Trump says he will no longer invade Canada as President makes humiliating climbdown

Speaking to biographer Robert Hardman, he joked that Canada’s history makes it unrealistic: “They’ve got 200 years of history and all that ‘Oh, Canada’ thing… you can’t deal with that in three and a half years. I guess it’s not going to happen.” The US President was interviewed by the royal biographer for his new book about Her Majesry Queen Elizabeth II. In the same interview, the US president also questioned whether Canadians still recognised the King as their head of state as he weighed up the “problem” of taking over the territory during the rest of his time in office.

Last year, Trump reportedly told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that the border between the two countries was “an artificially drawn line”.

He added: “Somebody drew that line many years ago with, like, a ruler – just a straight line right across the top of the country.”

Trump also reportedly told Carney that a united continent was “the way it was meant to be”.

Trump later posted an altered image on social media showing the US flag covering Canada, Greenland and Venezuela.

Speaking at a press conference Carney said: “With respect to Greenland, the future of Greenland is a decision for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.

“We are NATO partners, with Denmark, and so our partnership stands, our obligation on Article 5 and Article 2 stands.”

Article 5 of the NATO treaty covers collective defence, meaning an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all members.

The article also noted that Justin Trudeau had previously warned business leaders Trump’s threats to annex Canada were “a real thing” and that the president wanted access to Canada’s critical minerals.

Bob Rae, Canada’s former ambassador to the United Nations, had described the threats as “existential” to Canada’s future.

Conflict researcher Thomas Homer-Dixon said Canada had been “critically dependent on the friendship and benignness of the United States”.

He added: “All of a sudden, both those things have just disappeared. They’ve vanished and I worry that only now Canadians fully appreciate what this means.”