US President Donald Trump pushed for Canada to become an additional US state in a Tuesday Truth Social post announcing tariffs on the northern country.
"The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear," he wrote.
This comes after Trump announced that he instructed his commerce secretary to add an additional 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum coming into the United States from Canada, bringing the total tariff on those products to 50%.
In the post, Trump said that the tariffs were a response to a 25% surcharge on electricity to three US states bordering Canada that Ontario Premier Doug Ford placed. The surcharges to Michigan, New York, and Minnesota began on Monday.
Canada, the great and powerful state
Trump argued that statehood would mean more security for Canada.
"Canadians taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that," he continued.
"The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, 'O Canada,' will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!"
Ford told CNN in a Tuesday interview that Canadians strongly rejected Trump's push.
"It's disappointing because Americans are going to pay more," the premier told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "There was an unprovoked attack on Canada; on families, on jobs, on businesses, for what reason?
"This is absolute chaos created by one person, and that's Donald Trump. Not the American people."
He added that if the US continued to escalate, he would shut of Canada's portion of the integrated power grid.
“If the United States escalates, I will not hesitate to shut the electricity off completely,” Ford told reporters. “Believe me when I say I do not want to do this, I feel terrible for the American people, because it’s not the American people who started this trade war. It’s one person who’s responsible. That’s President Trump.”