If you look at the map of North America, Machias Seal Island is just a tiny dot. It’s small, rocky, covered in fog, and no one lives there. But it’s important. That little island sits in a place folks call the “Grey Zone.” And it’s been at the center of a rare dispute between two long-time neighbors—Canada and the United States.
Both countries have claimed the island and the waters around it for many years. The island lies where Maine (in the U.S.) and New Brunswick (in Canada) meet. The fight isn’t about land alone—it’s about the valuable lobsters found in those waters. Both sides want the right to catch and sell them.
One of the local fishermen, John Drouin from Maine, has been fishing in the Grey Zone for over 30 years. Every year when lobster season begins, he says there’s a scramble between American and Canadian crews over who gets their traps in first. And sometimes, things get rough. John says he’s seen folks lose fingers, get hit in the head, even bleed. It usually happens when fishing lines get tangled, or one crew’s gear crosses over another’s.
One of John’s friends lost a finger when it got caught in a Canadian line. John calls it his “Grey Zone war wound.”
The fight over these waters has been going on since the late 1600s. In 1984, an international court allowed both sides to fish there. So now, the area is shared—but not without tension. Despite all this, U.S.–Canada relations have mostly stayed friendly, with this being one of the only real sore spots.
But that friendship might be shifting. Since Donald Trump came back into the spotlight, he’s brought new energy to old conflicts. He’s talked about heavy tariffs on Canadian goods and even joked about making Canada the “51st state.” Some folks wonder—what does Trump really want from Canada?
The Lobster Wars
The town of Cutler, Maine, is one of the closest spots to the Grey Zone. It’s a quiet place—just a few homes, a store, and a wholesale lobster dealer.
The town depends on lobster. Every day, local fishermen set traps in the Gulf of Maine to bring back the prized catch. During the season, the sea gets thick with boats and ropes. It’s a battle for space and for a living—and sometimes that fight turns ugly.
John Drouin asks, “Do we like this?” He answers himself: “Absolutely not. And as long as I’m breathing, I’ll keep calling it out.”
Another Maine fisherman, Nick Lemieux, says about 200 of his traps have gone missing in recent years. He blames Canadian rivals.
Nick says, “This is our territory. This is where we work. We don’t take kindly to folks crossing the line.”
American fishermen claim the Canadians make their own rules about catching large lobsters and then break them. Meanwhile, Canadian fishermen say Americans sneak into their waters.
Canada’s border officers’ union says some of their people have received threats from Americans when trying to enforce rules in the Grey Zone. Because of that, some Canadian officers now refuse to work there.
Canada keeps sending workers to maintain an automated lighthouse on Machias Seal Island. They say that proves the island belongs to them. But the U.S. claims that Marines controlled the island during World War I—and that proves it’s theirs.
A Border That’s Getting Thinner
So far, the dispute hasn’t shaken the bigger relationship much. During Trump’s first term, even with all the tension in the Grey Zone, the U.S. and Canada kept a strong bond.
In 2017, when Trump welcomed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the White House, he spoke warmly about the friendship between the two nations. He said the two countries “share not just a border, but many values.”
But Trump’s tune has changed. Since returning to the spotlight, he’s called Canada the “51st state” more than once. Folks in the White House now say they’re ready to stir up new disputes all along the border.
For example, last September, Trump talked about taking water from British Columbia and sending it by pipeline to drought-stricken California. He said, “They’ve got this giant faucet up there, and millions of gallons are just going to waste.”
Farther east, in the Great Lakes region, U.S. officials say they might pull out of an environmental deal they share with Canada.
And over in Vermont, even a shared library has become a battleground. The Haskell Free Library and Opera House sits right on the U.S.–Canada border and was once a symbol of unity. But now, Canadians can’t go in without dealing with immigration paperwork. The U.S. says it’s to stop drug trafficking.
The Fight Over Natural Resources
One reason for tension between the two countries is the fight over natural resources. Canada holds a large supply of rare earth metals, gold, oil, coal, and timber. These are the kinds of things that Donald Trump has always had his eyes on.
Though Trump has publicly claimed he’s not interested in Canada’s timber, fuel reserves, or its products, things don’t always match his words. Back in February, former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told business and labor leaders behind closed doors a very different story.
