{"id":307,"date":"2025-01-14T00:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T00:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/01\/14\/fact-check-debunking-trumps-false-claims-about-canada-cnn\/"},"modified":"2025-01-14T00:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T00:48:12","slug":"fact-check-debunking-trumps-false-claims-about-canada-cnn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/01\/14\/fact-check-debunking-trumps-false-claims-about-canada-cnn\/","title":{"rendered":"Fact check: Debunking Trump\u2019s false claims about Canada – CNN"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President-elect<\/picture> <\/div>\n
\n

Washington<\/span> CNN<\/span> \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 <\/cite> <\/p>\n

President-elect Donald Trump keeps making false claims about Canada. <\/p>\n

Trump has spoken repeatedly in the past month about somehow turning the independent country to the north into the 51st US state. It is not clear whether Trump\u2019s self-proclaimed \u201cgreat idea<\/a>\u201d is mere trolling, a serious desire or an unorthodox negotiating tactic in bilateral discussions over trade, immigration and national security. <\/p>\n

What is clear is that Trump has peppered his comments about Canada with inaccurate assertions \u2013 about how the Canadian public views the idea of US annexation, about the trade relationship and about Canada\u2019s defense situation. <\/p>\n

Here is a fact check of some of his remarks. <\/p>\n

Trump said Thursday<\/a> of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: \u201cI called him Governor Trudeau because they should be the 51st state, really. It would make a great state. And the people of Canada like it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Facts First<\/strong>: Trump\u2019s categorical claim that \u201cthe people of Canada like it\u201d is false. Though it\u2019s certainly possible to find Canadians who support the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state, the idea is overwhelmingly unpopular with the Canadian public as a whole. A <\/em>December poll<\/em><\/a> by the firm Leger found that 82% of Canadians said they didn\u2019t like the idea and just 13% said they liked it.<\/em> <\/p>\n

The idea has been denounced by federal<\/a> and provincial<\/a> Canadian leaders from left to right. <\/p>\n

Trump said Tuesday<\/a> that the US has a \u201c$200 billion\u201d trade deficit with Canada. <\/p>\n

Facts First<\/strong>: False. The US goods and services trade deficit with Canada was about $40.6 billion in 2023, <\/em>according to the US government\u2019s Bureau of Economic Analysis<\/em><\/a>, nowhere close to \u201c$200 billion.\u201d Even if you only consider trade in goods and ignore the services trade at which the US excels, the US deficit with Canada was about $72.3 billion in 2023, the bureau reported, still far shy of Trump\u2019s figure. And it\u2019s worth noting that the deficit is <\/em>overwhelmingly caused<\/em><\/a> by the US importing a large quantity of inexpensive Canadian oil, which <\/em>helps keep Americans\u2019 gas prices down<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n

Trump regularly describes US trade deficits as subsidies to other countries or losses to those countries, and he has done the same when talking about Canada. But having a trade deficit with Canada doesn\u2019t mean the US is giving Canada free money. Rather, it means the US spent more to import Canadian products in a given year than Canada spent to import American products. <\/p>\n

And the US deficit with Canada is largely the result of the US bringing in a lot of one Canadian product: about 3.9 million barrels of crude oil per day<\/a> on average in 2023. Trump argued Tuesday<\/a> that \u201cwe don\u2019t need anything\u201d from Canada, but heavy crude from the Alberta oil sands is in high demand by US refineries<\/a>, mostly in the Midwest, that are designed to process heavy crude \u2013 into products like gasoline and diesel \u2013 rather than the lighter crude<\/a> the US tends to extract domestically. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf (hypothetically) Canadian oil were not available, many US refineries would struggle to find heavy crude elsewhere, and they might even stop operating in such a scenario. Historically, Venezuela had been a large producer of heavy crude, but Venezuela\u2019s oil industry is a shadow of its former self,\u201d Pavel Molchanov<\/a>, an energy expert who is an investment strategy analyst at Raymond James, said in an email. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, in fact, importing Canadian oil helps protect jobs in the US refining industry.
Furthermore, US refining companies appreciate the fact that Canadian heavy crude is cheaper than the light sweet crude that is produced in Texas and Louisiana.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump chided Canada for failing to meet NATO\u2019s guideline of having each member country spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defense; Canada\u2019s failure to hit the target has been a bipartisan<\/a> concern<\/a> in the US for years. Trump told reporters Thursday<\/a>: \u201cThey pay less than 1%. They\u2019re about the lowest payer in NATO. They\u2019re supposed to pay much more. They haven\u2019t been paying.\u201d <\/p>\n

