The top diplomat of the U.S. government on Friday defended U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated call to make Canada the 51st state, calling it an economic “argument” that “stands for itself” while speaking on Canadian soil.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was repeatedly pressed by reporters at the conclusion of the G7 foreign ministers summit in Charlevoix, Que., about whether he agrees with Trump’s comments, which have escalated amid a growing trade war to include calling the Canada-U.S. border an “artificial line.”
“The Canadian government has made their position, how they feel about it [annexation] clear, and the president has made his argument about why he thinks Canada would be better off joining the United States for economic purposes,” Rubio said.
“There’s a disagreement between the president’s position and the position of the Canadian government. I don’t think that’s a mystery coming in, and it wasn’t a topic of conversation because that’s not what this summit was about.”
Rubio later reiterated that the issue wasn’t discussed at the summit, but when pressed again said the issue began in December 2024, when then-prime minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to discuss the threat of tariffs on Canada.
“I’ll tell you how it came about: [Trump] was in a meeting with Trudeau and Trudeau basically says that if the U.S. imposes tariffs on Canada, then Canada couldn’t survive as a nation state, at which point the president said, ‘Well, you should become a state,’” Rubio said.
“He says he loves Canada. He made an argument for why Canada would be better off joining the United States from an economic standpoint and the like. He’s made that argument repeatedly, and I think it stands for itself.”
Trump has made similar claims about Trudeau’s comments when recalling their December dinner, which came after Trump first raised the possibility of sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico over border security concerns. Those tariffs and subsequent rounds of duties on Canadian products since early March have led to a trade war and souring relations between the two historical allies.
Trudeau has acknowledged he raised concerns about the economic impact of those tariffs during the Mar-a-Lago meeting, but has not confirmed Trump’s claim he said Canada wouldn’t be able to survive as a country.
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However, Trudeau initially brushed off Trump’s “51st state” remark as a joke, only to warn of its seriousness later after Trump kept repeating it.
On Thursday, Trump again said he wants Canada to become a U.S. state while sitting next to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, saying he liked the idea of a combined nation-state “visually.”
“To be honest with you, Canada only works as a state,” Trump said.
Rutte did not push back on the idea of the U.S. taking over a founding NATO member.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was sworn in shortly before Rubio’s remarks, told reporters he has not yet spoken to Trump but said Canada will stand firm against his annexation threats.
“We will never, ever in any way, shape or form be part of the United States,” he said. “America is not Canada.”
Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters earlier Friday that in individual meetings with her counterparts at the G7 summit, she raised Ottawa’s belief that the U.S. is trying to annex Canada through economic coercion and discussed expanding trade outside North America.
“The reaction of my colleagues coming from Europe about this absurd threat of annexation was really, ‘Is that a joke?’” Joly said.
“I said to them, ‘This is not a joke.’ Canadians are anxious. They’re proud people. And you are here in a sovereign country and we don’t expect this to even be discussed.”
Joly said she and Rubio had a “long” discussion in a bilateral meeting during the summit.
“I wanted to be able to have a frank conversation with him,” Joly said. “Sovereignty is not up for debate. And we had a long conversation on tariffs and trade.”
Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to Canada, affirmed at his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday that “Canada is a sovereign state” and closer ties would benefit both countries.
— with files from Global’s Touria Izri and The Canadian Press
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