After threatening Canada with imposition of 100 per cent tariff if it went ahead with its trade deal with China, US President Donald Trump on Friday said China will “eat them [Canadians] up” within the first year.
Lambasting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for refusing to agree to the proposed Golden Dome missile defence system cover, Trump said Carney has missed the chance to be “protected”.
In a post on his social media handle, Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Canada is against The Golden Dome being built over Greenland, even though The Golden Dome would protect Canada. Instead, they voted in favour of doing business with China, which will ‘eat them up’ within the first year!”
Trump has been desiring to extend the Golden Dome – which is modelled on Israel’s Iron Dome – to cover Greenland.
The US President’s comments follow Carney’s high-profile speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this week, in which he declared that the era of “American hegemony” is collapsing and a new global order, comprising Canada, India, Brazil and China, to name a few, is emerging.
“The old order is collapsing; the foundations of sovereignty, respect for international law and rules-based order are in tatters, and the big nations are bullying smaller nations with their military might and economic strength,” Carney said in his speech.
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He also refuted Trump’s previous claim that “Canada lives because of the United States”, asserting that Canada does not owe its success to its southern neighbour.
Carney’s speech triggered an angry response from Trump on Friday, who revoked Canada’s invitation to be a part of the ‘Board of Peace’ – a body constituted by Trump to “resolve global conflicts”, of which he remains the chairman.
Trump’s demand of taking control of Greenland to counter growing Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic region has invoked strong denial by Beijing, with China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, calling the “China threat” in the region “groundless”.
“China opposes fabricating baseless narratives and using China as a pretext for seeking selfish gains,” he said on Thursday.
Last year, Trump asked Canada to be the 51st state of the United States, which Carney rejected. The US President has since termed Canada’s stance as a betrayal of shared North American security interests.
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