NEW YORK, April 25. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump told Time magazine that he is intent on making Canada and Greenland part of the US.
Asked whether he was trolling on the issue, he replied, "Actually, no, I’m not."
"Canada is an interesting case," Trump went on to say. "We lose $200 to $250 billion a year supporting Canada."
"We’re taking care of their military. We're taking care of every aspect of their lives," the president continued. "I say the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state."
On Greenland, he said the island "would be very well off" if it became US territory. For the US, the move would be important in terms of national security, according to Trump.
Asked whether he wants to be remembered as a president who expanded American territory, he replied, "Wouldn’t mind."
Trump has repeatedly expressed the view that many Canadians support the idea that their country should become the 51st US state. He insisted that such a union would bring Canada economic stability and protect it from external threats, which Trump said emanate from such countries as Russia and China. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has stated multiple times that his country will never join the US in any form.
The American leader has also previously stated that Greenland should join the US and offered during his first presidential term to buy the world’s largest island. Danish and Greenlandic authorities rejected the idea. Greenland is part of Denmark as an autonomous territory.
In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen signed the Greenland Defense Treaty, agreeing that the US will defend the island from external aggression. The island hosts a US base, Pituffik Space Base, which plays a role in the missile warning system and surveillance of the Arctic region.