U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra on Monday morning shared a post from President Trump about Canada being the “51st State,” reupping his acquisition push for the U.S.’s northern neighbor.
Hoekstra posted a screenshot of a Monday Trump Truth Social post in which the president said “51st State!” and linked to a Bloomberg article about economic struggles in Canada.
Trump has pushed to take over Canada on multiple occasions in recent years, causing heightened tension with Ottawa, which historically has been one of the U.S.’s strongest partners on the global stage.
In March, Trump quipped about Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney being the “future governor of Canada,” bringing back an insult he used for Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau.
Hoekstra’s Trump’s repost follows previous heightened rhetoric from the ambassador on the U.S.-Canada relationship, with Hoekstra stepping into a rift between the U.S. and Canada over a purchase of U.S. F-35s in January when he said during an interview that the U.S.-Canadian defense partnership “would have to be altered” if Ottawa did not buy the fighter jets.
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Ontario Premier Doug Ford shot back at Hoekstra’s repost of Trump, saying in his own post on X that he “can’t believe I have to say this again, but Canada will never be the 51st state.”
“Canada is not for sale,” Ford added. “While I’m at it, here’s the truth: in April, Ontario created 680 per cent more jobs than the U.S., adjusted for population. That’s how we protect Ontario.”
