Trudeau says Trump didn’t find his joke about a trade for Vermont or California funny

PM says he suggested the trade as a joke when Trump brought up the 51st State idea during the meeting at Mar-a-Lago. '(Trump) immediately decided that it was not that funny anymore'

Published Jan 10, 2025  •  3 minute read

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, meets with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. Photo by Justin Trudeau/X

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is revealing details from his meeting with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November.

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In a clip of an interview that is set to air on MSNBC News on Sunday, Trudeau spoke about how he handled Trump’s comments about Canada during the in-person meeting.

Since that meeting in November, Trump has spoken publicly about annexing Canada and Canada becoming the 51st state.

“No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense! Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State,” Trump wrote on social media platform Truth Social in December. “They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!”

Trump also announced that he would impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports to the U.S. before Trudeau visited him at his Palm Beach, Florida estate.

“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!” Trump said in his post on Truth Social on Nov. 25, 2024.

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Trudeau told Jen Psaki, host of Inside with Jen Psaki and former White House press secretary, that it was “nice to reconnect with” Trump.

“Obviously, we had some good conversations about what we were going to be able to do together. He very clearly expressed what he had talked about in his tweet a few days before that. He has concerns about the border between Canada and the United States, particularly around migration and around fentanyl,” said Trudeau.

“I was pleased to highlight that less than 1 per cent of the illegal migrants, less than 1 per cent of the fentanyl that comes into the United States comes from Canada.”

Trudeau said his home country was happy to respond to Trump’s request “to do more with billions of dollars worth of investments to even further strengthen the security at our borders, to make sure we’re reducing the flow of illicit drugs back and forth across our border, to get a better handle on the migration issues that are real at the northern border.”

However, he added, it was “nowhere near the level of concern that Americans have further south.” He said it was in both of the countries’ interests to respond to such concerns.

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Donald Trump, who is to be inaugurated U.S. president on January 20, is continuing to hammer hard on his plan for Canadian annexation (in addition to separate plans to annex both Greenland and the Panama Canal). “You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security,” Trump said at a Tuesday press conference. The “artificially drawn line” being the U.S./Canadian border. Photo by AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Trudeau revealed that the subject of annexing Canada through economic means did “actually sort of came up at one point.”

He shared how he steered clear of the conversation by offering up another proposal.

“I started to suggest, well, maybe there could be a trade for Vermont or California for certain parts. (Trump) immediately decided that it was not that funny anymore, and we moved on to a different conversation,” said Trudeau.

Trudeau said that he is not focused on “something that (Trump’s) talking about that will not ever happen.”

Rather, Trudeau said, he is opting to focus on what may happen, for example, if Trump “does choose to go forward with tariffs that raise the cost of just about everything for American citizens, that on top of that, we’re going to have to have a robust response to that.”

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