Canadian official Dominic LeBlanc on Wednesday criticized President-elect Trump's “51st state” comment, saying it is no longer funny.
“The joke is over,” said Canada's Minister of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs LeBlanc. “I think for him this was a way to sow chaos, incite people and create chaos, even though he knew it was never going to happen.”
“It's becoming very counterproductive,” LeBlanc added.
President Trump recently hinted at a merger between the United States and Canada, saying it “should become the 51st state,” and the president-elect said Tuesday he intends to use “economic power” against Canada to annex it. said.
“It would be really great because it's Canada and the United States. It would be much better for national security as well if we removed the artificially drawn lines and looked at what that looks like,” Trump said. He said this at a press conference.
The president-elect expressed frustration at a news conference that the United States has spent “hundreds of billions of dollars” to protect Canada amid a trade deficit.
“My message to President-elect Trump is, first and foremost, that Canada will never become the 51st state of the United States,” Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poièvre said late last month.
President Trump has also recently targeted Greenland and the Panama Canal as potential US expansion. His son Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland earlier this week as his father expressed interest in acquiring the land.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
