Trump tells Trudeau ‘Canada could become the 51st state’
Two leaders met at Mar-a-Lago where president-elect’s threat to impose 25pc tariff over migration concerns was lead topic
Cameron Henderson03 December 2024 3:01pm GMTJustin Trudeau and Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago. Guests said their meeting was ‘very friendly and very positive’, despite the president-elect’s alleged barbed comments
Donald Trump reportedly told Justin Trudeau that Canada could become the 51st state of America if it could not stomach new tariffs.
Last Friday, the Canadian prime minister flew to Mar-a-Lago at short notice to discuss the president-elect’s plans to slap a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian and Mexican imports.
Mr Trump threatened to impose tariffs if both countries failed to halt the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders with the United States.
During a three-hour dinner in which crab and oysters were served, Mr Trump told the Canadian premier that his country had failed the US by allowing illegal migrants from more than 70 countries to cross their shared border, two people at the table told Fox News.
He then reportedly said that if Mr Trudeau could not fix the issues at the border, he would levy the proposed tariff from the day he returns to office.
According to the outlet, Mr Trudeau pleaded with Mr Trump not to implement the new tariff because it would “kill” Canada’s economy.
‘Ripping off the US’
Mr Trump is said to have responded: “So your country can’t survive unless it’s ripping off the US to the tune of $100 billion?”His comments referred to the US trade deficit with Canada.
Mr Trump then suggested that Canada could instead become the 51st US state, which caused the prime minister and others to laugh nervously, Fox News reported.
The president-elect is said to have run with the joke, telling Mr Trudeau that prime minister was a better title, but that he could still be governor of the 51st state.
The exchange was said to have prompted someone else at the table to weigh in, advising Mr Trump that Canada would be a very liberal state, which triggered more laughter.
Mr Trump reportedly went on to suggest that if Mr Trudeau could not meet his demands, perhaps Canada could be divided into two states: a liberal and a conservative one.
Despite the verbal jousting, the Canadian guests reportedly called the dinner “very friendly and very positive”.
Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian public safety minister who joined Mr Trudeau at the dinner, said: “The prime minister of course spoke about the importance of protecting the Canadian economy and Canadian workers from tariffs, but we also discussed with our American friends the negative impact that those tariffs could have on their economy, on affordability in the United States as well.
“The idea that we came back empty handed is completely false,” Mr LeBlanc continued. “We had a very productive discussion with Mr Trump and his future Cabinet secretaries. ... The commitment from Mr Trump to continue to work with us was far from empty handed.”
Mr Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from his tariffs pledge.
The Trump transition team was approached for comment.
