Trump trolls Canadians by suggesting they should vote for him and become the 51st state on election day
President Trump trolled Canadians by suggesting they should elect him as their next leader and become America’s 51st state — as voters in the Great White North headed to the polls for election day.“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 on Truth Social Monday.Trump’s renewed needling came as Canadians are set to choose between Prime Minister Mark Carney — the Liberal Party successor to Justin Trudeau — or populist Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, whose brash style has prompted some comparisons to Trump.The president’s highly unpopular tariff war against Canada, as well as his continued pot-stirring about its sovereignty, has become an albatross around Poilievre and the Conservative Party’s neck.Carney is a lifelong technocrat — a former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England — who has never held elected office.
Before Trump took office, the Liberals seemed destined for defeat — but polling has considerably narrowed leading up to election day as the US and Canada’s strained relationship has left a sour taste in the mouths of many Canadians.Poilievre himself hit out at the president in an X post Monday morning, batting down his 51st state rhetoric.“President Trump, stay out of our election.The only people who will decide the future of Canada are Canadians at the ballot box,” he wrote.“Canada will always be proud, sovereign and independent and we will NEVER be the 51st state.”Poilievre had hoped to make the election a referendum on Trudeau, whose popularity plunged in the final years of his decade in power amid surging house and food prices.
He stepped down in March, and was succeeded by Carney,...