OTTAWA — President Donald Trump has an Election Day message for Canadians: The Canada-U.S. border is artificial, and you should become the 51st state.
“Good luck to the Great people of Canada,” Trump said on Truth Social at 8:36 a.m. ET on Monday as polls in parts of the country were opening, landing on the morning of one of the most consequential elections in decades.
“No more artificially drawn line from many years ago. Look how beautiful this land mass would be,” he said.
It was not actually clear which Canadian leader Trump was favoring with his latest post.
The Liberals under Mark Carney hold a single-digit poll lead over the Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre, after a hard-fought, five-week campaign. They clashed over who was best suited to protect Canada from Trump’s economic threats of punitive tariffs and annexation taunts.
Poilievre has argued that when Trump talks about the 51st state, he is trying to prop up Carney so the president can face what Conservatives say will be a weak Liberal government going forward.
Carney has argued that only he has the mettle to confront Trump — pointing to crisis-management experience on his resume from helping to steer Canada through the 2008 recession as its central bank governor to managing the fallout of Brexit as the U.K.’s central banker.
More than 7 million Canadians voted in advance polls ahead of Election Day.
Carney and Trump spoke March 28 in a call during which the prime minister initially said the president has respected Canadian sovereignty. Canadians appeared to be enjoying a reprieve from Trump’s anti-Canadian bluster, until Carney clarified last week that the president did in fact raise the 51st state during the call.
Carney dismissed questions about why he’d failed to mention that in his original readout, arguing that Trump was just being Trump, and that the tone was generally positive.
Trump’s Monday morning post shredded any illusions that Trump was cutting Canada any slack.
“Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America,” Trump wrote Monday.
Trump’s pick for ambassador, Michigan Republican Pete Hoekstra, arrives in Ottawa on Tuesday — stepping into a post already overshadowed by his boss’ online bombshell.
On the heels of Trump’s intervention, his new ambassador to Canada, the veteran Michigan lawmaker Pete Hoekstra, will arrive in Ottawa on Tuesday.
