U.S. President Donald Trump last year acknowledged he wouldn’t be able to easily annex Canada as he has repeatedly threatened, according to a British Royal biographer who cites Trump’s praise for King Charles III as a factor.
In an excerpt of Robert Hardman’s upcoming biography of Queen Elizabeth II published Monday in the Daily Mail, Hardman recounts meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December 2025, where the two discussed Trump’s multiple state visits with both the Queen and her son and heir as president.
During one of their conversations, Hardman writes, Trump “mischievously” asked if he should “go to war with” Denmark, a NATO ally, in order to take over Greenland.
“I replied that this would probably destroy NATO and, while we were on the subject, could he please leave Canada alone, too,” Hardman writes.
“It had been a staunch ally throughout history, a gallant D-Day partner and attempting to acquire it would undoubtedly make the King of Canada unhappy.”
According to Hardman, Trump paused and then asked, “Do they still recognize the King? Or have they stopped doing that?”
After Hardman confirmed the British monarch remains Canada’s head of state, Trump went on to complain about Canada’s “terrible politicians.”
“They’re nice to my face and then they say bad things behind my back,” Trump told Hardman, who then writes the U.S. president noted a majority of Canadians live just above the Canada-U.S. border due to the cold weather in northern Canada.
“The problem is some guy drew that straight line to make a border,” Hardman says Trump told him. “He should just have drawn it 50 miles further north and then there wouldn’t be a problem.”
However, Hardman writes that Trump conceded redrawing that border would be a difficult task to achieve during his final term as president, and acknowledged Canada’s history and sovereignty.
“I suppose Canadians have got 200 years of history and all that, ‘Oh, Canada’ thing,” Trump told Hardman. “You can’t deal with that in three-and-a-half years. I guess it’s not going to happen!”
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“This was the closest I had heard to an acknowledgement that, as long as Canada had the King, Mr. Trump was not going to usurp him,” Hardman then writes.
King Charles and Queen Camilla will undertake a state visit to the U.S. late this month, Buckingham Palace and Trump have announced. It will come after the royals hosted Trump for a state visit in London last September.
Trump praises both Queen Elizabeth and King Charles throughout the book excerpt, calling them “unbelievable” and “fantastic,” as well as Prince William and Princess Kate.
The excerpt mentions King Charles’ historic throne speech in Canada’s Parliament last year at Prime Minister Mark Carney’s invitation, which came at a time when Trump’s threats to make Canada the “51st state” were at their peak.
“The True North is indeed strong and free,” the King said during the speech, a line that drew a sustained standing ovation.
Although Trump’s threats to annex Canada have subsided since last year, Canadians remain on edge about the possibility of a U.S. takeover attempt.
Asked by Ipsos in January to what extent they agreed or disagreed with various statements on a possible U.S. military invasion, 56 per cent of Canadians said they either strongly agree (16 per cent) or somewhat agree (40 per cent) that the U.S. would never invade.
However, the same number said they were fearful an invasion could happen, with 17 per cent strongly agreeing and 39 per cent somewhat agreeing with the statement: “I am fearful Trump will use military force against Canada.”
That same month, Trump raised alarm bells in Canada by posting an AI-generated image of himself in the Oval Office with a map showing the American flag covering Canada, the U.S. and Greenland, as well as Venezuela and Cuba.
The Economist and the Globe and Mail reported at the time that Canada’s military planners have gamed out what an American military invasion could look like — and how long the Canadian side could hold out.
Trump’s relationship with Carney has deteriorated somewhat since the two leaders held multiple friendly in-person meetings last year, including two at the White House and one at the G7 Summit in Alberta.
Trump reacted angrily to Carney’s widely praised speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, where Carney declared an end to the rules-based international order and urged middle powers like Canada to band together against large “hegemons.”
Although Carney did not mention Trump or the U.S., the speech was seen as a reaction to Trump’s global trade wars and aggressive approach to diplomacy, as well as his threats against NATO allies.
Trump told the World Economic Forum the next day that “Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
Trump has also begun referring to Carney as “governor” in social media posts, a title he used for former prime minister Justin Trudeau while threatening to make Canada a U.S. state.
Carney and Trump have continued to speak, however, most recently on Wednesday when the two discussed the successful Artemis II space launch and the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Carney acknowledged during an event in Australia last month that “it’s not easy” to deal with Trump, particularly in negotiations around trade.
Those trade talks are ongoing ahead of the scheduled review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement this summer.
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