There’s not “a snowball’s chance in hell” that Canada will become the 51st US state, outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.

Trudeau’s retort came as incoming US president Donald Trump continued on Tuesday (local time) to taunt the US’s northern neighbour and close ally.

Trump has publicly mused for weeks about annexing Canada after he returns to the White House on January 20, and has called Trudeau the “governor” of the “Great State of Canada”.

“There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States,” Trudeau, who announced his resignation on Monday amid party infighting and growing unpopularity, wrote on X on Tuesday.

“Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.”

There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.

Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 7, 2025

Hours earlier, Trump said he could use “economic force” to make Canada a state.

He made the threat at a rambling press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, in which he also declined to rule out using military force to gain control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.

Trump, however, said he would not go so far as to deploy the US military against Canada.

“Canada and the United States, that would really be something,” he said.

“You get rid of the 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, a Republican, also said the US didn’t need Canadian vehicle exports because he would “rather make them in Detroit”. He also said the US did not need Canadian lumber.

After winning the election against Democrat Kamala Harris in November, Trump quickly picked a fight with Ottawa by saying that he would impose a 25 per cent tariff on all products imported from Canada as soon as he took office.

He said the tariffs would remain until Canada cracked down on the flow of drugs across the border.

Trudeau – who Trump once called “weak” and “dishonest” flew to Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, in December for a hastily arranged meeting after the US election. He was the first G7 leader to visit the victorious president-elect.

After a photo of the pair sitting together at dinner emerged, Trump described the meeting as “very productive”.

However, Trudeau resigned on Monday as leader of his Liberal Party and as prime minister. He will remain at the helm of Canada until his party selects his replacement.

Trump responded to the resignation by posting on his Truth Social site: “If Canada merged with the US, there would no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!”

Greenland is beautiful!!! 🇬🇱 pic.twitter.com/PKoeeCafPz

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 7, 2025

Tuesday’s latest comments came as Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump jr, landed in Greenland hours after the incoming president had refused to confirm he would not use military or economic coercion to gain control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, a Danish territory.

“No, I can’t assure you on either of those two,” he said.

“But I can say this — we need them for economic security.”

Trump also threatened to impose steep tariffs on Denmark if it resisted his offer to buy Greenland, which he said was vital to US national security.

Trump jr said he was in Greenland as a tourist, and said his father “says hello to everyone in Greenland”.

Denmark has said Greenland is not for sale.

“I don’t think it’s a good way forward to fight each other with financial means when we are close allies and partners,” Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said late on Tuesday.

Canada’s minister of foreign affairs, Melanie Joly, said on X, “President-elect Trump’s comments show a complete lack of understanding of what makes Canada a strong country. Our economy is strong. Our people are strong. We will never back down in the face of threats.”

Panama’s top diplomat also pushed back on Trump’s threat to retake the key global waterway, which the US had built and owned before handing over control to the Central American nation in 1999.

“The only hands that control the canal are Panamanian and that’s how it will continue to be,” Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha said on Tuesday.

Ambassador Daniel Fried, a retired US diplomat now with the Atlantic Council think tank, said Trump’s comments painted a picture of national power as territorial expansion and compared him to a “19th century imperialist”.

Seizing Greenland, Fried said, “would destroy NATO, because it would make us no different than Vladimir Putin”, Russia’s president.

-with AAP