Donald Trump has ramped up his rhetoric about annexing Canada, calling the border between the United States and its neighbours to the north an "artificial line."
The president suggested that removing all forms of separation between the two nations was the easiest way to solve what he deemed to be unfair treatment on the part of Canada.
"We spend $200 billion a year subsidizing Canada," Trump said Tuesday outside the White House, claiming the United States doesn't need any Canadian cars, lumber, or energy. "We don't have to do that."
He went on to suggest that "the way that gets solved" is if Canada becomes the 51st state.
"We wouldn't have a northern border problem," Trump continued. "We wouldn't have a tariff problem ... you wouldn't have to worry about anything."
The president then referred to the Canada-United States border as an "artificial line," adding that "it looks like it was done with a ruler."
"When you take away that and you look at that beautiful formation of Canada and the United States," he continued, "there is no place anywhere in the world that looks like that, then if you add Greenland, that's even..."
Trump's comments mirrored those he made in a post to Truth Social earlier in the day.
"The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State," he wrote. "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!"
Not everyone took Trump's comments literally. Among those who suggested the president didn't mean he wanted to take over Canadian territory was businessman Kevin O'Leary.
"Ignore the noise, look for the signal," he advised. "They're not gonna sell the country, but if you join the economies, it's the largest economy on earth. China will never catch up."
O'Leary pointed out that the United States is the largest consumer market in the world, and Canada has "all the things everybody needs every day."
"All the tariffs have to go," he continued. "Erase that border in terms of the economy, and join the economies, and everyone's gonna do really well."
O'Leary argued that Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland's relationships with Trump were "toxic," and urged the next prime minister to get together with Trump to "start negotiating a union of the economies."