While President Donald Trump’s desire for Canada to become the 51st state didn’t sit well with Prime Minister Mark Carney, the newly elected Canadian leader credited the president with changing Canada’s outlook on security.
During the first meeting between Trump and Carney in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Carney said that Canada’s government is prepared to reorient itself on security spending and play its “full weight” in NATO. Shortly before Trump welcomed Carney to the White House, the president questioned why the United States was “subsidizing Canada by $200 Billion Dollars a year, in addition to giving them FREE Military Protection.”
“My government is committed for a step change in our investment in Canadian security and our partnership,” Carney told reporters in the Oval Office. “And I’ll say this as well, that the president has revitalized international security, revitalized NATO and us playing our full weight in NATO, and that will be part of it.”
In 2024, Canada spent just 1.37% of its GDP on defense, falling near the bottom among NATO allies in defense spending and coming up short of NATO’s 2% guideline. During his election campaign, Carney promised to increase defense spending with an “unprecedented acceleration of investment” in Canada’s armed forces, but did not specify what the total increase in spending would be, Reuters reported. While the United States doesn’t directly fund Canada’s military or defense, it has played a key role in information sharing and exchanging defense materials and research and development data.