According to a report on CBS, Trudeau said, “I’ll tell you the truth—Trump’s people don’t really know how valuable our minerals are. Or maybe they do. Maybe that’s why they keep talking about turning us into the 51st state. They know what we have, and they want to profit from it.”
Jordan Heath-Rawlings, a Canadian journalist and host of The Big Story podcast, believes Trump wants Canada’s natural wealth. He warns that Trump’s talk about “joining forces” with Canada shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Jordan says Trump might be thinking that taking over a vast land like Canada would be a major achievement. The Arctic, for example, is growing more valuable, and Trump probably wants it under his control.
To Trump, even the Canada–U.S. border is questionable. In March, he said, “If you look at the map, you’ll see someone once drew a fake line between us and them. Somebody did that a long time ago—and it doesn’t make any sense.”
Trust Is Cracking
Trump’s words have already upset Canadian leaders. Some are saying the U.S. President’s real goal is to take over Canada.
In March, Trudeau said Trump wants to “completely wreck our economy so it’s easier to swallow us whole.” A month earlier, when Trump introduced new tariffs, Trudeau had warned: “He seems to think the easiest way to take us over is to drain us. And that idea is very real.”
If the U.S. really plans to absorb Canada, it raises a simple but hard question: Why? For over a century, the U.S. has been Canada’s closest partner—diplomatically, economically, militarily, and culturally. Why would the U.S. now want to throw that partnership into uncertainty?
An Exception, Not the Rule
Some believe Trump’s interest in Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal shows a shift in how the U.S. sees the world.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained it clearly this January: “American dominance since World War II was more of an exception than the rule.”
He added, “Now we’re facing a complex world where China, Russia, and others are rising in power.”
Michael Williams, a professor of international relations at the University of Ottawa, says that if the U.S. believes global dominance is no longer possible—or even needed—then it will likely step away from conflicts overseas and instead protect what it calls its ‘regional homeland.’
The U.S. might aim to build a kind of continental fortress, guarded by the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Atlantic on the other.
To do that, Professor Williams says, they’ll want to control key regions and use natural resources to the fullest. Canada has a lot of that. The U.S. would also want to bring manufacturing back home.
This isn’t a new idea. In the 1820s, President James Monroe had said that the U.S. and Europe should each stay in their own corners of the world. Today, Trump’s actions hint at a big shift in American foreign policy since the end of World War II.
A Plan or a Passing Thought?
Professor Williams admits, it’s hard to tell what Trump is really thinking.
John Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, shares a similar view. Bolton once said that Trump doesn’t have a clear vision. He gets ideas, but they don’t fit into any plan. There’s no real strategy.
Bolton says Trump may be focused on natural resources—but that’s something private companies can work on. “Bringing a friendly country under your rule? That’s not the way to do it.”
Canada itself is open to joint mining ventures with U.S. companies. But both Bolton and Professor Williams agree: whatever Trump’s intentions are, they’ve already caused real damage in diplomacy. The consequences could be serious.
Broken Trust
Professor Williams says Trump often acts like others have no cards to play. “But when you keep backing someone into a corner, they might surprise you with a move you didn’t see coming. No matter how powerful you are, that can spiral out of control.”
Canadians are already reacting. Some are boycotting American goods. Others are canceling winter trips south, which is starting to hurt tourism in places like Florida.
Jordan Heath-Rawlings says, “We don’t want a fight. But Canada’s ready.”
This breakdown in trust is something Canada’s new Prime Minister, Mark Carney, is talking about too—with national elections on the horizon.
Carney recently said, “The deep ties we had with the U.S.—built on shared security, military trust, and economic unity—those are over. I reject any effort to weaken Canada, wear us down, break us, and finally bring us under U.S. ownership.”
Lessons from the Past
In the 1800s, there were many more tensions along the U.S.–Canada border. During the War of 1812, the U.S. tried multiple times to invade Canadian land—and failed.
In 1844, American citizens called for military action when the U.K. laid claim to parts of the Pacific Northwest. In 1859, a dispute over a pig that wandered into an American’s garden near Vancouver caused a serious standoff.
For years, these incidents stayed buried in history books—strange footnotes from a more turbulent past. They were exceptions to a peaceful, strong, and democratic partnership.
But that peace now feels broken. And no one can say for sure which way this storm will head.