After joking about annexing Canada and making it America’s 51st State, President-elect Donald Trump posted an AI-generated photo of himself appearing to look over a “Canadian” landscape on his social media.
Trump posted the AI-generated photo with the caption “Oh Canada!” on social media. It depicted the incoming president looking over a mountainous landscape with a Canadian flag waving behind him.
The AI-generated mountain looks nothing like those found in Canada and has more similarities with a Swiss national landmark, the Matterhorn.
Many in the comment section said some variation of “Make Canada Great Again,” and another individual commented, “Please invade us. Please.”
Another, in turn, threatened to make California a Canadian province, much to the chagrin of Trump’s Canadian Instagram audience.
The image appears to be a follow-up to a joke Trump made during a Thanksgiving dinner party Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended at Mara-a-Lago. Trump invited Trudeau for dinner after announcing last week that he would impose a 25% tariff on Canada if it did not secure its border and prevent illegal immigrants and drug smugglers from entering the US.
As Fox News reported Monday, from two sources who were present at the dinner table, Trudeau told Trump that the tariffs on Canadian imports would kill the Canadian economy. To which Trump supposedly quipped back “If Canada can’t survive without ripping off the U.S. to the tune of US$100 billion a year, then maybe Canada should become the 51st state.”
The sources said that somebody at the table said that Canada would be a very liberal state, and Trump suggested that Canada be split into two states, one red and one blue.
In a round of media interviews, including with CPAC and CTV, Canada’s ambassador to the US, Kirsten Hillman said the comments were just jokes, like “ribbing between family members” at a dinner table.
“In Mar a Lago, on the terrace where people were eating, it was a very celebratory atmosphere. It was holiday season,” Hillman said on CTV’s power play. “People were dressed up, little kids were running around. It was a really happy, joyous kind of atmosphere, and the President made jokes.”
She said other people at the table made jokes and that it should reassure Canadians to know that officials from both countries feel comfortable enough to joke with each other.
“Any good joke kind of always hits a little bit, you know, a little bit of a nerve. And certainly, President Trump is one who likes to hit a nerve,” she said.
Hillman reaffirmed that it was a great thing that Trudeau was invited to Mar-a-Lago for dinner and that other nations are envious of the diplomatic relationship that the US and Canada share.
“Let’s focus on the fact that a few days after the president posted about the tariffs and the border, (Trudeau) was sitting at a table with the President and many of his core advisors,” she said. “Let’s focus our attention where it should be which is on the importance of this dialogue that it’s serious, and it’s continuing and not on the fact that the president is enjoying this joking moment.”
On Tuesday, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who was also present at the dinner, told reporters in Ottawa that Trump’s remarks are clearly not to be taken seriously.
“The fact that there’s a warm, cordial relationship between the two leaders and the president is able to joke like that, we think, is a positive thing,” he said. “It wasn’t a meeting in a boardroom with ten bureaucrats keeping notes. It was a social evening. And there were moments where it was entertaining and funny, and there were moments where we were able to do, we think, some good work for Canada.”