Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse into President-elect Donald Trump’s recent comments about annexing Canada.
During an MSNBC interview Thursday, Trudeau revealed that the matter of annexation came up as a topic of discussion during his visit with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November.
The Canadian leader said it was “nice to reconnect” with Trump, but their conversation about annexation came to an abrupt halt when he jokingly suggested trading some U.S. states for “certain parts” of Canada.
“It actually sort of came up at one point, and then we started musing back and forth about this,” Trudeau said. “And when I started to suggest, ‘Well, maybe there could be a trade for Vermont or California for certain parts,’ he immediately decided that it was not that funny anymore, and we moved on to a different conversation.”
The prime minister added that his focus is not on the annexation debate, “something that he’s talking about that will not ever happen,” but more on something that “might well happen,” making a reference to Trump’s threat about placing heavy tariffs on Canada until it tightens border security and reduces the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
When asked during a CNN interview on the same day about his reaction to Trump’s support for making Canada “the 51st state,” Trudeau similarly said the annexation “is not going to happen.” He further suggested that Trump’s move to raise the matter was part of a shrewd negotiating strategy designed to “distract” from his tariff policies.
“Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian. One of the ways we define ourselves most easily is, well, we’re not American,” Trudeau said. “There is such a depth of pride that that’s not actually an issue. What I think is happening in this is President Trump, who’s a very skillful negotiator, is getting people to be somewhat distracted by that, by that conversation, to take away from the conversation” about tariffs.
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Trudeau resigned as the leader of the Liberal Party this week, effectively ending his tenure as Canada’s prime minister after nearly a decade in power.
The news came after he experienced critical political fallout stemming partly from the country’s economic decline and his stringent lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, mounting opposition from Pierre Poilievre, the conservative candidate who is the favorite to become Canada’s next leader, is posing a significant liability to Trudeau’s hopes of winning the next election.