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Prime Minister Mark Carney shrugged off U.S. president Donald Trump’s latest jab about Canada being the 51st state as a post by an “exceptionally active user of social media.”
“It’s only gone up in recent months,” Carney said Tuesday of Trump’s online posting. “And we’re not gonna respond or react to everything that he posts.”
Carney, who was speaking at a news conference in Montreal announcing major federal infrastructure investments in Quebec, made his comments about Trump in response to a question about U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra’s own online posting.
Hoekstra posted to X a screenshot of a post Trump made the day before on his social media platform Truth Social, in which the president said “51st state!” in response to a Bloomberg article about Canada’s economy entering a technical recession.
The revival of Trump’s interest in annexing his northern neighbour comes as Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is in Washington, D.C., seeking to renegotiate the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, which comes up for review on July 1.
Speaking in Washington on Tuesday evening, LeBlanc said he was “eternally optimistic” about securing a renewed trilateral trade deal.
WATCH | Minister in Washington for trade talks:
Canada moves to broaden U.S. trade talks, renew CUSMA
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said a meeting with his American counterpart was positive, after the federal government moved to renew the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement and ramp up cross-border trade talks.
Carney would not be drawn on whether Trump’s renewed chirping was complicating negotiations.
“It’s an administration that we have to work with. It’s our biggest trading relationship, it’s our biggest security relationship,” he said. “And we work with that administration. We take the administration as it is.”
Hoekstra, an enthusiastic Trump booster, said last year that it was time to move on from the president’s 51st state comments.
“It’s done,” he told CBC News in May 2025, suggesting the president had abandoned ideas of annexing Canada.
Asked whether it was time for Hoekstra to leave Canada, Carney had a succinct answer.
“No,” he replied.
