Melania Trump joins Donald on Hill as he tells GOP lawmakers plans to make Canada ‘51st state’

Donald Trump and Melania arrived in Washington, D.C. for Jimmy Carter’s funeral — but the president-elect first also met with Republican lawmakers to discuss how to make Canada part of America, according to a report.

Since winning the 2024 election, Trump has repeatedly spoken about expanding the US, including plays at Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal. Wednesday evening proved no different, when Trump reportedly met with Republican members of Congress behind-closed-doors to discuss plans to incorporate Canada into America, the Daily Mail reported.

“We talked a lot about Canada becoming the 51st state,” Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin told the outlet after exiting the meeting.

The meeting occured as president-elect and former First Lady were in Washington, D.C. to pay their respects to former president Jimmy Carter, who was lying in state at the Capitol Rotunda.

Melania held her husband’s hand as they walked through Congress in front of watching reporters and photographers.

It’s not immediately clear if the incoming first lady was in the room during the private meeting with GOP lawmakers, however.

Since winning the presidential election in November, Trump has pushed the idea of making Canada the 51st state and even referred to the country’s outgoing prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.”

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In a press conference Tuesday, Trump ruled out the possibility of using the military to invade the northern neighbor, instead relying on “economic force” to compel the country to become the 51st state. The 78-year-old Republican has vowed to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada and has claimed that the country is “ripping off” the U.S.

Canadian leaders have become frustrated over the president-elect’s rhetoric and have balked at the idea.

Trudeau, who recently announced his plans to resign, resoundingly shot down the idea, writing on X on Tuesday: “There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.”

Marc Miller, Canada’s immigration minister, agreed. “There is no chance of us becoming the 51st state. I think that this is beneath a president of the United States,” he said, the Associated Press reported. “I said a few weeks ago that this whole thing was like a South Park episode.”

“There’s no way they’re going to take over Canada, I mean I’d die on the cross fighting for that one,” MP Ken McDonald told CBC. He said he believed Trump’s rhetoric was a way for him to garner attention and isn’t a serious threat.

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Others, however, warned that he wasn’t joking.

“When president-elect Trump talks, we need to listen and we need to take him very seriously,” Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told the outlet.

Joly acknowledged it was a tricky line to toe: “I never take his threats lightly. At the same time, we can’t take the bait.”

Dominic LeBlanc, the country’s Minister of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs, told CBC in French: “The joke is over.” He continued: “The president and his allies continue to repeat this — we know it’s not going anywhere — but the fact that he’s repeating it, it’s not very constructive.”

The Trumps came to the nation’s capital in order to attend Carter's funeral on Thursday. President Joe Biden is set to deliver a eulogy and all of the living former presidents plan to attend.