Facts First<\/strong>: Trump was wrong when he said Canada spends \u201cless than 1%\u201d of GDP on defense, though it\u2019s true that Canada has consistently fallen short of the 2% target. <\/em>Official NATO figures<\/em><\/a> show Canada spent an estimated 1.37% of GDP on defense in 2024, up from an estimated 1.31% in 2023. Canada was above 1% for the entirety of Trump\u2019s first presidency, ranging from 1.44% in 2017 to 1.29% in 2019. <\/em> <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a solid basis for Trump\u2019s claim that Canada is \u201cabout the lowest payer in NATO.\u201d In terms of defense spending as a percentage of GDP, NATO\u2019s preferred metric, Canada was 5th lowest in 2024 out of the 31 members with a standing army (another member, Iceland, does not have a standing army). Trump\u2019s predecessor, President Barack Obama<\/a>, also pressed Canada to increase its defense spending, which Trudeau has done. <\/p>\n

But Canadian defense policy expert Stephen Saideman<\/a> noted in an email that in absolute terms \u2013 not factoring in the size of each member\u2019s economy \u2013 Canada is actually one of NATO\u2019s largest spenders on defense<\/a>; it was 8th highest in 2024 out of 31 members excluding Iceland. <\/p>\n

\u201cDespite spending less than 2%, Canada is still one of the biggest spenders on military stuff \u2013 its economy is larger than most NATO members, so in absolute terms, it buys and spends a lot,\u201d said Saideman<\/a>, the Paterson Chair in International Affairs at <\/strong>Carleton University in Ottawa and director of the Canadian Defence and Security Network. <\/p>\n

Trudeau, who announced last week<\/a> that he plans to resign as prime minister when his Liberal Party selects a new leader, said last year that his government would continue to increase defense spending<\/a> and declared \u2013 without laying out a specific plan<\/a> \u2013 that Canada expects to hit the 2% threshold by 2032<\/a>. Twenty-three NATO members were expected to be at or above the threshold in 2024, a record, after a spending spike among European members following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. <\/p>\n

Trump said of Canada on Tuesday<\/a>: \u201cThey don\u2019t, essentially, have a military. They have a very small military.\u201d He repeated on Thursday\u00ad<\/a>: \u201cThey have virtually no military. They have a very small military.\u201d <\/p>\n

Facts First<\/strong>: Canadian <\/em>defense experts<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>the Canadian government itself<\/em><\/a> have raised concerns about the size and readiness of Canada\u2019s military, but that military very much exists \u2013 with <\/em>more than 63,000 regular servicemembers<\/em><\/a> as of fall 2024, plus more than 20,000 reservists. The Canadian military has fought alongside the US military in <\/em>the war in Afghanistan<\/em><\/a> (in which more than 150 Canadian troops <\/em>died<\/em><\/a>), <\/em>the war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>the Gulf War<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>the Korean War<\/em><\/a> and both <\/em>world<\/em><\/a> <\/em>wars<\/em><\/a> (in which tens of thousands of Canadian troops died), in addition to participating in other wars and <\/em>peacekeeping missions<\/em><\/a>. The Canadian military and US military jointly operate the <\/em>North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)<\/em><\/a> and conduct numerous other activities together, including ongoing strategic initiatives <\/em>in Latvia<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>the South China Sea<\/em><\/a>. <\/em> <\/p>\n

