Trump shuts down speculation he’s ‘trolling’ about controversial proposal: ‘I’m really not’

WASHINGTON — President Trump has said he is dead serious when he argues Canada should become America’s 51st state.

Trump bristled during an interview with Time magazine when one of its journalists prompted him: “You’ve talked about acquiring Greenland, taking control of  the Panama Canal, making Canada the 51st state. Maybe you’re trolling a little bit on that [last] one.”

“Actually, no, I’m not,” the president said.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that he’s not kidding about Canada becoming part of the United States — though local opposition to the idea makes it unlikely in the near term.

A Time journalist followed up: “Well, do you want to grow the American empire?”

“Well, it depends,” Trump explained. “As an empire, it wasn’t — these are not things that we had before, so I’d view it a little bit differently if we had the right opportunity.

“Yeah, I think Greenland would be very well off if they, I think it’s important for us for national security and even international security,” he added. “I think Canada, what you said that, ‘Well, that one, I might be trolling.’ But I’m really not trolling.”

Trump has rarely mentioned annexing Canada since Mark Carney took over as prime minister last month from Justin Trudeau, whom Trump mockingly called “governor.”

“Canada is an interesting case. We lose $200 to $250 billion a year supporting Canada,” the president told Time.

“And I asked a man, who I called Governor Trudeau, I said, ‘Why? Why do you think we’re losing so much money supporting you? Do you think that’s right? Do you think that’s appropriate for another country to make it possible, for a country to sustain?’ and he was unable to give me an answer, but it costs us over $200 billion a year to take care of Canada?

“We’re taking care of their military. We’re taking care of every aspect of their lives, and we don’t need them to make cars for us. In fact, we don’t want them to make cars for us. We want to make our own cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need their energy. We don’t need anything from Canada. And I say the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state.”

Polling shows most Canadians oppose joining the United States, though the precise wording of the question garners different results and younger citizens appear more inclined to accept Trump’s idea.

Surveys conducted in December and January by Leger Marketing and the Angus Reid Institute found 13% and 10% support, respectively, for Canada joining the US.

But Ipsos found that while 80% of Canadians claimed they would “never” vote to join the US, the number softened when the question included an offer of American citizenship and conversion of Canadian dollars — with 30% saying they would vote to join the US under those conditions.

In a sign Trump’s idea may have staying power, younger voters were more open-minded about the idea.

Among Canadians ages 18 to 34, support for joining the US reached 43% in the Ipsos poll when citizenship and full conversion of assets were mentioned.