President Donald Trump says that he is "not trolling" when it comes to making Canada the United States' 51st state. 

Trump made the remark during the recent interview that he did with Time magazine.

The lengthy interview can be found here. It covered a broad range of topics, including Trump's expressed desire to make Canada a state and his desire to acquire Greenland.

For some reason, the magazine thought Trump was being a little facetious, but the president made it clear that this is not the case.

"Actually, no"

During the interview, the president was asked, "You've talked about acquiring Greenland, taking control of the Panama Canal, making Canada the 51st state. Maybe you're trolling a little bit on that one. I don't know."

Trump replied, "Actually, no, I’m not," which prompted the interview to ask, "well, do you want to grow the American empire."

Trump replied:

Well, it depends as an empire, it wasn't, these are not things that we had before, so I'd view it a little bit differently if we had the right opportunity. Yeah, I think Greenland would be very well off if they I think it's important for us for national security and even international security. I think Canada, what you said that, “Well, that one, I might be trolling.” But I'm really not trolling. Canada is an interesting case.

The president went on to note how "We lose $200 to $250 billion a year supporting Canada." He mentioned how he brought this up to "Governor Trudeau," who did not have a good explanation for why America has allowed this.

Trump went on to say:

We’re taking care of their military. We're taking care of every aspect of their lives, and we don't need them to make cars for us. In fact, we don't want them to make cars for us. We want to make our own cars. We don't need their lumber. We don't need their energy. We don't need anything from Canada. And I say the only way this thing really works is for Canada to become a state.

Background

Trump, early in his second term, made it clear that he is eyeing Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal, and, at the time of this writing, Trump has not backed down at all.

At the same time, it does not appear as though real progress has been made regarding Greenland and Canada.

The Panama Canal is a slightly different story. It does appear as though the United States, under Trump's leadership, has managed to, at the very least, weaken China's control over the canal. It appears, though, that there is still more work to be done.

Trump just recently said:

American Ships, both Military and Commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez Canals! Those Canals would not exist without the United States of America.

When asked during the Time interview whether he would like to be remembered as a president who "expanded American territory," Trump replied, "[I] wouldn't mind."