Donald Trump claimed Monday that he’s already begun making moves toward making Canada the fifty-first state, and nobody’s excited.
Trump shared a screenshot of a post from Leading Report, a right-wing website that offers some news, some misinformation, and lots of conspiracy theories. Now, it seemingly reported a piece of otherwise unreported ”news” that was instantly elevated by the president-elect.
“Kevin O’Leary says he will go to Mar-a-Lago to ‘start the narrative’ about merging Canada with the United States because ‘we don’t want Trudeau negotiating this deal,’” a post last week stated.
“Think about the power of combining the two economies,” the post added, listing possible benefits to combining the two massive nations, including a common currency, open trade, and an “EU-type passport.”
Trump offered no comment or caption on the post, but reshared it to his followers on Monday.
O’Leary, a Canadian businessman known for Shark Tank, praised the idea of making Canada the fifty-first state during an appearance on Fox News last Friday.
“I think this is a great idea, and I think the potential is massive, and the opportunity is huge,” O’Leary said. “I think at the end of the day, Canadians and Americans, their DNA is the same in terms of what they believe in … freedom.”
Trump’s ravings about Canada began as a joke in response to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s warning that Trump’s plan to enforce steep tariffs would cripple both their economies. Rather than actually engage with the issue, Trump joked that Canada should just become the fifty-first state.
Now he’s taking that joke too far, and likely putting some money in Mr. Wonderful’s pocket.
“Thank you, MAGA, for turning the US into the laughingstock of the world,” wrote the X account Republicans Against Trump in response to Trump’s post.
Others pointed out that Trump was once again moving to work alongside an unelected billionaire, rather than an actual representative of the country he hopes to take over.
Some speculated that Trump was only interested in trolling world leaders and playing with his map.
And others were just taken aback by how stupid the entire thing is.
