariffs on all American goods except those in the steel, aluminum and automotive sectors. That includes goods not covered under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, which Carney had previously said would remain subject to tariffs.

The Order In Council confirms that non-CUSMA-compliant goods entering Canada will no longer face the 25 per cent surtax unless explicitly listed in sectoral schedules.

The repeal rolls back broad surtax powers Canada had previously used to retaliate against U.S. protectionist measures under Trump.

Dozens of tariff codes under Chapters 98 and 99 of the Customs Tariff were quietly removed, with retroactive application. Some sections of the order stretch back to as early as March and April 2025.

Following the August announcement, Trump said, “I like Carney a lot. I think he’s a good person and we had a very good talk yesterday.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused the prime minister of continuing to make “generous concessions” to the Trump administration without getting anything in return.

“Today we learned that it is yet another capitulation and climb-down by Mark Carney, his elbows have mysteriously gone missing,” Poilievre said last month.

The Trudeau government imposed nearly $30 billion in counter-tariffs in early 2025; almost all have now been repealed under Carney.

CUSMA will be up for renegotiation in July 2026.