It started with an odd attempt at humor. A couple of weeks ago, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau traveled to Mar-a-Lago to have dinner with Donald Trump, and while dining, the president-elect apparently suggested that Canada could become the 51st U.S. state.
Canadian officials soon after confirmed that the Republican did, in fact, make the comments, but they assured the public that Trump was merely joking.
It was, to be sure, a strange thing for the incoming American leader to bring up, even a kidding manner, but the story seemed likely to fade away rather quickly.
Evidently, the president-elect had other ideas.
A few days after having dinner with the Canadian prime minister, Trump posted an image to his social media platform with a caption that read, “Oh Canada!” As an item in The New Republic summarized, the image depicted the president-elect “atop a mountain, beside a Canadian flag, gazing upon a pinnacle that users have noted closely resembles that of the Matterhorn in Switzerland.”
It was against this backdrop that the Republican sat down with NBC News’ Kristen Welker and continued to lean into the idea during a “Meet the Press” appearance. Trump claimed:
“We’re subsidizing Canada to the tune over $100 billion a year. We’re subsidizing Mexico for almost $300 billion. We shouldn’t be — why are we subsidizing these countries? If we’re going to subsidize them, let them become a state.”
The day after the interview aired, the president-elect published yet another related item to his online platform, which referred to Trudeau as “governor.” Lest anyone think he simply mistyped, Trump called the Canadian prime minister “governor” twice in the same missive.
In case this was too subtle, the same item referenced “the Great State of Canada.”
Chances are, this prompted some eye-rolling in Ottawa, but it’s worth pausing at this point to unpack the problem. First, Trump is under the impression that the United States has a $100 billion annual trade deficit with Canada and an “almost” $300 billion annual trade deficit with Mexico. Those numbers are wildly exaggerated, as he really ought to know. Second, Trump apparently believes that if the United States has a trade deficit with a country, it necessarily means that we’re “subsidizing” that country. The problem, of course, is that the Republican has never really bothered to learn what a trade deficit is, and his claim is largely gibberish. Third, Trump also apparently believes that countries that benefit from U.S. subsidies should become states. That’s not how subsidies work, either. Given all of this, common sense suggests Trump really ought to stop commenting on Canada and statehood, but given everything we know about the president-elect, this seems unlikely.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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