Canadian Liberal Lawmaker Labels Trump’s 51st State Comments As An ‘Act Of War’

Canadian liberal MP Charlie Angus dramatically declared President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Canada would be better off joining the United States as “an act of war” despite the northern neighbor’s military being less than 5% the size of America’s armed forces.

“When you say that someone doesn’t have a right to have a country, that’s an act of war,” Angus stated during an interview with the left-wing MeidasTouch Network, where he also lamented the Trump administration attempting to “rip up” trade agreements and “break a country.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a more measured response when questioned about the tensions, stating, “The President has made his argument as to why he thinks Canada would be better off joining the United States for economic purposes. There’s a disagreement between the President’s position and the position of the Canadian government. I don’t think that’s a mystery …”

Canadian MP Charlie Angus: Well, I think Marco Rubio probably needs to be sent back to school because when you say that someone doesn’t have a right to have a country, that’s an act of war. When you arbitrarily rip up trade agreements, threaten a country, and say you’re going to… pic.twitter.com/EadhvUlorw

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 19, 2025

Angus has been conducting what he calls an “elbows up resistance tour” across Canada’s industrial belt, claiming Canadian citizens are responding with significant boycotts against American businesses and travel.

The MP believes that his campaign is succeeding, claiming in the interview that “the United States has become a much weaker force on the stage of the world.”

Angus’s characterization of Trump’s comments as “an act of war” appears particularly hyperbolic when considering Canada’s military consisting of approximately 70,000 active personnel compared to the United States’ 1.3 million.

When asked by reporters last week if the administration still considered Canada an “ally,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that they have always been an “ally,” but that “Canadians would be served better economically, militarily if they were to become the 51st state of America.”