After Canada slipped into a technical recession on May 29, 2026, its first since 2020, President Trump revived his call for the country to become the “51st State.” On Monday night, June 1, he posted “51st State” on Truth Social with a link to a Bloomberg article headlined “Canada Dips Into Technical Recession for First Time Since 2020.” U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra shared a screenshot of the post on his official X account the next morning; a U.S. Embassy spokesperson told Global News that amplifying Trump's Truth Social posts “is our usual practice.”
Canadian leaders pushed back across party lines. Ontario Premier Doug Ford wrote on X, “I can't believe I have to say this again, but Canada will never be the 51st state. Canada is not for sale.” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called the idea “ridiculous and it's never going to happen,” while arguing the recession showed the cost of Liberal economic policy. Prime Minister Mark Carney called Trump an “exceptionally active user of social media” and said, “We're not going to respond or react to everything.” Asked whether it was time to expel Hoekstra, Carney said no: “It's an administration that we have to work with.” Carney avoided the word “recession,” acknowledging “weaknesses” in the economy and saying the government was “laying the foundations for a stronger, more resilient, more independent Canadian economy.”
The post landed as Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc traveled to Washington to meet U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer ahead of the July 1 review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement. It continues a pattern of Trump publicly floating the absorption or purchase of U.S. allies and neighbors, including Greenland and, in May, Venezuela (see Buying Greenland).
Update (October 17, 2026): at an October 14 rally in Arizona, days before Alberta's October 19 referendum on separation, Trump said, “They'll end up being the 51st state, because that's the only way it works,” and, “We don't need them, but they need us,” Global News reported. At a unity rally in Calgary the next day, Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “Some outside our borders are working to break us so they can own us,” the BBC reported. Time noted Carney did not name the U.S.