Donald Trump should apologize to Canada for 51st state comments, Louisiana Lt.-Gov. says

As some Canadians eschew the United States in favour of other international travel destinations or staying home, the lieutenant-governor of Louisiana — home to New Orleans and Mardi Gras — is calling on U.S. President Donald Trump to apologize for his slew of 51st state remarks made earlier this year.

“I don’t realize what the impact has been until I got here, but the pushback from the president’s comments about the 51st state, the tariffs, have really left a bad taste in Canadians’ mouths,” Lt.-Gov. Billy Nungesser told a New Orleans television station last week.

Nungesser, a Republican, was in Canada for a week-long tourism-promotion visit and said steps should be taken to protect Louisiana’s multi-billion dollar tourism market, according to WVUE, a Louisiana Fox affiliate.

“It would be really nice if the president could issue an apology about the 51st state,” Nungesser said. “I think that would go a long way — at least many of the people up here believe it would.”

In the late months of 2024 and early 2025, Trump repeatedly said that he would like Canada to become the 51st state, while simultaneously launching a trade war that upended decades of free trade between the two countries.

“Look, what I’d like to see — Canada become our 51st state,” Trump said in the Oval Office in early February.

The comments prompted denunciations from major Canadian political leaders, including then prime minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and then NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.

“Canada will never be the 51st state. We are an independent, proud and strong nation,” said Poilievre at the time.

Since Trump instigated a trade war with Canada and began talking about annexing Canada, Canadian visits to the United States have dropped off precipitously.

Updated data from Statistics Canada shows that Canadian trips by car decreased by nearly 36 per cent in July 2025, compared to July 2024, and air travel to the United States dropped by more than 16 per cent.

The decline has prompted the state tourism agency in California to launch a campaign directed at Canadians. Visit California launched a video called California Loves Canada.

“California wouldn’t be California without Canada. That’s the heart behind Visit California’s newest video, “California Loves Canada” — a cinematic tribute and gesture of appreciation for our Canadian neighbours,” the campaign website says.

However, not all states are worrying about Canadian visitors staying home or visiting other destinations.

Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, said last month that he doesn’t believe Canadians will stay away from his state, a favoured destination for central Canadian snowbirds. He said the state attracted 640,000 Canadians during the second quarter of 2025.

“They said that the Canadians were going to stop coming to Florida and I’m thinking to myself, I don’t think that’s true because who would want to be in Canada in the winter or spring when you could be in Florida?” said DeSantis.

That said, data from Visit Florida shows that Canadian visits to the state dropped by nearly 17 per cent in the first quarter of 2025 and 20 per cent in the second quarter of 2025.

• Most Canadians think Trump would break any new trade deal: poll
• Trump thinks Canadians who avoid U.S. travel, ban its booze are ’mean and nasty,’ ambassador says

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