A Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing for ambassador nominees quickly turned to President Donald Trump’s past statements on making Canada the “51st state” and the imposed tariffs on some of the U.S.'s largest trade partners.
Thursday’s hearing featured former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the Trump administration’s pick to be ambassador to Canada, as well as former ambassador to El Salvador Ronald Johnson and former ambassador to Portugal George Glass, who are up for the positions in Mexico and Japan respectively. They’re up for usually quiet roles at a time when the Trump administration has taken aggressive stances toward its neighbors to the north and south.
Sen. Chris Coons asked Hoekstra explicitly if he would “agree that Canada is a sovereign state and should not be even jokingly referred to as the 51st state?”