U.S. President Donald Trump once again threatened to suspend trade talks with Canada, this time over Ottawa’s promise to recognize Palestinian statehood.
On Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that his country intends to recognize a Palestinian state ahead of September’s United Nations General Assembly, joining France and the U.K. on that path.
But Trump, despite acknowledging there is “real starvation” in Gaza on Monday, remains a staunch Israel ally. He argued earlier this week that recognizing Palestinian statehood would reward Hamas, the militant group behind the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!” the president wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday night.
With a Friday deadline looming to strike a deal or face steep U.S. tariffs, negotiations between Canada and the U.S. have stalled, and no deal framework has been set.
POLITICO reported this week that U.S. officials have been recycling grievances at trade talks without offering a path forward, according to Canadian officials. In June, the White House pushed Canada into rescinding its planned digital services tax to unfreeze the talks.
Israel has been losing its international support over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which is “on the brink of famine,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 in their Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war. Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed around 60,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Canada, as well as France and the U.K., cited the suffering of civilians in Gaza as one of the reasons for recognizing Palestinian statehood now. All three countries also argued that Hamas must disarm and can play no role in any Palestinian state.
Since Trump returned to office, he has frequently trolled Ottawa by calling Canada the 51st state, threatening to annex it and referring to the former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau.”
CORRECTION: This article has been updated to clarify that the Oct. 7 attack killed some 1,200 people.