We won\u2019t render a fact-check verdict here because Trump qualified his claims with the words \u201cessentially\u201d and \u201cvirtually.\u201d And he\u2019s entitled to question, as Canadian politicians have, whether Canada\u2019s military is strong enough. But Canada certainly isn\u2019t comparable to military-free Iceland. <\/p>\n

\u201cCanada\u2019s military is not NATO\u2019s largest, but it has regularly made significant contributions, such as holding down Kandahar<\/a>, one of the toughest places in Afghanistan, with little help until Obama\u2019s surge. It is playing a significant role as the leader of the NATO effort in Latvia<\/a>,\u201d Saideman said. \u201cIt is in the middle of a major recapitalization effort that will give it 88 F-35s<\/a>, 15 frigates, and more. So, smaller than it should be? Sure. Very small? No. None? Not at all.\u201d <\/p>\n

Canada, Russia and China <\/h2>\n

Trump claimed<\/a> in a social media post last Monday that if Canada \u201cmerged\u201d with the US, Canada would, among other things, \u201cbe TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Facts First<\/strong>: Trump\u2019s claim is false. Canada, which has the world\u2019s largest coastline, has never been surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships, let alone been \u201cconstantly\u201d surrounded. In fact, a smattering of Russian and Chinese military <\/em>ships<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>jets<\/em><\/a>, as well as <\/em>Chinese research vessels<\/em><\/a> viewed with suspicion by Canada and the US, have been occasionally spotted in recent years in the vicinity of Alaska \u2013 and have been monitored or intercepted by the Canadian and US militaries. <\/em> <\/p>\n

The Canadian government warned in December<\/a> that among the \u201cpotential threats\u201d in its Arctic region were \u201cincreased Russian activity in Canadian air approaches\u201d and \u201cChina\u2019s regular deployment of dual-use \u2013 having both research and military application \u2013 research vessels and surveillance platforms to collect data.\u201d But a Canadian expert on Arctic security, Trent University professor P. Whitney Lackenbauer<\/a>, said \u201cthere is absolutely no open source evidence that Canada is constantly surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.\u201d He said Trump\u2019s claim is \u201cmisinformation\u201d unless he is disclosing some unknown classified intelligence. <\/p>\n

Lackenbauer said in an email: \u201cWhen Chinese vessels have entered Canadian Arctic waters to conduct marine scientific research, they have acquired the requisite permits from the Government of Canada. There are no Russian fishing vessels (or intelligence-collecting boats masquerading as fishing vessels) active in Canadian waters like there are off the coast of Alaska \u2013 a simple glance at the map of the Arctic will explain the difference in geographical proximity \u2013 and there have been no Chinese-Russian joint exercises in or near Canadian waters as there have been off the coast of Alaska.\u201d <\/p>\n

Arctic security expert Rob Huebert<\/a>, interim director of the University of Calgary\u2019s Centre for Military Security and Strategic Studies, said in an interview that Chinese military ships have come \u201cmuch closer\u201d to the US than Canada. He added: \u201cIf you\u2019re talking about the real geography, you guys are more threatened right now than we are, with the Aleutian <\/strong>Islands<\/a> \u2026 Technically speaking, the vessels that you are talking about are actually coming up and surrounding Alaska, not Canada.\u201d <\/p>\n

Huebert argued that the Trump administration would itself worsen the Chinese and Russian naval threat to Canada in the Arctic<\/a> if it decided to aggressively press the longstanding US argument that Canada\u2019s claim to the Northwest Passage is \u201cillegitimate,\u201d as Trump\u2019s then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared in 2019<\/a>, and that the passage is actually international waters. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 President-elect Donald Trump keeps making false claims about Canada. Trump has spoken repeatedly in the past month about somehow turning the independent country to the north into the 51st US state. It is not clear whether Trump\u2019s self-proclaimed \u201cgreat idea\u201d is mere trolling, a serious desire or an unorthodox negotiating tactic in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}