Trump floats using ‘economic force’ to merge Canada and U.S., slams trade
Global News
Trump also said he wants NATO members to spend at least five per cent of their GDP on defence, more than double the current two-per cent target.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said he’s considering using “economic force” to merge Canada with the United States, arguing “we don’t need anything they have” to trade and repeating his desire for Canada to become a U.S. state.
Trump, in a wide-ranging press conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida with less than two weeks before he takes office, also said he wants NATO members to spend at least five per cent of their GDP on defence, more than double the current two-per cent target.
His comments were the latest in recent threats against longstanding U.S. allies, renewing questions and concerns about plans to use trade as a cudgel, and went beyond similar comments he has made about making Canada a part of the U.S.
Trump told reporters he wouldn’t rule out using military action to take back control of the Panama Canal and acquire Danish-controlled Greenland, which he said the U.S. needs for economic and security reasons.
Asked if he was considering the same to “annex and acquire Canada,” which Trump has repeatedly said should become the 51st U.S. state, Trump responded, “No — economic force.”
“Canada and the United States, that would really be something,” he said. “You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security.”
Trump repeatedly stated the U.S. “subsidizes” Canada to the tune of US$200 billion in trade and spends billions more on continental defence programs like NORAD than Canada, who he said “don’t essentially have a military.”
“We don’t need their cars, we don’t need their lumber,” he continued. “We don’t need anything they have. We don’t need their dairy products.
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