{"id":586423,"date":"2026-04-06T19:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/586423\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T19:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:16:17","slug":"trump-dropped-bid-to-annex-canada-over-respect-for-king-charles-author-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/586423\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump dropped bid to annex Canada over respect for King Charles: author – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> last year acknowledged he wouldn\u2019t be able to easily annex Canada as he has repeatedly threatened, according to a British Royal biographer who cites Trump\u2019s praise for King Charles III<\/a> as a factor.<\/p>\n

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In an excerpt of Robert Hardman\u2019s upcoming biography of Queen Elizabeth II published Monday in the Daily Mail, Hardman recounts meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December 2025, where the two discussed Trump\u2019s multiple state visits with both the Queen and her son and heir as president.<\/p>\n

During one of their conversations, Hardman writes, Trump \u201cmischievously\u201d asked if he should \u201cgo to war with\u201d Denmark, a NATO ally, in order to take over Greenland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI replied that this would probably destroy NATO and, while we were on the subject, could he please leave Canada alone, too,\u201d Hardman writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had been a staunch ally throughout history, a gallant D-Day partner and attempting to acquire it would undoubtedly make the King of Canada unhappy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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According to Hardman, Trump paused and then asked, \u201cDo they still recognize the King? Or have they stopped doing that?\u201d<\/p>\n

After Hardman confirmed the British monarch remains Canada\u2019s head of state, Trump went on to complain about Canada\u2019s \u201cterrible politicians.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re nice to my face and then they say bad things behind my back,\u201d Trump told Hardman, who then writes the U.S. president noted a majority of Canadians live just above the Canada-U.S. border due to the cold weather in northern Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is some guy drew that straight line to make a border,\u201d Hardman says Trump told him. \u201cHe should just have drawn it 50 miles further north and then there wouldn\u2019t be a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Hardman writes that Trump conceded redrawing that border would be a difficult task to achieve during his final term as president, and acknowledged Canada\u2019s history and sovereignty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose Canadians have got 200 years of history and all that, \u2018Oh, Canada\u2019 thing,\u201d Trump told Hardman. \u201cYou can\u2019t deal with that in three-and-a-half years. I guess it\u2019s not going to happen!\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

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Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the closest I had heard to an acknowledgement that, as long as Canada had the King, Mr. Trump was not going to usurp him,\u201d Hardman then writes.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTrumps given royal treatment in 2nd UK state visit\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

King Charles and Queen Camilla will undertake a state visit to the U.S. late this month, Buckingham Palace and Trump have announced.<\/a> It will come after the royals hosted Trump for a state visit in London last September.<\/p>\n

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Trump praises both Queen Elizabeth and King Charles throughout the book excerpt, calling them \u201cunbelievable\u201d and \u201cfantastic,\u201d as well as Prince William and Princess Kate.<\/p>\n

The excerpt mentions King Charles\u2019 historic throne speech in Canada\u2019s Parliament last year at Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s invitation, which came at a time when Trump\u2019s threats to make Canada the \u201c51st state\u201d were at their peak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe True North is indeed strong and free,\u201d the King said during the speech, a line that drew a sustained standing ovation.<\/p>\n

Although Trump\u2019s threats to annex Canada have subsided since last year, Canadians remain on edge about the possibility of a U.S. takeover attempt.<\/p>\n

Asked by Ipsos in January<\/a> to what extent they agreed or disagreed with various statements on a possible U.S. military invasion, 56 per cent of Canadians said they either strongly agree (16 per cent) or somewhat agree (40 per cent) that the U.S. would never invade.<\/p>\n

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However, the same number said they were fearful an invasion could happen, with 17 per cent strongly agreeing and 39 per cent somewhat agreeing with the statement: \u201cI am fearful Trump will use military force against Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

That same month, Trump raised alarm bells in Canada by posting an AI-generated image of himself in the Oval Office with a map showing the American flag covering Canada, the U.S. and Greenland, as well as Venezuela and Cuba.<\/p>\n

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The Economist and the Globe and Mail reported at the time<\/a>\u00a0that Canada\u2019s military planners have gamed out what an American military invasion could look like \u2014 and how long the Canadian side could hold out.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018It\u2019s not easy\u2019: Carney speaks frankly about dealing with Trump\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s relationship with Carney has deteriorated somewhat since the two leaders held multiple friendly in-person meetings last year, including two at the White House and one at the G7 Summit in Alberta.<\/p>\n

Trump reacted angrily to Carney\u2019s widely praised speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, where Carney declared an end to the rules-based international order and urged middle powers like Canada to band together against large \u201chegemons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Carney did not mention Trump or the U.S., the speech was seen as a reaction to Trump\u2019s global trade wars and aggressive approach to diplomacy, as well as his threats against NATO allies.<\/p>\n

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Trump told the World Economic Forum the next day<\/a> that \u201cCanada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has also begun referring to Carney as \u201cgovernor\u201d in social media posts, a title he used for former prime minister Justin Trudeau while threatening to make Canada a U.S. state.<\/p>\n

Carney and Trump have continued to speak, however, most recently on Wednesday when the two discussed the successful Artemis II space launch and the ongoing war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Carney acknowledged during an event in Australia last month that \u201cit\u2019s not easy\u201d to deal with Trump, particularly in negotiations around trade.<\/p>\n

Those trade talks are ongoing ahead of the scheduled review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement this summer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. President Donald Trump last year acknowledged he wouldn\u2019t be able to easily annex Canada as he has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,182556,1376,53298,44,2845],"class_list":["post-586423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-51st-state","tag-donald-trump","tag-king-charles","tag-news","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}