President-elect Donald Trump was joking when he suggested Canada could become the 51st U.S. state during a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, according to Canadian minister Dominic LeBlanc, who attended the event. The comments were made in jest and in response to Trudeau's concerns about Trump's policies potentially harming Canada's economy.
Associated PressTORONTO — President-elect Donald Trump was joking when he suggested Canada become the 51st U.S. state during a dinner with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Tuesday.
"The president was telling jokes. The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue, in no way a serious comment," LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa. On Tuesday, Trump appeared to continue with the joke, posting on his Truth Social platform an AI-generated image of himself standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag next to him with the caption"Oh Canada!""If I were President Trump, I'd think twice before invading Canada. The last time the U.S. tried something like that— back in the War of 1812 —it didn't exactly end well. Canada even burned down the White House," former Quebec Premier Jean Charest joked on X.
Trudeau held a rare meeting with opposition leaders on Tuesday about U.S-Canada relations and later said that opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre shouldn't amplify the erroneous narratives that Americans are saying about the border. At the dinner, Kristen Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., said America's trade deficit with Canada was also raised. Hillman said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year but noted a third of what Canada sells into the U.S. is energy exports and prices have been high.
Trudeau returned home after the dinner at Mar-a-Lago club in Florida without assurances Trump would back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks"productive" but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.
DONALD TRUMP JUSTIN TRUDEAU CANADA U.S. STATE ECONOMY JOKE
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