How People Viewed Trump's "51st State" Canada Talk as Deadly Serious

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a remarkable statement following President Trump's Tuesday tariff imposition on Canada, but it was mainly obscured by the current controversy.

 "His justification for these fentanyl tariffs today is wholly unfounded, wholly unjustified, and wholly untrue," Mr. Trudeau told the Ottawa news media.

 He went on to say, "He wants to see the Canadian economy completely collapse because that will make it easier to annex us."

 This is how Mr. Trudeau went from believing that Mr. Trump was kidding when he called him “governor” and Canada “the 51st state” in early December to openly declaring that Canada’s closest neighbor and ally was putting the country through a process of crushing it to seize it.

 The Calls of February

 As part of talks to avoid imposing duties on Canadian goods, Mr. Trump and Mr. Trudeau spoke twice on February 3, first in the morning and again in the afternoon.

 However, tariffs weren't the only topic of those early February discussions.

 Four sources with direct knowledge of the subject of the talks told The New York Times, under the condition of anonymity, that the details of the meetings between the two leaders and the ensuing discussions among senior U.S. and Canadian officials have not been fully published before.  They didn't want to be recognized in public while talking about a delicate subject.

 During those calls, President Trump outlined a long list of issues he had with the two nations' trade relationship, such as Canada's protected dairy industry, the challenges American banks face when conducting business in Canada, and Canadian consumption taxes that he believes are unjust because they raise the cost of American goods.

 He also mentioned something far more basic.

 He informed Mr. Trudeau that he wanted to change the border between the two nations because he did not think the treaty that established it was legitimate.  He didn't elaborate.

 The international border between the United States and Canada, a British dominion at the time, was formalized in 1908 with the establishment of the border treaty that Mr. Trump was referring to.

 Mr. Trump also brought up the subject of reexamining the two countries' sharing of lakes and rivers, which is governed by several treaties and about which he has previously shown interest.

 Given that Mr. Trump had previously stated in public that he wished to bring Canada to its knees, Canadian officials took his remarks seriously.  When a reporter from the New York Times asked Mr. Trump if he intended to use military force to annex Canada during a press conference on January 7, just before his inauguration, he replied that he intended to employ "economic force."

 A request for comment from the White House was not answered.

 Mr. Trudeau was able to get the duties postponed for one month at the second call on February 3.

 The U.S. tariffs went into force this week on Tuesday without a new respite.  The two countries entered a trade war when Canada retaliated by imposing its duties on American exports.  (On Thursday, Mr. Trump allowed Canada to suspend the majority of the duties for a month.)

 Over the past few months, hints of the rift between Mr. Trump and Mr. Trudeau as well as Mr. Trump's ambitious aspirations for Canada have been emerging.

 In early February call, Mr. Trump brought up the 1908 border treaty along with other specifics of the discussion, according to the Canadian daily Toronto Star.  Additionally, according to the Financial Times, a senior Trump aide is allegedly involved in talks at the White House about pulling Canada out of a vital intelligence alliance of five countries.

 Double Down

 However, the Canadian side was not just agitated by the president's discussions with Mr. Trudeau on the border and seas.

 Both inside and outside of the Canadian government, the frequent allusions on social media to Canada as the 51st state and Mr. Trudeau as its governor had started to irritate many.

 The Canadian side no longer thinks that Mr. Trump's statements are merely bluster or a bargaining ploy to get Canada to make trade or border security concessions.

 During later calls between senior Trump officials and their Canadian colleagues, it became clear that the Trump administration was examining the relationship more closely and aggressively, in line with those annexation threats.

 One such call involved Dominic LeBlanc, Canada's finance minister, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who had not yet received Senate confirmation.  Since meeting at Mr. Trump's Florida home and club, Mar-a-Lago, during Mr. Trudeau's visit there in early December, the two men had been in regular contact.

 Following the leaders' February 3 conversation, Mr. Lutnick called Mr. LeBlanc and left a heartbreaking message, according to multiple individuals with knowledge of the call:  He claimed that Mr. Trump had realized that several treaties and accords that governed the U.S.-Canada relationship were simple to break.

 Mr. Lutnick said that was exactly what Mr. Trump wanted to do.

 He sought to expel Canada from the Five Eyes, an intelligence-sharing organization that also consisted of Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.

 He sought to destroy the conventions and agreements about the Great Lakes that govern the two countries' management and sharing of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.

 Additionally, he is examining the two nations' military collaboration, specifically the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

 A request for comment from Mr. Lutnick's representative was not answered.  Mr. LeBlanc's representative chose not to comment.

 This list of issues has repeatedly surfaced in later correspondence between Trump advisers and senior Canadian officials, making it difficult for the Canadian government to ignore them.  

 According to the four people with knowledge of the situation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been the only one to calm folks down.  Mr. Rubio has not threatened anyone, and he recently denied that the United States was considering ending military cooperation.

 However, Canadian society as a whole and politicians of all stripes are extremely troubled and agitated.  Officials perceive a new normal for the United States and do not view the threats made by the Trump administration as meaningless.

 "Your foreign affairs minister yesterday described all of this as a psychodrama," a reporter asked Mr. Trudeau during a press conference on Thursday.  What would you say about it?

 “Thursday,” said Mr. Trudeau sadly.