Fox News star Jesse Watters said on Tuesday night that Canadians should see it as “a privilege to be taken over” by the United States, especially since “everybody in the world wants” to be an American citizen.
While the MAGA-boosting host also declared that he wanted to “quench my imperialist thirst” by annexing America’s neighbor to the north, Canadian leaders were firing back at President-elect Donald Trump’s expansionist threats with some jokes of their own.
“How about if we buy Alaska? And we’ll throw in Minnesota and Minneapolis at the same time,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford quipped this week.
During an off-the-rails press conference on Tuesday, Trump doubled down on his desire to take control of Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal while suggesting that military and “economic force” were on the table. He also said at one point that he wanted to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
In recent weeks, the incoming president has repeatedly fantasized about annexing Canada as the “51st state” of the union, posting memes on his social media accounts and trolling outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the possibility of becoming “governor” of Canada. Meanwhile, pro-Trump Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary has suggested he could broker a deal uniting the two countries, saying there’s “something great” about Trump’s push to make Canada a state.
During Tuesday’s broadcast of Fox News’ top-rated panel show, The Five, Watters gushed over Trump’s renewed push to take over Greenland despite the autonomous Danish territory’s statement that it is not for sale.
“That’s where we are with Trump. He’s America’s real estate tycoon,” Watters declared. “So he’s testing the waters, he’s flexing his muscle.”
At the same time, the Trump-loving host said that while he was concerned that admitting Canada as a state would tip the electoral balance to Democrats, he still wanted the United States to swallow up its northern neighbor largely because Canadians were opposed to the move.
“But the fact that they don’t want us to take them over makes me want to invade,” he snarked. “I want to quench my imperialist thirst.”
Later that evening on his solo primetime Fox News program, Watters brought on Ford to ask the Ontario leader why he opposed Trump’s proposal to “absorb” Canada into the United States.
“I love the U.S., I love Americans, and I get it. You know, President-elect Trump is a real estate tycoon, he’s made billions,” Ford stated. “But that property is not for sale. It’s as simple as that.”
Echoing pro wrestler The Million Dollar Man’s famous catchphrase, Watters shot back that “everything has a price” and wondered if Ford could consider this as “more of a merger instead of an acquisition.” Ford, for his part, said that the two nations could “come together on a great trade deal,” adding that there’s “not one American” that he’s spoken to that has a problem with Canada.
Watters, meanwhile, took offense at Ford’s unwillingness to allow the incoming president to force Canada to become a part of the United States.
“You say that Americans don’t have a problem with Canadians, and we don’t, but it seems like you have a problem with us,” Watters fumed. “Because if I were a citizen of another country and I was a neighbor of the United States, I would consider it a privilege to be taken over by the United States of America.”
He concluded: “That’s what everybody else in the world wants — American citizenship. For some reason, that’s repellant to you Canadians, and I find that personally offensive.”
Ford, meanwhile, isn’t the only prominent Canadian politician who has swung back at Trump over his desire to make Canada the 51st state. Calling the president-elect’s repeated taunts “insulting,” Green Party leader Elizabeth May joked that perhaps California, Oregon and Washington would like to become the newest provinces of Canada.
“This is what we’ve got for you: Free healthcare, universal, free healthcare. No more one-year-olds who suddenly fall off the Medicaid list, and their parents are on the news because they’re trying to do a GoFundMe, because they’re trying to get their daughter to a doctor,” May mockingly noted.
“California citizens, Washington, Oregon: Safer streets here, we already have strict gun laws, and women have the right to an abortion under the universal healthcare system,” she added.
