(Adnkronos) – Donald Trump again attacks Canada, in a post in which, after having defined Justin Trudeau as a “governor” in other statements, he states that it is “a great idea” to make the bordering state the “51st state”. “No one can say why we have to provide Canada with over $100 billion a year in subsidies? It doesn’t make sense,” writes the president-elect, referring in these terms to the United States’ trade deficit with Canada.
“Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st state, they would save massively on taxes and military protection, and I think it’s a great idea, 51st state!”, concludes the tycoon, who already during his dinner with Trudeau at the end of November at Mar a Lago, where the Canadian premier flew to discuss the threatened 25% tariffs on imports into the USA, had advanced the idea, with what had been defined as a joke.
Today’s post is destined to further strain relations between the two neighbors, after yesterday the president-elect stepped into Canadian domestic politics with another post in which, once again calling Prime Minister Trudeau ‘governor’, he attacked Chrystia Freeland, the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister who resigned on Monday denouncing a disagreement with Trudeau on how to deal with the threat from Trump.
“Her behavior was totally toxic and not helpful in reaching positive agreements for the highly disgruntled citizens of Canada, we won’t miss her!”, he wrote of the former minister who, in her letter of resignation sent to Trudeau, and published on X, argues that Canada must “take extremely seriously” and respond forcefully to the threat “of the policy of economic nationalism, including the 25% tariffs” announced by Trump.
Freeland’s resignation, who has been in government, with various positions, since 2015, comes at a time when Trudeau’s popularity is in sharp decline, mainly due to concerns over inflation and immigration. Trudeau has appointed in place of the resigning minister a close ally of his, Dominic LeBlanc, who accompanied – in his capacity as Minister of Public Safety, therefore in charge of borders – the premier to Mar a Lago, since in his threats Trump links the tariffs also to the issue of border control to block the flow of migrants and drugs.
Freeland was considered something of Trudeau’s right-hand man and had played a central role during the first Trump administration in talks to renegotiate NAFTA. At the time, Trump publicly said he didn’t like her negotiating style. In announcing her resignation, Freeland revealed that Trudeau told her last Friday that he wanted her to leave Finance to take up another position within the government.
