Outside Influence 8
Trump Remains a Menace
This update is focussed on one issue: the latest unhinged comments by a US president who is by far the top foreign-backed proxy influencing our elections. In advance of election day, we will send one more update over the weekend. After the ballots are counted next week, we will put together an overall assessment of foreign interference in Canada’s 2025 federal election and make some proposals.
Influence operations targeting Canada’s elections continue to face greater scrutiny. The Canadian Digital Media Research Network has released its latest weekly update on trends and dynamics in the election-related information ecosystem. Our friends at Get Fact are testing ‘Laura’, a Canada-made, AI-powered fact-checking bot inspired by war of 1812 icon Laura Secord. You can sign up here to provide feedback and join a growing team countering misinformation in Canada.
What the Bots Are Saying
Trends observed over the past four weeks remain unchanged. Our last sample showed ten percent negative posts for Carney; 70 percent for Poilievre.
US Dimension/Foreign-Backed Proxy
Over the first weeks of this campaign, Trump went silent on Canada. Then on April 15 his press secretary confirmed Trump’s wish to see Canada become a 51st state was unchanged, as we reported here. Now the president has made two new comments — the first after an executive order signing in the Oval on Wednesday, April 23:
Journalist: “With Canada’s election coming up, do you have a prediction for that? And what do you expect the results to be with respect to the negotiations?”
Trump: “I don’t want to predict other nations’ elections. It’s tough enough doing this one. Look, I love the Canadian people. I like Canada. But it’s costing us $200 billion a year to support Canada. $200 billion! And I say why are we doing that? You know what? We can make our own cars. We have more energy than they do. We have more energy than anybody in the world. We don’t need their lumber, obviously. We have more lumber. We have a lot of lumber. We have a lot of everything they sell us. But in particular, cars: they took a large percentage of the car-making and I want to bring it back to this country. I really don’t want cars from Canada. So when I put tariffs on Canada, they’re paying 25 percent but that could go up in terms of cars. When we put tariffs, all we’re doing is we’re saying we don’t want your cars in (sic) all due respect. We want really to make our own cars, which is what we’re doing in record numbers now. You know we’re going to be at record levels in the very near future because of all the car plants that are being built. And I’d rather see them built in Michigan, made in South Carolina, made in different states. Tennessee. We have a lot of great car-making states and some that are not yet car-making but they will soon be car-making states. And that’s what I want to see for our country. At the same time, I want to help Canada. As to, I’ve spoken to the current prime minister. He was very, very nice – a couple of very nice conversations. But I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to get involved in their election.”
These offhand threats were followed by a question about Crimea to which Trump gave his usual Kremlin-friendly replies. Then this:
Journalist: “Mr. President, on tariffs you’ve said 25 percent could go up on cars, on Canada. Does that mean you’re considering changes to tariffs on auto or auto parts?”
Trump: “No, we not considering changes. But at some point it could go up. Because we don’t really want Canada to make cars for us. To put it bluntly, we want to make our own cars. We’re now equipped to do that. They took a lot of our car business. Mexico, too, took a lot of our car business. We want to make the cars here. I’m running this country. I’m not running Canada. And that’s why I asked Trudeau, who I call governor Trudeau affectionately, I asked him why are we spending $200 billion to support Canada, to subsidize Canada, and he was unable to answer the question. I mean why are we doing that? And I have to be honest, as a state it works great. As a nation, considering the fact that most of the nation, 95 percent of what they do is buy from us. And they sell to us. If we didn’t buy their oil… And we don’t need their oil. We don’t need their oil, We don’t need their cars. We don’t need their lumber. We don’t need anything. So I said why are we doing this? Why are we spending $200 billion? It doesn’t make sense. If we needed something, that would be a different subject. So I’m working well with Canada. We’re working very well. We’re working on a deal. We’ll see what happens. But again why, representing this country, why are we spending $200 billion to support and subsidize another country? Because if they didn’t have us, and if we didn’t spend that money, as Trudeau told me, they would cease to exist. He said that to me. They would cease to exist, which is true. Certainly as a country.”
(The headline of Trump’s interview with TIME, released April 25, 2025.)
To add outside influence insult to electoral interference injury, TIME today released an interview with Trump done on April 22 — one day before he made the remarks above. Yet again, his remarks about Canada followed discussion of Russia/Ukraine:
TIME: “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 one. I don't know.”
Trump: “Actually, no, I’m not.”
TIME: “Well, do you want to grow the American empire?”
Trump: “Well, it depends 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. I think Canada, what you said that, “Well, that one, I might be trolling.” But I'm really not trolling. Canada is an interesting case. We lose $200 to $250 billion a year supporting Canada. 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.”
These statements are outrageous. No other term is adequate. Trump shows a total lack of respect for Canada as a country and partner. I cannot recall any other head of state or government ever making such egregious statements about this country. Such hostile musings constitute threats that must never be normalized or dismissed. On the contrary, we must take Trump’s wish to see Canada become a 51st state at face value, since by his own admission he is not ‘trolling us’.
His intentions are all the more chilling when juxtaposed with the continuing genocidal belligerence of today’s Kremlin, which Trump also continues to justify. Trump’s annexationist rhetoric remains by far the most serious foreign interference in our election. It may be the toughest threat we have faced since Confederation.
It is difficult to imagine how Trump could ever be allowed to set foot on Canadian soil again. Our response will require national focus, genuine leadership and principled collective action — a response on the scale of the National Policy we implemented after the Reciprocity Treaty was abrogated over 150 years’ ago. Canada needs to unify its domestic market. We must pursue total engagement with allies. We must begin again, at long last and with true ambition, to get serious about defence, military capabilities and national security. Elbows up. Never Trump. Never MAGA. We must counter and dismantle Russian influence at all levels, especially when it flows through the White House. The stakes for us all remain terribly high.