51st state

Although he noted potential conflicts of interest, and the need for a "municipal legislature for local purposes",[22] Madison did not address the district's role in national voting.

In 1992, President George H. W. Bush issued a Memorandum to heads of Executive Departments and Agencies establishing the administrative relationship between the Federal Government and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

[74] The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Boston Herald have published opinion pieces expressing support for the statehood of Puerto Rico.

"[80] Several days after the referendum, the Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, Governor Luis Fortuño, and Governor-elect Alejandro García Padilla wrote separate letters to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, addressing the results of the voting.

[83] The White House position on the November 2012 plebiscite was that the results were clear, the people of Puerto Rico want the issue of status resolved, and a majority chose statehood in the second question.

Former White House director of Hispanic media stated, "Now it is time for Congress to act and the administration will work with them on that effort, so that the people of Puerto Rico can determine their own future.

This could give Puerto Rico a similar status to Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau, countries which have a Compact of Free Association with the United States.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a significant movement in favor of Guam becoming a commonwealth, which would give it a level of self-government similar to Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.

In 2016, Governor Eddie Calvo planned a decolonization referendum solely for the indigenous Chamorro people of Guam, in which the three options would be statehood, independence, and free association.

"[106] The Indian Territory attempted statehood in 1905, when citizens of the Five Civilized Tribes proposed creating the State of Sequoyah as a means to retain control of their lands and resources.

[121] There have historically been several proposals, with varying degrees of support, to divide states having regions that are politically or culturally divergent into smaller, more homogeneous, administratively efficient entities.

Examples include the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement in 1988, the debate over the creation of a common defense perimeter, and the potential consequence of not adopting proposals intended to resolve the issue of Quebec sovereignty, the Charlottetown Accord in 1992 and the Clarity Act in 1999.

However, the Continental Army was more successful in the Western theater in lands north of the Ohio Valley and south of the Great Lakes region, both of which were part of Canada.

[159] At the end of the Revolution, the U.S. took portions of Canadian territory of what is now present day Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota in accordance to the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

The U.S. again invaded Canada during the War of 1812, but this effort was made more difficult due to the wide use of ill-equipped state militias and owing to the large number of Loyalists that had fled to what is now Ontario and still resisted joining the republic.

[164][165][166] During an appearance on Fox News, Ontario Premier Doug Ford jokingly stated that this was Trump's attempt at revenge for the War of 1812 by saying, "I guess he's still upset that in 1812 we burned down the White House and he's holding a grudge after 212 years.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders quipped he would back Trump's plan if they could expand Canada's state-run health care system to all Americans.

The movement ultimately failed when, in a 1948 referendum, voters narrowly chose to confederate with Canada (the Economic Union Party supported an independent "responsible government" that they would then push toward their goals).

[193] Due to geographical proximity of the Central American countries to the U.S., with its powerful military, economic, and political influences, there were several movements and proposals by the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries to annex some or all of the Central American republics (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras with the formerly British-ruled Bay Islands, Nicaragua, Panama which had the U.S.-ruled Canal Zone territory from 1903 to 1979, and Belize, which is a constitutional monarchy and was known as British Honduras until 1973).

[198] During World War II, when Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, the United States briefly controlled Greenland for battlefields and protection, since the nation was in a strategic position.

[199][200] Some have in recent years argued that Greenland would hypothetically be better off financially as part of the United States; for instance this was mentioned by Professor Gudmundur Alfredsson at the University of Akureyri, Iceland in 2014.

[203] According to The Arctic Institute, the U.S. appears to be highly interested in investing in the resources of the island and in tapping the expected vast amount of hydrocarbons off the Greenlandic coast.

[206] In reference to President George W. Bush's 2007 European tour, Edi Rama, Tirana's mayor and leader of the opposition Socialists, said: "Albania is for sure the most pro-American country in Europe, maybe even in the world ...

[209] In 1989, the Los Angeles Times published that Denmark becomes the 51st state every Fourth of July, because Danish citizens in and around Aalborg celebrate the American Independence Day in a small gathering called the Rebild Festival.

A quote referring to Poland as "the 51st state" has been attributed to James Pavitt, then Central Intelligence Agency Deputy Director for Operations, especially in connection to extraordinary rendition.

[211] The Italian Unionist Movement was a political party briefly active during and after World War II, with the goal of an annexation of Italy to the United States.

[214] In an April 5, 1999 article in Forbes, historian Paul Johnson proposed that, as an alternative to the European Union, the UK should become ten states (one each for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, with England divided into seven).

[225] An example of this is the 2003 book by Martine Rothblatt called Two Stars for Peace that argued for the addition of Israel and the Palestinian territories as the 51st and 52nd states of the Union.

[236] The idea of admission to the United States was discussed among some netizens based on Hong Kong's mature common law system, long tradition of liberalism and vibrant civil society making it a global financial hub similar to London or New York.

Liberia has sometimes been regarded as a "mini-America" on the West African coast because its people speak English, use U.S. customary units, have modeled the flag after the Stars and Stripes and even created a U.S.-style constitution.