Canadians are boycotting the United States and avoiding traveling to the United States after President Donald Trump called for Canada to become America’s 51st state and imposed tariffs on Canada. That will cost the U.S. billions of dollars.
“Trips from Canada to the U.S. are dropping, threatening to widen the United States’ $50 billion travel and tourism deficit,” reports CNBC. “Canada is the top source of international visitors to the United States. The White House said Friday that Canadians ‘will no longer have to endure the inconveniences of international travel when Canada becomes our 51st state.'”
The Detroit Free Press reports that “Michigan and other U.S. states are seeing fewer Canadian visitors as international tourism declines. The downturn unfolds alongside President Donald Trump’s remarks about Canada becoming the 51st state,” and “escalating tariffs….Future flight booking data for passenger trips from Canada to U.S. has plummeted by nearly three-quarters compared with the same time period last year, according to OAG, an aviation analytics firm.”
That is likely to wipe out tens of thousands of jobs. Even a modest 10% drop in tourists from Canada would “result in 14,000 job losses” in the U.S., according to the U.S. Travel Association.” The drop in tourists is likely to be far more than 10%, judging from future flight booking data, which is down nearly 75%.
CNBC adds:
Canadians are skipping trips to the U.S. and visitors from other countries could soon follow threatening to deepen the United States’ $50 billion travel deficit. Experts say they’re pulling back for a variety of reasons, ranging from an unfavorable currency exchange rate to the U.S. political climate given President Donald Trump’s trade policies and his public statements on annexing Canada….
Reached for comment Friday, a White House spokesperson said by email that “everybody wants to come to President Trump’s America.”
Canadians “will no longer have to endure the inconveniences of international travel when Canada becomes our 51st state” and that “Europeans are eager to enjoy the Golden Age of America if they so choose to,” the spokesperson said.
In response to President Trump’s tariff plans at the time, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month urged Canadians to “choose Canada” and suggested “changing your summer vacation plans to stay here in Canada and explore the many national and provincial parks, historical sites and tourist destinations our great country has to offer.”..
Hotel demand in some area along the Canada-U.S. border are also down. As of March 15, they were off 8% in Bellingham, Washington.
The Detroit Free Press reports that tourism from Canada was already down in February, but it is likely to fall much more in the future. “In February, Canadian residents made roughly 1.2 million return trips from the U.S. by car, a 23% drop compared with the year before. Forecasts call for even sharper declines in air travel between Canada and the U.S. this summer. Canadian residents flew back from 585,700 trips to the U.S. last month — a 13% decline compared with February 2024. Future flight booking data for passenger trips from Canada to U.S. has plummeted by nearly three-quarters compared with the same time period last year.”
Bad relations with longtime allies like Canada and Denmark will be costly for America.
U.S. exports to Denmark are expected to decline due to Trump’s desire to take over Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of Denmark, America’s NATO ally. Danish officials who previously bought billions of dollars worth of advanced weapons systems from the U.S. now say they will not do so in the future, due to the U.S. wanting to take over Greenland.
85% of Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the United States, and it would be an unfriendly act with the U.S. to seize Greenland from its NATO ally, Denmark. But the Associated Press reports that this weekend, “President Donald Trump maintained an aggressive tone, telling NBC News that ‘I never take military force off the table’ in regards to acquiring Greenland.” Denmark would be perfectly happy to let the U.S. station more troops there, as long as the U.S. doesn’t seize Greenland. A 1951 treaty with Denmark already lets America put more troops there, and in the past, America stationed as many as 15,000 troops there, compared to around 200 today.
Greenland has minerals, but most of them aren’t worth extracting. As the Brookings Institution explains, “The conditions in Greenland are very harsh and technically demanding, and the costs of extraction high.” It could cost more to extract minerals than they are worth in many places in Greenland.
The reason there aren’t more mines in Greenland is because mineral prices aren’t high enough to justify a lot more mining in such a cold and inhospitable place. Chinese companies are happy to operate all across the world. But as the Brooking Institution notes, “Efforts to attract Chinese investment in mining projects in Greenland have so far yielded little interest and no significant investment,” “despite substantial efforts by the Greenland administration to attract them.” Because Greenland is not the most profitable place for mining companies to invest.
Greenland’s government has said that it welcomes American investment in its mineral sector. The reason there isn’t more U.S. investment in Greenland mining is because there isn’t that much easy-to-exploit mineral wealth in Greenland, not because Greenland is not part of the U.S.
