US President Donald Trump said he is serious about wanting Canada to become the 51st US state, in an interview aired Sunday ahead of the Super Bowl.

Asked by Fox News' Bret Baier if the idea of annexing Canada was "a real thing," as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently suggested, Trump said: "Yes, it is."

"I think Canada would be much better off if it became the 51st state because we're losing $200 billion a year with Canada. And I'm not going to let that happen. Why are we paying $200 billion a year, as a kind of subsidy to Canada?" he continued.

The United States does not provide subsidies to Canada, he added. The United States buys products from the resource-rich country, including commodities such as oil. While the trade gap in goods has widened in recent years to $72 billion in 2023, the deficit largely reflects U.S. imports of Canadian energy.

Trudeau said Friday during a closed-door session with business and labor leaders that Trump's talk of making Canada the 51st state of the United States is "real" and linked to his desire to access the country's natural resources.