Eric Trump, son of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, is following his father’s taunts of Canada, this time joking about shopping for the nation on Amazon.
Eric Trump made a put up on Fact Social and X on Dec. 24 that confirmed a doctored picture of his father ordering Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal on Amazon.
Trump has made a number of references to doubtlessly making Canada the “51st state” since successful the 2024 election. He first made the joke whereas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was visiting Mar-a-Lago on Nov. 29, saying the nation ought to turn out to be a state if it couldn’t survive and not using a commerce surplus courtesy of the U.S.
Finance Minister Dominic Leblanc, who had attended the dinner as public security minister at the moment, later mentioned the president had made the feedback in a joking method, and that there was “cheerful banter between the prime minister” and Trump.
Trump posted an AI-generated picture of himself on Dec. 3 posing on a mountain beside the Canadian flag, with the caption “Oh Canada!” The incoming president then mentioned on Dec. 10 that it had been a “pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.”
Trump additionally wrote on Dec. 18 that “many Canadians” need Canada to turn out to be the 51st state, and that Canada would “save massively on taxes and military protection” if this have been to occur.
Whereas Trudeau has not responded on to Trump’s jokes about annexing Canada, he has subtly criticized Trump in two current public speeches. He mentioned on Dec. 9 that many international locations had voters who can be “wondering about the choice they maybe made in elections,” and on Dec. 11 mentioned the Nov. 5 defeat of U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris within the presidential election was a setback for ladies.
With Trump threatening 25 % tariffs on Canada if it doesn’t take sufficient steps to enhance border safety and cease the movement of unlawful medicine and immigrants, Ottawa has been engaged on strengthening the Canada-U.S. border. The Canadian authorities lately introduced a $1.3 billion border plan to tighten safety, which incorporates creating a brand new North American process pressure focusing on organized crime and drug trafficking and rising funding for helicopters, drones, and surveillance towers.
In current days, Trump has additionally spoken about buying Greenland from Denmark, an concept that Trump floated repeatedly throughout his first time period as president. Trump mentioned on Fact Social on Dec. 22 that the possession of the nation of 57,000 is an “absolute necessity,” which prompted Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede to say the nation is “not for sale.”
Trump additionally mentioned the U.S. was being “ripped off at the Panama Canal” and that its charges for U.S. ships passing by way of are too excessive. He mentioned on Fact Social that the U.S. would demand that the canal, which was constructed by the U.S. within the early twentieth century however given to Panama in 1999, be given again.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino responded that “every square meter” of the Panama Canal and the encircling space belongs to Panama, to which Trump mentioned, “We’ll see about that!” Trump additionally posted an AI-generated picture of an American flag flying over the canal, with the caption “Welcome to the United States Canal!”
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