Trump says he will use ‘economic force’ against Canada
Washington (PTI): US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he will use “economic force” to make Canada a part of the United States, a comment that attracted sharp reaction from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“No,” Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago in Florida when asked if he is considering military force to annex and acquire Canada. Over the past few weeks, Trump has asserted that he wants to make Canada part of the United States and its 51st state. Many times, he has been mocking Trudeau as the Governor of Canada.
“(I will be using) economic force because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security. Don’t forget, we basically protect Canada,” Trump said.
Trudeau, who resigned as the prime minister of Canada a day earlier, responded sharply on social media. “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” he said in a post on X.
“Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner,” Trudeau said.
Trump said he loves the people of Canada, but the United States can no longer financially support Canada.
“I love the Canadian people, they’re great. But we’re spending hundreds of billions a year to protect it. We’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. We lose in trade deficits we’re losing massive — we don’t need their cars. You know, they make 20 per cent of our cars. We don’t need that. I’d rather make them in Detroit,” he asserted.
“We don’t need the cars; we don’t need their lumber. We have massive fields of lumber. We don’t need their lumber. We have to un-restrict them because stupid people put restrictions on, but I can do that with an executive order. We don’t need anything they have. We don’t need their dairy products, we have more than they have. We don’t need anything,” he said.
“So, why are we losing USD 200 billion a year and more to protect Canada? And I said that to, as I called him, Governor Trudeau, I said, listen, what would happen if we didn’t subsidise you, … Here’s what we have, we have a right not to help them with their financial difficulties because we owe USD 36 trillion too. We’re going to start knocking it out pretty fast, but we’re going to be able to do it because of energy and other things. But why are we supporting a country USD 200 billion plus a year?” he said.
“Our military is at their disposal, all of these other things. They should be a state. That’s why I told Trudeau when he came down. I said what would happen if we didn’t do it. He said Canada would dissolve. Canada wouldn’t be able to function if we didn’t take their 20 per cent of our car market.
“Again, they send us hundreds of thousands of cars. They make a lot of money with that. They send us a lot of other things that we don’t need. We don’t need their cars, and we don’t need the other products. We don’t need their milk. We’ve got a lot of milk; we’ve got a lot of everything, and we don’t need any of it,” Trump said.
“So, I said to him, well, why are we doing it? He said I don’t really know. He was unable to answer the question, but I can answer it. We’re doing it because of habit and we’re doing it because we like our neighbours and we’ve been good neighbours. But we can’t do it forever and it’s a tremendous amount of money. Why should we have a USD 200 billion deficit and add on to that many, many other things that we give them in terms of subsidy?” he said.
“I said that’s okay to have if you’re a state, but if you’re another country, we don’t want to have it. We’re not going to have it with the European Union either. European Union, we have a trade deficit of USD 350 billion. They don’t take our cars, they don’t take our farm products, they don’t take anything. And so, we’re not going to have it with them either,” Trump said.
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Over 350 illegal religious structures removed along Nepal border
Lucknow, May 11 (PTI): The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday said that more than 350 unauthorised religious sites, including madrasas, mosques, mazars and Eidgahs, have been identified and subjected to sealing or demolition in recent days, an official statement issued here said.
Acting on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's clear directive that no religious encroachment will be tolerated, the administration in districts such as Pilibhit, Shravasti, Balrampur, Bahraich, Siddharthnagar and Maharajganj has launched a sweeping campaign, it said.
The authorities have systematically identified illegal structures and taken strict action, continuing operations even on Sunday.
The chief minister has made it clear that encroachment in the name of any religion will not be allowed and all violators, especially those running unrecognised religious institutions, will face legal consequences, the statement said.
On May 10 and 11, 104 madrasas, one mosque, five mazars and two Eidgahs built illegally on public and private land were identified in Shravasti. All were issued notices and sealed, it said.
One illegal madrasa on public land was demolished and two unrecognized madrasas on private land were sealed, the statement added.
In Bahraich, officials identified 13 madrasas, eight mosques, two mazars and one Eidgah illegally constructed on government land.
After issuing notices, five were sealed and 11 were demolished, including eight madrasas, two mosques and one mazar, the statement said.
In Siddharthnagar, the authorities identified four mosques and 18 madrasas and one more madrasa for illegal construction. Notices were issued to these structures. Five madrasas were sealed and nine were demolished. In total, action was taken against 23 illegal structures in the district, it said.
In Maharajganj’s Nautanwa tehsil, Parsamalik village, an unrecognized madrasa operating on Maktab land was shut down based on a report submitted by the District Minority Welfare Officer.
The building’s keys were handed over to the local police station in-charge. So far, 29 madrasas and five mazars constructed through encroachment on public and private land have been demolished in the district.
In past two days in Lakhimpur Kheri, two mosques, one Eidgah on public land along with eight madrasas on private land were found to be illegally constructed.
Of the 13 structures identified, one was served a notice, nine were sealed and three have been demolished so far, the statement said.
The district authorities in Pilibhit have identified an illegal mosque built on public land in Bharatpur village, covering an area of 0.0310 hectares.
According to the district magistrate, a notice has been issued to the parties involved, seeking a response within 15 days. Action against the illegal construction will be taken after the notice period ends, it said.
On Sunday, an under-construction madrasa on public land in Virpur Semra village, Tulsipur tehsil, was demolished in Balrampur. So far, 30 madrasas, 10 mazars and one Eidgah have been demolished in the district.
Ten of them were built illegally on public land, while 20 were constructed without authorization on private land, the statement said.
