CALGARY — US President Donald Trump has stated that he will not invade Canada after having previously threatened to turn the country into America’s “51st state.”The Mirror reports that, in an interview with royal biographer Robert Hardman, who has published a new book on Queen Elizabeth II, Trump asked whether Canadians still recognized King Charles III as their head of state.“I suppose Canadians still have got 200 years of history and all that ‘O Canada’ thing,” Trump said.“You can’t deal with that in three and a half years. I guess it’s not going to happen.”In the interview, which was first published by the Daily Mail, Hardman reportedly asked the president to “please leave Canada alone,” adding that it would “undoubtedly make the King of Canada unhappy,” which Hardman revealed “prompted a slight pause” from Trump."Do they still recognize the King? Or have they stopped that?" Trump asked Hardman, to which he replied that Canadians still recognize His Majesty as the head of state..Trump then switched gears and turned his criticism towards Canadian politicians.“They’ve got terrible politicians. They’re nice to my face, and then they say bad things behind my back,” he said, adding that most Canadians live close to the US border because of the country’s colder climate.He also took aim at the border itself, suggesting it was arbitrarily drawn.“Somebody drew that straight line to make a border. They should have just moved it 50 miles further north—then there wouldn’t be a problem,” he said.Last year, the president appeared to be adamant about the US annexing Canada as its 51st state.He first made the suggestion in November 2025 when then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew down to Mar-a-Lago to attempt to defer Trump’s 25% tariff threat.“Historically, Canada has been very, very bad to us, very unfair to us on trade, so we'll see how it all works out,” Trump previously told reporters..King Charles’ Easter silence ignites religious double standard debate as critics point to Ramadan message.“I would love to see Canada be the 51st state. The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a very big tax cut — a tremendous tax cut, because they're very highly taxed — and you wouldn't have to worry about military, you wouldn't have to worry about many of the things, and would have better health coverage.”Despite his past rhetoric, it is believed Trump’s admiration for the King has led him to rein in his comments about a potential American invasion of Canada.In the interview with Hardman, Trump praised the King, saying: "He’s a great guy.”“He’s grown so much in the last 10 years and especially over the last couple of years as King,” Trump said.“His fight has shown that."Buckingham Palace has confirmed King Charles and Queen Camilla will go ahead with a planned state visit to the US in late April, marking the 250th anniversary of American independence from Great Britain.
