Donald Trump continues to indicate that he believes Canada should become the 51st state in the United States. But in a recent social media post, he made it pretty clear that he doesn’t actually understand how the country’s government works.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump publicly stated that he thinks Canada should join the United States as the 51st state, even baselessly saying that “many Canadians” support the idea.
“No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense! Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State. They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this month.
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump once again brought up this idea, but this time, he had a new suggestion as he stated that NHL icon Wayne Gretzky should “run for Prime Minister of Canada.”
“I just left Wayne Gretzky, ‘The Great One’ as he is known in Ice Hockey circles. I said, ‘Wayne, why don’t you run for Prime Minister of Canada, soon to be known as the Governor of Canada – You would win easily, you wouldn’t even have to campaign.’ He had no interest, but I think the people of Canada should start a DRAFT WAYNE GRETZKY Movement. It would be so much fun to watch!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The problem with this statement is that Trump seemed to prove that he does not really understand how Canada’s government works.
Unlike the United States, the Canadian Prime Minister is not directly elected by the people, nor does someone simply “run” for Prime Minister. Instead, the party that wins the greatest number of seats in the House of Commons forms the federal government, and their party leader then becomes the Prime Minister
Regardless of how popular Gretzky was individually in the country, he wouldn’t “win easily” and become Prime Minister as Trump suggests, because that’s just not how the process works.
Needless to say, this is a pretty horrible mistake and misunderstanding from Trump, and it led to a lot of reactions on social media.
“You don’t ‘run for Prime Minister’ in Canada. Trump doesn’t know this, because he isn’t smart,” one person wrote on X.
“America, you elected an idiot to be the 47th President,” another person wrote.
“Actually, nobody runs for prime minister of Canada; that’s not how our system works,” someone else pointed out.
“Trump is senile,” another person said.
“The Prime Minister is the elected by their parties representatives,” someone else pointed out.
“He doesn’t know how anything works,” another person said.
Clearly, Trump doesn’t exactly know how things work in Canada.
