In the Super Bowl interview, Trump says he wants Canada to be the 51st condition

Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump said he wanted to seriously want Canada to become the 51st state in an interview that was broadcast on Sunday during the Super Bowl Preshow.

“Yeah is it,” Trump told Fox News Channel Bret Baier When asked if his speech on the annex of Canada is “a real thing” – as a Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently suggested.

“I think Canada would be much better being the 51st state because we lose $ 200 billion a year with Canada. And I’m not going to let it happen, “he said. “Why are we paying $ 200 billion a year, essentially a grant to Canada?”

The United States does not subsidize Canada. The United States bought products from the nation rich in natural resources, including products such as oil. While the commercial difference in goods has increased in recent years to $ 72 billion in 2023, the deficit largely reflected American imports of Canadian energy.

Trump has several times suggested That Canada would be better off if it agreed to become the 51st American state – a deeply unpopular perspective among Canadians.

Trudeau said on Friday During a closed -door session with business leaders and work that Trump is talking about doing Canada The 51st American condition is “a real thing” and is linked to its desire to access the country’s natural resources.

“Mr. Trump gives the mind that the easiest way to do so is to absorb our country and that it is a real thing. In my conversations with him,” said Trudeau, according to CBC, public broadcaster Canada. “They are very aware of our resources of what we have and they want to benefit from it.”

In the interview, which was pre-tape this weekend in Florida, Trump also said that he had not seen enough action from Canada and Mexico to avoid the prices he had threatened to impose on the two largest in the country business partners.

“No, it’s not good enough,” he said. “Something should happen. It is not durable. And I change it.

Trump last week accepted a 30 -day break On its slap plan Mexico and Canada with a 25% price on all imports, with the exception of Canadian oil, natural gas and electricity, which would be taxed at 10%, after countries have Taken measures to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking.

While traveling on Air Force One on Sunday to the championship match in New Orleans, Trump said that he would announce a 25% rate on Monday on all week.

“Very simply, it is if they charge us, we charge them,” he said.

Trump’s participation in the interview marked a return to tradition. The presidents generally granted a redoub to the network broadcasting the game of the Super Bowl, the most watched television event of the year. But Trump and his predecessor, Joe Bidenwere incoherent in their participation.

Biden refused to participate last year and in 2023, when his team’s efforts so that Biden speaks with a Fox Corp streaming service. Instead of the main network failure. During his first term, Trump participated in three years in four years.

Trump Sunday will also become The first president seated to attend the Super Bowl in person – Something he told Baier that he was surprised to learn.

“I thought it would be a good thing for the country to have the president during the match,” he said.

During his flight to New Orleans, Trump signed a proclamation declaring on February 9 “the very first day of the Gulf of America” ​​while the Air Force, one, flew over the body of water that he renowned by the proclamation of the Gulf of Mexico.

Trump in the interview, also defended the work of a billionaire Elon Muskwhose so-called Government Department of EffectivenessOr DOGE, addressed a deep concern of the Democrats while he moves to close whole government agencies and draw large expanses from the federal workforce in the name of the rooting of waste and ineffectiveness.

Musk, said Trump, “was formidable” and will then target the Ministry of Education and the military.

“We are going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud and abuse,” predicted Trump. “I campaigned on this.”

He was also asked about his dance, which has become a popular meme on social networks.

“I don’t know what it is. I try to leave sometimes without dancing and I can’t. I have to dance because that’s just that – something special about it, “said Trump.

___ The writer Associated Press Darlene Superville contributed the reports of Air Force One.