Canada believes US President Donald Trump is no longer interested in turning it into the 51st state, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday.
Asked by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on the sidelines of the NATO meeting in the Netherlands whether Trump is still saying he wants to annex Canada, Carney replied, “No, he is not.”.
“He admires Canada,” Carney told Amanpour.
“I think it’s fair to say, maybe for a period of time (he) coveted Canada.”.
On May 22, Peter Hoekstra, the US ambassador to Canada, told CNN’s broadcast partner CBC that “Donald Trump is not talking about” turning Canada into the 51st state anymore.
Still, Carney credited Trump for pushing Canada toward higher defense spending, especially meeting the defense spending benchmark for NATO members.
Trump now has the “potential to be decisive” in the situation in the Middle East, Carney also told Amanpour. »