When Ontario Premier Doug Ford emerged from a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in Washington last week, he said the “temperature has been lowered” between the two nations in the midst of an economy-damaging trade war.
On Tuesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump cranked up the heat.
Trump continued his inflammatory comments directed at Canada during an interview with Laura Ingraham on her Fox News political show ‘The Ingraham Angle,’ maintaining that Canada has treated the U.S. unfairly and is “meant” to be the 51st state.
“Here’s my problem with Canada,” Trump seethed. “Canada was meant to be the 51st state because we subsidize Canada by $200 billion a year. We don’t need their cars, we don’t need their lumber, we have a lot of lumber.
“We don’t need their energy, we don’t need anything, we certainly don’t want their automobiles … millions of automobiles are sent in, I’d rather have them made in Michigan, I’d rather have them made in South Carolina.”
Ingraham pushed back, saying the trade deficit with Canada is actually $60 billion. She also pointed out that Trump is “tougher with Canada than you are with some of our biggest adversaries.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Because it’s meant to be our 51st state,” he shot back before directing his anger at the previous Trudeau administration.
“I deal with every country indirectly or directly, one of the nastiest countries to deal with is Canada. Now this was Trudeau … good old Justin, I call him Governor Trudeau, his people were nasty and they weren’t telling the truth, they never tell the truth. They’d say ‘we don’t charge,’ well they do, they charge tremendous.”
Trump cited his oft-repeated claim that Canada has a 250 per cent tariff on dairy products, without mentioning that it is only applied if a considerable quota is exceeded — or that he signed off on that deal himself during his first term as President.
The U.S. also has similar tariff-rate quotas in place on commodities such as sugar, an international trade attorney told the Canadian Press recently.
When Ingraham asked Trump straight up what his end game is, he replied: “My end game is I don’t want to have a big deficit. I don’t want to see the United States of America, and you say $60 billion and I say $200 billion — it doesn’t matter — I don’t want us to pay $60 billion or $200 billion dollars to a country, that if they were a state, it would be our biggest, most beautiful, it would be great.”
“This state, it would be cherished, we’d take care of it, the people would pay half of what they’re paying now. Canada pays very little for defence,” he added. “They think we’re going to defend them.”
‘I’d rather deal with a Liberal’
Trump also weighed in on Canada’s looming federal election after Ingraham pointed out that his trade stance has helped propel the Liberal Party, run by Prime Minister Mark Carney, into a sudden lead in the polls over former favourite, Conservative Pierre Poilievre.
“I don’t care,” Trump said, brushing it off. “I don’t care. I’d rather deal with a Liberal than a Conservative.
“That Conservative that’s running is stupidly no friend of mine,” he added. “I don’t know him, but he’s said negative things. I think its easier to deal, actually, with a Liberal.”
Poilievre was quick to try and capitalize on Trump’s words, saying in a social media post that they were further evidence that he will be tougher on Trump than Carney and will be the best candidate to put “Canada first.”
Last night, President Donald Trump endorsed Mark Carney.
Why? Because, as Trump said, he’s “easier” to deal with, and knows that I will be a tough negotiator and always put Canada First. Carney is weak and would cave to Trump’s demands, just like he did when he moved his company… pic.twitter.com/Dv6FgyyLYg
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) March 19, 2025
Carney demands respect
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, meanwhile, has stressed he won’t sit down and talk to Trump on trade until he ceases his “disrespectful” comments about Canada — something Trump clearly didn’t heed during Tuesday night’s Fox appearance.
“We’ve called out those comments. They’re disrespectful, they’re not helpful, and they need to stop,” Carney said earlier this week in London, on the second part of a one-day trip to France and the U.K.
“They will have to stop before we sit down and have a conversation about our broader partnership with the United States.”
“I don’t think one needs to respond to every comment about another country,” he added. “Canada is strong, we can stand up for ourselves.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly shared a similar distaste for Trump’s annexation threats at a closing news conference of the G7 foreign ministers meeting last Friday.
“What I said to the secretary is Canada’s sovereignty is not up to debate, period,” Joly said.
“There’s no argument, there’s no conversation about it, there’s no need to talk about it,” she said. “You’re here, you respect us, you respect our sovereignty, you’re in our country, you respect our people. Period.”
With files from The Canadian Press
