Donald Trump has said he will not invade Canada despite repeated threats to turn it into America’s 51st state, questioning whether Canadians still recognise King Charles as head of state
Donald Trump has declared he will not be invading Canada after all, despite repeatedly threatening to eliminate the 5,525-mile border dividing the two nations and absorb Canada as America’s “51st state”.
The US president questioned whether Canadians still recognised the King as their head of state while discussing the “problem” of annexing the territory during his remaining time in office. “I suppose the Canadians have got 200 years of history and all that ‘Oh, Canada’ thing,” he said. “You can’t deal with that in three and a half years. I guess it’s not going to happen!”
Trump sat down for an interview with royal biographer Robert Hardman, who has recently released a new book about Elizabeth II. During the interview, published by the Daily Mail, Mr Hardman reportedly urged the US president to “please leave Canada alone”, warning it would “undoubtedly make the King of Canada unhappy”. “That prompted a slight pause,” Mr Hardman wrote.
“Do they still recognise the King? Or have they stopped that?” Trump asked, to which Mr Hardman confirmed that Canadians did indeed still recognise the King as head of state.
“But they have these terrible politicians. They’re nice to my face and then they say bad things behind my back,” Trump replied, further remarking that most Canadians resided close to the US border regardless, owing to Canada’s harsh climate. “The problem is some guy drew that straight line to make a border. He should just have drawn it 50 miles further north and then there wouldn’t be a problem,” he added. This follows Trump sharing an AI-generated image depicting an Oval Office gathering with European leaders, in which the US flag was shown covering Canada, Greenland and Venezuela, reports the Mirror.
The King travelled to Ottawa in May for the state opening of Parliament, where he offered reassurance to Canadians that their nation remained “strong and free”. It is widely thought that Trump’s warm regard for the King has prompted him to temper his comments regarding a possible American annexation of the Commonwealth country.
During the interview, Trump spoke highly of the King, remarking: “He’s a great guy and he’s grown so much in the last 10 years and especially over the last couple of years as King. His fight has shown that.”
Buckingham Palace confirmed last week that the King’s scheduled state visit to the US in late April will proceed as planned.
The trip by King Charles and Queen Camilla to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence from Britain will go ahead despite mounting pressure for it to be delayed or called off owing to the continuing conflict in the Middle East.
It is understood, however, that Charles and Camilla will not be able to meet survivors of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while UK police investigations into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Lord Peter Mandelson remain ongoing.
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